Forgiveness and Permission

  Kota shifted in front of me, twisting in his chair. I jumped, trying to tug my phone in my lap. He wouldn’t approve of texting in class.

  Kota snagged my phone before I could get it over the desk. He snapped back around quickly in his chair and my phone disappeared with him.

  I bit back a surprise noise in my throat. How’d he know?

  A motion at the corner of my peripheral vision caught my attention. I glanced over to find a smug Gabriel, half leaning over his desk. His eyes were intent on my phone tucked between Kota’s hands.

  Nosy! He must have tattled. There was little that I did that I could get away with when the boys were around. They seemed to notice everything.

  I flicked my eyes toward the teacher, who was bent over her desk and reading papers. I hoped she would start paying attention and would stop them from fooling around.

  Kota’s head bent down and from the angle I could tell he was checking my phone. That was good enough. It was Victor’s fault anyway for texting during class time.

  Kota’s head twisted around, a puzzled look catching behind his black-rimmed glasses.

  I raised an eyebrow at him, confused.

  A thunderous siren erupted from the overhead speakers. My palms instinctively covered my ears and I ducked slightly.

  “Fire alarm,” Ms. Johnson called. “Let’s go. Leave your things.”

  This command was ignored as the entire classroom slapped their books shut, grabbed book bags and made a beeline for the exit. Maybe it would have been a safer to simply run if there was a fire, but no one wanted to leave their book bags unattended. Not in this school.

  Kota was still twisted in his chair, looking back at me with my phone in his hands. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he shouted over the siren and the chatter of other students as they filed out of the classroom.

  “Tell you what?” I asked, though probably not loud enough for him to hear.

  “What’s going on?” Gabriel asked.

  I was picking up my book bag when Luke’s hand shot out. He collected my bag, stuffing it over his shoulder with his own. “This isn’t another one of those Friday Fall things, right? It isn’t Friday, is it?”

  Kota stuffed my phone into his pocket, pulling his things together. We were the last ones in the classroom. “Sang’s birthday is this week.”

  Gabriel’s eyes bounced open. “Holy shit. Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Luke paused halfway to the door. He turned to me. “What day?”

  A contorted sigh escaped my lips. “Guys! Fire alarm? We’re supposed to go outside.”

  “North is going to flip out,” Luke said. “I don’t think he knew.”

  I groaned.

  “Why didn’t anyone say anything?” Gabriel asked. “How am I supposed to ... god damn shit.” He kicked the door open as he stomped out of the classroom.

  I followed the others, trailing behind them as they started talking amongst themselves. The morning air had a heady chill, with a thick overcast. October in the South might have been warmer than what I would have gotten back in Illinois, but South Carolina couldn't escape winter weather forever. I tucked my arms into my stomach to reserve a little body heat in the cold shadows of the buildings.

  Streams of other students were heading out toward the parking lot. I followed along with the guys toward a strip of grass yard on the other side of the lot. It was strange to see the majority of the student population on this thin strip of land. Two thousand students huddled together, appearing relieved that class had been interrupted.

  “Stay here,” Kota said, dropping his book bag on the ground. He nodded to Gabriel. “Keep an eye on her.”

  A retort to his last comment teased my lips. I knew he meant well, but the way he said it made me feel like I was a toddler needing babysitting.

  Gabriel hooked an arm around my neck. “What day is it?” he asked.

  “Uh,” I said, looking out at the school. The alarm ceased but teachers marched along the gravel in the lot, directing students to stay on the grass. The students were eager to comply.

  The school didn’t show signs of smoke. Maybe it was a drill.

  Gabriel snapped his fingers near my face. “Trouble, I can’t get you anything for your birthday if you’re don’t tell me what day it is.”

  “It’s on the sixth,” I said absently, still keeping an eye on the teachers, expecting them to release us back toward the school at any moment if it was a drill.

  “The sixth? Holy fucking Christ.” He snapped his head around toward Luke. “Three days? Three fucking days?”

