The Academy - Introductions (24 page)

“Maybe not, but that’s not our judgment to make,” the man
said. He turned to Mr. McCoy. “Is that her registration?”

“Yes, but...”

“I don’t see why we have to put the counselors through
twice the work. They have enough to do today.”

“You know you can’t just walk in and take over how I handle
these students, Dr. Green. She’s not one of your boys.” Mr. McCoy barked at
him, his fists clenched to his sides.

A doctor? I blinked, disbelieving someone so young had a
doctorate.

“I believe we were brought in to assist in any way we can.
I think we have enough to worry about kids who have actually broken the rules
than worry about one girl who hasn’t.” He reached for the paper Mr. McCoy was
crumpling in his hands. He took it from him and handed it to me. His green eyes
washed over my face, soothing and cheerful. He put a gentle hand on my arm.
“I’ll show you where to turn that in. You were just heading that way, weren’t
you?”

I nodded, trying not to look at Mr. McCoy. My heart thundered
in my chest both from being so scared and from Dr. Green’s hand on me. I
wondered for a quick moment if the situation could get any worse. Mr. McCoy
would probably remember this.

Dr. Green guided me down the hallway. I was worried the
boys would wonder where I had gone or if they thought I ditched them. I
couldn’t simply walk away and look for them.

“I should apologize for Mr. McCoy’s behavior,” Dr. Green
said, his hand still gently on the back of my arm. “I think he means well.”

“He’s pretty intimidating,” I said.

He laughed, his voice smooth and light. “I think that, too.
But usually intimidating people feel the same way about us. I think a
psychologist would say... well, something boring to young students, I’m sure.”

“Something about the worst we see in others is what we
actually see in ourselves?”

He smiled, his eyes lighting up. “Well said.”

“I hope it doesn’t mean Mr. McCoy doesn’t like that I wear
a skirt because he doesn’t look good in a skirt.”

Dr. Green’s head rocked back, his hand going to his
forehead and he laughed loud enough to attract attention from other students.
“Now every time I see him, I’ll be thinking of him in a skirt.”

I smiled. I would, too.

We stopped outside of room 103. The students had thinned
out around us. Dr. Green turned to me at the door. He reached out, surprising
me and touched the collar of my shirt. He buttoned it up to the top and then
smoothed down the fabric of the collar. “And so you know,” he said. “If you
wear a short skirt, you should keep your top modest. As a lady, it will make
you look more elegant.”

His eyes were gentle and he looked up. I knew I was
blushing. His smile was so casual and confident. I felt like an idiot near him.

“Shall we go in?” he asked. He held open the door for me.

“Thank you,” I said. “I don’t mean to keep you.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I was headed in this direction
anyway.

The room was an inner office. There were orange cloth
covered chairs, all occupied, and a long orange counter at the far side of the
room. There were two secretaries on the other side of the counter. They were
busy taking papers from students and talking to them.

“Why don’t you come with me?” Dr. Green said. “I’ll let you
cut through this line.”

I swallowed, swinging my eyes around, hoping the other
students in the room didn’t hear. It felt wrong to bypass. Dr. Green went to a
door on the other side of the room and he turned and waited for me. I didn’t
have much choice I guess. He was so nice to me. There was no reason for me to
turn down his offer.

Silas and Victor must be mad, I thought. There was no way
they could follow me now.

M
r.
B
lackbourne

I
followed
Dr. Green through a series of small hallways with a shaggy orange carpet and
painted white bricks. The hallway was dim as there weren’t any windows and only
half of the overhead fluorescent lights were turned on. Most of the doors we
passed were closed, looking eerily untouched. He stopped at an unmarked door
and gave it a gentle knock before opening.

Inside was an inner office with a double set of brown, faux-wood
office desks facing each other. Each had a computer and several stacks of
papers piled neatly in brown plastic bins. There were a couple of file cabinets
in the corners and a cork board nailed to the far wall, with a calendar and
some other notes tacked to it. There was a small radio sitting on top of one of
the file cabinets. A violin concerto was playing on a low volume.

At the desk against the far wall sat a man who looked
similar in age as Dr. Green. His eyes were a steel gray, his skin pale like
mine. His hair was a soft brown, cut short and brushed back away from his face.
He wore black rimmed glasses that were similar in style to Kota’s. His face was
angled in a way that he could have been a model. His hands were smooth,
perfect. His lips were pursed as he looked up. He scowled at us. This was not
the type of person I ever wanted to disappoint. His eyes alone bore into me in
a way that made me shiver through my core. He was as perfect and as cold as a
polished diamond.

“Dr. Green,” he said sharply. “You don’t have to knock.
This is your office, too, now.”

“Sorry,” Dr. Green said, smiling at him and taking a seat
at the second desk. The office chair creaked, biting my ears. “Old habit when I
see a shut door. Never want to surprise anyone. Besides, the offices here are
so small. If anyone were standing behind the door, I’d hit them.”

The man across the desk frowned and focused on me. “What
are you doing here?”

“Oh, this is Miss Sang Sorenson,” Dr. Green raised a hand
toward me and then gestured toward the man at the desk. “Miss Sang, this is Mr.
Blackbourne.”

The name caught in my mind. Could it be the same one Victor
had deleted from my phone? “Hello,” I said softly, dipping my head in a polite
nod.

Mr. Blackbourne’s sharp eyes settled over my outfit and
then at my face. “That’s wonderful. Now
why
are you here?”

“I am assisting her with getting registered,” Dr. Green
said. He reached for the paper in my hands. “Shall I help you?”

“She should be outside with the other students,” warned Mr.
Blackbourne. He swung his eyes at me. “Couldn’t you wait in line?”

