House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) (2 page)

Sisters as far apart as they could be.

I shuffled through drawers, trying to figure out the most likely spot for a birth certificate and other identity documents. After going through the dressers, I tried the closet, the side tables. Nothing. Suddenly I remembered the box under the bed.

I knelt and pulled the old shoebox out. Inside was an old photograph of my stepmother, possibly the only photograph of anyone in our family in the entire house. I glanced at it once, and something thick and heavy settled over my heart. Fear. Even when she wasn’t here, I felt her whispering, telling me to stay locked away, because other people were bad. I could feel my knees pressing against the wood floor, or my throat and how it burned when she forced me to drink vinegar and lemon juice. I turned the photo over, feeling better without those critical eyes looking at me.

I put it aside and checked the other contents. Old needles from injections she must have gotten and she never threw away, old pill bottles, notes she’d scribbled on and then left. They weren’t really legible. There wasn’t anything else inside. She kept her photo with some old trash?

I returned the box, but kept the photo. I checked over the bedroom again. No birth certificate? No information on us? Where was Marie’s information?

Maybe Marie knew. I crept up the stairs quietly. Marie’s bedroom door was open, so I stepped inside.

She wasn’t there. Her bedroom was cluttered with old clothes stacked in the corner, and her school books, barely touched, were in another corner. I found a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a short note:

Couldn’t find my birth certificate. I’ll need that. If you know where it is, let me know?

I left it, and then left the photo of her mother with it. I thought she might like it.

I headed down the hall to my bedroom, half expecting one of the boys to be inside. I don’t know why, maybe because they were always around these days.

I didn’t hear the voices until I opened the door halfway. When I stepped in, the voices silenced. Dr. Green, Kota, and Mr. Blackbourne were standing in my bedroom. Victor and Gabriel sat on my bed.

I don’t know what shocked me more, the fact that they were in my bedroom together or that they’d been whispering. I had a flash of thought that someone was in trouble. The most surprising was the doctor and Mr. Blackbourne being there, too. They almost never showed up to this house.

The sudden silence told me more than I was probably allowed to ask, but I did anyway. “Secret Academy meeting?”

The corner of Kota’s mouth inched up a little. “Sort of.”

“In my bedroom?”

“Nathan’s house is a mess right now. North and Nathan are doing a little renovation.”

Renovation? They must have started while I was working with Luke. “Ah.” I lingered in the doorway, gazing at their faces. I guessed Kota’s mother was home or else they would have gone there. Victor’s fire eyes centered on me, a simmer for the moment. Dr. Green smiled pleasantly as he sat at the foot of the bed. Gabriel was on his back on the bed, his fingers strumming an invisible guitar. Mr. Blackbourne was standing resolute, his steel eyes subdued into curiosity.

I refocused on Kota, whose green eyes behind his glasses lingered on me, silently asking me if I needed something or else could I give them a moment. I shifted from one foot to the other, trying to figure out what was wrong that required a secret meeting, but couldn’t come up with anything. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Well...” Dr. Green said, even while Mr. Blackbourne and Kota were starting to say no. “Actually, there might be one thing.”

“We can’t have her involved,” Mr. Blackbourne stated.

“It’s not involving her,” Dr. Green said. “It’s asking her opinion. That’s not getting involved.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, ready for them to tell me there was a bomb or a fight or a boogeyman that needed to be taken care of.

Kota glanced at the others quickly before settling his gaze back on me again. “Silas is out on an Academy job.”

“I haven’t heard from him since the football game yesterday.”

“Right, and there’s another job he could take, too. One that’s...well the Academy really wants him on this one.”

“So why not call him?” I asked.

“It may compromise his current job,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “We try not to submit Academy details about jobs via text or phone calls. It’s too easy to intercept.”

“Isn’t there a secret code or signal you could use?”

“Not now,” he said. “Especially since Volto went silent. We secured ourselves as much as possible, but it’s limiting now when we aren’t sure where he might be. If we use code, it’ll be obvious.”

“So no Bat Signal?”

Gabriel cracked with laughter. The others grinned, except for Mr. Blackbourne, who simply said, “No. We need to talk to him in person.”

