The Ones (13 page)

The cops had already arrived and arranged a line of cars in front of the administration building. Granted, it was only four cars from the local department, but Cody knew more would be coming. She had hoped they'd send everything they had, all those tanks and trucks that seemed to have no purpose but had been left over from one war or another. Seeing those monstrosities attack kids on a high school campus was bound to wake up at least some members of the silent, accommodating majority. Cody's cell phone had already buzzed several times with a number that she assumed was a police line. But before she talked to them, she wanted to have a different conversation.

Cody walked up to the small office where all the adults were being held. Gregory was standing in the doorway, arms crossed like a bouncer. She tried not to laugh, but Cody appreciated that Gregory was trying to do his part. Even she was a little intimidated by his size.

“Can you bring Ms. Bixley to her office so I can talk to her?” she asked the self-appointed head of security. Gregory nodded, and Cody went to wait.

When Gregory ushered Ms. Bixley into her own office, Cody was seated comfortably behind the desk. She pointed at a chair.

“Have a seat.”

Ms. Bixley sat down, staring at Cody, eyes burning. Cody nodded for Gregory to leave.

“You listened to our announcement, right?”

Ms. Bixley nodded. “If your plan is to accomplish nothing, get expelled, and go to jail, you kids really nailed it.”

“Call the school superintendent, offer your resignation, and everyone goes home safely. School picks right up again tomorrow morning. Without you.”

“You know I'm not going to do that.”

“Then get comfortable. Because we are not leaving until you do.”

Ms. Bixley eyed Cody with utter disdain. “You're even more pathetic than I thought. All you care about is the attention. About finding some way to make people think you're special. Well, that list proved that you're nothing but a liar. You want to be a martyr so badly, though, that even when it was taken away from you, you'll do anything to get it back. That's not being a martyr, Cody. That's being a slut for attention.”

For an instant, Cody couldn't help herself. She leaped across the room and was about to knock Ms. Bixley right out of her chair. But just in the nick of time, she remembered that this wasn't about punishing Ms. Bixley. This was about making a clear and intelligent statement about justice for her peers. She could ruin the whole thing by leaving the slightest mark on Ms. Bixley's infuriating face. So she stopped herself.

Cody walked out of the office and found Gregory. “Put her back in with the others.”

She continued on and found the rest of the Ones milling about in the office atrium, mostly just eating the candy from Margie's bowl.

Cody peeked out the window and saw that the armada of police vehicles had grown. It wasn't just local cop cars now; there were also SWAT trucks, FBI vans, and most conspicuously, a large black “school” bus with bars over the windows. Things were getting interesting.

Cody turned to Victor, their tech ace. “Did you e-mail out the statement?”

Victor nodded. “Yup. To the local precinct and all the news stations. And it's posted on our Facebook group.”

“We have a Facebook group?” James asked.

“Of course. The Likes are rolling in.” Victor paused. “A few angry comments from some parents, but I am deleting those.”

“What about the Board of Education … any response?” Cody asked.

“No. Just the cops demanding that we leave the premises peacefully.”

“Reiterate that we're not budging unless the people who run this school and support discrimination against their own students are replaced. Until then, it looks like it's gonna be a long night. Let's go double-check the exits and start passing out some food,” Cody said.

The Ones headed off in different directions. Cody grabbed a bag full of cereal bars and headed down the walkway to the library. The kids there had turned it into a giant lounge. Music still played, study tables had been pushed aside, and everyone was just hanging out and looking through the giant windows at the gathering circus outside. As Cody weaved her way through the students, a few of them offered a fist bump or a “good job.” At the very least, everyone seemed pleased that there was no school tomorrow. Cody was in the middle of tossing out cereal bars when her phone buzzed with a text.

“
PQ3318
” flashed on her screen.

Cody smiled, a quick jolt of excitement running through her body as if by reflex. She looked up toward the second floor of the library, dropped her bag, and practically ran up the stairs.

When Cody had gone deep enough into the stacks and found the right aisle, James was already waiting in their spot.

“A little bit easier this time,” he said.

She walked up to him and kissed him, hard.

James stroked a lock of hair away from her face. “We did it. We really did it,” he said.

“I know. I'm so happy for you.”

“For us. You made it happen.”

“But for you especially. All this bullshit you've been dealing with at school, being treated like a criminal—it's over. We're gonna stop it for good. And I know we're gonna get in trouble in other ways, but it will be worth it. They can't keep doing what they've been doing.”

James nodded. “It feels good. Getting in trouble, I mean. I guess you always knew that.”

Cody's phone started to buzz, but she ignored it and looked back at James. “It suits you,” she said, and kissed him again, sticking her hands under his shirt and tracing the contours of his torso. “This whole hot-altar-boy thing you've been pulling off needed a tweak.”

“Oh yeah? Well, I assume we are all officially America's Most Wanted by now. I'm glad you like that.” James's phone started going off, too, but he silenced it.

Cody ran her fingers through his hair. “Well, the
wanted
part is right.”

As the two pressed into each other, both their phones wouldn't stop buzzing. Cody finally gave in and looked at it.

“Oh my God.”

“What?” James asked, and reached for his phone, too.

They clicked on the same photo that clearly had been seen by the entire world by now. It was taken in the office area they had just left. Margie, the school secretary, was standing on a chair that was balanced precariously on top of a second chair. She had a look of pure terror on her face. Her hands were bound.

And around her neck was a noose tied to the ceiling.

“What the hell is this?” James shouted. “Did you do this?”

“No! I would never! We agreed no one would get hurt, remember?”

“Jesus, it's already going viral. The cops'll think we're about to kill her!”

“I didn't do it, James, I swear!”

