First Kiss: The Ghost Bird Series: #10 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series) (51 page)

I crossed my legs, fighting the urge to fidget.

Mr. Duncan’s large stomach protruded even more as he leaned forward. “Good morning,” he said in a friendly voice.

I bowed my head toward him. “Good morning,” I said softly. I couldn’t help but remember what had happened the night before, causing my cheeks to feel like they were roasting. A light sweat started at my brow, even while the room was a little chilly. I was sure they all knew what I’d confessed to, even if they hadn’t been there to witness it for themselves.

What a bumbling idiot I’d made of myself.

Mr. Duncan’s eyes were very friendly, as were Mrs. Rose’s, and Dr. Roberts’s.

Only Mr. Buble looked dour. He had a polite-enough smile on his face, but otherwise, he was unreadable. He had his hands in his lap, legs crossed.

Mr. Duncan spoke after a long pause. “Normally, we’d start with talking about your week here and how you thought it went, but I understand your circumstances are…unique. I hope the girls you’ve been staying with haven’t done you any harm.”

I shook my head quickly, and without anyone there to talk for me, I needed to explain. “Please,” I began. “Carla and Lake and the other girls are wonderful people. They did nothing wrong. No one did.”

“We understand,” Mr. Duncan said. “I just wanted to be clear and make sure.”

“I want to assure you, this doesn’t change things,” Dr. Roberts said. He smiled softly. “We hope the experience hasn’t scared you from us.”

“No, I…” I paused suddenly, the air changing around me.

Sweet spice scent found me. It was faint, but it was there. Distracted, I turned my head, but the door was still closed. Was one of the others wearing a similar scent?

“What is it?” Mr. Duncan said. “Is something wrong?”

I shook my head, but couldn’t say anything. My hope was suddenly dashed and my heart sunk, realizing I must have been delusional. “I thought...someone...”

“Don’t worry,” Dr. Roberts said. “No one will intrude if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I sighed. “No,” I said and looked at the ground. “I just thought Kota Lee was here.”

“He’s not hiding in here,” Dr. Roberts said with a smile. “If that’s what you’re saying.”

I was about to say of course he wasn’t when the door behind us opened. I turned again.

Kota stood in the doorway, holding the handle, leaning in. His eyes were dark, the shadows underneath them worse now.

I couldn’t judge his mood, but he didn’t look at me. My heart wanted to thunder in my chest and yet explode at the same time. I pressed palms to my lap to stop shaking. He was here.

Would he tell them what happened?

“I’m sorry to intrude,” he said. “But...I wasn’t sure if I was running late, and then I was about to knock when I heard my name.”

Mr. Duncan’s jaw dropped open, as did Dr. Roberts’s. Mrs. Rose had her hand over her mouth.

Mr. Buble raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me she’s psychic now, too.”

Kota’s eyebrows shifted together and then he gave me a puzzled look before he looked back at them. “I don’t understand.”

“She knew you were here,” Dr. Roberts said. He smiled at me, a bright twinkling in eyes. He slapped his palm against his knee. “Tell us how you did it.”

“I...” I stammered out. My mind went blank. 

“She can smell us,” Kota said quietly, still holding the door open. I looked at him and this time, he was looking at me, a small smile lighting up his face. “You could put her in the dark and she could tell if one of us is around just by scent.”

I swallowed, nodding, afraid to say anything, scared I’d burst into tears just because he was there.

I still didn’t dare hope, but I was yearning to tell him everything inside my heart in that instant. He was stunning to me, with those green eyes, the way his hair was combed neatly. He was so strong, so smart. He had to know I cared about him and I would never hurt him on purpose.

Had the guys managed to find him? Did he know everything now?

The council stayed quiet and I’d almost forgotten about them until Dr. Roberts started to laugh. “Oh my god,” he said. “This girl...I’m telling you.”

“She could smell you from the other side of the door,” Mr. Duncan said. He waved Kota in. “Come on, you might as well join us.”

Kota stepped inside, closing the door behind himself. He came around the circle and sat on one of the beds nearby, looking from me to the council. “Don’t let me interrupt anymore.”

