by Gray Gardner
“Let’s go,” Claire said, holding her brother’s arm and pulling. “Jane might need help.”
“Shh.” He hushed her, leaning forward.
She frowned as she squeezed his arm. “This is spying, Conrad! We need to confront them or go!”
“Shut up!”
Claire shook her head at her brother as the girls’ voices carried out. It didn’t seem like Bella was planning on doing anything rash. She was just really hurt. Conrad was about to pull his sister back after the he’s like a hundred and he’s so fucking hot comments when the girls got up to leave.
Then he noticed that Jane was crying. That was the second time there’d been relationship talk and she’d started to cry. Had something happened to her besides losing her parents, or was that it? And had she really even lost her parents? She seemed legitimately upset about their loss, but he couldn’t really tell with her.
“Conrad!” Claire snapped, pulling his arm and leading him back to his house. “Do you always spy on your poor students?”
“Mostly on Jane.”
“And you really think she’s some kind of undercover reporter?” Claire asked incredulously, as they reached his house and poured some wine. He’d told her all about this one student he had this year, who was adorable but always into it, and who he couldn’t figure out. This surprised Claire because her entire life she’d only known her brother to be confident and perceptive, so she was immediately interested when he’d found a student who had him utterly stumped.
He was about to explain his theories when the doorbell rang a couple of times.
“Oh, using the front door now?” he asked, glaring down at Jane as she caught her breath. Did the kid run everywhere? And why was he so pleased to see her standing there?
“I just… I thought you should know we found Bella, and she’s fine. She just wanted to be alone, that’s all. Thanks for your help.”
“Hold on,” he said, grabbing a handful of her practice jersey and yanking her inside. “Just a second, Claire.” They passed her on the couch and headed straight into the small bathroom. “Is this how you got in?”
She shook her head as he pointed to the opened window above the shiny white claw-footed tub. “Uh, no I used the back door.”
“It’s bolted, Jane!”
She looked at the small window and then up at him. “Okay, maybe.”
“Jane!” He scolded her, loving how her cheeks turned pink when she was in trouble.
“It was an emergency!” she argued, as he dragged her out of the bathroom.
“One more second, Claire,” he angrily said, pulling Jane past the couch and towards his small office.
“Take your time,” she grinned, pouring another glass of wine. If he was writing a book and including this little girl in it, they’d need a lot of face time. And there was something about her. Something beguiling.
“Jane, you can’t just break in here whenever you want.”
“You think I wanted to be chasing after Bella tonight?” she asked, holding her arms out when he finally released her and paced behind his large desk.
“I’m not sure what you really want, Jane.”
“Is this the Yale thing again?”
“No, this is the quit-breaking-into-my-home thing again!” he shouted, running his fingers through his hair. He could actually grab fistfuls of it. His sister had told him he desperately needed a haircut, but between classes and writing and figuring Jane out he just hadn’t had time.
“Well I’m sorry!” she sarcastically said. “I thought I was doing the responsible thing by coming to get your help!”
She turned and stormed out of the office. She was too busy for his lectures.
“Wait!” he called, following her. If she thought this was over she was wrong.
“Obviously I was mistaken!” she shouted, jerking her shoulder away as he tried to grab it. “So the next time someone’s life is threatened, I’ll just call the gang on the bat phone and we’ll put our heads together and solve the problem on our own! We’ll leave you and your dates out of it!”
She walked out and slammed the door behind her. That was a little rash and came out louder than she had intended, but she was really mad at him. Adults tell kids every day to come and get them if there is a problem they can’t handle. Hell, she’d even done it. He was too interested in his girlfriend to even come and check up on them at the dorm. She was glad the walk home was long. It gave her time to cool off before she did something like slam her fist through a wall.
Hey jealousy.
“Sorry about that,” Conrad said, plopping on the leather chair across from his sister, not touching his wine as he looked at the front door. “Sometimes, I wonder who’s running the show around here.”
“She is,” Claire nodded, sipping her wine and watching him. “You know that was jealousy back there.”
“Back where?” he asked, clearing his throat and turning his attention to her.
Claire smiled and shook her head. “Look, I don’t know if she’s sixteen or thirty-six, but I do know that she was upset when she saw me here and she was upset that you chewed her out in front of me.”
“She’s not the type to get jealous,” he replied, shaking his head and looking back at the door. She was the type to break the rules and push every one of his buttons.
“Does she have girl parts?” Claire smirked. “Because if yes, then she gets jealous.”
Conrad rubbed his face as his mind quickly flashed to him undressing her shivering little body on the floor right there in the living room. He’d been so scared. Then his mind bounced to pulling up her skirt as she lay across his lap and spanking her hot little ass.
“Oh my God,” Claire quietly said, leaning forward. “You really do—you like her.”
He raised his brow and grabbed his wine glass, staring his sister down. “What?”
“Holy shit, you like her! I’ve seen you act like this… Oh my God, Conrad, you want her to be some journalist because then what you’re doing wouldn’t be illegal.”
“I’m not doing anything!” he snapped, giving her a serious look. And that was the truth. “I never would! It’s just very… confusing.”
