by Julia Nobel
Over the next week, Emmy searched every building she could get access to. She looked at every trophy, every plaque, and every picture on every wall. But there was no evidence of Thomas Allyn anywhere.
Emmy’s next football practice didn’t go very well. Lola seemed to be torn between empathy and irritation, and Emmy knew which emotion would win out in the end.
“I know this stuff with your dad is rattling you, but you’ve got to keep your head in the game.” Lola banged the locker room door open. “Our first tournament is only a week away.”
“I know.” Emmy started unlacing her cleats.
“You’re still getting used to our style of play. We have to gel together, otherwise—”
“I said, I know!” Emmy snapped.
Lola tossed her cleats into her bag and muttered something under her breath.
Emmy rubbed her eyebrows. “Look, I’ll be better next time. I’m just distracted.”
Lola snorted. “No kidding. Look, what do you think all this research you’re doing is going to prove?”
“I don’t know.” Emmy slowly unzipped her gym bag. “I just want to know something about my dad.”
“But…” Lola looked warily at Emmy. “But let’s say you do find out more about him—then what? Just knowing won’t bring him back.”
Emmy ripped her socks off and stuffed them into her bag. Of course she knew her dad wasn’t coming back. “Lola, I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t say you were stupid, I just—”
“And you can stop trying to talk me out of finding him, because I’m not going to stop until I do!” Emmy grabbed her towel and marched toward the showers.
“You mean find out about him, right?” Lola said softly.
Emmy spun around. “What?”
“You said you won’t stop until you find him.”
Emmy stared back at her. “I know he’s not coming back.”
Lola picked up her bag and threw it over her shoulder. “Sometimes I’m not sure if you do.”
Tears started prickling at the corners of her eyes, and Emmy blinked them furiously away. “I just want to know something about him, Lola. I don’t even know what color his hair was.”
“I know, but—”
“No, you don’t know!” Other players were staring at them now, but Emmy didn’t care. “You still have a dad, so you don’t know anything about it!”
Lola threw her bag back down on the bench. “Hey, it’s no picnic having my dad three hundred miles away!”
“I wouldn’t care if my dad was three thousand miles away if I could still talk to him! If you want to know something about your dad all you have to do is pick up the phone! I can’t even ask my mom because she’s hidden everything about him my entire life!”
“So, what are you yelling at me for when they’re the ones you’re mad at?”
Lola picked up her bag and stormed out of the changing room. Emmy sat on the bench for a long time. Then she put her towel in her bag and walked back to Audrey House alone.
CHAPTER 13
Thomas Allyn
On Friday night, Emmy saw Jack and Lola sitting together in the common room. She hesitated, then went upstairs. She knew she should apologize to Lola. She also knew she wasn’t ready to do it. She pulled out her phone and dialed her mom’s number.
“What a lovely surprise!” her mom said. “But I can’t talk long, I’m on my way to the airport.”
“Okay, I just had a question. Why did you send me to Wellsworth?”
“Honey, we’ve been through this. I couldn’t leave you alone while I was filming, and—”
“No, I mean, why did you choose Wellsworth? Why not some other school in England or a boarding school in the States?”
“Oh.” The phone was silent. “I used to know someone who went there, and they really loved it.”
Emmy’s heart started beating a little faster. “Who was it?”
“Just someone I met when I lived in England—a friend.”
“How did you meet this person?”
Her mom took a long time to answer. “In the university library. He was always there really late at night…like I was. I had to work during the day to cover my tuition costs, so I always did schoolwork at night.”
Emmy swallowed hard. She’d never heard that story before. “Did you know right away that you would be…friends?”
“Not right away. Sometimes it takes a while for a friendship to develop.”
“Do you ever miss that friend?”
“I…” Something crinkled on the end of the line. “I’m sorry, Em. I have to go.”
“Wait, Mom, I—”
“No, I can’t talk, I have a… I mean, we’re almost at the airport. I’ll talk to you later.”
Emmy heard a beep and the phone went dead. She rubbed away a tear that was dribbling down her chin. She’d never heard her mom talk that way about her dad. Like a real person and not just an old relic to be forgotten.
She took out her dad’s box and stared at the medallions. Maybe there was some clue here she was missing, something that would lead her to her dad. But the more she stared, the more lonely she felt. She had no idea what to do next.
She walked back downstairs to the common room and saw Natalie and Jaya walking out the door.
“Hey,” Emmy called, “wait up!”
Natalie and Jaya turned around.
“Where are you guys going?” Emmy asked.
“We’re meeting our lab partners to finish a chemistry report,” Jaya said. “Maybe we can meet up later?”
“Sure.” Emmy turned around and sighed. There weren’t a lot of people in the common room that she knew that well…other than Jack and Lola. Finally, she walked over to their table. She was still annoyed at Lola, but sitting with her and Jack was better than being alone in her room. She sat down and glanced at Lola, then quickly looked away.
Jack sat in between them, drawing. Every once in a while, he would look at one of them, sigh loudly, and shake his head.