  “Don’t worry. There’s time. We can do it,” Luke said.

  Another siren started in the distance. The pitch was different, like a police car.

  A second siren joined it, but the screech was longer, deeper in tone. Fire trucks.

  It didn’t make any sense. Did they have to come out? There wasn’t any smoke. Maybe one of the other students pulled the alarm. Did they need to come out to make sure? And to possibly reset it?

  “I can’t do this in three days,” Gabriel was nearly shouting at Luke. “I should say two and a half days. And we’ve got school.”

  “Sang Baby,” a shout from a few feet away drew my attention. North approached alone, his hands spread out, his palms up. Locks of his dark hair slipped down over his forehead, almost hovering in the way of his intense, dark eyes. “What’s this I’m hearing about your birthday?”

  The fire trucks pulled into the school lot. A couple of cop cars joined them. They stopped short of the front doors.

  I answered North’s question by pointing to the commotion going on at the front of the school. “Are you watching this?”

  He waved his hand at the air toward the direction, dismissive. He closed the distance between us and looked at his brother and Gabriel. “When is it?”

  “Three days.” Gabriel held up three fingers. “On the sixth.”

  “Holy shit,” North said. He turned those intense eyes on me again. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Will you guys stop talking about that? Who cares? Is the school on fire?”

  North’s mouth dropped open. “What do you mean who cares? I told you to tell me important shit.”

  “North,” I bellowed at him. I jabbed my finger in the air toward the squadron of firemen and policemen collecting toward the entryway. “The school ...”

  “I’m not talking about the school right now.”

  “You said tell you important things! The school’s burning down or something.”

  “I meant telling me important things about you. Like when your birthday is.”

  I managed an eye roll that should have knocked me back on my butt at how much I meant it. “I can’t believe we’re talking about this right now.”

  North grunted. “Where’s Kota? Does he know about this?”

  Gabriel pointed in the direction. “He went that way looking for you guys. And yeah, he picked up her phone and found out.”

  “Luke, stay here with her. Gabe, come with me. Text Silas. Did anyone tell him?”

  My mouth hung open and my hands drifted up in disbelief as Gabriel and North stalked off after Kota, still talking.

  Luke laughed. He dropped down to the grass, sitting cross legged. He tugged at my hand. “Sit down with me.”

  I lowered myself carefully so I could sit on the grass without flashing too much since I was in a skirt. I kept my eyes on the commotion going on toward the school. It felt awkward as everyone around us was still standing. I felt closed in.

  Luke continued to tug at my hand. “I meant in my lap,” he said. “I shouldn’t let you sit in the grass.”

  “I got in trouble last time I sat in Kota’s lap at school.”

  “Oh yeah,” he said. He brushed a couple of blond locks away from his face, shoving them behind his ear. “It’s just a lot of other students do it. Okay, so what do you want for your birthday?”

  A collection of barks drew my attention. Policemen held on to
a team of German shepherds. My first thought was they were drug dogs. It didn’t make sense, though. Did they pull the fire alarm and get everyone out so they could comb the school for drugs? It seemed excessive. Not that I wouldn’t put it past Principal Hendricks. Maybe he found another way to kick bad kids out of his school.

  “Sang,” Luke tugged. “What do you want?”

  “Princess, why are you sitting on the ground?” Victor approached. The breeze picked up, tossing around his dark wavy hair. He removed his blazer, dropping it along with his book bag. He sat on top of his bag. He motioned to me with his fingers. “Come here.”

  “I just told Luke I’d get into trouble ...”

  “It was Mr. McCoy that gave you detention and he’s not here.” Victor curled his fingers at me again. “Get off the grass.”

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to sit in his lap, but I was worried about getting into trouble with another teacher or even Mr. Hendricks. He was probably right, though. I got up and let him tug me down again until I was parked in his lap sideways so I could face Luke.

