Feral (19 page)

“Oh,
well, a girl in first period’s nose whistled for an entire hour.  And a boy two seats over has this OCD throat clearing thing, but he makes this humming sound that sounds like an Uzi machine gun.  The kid in front of me bites his nails.  Someone behind me likes to drum on their desk with their pencil eraser.  And Mr. Fisker farts a lot, but no one else seems to notice.  Or mind.  I’m not sure which is more disturbing.  Anyhow, it sounded like one of those bands that play music with trashcan lids and stuff.  Seriously, it was like.  Whistle snap eh hem pfft -bump de bump - whistle snap eh hem pfft - bump de bump - whistle snap eh hem pfft - bump de bump.  The pfft was the fart by the way.  The image of Fisker’s flabby buns clenching as he tried to muffle ‘em will be forever stuck in my mind.  I think I’m scarred for life.”

Bacchus and Caius broke into a raucous, gut-splitting fit of laughter.  Caius couldn’t sit upright and rolled to his side on the
floor, while Bacchus was more subdued with an affectionate punch on my arm.  Wryly, I thought, glad that I could entertain them with my mutating anatomy.

Naturally, their
mirth only aggravated Roz, whom decided the wonder twins should be repenting silently for their misbehavior, which forced her to leave her lily pad and chastise us with bellicose enthusiasm.  All along, we watched her chins waggle with accordant disgust.

In the end
, I made the wonder twin duo a trio because of my few, though highly objectionable, ‘belligerent’ arguments.  And that’s how Icarus found us when he arrived, lined up like three peas in a pod along the wall of the principal’s office on my first day of school.

“On your first day.”

“I didn’t do anything.  I’ve never been sent to the office in my life.”

“So you walked in on your own
volition and started trouble because you felt excluded?”

“No, I was bringing them lunch.”
  I pointed to the twins who were doing their best to appear contrite and failing miserably.  Honestly, they look frightened.

“
You mouthed off to the principal’s assistant.”

“Better the principal’s assistant than the assistant principal.”

“There you go again.  You realize that’s why you’re here?”

“I did
not
mouth off.  In fact, I’m the picture of innocence.”  Fluttering my eyelashes, I added.  “Do I look like a troublemaker?”

As luck would have it, i
n walked Michael Dougherty, raising his eyebrows as he passed by on his way to Roz’s desk.  Bacchus and Caius broke out in muffled laughter.  Icarus barely refrained from rolling his eyes.

The front of
Mike’s shirt read:

Who’s faster than a speeding bulle
t
?

And on the back:

Me, in be
d
.

“Trouble,” Icarus sighed
.  Dropping his head, he pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes.  When he looked up again, his focus flickered to Dougherty’s shirt and back to me.  “Is this your work too?"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Bacchus shake his head
, but despite his warning, I found my mouth forming the word ‘yes.’  I hadn’t done anything wrong.  I refused to cower as if I did.  Michael deserved much more than a trifle insult to his overinflated ego.

Much like the day he kicked me out of his home, Icarus iced over, his visage freezing in a mask of barely subdued rage.

“Mr. Quirinus?”  Turning, Icarus offered his hand to Principal Fleiss, setting my castigation on temporary reprieve.  The balding olive-skinned man shook his hand with a mien that spoke of arrogance and authority.  “Let’s meet in my office, shall we?  There we can discuss the twin’s misconduct this morning in class.”

With a glance at the twins,
they rose and followed him into the principal’s office.  Icarus spared only once glance over his shoulder, his gaze settling on Michael Dougherty in warning.

“What do you see in h
im?” said Mike, as soon as the office door closed.

“Shut up.”

“He’s a little old, don’t you think?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

“He’s a creep if you ask me.”

“I
didn’t
ask you.”

“
You deserve better is all.  Might not be me, but it’s certainly not someone like him.  Really, Thale, it’s weird.  He treated you like property the other day, pissing all over his territory with that kiss, and now he’s treating you like a child.  I don’t get it.”

I snorted over his
analogy of Icarus’s behavior, how close to the mark he came.  “You don’t need to get it.  What are you doing here anyway?”

Plucking a tuft of his shirt,
it sprang back taut to his chest.  “Miss Freeman didn’t think it was appropriate school attire.  But I could ask you the same question.”

“Minor violation.”

“I mean at Rock West.  What are you doing here?”

Ignoring him, I feigned interest in my cuticles.  We had never discussed that.  I wasn’t sure what to tell him.  It wasn’t his business anyhow.  But it would certainly douse the rumors
burning up the halls.  Mike was probably the most popular senior at Rock West, a few whispers to his close friends and word would spread through the school faster than the stomach flu.

Leaning forward, Mike rested his elbows on his knees.  In what I could only guess to be frustration with my
ill will, he dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you.
”

It was his tone that caught my attention. 
Abandoning my cuticles, I found his eyes fixed on me.  Repentant or not, a few small words would do little to erase the two years of acrimonious sludge that had defiled the walls of my self-conscience.

“May I use the restroom?” I asked,
abruptly standing.  Roz eyed me apathetically and nodded before returning to her menial paperwork.  And I escaped the attention of my double ex boyfriend.  Temporarily.  I had seven months of school to go.  If today was any indication of Mike’s determination, my senior year was really going to suck big time.

After procrastinating for an absurd amount of time in the bathroom, I returned to the principal’s office
with grudging strides.  Mike was gone, I noted with a great deal of relief.  Bacchus and Caius had returned to their seats, looking grim.  Icarus was nowhere in sight.