Emmy pursed her lips. Maybe if she could get him talking he would stop giving them irritating hints. She pointed at his drawing. “What’s that?”
“Cadel’s band is having a concert in a few weeks, and they asked me to do a poster.”
Emmy peered closer; the poster was pretty incredible. Each band member was represented by a stylized silhouette that seemed to be dancing across the page. “How did you come up with that?”
Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve always liked doing stuff like this.”
“That’s really cool. Doesn’t your dad do something with art, too?”
Jack didn’t look up, but his pencil slowed and his back got stiff. “He’s an art and antiquities dealer. Music posters definitely aren’t his thing.”
“But isn’t he proud that his son is an artist?”
Jack laughed. “Proud? More like humiliated. Artists don’t make money, art dealers do. They make money by ripping artists off. So, he’s pretty much mortified that his son might be an artist.”
Emmy winced. She glanced across the room, where Malcolm was sitting with a bunch of his friends. He and Jack were both part of Edmund House, and they barely even spoke. “Guess I’m not the only one with a messed-up family.”
Lola glanced at her.
“I guess sometimes it just doesn’t feel like I have a family at all,” Emmy said.
Jack stopped drawing and looked at Emmy. “Of course, you have a family!”
Emmy cocked her head. “I do?”
Lola laughed and pointed at Jack, then at herself. “Duh, it’s us!”
Emmy giggled, then she felt something catch in her throat. It was true. They really had become like her family. She swallowed hard and smiled again.
“Look,” Lola said, “I know you’re still mad about what I sa
id, but—”
“No, you were right. I know I must seem crazy.”
“Not crazy,” Lola said. “Just mildly obsessed.”
Emmy laughed. “Yeah, maybe. I just wish I could find out something about him.”
Jack bit his lip. “Look, I know all of this is really important, but I saw the mark you got on that humanities quiz Barlowe gave back today.”
Emmy felt her face get hot. She’d never gotten a grade that low before. “It was just a quiz.”
“I know,” Jack said, “but if you don’t start getting your schoolwork done, you might get kicked out.”
Emmy hunched back in her chair. It wasn’t just humanities. Her grades had been slumping in all her classes. “I just can’t seem to concentrate with this hanging over my head.”
Nobody said anything. What was there to say? Emmy was stuck. Maybe she would have to give up on finding out anything about her dad.
Lola banged her hand on the table. “Right, that’s it, then.”
“Huh?” Emmy said.
“If you can’t focus until you learn more about your dad, we’re just going to have to get the information you need.”
Emmy laughed. “And how exactly are we going to do that?”
“By breaking into the records in the school office.”
Jack whipped around so fast his papers flew off the table. “Are you out of your mind? We can’t break into the office!”
“Of course, we can,” Lola said. “They keep records about students’ families, their transcripts, all that stuff.”
“Do you have any idea how many detentions we’d get for that?” Jack whispered. “We’d never see the light of day!”
Lola rolled her eyes. “Only if we get caught! And I have no intention of getting caught.”
“No one ever intends to get caught!” Jack said. “Do you think every bank robber who ends up in jail started their days by saying, ‘Gee, I think I’m going to get caught today’?”
“Well, if they’re stupid enough to rob banks, they may as well have been trying to get caught!”
Jack looked at Emmy. “Would you please tell her that this idea is completely insane?”
Emmy didn’t say anything, and Jack’s eyes went wide. “You can’t actually be considering this!”
Emmy tapped her foot against the table. It was insane. They could be expelled. Hadn’t she just called them her family? And now she was thinking about doing something that could get them all separated forever.
But she was already separated from her dad. As separate as two people could be. If there was information about him in the school office, it could be the bridge she’d always wanted. Needed.
“Let’s do it.”
• • •
“This is completely mental,” Jack said.
“Shh!” Lola whispered. “Are you trying to get us caught? Just shut it, already!”
Emmy looked over her shoulder. No one seemed to have noticed them leaving Audrey House after curfew, but she didn’t want to take any chances.
“Can we go a little faster, please?” Jack whispered. “I’m going to freeze out here!”
“Stop being such a baby!” Lola hissed.
Emmy pulled the collar of her coat up around her chin and walked a little faster. The outside lights were way too bright for a stealth mission. It’d be a miracle if they didn’t get caught. Her teeth were chattering so loudly the headmaster could probably hear them from inside his house.
They finally reached the main building, and Lola eased open a door. Floodlights hissed and sputtered, filling the hallways with a hazy green light. Slowly, carefully, they crept through the corridors until they reached the office.
Lola stuck a couple of hairpins inside the keyhole. A minute went by. Then two. The door was still locked.
“Can’t you go any faster?” Jack whispered.
“Not if you keep bothering me,” Lola muttered. “I’ve only done this a few times.”
“Oh, move over.” Jack grabbed the pins out of Lola’s hand.
Lola rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, like you’re going to be able to—”
Click. The door swung open.
Jack looked up and flashed them a grin in the misty green light.
“How did you do that?” Lola asked.
