He nodded, his crystal blue eyes darkened. He kept his hands behind his back. “Yes, sir. How can I help you?”
“Mr. Morgan didn’t show up for his last class today. Would you have an idea as to why?”
Gabriel glanced at me quickly and shook his head. “I have no idea. Perhaps he felt ill and went to see the nurse?”
Mr. McCoy’s eyes lingered on me for most of this conversation but he turned to look at the other students. “Wasn’t there another one of you in this class? A Mr. Griffin?”
Were they keeping tabs on the guys? “He’s not here,” I said softly.
Principal Hendricks raised a bushy gray eyebrow. His bald head gleamed under the bright lights in the gym. “Is he sick, too?”
“I’m sure if you ask Mr. Blackbourne,” Gabriel said, “he would know. We are required to report to him.”
Principal Hendrick’s friendly face turned serious. “I understand there might be some differences in how you handle things at your Academy. In the future, though, please report to either myself or Mr. McCoy if there are ever any more incidences.” His eyes fell on me and his smile returned, but from the way his lips curled on his mouth, it was like staring into the face of a crocodile. “Keep these boys in line, won’t you Miss Sorenson? Tell that professor of yours to call me.”
I blushed, surprised he knew my name. He thought I was from the Academy? “But I...”
“Don’t worry,” he said, patting my shoulder. “I’m helping our newest students to adjust. I know it’s different than what you’re used to.”
He turned away. Mr. McCoy coughed shortly, shot a glare at me and sauntered away with the principal, heading back out of the gym.
My fingers trembled and I pressed my hands to my thighs to still them. I looked to Gabriel, who was shaking his head.
“Gabriel,” I said. “What was that?”
His crystal blue eyes met mine. That crazy smile returned to his face, masking the worry he carried a moment ago. “Who knows? Those guys are weird.”
The moment class was over, Gabriel strolled beside me toward the busses. The mass of students around us made it hard to walk together. Gabriel sought out my hand to keep me nearby. The suddenness and ease of him simply holding my hand had me blushing. Not that it mattered as other students held hands. It just mattered to me as my already overworked heart quivered at his touch.
He pulled his cell phone out with his free hand and was typing something in.
“If Victor’s gone, does that mean you’re stuck here?” I asked him, knowing Victor had driven him there that morning.
Gabriel looked up for a moment and gave me another reassuring smile. “Oh don’t worry. I’ll probably just catch the bus with you.”
“With me?”
“Yeah. I’ll hang out at Kota’s. It’s okay.”
I bit my lip. This felt like a pre-arranged plan. So Victor’s sudden disappearance was expected to happen at some point. If that was the case, then Gabriel knew more than he was telling me. I couldn’t think of the questions to ask to figure out the truth.
Gabriel’s phone vibrated and beeped in his hand. He checked it. “Victor and Nathan have training. They’re with Mr. Blackbourne now.” He put his phone in his pocket. “See? They’re fine.”
“What kind of training?” I asked. “What does that mean? Is it for the Academy?”
He shrugged, squeezing my hand. “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
How could he be so calm? They skipped a class on the first day and the administration knew about it. “They can’t skip class like that,” I said. “Why is the principal checking up on everyone? It’s the second time I saw him today.”
Gabriel blinked at me. “What do you mean?”
I described to him what happened in homeroom with North and Luke and how he had asked about uniforms.
Gabriel rubbed the back of his head. “Now that’s really weird.”
We got onto my bus. Kota was already in a seat in the middle. I slid in next to him and Gabriel took the seat across the aisle.
“Good,” Kota said. “You made it. In this mess, I was worried I would go home alone.” His lips curled up and his green eyes brightened at seeing me. He didn’t seem one bit fazed that Gabriel was on the bus, too. He appeared used to getting unexpected visitors.
“Do you know where Nathan is?” I asked Kota.
His smile faltered for a moment but he recovered it quickly. “He’s at training?” he looked over my shoulder at Gabriel. I turned in time to see Gabriel expressing something to him but Gabriel changed his face and flashed me a grin.
I sighed, sitting back with my arms folded over my chest. “What kind of training is this?”