“Well we can’t pretend we’re not interested in getting her involved in our Academy right away,” Mr. Duncan said, his eyes on me. “You’ve shown so much potential this week.”

Mrs. Rose signed. “You became a great leader to the girls, despite your feelings. You never let on to the others, either.” She smiled. She pulled out a notepad and pen she had in her pocket. “I hope you understand, I did have to say something to the girls. Remember, we have to trust people with our feelings, right?”

I nodded. They knew.

I lowered my eyes. I’d hoped they’d never tell the other girls, and now I was afraid they thought I was weird or that I thought something was wrong with them. What else could she say?

“They told me they were worried something was wrong last night,” Mrs. Rose signed. “Carla said something was wrong. I think they might have known. Please don’t worry. They all have similar stories.”

“Don’t look so sad,” Mr. Duncan said. “We had to tell them why you were missing, and the truth is normally the best way, especially among the Academy family.”

“You did a great job bringing those younger girls back around,” Dr. Roberts said. “They aren’t members yet. They still have a lot to learn, but they’re young and they’ve got time. And now they’ve got each other to talk to about the Academy when they go home.”

“And the good news is,” Mr. Duncan cut in, “Carla and Lake told us this morning that they’ve decided to become a team. They aren’t sure if they’ll stay together forever, but they asked if having a starter team was good enough.” He chuckled. “And of course, it is. Those two have a fine future together. A little yin and yang never hurt anyone.”

I was relieved that the others had gotten what they needed. I lifted my head up but still kept my eyes down.

“Anyway, on to you,” Dr. Roberts said. He ducked, leaning forward to catch my gaze, and I picked up my eyes. He straightened when I was looking at him. “Don’t be shy. This part is painless.”

“The question is,” Mr. Duncan said with a smile, “what do we do with you, knowing what we know now? Normally, we’d ask you to try out different teams. You can always pick your team, of course, but we like to put you with a group that would fit with your special talents. We would have asked you to join with Carla and Lake since you seemed to get on very well.”

It was on my tongue to ask to stay on Kota’s team, but with him right there, and not being aware of his feelings, or what, if anything, he’d been told, I thought it best to stay quiet for now.

At this point, my fate rested in him. He had the right to tell me I wasn’t Academy-worthy, or that he didn’t want me on their team and to suggest another one.

Kota coughed, shocking me out of my thoughts as to what I could say. I couldn’t help but lift my eyes and look at him, but his focus was only on the other members.

“If you don’t mind me speaking,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to speak for her, but I’ve got an option if she’d like to hear it.”

“Of course,” Dr. Roberts said, a small smile on his face. “We’re here to discuss all options.”

This was it. He was going to tell me to join Carla and Lake.

“The truth is, with all of her talents, we’ve been lucky she’s been working with us on our current assignment,” he said. “She’s almost the center of our operation. We’re also still working out her family situation, which is a little more complicated than we’d realized.”

Hope started to rise through me. Was he really saying…

“I’ve been following this,” Dr. Roberts said, addressing the rest of the council. “Miss Sorenson’s much more valuable than she appears.” He looked to Kota. “Do you mind if I tell them?”

Kota hesitated and then looked at me. “She doesn’t even know all the details.”

What was he saying? What else could there be to know? Was it my real mother? Did they find out details?

“Oh,” Dr. Roberts said and then smiled. “Well then, this is sort of a shock. Brace yourself.”

Dr. Roberts looked at me and smiled before he turned to the others. “Our Miss Sorenson here is rather an unusual case. The truth is, according to the government, she doesn’t even exist.”

I didn’t know what he meant and maybe the others didn’t, either, as there was a long silence. 

“What are you saying?” Mr. Duncan asked.

“I’m saying, she has a false birth certificate on file: a copy made from her half-sister’s. The only record of her is from her schools, and every time her file is cross-referenced in databases, it conveniently came up as an error, as her Social Security Number belongs to someone else.”

“Which means the only record of her existence,” Kota continued for him, “is in the direct school files, and we’ve deleted all but those at her current school.” He turned his gaze to me. “She’s never had a school photo. She’s not in any school albums.”

“She’s a blank slate,” Mr. Duncan said, sitting back in his chair.

