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“We can’t hide this from them,” Dr. Green said.
“It doesn’t make sense for me to be a target. No one knows me. No one cares.” His lips parted like he wanted to say something but I removed my hand from my chest, holding it up in a stopping motion. “I mean there’s no one out there that hates me ...” I paused. I was still half thinking I was the old Sang Sorenson, the one who was invisible and no one knew her name. Greg’s angry eyes from that morning flashed into my brain. “Greg is back.”
“That student you beat up?”
I flashed him a tiny smirk at making it sound like I did it just because. “I saw him outside when the fire alarm went off. Could he have done it?”
“I can add him to the list of people to check out. It’s just a feeling, but I don’t think so. I don’t really know as much as I’d like. I’m waiting to get details.”
“The others know about Greg. They’re already talking about wiring him. But if we tell the others about that part of the bomb scare, they’ll be more overprotective than normal.”
Dr. Green’s eyes lit up a fraction. “I don’t believe I’d disapprove of that.”
My cheeks warmed. “Dr. Green ...”
His fingers rose slowly and drifted to catch a lock of my hair. He hooked it around my ear. It fell back across my cheek but he kept his fingers by my earlobe. “We won’t be able to hide what really happened, but I guess I could not let them know you’re a second possible target. They’ll be eager enough to get to work knowing Mr. Blackbourne is involved. I see where you find it illogical that this might have been meant for you, but I don’t want it dismissed. You need to be on guard, too. Mr. Blackbourne won’t approve of you being targeted.”
“What do we do?”
There was a rattling at the door, and it opened. Dr. Green quickly dropped his hand and stepped away from me. Mr. Blackbourne stopped short in the doorway. His gray eyes focused on my face. “Miss Sorenson.”
“Mr. Blackbourne,” I said in the usual greeting. “Are you okay?”
“Of course,” he said. He entered, shutting the door behind himself. He touched lightly at the knot of the red tie at his neck. “Why aren’t you in class?”
“Mr. Hendricks called me in.”
Mr. Blackbourne shifted his eyes to Dr. Green. “I think you better fill me in. Miss Sorenson, you might want to go back to class.”
“I don’t think I can.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” my eyes flickered to the clock on the wall to verify. “My current class is supposed to be with you.”
The corner of his mouth dipped and he nudged the bridge of his glasses with a forefinger. “I believe we’ll need to make a change to your schedule for now.”
“Is it because of the bomb threat? How can you be a target if the box was empty? Did you find out who made the call?”
“One thing at a time,” he said. “We’ll need to investigate further. Right now, you’ll have to forgive the interruption to your schedule.”
I thought I’d resolved that this year would be full of changes and interruptions. There hadn’t been a day since it started where I felt settled in. I shrugged casually. “Getting kind of used to it.”
Dr. Green cracked a smile. “Yeah, it’s been happening a lot with us lately.”
“You mean this isn’t normal for you all?” I asked.
Dr. Green chuckled. Mr. Blackbourne’s millimeter smile appeared, but only for a moment. “Starting tomorrow, I want you to begin reporting here for class. I think this is the safest spot for you during that time.”
I glanced at Dr. Green and back to Mr. Blackbourne. “Where will you be?”
“I’ll be where I’m expected to be. In the music room.”
“Without me? Why?”
His eyes settled on my face. “Because whoever is doing this may try it again, and I want to give him every opportunity to do so.”
“Then I should be there,” I said. “Whoever it is might know what you’re trying to do if I’m not showing up.”
He shook his head “Absolutely not. After right now, you and I need to stay as far away from each other as possible.”
I leaned against the desk again. “That might be difficult.”
“Why?”
Dr. Green stepped aside and slipped into his chair, sitting back. “Principal Hendricks wants her to find out where Mr. McCoy is, and he thinks she should do it by following you around.”
Mr. Blackbourne’s gray eyes started darting back and forth. I could almost hear the gears in his head piece together what this meant. “He wants to talk to him. He thinks we bullied him out somehow.”
“What should I do?” I asked. “How am I supposed to find him? If I don’t, Hendricks will know if I try to lie and pretend I’ve been looking for him.”
“Let me handle that,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Right now, I need you to stay away from me, and ignore Mr. Hendricks’s orders. I’ll feed Dr. Green information for you to tell him. This getting you involved is inexcusable. I’m in the middle of a police investigation with this bomb threat. If you follow me, you’ll get mixed in with the police and that can’t happen.”
“What if I can help?”
“This is one time where we’ll have to risk your grades and his threats. We can’t expose you.”
His tone implied something more serious. “What do you mean expose me? You mean to this kid who is leaving empty boxes?”
He flinched. I knew this reaction. I’d come to the wrong conclusion, but it was something he was still concerned about. “There is that.”
“But there’s something else,” I said. “Expose me to what?”
Dr. Green hooked a couple of fingers again into the collar of his shirt. “Well, we don’t really want yo
u involved with the police if we can help it.”
“Because of my parents?”
“And other reasons,” Dr. Green said. He focused on me. “Academy reasons.”
My lips parted and my tongue danced behind my teeth, ready to rattle questions off to him, but I stopped short. It was either an unspoken Academy rule, or something the Academy wanted from me, or would expect if I were to ever join. I had to back off. Trust them. “So I can’t be around if the police are going to be checking up with you.”
“And hello, it’s dangerous,” Dr. Green said. He swiveled in his chair, and poked a finger at my knee. “This isn’t exactly another Mr. Hendricks that we can follow around. This is some loon who can plant a box in a school and make everyone think it’s a bomb.”
“And he knows his stuff,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “When he called into the main office, he was able to rattle of a list of bomb making materials and how to piece one together to sound convincing.”
“Why would he leave the box empty though?” I asked.
They both drew serious faces, glancing at each other and zinging that silent communication between them. Neither spoke, but I understood. They didn’t know the answer yet.
And I thought life at Ashley Waters High School couldn’t get much worse.
WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER?
Since I was out of sync and without a phone, I zoomed to trailer number 32 for World History class. Victor was already there, sitting in North’s usual seat in the back row. His fingers clutched at the medallion hanging at his neck and his wavy brown hair was smoothed back, hanging just around his ears. Had he been growing it out a little longer?
“Where’s North?” I asked, plopping down in the seat in front of him.
Victor flicked his fire eyes on me, locking his lips. Secret. Academy.
I sighed. Already? Was it about the bomb?
He pulled a phone in a pink case from his pocket. “Did you forget this?”
“Yes,” I said, taking it from him. “I forgot to get it back from Kota.” I dropped it on top of my book bag. I didn’t want to slip it into my bra in the middle of class.
