First Kiss: The Ghost Bird Series: #10 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series) (30 page)

And then I remembered that Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne had been put into a team together. They’d said so. That’s how they’d started. I wondered what other teams they might have been a part of prior to finding each other.

April headed into a campsite where there was a large tent, similar to the one North had set up, but this one was a shade of brown.

April walked over to it and opened the flap, showing me the inside. There were three cots lined up around the walls. Since it was only the three, their tent had more room in the center, but it was filled with small chairs and on top of the chairs, were three suitcases, identical brown.

The potpourri scent was strong here, as was the smell of other perfumes: sharp fruits and flowers, fighting the natural scents of pine trees and the ocean outside.

I couldn’t sleep here. I’d suffocate.

“Just put your stuff on the cot,” she said.

I entered and placed my sleeping clothes and the bathroom kit on the nearby cot. I was reluctant to leave my things; I didn’t want them to pick up the strong perfume scent. “I can come back...”

“I’ll make sure your stuff gets put in whichever tent you end up in.” April poked at her temple through her long brown hair. “I think of these things.”

“Thank you,” I said. What else could I say? I had to be polite.

We emerged from the tent and I watched Taylor, who had wandered off toward a brown, old Jeep Cherokee. She opened the back to reveal a cooler inside. She opened it and pulled out two bottles: Coffee Frappuccinos. I followed April over and Taylor handed a coffee to me.

They were different from the ones the boys normally bought for me. I looked at the light brown label. “I haven’t seen these,” I said. “Coffee flavored coffee?”

“It’s just coffee without all the flavor,” she said. She reached further into the back of the Cherokee, and pulled out an aluminum foil packet, handing it to me. “April makes us easy to-go food.”

I tucked the coffee under my arm and took the packet from her hand, feeling the contents. “A burrito?”

“It is,” she said. “Don’t worry. It’s vegan.”

I tilted my head toward April in a silent thank you and then forced a tight smile. Vegan what?

“Eat on the way,” she said. She and Taylor headed toward the road.

On the way to what? And where was their other teammate? My only hope that wherever we were going, Kota and the others would be there.

I did my best to balance the coffee while I walked and tried to open up the burrito. For some reason, I was thinking potatoes, maybe eggs... No, she’d said it was vegan; do vegans eat fake eggs? What’s even in fake eggs?

The outside of the wrap revealed nothing to me. All I could smell was tortilla bread smell.

I took a bite and got a mouthful of spinach, black beans, and mashed avocado.

I rolled the food around my mouth as I walked, working to get the full flavor and textures. Different. I had to give it a chance.

But the more I chewed, slowly, tasting the flavors together, the more I didn’t like it.

There was something spicy inside that I hadn’t noticed right away but grew hotter as I chewed. My eyes watered. I worked to swallow it quickly.

I rewrapped the burrito and tucked it under my arms so I could go for the coffee, taking a sip. It was cold, and slid down easy, but had a bitter aftertaste, or maybe was mixing with the burrito in a way that was overpowering. I wanted to go back and brush my teeth just to get the flavors out.

How could they eat this? Suddenly, I was craving oatmeal, even though I’d never had it. I’d eat anything that wasn’t so spicy. I missed my mocha coffee.

The other two powered on, glancing back at me on occasion but mostly talked about the weather, how cold it had been last night.

I either had to find a trash quickly or somehow manage to swallow the food.

I tried another bite but then had to wash it down with the coffee. By then, I was down to half a coffee.

I considered starving instead.

I was so focused on looking for a trash can that I hadn’t registered when I followed them down a path I was unfamiliar with. Suddenly I was hearing voices, more than just the boys, even if I couldn’t see anyone at the moment.

We came to a gathering area, where there were rows of wooden benches, tiered on a slope, all facing the lowest area. At the bottom—the stage, I assumed—was a fire pit that contained a small campfire. Trees surrounded the area, so the place felt sheltered and secluded.

But what hit me wasn’t the setup of the area, but that there were hundreds of people, talking, and moving around, finding places to sit. They had been masked by the hill before, and now their voices were overwhelming. Most were already seated while a handful was working their way down to empty seats available.