“She’s a ghost,” Mr. Buble said, startling me as it was the first time he’d spoken.

I looked at him now. His eyes were steady on mine. His stare made me tremble on the inside, thinking of what he must be seeing: my dirty hair, my casual clothes. Every scar, every freckle, seemed under his scrutiny.

He leaned forward a little, his stare unwavering. “Do you know what that means, Sang Sorenson?”

I shook my head, afraid to say anything.

“It means, that if we’re careful, you’re one of our most valuable assets.”

I still didn’t know what that meant but it began to dawn on me that, I could be killed and no one would know to look for me because I didn’t exist.

Did my father know this was the case? He had to have known about my birth certificate at least. Did he realize the full meaning? What about my stepmother? Would they have even cared to report me if I went missing or even had been killed?

I was nothing.

“She’s not in yet,” Mr. Duncan said with a small laugh. “Although we’d be idiots not to let bring in now.”

“She’s willing,” Kota said. “And because of her situation, I don’t think it’d be appropriate to take her out of school just yet. A wrong move there and the principal or someone who works for him might call the police on her. We’ve avoided that so far, but she’s gotten close to needing the police.”

“That sounds terrible,” Mr. Duncan said. He sat back. “I know you’ve been having issues with your assignment at that school. Is it even safe for her?”

“It might be worse if we pull her out,” Kota said. “I wish I could say it would be better, but we’re doing our best to resolve the situation without causing more risk to her, despite her ghost status.”

“You’ll have to be more careful,” Dr. Roberts said. “There’ve been instances where she’s been photographed.”

“Those might not matter,” Kota said. “Since she has no official ID and nothing in any records, the best police could do with those pictures is ask individuals who she is. If we can get her out of school, and delete those records, if we handle this right, she’ll be just a distant memory to them later. We’ll have moved her out. Only her sister and the rest of her family could compromise this now.”

“How do you propose to keep them from speaking out?” Dr. Roberts asked.

Kota smiled a little. “We’re working on that, too,” he said. He shifted his gaze to me. “But we need her help to do it, if it’ll work at all.”

Silence filled the room as the council members looked at each other.

Mrs. Rose was the first to move, tapping the floor with her foot to get our attention and then signing quickly. “It sounds like you’re not finished with your adopted family yet,” she said.

It took me a moment, but then I realized she meant Kota. It struck me as funny as I hadn’t realized until just then that Kota and the others must have ‘adopted’ me into their family, according to Academy rules.

I nodded.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Dr. Roberts said. “They need her. She needs them. With her past being so complicated, there’s no resolution if she even tried another team at this point. They’d be at a severe disadvantage.”

“Not to mention her preferences,” Mr. Duncan said. “We’d have to find someone she was comfortable with, a boy perhaps. However, one couldn’t do it alone, and we’d be back to a team of guys trying to sort her out. Is that even something we could do?” He looked right at me. “I’m sorry, we keep talking around you. Please understand. We’re trying to offer you all the options.”

I nodded, suddenly my heart soaring. I only saw one answer now. “I can stay with my team,” I said softly. I looked at Kota, who nodded encouragingly. I continued. “I’m already familiar with them. I think they’re comfortable with me.”

“It doesn’t have to be forever,” Mr. Duncan said. “You know that, right?”

I nodded. Did he think they were a burden? “I understand.”

“They could be her starter team,” Dr. Roberts said. “I can keep an eye on them, though, if you’d like.”

“We’ll have to sort some details,” Mr. Duncan said.

“We will want updates,” Mr. Buble said. His intense gaze hadn’t lessened a bit. “However, given the circumstances, if we want her in the Academy with her ghost status preserved, she might be stuck with that team for some time.”

“She could get out of such a situation much sooner if it’s very bad,” Mr. Duncan said. “If she doesn’t have a birth certificate, and we’re forced to, we could make one up for her and change the birth date. We could make her eighteen right now. There’s no proof other than her parents’ word.”

“There might be other relatives out there,” Kota said. “She might have extended family. We won’t know until we do more research and if they exist, we’ll need to locate them and talk to them to find out what they know.”

Dr. Roberts sighed and then stood. “Then it seems like we’re the ones that need to ask her.”