by Emery Hale
‘It was me!’ her voice squeaked. ‘I’m the reason she’s here.’
The screaming match came to a halt at Quinn’s confession and, everyone, including me, looked at her in confusion. What was she talking about?
‘Yeah, alright Quinn,’ Jessica said dismissively, but Quinn protested.
‘I sent her mum the videos!’ This time her voice echoed with power.
Then she shifted, mirroring my own position: hands wrapped tightly around her torso, head bowed and leg bouncing from nerves.
Jessica’s face contorted into something I didn’t recognise – a look of sheer authority.
‘Videos?’ Jessica stared down at the girls below, hands gripping the banister, her knuckles pure white.
Now she’d admitted the truth Quinn looked a little scared, and swallowed hard before she spoke again.
‘Yes, two of them. One recorded and one t-that was live,’ she stuttered.
Jessica blew out a breath, stress evident. As she turned her face to the ceiling, she looked like she was praying for strength.
‘Quinn, get in the kitchen.’
‘But –’
‘Quinn, Ashford, get in the kitchen,’ she ordered. ‘Lily and Grace, keep Naomi away from the windows, we don’t need any of the juniors grassing on us.’ With that, Jessica barged past Quinn, nearly knocking her over. ‘Now!’ she yelled.
Suddenly everyone burst into action. Quinn walked hurriedly into the kitchen, Kayson marching after her. Grace headed to the room she had come out of and held the door open as Lily ushered me through, her hand gripping my shoulder.
The room was small, but it had a TV, and couch covered in flash cards and highlighters. Guess she really was prepping for an interview.
Grace closed the door behind us and stood by it, examining me up and down just like Kayson had done earlier, and shook her head.
‘Quinn is almost as bad as you.’
As she spoke, Lily started to pace.
‘Did you have any idea what you were doing when you came here?’ she asked, but there wasn’t anger in her voice anymore, it was fear. ‘Any idea of what this might mean for us?’
I swallowed.
‘I saw what they did to you last night, I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry for what?’ Lily asked sceptically. ‘Sorry for seeing it, or sorry for coming here?’
‘Sorry that no one stopped them.’ At that she paused and I took cautious steps towards her. ‘This is abuse.’
‘Oh look at Sherlock Holmes over here,’ she scoffed defensively.
I understood why no one spoke out – I mean, it was basic psychology – but now I had an out, for all of them maybe.
‘My mum is a journalist with the Scottish Times, and she also has an online following. When the videos are released and people see what’s going on in this place, the Government will shut it down.’
‘Harkness has been getting away with this for years.’ That must be the man from the video’s real name. Lily seemed to contemplate what I’d said, running a hand through her hair, but then I realised she was no longer looking at me but Grace.
‘I assume you care about your mother?’ Grace sked, her face stern.
‘Yes.’
‘I assume you know, or have theories about what will happen to you and your mother, and to us?’
Why was she asking me all these questions? Sure I had my theories – it was hard not to speculate given what I’d seen. Last night my mind had spiralled to a dark place, and I’d thought the unthinkable, but a small part of me knew I didn’t go deep enough. I was scared to think what I might discover here, but I had to know the truth.
‘Yes,’ I answered.
‘Then you know that by coming here you put your life at risk and your mother’s. At her work there’s a man called Richard Douglas. He’s the boss.’
My eyes widened, how did Grace know that? I only knew of him as Richard – apparently he was charismatic, charming and thoughtful. That’s what my mum said, anyway. Did he work for the Academy? No, he couldn’t, that wasn’t possible.
Grace pursed her lips. ‘His real name is Craig Thompson,’ she said. ‘He’s a teacher here.’
Grace was close now, so close that I felt the warmth of her breath hit my face as her fingertips brushed mine. How could the Academy have people in so many different places? It didn’t make sense: they had Scotland Yard and the newspaper, how had this never come up? Had no one ever dared to look this far into the Academy? How many palms had they greased?
