The Academy - First Days (27 page)

The other girls smirked. We waited until everyone was together and
as a group, we moved into the gym. The guys started clapping and hooting again.
The echo in the gym was deafening. I recognized a few of the boys from the
fight yesterday. The one who started it wasn’t among them. I wondered if he
came to school at all or if Kota managed to wire him.

“Ignore it,” I said to the group, quieter so the guys couldn’t
hear. “Just move to your seat and sit. If you look at them, they’ll keep doing
it.” If I learned anything from my old schools, it was how to use being
invisible as an advantage, especially when  it came to avoiding contact
with bullies until I was too boring to be any fun. Even I didn’t want that kind
of attention.

With focus, the girls moved toward the other end of the room. Some
of them did glance up at the boys but for the most part we all ignored the
hollering. I caught Nathan and Gabriel sitting on the ground in their assigned
spots, both of them watching but not participating. I was happy about that.

The other boys did manage to quiet down after we were all sitting.
The boys were rushed into what would be their warm up exercises. The girls’
coach waited until the boys were done before she started talking. She spoke
loudly, ordering us to stand up and stretch. She walked through our lines as
she gave off commands, getting us to do pushups and sit ups and jumping jacks.

The boys took out basketballs and they started playing. When the
girls were done, we were told next week we would start with tennis. This week
since we only had one more day left, they would just let us do our warm up
exercises and we could talk the rest of the time.

“Hey,” one of the girls said. She was tall, lean, with pixie
styled brown hair and big brown eyes. “Don’t we get to play basketball?”

The coach smiled at her. “Want to play?”

The girl nodded.

Coach blew the whistle at her neck, turning around. “Okay boys,”
she barked at them. “Play half court. The girls want to play.”

The boys grunted. Nathan and Gabriel were the only two who seemed to
perk up at the idea.

I stood up, not wanting to sit down since I’d been sitting all
day. I was still sore and knew if I just warmed up my muscles, they’d feel a
little better. I joined the brown haired girl and three other girls followed.
The others stayed on the floor so they could talk.

Since there were only five of us, we split up. I joined Karen, the
tall one who had asked to play basketball first, and the other three were on
the other team. Karen was competitive. She barked orders at me and constantly
asked for the ball. I didn’t mind. The action was getting me to stop thinking
about detention that afternoon.

“Oy,” Gabriel’s voice called from the other side of the gym.
Gabriel stood with his hands on his hips, watching us. Nathan stood beside him.
“Let some of us join,” Gabriel said. “It’s too crowded on this side.”

Karen held the basketball, rolling it in her hands. “Fine,” she
said.

Five boys joined us on our side. Gabriel flashed a grin at me and
Nathan was beaming. He seemed to have forgotten he was hurt. Maybe he had the
same idea about warming up muscles, or he’d taken some pain killers and was
feeling better.

The girls and the guys split up so it was five on each team. A
couple of the other boys kept guarding Karen since she was the tallest and
clearly the best out of us. For the most part, the boys had the advantage. The
other girls were average sized and like me, simply outmatched.

I wasn’t tall enough to attempt to cover Gabriel or Nathan. It
didn’t seem to matter. Both hovered over me more often than anyone else. I
couldn’t touch the ball before they managed to wrestle it away from me.  

When the ball bounced out of bounds, Gabriel ran to fetch it. He
caught it and dribbled it at the boundary, trying to figure out who to pass it
to. An idea floated into my mind. I waited quietly in front of him as if I was
tired and wasn’t about to attempt to try to stop him. He bounced the ball a
couple of times as Karen and the other girls were doing their best to guard
everyone else. He focused on Nathan.

When he lifted the ball to pass, I jumped to life, running across
in front of him to snatch it from the air. His eyes popped open in surprise and
he ran after me. The others were preoccupied and I had no one to toss it to. In
a desperate move, I spun, aimed for the basket from beyond the three point line
and made a shot. The ball sank cleanly into the net. It was pure luck.

“Holy shit,” Gabriel said, looking stunned. He laughed, came after
me and hooked an arm around my waist, swinging me off the ground. “That was
awesome.”

“Hey, boys,” called one of the female coaches. “Keep your hands
off of my girls or I’ll give you detention.”

Gabriel smirked and let me go, a hand remained on my back until my
knees stopped shaking.

“That’s all it takes?” Nathan called out. He had the ball in his
hands at that moment. He laughed, tossed the ball right at me.

Surprised, I took it back, not understanding what he meant. He
raced across the court after me. I half cried out, trying to run and dribble at
the same time. I couldn’t get away from him. He hunched down, grabbed me by my
thighs and hefted me up until I was sitting on his shoulder. He carried me that
way until I was close enough to the basket and I could drop the ball inside
easily to score.

“Hey!” The coach called. She pointed at Nathan. “That’s it. I
warned you. Detention. Put her down.”

Nathan laughed, bending over and putting me down gently. He
beamed. “I’ve got detention. I’ve got detention,” he taunted at me, wiggling his
fingers in the air. The silver brace on his right hand glinted under the gym
lights.

I
tucked a hand to my side, laughing. Gabriel was, too. The others in the group
stood by, shaking their heads and trying to understand what was so funny.

C
Hange
o
f
P
lans

A
fter gym was over, I changed quickly and waited in the hallway for
the guys. Nathan and Gabriel came around the corner and I breathed some relief
that they weren’t held up by more taunting bullies.

Nathan brandished his detention slip, beaming.

“What do we do?” I asked. “I’ve never been in detention before.”

Gabriel smirked. “And you assume we have?”

Nathan read his slip. “I don’t know. It doesn’t say where to go.”

