The Thief (11 page)

Hyde holds his wooden sword out at arm’s
length, pointing it at Camille. “This is your only warning,” he
sneers at her. “I love fighting newbies, and I don’t care that
you’re a girl.”

Camille merely inclines her
head, and then dips into a perfect Japanese bow. Hyde just laughs
again, a throaty cackle. I slip a glance at Destin.
She’s in trouble.

When Camille straightens up, Ikeda says,
“Begin.”

Hyde’s first move is a flurry of power.
Camille doesn’t even draw her sword. She sidesteps and ducks. Hyde
blows right past her. He cocks his head and straightens up as he
turns.

“
Dodgy,” he comments, and
swings at her again with a yell.

I flinch. If he connects with her, she’ll
definitely sustain a serious injury, like Poggio, wooden sword or
no. But Camille still doesn’t draw. She merely spins where she
stands. He oversteps, compensating for the lack of impact. Her foot
catches his ankle. She hooks his leg out from under him. Hyde drops
on the mat with a grunt of pain, but immediately scrambles to his
feet.

“
What the hell are you
playing at?” he snaps, pointing his sword at her again.

“
You, it looks like,”
Jacques calls. Several chuckles rise from the class.

Hyde’s face flushes. “Use your freaking
sword!” he growls at her.

“
When I need it,” Camille
says, sounding bored.

He comes at her a third time, wilder than
ever. In a flash, Camille drops into a roll and pops back up behind
him. She plants a foot in his back as he goes past. He stumbles,
out of balance, and falls flat on his face. The entire class breaks
into laughter.

“
Settle down, settle down,”
Ikeda holds up his hands, stepping forward to stand by Camille. “I
think that’s enough for one day.”

“
What? Sensei!” Hyde
protests, rubbing his nose. “Come on! She didn’t use her sword!
This isn’t karate class!”

“
No, it’s not,” Ikeda says,
the same amusement coloring his voice. “So you’d better hope I
don’t ask you to fight her tomorrow.”

That’s when I notice her belt is black. Holy
crap. She’s a black belt. How had I missed it?

Ikeda starts talking to Camille in Japanese,
and she replies fluently, happily, and they share a laugh about
something – but I have a feeling it’s at Hyde’s expense. So does
Hyde, apparently, by the flush that creeps up his neck. Ikeda and
Camille chatter back and forth unintelligibly, and it’s clear Ikeda
has found a new favorite.

The sudden sense of admiration I feel for
the foreign girl becomes tinged with concern as I see the way Hyde
is looking at her. As she placidly puts away her sword in the rack
against the far wall, I see the murder hatching in his eyes. I
glance at Destin, and I can tell he’d seen it too.

I was right after all. Our new classmate has
no idea what she’s just stepped into.

Destin and I catch up with her on the way
out. “That was some awesome non-sword work there,” I tell her as we
walk alongside her.

“
Ari-
Thank you,” she says, correcting herself.

“
You uh, you may not have
noticed, but I think you pissed off Hyde.”

Camille glances at me dismissively. “I
noticed.”

“
No, I mean, you’re new and
all, so you might not be aware that he’s really not the kind of
enemy you want to have.”

Camille snorts softly. “I’ll be fine.”

“
He’ll try to fight you
again,” Destin says.

“
And not in class, either,”
I add.

“
Not a problem,” she
says.

In my opinion, a day really ought to contain
only a limited amount of disappointment. The universe apparently
disagrees with me. When we get back to our lockers, Destin’s is
empty. I can almost see his soul departing out his ears as he gazes
forlornly at the slender metal void.

“
I had four new releases in
there...” he says hollowly.

This just doesn’t make any sense. Candy
bars? Soda? Comics? I peer closely into his locker. There’s some
kind of scratch on one wall...three thin, parallel lines...

“
I hadn’t even read them
yet,” Destin murmurs, still in shock.

