The Academy - Friends vs. Family (35 page)

“And the bed?”

“Wasn’t sure if you’d notice,” Victor said. His footsteps alerted
me that he was moving closer. I couldn’t make myself face him. I stared at the
books. “Gabriel tried to match your blanket. It was thin and needed replacing.
There’s a spare, too. And new sheets.”

“It’s bigger,” I said, still not turning. I didn’t want him seeing
me confused, touched, terrified, warmed, a mix of so many emotions at once.

He stepped closer behind me until I could smell the rich moss and
berries of his cologne. His palm smoothed over the bare skin of my forearm.
“Sweetie, no one liked your bed. Maybe you didn’t notice, but there were
springs poking out. You really needed a new one.”

“The stereo?” I whispered, a tremble spilled down my spine at his
touch. I gazed down at his hand on me, staring blankly at his lean, strong arm,
and the way the start of his white shirt fell across his bicep.

“Mr. Blackbourne found something similar to what you had. It isn’t
exact, but I think it’s close enough. I was going to get you a new one, a nicer
one, but we were taking a lot of risks as it was with the bed and the shelf.
I’m willing to bet they won’t notice a thing, though.”

They replaced everything. I had new clothes thanks to him. I had
new bedroom furniture thanks to all of them. I didn’t know where to start. I
didn’t know what I should do. I knew the answer to my next question, but I
asked anyway. “How?”

He inched closer. His breath fell on my hair. “Last night.”

The admission forced another shiver through me. It was obvious.
Scenes from the night before raced through my mind, suddenly becoming
clear,  like Nathan pulling me away from checking in on my mother to keep
me with them instead of trying to talk myself out of spending the night and
going home. There was Silas and North and Victor, my guardians, they had placed
me next to them so I wouldn’t notice the others were gone. Nathan the
courageous ninja, Luke the silent thief, and Gabriel the ever-demanding stylist
weren’t there when I had the nightmare and instead were in my room, putting
everything into place. Kota walked in after North had started shouting. Was he
observing from his bedroom or was he outside as a lookout?

It was perfect timing, and the perfect night to do it. Marie had
been gone. My father wasn’t going to be home. I was under their observation.
With my mother, another sniff of Luke’s brown bottle would ensure they could
move everything in without being noticed.

My heart thumped so hard, I wavered where I stood. I forced out
the last question I could think to ask. “Why?”

Victor’s fingertips traced the soft side of my arm, sliding down
to my palm. He collected my hand in his, warming. The thumb traced at the skin
at the back of my hand.

“You belong with us,” he breathed against my neck. “And this is
who we are. Whatever you need. From now on.”

The tear traced my cheek, circling my chin before I realized it’d
fallen from my eye. I wrestled with the idea that they shouldn’t have. I didn’t
need a new bed. I didn’t need a new shelf. I didn’t need new clothes. Part of
me wanted to fling my fears back at him, of not wanting to accept any of this.
I wanted to demand my old things back. The thought of them putting so much
effort into me felt to be too much. They’d already saved my life. They’d already
protected me at school. They stood by me when no one else would. What could I
have possibly done to deserve it? What more could I ask of them?

But they did it without asking. The Academy gave them whatever
they needed, like Mr. Blackbourne explained to me in what felt like an eon ago.
I had thought about it since that day, trying to understand what it must be
like for them. They lacked nothing they needed so they wouldn’t be distracted
when they had other things to do. Like saving a school.

Or saving me.

I thought of Gabriel cutting Silas’s hair, of Victor driving
Gabriel in from downtown to school, and of Kota and the others pitching in at
starting the diner. They took care of each other, and sometimes without asking.
They got what they needed and worked together so they could do their job and
move forward.

Family first, Kota had said. Family first and when that was in
order, we moved on to other things.

And I was now family.

I spun around to face Victor, my arms finding his neck and my
cheek tracing the crook of his shoulder. I wanted to say thank you. I wanted to
find the words.

I wanted nothing more than to no longer be the one that got help,
but to be one of them that fit in, that knew my place where I could give back
to them in every way possible that I could. If it meant quietly accepting so
they would no longer feel that I was in need, so we could move past it and do
something else, I would swallow back all the pride forever. But I would always
thank them. I would always remember.

My voice caught, and my lips trembled too much to say what I was
thinking. I could only rub my cheek against Victor’s shoulder, begging silently
that he would understand.

Victor’s arms wrapped around my body. His fingers traced the
spaces between my ribs. His breath tickled the top of my head as he chuckled.
“Don’t start thanking me yet, princess. There’s still a lot to show you.”

I pulled back from him, pushing my fingers to my cheeks to wipe at
my eye. “What do you mean?” I whispered. How could there be more? There was
nothing left in the room.

“First things first,” he said, his fire eyes ablaze and the curl
of his lips stoking the flames. He took my hand again, guiding me to the
closet. He twisted the handle, opening the door.

The old traded clothes from Derrick and Danielle and my sister
hung neatly on the rack. My old shoes were at the bottom. Nothing else looked
touched.

“Oh,” I said, unable to hide my tone of surprise. I assumed he was
going to show me the new clothes were in place.

“It’s part of the secret,” he said. “We wanted to make sure
Danielle or your sister wouldn’t be able to take your new clothes. So we’re
leaving these here. They won’t be able to steal your new things if they can’t
access them.”

“Where did they go?”

“We’ve been after Nathan to clean that closet of his out for a
while. You make the perfect incentive, I guess.”

“They’re in his closet?”

