Hunters of Chaos (21 page)

After a few seconds Doli spoke up. “Get real, Nicole. Ana never touched you. You're lying.”

“What?” Nicole screeched. “That's insane.”

“Yeah, why would you even say that, Doli?” Tanya asked.

Doli cast a bored glance in Nicole's direction. “For starters, there are smears of pink nail polish on her face. As far as I know, Ana doesn't even own a bottle of nail polish. And look at Nicole's hands. Either smeared polish is the new style, or she did this to herself.”

Some of the girls backed away from Nicole then, uncertainty evident on their faces. Nicole, seeming to sense that she was losing them, started sobbing dramatically. There were no actual tears and it seemed clear to me that she was just putting on a show. But her friends thrived on drama. The girls who were already crowded around her moved even closer, making little clucking noises of pity.

Shani rolled her eyes at the obvious ploy. Then she gave me a smile and pulled out her phone.
Time for some distraction,
she mouthed to me. I watched as she dialed Nicole's number, waiting for the song about big butts to start playing from Nicole's purse. Only, when the song did start to play, the sound came out of Lin's back pocket.

Lin looked horrified, and I tried to work through my confusion. How had Nicole's phone ended up in Lin's pocket? Shani's own puzzled look told me that she hadn't expected this either. But her expression soon changed to one of shock as she realized the truth. “Lin,
you're
the thief?”

“What?” Lin screeched, a little too loudly. “That's crazy.
You're
crazy.”

Someone gasped. “Hey! The night my ring went missing, Lin had been in my room.”

“Get real,” said Lin. “My father is a diplomat and my mother is a famous actress overseas. They'd buy me this whole
school
if I asked them to. What would I want with your stupid ring?”

If I hadn't gotten to know Lin better over the past few days, I might not have noticed the self-conscious shift of her eyes, or the way her bottom lip trembled. She was trying to hold on to that infamous Yang demeanor that had always kept the piranhas at bay, but I could see that it was slipping away from her.

“And my iPod disappeared after we shared a locker for gym class,” said another girl, ignoring Lin's denials. Once the ball got rolling, it was impossible to stop. The girls began to pile on, shifting their attention away from Nicole and focusing it on Lin. It seemed that Lin had been nearby each time one of the stolen items went missing.

“Leave her alone,” I tried in vain. I wanted to give Lin the benefit of the doubt. After all, I thought, glancing at Nicole's scratched-up cheeks, I had just found out what it felt like to be accused of something I absolutely didn't do. But the guilt-ridden, mortified look dawning on Lin's face told me that her presence at the scene of each crime was no coincidence.

Finally, avoiding everyone's eyes, Lin pushed her way past the girls and ran.

I stared after her in shock. I couldn't believe she was the thief. Why would the wealthy daughter of a movie star and a diplomat have to steal? There must have been a reason. At least, I hoped there was.

Nicole, meanwhile, had all but forgotten her little crying display. She rubbed her hands together as if she were about to dig in to a delicious meal. “I can't wait to tell Principal Ferris all this,” she said, smiling cruelly.

“Why don't you start by telling me,” said Mrs. O'Grady, suddenly materializing in the doorway, “what's going on here?”

Immediately, every girl in the room started talking at once. Mrs. O'Grady massaged her temples then said, “Enough! I can only listen to one of you at a time. Anyone who doesn't live in this room, please go. My guess is, this is no concern of yours.” Some of the girls protested, but Mrs. O'Grady pointed to their rooms and sent them packing.

“Good luck,” Doli whispered as she passed me on her way into the hall.

When it was finally just Nicole and me with Mrs. O'Grady, she asked again for us to tell her what happened.

“Mrs. O'Grady,” Nicole began, batting her eyelashes—the picture of innocence. “I was just sitting here minding my own business when Ana barged into the room and started yelling at me. I asked her to leave me alone and told her that if she didn't stop, I'd go get help, but she just said, ‘Don't make me hurt you!' ”

I winced. If Mrs. O'Grady asked any of the girls in the hallway what they'd seen or heard, they could all confirm that I'd said those words. Out of context, it sounded all wrong.