“Probably jujitsu.” Kota said.
“During the middle of school?”
“Uh...”
“With Victor and Mr. Blackbourne?”
His face turned pale. “Well...”
I pursed my lips and rubbed a palm over my forehead. What kind of Academy was this school they went to? They would take their students out of class for surprise jujitsu training? I didn’t need to ask. This was a lie to mask whatever secret the Academy made them swear to keep. I wasn’t allowed to know. “Fine,” I said. “You don’t have to tell me.” They both blinked at me in reply so I went on. “I mean you said it, Kota. There are some things you can’t tell me. Just tell me that. It’s something you can’t tell me.”
A smile crossed his lips. He leaned in to me so close I could feel his breath on my ear as he whispered. “It’ll be fine,” he said. “I promise.”
It would have to do for now. There was no way I could make them tell me. But why did they make it sound so dangerous? Or was it they didn’t want to put me in the middle in case they got into trouble? Plausible deniability? A secret school for unusual people. In my mind, the dark mystery school I envisioned the Academy being was full of ninjas all sparring in silence.
The bus was warm and as it filled up with students, I started sweating. There were nearly double the amount of kids from that morning. Eventually Kota and I moved over to make room for Gabriel. We were sitting with our thighs pressed against each other. All the students were like that.
“How many students can this bus hold?” I wondered out loud.
“Probably not this many,” Gabriel said, squeezing in closer to me as another student passed us to get to the back. I wasn’t quite sure, but it looked like in some seats there were at least four students.
It felt strangely exotic to be so close to the two of them. I considered them both very good looking and simply being friends with guys who were so handsome was still amazing to me. When it came to being snuggled between them, I found it difficult to deal with. The circumstances made it so we were forced into this but I secretly looked forward to the long bus ride home and wondered if this would happen every day. I inhaled Kota’s spicy scent and Gabriel’s musk wood and they mixed together well. Gabriel’s lean hip pressed against mine. Kota, in an effort to make more room, moved sideways, putting an arm on the seat over my head. His long fingers hung down over my shoulder, brushing against the collar of my shirt.
“I’m sorry, guys,” I said. “If it wasn’t for me, maybe you would be riding with North or in your own ca
rs.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kota said.
“You worry about me. Isn’t that why you’re here?”
He smiled softly but said nothing.
“We stick together,” Gabriel said. “It’s what we do.” He rubbed a palm on top of my head, messing up my hair. “You’ve got to get used to that, Sang. You’re with us now.”
I took in a deep breath. I’m with them. The only thing I wasn’t totally sure about was what this was.
P ainful S ecrets
We spent nearly forty minutes squished together on the bus, as more students meant more places to stop and a longer wait as students had to rearrange themselves to get off. When we got to Sunnyvale Court, the bus driver stopped in front of Kota’s house. “Everyone on this street, I’ll pick you up here in the morning,” the driver said.
I shuffled out with Kota and Gabriel. My sister, Danielle and her brother were behind us.
I stood with Kota and Gabriel in the driveway. “I guess I’ve got to go. If my sister checks in and I’m not there...”
“Can you get back out?” Gabriel asked.
I glanced at my sister, who was talking to Danielle. “We’ll have to see how this goes. I might have to negotiate.”
“What does that mean?” Kota asked. He pushed his glasses up his nose. “You still haven’t told me.”
“It’s too hard to explain right now.”
Gabriel held out his forefinger with his thumb up like his hand was a gun. He jerked it, taking a shot at me. “Call us,” he said. “Or run back over if you can.”
I nodded. I started up the road toward the house. Marie soon followed me.
I walked alongside my sister. It felt strange to be standing next to her after spending the whole day with the guys. She looked strangely uncomfortable. I wondered how her first day was. I assumed she didn’t talk to the principal at every turn.
“So, that was Danielle, wasn’t it?” I asked her.
She scrutinized me, frowning. “How would you know?”
“The guys mentioned her and her brother,” I said.
Her lips screwed up on her face. “Yeah, well, she told me about those boys,” she emphasized as if to suggest they were toddlers rather than our own age.