Victor nodded, a gentle wave of his brown hair falling across his
forehead. “I’m sorry. It means more effort on your part. You can keep a handful
of things in the attic. The rest you can keep at his house. You can trade off
as you need and do your laundry at his house. If they happen to discover the
attic, there won’t be much there to take. It’ll limit the damage if they try.”
He hovered his face over mine. “But if they do try it again, we won’t hesitate
to make them stop and return everything. They got away with it this time. Next
time won’t be the same.”

I had to agree with this. I didn’t like the idea of a
confrontation. It could easily escalate with my parents, or with Danielle’s
parents perhaps. It might turn into something bigger that no one would want to
deal with. “I guess I could have went over and asked for my old things back.
Now that she probably realizes she can’t wear them to school. Maybe she wouldn’t
have made a big deal about it.”

Victor rolled his eyes. “Gabriel’s been dying to take you shopping
for weeks. I haven’t had a conversation with him since school started that
didn’t involve him asking about taking you out.”

I pressed a palm against my heated cheek. “Gabriel would have done
it anyway.”

“Gabriel likes having a new doll to play with,” he said, gently
squeezing my hand. “And you’re a lot more appreciative and patient with him
than we are.”

The start of a smile finally cracked on my mouth. “You’re
kidding.”

“When he goes shopping with me, I barely last through two rounds
of trying on clothes before I’m yelling at him.”

I giggled at the thought of Victor and Gabriel shopping together,
or from that thought, of Silas or North shopping with him. I couldn’t imagine
them accepting Gabriel’s demands.

“A couple more things,” he said, his fire eyes cooling to a
simmer. “I don’t know if you’ll like this part, though.”

“What?” Was there a catch? Of course. There had to be. Maybe I had
to work off the expense. Maybe it meant working hours at the diner or doing
favors for them at school.

He closed the closet door and slanted his head toward a vent in
the wall. “Look close.”

My eyes drifted to the vent. The grate was standard, painted
white. It didn’t need replacing. It still looked the same.

Victor stepped away from me, pointing. “Right here,” he said.

I followed him, squinting. Light reflected against a peculiar spot
behind the grate’s blades. My eyes adjusted enough to catch the hint of a lens.
“A camera?”

“Mr. Blackbourne’s orders,” he said. “I’m sorry. There was no
talking him out of it. It was the condition to let you stay.”

“You’ll be watching?” I asked, but I knew this answer. There was
no way the boys could stay here with me every night. The risk was too great to
get caught and unless we wanted to wait for that inevitable time, something
else had to be done.

I had assumed when my mother calmed down and didn’t dispense
punishments as often, they would realize that it wasn’t that bad. I thought we
were waiting for that moment and they would back off.

Instead, they were ten steps ahead of me, only thinking the
opposite direction. They were going to keep their promise to ensure that I
would never again end up tied to a chair or something worse.

“It’s not recording,” Victor said. “It’s not even on right now.
The cameras will only turn on if for some reason we can’t reach you on the cell
phone. There’s one in every major room and the hallways.”

“And the bathroom,” I realized, feeling the thread of a shiver
starting at the base of my spine.

Victor breathed a sigh. “Yes, but also not on right now. The
procedure is to text you if you’re not with us and we haven’t heard from you
within an hour or so. We’ll text three times within ten minutes. It gives you
an opportunity to reach us just in case you didn’t hear your phone the first
time. No text or call back, we start with your bedroom, and then all other
major rooms before checking something like the bathroom.”

I wasn’t sure I liked this new plan. They could look in on me at
any time. But would they? Did I trust them?

I swallowed back the fears. I had promised I would do what they
asked in order to remain here. Otherwise Mr. Blackbourne would remove me from
the house. They weren’t ready for that sort of thing, not without involving the
Academy. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I wasn’t sure I was willing to find
out just now. I wanted to know about the Academy, but I didn’t want to do it at
such a high risk. I had to trust them.

“What about at night?” I asked. “Am I supposed to check in every
hour?”

“No. You can sleep. Keep your phone with you.” He shifted on his
feet, putting weight from one foot to the other. “I can’t promise they won’t
check on you while you sleep.”

My fingers fluttered to the base of my throat. It was surreal, but
perhaps since they’d already slept in the room with me, some even in the same
bed, it didn’t feel intrusive. It felt almost lonely.

Did I prefer to have them with me?

“You’re not mad, are you?” Victor asked, stepping closer to my side.

I glanced over at him. “Mad?”

“I know it feels... invasive. I felt the same way when it happened
to me.”

His inflection struck me. “Is your house rigged up like this?”

“Yes. We all have cameras.”

My eyebrows flew up and my eyes widened. “And you get checked up
on?”

He shrugged. “Only if no one can reach me by my phone. It’s a
security precaution. We’re not put at risk due to our families so much now, so
we’re not required to check in. Your situation is a little unique to us.”

He didn’t have to say it. His tone inflected it for him. My
parents were a high risk. Theirs weren’t.

But how could I be mad about something they lived through already?
Maybe I had been wrong. If they all went through it, maybe the cameras would
have been something they would have eventually done. Maybe I was wrong about
not being a part of them because they didn’t include me in the morning workout
or a few of the other things they had to do. Maybe they were getting around to
it, working it in slowly as they thought to do so.

“I’m not mad,” I said as honestly as I could. “It’s... surprising.
But I understand. You can’t sleep here all the time.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” he said, his eyes sparking again. “But yes, we
can’t do that every night.”

I smiled at him, catching his intention but unsure how to respond.
I’d enjoyed it, too, even if it was crazy and extreme. I still wasn’t sure if I
fully processed the idea of them sleeping with me in the bed, and a few of them
had already done so.

“You can check the cameras, too,” he said. “Do you have your cell
phone?”