“Good, it didn’t start yet,” Taylor said. She scanned the area.

I looked around, too, and found a trash can at the edge of the seats. I slipped away from Taylor, crunching the burrito in my hands in the foil, pretending I was done with it and hoping they wouldn’t notice there was more than half left. I tossed it and then downed the last of the coffee, eager to be finished with it.

After I threw out the bottle, I turned and realized I had lost sight of April and Taylor.

I scanned the open-aired theater for any signs that I was supposed to sit somewhere specific. People were sitting down and a small group had started toward the stage, engaged in conversation. They were older, and then I recognized Dr. Roberts among them, wearing brown pants, a white shirt, and a tie. Formal for camping, but still different since I’d only ever seen him in a doctor’s coat.

I stopped focusing on him and was looking for the boys when there was a touch on my shoulder.

I turned to face not one of the boys or even Taylor or April, but someone very familiar to me, though I didn’t recognize who he was until he spoke.

He had different-colored eyes and brown hair that was longer in the front. “Hey, it’s the little doctor,” he said, a grin on his face. “I remember you.”

In my panic, I couldn’t remember his name. He had to know I wasn’t a real doctor. Would he be upset to know a real doctor didn’t pull the nail out of his leg?

Behind him stretched a group of guys, all bulky and including two that were really tall, maybe even taller than Silas. They all stood together looking uncomfortable.

One of them stepped forward, a man wearing glasses with long dark hair hanging around his face. I remembered him: Mr. Toma. He’d talked to me before when I’d been with Mr. Blackbourne in the music room when Mr. Toma had been looking for someone. He scanned the area and then pointed.

“There’s space for us down there,” Mr. Toma said.

I’d been watching him and hadn’t noticed the guy in front of me holding out his hand. “I’m Marc, remember?”

I nodded, shaking his hand. “Sorry,” I said. “I was just...looking...”

“You’re with the doc, aren’t you?”

Dr. Green! “Have you seen him?”

“Not yet,” he said. He looked over his shoulder at his own group already starting down the path.

I realized then that there was a girl among them. She was wearing a very bulky T-shirt and a loose pair of jeans and at first, I’d thought her to be a guy with long brown hair. As I looked closer, I saw she wore an angry expression, frowning deeply. She stomped in her boots as she followed her guys down the steps, to an area toward the front, close to the fire and the center staging area.

“Come sit with us,” Marc said, moving back a half step to allow me to go in front of him. “It’s okay. Don’t we all split up after this part anyway?”

He was speaking like I’d been here before. Maybe he really did assume I was Academy.

I followed one of his team members—a bulky guy with a grizzly expression and a lip ring—down the steps. As I walked, I kept looking around, hoping to find the guys along the way.

I spotted Taylor sitting near the center in the middle of a row, but a distance from us. I turned my head away so she wouldn’t see me. If I had to get put in another team for the week, I didn’t want it to be their group. They were nice, but I’d starve to death and suffocate in their tent.

I sat at the end of the row, next to Marc. Their girl sat between Mr. Toma and the bulky grizzly guy. The two tall guys sitting on the other side looked alike, perhaps brothers, and somehow seemed familiar but I couldn’t remember how.

They had a girl on their team?

Four guys, one girl? Or five? As I looked down the row, I noticed another guy on the far side. He was black with dark brown hair but I couldn’t tell if he belonged to this team or the one on the other side of him. He had his arms crossed and appeared very displeased to be there and sat distanced from Marc’s team. Beyond him, the other team was made up of older, middle-aged men, so it made me think he was on Marc’s team, but didn’t like it. Maybe he was new.

Marc’s team appeared to be all in their twenties as far as I could tell.

Five guys, one girl. All on a team.

Hadn’t Lily and the others said they spoke to other teams like ours, but none of them had seen it through? Was this one of them? Is that why they all had dour expressions?

A sudden loud air horn sounded from the stage area, and Dr. Roberts waved his hands, getting everyone’s attention.

An elderly, thin woman stood beside him, and I recognized her, although it took me a minute to place her. Mrs. Rose? She’d been in the hospital and had spoken in sign language to Dr. Green. She was the one who had tried to hack down a palm tree with a chainsaw and had fallen off a ladder.

