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I still couldn’t decide what I thought. It wasn’t that I thought Adena was incapable of something so dangerous and evil—but if she really had been the one to fuck with my brakes, mocking me for the accident was so bold it was almost stupid. I would’ve assumed she’d pretend she knew nothing about it, that she hadn’t heard about it and didn’t know how I’d broken my leg. Gleefully taunting me about it seemed like an easy way to draw a connection between her and my accident—to draw suspicion.
Was Oak Park’s head bitch really that dumb?
Or did she just consider herself that untouchable?
The second thought made my stomach tighten nervously, but I pushed it away.
“There is one thing,” Elijah added as we reached my locker. He leaned against the next locker over as I spun the knob on the lock, the other three boys gathering close around us. “It turns out her family started a company around the same time our parents did. The one that failed—Element Investments. The Davenports’ company is still around though.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I dunno much else about it yet. And it could be nothing. Just a coincidence. But it could be something—maybe give us something to use against her. I’ll do more digging.”
“Good.” Mason still looked like he wanted to punch another hole in a wall, but he nodded approvingly.
We’d arrived at Craydon Hall early, but our encounter with Adena and my slow pace had held us up, and we didn’t have long before first period started. Cole swapped my books out for me before handing my bag to Mason, and the green-eyed boy lifted his chin, gesturing down the hall.
“Ready, Princess?”
“Uh, yeah.”
We split off from the other three, and I walked slowly alongside Mason, hoping he wouldn’t be late for his first class just because he’d insisted on walking me to mine. I could’ve carried my own backpack.
But when we reached my Earth Sciences classroom, he surprised me by following me through the door and taking a seat beside me. When I was settled at my desk, he stowed my crutches under his chair. I cast him a curious glance, but he just looked blandly back at me before tugging a textbook out of his own backpack.
What?
He hadn’t been in this class last semester.
I leaned over as the teacher, Mrs. Rades, entered the room. “Hey. Did you transfer in?”
His glittering emerald eyes warmed for a moment, and a ghost of a smile crossed his face. “Yes. I love the earth. And science.”
Mrs. Rades didn’t believe in a slow ramp-up at the beginning of the semester, so she dove right in exactly where we’d left off in December, already promising us our first quiz on Friday. I took notes diligently but kept glancing over at Mason as the hour crept by, finding my gaze inexorably drawn to his face. He leaned back in his desk chair, watching Mrs. Rades lecture with a sort of semi-interested detachment, and even though I knew he must feel me staring at him, he kept his attention focused forward.
After class, he grabbed my bag and gave me back my crutches, clearing the way to the door with his indomitable presence.
He walked me toward my next class, which was on the second floor of Hammond Hall. But before we reached the exit door at the west side of Craydon, Elijah caught up to us. He jerked his chin in a nod to Mason, who handed over my backpack as smoothly as if the two of them were in a relay. Before I could say anything, Mason turned around and headed back down the hall.
“Come on.” Elijah’s full lips spread in a smile, and for a brief second, all I could think about was they had felt like pressed against mine—the tiny fires they had sparked all over my body. “We don’t want to be late.”
I narrowed my eyes as he led me out of the building. “Let me guess. You’re taking second period Trigonometry now?”
“Yup.”
He was in my third period class too, and after lunch, Finn walked me to our American Literature class. As we trudged acros
s campus, I prodded him a little more for details about exactly what made it hard to read, hard to process words, and he scrunched his face up and cast his gaze to the clouds as he tried to describe it to me.
He seemed a little more willing to discuss this when it was just the two of us, which didn’t surprise me all that much. The Princes were like brothers—closer than brothers in some ways—but Finn was still a guy, and I got the feeling talking about this hurt his ego.
But it wasn’t his fault. And it wasn’t like he was stupid.
After gathering a little more info from him, I let it drop again. I’d do some research on what he’d told me and see if there were any ways I could help him. His dad might consider all of this “made up hippie bullshit”, but maybe the hippies had found some better solutions than just ignoring the problem.
I sat next to him in class, and now that I knew what to look for, I noticed the expression on his face as Mr. Jacobs wrote on the whiteboard. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and I saw the moment he gave up trying. His shoulders relaxed, and he leaned back in his seat, spreading his legs and crossing his arms over his chest as he settled in to listen to the teacher lecture.
Okay. So maybe part of the problem was just a mental block, a certainty that he wouldn’t be able to understand anyway, so there was no point in trying.
That, at least, I could probably help him with.
In gym, I sat on the bleachers in my uniform, scrolling on my phone as a bunch of students played volleyball. I hadn’t even bothered to dress out for this class, since Doctor Garrett had expressly forbidden me from putting weight on my right leg for six weeks.