A cackle behind us announces Hyde. “Is
wittle baby Heron missing his woobie?”

Realization lights through me. “You!” I
declare, pointing at him, “All this is your fault!”

“
Me?” he sneers. “Well
that
would
be
convenient. Go ahead and try to pin it on me, midget, I dare you. I
am untouchable.” He shoves me and I hit the lockers with a loud
metallic rattle. “You on the other hand...” he chuckles, strolling
away down the hall.

“
Alright that is
it
!” I declare, turning
to Destin. “This will not go unanswered! We are coming back here
tonight and we are staking out this hall until we catch Hyde in the
act!”

“
We are?”

“
We are.”

“
And what happens when he
turns around and kicks our asses?”

“
We have a more credible
story when we tell Principal Umino about it tomorrow.”

“
I’m going to go on record
as not liking this plan.”

“
Mac.”

I try to ignore him. We’re supposed to be
keeping a low profile. If anyone catches us in the school at night,
we’re in for a heap of trouble. Also, there’s no way we can catch
Hyde if he sees us first.

“
Mac.”

“
What?” I
whisper.

“
If this doesn’t work...”
Destin trails off.

“
It’ll work,” I
insist.

“
If it doesn’t work,” he
says, “You owe me a new
Sandman
.”

“
Your sacrifice will not be
forgotten,” I assure him.

We had talked about this, but it obviously
still bothers him. I had pointed out that the thief was only going
for the good stuff - the food, the books, the comics. It’s the kind
of stuff I would steal, honestly, if I had no sense of human
property. Also I would get caught.

Like I expect that spiky-headed
pincushion-face to. He’s finally going to get it, for once. Well,
for twice. Camille had thrashed him good in kendo, undeniable. I
grin at the remembrance. I’m going to keep that like a movie in my
head, to play whenever I need cheering up.

Since Destin’s locker had already been
cleaned out, we stuffed mine with chocolate, soda, and his comics.
And a dozen mouse traps. It’s not so much that I expect Hyde to
stick his fingers in one – it’s that I expect them to make a ton of
noise when he opens the locker. It’s dark in the hall, after all,
and we can’t see that well. So we need to know when to flip the
lights and end that jerk’s locker spree.

No one pilfers my candy beans and gets away
with it.

“
Okay, here’s what I don’t
get,” Destin says under his breath. “I get that Hyde would mess
with us. But why the comics? He has zero interest in them. And why
swipe from other people’s lockers too? You’d have to be insane to
swipe from Chase.”

“
Chase went straight to us,”
I say. “It’s got to be about framing us. And you heard him, he
thinks he’s untouchable. Freaking teacher’s pet. Principal’s pet?
Is that the right term?”

“
Maybe,” he says. “But
here’s the thing...I put the comics in right before we went to
kendo. Hyde was at class before us this afternoon, and left after
us. How could he have stolen it while he was in a room with us on
the other side of school?”

“
That...he was...look, stop
being logical. Hyde did it.”

“
You have a
vendetta.”

“
Of course I do!” I hiss.
“How could I not have a vendetta?”

“
So you’re admitting that
this Hyde conclusion could be born of bias.”

“
Of course it is! What’s
your point?”

Destin makes a motion for silence and points
to the classroom window. I stand on tiptoe to peer over the edge.
There’s...maybe...is it just a shadow? Branches waving across
windows? It’s totally silent.

Then...the faintest metallic sound. I curse
the janitor for keeping the hinges oiled. It isn’t enough to spring
for.

I squint. There’s definitely a shadow
hovering over my locker. Too small to be a person, it seems to
cling to the grate. I hear a faint trilling noise - like a cat -
and then the shadow melts into the locker door and vanishes.

“
What the hell...?” I
murmur.

Then the traps go off. The pops echo loudly
in the empty hallway, along with a screech from inside the locker.
If there’s anyone still in the building, they’ll definitely have
heard the racket.