“Well, duh!” Claire said, holding her arms out and pushing the sleeves of her baby blue sweater up. “I’ve only seen you act this way about a woman twice in your entire life and both times ended badly.”
“Thanks,” he nodded, finishing his wine.
“No, this is great!” she smiled, tapping the coffee table. “There’s a way we can find out if she’s lying or not! And if she is then you can totally hit that!”
“Claire.”
“Sorry, but we can find out her background.”
“I’m not giving her a polygraph.”
“Conrad,” she sighed, pouring him some more wine. “Our little brother just happens to be in the private investigation business.”
“I’m not hiring Harris to spy on a student,” he replied, frowning. He hated feeling so powerless, and he hated feeling like he couldn’t find the answer, but he wasn’t about to get his little brother to rummage around the life of this girl. It was just too creepy.
“I’m just saying—”
“This discussion is over,” he interrupted, stopping her before she could go on some wacky tangent like she always did. “Stay out of it.”
“I just want to see you happy.”
“Then let me help you pick the single on this new record you’re producing,” he said, staring her down. Just stop thinking about Jane.
She pressed her lips together, then grabbed the remote and shook her head. “You win,” she declared, pressing play and glancing over at him. It had been a long time since he’d been this interested in a girl. She prayed that this Jane kid was no kid at all. She had to admit, though, it was making for a really thrilling story.
“Everything’s gonna be okay,” George sighed, smoking a cigarette with Bella the next morning. They were sitting on a bench behind the chapel, trying t
o get it together so that Bella could go to class.
“I just,” she cried, holding her head, “I just wish he’d see how much I love him. I just want him back.”
“Bella, I don’t think he’s coming back,” George said as they walked.
“I can’t imagine my life without him,” she choked out, as they slowly walked between the buildings as the sun shone behind them.
“What were you going to do with your life when y’all were dating?”
She sighed heavily and wiped her eyes. “I was going to go to Richmond, where he is, and we would be together.”
“Okay, so now you get to go to your back up school.” George smiled, as they stopped outside of the English building.
“Duke?” she asked, like it hadn’t been a feasible option before. “Yeah, I guess I could go to Duke.”
“What’s your major?”
“I don’t know. I like political science.”
“Then that will still be your major. See? You can go on with your life,” George said, opening the door for her.
“Yeah,” Bella tentatively agreed, walking inside.
She didn’t seem convinced, but getting over people is hard. Breaking up is the easy part.
“Just in time,” Dr. Thomas grinned, reaching around and shutting the door behind them. He turned to the class. “Dr. Ollie called me this morning and she has the flu. Since I owe her one, I’ll be your sub today. From what I understand, you all have video projects to show?”
The guys all grunted, the girls squealed in agreement, and George dropped into her seat in the back, between James Clancy, who actually showed up, and Bella. Her eyes were red from crying and she had purple circles underneath from lack of sleep.
“Okay, so, I understand the assignment was to tail a student and get images of what their life is like, then convey it in an edited video. Sounds fun.” Dr. Thomas nodded, looking at the notebook in front of him. “So, it looks like it’s, uh, Ed’s turn. All right, cue it up, Ed.”
The kid loaded his presentation in the computer in the back and set it up on the plasma, and everyone watched as the shaky camera work followed his friend, John, around campus. It was set to some garage band’s song, which was all guitar and muted lyrics. It didn’t capture much of who John was, but it sure showed him walking into the men’s room a lot. George was thinking it was probably IBS when Dr. Thomas called out another kid’s name in a loud, annoyed voice. It was James Clancy.
A song called “Untouched” by The Veronicas came on and there she was, front and center on the screen, running around campus in every shot. Did she really run everywhere? There were shots of her dashing onstage and playing at the recital, running through the snow with Dr. Thomas, running towards Dr. Thomas’s house, running away from Dr. Thomas’s house, breaking into Dr. Thomas’s house, sneaking out of Dr. Thomas’s house, yelling at Dr. Thomas on the sidewalk, getting yelled at by Dr. Thomas in the hallway, and finally, a collage of shots where she was staring longingly after Dr. Thomas.
Oh shit.
She’d been watching Clancy—and he’d been watching her.
How in the hell did he get that footage? She sank farther into her chair as everyone clapped and looked back at her. She covered her face with her hand and refused to look up, just in case Dr. Thomas was looking at her like she was absolutely stalker crazy. Oh God, she didn’t realize how much time she’d spent on him, but it was apparent that it was way way way too much.
She felt sick. She was about to excuse herself after another kid cued up a video with Eve’s “Who’s That Girl” playing, but something caught her eye. She immediately jumped up and reached back to the computer, pausing the film.
“Jane?” Dr. Thomas asked, trying not to smile as everyone turned around and looked back at her.
“No, but wait. They already did me. I can’t be in another video,” she choked out the words, trying to even out her shaky voice. The film was paused on an image of her walking around the back of a building on a sunny day, smoking a cigarette and talking into a cell phone. How in the hell did these damned kids get all of this footage without her knowing?