“Do you want him to come back?”

“We want to tell him to hurry with his job, without compromising it, and without alerting anyone else as to why we need him back. We just need to know if he’ll be back in time to take this new job or if we need to tell them to go to someone else. Everyone else either can’t do it or they’re busy.”

It took me a moment to think of what to do, but after I had it, I dipped my fingers into my bra, pulling out my new iPhone in the pink case. The old one had cracked. I couldn’t remember how many phones I’d been through the last few months. I punched a message at the screen.

“What are you doing?” Kota asked. “We said not to ask him directly to come back.”

I finished my text and sent it. “I didn’t.”

Mr. Blackbourne gave me a scrutinizing look. “You just sent him a text?”

“Yes.”

His eyes narrowed. “I wish you would have shown it to me first.”

My phone vibrated to life in my hands. I checked the screen. “He’ll be back tonight.”

The room silenced. Did they not expect me to help? Isn’t that what they asked me to do?

“What did you say?” Dr. Green asked.

I shrugged, holding out my phone, allowing them to read the screen.

Sang: “Miss you.”

Silas: “7.”

“That means he’ll be back at seven, right?” I asked.

Surprised filled each of their faces. Victor was gawking. There were smiles on the other faces, and Mr. Blackbourne’s stood out the most, a millimeter at most, but dazzling me with its warmth.

It was Kota who finally nodded. “Yeah,” he said.

“Is that all you needed?”

“Uh huh.”

“I’ll uh...guess I’ll go see what North and Nathan are up to—”

There was a knocking, loud enough and hard enough to feel like the house was shaking. Immediately after, the doorbell rang twice.

The boys never knocked. Marie didn’t have to. I checked with the others as to who it could be, as if they could see through walls.

They stared back with the same surprised expression.

Kota stood and came forward. “It’s probably just the mailman.”

I nodded, and started to turn around to head back downstairs. Kota went with me, followed by Gabriel.

“Don’t we have a camera out there?” Gabriel asked.

“It’s a guy,” Victor said above us from the top of the stairs. He had his phone in his hand and he was tapping at it. “He’s turned the wrong way though.”

“Shouldn’t I just answer it?” I asked.

“And what if we’re wrong and it’s an ax murderer?” Gabriel asked. “Or the police?”

Why did he have to say that? At the last step, I hesitated for a second before touching down. Kota crashed into me, put his hands on my hips and eased me down the last step.

I started for the door, but Kota took my arm, tugging me back. I checked behind me, and Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green were at the top of the stairs. Victor was ahead of them on the stairs, but waiting.

Another ring of the doorbell, and Kota checked through the peephole. His head jerked back and his expression changed to something grim. He looked back up the stairwell, pointed to Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green and waved his hand in a shooing motion.

The two of them immediate retreated to my bedroom.

I imagined they still lingered, listening and waiting. Who was it that Kota had to ask them to back away?

Kota opened the door, stepping back.

Mr. Hendricks stood on the front porch. He glowered at Kota instantly and then looked at me.

My heart thundered and my hand fluttered to my throat as I took a short step back. What was the principal doing here? Forcing myself to be polite, I spoke. “Hello? Did you need something?”

“I didn’t realize you had...company,” Mr. Hendricks said. His shaved head and criticizing eyes and broad stature made him look even fiercer outside of school. He wore brown slacks, a white collared shirt, no tie or jacket like he usually did, so he looked a little different.

“This is highly inappropriate,” Kota said.

“This is a matter that can’t wait,” he said. He stepped forward, putting a foot in the hallway.

Kota started to step in front of him to block him from further access. “You should...”

“I don’t need permission to visit the home of one of my students,” Mr. Hendricks said. “But I wanted her to pass a message to you anyway, so you may as well be here.”

Kota raised his eyebrows. Gabriel eased forward, putting a hand at the small of my back. I hadn’t realized how my body rattled until his touch was steady against me.

Victor finished his descent down the stairs to stand beside Kota. “If you must,” Victor said, “we should go somewhere else. You should have called us directly. Or talked to Mr. Blackbourne.”

“What I have to say concerns all of you,” Mr. Hendricks said. “You should listen.”