‘Any story put forward has to be approved by him and, considering the content I assume is on those videos, they’ll mysteriously disappear never to be seen again. You’ve had a wasted trip,’ Grace told me knowingly, but I shook my head.
‘My mum has copies, she isn’t going to let this go,’ I told her adamantly. ‘What they do to you isn’t right.’
‘They nearly put a bullet in someone’s head last night. Do you seriously think that if your mother gets too loud, she won’t end up the same way?’
I froze. They wouldn’t do that – they couldn’t. I wouldn’t let them.
‘A bullet in her head,’ she continued, ‘a car crash, or maybe one day she just goes for a drive and never comes back.’
Anger clenched my jaw as I inched closer, shaking my head.
‘They won’t get near her.’
I didn’t even notice Lily push me back until my heel caught on the rug. She stood between us, her hands up so we couldn’t get any closer.
‘Alright fire thong, simmer down.’ She glanced to me, then back at Grace. ‘Maybe we should wait until Jess is done before we start dishing out the impending doom and gloom?’ Just like that, Lily’s whole attitude had changed. Maybe what I’d said interested her.
‘I have evidence that the school is corrupt – if everyone here testifies in court then there’s no way they could dismiss it,’ I tried.
Grace just laughed in my face. ‘Yeah, if we all come together nothing can stop us,’ she mocked. ‘Naomi, this isn’t a movie, we are all replaceable. You know how many people apply each year. If four of us are dismissed, they’ll just bring in another four and the process will start all over again.’
I shook my head. ‘No they won’t, I’ll make sure we get in front of a judge that isn’t part of this.’
‘You have the Academy’s lawyers, which means whatever lawyer you choose to represent our case will be corrupt.’
‘How do you know that?’ I bit back.
‘Because that’s the way it always is!’ she shouted, exasperated, a twang coming through her voice. ‘When are you going to get it? The Government won’t do anything because they endorse this place. The Academy is the Government!’
That was when Lily piped up. ‘What about the Queen?’
‘What?’ Grace asked, as though the idea was ludicrous. ‘The Queen?’
‘Yeah, I mean if Naomi gets those videos to the Queen and she sees them, then something has to happen.’
Grace stuttered.
‘An audience with the – no, no, Lily, this isn’t happening. No one is seeing the Queen because nothing is changing.’
‘Oh come on, Grace, your parents could swing something – they have high up connections with Italy.’
‘That’s because they’re Italian,’ she replied flatly.
‘Exactly, nudge a few people and we can see Queenie.’
‘You seriously did not just call the Queen of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and Head of the Commonwealth Queenie.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t say it to her face, I’d want to get to know her first.’
I stood there bewildered as the pair talked. I’d never thought I’d meet the Queen in my life but from the way Lily spoke, it was like we’d just pop down on a Friday afternoon for tea and a biscuit.
Then door to the room opened and Quinn peeped in, her eyes bloodshot.
‘You’ve to come through to the kitchen,’ she sniffled, tugging at the collar of her shirt. ‘All of you.’
Had Quinn been crying? What had Kayson and Jessica said that we couldn’t hear? Grace didn’t seem to think too much of it – she grabbed a tissue from a box on the side, handed it to her, then walked out.
‘Are you OK?’ I asked, reaching for her arm. ‘What did they say?’
Quinn sniffled, shaking her head. A couple tears fell but she wiped them away with the tissue, then pulled back motioning behind her.
‘We better, uh . . . Jess wants us in the kitchen.’ Quinn practically power walked across the hall. I turned to Lily, confused as hell.
‘What was that about?’
Lily shrugged her shoulders and sighed. ‘Quinn just doesn’t like arguments, long story.’
I took in a breath – I’d get back to the subject of Quinn once this so-called meeting was over. Right now I needed to focus on getting my point across: I had evidence, and no matter where the Academy had people, I would get this place shut down. Maybe not today – there had to be planning, and a trial could go on for months – but now was the time to start. The fact that they’d all gone along with this for so long baffled me; even at the beginning, couldn’t anyone see the red flags? I had to make sure these videos went viral or God knows what would happen next.