Sneaky bastards. They should go into government work.
“Sir?” a kid began, raising his hand. “Dr. Ollie said that we could film whomever we wanted. She said there might be some overlap and well, Jane is new and pretty interesting.”
“There you have it.” Dr. Thomas shrugged, grinning at Jane. He was loving this way too much. “Press play, Jane.”
“No, James filmed me. That kid can’t, too.”
George lost that fight, and before class was over, she found out that three other boys had filmed her without her knowledge, too. Good God, they must have followed her around school for days. They had her getting creamed at soccer practice, losing her temper, then nailing another girl and knocking her to the ground. “Slam” by Onyx was played for that one. She agreed with the temper thing.
The others had her smoking, sneaking around at night, talking on her cell phone, and yes, spending entirely too much time with Dr. Thomas.
Mother fucker.
The end of class came way too slowly and she was startled when Bella leaned over and smiled at her.
“That was really funny, Jane. I didn’t realize how much you gave it back to the other girls in soccer practice. I wish I knew how to throw people over my head.”
“Oh,” George forced a grin, as Dr. Thomas approached. “No, I, uh, it’s just a reflex. I’m sure I’ll get kicked out of a lot of games.”
“Still funny, though.” Bella smiled, saying goodbye to Dr. Thomas and heading to lunch with everyone else.
“Dr. Thomas,” George began, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. “I promise that first, Dr. Ollie said that we wouldn’t get into trouble for doing anything prohibited; and second, I stopped doing those things after you told me not to.”
“Some of that footage was from last night,” he nodded, folding his arms across his chest.
“Yeah,” she agreed, opening her eyes. “I, I didn’t know they were filming me.”
Astute little bastards. The truth was she only looked for people watching her when she transacted with Clancy or Whitman. She didn’t even think to check for spying eyes when she was just walking around.
“Well,” he sighed, raising his brow. “If Dr. Ollie says that you aren’t supposed to be punished for the numerous violations I just saw during the past hour, then I won’t touch you.”
George frowned. That wasn’t really it, though, was it?
“However,” he continued.
She knew it.
“I think I will have to tell your aunt about everything that’s been going on around here. I’m worried about you, Jane, that’s all.”
“Wait,” she interrupted, holding up her hands. “You, you can’t call her.”
“I already called her.” He shrugged, turning and smiling as he headed for the door. She was busted and he loved every minute of it.
She dashed after him and stood in the doorway as kids bustled around in the hallway. “I… what do you… when did you call her? Why? Why did you call her?”
“I called her this morning and told her that all of the parents are coming to the scrimmage against Jesuit tomorrow and it would be nice if you had family show up to support you.” He nodded, stepping around her.
She watched him walk away, then flipped around into the empty classroom and pressed back against the wall as she pulled out her cell phone. Ten missed calls.
Off Sides
She didn’t call Director Nelson back. In fact, George spent the rest of the day avoiding everybody. She skipped lunch, went to her afternoon classes and sat in silence, and made absolutely zero eye contact with Dr. Thomas as his class dragged on at the end of the day.
She was failing. Her assignment was to assimilate into the school, find the dealer, find the supplier, bust whoever it was, and get out. She hadn’t done any of that. And the kids were starting to catch on to her weaknesses. Like phones, and smo
king.
And Dr. Thomas.
He was ready for her. The videos had been so adorable earlier in the day, and now he couldn’t deny his feelings for her. It was pretty obvious he looked for excuses to be around her. And, he hoped she looked for excuses to be around him, too. He was going to tease her a little more when his class ended, but she looked pretty beaten up already.
“Of course she looks defeated,” Claire sighed, as the two of them walked around campus after classes ended. “Her friend broke up with her boyfriend and they had to chase her around and talk her off a ledge last night. Then she finds out all the dudes in school have been secretly filming her and she’s mortified because now everyone knows how she feels about you.”
“I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head as the lights flickered on around the darkening grounds. “She seemed more upset about me finding out she was misbehaving.”
“Well, if she’s supposed to be a student here, then she would get upset about that, wouldn’t she? If she gets kicked out then her whole expose, or whatever you think she’s writing, is ruined!” Claire smiled, then stopped and looked down at her hands. “Or maybe she’s just afraid of getting into trouble because she’s really just a kid.”
“Yeah,” he nodded, as they turned and headed across the field towards his house. “I thought about that.”
“Okay,” she began, folding her arms in front of her as the wind blew. “Don’t be mad.”
“Claire, did you call Harris?”
“He just ran one tiny background check!” Claire whined, bouncing up and down as Conrad rolled his eyes.
“And?”
“And, she appears to be a legitimate sixteen-year-old girl,” she said with a forced smile, as her brother turned and continued on. She’d wanted it to go the other way and have this little girl really be a woman her own age. She wanted to see her brother happy. “It doesn’t mean anything definitive, though.”
“How hard is it to fake a birth certificate?”
“Harris says it’s pretty difficult,” Claire said, as they entered the house and took off their coats. “However, he wasn’t able to recover any information about a couple with the name George dying in any kind of tragic accident.”