“Would you care to step into the living room?” Kota asked, his face tight, not showing emotion.

As Mr. Hendricks entered, a thousand questions buzzed through me. The last time I’d been in his office, I’d been with Marie. Marie had let slip that our mother was in the hospital and our father was at work, but I don’t know if he really knew the entire situation. Why would he dare to show up otherwise? Would he have confronted my mother if she’d been here?

Mr. Hendricks went into the living room. Victor and Kota stood with him. Gabriel drew me toward the couch and I sat next to him.

“We’ve got a situation,” Mr. Hendricks said. He kept his arms drawn in tight against his body, like he wanted to stop himself from touching anything in the room. “It’s the homecoming game and dance.”

“Shouldn’t you have called Mr. Blackbourne about this?” Kota asked.

“He’s the one that you should be concerned with,” he said. “This bomber seems to have a particular interest in him. I need you to convince him to make it clear he will not be attending either the game or the dance, and to announce it publicly.”

“Why?” Kota asked.

“Because this game doesn’t just involve students. It’s another school, parents, and who knows how many others. A bomb threat on campus we can tolerate. The students deal with it, and the parents of our students know it happens, but nothing ever occurs. They treat it like a school prank. A bomb threat at a homecoming game would force the issue. The police will look closer when other parents threaten to sue our school.”

Victor cleared his throat. “So it isn’t bad enough the school is threatened, it’s when parents show up that it’s an issue?”

“Parents are always worse than their kids,” he said. “They’ll create a dramatic scene about it. At any rate, if the bomber is focused on Mr. Blackbourne, and he isn’t going to be there, then there’s no reason to target the game.”

“We’ll consider it,” Kota said.

“I’m not asking,” Mr. Hendricks said. He pointed a finger in my direction and addressed me. “I’ve talked to your father.”

My heart thundered and I sat up. Gabriel kept his hand at my elbow, nearly growling as he spoke. “What about him?” he asked.

I was grateful they were speaking for me so I didn’t have a chance to screw up.

“I know he’s at work, and that your mother is in the hospital. I told him specifically that I’d look out for his daughters.”

It was a bolt of lightning striking me. My father, maybe not knowingly, was working with the last person he should trust.

“Again, highly inappropriate,” Kota said. “You can’t threaten her.”

“This isn’t a threat,” Mr. Hendricks said coolly. “This is her welfare we’re concerned with.”

The beady look in his eyes and his assured posturing told me way more than what he was saying.
He thinks he’s found his ace.
He had control of me, and the boys who were fighting to protect me were playing into this.
He wants them to react.
I had to speak up, or this whole thing might play into Mr. Hendricks’s plan.

“Is that all you needed?” I asked. The boys instantly turned to me. Kota shook his head slightly. Victor’s fire eyes lit up with curiosity. Gabriel squeezed at my arm, urging me to be quiet, but I couldn’t help it. My lips started to move. I wanted to protect them as much as they wanted to protect me. “You simply needed Mr. Blackbourne not to attend the game or the dance?”

“And to make it known he will be somewhere else,” he said. “Anywhere else.”

He could have been setting Mr. Blackbourne up in a trap somehow. “What if this bomber tries to target the game anyway?”

“We’ll have to deal with that if it happens,” he said. “But I don’t think he will. If Mr. Blackbourne isn’t there, this bomber doesn’t seem interested. There’s been ample opportunity for him to target places, but the names on the boxes are for Mr. Blackbourne only, in places he’d be, or the phone calls mention him specifically.”

The original bomb that had shown up arrived in the music room, the one class he had, with me. I hadn’t realized the others were targeted to him, too. Or Mr. Blackbourne didn’t tell me.

I looked to the others. I wasn’t sure if this was a trick, and I didn’t want to confirm. The request seemed simple enough. “You thought,” I said, “if you talked to me that I could convince him not to?”

“This is not just our school involved in this anymore.”

“We’ll see,” Kota said. “But calling her father and using him over her head can’t be done any more.”

“The school board is requiring that I keep you Academy students with us,” he said. “But she’s my student. I’ll do what I feel is necessary for her and for the safety of all my students.”