The Academie (22 page)

“
Earth Science.” He smiled
and shook his head.

“
It’s nice to meet you,”
Ruby said. Her eyes darted from mine to his and she began to grin.
“Would you like to join us?” she asked. There was no doubt what she
was thinking. I had told Ruby all about Bryan, and I had gotten the
distinct impression she believed he was someone I needed to forget
because three years was too long to be separated for anything to
continue.

Stevie and Tina scooted over, making
room for Cayden to sit next to me.

I felt unsure as he sat down. If I
befriended him without the intention of dating, was I leading him
on?

“
So, Cayden, what’s your
area of study?” Robert asked.

“
I’m undecided, actually.”
It was clear that he was embarrassed by his answer.

“
I’m undecided too,” I
said, hoping to ease his discomfort. “Well, I think I’ve had about
every major imaginable now, but I can’t figure out which to go
with. I mean, I like a lot of things—except biology—but how am I
supposed to choose what I am going to do for the rest of my
life?”

He smiled as he listened. Apparently,
I was saying the right things. I’m not sure if this was helping me
in my plot to become friends and nothing more.

“
Ruby knows what she wants
to do,” I said, gesturing to her across the table.

“
That’s not entirely
true,” she defended.

“
Oh come on, you know a
heck of a lot more than I do!”

“
But I still don’t really
know.”

“
She’s studying biology,”
I said for her, looking at Cayden.

“
But I don’t know what
field,” she said. “And these days, you need to know.”

“
Fine. But at least you
have somewhat of a plan. I’m still floating out there in the great
oblivion trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing.”

“
You’ll figure it out soon
enough,” she said. She was such a mom.

“
At least here you don’t
have to waste money trying to figure it out,” Stevie said. Leave it
to Stevie to find a bright side to things.

As the weeks went by, Cayden moved his
seat over to sit by me in class, and he joined us regularly for
meals. He was a welcome addition to our group, though I think
Robert missed being the only guy surrounded by women. I still
wondered if I might be leading Cayden on, but Ruby insisted I
shouldn’t worry about it, and Cayden really hadn’t pushed the
issue, so I tried to not to think about it.

At last the sun began to shine again,
and the snow and the sadness that had covered my world all winter
long finally melted away.

32.
visitation

It was mid-March when I was
unexpectedly pulled from Biology class.

“
You have a visitor,” an
unknown Sergeant said as he walked me down the hall. He was tall,
dark-haired, middle-aged, and no-nonsense. He looked straight ahead
as he walked, as if he were trying to forget I was
there.

“
A visitor?
Who?”

“
Your parents.” His voice
was deep and gruff. Each word sent chills up my spine.

“
Really? How? I thought
all visits were supposed to be scheduled in advance.”

“
They are.”

“
So how are they able to
visit?”

“
It was scheduled.” He
persisted in not looking at me, and I found this and his short
answers aggravating.

“
When
was it scheduled?”

“
Weeks ago.”

“
What?
Why wasn’t I notified?”

“
Why should you be?” He
walked briskly, and I had to jog a few steps to keep up.

“
Well, it’d have been nice
to know!”

“
It is not our policy to
notify students before a visit.”

Despite the fact that it’d been almost
seven months since I saw them last, I wasn’t actually sure I wanted
to see my parents after the way they dumped me off here. I never
really considered the idea that they might visit, but I’d spent
many sleepless nights planning out all the horrible things I’d say
to them when I graduated.

But I did want to see Andy. I thought
about him often. He’d probably grown inches already. Just before I
left, I noticed how his arms seemed to be too long for his body
again—as if his legs and torso were preparing to shoot up another
few inches. I’d seen him go through many growth spurts and was
dreading the one that would take him over my height, as Matt did
recently. At that point, the relationship changes forever.
Hopefully, Andy and mine will change in better ways than Matt and
mine...

“
Do you know if my little
brother is here?”

“
Not that I am
aware.”

I pouted as I followed Sergeant
Serious around the corner just in time to see him enter the medical
ward.

“
What are we doing
here?”

“
Routine exam.”

“
What? Why? Where are my
parents?”

“
You’ve been living in a
confined environment for some time now Miss. We don’t want to
infect anyone on the outside with anything that may be brewing in
here, and we don’t want you bringing in outside germs or illnesses
either.”

“
But I haven’t been sick
since I entered this place. Not a cough or a sniffle.”

“
Doesn’t matter. It’s
procedure.”

“
Right.” I swore the
medical establishment looked for any excuse to poke or prod
me.

I saw a man in a white coat and dark
pants enter the room along with a woman in teddy bear print
scrubs.

“
Miss Thompson, come in,”
the doctor said, ushering me into the little, white room. He was
short with stubby gray hair skirting his head, drawing attention to
the top that was completely bare. “I’m Dr. Mike.”
Great, a doctor that thinks that calling him by
his first name will somehow make me more
comfortable
. He looked up over his
glasses. “Miss Thompson has a visit today,” he said to the nurse
who was busy restocking a cabinet.

“
Oh good,” she said. The
private looks they exchanged made my skin recoil.

“
It’s nothing, dear,” he
said, looking at me. “Just a few routine procedures. You’ll be
visiting your parents before you know it.”

I didn’t feel comforted.