She seemed to have recovered fully. She was now holding the air horn and let out another short blast, grinning.

People still standing shuffled to find seats quickly, settling down. It took a fraction of the time that it took students at any school assembly I’d ever been to. Everyone here became dead silent, respectful and ready to listen.

Once everyone was seated, I could search the crowd easier. The majority of people were young—early twenties down to ten-year-olds at the youngest that I could see. There were plenty of adults, but most were young or middle-aged.

Had they grown exponentially in recent years as they recruited new, young members? Or did older members fall out of the Academy and no longer participate? Maybe there was a retirement age?

Dr. Roberts and Mrs. Rose took several steps back, allowing an older, dark-haired man, with white patches at his temples, take center stage.

He waved hello. “Welcome, everyone!” he said into a microphone, a huge speaker on the stage blaring out his voice. A few in the crowd waved back but everyone remained silent. “I am Mr. Duncan. My associates and I would like to welcome you to camp. Thanks for coming. I know we’re all anxious to get on with camp activities. I’m excited to let you all know we do have an arts and crafts section set up in a picnic area. Archery, hiking, fishing and some of the other usual activities: first-aid training, et cetera. are all available. You know the drill: do a circle around the camp, find a flag, it’ll take you to a station to learn something new.”

A murmur rippled through the crowd and then everyone settled down.

“There’s no need for appointments, or to even stay with your teams. This is your vacation, a chance to learn new things and even meet a few new people. You don’t need to try to get to everything, but I encourage you all to try something you’re not familiar with. You never know; you might find something new you enjoy.

“We’ve got several new people, whom I want to welcome...”

A thunderous applause erupted just then.

The man with the microphone waved once and the crowd settled. “You can meet them all through the week,” he said. “I just wanted to say hello.”

I was still scanning the crowd but didn’t see the guys. The Academy seemed bigger than Ashley Waters. How many people were here today? And how many hadn’t made it in?

“New people, this is your chance to get to know us. You were invited to our Academy for a reason. You’re smart. You’re capable. You have a desire to help others. It’s that simple, folks. I know it looks complicated from the outside, but this is your chance to learn it from the inside. We’ll help you find your place and then we’ll all work together to help others.”

“I don’t want to take up any more time unless we have any announcements?” He turned, looking at Dr. Roberts, who shook his head, but Mrs. Rose started signing at him. Her hands moved so fast and from this distance, I couldn’t make it out.

“Oh, right,” the man said and turned once again to the audience. “Most of your team and family leads will be in the cabins as we need to go over new protocols and train new leads for the year. If you need them, find the cabins. Maps will be handed out to you as you leave here. Grab two. Remember the rule of two.”

Rule of two? I didn’t know what that meant.

Also, what he’d said meant Kota and Mr. Blackbourne might be gone for most of the day, perhaps the whole week unless Dr. Green took over for Kota...

“Before everyone leaves,” he continued, “I need all the new people down here with us. We’d just like to say hello and get to know you.” He clapped his hands over his head and then spread them out. “I think that’s it. Emergency information is on the map. We’re all family here. Have fun.”

Everyone stood, including me. My heart went into a panic as people started to move. Marc went to talk to their girl, who was angrily shaking her head and pointing to Mr. Toma.

I knew I was expected down at the front, but I felt like I needed to locate someone familiar, like Kota. Looking around and not seeing him or any of the boys, I felt misplaced. Did I have to go down there by myself?

“Miss Sorenson?” came a loud voice and then as I turned my head toward it, I recognized Dr. Roberts waving to me from the stage area to get my attention. He curled his finger at me. “Come on up here.”

While he wasn’t one of the guys, I was grateful for the familiar face and scooted out of the seats.

Then he pointed to the angry girl with Mr. Toma. “Miss Winchester. Would you please join us?”

The girl frowned, said something to Mr. Toma, but then followed. But instead of going around, she walked along the benches, using them as steps to go down into the center. When she got to the end, she jumped off the first row and shuffled her way toward Dr. Roberts.