“Having shady older brothers isn’t always a bad thing,” he said. “Malcolm and Vincent could break into the National Gallery if they ever got the idea in their heads.”
The office was deserted. Emmy reached for the computer at the main desk, but Lola pulled her back. “Somebody might see us there. Let’s go to Mrs. Hughes’s desk, it’s around the corner.”
They crept to the very last desk and Jack flicked on the computer.
“You know, I could have gotten the lock myself,” Lola muttered. “I almost had it.”
“You had those pins jammed in so far I thought they might never come out.”
The sound of the computer whirring to life drowned out Lola’s suggestion of where Jack could put those pins.
Emmy sat down and tapped her fingers on the desk. “You’re sure your mom’s password will work on this computer?”
“I’ve seen her use it on office computers before,” Lola said. “It’ll work.”
Emmy typed it in and pressed her lips together. Icons popped onto the screen. Her heart started beating a little faster. Internet browser…newsletters…inbox…
“There!” Jack pointed to a corner of the screen. “Student Records.”
Emmy opened it. There were hundreds of files inside, all labeled by year. “I don’t know how old he is, but apparently he and my mom were in college at the same time, which means he must have been here about twenty years ago.”
She clicked on the file and found hundreds of new ones. These ones were all labeled by name. Genevieve Abrams, Rhys Algernon, Vivian Beaufort. No Thomas Allyn.
She checked the next year, then the next, and then another. No Thomas Allyn. Her shoulders slumped. “He’s not here.”
“Try working backward,” Lola suggested. “Maybe nineteen years ago.”
Emmy tried nineteen, then eighteen. Marilyn Acles. John Addington. Thomas Allyn. Her heart stopped. “That’s him.” She steadied her hand and clicked on the file. “Thomas Edward Allyn. Born in King’s Lynn. Parents’ Names: Edward and Emmeline Allyn. Died in… Wait, that can’t be right.”
“What can’t be?” Jack asked.
“It says he died in—”
Lola held up her hand, her eyes were as wide as saucers. “Someone’s coming!”
She pushed the power button on the computer, and they all dove under the desk. A few seconds later the office door clicked open.
“Hello?” a deep voice called out. “Anyone there?”
Emmy held her breath. Thank goodness Lola suggested a computer at the back of the room.
“Must have been hearing things,” the man muttered. The door banged shut and the man’s footsteps died away.
Emmy looked at Lola. Was it safe to come out? “Let’s get out of here,” Lola whispered.
They tiptoed back into the hallway, and Jack locked the door behind them. The entrance hall was dark and silent; it looked like the coast was clear.
“That was way too close,” Emmy whispered.
“It would have been fine if you two had kept your voices down,” Jack hissed.
“Actually, I saw you on the security camera,” said a deep voice from the end of the hall.
It was Jonas. “I think it’s time we have a little chat.”
CHAPTER 14
Trouble
Jonas led them down a long staircase. Emmy gripped the railing to stop her knees from giving out. What would their punishment be? Detention every Saturday until the end of term? A weeklong suspension? Please, don’t let us get expelled!
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Jonas unlocked a door and flicked on a lamp that left most of the room still dark. “So, who’s going to tell me what that was all about?”
Emmy stared at her shoes. It was her fault they were here. Jack didn’t even want to come. She couldn’t let her friends go down with her. “You see, Sir, I—”
“It’s my fault,” Jack said.
Emmy gasped. What was Jack doing?
“It was my idea to break into the office,” he continued. “I wanted to look something up on the computer.”
Emmy looked at Lola, who was staring straight ahead, her expression completely blank.
“Jack, what are you—”
“Don’t try and cover for me, Emmy,” Jack interrupted. “I was the one who broke into the office. I’m sure the security cameras caught me picking the lock.”
Jonas nodded, and Emmy stared at Jack. She couldn’t let him do this. “No, I—”
“I was the one who actually broke in,” Jack cut in, “so I’m the one who should get in trouble.”
Jonas eyed Jack carefully. “I’m quite sure it was Miss Willick who was sitting at the computer.”
“She was looking up something for me. She’s much better with computers than I am, so I asked her to do it for me. She didn’t want to, but I kinda made her.”
Emmy opened her mouth, but Lola stepped on her toes.
“I see,” Jonas said. “And what was it she was looking up for you?”
“The midterm report being sent to my parents,” Jack said. He didn’t blink, he didn’t shuffle his feet, he just stared into Jonas’s eyes and told a bald-faced lie. “I haven’t been doing so well this term, and I was afraid my parents would find out. I wanted to know what the teachers were going to tell them.”
“I see,” Jonas said again.
Jack bowed his head. “I know it was wrong. I’ve just been having such a hard time this term. I promise I won’t do anything like this again, and I promise I’ll try harder in class. But please, sir, don’t tell my parents. They’re worried enough as it is.”
He sniffled. Lola snorted, then coughed to try and cover it up. Jonas gave Jack a shrewd look, then stood up. “I’ll speak to your head of house about getting you some extra study sessions. It’s Larraby, right?”