“
Hop up here, please,” the
nurse said, directing me to the examining table. I
hesitated.
What if I didn’t?
I still wasn’t even sure that I wanted the visit.
I considered backing out of the room. I was still close enough to
the door that I could simply say ‘no thank you’ and make a run for
it.

Reluctantly, I climbed onto the table.
The doctor pulled the standard tools from his pocket and began
examining my eyes, ears, and throat. “Looks good,” he said, still a
little too close to my face. “How do you feel?”

“
Fine, I
guess.”

“
Getting enough
sleep?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Okay. Well, looks like
all you need is the routine Vitamin B.”

I felt relieved until I saw the nurse
leaving the area where she’d been messing with the cabinets. Now I
saw she was holding a needle and headed my way.

“
What? A shot?
Why?”

“
Vitamin B, like I said.
It’ll boost your immune system and keep you safe from contracting
outside pathogens during your visit.”

“
It’s my parents; how
dangerous can they be? They don’t even go anywhere. I’m sure
they’re not diseased.”

“
Sorry, but it’s our
policy. No visit without a vitamin shot.”

“
Can’t you just mark on
your sheet that I got one and let me go?”

“
Nice try,” he answered.
“Nurse Apple,” he said to the lady in the teddy bear scrubs. “It’s
all you.”

“
Sleeve up, Miss
Thompson,” the nurse said. I reluctantly pulled at the sleeve on my
right arm. Nurse Apple stood impatiently brandishing the syringe. I
tried to turn my head away, but I couldn’t get my eyes off the
needle. How could a vitamin shot be so huge? Besides, who ever
thought putting vitamins in a needle was a good idea?

As these thoughts reeled through my
brain, the room began to blur and the sensation of falling came
over me.

My eyes took a minute to refocus, and
as they did, I found that I was now alone in another room. I could
hear voices in the outside hall.

I sat up and straightened
my hair the best I could. Then I set to work on straightening my
clothes. As I did, I noticed that the Academie emblem on my uniform
was pulling away from the fabric. There was also a bandage on the
top of my left hand.
I must have fallen
when I passed out…

Minutes later, a blonde nurse I had
not seen before came bustling into the room.

“
Ah, you’re up; good. It’s
almost time for your visit.”

“
What
happened?”

“
From what I hear, you
passed out when you received your vitamin shot.”

I wanted to defend myself—it was a
really big shot after all—but somehow I knew that anything I might
say would only become the subject of office ridicule later in the
day.

“
Where are my
parents?”

“
Down in the office. I
will show you there in just a few minutes.”

She walked back out, and I
was left to stare at the pale gray walls.
Was this the room I’d passed out in when I started at The
Academie?

I jumped off of the
examining table and began to pace the room.
At least the worst of it is over
, I
told myself.

After I’d done enough pacing to wear a
path in the floor, the nurse returned to take me to my parents. She
led me down a corridor I didn’t remember, opened a door on the
left, and there, to my surprise, was the room I’d visited Matt in
over a year ago. My parents were now seated along one side of the
table.

“
Allie!” mom said, getting
up to hug me. She was all smiles, which surprised me after the way
we’d said goodbye.

Dad made no motion to get up for a
hug, so I walked over and leaned down to give him one anyway. He
didn’t seem to mind hugging, but he wasn’t one to initiate it
either.

Mom sat back down, and I took a seat
across the table.

“
So, what are you doing
here?” I asked.

“
Well, we came to visit
Matt, and we thought you might like a visit as well,” mom
said.

“
I’m surprised. I didn’t
really expect you to.”

“
Allie, you know we only
want the best for you,” she said.

Dad was quiet.

“
Yeah, I know mom,” I
said, laughing to myself and rolling my eyes. Maybe they did, but
sometimes their logic seemed so corrupt.

“
So, what’s been going on
with you guys?” I asked, changing the subject.

“
Well, we’ve been busy
taking care of my mom’s estate.”

“
What? Why? Where’s
grandma?”

“
Oh, right…”she looked at
my father, hesitating. “Allie, grandma passed away.”

“
What? When? How?”
Tears filled my eyes as the shock melted into
realization.

“
About a month ago,
she—”

“
A MONTH AGO? Why wasn’t I
notified?”

“
Allie, I knew you would
react this way—”

“
THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL
ME?”

“
Allie, keep your voice
down,” dad said.

I narrowed my eyes at him, then turned
back to face my mom. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell Matt and
I.”

They didn’t respond.

Then mom started to look
uncomfortable.

“
Matt knew, didn’t
he?”

Mom looked away. “Yes.”

I sat there with my mouth
agape, unable to form words or make sense of any of it.
How could they visit him and not me? How could he
know and see me every day and not say anything?

I stewed, and we sat in silence until
my father finally spoke. “Allie, you have to understand, your
grandmother was dying, your mother was grieving, and you guys had
been fighting…”

“
But it’s my
grandma.
How could you
not tell me?”

I looked from one to other, but
neither made an attempt to offer any response.

“
So did Matt go to the
funeral?” I was trying hold back the tears, but I felt like I was
going to explode, and the pain came through in my cracked, strained
voice.

“
No,” dad said. “We told
him that he needed to stay and focus on his studies, and he
agreed.”

“
I can’t believe
this.”