Doyle sighs.
“You know Samuel Lir, right?” I say. “He’s Mr. Lir’s son. Three years ago, when people found out what he was, they beat the crap out of him! They nearly killed him. My father was the one who found him, stuffed under the boardwalk with his skull and both eye sockets crushed, his spine so mangled that parts of it were no longer in his back. They put him in a wheelchair. He couldn’t feed or go to the bathroom by himself. He couldn’t speak. And no one was ever arrested.” Then he disappeared.
“Samuel was one of them. You are not,” he says.
If only he knew!
“Oh, then let’s talk about that kid they dragged from his car because he tried to raise money to buy the Alpha shoes, and the girl they set on fire for bringing them a box of canned food, or Kevin Folkes—”
“What if I promised you wouldn’t be hurt?”
“Then you would be lying to me.”
“Lyric, I’m trying to help you out here. That stunt you pulled in class earned you a trip to the Tombs. I can make that go away, but—”
I leap to my feet. “Then send me to the Tombs. Prison sounds a lot better than being dead.”
He shakes his head slowly, then waves his hands in the air like he’s swatting away a mosquito. My argument is a nuisance to him, a pest that, if ignored, will go away.
“Lyric, we all have to do our part to make this work. I’ll call your dad tonight. We’ll get this settled. You start tomorrow.”
“You aren’t listening to me.”
“We’ll get this settled,” he repeats. Arguing with him is pointless. Let him call my father so my dad can be the one to tell him to go to hell.
“You’re going to be a huge help.”
“Can I go?”
Doyle nods, and I’m out the door in a flash, slamming it behind me. I run down the halls toward an exit door, but a soldier is stationed there. I turn and head for another, but it’s guarded too. I lean against a bank of lockers to catch my breath and calm my mind. I’m in trouble, and I don’t know how to fix it.
Chapter Eight
Back in the halls, I’m a rock star. The story of my arrest spirals into a ridiculous mythology in which I faced down the justice system and spat in its face. I doubt they’d think I was so hardcore if they knew what really happened, or how I dread the final bell when the doors are opened and I have to share my “most wanted” status with my parents. My dad is going to erupt. Three years of carefulness, and I jeopardized it all before I even got out of homeroom.
Bex meets me at my locker at the end of the day and demands a high-five. “Fight the power,” she says.
I grab my things, and together we step outside into the waiting wall of noise. The crowd is bigger now and more hostile than this morning. Standing in the heat all day has soured their moods even further. Luckily, the police got wise and moved them back thirty feet so we don’t have to fight our way down the steps to go home, but they can’t protect me from my dad. He is waiting, arms crossed, eyes like charcoal briquettes.
“The Big Guy looks mad,” Bex says.
“The Big Guy is mad,” I say.
“What’s the point of being a teenager if you can’t get arrested every once in a while?” She laughs.
“This isn’t funny,” I grumble.
He stomps toward us. “It wasn’t even fifteen minutes, Lyric. Fifteen minutes and you got yourself wrapped up in this crap.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Bex crows. “She was trying to stop a fight. She’s a hero.”
He’s not listening. “We have to have a serious talk. Bex, will you be okay on your own?”
“She’s staying over.”
“Not tonight. Absolutely not! I’m sorry, Bex, it’s family—”
“No big whoop. Phone, please,” Bex says with outstretched hand.
“Dad—”
My father waves me off and reaches into his pocket. He hands her two, one for her and one for Shadow. Bex promises to get it to him.
“Bex, wait!” I cry.
“It’s cool,” she says, though her face looks panicked. She waves down Shadow, who is waiting nearby, and the two of them dart into the crowd and vanish.
“Russell’s back.”
My father looks incredulous. “You should have said something, Lyric.”
“And interrupt your lecture?”
He snarls. “I’ll go by tonight and check on her and Tammy. Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t know he was home.”
“You should look before you leap,” I shout. “Sound familiar?”
He spins around on me and grabs my wrist. “Do you think this is a joke? I’ve done everything I can to get you to understand how serious this is, and you fight me at every turn.”
“What was I supposed to do? Let that kid get killed?”
“You’re supposed to grow up, Lyric. Every choice you make in the Zone has a ripple effect. This time it has turned into a tidal wave and we can’t get out of the way.”
“Why? What happened?”
He sighs in frustration and makes a path for us through the crowd.