“Then who the hell did?” he yelled.

A voice spoke up from behind them. “I did.”

Cody and James jerked their heads around as they heard someone else step into their aisle.

It was Kai.

 

CHAPTER 10

“WHAT THE HELL
are they doing here?” James hissed at Cody as Kai walked up to them. Following right behind him was Taryn, the girl whom James had last encountered pressing a gun into his head.

“I know you're upset about the photo—let me explain,” Kai said.

James grabbed Cody. “Seriously, why are they here?”

He could see from Cody's face that she was surprised, too. “I told Kai about the takeover,” she said. “But I didn't know that they would—”

“We're here to keep an eye on things,” Taryn said. “And on people,” she added, glaring at Cody.

James could barely keep up with who was angry at whom. But he was definitely pissed at Cody for looping these maniacs into their plan. If the headlines from around the country were true and the New Weathermen were responsible for everything attributed to them, the group seemed to know only one speed—full throttle. But what James and the rest of the students were doing at the school needed a delicate touch. They were trying to prove a point—not trying to get arrested. Now that the Equality Act had passed, James knew what could happen to Ones who were arrested. Anything, essentially. They were subject to thirty days of detention without being charged or getting access to a lawyer. Sure, that trampled on the basic principles of the country's legal system, but apparently people would accept anything dressed up in the name of public safety. So now that the leaders of the militant underground Ones were in on the job, James suddenly saw his freedom at stake.

“You guys need to leave,” James said. “This is a student protest. We don't need your group getting involved.”

“By all means,” Kai said. “We want to let you guys lead. Cody looped us in on the plan, and we came by the school and walked into the library with everyone else. We just want to help in any way we can.”

Cody shoved her phone in Kai's face. The picture of Margie strung up by the noose was still on the screen. “This is what you call helping? We had things going perfectly, and now you have us killing the school secretary. Everyone loves her!”

“No one is getting killed. We set up the photo, and then we took her down, gave her a pat on the ass, and put her back in the office. She's fine,” Taryn said.

“And as much as we appreciate the job you are doing, everything is not going perfectly,” Kai added.

“What do you mean?” James said.

“Well, what's next?” Kai said.

“They have our demands. Either they meet them or we wait,” said Cody.

“Until they cut the power and the water? Within a few hours, you'll have a mutiny on your hands, and a few hours after that, even you will be begging to leave.”

“All right, if we need your help so badly, what's your brilliant suggestion?” James asked.

“We need to provoke a response,” Kai said.

James turned to Cody and shook his head. “
We?
Do you hear him? Is this what you wanted all along?”

“No. I wanted to do this alone. To prove myself, remember? But they're here now, and they're on our side—let's just listen,” she said.

James couldn't believe this. He had never seen Cody submit like this. Certainly not to him. But here she was, gladly agreeing to abdicate her leadership to someone she barely knew.

“Look, guys, here's the truth,” Kai said. “These protests can go two ways. They can go as planned and make a nice little point. Or they can get ugly and make a real statement. The assholes waiting outside are dying to come in here and bust some heads. That's just who they are—it's no fun to get all the body armor and shields and night vision if you don't get to use it. And it will look pretty good for us if they come in smashing doors and windows and trampling all these students. But we have to give them a reason.”

“And get someone hurt? I'm not signing off on that,” James said.

“No sacrificial lambs, I agree. We'll tell everyone to protect themselves and film as much as they can on their phones. The optics will still look really bad for the guys outside,” Kai said.

As much as James didn't want to admit it, he saw Kai's point. There was the potential for their little protest to affect more than just one school. The images of cops running roughshod through a high school would be pretty powerful—maybe enough to sway some people back to the side of the Ones.

“But what about the fact that they think we're hanging the school secretary? Isn't that enough to get us arrested?” he asked.

Kai shook his head. “They'll see she's fine. No harm, no foul. Besides, you can always blame it on the Weathermen if you get caught.”

Cody raised her eyebrows in surprise. “What? You want us to blame you?”

Taryn snorted. “Stuff gets blamed on us every day. Just don't use our names.”

James considered this. It actually did give them an out if anything truly bad happened.

He looked at Cody and nodded, conceding the point.

“All right. So by now they've seen the photo you posted. What's next?” James asked.

“They are going to come hard, and they are going to come soon. We need to make it as difficult as possible for them and reinforce the barricade in the office,” Kai said, and then turned to Cody. “You and I should get back there and get started—we don't have much time.”

James was annoyed—why was that an exclusively Kai-and-Cody mission? “Shouldn't we all go?” he asked.

“No, you stay here with Taryn. She can tell the rest of the students how to handle the incursion so they don't get hurt. You and Cody know the school … we need you to split up.”

Cody touched James on the arm. “It's fine. Let's just get ready as quickly as possible,” she said. Kai had already started walking away, and she rushed off after him.

James was left alone with Taryn. She looked around disapprovingly at the bookshelves.

“What the hell were you doing back here?” she asked.

“What do you think?” James said, irritated.

“I think you need to reevaluate this little puppy-love thing you've got going on.”

“What does that mean?”

“That girl is a liar. If you're a One and you care about our fight, you can't trust her.”

“Believe me, Cody is just as committed as any of you. This isn't some long con for her.”

“We'll see, won't we? It's nothing I can't handle if you're wrong,” Taryn said. Then she shook her head in exasperation. “Kai is really cautious, and he knows what he's doing—except when he's thinking with his dick.”

James glared at Taryn. “That's why he's here?”

“Like he said, this is a great protest opportunity. But Kai is a stickler for efficiency. Mixing business with pleasure is right up his alley,” Taryn said, and started walking away. “Come on, let's go teach these kids how to crawl under some tear gas.”