“I tried to lighten the mood by playing some music, but she ripped my iPod out of the dock. When I asked her nicely to give it back, she growled at me like some kind of animal. And then she . . . she attacked me!” Nicole dropped her head as if she was tearing up, but I knew she was probably hiding a grin over her Academy Award–worthy performance.

Mrs. O'Grady turned to me, studying my reaction. “Is that what happened?” she asked.

“No!” I exclaimed. I countered with the truth about Nicole blaring her music and accusing me of being a witch. I laid out the same evidence Doli had mentioned, pointing out Nicole's smeared nails and my lack of polish. “She's trying to frame me!” I insisted.

“She
growled
at me,” Nicole snapped, satisfied, I guess, that she could use that kernel of truth against me.

“She called me a freak.”

“You
are
a freak!”

Mrs. O'Grady pursed her lips and let out a long, high-pitched whistle, silencing us instantly. She sighed wearily. “Well, it looks like you two will not be able to resolve this any time soon. So perhaps it is best that we see about getting you a new room assignment immediately, Ana. For tonight, although it is technically against the rules, you may sleep in Doli and Shani's room. As long as it's all right with them.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Thank you, thank you. I really appreciate—”

“However,” Mrs. O'Grady interrupted, “both you and Nicole will have to go to student court. Since assault is grounds for expulsion, there will be a peer trial over this incident to determine whether you really did attack Ms. Van Voorhies.”

“A trial?” I repeated, stunned.

“I'm afraid so,” she said.

“But I didn't do anything!” I cried.

“You'll have your chance to say that in court,” said Mrs. O'Grady, giving me a stern look that told me she didn't want to hear another word about it.

“Fine, fine,” I mumbled. I glanced at Nicole, waiting to see if she would bring up the fact that Lin was the thief. But to my relief, Nicole said nothing. For now, she seemed satisfied with having gotten me into trouble. But I wondered if any of the other girls would report Lin in the morning. If they did, there was a good chance that Lin and I would be leaving Temple Academy together.

At that point, I hated the sight of Nicole so much, I would have done anything to get out of that room and away from her. I grabbed my pillow and blanket and walked back to Doli and Shani's room. They were sitting on Doli's bed talking, and they immediately perked up when I entered.

“What happened?” Doli asked.

“Did you get expelled?” Shani jumped in. “Did she?
Please
tell me Nicole got expelled.”

“And what about Lin?” Doli sat up, hugging her pillow to her. “I went to her room to check on her, but she wasn't there or in the common room. Did Nicole report her to Mrs. O'Grady?”

“I don't want to talk about it right now,” I grumbled, ignoring their questions. I didn't want to spend one more second thinking about Nicole. Without another word, I crawled into the sleeping bag, closed my eyes, and fell into a dead sleep.

C
ATS CIRCLED MY DREAMS. THE
many became one. Then one insistent cat was meowing directly in my ear. Along with the sound of Shani snoring and the soft
tick tick tick
of Doli's alarm clock. Wait. No, this wasn't happening in my dreamless sleep. The sounds were real. The meowing continued, getting louder. I opened my eyes.

When I'd settled into Doli and Shani's room that night, I guess I'd succeeded in blocking out the world. It looked like they hadn't even woken me up for dinner, just letting me sleep through till bedtime. But now there was a cat calling to me somewhere in the night. I unraveled myself from the sleeping bag and tiptoed to the window. There, right below me, was the black cat with the brilliant green eyes that I'd seen near the temple. It let out another loud mewl when it saw me.

“Doli!” I whispered. “Wake up, wake up.” She mumbled something but kept her eyes closed. Finally I went to her bed and shook her awake.

“Ana? What's wrong?” She craned her neck to check her clock. “It's three in the morning.”

“I know, sorry. But you have to see this.” I shook Shani awake too and brought them both to the window. The cat was still there.

“Uh, you woke me up to look at a cat?” Shani grumbled. “I'm going back to bed.”

I pulled her closer to the window. “Wait!” I urged. “I've seen this cat before. I think it's trying to get my attention.”

