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“Sang,” Victor said in a low breath. He curled his fingers, encouraging me to come to him.
I circled the bed, trying not to stare too much since he had his shirt off, and the top of his boxers were exposed now with his pants half undone. Had they gotten so comfortable with me that they could walk around half-naked?
Then again, they’d seen me in less, too.
Victor picked up my hand and then kissed the palm before holding it between his hands in front of his chest. “I know you’re supposed to be going with Silas, but I’m hoping we’ll find a chance to dance at this thing.”
“Are we supposed to?” This was something I hadn’t considered. We were to attend, but the thought of actually dancing didn’t seem to fit. “I thought we were going to...I don’t know. We need to watch out for Mr. Hendricks and—”
“If the Academy is watching, there’s no way a bomb threat, Volto or anyone will ruin the night. We’ve got it under control.”
I tried to feel relieved, but it was hard. The Academy might be trustworthy, but I was more worried for their safety and being exposed.
He released my hand and opened his arms up. “Come on,” he said, smiling. His fire eyes lit to an amused flicker.
I moved closer and he wrapped his arms around me. His fingers smoothed over my blouse. He started tracing my ribs through the material. The gesture was warm, and I fell into him, with my cheek pressed against his shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ve all been through worse. This won’t be so bad.”
“You’re not nervous?” I asked. “Aren’t you worried about Mr. Hendricks?”
“Worst case scenario,” he said quietly, “we leave the school and we fail our job. Will we try not to? Yes. We’ll work at it as long as we can. Will it kill us? No. If nothing else, we hand over whatever evidence we’ve got to the police, let them cook up an investigation. It isn’t the best option, but if we’ve done our best, that’s all we can do.”
“And you’ll go back to the Academy?” I asked.
“We’ll go back to normal. You might actually like normal.”
I couldn’t imagine what normal for the Academy might be like. I was excited that he was including me with the idea.
“So don’t worry so much,” he said. He massaged between my ribs a little more, and then did circles across my spine. It was small, at first, but then his fingers put more pressure, and it felt good. I closed my eyes.
He swayed a little bit, and I thought I heard him humming. It was soft and at first I didn’t recognize the tune.
His lips met with my skin quickly at my neck. “So maybe at homecoming, we can sneak in a dance...or two.”
“If we can get away with it,” I said.
“I’ll find a way,” he said softly.
“Everything okay?” Kota’s voice jolted me until my head was upright. He was at the door, now wearing a fresh pair of jeans, a green polo and a jacket. His hair was freshly combed. The green eyes behind the black-rimmed glasses were wide with curiosity.
Victor pulled his head back, but kept his arms around me, holding firm. “Nothing,” he said. “Just talking about the dance.”
“Let’s worry about the football game, for now,” he said. He stepped into the room, scanning the clothing. “Should we try ours on?”
“Seems like some might be mixed up in different piles,” Victor said as he released me. I backed up a few steps as Victor approached the bed and picked up one of the shirts. “You’re going to have to find the one that’s yours.”
“Odd,” he said. “I saw her write down names and sizes.”
“I think she’s got an assistant that might have mixed things up.”
Kota looked critically at the clothing, picking up a sleeve and smoothing his fingers over the material. He picked up the shirt that was with his tie and then put it up to his body. “This one seems okay.”
“Well, just try it on,” Victor said.
Luke shuffled into the room. His shirt sleeves had been rolled up. “Yeah, this one isn’t mine,” he said. “Remember that time we were like thirteen and we all decided to go for Halloween as superheroes and five of us showed up as Batman?”
Kota picked his head up quickly, and turned partially. “Did you switch our clothes around? Like how you swapped out Silas’s Batman costume for Gabriel’s and he ended up ripping a hole in it?”
Luke made a surprised face, but it was hard to read. “Would I do that?”
“Yes,” Victor and Kota said together in a loud, accusing reply.
I put a hand to my cheek. Was it really Luke that swapped things?
“I couldn’t take the credit,” Luke said, but then he winked.
“Ugh,” Victor said. He turned on the pile of clothes. “Just come help us figure out the right ones.”
The boys eventually sorted out their clothes. I tried on my dress last, and Gretta and Gabriel only spent a few moments going over the final details. I liked it. The sleeves hung around my shoulders. The corset was lower on my hips. I didn’t put on shoes or a mask this time, but Gabriel looked very excited, so I was, too.
Soon, though, I was in jeans and Gabriel’s jacket, and in the back of the black car Kota had borrowed from North. Nathan and Luke were with us. Gabriel and Victor were in Victor’s car.
The crowd at the school was one I’d never seen before for any of the football games I’d attended.
“Alumni sometimes come out for the game,” Kota said. “Let’s hope we’re able to get through this without too many issues.”
“I think everyone’s hoping something happens,” Luke said, his nose almost against the window as he looked through the crowd. He turned his head back. “I forgot to look. Was anyone following us?”
“I think it was Mr. Morris,” Kota said. “It looked like his car. He seemed to be the only one. Everyone else might be busy.”
“What happened to Mr. Morris and the pink cell phone?” I asked, suddenly remembering it.
“Nothing,” Luke said. He pulled back to look at me. “I mean, I pulled the phone, and replaced it with ‘your’ fake one, but his was busted. It wouldn’t even turn on. Victor’s been trying to fix it.”
“We thought maybe it was a student’s or someone lost it, but since it was broken, there wasn’t a way to find out who it belonged to,” Kota said. “There didn’t seem to be any data on it.”
“Oh,” I said. I looked out the front at the cars. It seemed odd of Mr. Morris to have a blank c
ell phone.
“Luckily that alarm went off when it did,” Luke said. “It actually gave me some cover.”
After we parked, we met up with the others. We stuck together this time. It didn’t seem to matter if we appeared together. The crowds around us were thick; mostly adults where we were. The parking lot was full, and some people were starting to park in the grassy areas.
We got to the gate, and Kota bought all our tickets.
We didn’t have a chance to say much with all the people around us. I didn’t know how their plan was going to work with so many people here. My throat thickened, and I was making fists against my thighs, trying to make myself as small as possible.
Nathan walked close to me. He found my hand, and covered my fist with his palm. “Hang in there, Peanut,” he said.
We made our way to the stands. Luke, Gabriel and Victor broke off, waving back at us. I wished we could have sat together, but we really needed to focus and I understood. I told myself it’d be over soon.
Kota, Nathan and I found seats near the top of the stands. The metal was cold and I huddled, hoping my body heat might warm it up a little so I wouldn’t freeze tonight.
Kota and Nathan were standing, scanning our end of the seating. I stood up, too, after I realized I probably should be keeping an eye on things.
I was still a bit short and there were people in front of us who were hard to see over. I held on to Kota’s arm to climb up on the seat and check.
Kota put an arm around my waist to hold me steady.
The seating was filling up fast, and it looked like the opposing side’s seating was just as bad. Maybe some from our school decided to sit over there since rows were filling in.
“Sang!” called a voice.
I scanned the area, but it was Kota who pointed out Karen. She was on her way up the steps, waving, with Derrick right behind her.
I looked down at Kota but he wasn’t looking at me. I wanted to see if it was okay if she and Derrick sat with us.
Kota and Nathan didn’t say anything to discourage it, so I waved back at her.
Karen weaved her way through the crowd, splitting through people and Derrick followed along behind her.