  Luke inched closer on the grass so he could collect one of my sandal-clad feet and hold it in his lap. “We need to figure out what to get her for her birthday.”

  “Yeah,” Victor said. He stuffed his arms around my waist. His fire eyes sparked at me. “Why didn’t you text me back?”

  “You sent a text to me during class. Gabriel saw me checking and Kota took my phone. You started them on this crazy frenzy. You shouldn’t text during class unless it is an emergency.”

  “It was an emergency. I just realized it was October. I’m just glad we didn’t miss it.”

  “And now there’s fire trucks here. And you guys are more worried about my birthday, which I’d forgotten about, too.”

  Luke laughed. “Someone pulled the fire alarm. It’s no big deal.”

  “It was a big deal last time it happened,” I said. “And they don’t take dogs into the school if there is a fire, do they?”

  They blinked at me, twisting around to look over. Luke stood, putting a hand over his eyes to block the sun and gazed over toward the building. “She’s right. There’s a pack of dogs.”

  “We haven’t been called in.” Victor turned around again. His palm found my back, fingers tracing between a couple of ribs. “Our concern is student safety, not building safety. The students are out here. Mr. Blackbourne hasn’t sent word so it’s probably some standard school inspection. Maybe checking for drugs or something.”

  Luke’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not sure ...”

  With the way I was sitting, it was difficult to twist around and check. Part of me sensed Mr. McCoy just beyond where I could see. The boys assured me he wasn’t here, but I still couldn’t help wonder where he was. I sensed other eyes watching us. Most students were engrossed in their cell phones or talking, not really concerned with the school except to know it meant we’d be out of class longer. I scanned the group, trying to figure out why I felt so uncomfortable.

  “Hey,” North’s voice bellowed after us.

  Students cleared out of the way as North, Gabriel and Kota returned. They were tailed by Silas and Nathan.

  “Baby,” North said, ”Get out of his lap. You’ll end up with detention.”

  Victor squeezed his arms a little tighter around my hips. “McCoy’s not here. The other teachers don’t care.”

  “There might be one who does. We don’t want to end up staying after school today if we’re going to figure out what to do for her birthday. Besides, she’s supposed to be dating Silas.”

  “No one is paying attention,” Victor said.

  “Are we going to skip football practice on her birthday?” Silas asked.

  “Are we skipping school on her birthday?” Gabriel asked. “We should.”

  They continued their debate. I refocused on what was going on across the parking lot. Luke remained posted. I glanced back at him on occasion, questioning with my eyes if he was seeing something more than I was seeing.

  Nathan followed my gaze out toward the dogs and the police. There was something being set up by the policemen. They’d removed a box of equipment from the back of one of the police cars. Firemen were standing by.

  “Sang,” Victor squeezed me again. “You still haven’t told anyone—”

  “Kota,” Nathan said over him, his tone serious. He nodded toward the school. “What is this?”

  I crawled out of Victor’s lap to stand up between Nathan and Luke. I sensed Victor following, standing behind me. Everyone else turned toward the school.

  Oh so now they got interested when Nathan thought it was important.

  The police surrounded one man, who was putting on what looked like plastic body armor.

  I shot a look at Kota. “What’s going on?” I asked in a quiet voice. This wasn’t a fire alarm or a check for drugs.

  Kota frowned. “Hazardous waste cleanup perhaps? Maybe someone spilled something in the chemistry lab?” He fished his phone out of his pocket. Dr. Green was calling. He punched the button with his thumb to answer it. “Dr. Green? Are you inside still?”

  I glanced back over at the man in the thick suit. He marched slowly toward the school, a blue and white device in his hand that looked like a hand-held metal detector. He circled the fire trucks, heading toward the doors.

  Kota dropped the phone to his chest to hold it there. “Our team,” he said in a quiet tone, but the command rang through every syllable. “Get your stuff. Let’s go.”