“
Come on!” I tell Destin,
shoving open the door we’re hiding behind. We burst into the hall.
The shadow vaults out of the locker - candy bars and popped traps
scattering everywhere - and zooms down the hall. Is that a...a
tail? I take off after it. Destin follows, calling “Wait
up!”

It turns a corner in the
atrium. I skid on the tile floor, turning with it. By the light of
the moon shining through the windows I’m only in time to see
what
is
a tail,
long and slender, as it leaps through one of the glass panes in the
door. It shatters, the high crack resounding throughout the atrium.
So the shadow is solid after all.

“
What is going on out here?”
I hear behind me.

Oh crap,
I think. Principal Umino is in her office. But I
keep going. I don’t want to lose this thing – it’s our ticket to
innocence. If she’ll believe it. I push through the front doors
even as I hear Destin behind me, “Um, good evening
ma’am...”

Avoiding the broken glass, I leap over the
stairs and take off running across the parking lot. The shadow is
making for the tree line. I’ll definitely lose it if it gets into
the forest. I speed up, sprinting between the only two cars in the
lot.

Thwack.
I collide with something, and fall on my back. Stars explode
in front of my eyes. Hyde stands over me, grinning. “Never
clotheslined someone before. First time for everything. Guess what
I found, principal?” he yells up to the school.

I struggle to sit up, but
the shadow has already vanished. Hyde hoists me to my feet by my
collar. I shove him away, though I’m still a little unsteady. He
keeps a grip on my shirt and pulls me toward the front doors. “This
is a first,” he says. “Lots of firsts tonight. I’ve never busted
someone
else
for
vandalism before.”

“
I didn’t do anything!” I
snap.

“
No?” he says, looking at
the broken glass as we climb the stairs. “The evidence isn’t on
your side, munchkin.”

“
You set this up!” I accuse,
as he pushes me through the door. “You sent that - that - ninja
monkey thing just to get me in trouble!”

He laughs. “You clearly don’t need my help
to get in trouble, Dupree.”

Principal Umino stands in the atrium, with
Destin at her side looking sheepish. “Thank you Mr. Hyde,” she
says, regarding me narrowly. “You’re free to go home now.”

“
I don’t know, I think I’ll
stick around for a minute,” he grins, leaning back against the
stairwell.

The jackass just wants to stand there and
gloat. My fingers curl into fists.

“
Well?” the principal
addresses me. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“
We’re totally innocent,” I
state fervently.

“
Is that right? I’ve been
receiving complaints about stolen items for the past week. Many of
them suggesting you as the culprit.”

“
Why would I steal from my
own locker?” I protest. “And Destin’s was cleared out just this
afternoon!”

“
I’m sure it was,” she says
dryly. “Tell me why. Are you looking for revenge on those who’ve
wronged you? More importantly, how did you do it? Not a single lock
showed signs of entry. If you tell me how you accomplished it, I
may be more lenient.”

“
I didn’t do it,” I state.
“We were here tonight trying to catch the thing that
did!”

“
The thing?” she says,
expressionless.

“
He was making up something
about - what was it Dupree - a ninja monkey?” Hyde chuckles.
“Seriously, you can do better than that.”

“
And I suppose you saw it
too, Mr. Heron?”

Destin colors under his curtain of hair. “It
was...a shadow...” he murmurs lamely.

“
How helpful,” she says
coldly. “I’ll tell the staff to beware a loose shadow.”

“
It’s real, I swear!” I
exclaim. “It set off all the mousetraps I stuffed in my locker and
then it broke the window - ”

“
Mr. Dupree,” she
interrupts. “You and Mr. Heron are going to pay back the damages
you have incurred. You will spend your free period assisting
teachers with whatever odd tasks they assign you, until the end of
the semester.”

“
This is unfair!” I shout.
“We didn’t do anything!”

“
You broke into school after
hours,” she states. “A transgression on its own. If you insist on
continuing to protest, I will bring the matter before your
parents.”