He asked, “You wanted to talk to me?”
Straightening, she turned to face him, and the lines on her face didn’t look friendly at all. “Yes, I did,” she said. “We have two issues we need to settle. First, you need to know that liars won’t do very well in my class. They won’t do very well at all.”
His cheerfulness faded into confusion. More than a little disturbed, he cocked his head. “Are you talking about me?”
Looking exasperated, she said, “Of course I am. Surely you haven’t forgotten that you claimed to have read my entire bookshelf in a matter of minutes.”
Clenching his hands, he said through his teeth, “But I did.”
She pointed at him. “You need to tell the truth right now and admit you were lying.”
His mouth dropped open, and he stared at her. “You want me to do what?”
“You have to change your behavior, or I promise you, you’re going to have a very tough first year, which leads me to the second issue we need to address. I heard you have a cell phone, and you were taking phone calls during morning recess. That’s against school policy, and you’ll have to give it up.” She walked toward him, holding out her hand.
His mind flashed back to earlier, when Andrew and Joel had been watching him with such satisfied smiles, while Brad had disappeared from sight. Marika had said his phone would get him into trouble, and it looked like the other boys had made sure of it.
As Mrs. Teaberry approached, he backed away. “I can’t. I’m supposed to keep my phone with me at all times.”
“Unacceptable. Give it to me right now.” She wiggled her fingers at him demandingly.
Shaking his head, he said again, “I can’t.”
Her expression turned incredulous and angry. “You’re in big trouble, young man. This is my classroom, and in here, other rules don’t apply. You do as I tell you. Hand it over.”
Nobody had ever said such a thing to him before. And anyway, he didn’t believe it. Dad’s rules applied everywhere.
His body turned very hot, then cold. This felt completely unlike what had happened with the other boys. With them, he had acted on instinct, a certain amount of predatory cunning and on snippets he had heard about how the sentinels handled problems, but Mrs. Teaberry was an adult and his teacher.
He was supposed to mind her, but he also couldn’t go against the safety rules. Starting to tremble, he shook his head. “No.”
Mrs. Teaberry’s eyes flashed. Lunging forward, she grabbed him by the shoulder.
Shocked, Liam tried to twist away, but her grip on him was too strong. “If you won’t give it to me,” Mrs. Teaberry said, “I’ll just have to take it.”
She rammed one hand into his pocket, searching for the phone. He struggled against her hold. “Stop—you can’t do that. I’m supposed to keep it with me.”
Her fingers dug into his shoulder like claws, and she shook him. “Everybody always thinks the rules don’t apply to them,” she snapped. “But they do. They apply to you too, mister.”
He couldn’t let her take the phone, and she was hurting him. She was scaring him too. He couldn’t call Hugh. He had turned his phone off. He couldn’t call Mom or Dad, either.
Feeling invaded and trapped, he felt his fingers change and his teeth lengthen into fangs. He rounded on Mrs. Teaberry with a snarl.
She recoiled from him. Almost immediately, she straightened until she stood very erect. Her tight mouth bit out words. “Don’t you dare bite me, you little animal.”
Trembling more violently than ever, he swiped at his face as he looked at her hands. She clenched his phone in one fist.
Breathing hard, he angled out his jaw and said, “Give it back.”
Astonishment took over her expression. She shook the phone at him. “I said you can’t have it in school.”
Growling, he walked toward her. She retreated until her back came up against a wall. Dimly, he was aware that his face was still not right. He had too many teeth, and they felt sharp against his tongue. When he held out one hand, palm up, he saw that it was tipped with long, sharp talons.
Cautiously, her eyes wide, Mrs. Teaberry set the phone in his palm.
As he turned it on, he thought about calling Hugh, because he wanted to see a friendly face as soon as possible. Then he thought about calling Mom, because he needed her to love on him and tell him everything was going to be okay.
But really, he had screwed up in so many ways that day, the only thing to do was to take it straight to the top.
He pressed rapid-dial number two.
Dad answered before the first ring had ended. “What’s going on, Liam?”
Taking a deep breath, he said, “Can you come pick me up? I think I’m about to get expelled.”
Chapter Five
* * *
Dragos changed into his dragon form, since flying directly to the school was much faster than driving on the winding country roads. Pia rode on his back, muttering worriedly. She asked, Did he tell you what happened?