Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(31)

Mr. Blackbourne put a gentle hand to my lower back in a warming touch. “You did beautifully, as always.”

“I didn’t know it’d be a parade,” I said. I knew the uniform had a purpose, that it would draw attention. I wasn’t expecting to walk all over the place to get here. It was actually good. It got this out of the way the moment we arrived.

“It was just good timing,” he said. “I caught Mr. Hendricks driving in as we entered. A little serendipitous.” He crossed to the wooden upright piano on the other side. He took off the messenger bag and placed it on top before turning around.

“What about taking the long way to get here?” I asked.

“That was me making my presence known to other teachers. And who I really worked for.”

“A school that doesn’t really exist?”

He nodded shortly. “I represent something of a higher standard. I’ve no qualms or loyalty to anyone here, including Hendricks. This is important to establish. It also helps to know students can be chosen to enroll at any time.”

This idea had changed from when they first started going to the school. At first, they’d blended in, or tried. Mr. Hendricks continued to keep us identified as ‘other people’ regardless of the effort they made. So the strategy has changed. No more hiding.

I had remained by the door, gazing into the room. The room seemed different to me. It was familiar, yet it didn’t intimidate me like it had in the past. “So what do we do now?”

He unbuttoned the front of his gray jacket, shaking it off his shoulders to place on top of his bag. “We’ll wait for the others. They’ll need to question several students and teachers before they get here. Also, I believe Mr. Lee was going to determine if someone was following you yesterday by checking the cars in the parking lot.”

“That could have been anyone,” I said.

“It could have been, including someone from Mr. Hendricks. Or this Volto character. At this point, we need to prove coincidence, not assume it.”

That was true.

Mr. Blackbourne took to putting a few of the chairs down from their stacks. I helped to push them a little closer to the chalkboard.

But before long, Kota arrived, followed by Nathan. They both wore similar uniforms, with Nathan carrying his jacket under his arm and without a tie. Kota wore the whole ensemble together, with a tie tucked into his closed jacket.

I brightened seeing them, especially walking in together. Nathan looked tired, with dark shadows under his eyes, but he perked up when he saw me. He shortly waved to me while waiting on Kota to get through the door, and hurried to me to give me a quick, deep hug.

“Did he tell you about your sister?” Nathan said in my ear. I sensed him dropping the jacket on the floor behind me to complete the hug.

“Yes,” I said. I held his hug for a long moment before I stepped back a half step. “I’m still kind of processing.”

He held at me a moment longer, looking at the outfit and grinning. “Hey, we match. About time you wore that.” He broke off the hug to pull back and then looked up at Mr. Blackbourne. “They didn’t do anything else last night, but they didn’t want to come into school today, even though I said they should. Marie’s scared shitless of this place now.”

“Probably more fear of embarrassment than actual fear,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Her getting called in repeatedly gets her teased in class. But also, I imagine she’s tired of Mr. Hendricks’s threats, and I don’t blame her. However, she’s got to know by now it’s meritless. We’ve told her as much. He never gives her any punishments. And he asks the same questions.” He sighed and then looked at me. “What do you think? Should we give you sister and her friend what they want?”

“I’m not sure about Danielle,” I said. “Only with Marie...her being miserable for the rest of the school year and possibly next if she comes back would be tough. I know she’s only a junior, but I wasn’t sure she’d return after summer anyway.”

“Mr. Hendricks won’t be here then,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “But I’m not sure the environment will be much better after he’s gone.”

“It’ll take a while for the attitude with students and teachers to change,” Kota said. “Everyone’s tense. Faculty is suspicious of each other.”

“Marie’s not exactly an honor roll student anyway,” Nathan said. He looked at me. “And she wasn’t before. Right?”

“No,” I said. “Never, really. She did enough to get by.”

“She may not know her talents yet,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “But she won’t find it here. Legally, she could drop out. She’s seventeen, and in South Carolina, that’s the age it could be done. But let’s not tell her this. Maybe she doesn’t know. Let’s pretend dropping out isn’t an option yet. I’d rather her think she needs another alternative. I don’t think taking her out of school to wither away at home to be a good thing.”

“She probably needs to talk to someone,” I said. “Maybe Lily...I didn’t have much hope for the future before I met you guys. I was just trying to survive. She doesn’t really have a plan for herself. Not that I know of.”

The others nodded simultaneously.

Kota seemed to finally see the uniform I was wearing and then blinked a few times. “I didn’t think you’d be wearing that yet.”