Shani peeked down, one eye barely open. “Huh. It does seem to be looking right at us, doesn't it? You think it knows about . . . the Wildcats?”

“Maybe,” I said. “Either way, I think it's trying to tell us something. It's been meowing for a while now. It woke me up.”

We watched as the cat spun in frantic circles. It padded away from the building, then looked up at us and waited, its back turned.

“Looks like she wants us to follow her,” Doli said.

I tilted my head. “She?”

“Just guessing.”

“I don't get a bad vibe from her, but then what do I know?” I asked. “I went all these years not knowing I'm part jaguar. What if it's some kind of trap?”

Shani smiled and left the window to pull on her jeans and sneakers. “We know how to use our powers now,” she said. “Kind of. If it's a trap, I say bring it on.”

Just like the night before, we sneaked out of the dorm one at a time, careful not to rouse Mrs. O'Grady, who'd already had an earful tonight. When the three of us reunited outside, we found the cat waiting patiently. I reached out to pet her, but she turned and ran down the pathway.

I grinned at my friends. “Time for our three a.m. workout.” If Lin had been there, she would have griped about being forced to run when she wasn't even in gym class, or she'd complain that the cat had ruined her beauty sleep. But Lin wasn't there. It surprised me how sad that made me. I'd told her before that the four of us were a team. Going off to do something that might involve the Wildcats without her didn't feel right. But since we didn't know where Lin was—or if she wanted to see anyone right now—we had no choice.

Together we jogged behind the cat. She cut behind the academic building and through the athletic field, then disappeared into the woods. Finally she came to a stop when she reached the yellow cautionary tape that bordered the temple. The cat crossed beneath the tape and looked back at us.

“We've come this far,” Doli said with a shrug. She ducked under the tape, and Shani and I did the same. The cat darted past the parts of the temple that had been fully excavated, coming instead to a pile of rubble around the side. It began to paw at the rocks, meowing plaintively.

“Let's help her,” I said. I fell to my knees and started tossing aside pieces of heavy stone and clumps of dirt. Shani and Doli worked at the other side of the pile until finally we could see the bottom half of the wall that had been buried beneath. It was engraved with what looked like hieroglyphics of cats. But they were each exaggerated in some way, and no two were the same. I scanned the rows until I landed on one that stopped me cold. “That one,” I said, pointing it out to the others. “It looks exactly like the jaguar on my necklace.” I pulled the necklace out of my T-shirt so they could compare for themselves.

“Whoa, you're right,” said Doli. “Look at the one right next to it. That's the same puma I have on my necklace. Shani, that's a lion next to the puma. Do you have anything with a lion on it?”

“You mean like this?” Shani held up her arm and pushed her sleeve back to reveal a thin bracelet, the image of a lion etched into the gold.

“I didn't know you had a bracelet like that,” Doli said. “When did you get it?”

Shani caressed the bracelet lovingly. “My grandmother gave it to me before she passed away. She brought it all the way from Cairo. I never take it off.”

“Sound familiar?” I said to Doli, who nodded. “This means something.” I lifted my jaguar to the carving on the wall, but nothing happened. Doli and Shani did the same with their jewelry pieces, but the wall remained unchanged. I looked at the black cat. “What do we do now?”

But the cat was staring at another symbol to the left of the jaguar. It was an engraving of a tiger. “We need Lin!” I cried. “The tiger is her symbol.”

“I told you,” said Doli. “She wasn't in her room when I went to make sure she was okay. I think she's gone into hiding.”

Shani looked at the tiger symbol as if it were Lin. “I don't blame her. She's probably embarrassed to the nth degree. Plus, I'll bet she thinks somebody turned her in to Mrs. O'Grady already.” She glanced at me. “Did Nicole do the honors?”

I shook my head. “She was too busy making up lies about me,” I said miserably. “Mrs. O'Grady told us we have to go to student court now.”

“Whoa,” Shani said. “That's serious. If Nicole would take it that far, it's only a matter of time before she tells on Lin.”

I sank back onto my heels, disappointed—about Nicole's lies, about Lin's absence, and about our early morning mission coming to a halt. “Well, that's it then. I doubt we can do whatever this is without Lin.”