Roz’s head rose as I walked through the door, her wide, reptilian mouth pressed to a thin, indifferent line.
  “Mr. Fleiss is waiting for you,” she croaked, pointing her plump, liver-spotted finger toward his office.  Eyes following me, she stretched her head around until her gullet fanned out beneath her chin like a fat tom turkey, turning only when I closed the door behind me.

“
Have a seat, Miss Llorente,” said Principal Fleiss, standing as I entered the room.  He sat again once I took my seat, and lifted a manila folder from his blotter.  After studying the contents with the leisure of a sloth on sedatives, he stared from beneath the heavy ridge of his brow.  “You’re new here, Miss Llorente.  I hope today isn’t a presage of future occurrences.”

“No, Sir.”

“Your parents withdrew you from East due to reasons of a personal nature.”

Ignorant of how to
respond, I looked to Icarus for assistance.  The muscles in his jaw twitched.  “Thaleia’s withdraw from Rock East has no relevance on her behavior today.”

“
Mr. Quirinus, I am trying to prevent her past at East from affecting the future of the eighteen hundred other children that attend Rock West.  I have a responsibility to protect the students here.  Mind you, it’s her first day and she’s already in my office with not one, but two offenses.  I‘m sure you understand, it raises concerns.”

“
Thaleia has no prior history of trouble in school.  You have her records I provided upon registration Friday afternoon.  They’re clean.  Her grades and attendance are flawless.  Furthermore, she is not a suspect in the murder, Mr. Fleiss.  If you relate the investigation to her past again, I’ll have my lawyer contact you for slander.”

Red flags went up, listening to Icarus and Mr. Fleiss parry accusations.  Murder?  Investigation?  Was he referring to Marcus and Jack?
  My attention vacillated between the two men, willing one or the other to spill the answers.

“
There’s no need to exaggerate the situation,” Mr. Fleiss said, his tone altering with the threat of legal action.  “These were minor offenses that we would normally acknowledge with a written warning.”

“We’ll accept a warning for the initial offense, but I want the second
expunged from her record.  Thaleia is a student here; you’re equally responsible for her wellbeing.  If I find out that Mr. Dougherty is harassing her again, I’ll add neglect and endangerment to the list.”

Browbeaten, Mr. Fleiss sighed heavily. 
“Let’s call it a day, Mr. Quirinus.  Miss Llorente, we’ll write today off as frayed nerves due to your first day of attendance at Rock West.  I suggest you take the afternoon to reflect upon the respect one should have toward their superiors, and return tomorrow with a new attitude.  I’ll overlook the written warning on both accounts as long as I don’t see you in my office again for the next several weeks, if not the rest of the year.”

Any thoughts of Icarus’s anger toward me were dispelled as he placed his hand at the small of my back, guiding my pace through the administrator’s office.  The wonder twins, however, weren’t
as lucky, gaining the full force of his attention as we left the building.

“What murder
investigation?” I asked, unwilling to wait until his anger diffused.  “Is he talking about Jack?  Is Marcus being investigated?  Have they found him?  Have you talked to the police?  Am I in trouble?”

“Yes, I’ve talked to the police.  No, they haven’t found Marcus.  Right now,
they only want him for questioning, seeing that a neighbor placed his truck at the scene the morning of Jack’s death.  And they haven’t officially labeled it as murder, since it was an animal attack.  Everything up until now is speculation.  That’s why the police are investigating, so they can determine whether they’re hunting for a witness or an assailant with a dog.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I confirmed your alibi.  You arrived at the party with Marcus, and left separately after the incident with Peyton.  You spent the weekend at my house with Hailey and the boys, until you left Sunday afternoon.”

“Why didn’t you tell me
about any of this?”

“You have enough to worry about.  You d
idn’t need the added stress.”  Another gentle touch of reassurance, a slight brush of my waist piqued my curiosity.  There was more that he wasn’t telling me.  “Wait in the car, Thaleia.  I need to talk to Bacchus and Caius.”

I frowned, but did as requested. 
He was only trying to protect me from things I had no control over to begin with.  He was right; I had enough to worry about already.  No doubt, I would’ve worried.  I had been in Jack’s house that very morning.  How many things had I touched?  What kind of evidence had I left behind?  Fingerprints?  DNA?  I’d showered there…

Behind me, I could hear the lecture commence.  “What
the hell were the two of you thinking?  Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused?”

“Ah, Icarus
…?”

“Shut up, Caius, not a freakin’ word!  I
was this close, damn it, this goddamn close to catching that rogue!  And what happens?  My phone rings!  He probably heard it from where he was standing!  Well, I hope you’re proud of yourselves, because we’re done.  We’ve lost the element of surprise.  He knows we’re on the offense.  If we’re lucky, he hasn’t gone to New York to get help from his employer!”

“But, Icarus…”

“I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I am.  I gave you the simple task of keeping an eye on her while you’re in school.  The building’s on lockdown for Christ sake!  How much simpler could it get?  Yet somehow, you managed to botch it up!  By fighting!  And you got four days suspension to boot!  Now instead of helping me hunt this guy down, Lucius and Max will be guarding the school, while you two idiots are sitting at home!”

“We—”  One look
from Icarus cut Bacchus off.  His mouth snapped shut to a grim line.

“
No!  No, you can’t help me!  I can’t count on you to keep this Dougherty idiot away from her, why should I think you could quit fuckin’ around long enough to catch this rogue without getting yourselves killed?”

Expended of his irate tirade, Icarus quit pacing long enough to face the twins. 
Aside from angry, he looked a bit tired. Dark circles rimmed his pale blue eyes.  Stress shadowed his features with sharp lines across his brows and the grim line of his mouth.

“What do you have to say for yourselves?”

Bacchus cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably.  “Thale’s got her ears on.”

And I heard every word Icarus said.