* * *
With caution and trepidation I entered the kitchen. It was long and narrow, the walls painted a pale green, the floors tiled black and white. It was colder than the other room, and not just in temperature. Jessica stood at the far end, arms crossed and face furious. Quinn leaned against the counter, her head bowed as she held the tissue to her mouth, muffling her sobs. What the hell had they said to her? Surely Jessica couldn’t have been that mad? There was a table to my right where Kayson had positioned himself, Grace sitting opposite, typing away at a laptop. But what I took notice of was the blotchy redness around Kayson’s nose and the dripping blood below.
He held one of the crinkled tissues he’d shoved in his pocket against it tightly.
‘Give me the ice pack,’ he demanded.
I reached into my bag, grabbed the now-soaked ice pack and threw it on the table. I wasn’t going to hand it to him, he couldn’t have cared less when I was in the car, why should I wait on him hand and foot? Probably because he was bleeding. Kayson didn’t seem to notice my grievances as he picked it up and rested it against his nose. I didn’t know for certain who’d punched him, but I had a pretty good guess. My eyes flitted over to Jessica for a moment; I glanced at her knuckles and noticed they were now stained red. Well, that’s that solved. Considering the abuse from the teachers I’d have thought there wouldn’t be fights between the students, but I guess not. Why had she punched him?
When I opened my mouth to repeat my rehearsed statement, Jessica spoke.
‘What you did today was reckless, unwarranted and dangerous. You put your parents’ lives at risk, your own life and ours.’
‘Jessica, I –’
‘Shut up,’ she growled. ‘You have no idea what you’ve done.’
‘Yes I do.’ I didn’t realise my voice was raised until Jessica’s eyebrows shot up.
‘No, you don’t. You don’t have the first fucking clue. If anyone saw you come in here – which undoubtedly they did – you, along with your videos, will never see the light of day again.’
I didn’t want to believe her, but given what I’d seen so far, it wasn’t exactly outside the realms of the possible. Was my mum in danger? Should I call her? Had we really not thought this through? Mum and I should have worked out a proper plan first. We were both so excited, so riled up with the thrill of the chase, that we just jumped in head first.
‘Naomi, what part of you could die aren’t you getting?’
I guess the thought hadn’t vividly crossed my mind; I was so wrapped up in everything else that it hadn’t occurred to me. I could die, she was right. I imagined it a little – I guessed they would probably make me kneel then put a bullet through my head. I didn’t understand why, but right now I was more concerned about what Jessica had planned for me instead of that supposed bullet.
As I grew closer to Jessica, the purple bruising around her neck became prominent; there was no way it could be fake.
‘I’m sorry about what happened to you last night.’
Grace let out a laugh, looking up to me from her laptop.
‘All this girl says is sorry.’
‘I don’t need your apology,’ Jessica said, ‘I need you to leave.’
This was insanity: Jessica expected me to leave without her? When I glanced back at Quinn, a notion pulled at my heart as she cried silently in the corner, her thin hair shuddering along with her. If she couldn’t be strong then I would be. If Quinn was the one who sent the videos, then she had hope that they could change things.
‘Well, I’m not going anywhere.’ I brought my bag to my chest and started rifling through it for my phone, ready to call my mum so maybe she could try and reason with them, but suddenly Jessica had me pinned against the fridge, a hand down my bra. ‘What the hell?’
I stumbled forward the moment she let go, but my whole body went still when I saw she held the black wire in her hand. Oh crap.
‘You’re wearing a wire.’ Jessica stated, before she turned to Kayson. ‘You didn’t think to check her?’
‘How the hell was I supposed to know?’
‘Because she told you her mum was a journalist, did it not cross your mind? Oh wait, no, it didn’t.’ She threw the thing at my chest before she walked back to the other side of the kitchen, running a tired hand over her face ‘Carol sent you to get intel on us.’