  The boys moved at once. Silas and North, the ones closest to our book bags, collected them in their hands. Nathan tugged at my hand, moving behind Kota. We weaved our way through the throng of students, heading further down into the grass yard and toward the baseball field a good distance from the rest of the students.

  “Where are we going?” I asked in a quiet voice, suddenly scared.

  “Away from other students,” Kota said. “And the cars.”

  We traveled a good distance from the parking lot. We got some looks from other teachers but none seemed to care much that we’d split apart. We were still within eyesight and on school grounds.

  Kota halted a few feet from the baseball field’s benches. He eyed them suspiciously. “Everyone stay here,” he said.

  Kota moved forward alone, everyone else hanging back. The boys encircled me. I had to tiptoe to peek over Victor’s shoulder.

  Kota checked out the underside of the seats, inspecting every corner. When he seemed satisfied, he waved his hand at us to come sit. We collected on the seats. I slid in and Nathan sat on one side of me, and Victor took up position on my other side. Always protecting.

  “What is it, Kota?” Nathan asked. His blue eyes darkening.

  “This is the bomb squad,” he said. “There was a bomb threat made on the school by phone. There’s an unmarked box on the main floor.”

  “Why are we so far out here away from the others?” I asked.

  Kota tilted his head toward me. “We’re to keep out of reach of potential threats, which means possibly rigged vehicles or students. The caller wasn’t specific. The package is only a guess by a teacher. Until they get a clear idea on what it is, and the phone call, and possibly who made the call, they want us out of the way.”

  “What about the other students?” I asked. “What about Marie? And Derrick?”

  Kota frowned. “It’s most likely this is just a student pulling a prank or wanting to get out of class. This is just overkill precaution. We’re more of a target than they are. If we happen to be a target, we want to be out of range so no one else is hurt.”

  “But we were in the middle of class,” I said. “If they were wanting out of class, would they call a bomb threat while they were still inside class? It would have been obvious. And if they were outside of class trying to cut out their next class ... well if they’d already skipped class, why would they try to mess up the next one?”

  “Baby,” North said. He was sitting in front of me, but turned, droppi
ng a hand on my knee. “The police are here. We’ve got our orders. Stop worrying so much. This isn’t our job.”

  “She’s right, though,” Nathan said. He rubbed his palm over the top of his red brown hair. “It’s an odd time to suddenly call in a bomb threat.”

  “There’s nothing we can do right now and we don’t have enough information,” Kota said.

  I twisted around, studying the other kids. I wanted to see if I could pick out my sister. I thought I would feel better if I could actually see her. She wasn’t the most friendly person, but I didn’t want her to get hurt.

  Through the crowd, an all-too-familiar goatee on an angular chin distracted me. I sucked in a breath, holding it, staring after the person as if disbelieving.

  Greg was back. His beady eyes were a distance away, but he was looking out at us from the edge of the cluster of other students.

  “When did he get back?” Silas muttered under his breath.

  Everyone turned their attention to Greg. Greg jerked his chin in our direction, turned around and disappeared back into the crowd.

  I kept my eyes on the students. Greg. He hadn’t been in home room this morning. Did he switch classes?

  The last time I saw him, he was clutching his throat trying to breath.

  After I’d punched him.

  I turned on the bench, climbing up until I was sitting at the very top, and dangling my feet down over the edge. Now that I’d spotted him, I didn’t want to turn my back on him.

  The others joined me.

  The Academy

  Drop of Doubt

  Year One

  Book Five

  Written by C. L. Stone

  Coming January 2014

  ABOUT C. L. STONE

  Certification

  Marvelour of Wonder

  Active Participant of Scary Situations

  Official Member of F.A.M.E.

  Experience

  Spent an extraordinary number of years with absolutely no control over the capping of imagination, fun, and curiosity. Willingly takes part in impossible problems only to come up with the most ludicrous solution. Due to unfortunate circumstances, will no longer experience feeling on a small spot on my left calf.