“Let’s go to the main office,” Gabriel said. “Someone there should
know. Text Kota.”

Nathan fished out his phone as we walked against the flow of
students. He sent a message to all the other guys about where we were headed.

We collected outside of the main office. Kota was the last to arrive.
My heart started to thud. I would miss the bus. Marie would notice. What now?

Kota opened the main office door and motioned to North and then to
me. “We’ll go ask what to do,” he said. “The rest of you stay out here until we
figure it out.”

While the others remained in the hall, I filed in behind Kota and
North. We stood together in the main office as there were a couple of other
students at the desk. The boys stood so close to me and they both had serious
expressions on their faces. I wasn’t sure what they were expecting, but I
wondered if they were waiting for Mr. McCoy or Mr. Hendricks to appear at any
moment.

We waited until our turn to talk to the secretary, who informed us
that detention was held in the auditorium. “I think you all are the first this
year.”

We left the office and told the other guys. We moved as a group to
find the auditorium. When we were halfway down the main hallway, I realized the
guys were surrounding me. Kota and North walked ahead, Gabriel and Nathan
hovered close on either side of me, the other three trailed behind us. I was in
the middle again. I didn’t know if they realized they’d done it. Maybe they
did. They seemed to do everything with purpose.

When we got to the right hallway, the doors to the auditorium were
locked.

“Does this mean we can go home?” Gabriel asked. He hooked an arm
around my neck, half hanging off of me. “If no one shows up, how will they know
if we’re here?”

“I think our bus is already gone,” Nathan said. He leaned against
the metal door, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “We can wait. If we don’t
do it today, we’ll end up having to do it tomorrow anyway. I don’t want to do
this twice if we don’t have to.”

We all watched and waited next to the doors. I was starting to stare
off at the wall when Kota cleared his throat. He tilted his head toward the end
of the hallway to get us to look.

Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green marched down toward us. The guys
straightened. Gabriel let go of me to stand tall. The others, while they weren’t
saluting, stood still, posture perfect. While I was confused, I followed their
example, trying to look humble.

Mr. Blackbourne continued to walk past us. Dr. Green stopped in
mid-step, motioning with his head at us. “Let’s go,” he said.

I pushed a finger to my lip, unsure if he meant me.

Dr. Green caught my hesitation. “You, too, Miss Sang,” he said
calmly.

What about detention? I glanced at Kota and the others, but their
faces were all the same granite expression. Now I regretted telling Mr. Blackbourne.
Were they displeased that he knew? Wouldn’t he have found out anyway?

We collected our things and followed them outside. The temperature
had changed from uncomfortable to broil, and the humidity was turned on maximum
sweat guaranteed. We were led out to the old wood benches at the abandoned
baseball field. Mr. Blackbourne pointed at the seats and the others clustered
together on various levels of the benches and faced Mr. Blackbourne and Dr.
Green. I slipped onto the edge next to Victor, feeling the heat radiating
through my skirt.

Mr. Blackbourne crossed his arms over his chest, standing in front
of us with that steely gaze. Dr. Green stopped beside him. Dr. Green put his
hands behind his back and his face became unreadable. This was business.

Mr. Blackbourne stared down Kota. “Start talking.”

“Mr. McCoy isolated out Sang,” he said. “We needed someone to go
in with her. I think otherwise it would have been her and McCoy alone.”

“It’s not the first time,” Silas spoke up. “He bumped into her the
first day of school and started to blame her for it. He wanted to give her
detention then, too.”

All of the guys turned to me. My face was radiating as I kept my
finger at my lip, pushing it to my teeth. “I don’t know why,” I said. “I’ve
been trying to avoid him since the start of school.”

“We’ll have to figure out why later,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He
jabbed a finger in the air toward their faces. “We’ve got other things to do,
and so far Sang is the one doing your job.”

They had a job? What were they supposed to do other than be good
students and set an example to the others? I was the worst example so far.
Fighting. Detention on the first week! And I got all of them involved.

“Gabriel, Luke, I need you two to work out a uniform. Victor, make
the calls to find out who will produce seven by tomorrow morning. Kota and
Nathan, go tail McCoy and see if he’s still here. Give me updates. North and
Silas, you’re with me.” He pointed at Kota, and made a motion with his hands.

Kota pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. It looked
like the notes I had written that morning about Mr. McCoy’s office. Kota handed
the paper off to Mr. Blackbourne. Kota and Nathan left their bags and started
sprinting to the school again. North and Silas followed Mr. Blackbourne in the
same direction.

I folded my arms around my knees as I watched Gabriel and Luke
moving together to get started. Victor had his phone out and was thumbing
through it. I felt useless. Were they going to go wire McCoy now? Could they
get into trouble? This wasn’t a student, it was the vice principal.

Plus, Mr. Blackbourne had to deal with Mr. Hendricks’ demands.
With uniforms, they’d get into more fights. What was I going to do? I didn’t
know how to help or even if I should. It all felt like my fault. Maybe if I
wasn’t in the middle, Mr. Blackbourne would have stuck to his insistence that
the guys couldn’t wear uniforms.

“Miss Sang,” Dr. Green called to me. He was still standing where
he had been in front of the benches. “Would you like to take a walk with me?”

My eyebrows lifted. I glanced at Victor. He had the phone pressed
to his ear but he nodded to me, silently confirming with me to do what I was
told.

I left my things on the bench and stumbled down to Dr. Green. He
smiled pleasantly and I felt a little better that I was being told to walk with
him instead of Mr. Blackbourne. We started away from the others, walking around
the rusted fence of the baseball field.

Dr. Green was quiet until we were out of earshot off the others.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It looks like I might have made you a target.”