I couldn’t hold it in any longer – all of them were just standing there when I was offering a chance to escape.
‘We have footage that can get you out!’ I exclaimed. ‘I have a way out for all of you and you won’t take it? If Quinn sent those videos then there had to be some hope that this could work!’
That was when Jessica stalked towards me, eyes sharp like an eagle’s.
‘You can either leave or Kayson will take you to the car.’
At that Kayson laughed.
‘Oh yeah, Jess, like that’s gonna happen.’
‘Naomi, your life is in the balance right now and you want to endanger that?’
I sucked in a breath, standing toe to toe with Jess, and looked her dead in the eye.
‘Yes.’
I understood my own life was at risk, as was my mum’s, but we were willing to fight. I was going to do everything I could to stop this because Jessica was my friend. I was not going to stand by and watch this happen.
All of them may have been willing to, but I wasn’t.
CHAPTER 10
Oblivion
The state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening.
JESSICA-GRACE WINTERS
The girl standing in front of me was an utter lunatic. Despite everything she knew, Naomi persisted, and I couldn’t understand why. Christ, she didn’t even know how this place worked but she’d created an escape plan anyway (and a stupid one at that). Sure she had video evidence, but that didn’t mean anything when it came to the Academy.
They had the best lawyers, judges, police officers and politicians in their clutches, so making something like this disappear wouldn’t be difficult.
Although what would be was getting Naomi out of here.
I couldn’t believe Kayson had brought her straight here, no phone call to ask for assistance or even a thought to check if she was wearing a wire. The guy was the ultimate pavement artist, but shove my best friend his way and all that training got thrown out the bloody window.
The situation in front of me was one I had actively tried to avoid but, as always, it was inevitable. I wanted to put Naomi in the nearest taxi and hope that nothing would come of it but that wasn’t going to happen. The badge pinned to her jacket almost made me smile – at least Kayson had thought to give her a cover story. Now my main concern was getting this Marsha Evans to rediscover her sanity, but from the way Nao
mi held herself so tall and stubborn, I doubted the realisation would hit her any time soon.
I couldn’t wrap my head around why we kept meeting. I’d tried to cut ties with her but every week there was a new text or missed phone call. Ever since I started at the Reign Academy three years ago, Naomi had been nothing but persistent. I couldn’t blame her though; I would have done the same thing.
Even as I glared and everyone fixated on the back of her head, Naomi showed no signs of moving on the matter, she was so fucking stubborn.
If Quinn planned this whole thing she must have heard me mention that Carol was a journalist, broken out the camera, and sent it through a fake email account. That was the part that didn’t make sense, since all contact with the outside world was monitored. How had she managed to get past the Academy’s security?
Before I spoke, my arms fell at my side and I took on a softer tone. I couldn’t bring myself to shout at Quinn anymore. There was no need to and besides, she looked like a kicked kitten.
‘Quinn, how did you send the email? All communications are monitored.’
She threw her head up in surprise, wiped her nose and sniffled. I knew arguing like we had, especially around Kayson, wasn’t good for Quinn but I was so frustrated. What Naomi had done amounted to high treason.
‘Well, you know we all register our laptops and phones to the main server when we arrive?’ She asked, popping the tissue in the bin. ‘When we went into town a couple of months back and I said I needed to go get something from the pharmacy.’
‘Oh yeah, I remember that.’ Lily said. ‘I thought you were getting a pregnancy test.’
Quinn choked in surprise, her cheeks and ears flushing red as she spluttered a response.
‘What? I’m a – no, I couldn’t be getting a pregnancy test – Lily!’
‘Quinn love, we all know you’re a virgin and that your adorable tutoring sessions with the totally cute but sexy junior were completely platonic.’ Lily said flatly.
‘Lily!’ Quinn exclaimed turning her back on the girl.
I rolled my eyes, biting back a yell.
‘Anyway,’ I butted in, trying to draw the conversation back. Poor Naomi didn’t know where to look as she fiddled with her fingers.