“She’s perfectly capable of doing so,” Dr. Green said,
shaking his computer mouse to warm up the sleeping monitor. “But she had a run
in with Mr. McCoy. I didn’t want a good student to be scared away because of
him.”

“Hm,” Mr. Blackbourne chuffed.

“I hope I’m not disturbing you,” I said, casting my eyes to
the floor, feeling completely awkward.

Mr. Blackbourne said nothing but turned away from me and
went back to what he was doing with the papers in his hands, filling them out.

“What have we here?” Dr. Green looked over the paper in his
hand. “Now, I can’t understand this. Why are all these classes crossed out?

“Well,” I said, fiddling with one of the buttons on my
blouse. “When I first filled it out, I picked classes that I didn’t realize
were reserved for upperclassmen. And then the second set some were crossed out
because the counselor said I couldn’t have more than two AP classes.”

Dr. Green made a face, twisting his lips and looking
apologetic. “How awful. Does she not assume you could do it?”

I shrugged a little. “She just kept saying I wasn’t
allowed.”

“Why have the classes up if you aren’t going to let
students in them? I tell you, what’s wrong with this school?” He turned back to
me. “What were your original choices?”

I opened the notebook I had, removing the paper where Kota
had written my choices for classes. “I couldn’t take Japanese, so I switched to
this.”

He tilted his head. “Did you write this?” he asked,
pointing at the masculine handwriting.

I shook my head.

“Who did?”

I blushed. Did he expect to know? “Kota. A friend of mine.”

His eyebrows shot up and out of the corner of my eye, I
noticed Mr. Blackbourne looking at us.

“Do you know Kota Lee?” Mr. Blackbourne asked.

I wasn’t sure what Kota’s last name was. “Dark brown hair?
Glasses?”

Mr. Blackbourne sucked in a breath and his gaze fell on Dr.
Green. They exchanged some looks. It was so familiar, like how Kota and the
others silently communicated to one another.

Dr. Green wrote something on the registration paper. “Do
you think you could handle this?”

He handed the paper back to me and I glanced at his
choices: Japanese, AP Geometry, AP English, AP World History, AP Biology and
the required gym class.

My mouth dropped open. “How do I bypass the restriction?
And I’m not allowed in Japanese for at least another year.”

Dr. Green leaned in on the desk, propped his head up with
his hand, smiling. “But is that what you want?”

I felt my heart flutter. It sounded so challenging. Yet at
the same time, I could see myself getting good grades in all of it. “I want to
try.”

Mr. Blackbourne looked up from his paperwork and scowled at
Dr. Green. “Why are you causing trouble? You don’t know anything about this
girl.”

“I have a good feeling.” He held out his hand for the paper
and then put it on his desk, signing his name. “Besides, who is going to tell
me no?”

I blinked at him. This was really happening?

Mr. Blackbourne glowered, displeased.

Dr. Green started typing and clicking at his computer. I
wondered how they seemed to know Kota. This had to be the same Mr. Blackbourne
that the boys were trying to keep secret before. Could I ask them about this
later? My eyes drifted around the room. A violin melody started up on the
radio. My toe tapped to it, trying to remember the name of the song.

Mr. Blackbourne turned to me, bringing a finger to the
corner of his glasses and shoving them up his nose. “Do you know this song?”

His question caught me by surprise but I nodded. “It’s the
song about the swallow, isn’t it?”

He nodded, an eyebrow going up.

“But it’s the version by Micarelli, isn’t it?”

“How do you know it’s her?”

“Well, she’s got this style. She plays soft. It’s hard to
explain but it’s different than other violinists. I really like it.”

There was as spot on his mouth on the right hand side that
turned up. It was only a millimeter of a difference but it was all his face
required before the sternness in his face disappeared and he seemed pleased.
When he did, his face was beautiful. I would almost sell my soul, would do
anything to keep that pleased expression on his face. “Do you like the violin?”

I fiddled with the button of my blouse again. “I do. I like
the piano, too. I think if I had to pick just one to learn though, the violin
would be my first choice.”

He fell quiet, looking me over. The moment stretched out.
His eyes seemed to be calling out to me, asking things of me that I had no idea
how to respond. No matter how much I wanted to flit my eyes around the room to
break the tension, the strength in his stare froze me to the spot.

“Would you kindly hand over Miss Sorenson’s registration
paper, Dr. Green,” he commanded.

Seven classes. I walked out of the office with a receipt
copy of all of the classes I would be taking for the following school year at
this new high school. Seven.

“Most students would have had a study hall,” Mr.
Blackbourne explained after he adjusted my class list on his computer. “It’s
worked into a student’s schedule. You won’t have one.” He signed my paper to
officialize the addition and Dr. Green took it back to have it filed properly.

I was going to have a busy year.

I followed the corridor on my way back through to the front
of the office area and out into the hallway. The crowds had died down a bit.
Most students were already registered, they were just taking a tour. I had no
idea where the guys were.

I found the main hallway and then the glass double doors
that led to the open air courtyard. The courtyard was really a square patch of
flat grass in the middle of the school with stone benches scattered
strategically and a few small trees. I held the notebook to my chest, looking
around.

I spotted Silas’s and North’s heads across the garden to
the left. They were all standing in a circle together. I tiptoed across the
grass. Voices were raised in a heated debate. As I got closer, I held back
behind Silas where they couldn’t see me. I didn’t want to interrupt, mostly out
of curiosity.

“School hadn’t started yet and we already lost her,” Luke
said. “This is terrible.”

“She walked away with Dr. Green. We didn’t have a choice
but to back off,” Victor said. “We were going to get found out.”