“Sure.”
She rose, taking up her purse. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said. She touched briefly at her brow, closing her eyes. “This Academy you two go to and how it’s got you going to that public school this year, maybe it’s stressing them out as well.”
Nathan stood, putting a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“I worry,” Erica said, and she smiled at him. “It’s my job.”
“Don’t worry about this,” he said. “I’ll talk to them both. And I’ll get Kota to talk to you. If it takes me apologizing to both of them again or getting the other guys to help me out, I’ll do it.”
Erica seemed satisfied with this and left. Nathan stood in the kitchen alone, looking at the pink phone on the table. His heart raced at the thought of it in Erica’s hands.
Did she tell the truth about not looking at it? Because if she had...who knows what Sang had said to him, or the others.
Maybe she was telling the truth, but she didn’t give it up until just now. If Victor hadn’t turned it off because they thought Volto had it, who knew what she would have thought of them all. Of the Academy, as well.
Erica was too close to the truth. What would she think if she knew her son, and Nathan and the others, and now Sang were involved in the Academy and what it was about? Not to mention the relationship they constantly talked about.
They couldn’t risk her getting any closer to finding out.
Behind the Scenes
For the next few days, a routine settled in. Nathan made sure Danielle and Marie were dropped off and picked up for school, either with him in the car or with someone else. Sang joined Mr. Blackbourne in the principal’s office to sort out files. Classes resumed normally for most students. Occasionally, Mr. Blackbourne called in other students when he found notes tucked away from Mr. Hendricks. He double checked with them what they were called in for.
In the evenings, Mr. Blackbourne studied, often with Dr. Green and Sang. They stayed late after school. Sang brought home the books with her when she went back with Kota at night. She claimed to be studying for tests around Erica, and she was, only not for science or geography.
The police thinned out by the second day. One or two remained on campus just to wait and see if Mr. Hendricks would show back up. His house was monitored. No results.
After school on the following Monday, Nathan was at home, sitting on the couch alone. His bare feet were on the coffee table. He sat back, looking up at the ceiling. He thought to go running to get his frustration out with exercise.
Staring was more satisfying in the moment. Idle. Wallowing.
He’d barely spoken to the others since the other day. Most had genuinely been too busy. A few, he was sure, knew about what he and Kota had done.
He was willing to believe it was mostly himself avoiding them. He needed the separation, for now. And that meant avoiding Sang as well. Since no one else came to him about what happened, he assumed it wasn’t as bad as Dr. Green made it out.
It still worried him. Being alone was probably making him more and more paranoid. That was the worst part. For the entire weekend, he’d been isolated.
The front door opened, breaking him of his floundering thoughts. Nathan groaned but didn’t bother to go see who it was. If they didn’t knock, it was one of the guys. It certainly wasn’t Sang. She was still at the school.
“I’m here,” he called out to whoever it was.
Footsteps came closer and he twisted on the couch to look.
Danielle stood by the couch, just behind it. Her hair was pulled back in a very short ponytail.
He raised an eyebrow and pulled himself off the couch to stand up. “What are you doing here?” He looked behind her and then to the doorway into the kitchen. “Where’s Marie?”
“She’s at home,” she said. “Checking in with her mom.”
“So what are you doing here?”
She walked around the couch, putting her hands on her hips and looking at him. “I’m tired of this stupid thing we’re doing.”
Nathan cocked a brow. “You mean getting you out of school?”
“We’re still going to school,” she said. “We may as well spend our days in in-school suspension. All we do is sit around and occasionally take a test.”
“They aren’t hard.”
“That’s not the point,” she said, her tone rising sharply. “I didn’t sign up for this. You said you could get us out.”
“We can get Marie out,” he said. He had no patience for this at all right now. Whatever stupid reason she wanted out of school for, they shouldn’t have been encouraging it. “What do you think is going to happen when your mom finds you aren’t going to school anymore?”
“Let me deal with that.”
“What do you think you’re going to do?” he asked. “Hide in the Sorenson house? Hide here? Well, you can’t. You can’t spend the next year and a half hiding. Your brother and your parents aren’t stupid. They’ll find out.”
Danielle threw up her hands and her eyes flared wide. “I said I’d handle it!” She pointed to her chest. “I’m not going back. I’m done. We’re wasting time. You’re just keeping us there.”
Nathan sputtered for an answer that would sink into her thick skull. “Do you not see everything going on at the school? You go to lunch. You don’t see the police? Hear what’s going on?”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with me,” she said.
“It has everything to do with what you want,” he said. “Do you think for one second you’d just waltz out of school and no one would notice? Every option to get you out involves a principal’s approval, among other things.” He waved his hand outward. “The principal is gone, Danielle. Gone.”
She frowned. “Sang’s out. You got her out.”
“She’s still going to school. Only she’s taken all the tests and not complaining about it. She knows she has to stay in for now. And she’s doing far more work than you are for what she wants.”
Danielle threw up her hands again and waved them around. “Fine! It’s whatever. I’m trying to help you, after all. I don’t need to tell you about her real mom. Or help you with Erica...”
Nathan glared at her. “Help? What are you talking about? And I don’t even know if you know about Sang’s mom. How would you know anything? I can just ask Marie.” He pointed a finger at her. “And it’s really shitty the way you’re using Marie and Sang and their situation to get something out of it.”
She reeled her head back and then stopped. She turned, blew out a breath and then lowered her shoulders a bit, dipping her head. “I’m sorry,” she said.
He blinked rapidly at how her whole demeanor seemed to change. It reminded him that he was supposed to become friendly with them to get the answers they might have. Answers weren’t going to come if he was yelling at her. “Look, I just don’t understand how to help you. You wanted out of classes, we did that. The process to get you out of school, though, that’s on hold until we’re absolutely sure things can’t be questioned about your exit. It takes time, okay?” He paused. “And what did you mean about Erica?”
Danielle lifted her head, gazing at him with her big brown eyes. “I told Jessica you and I were hooking up.”
Nathan stopped himself before he could make a gagging noise. “What?”
“I asked her why you two were fighting in the yard. She said it was because you were trying to kiss Sang. So I helped you by letting her think over the last week I was coming over more, hanging out together with you.” She reached into her back pocket, pulling out her cell phone. “I put a pic up on Facebook of back in the day when we used to hang out together. She follows me.”
She turned her phone around, showing a picture of Nathan and Danielle at the pool in his back yard. It must have been at least five years ago, if not before then. He barely remembered taking the picture.