“He’s fine, Alexis. Nerves are normal.” Jessica turned to me. “I’m sure it will go well.”
Lex’s lips thinned, and she turned back to her breakfast. Jessica sipped her coffee. It was one of the longest conversations we’d ever had.
Mia leaned across the table and handed me a penny.
“I found it on the playground yesterday,” she said. “It’s for good luck on your first day.”
Eleanor’s mom came to take Mia to school, and Lex called upstairs for Nicholas. When he came down, all four of us left for Calabasas High. I had quite the entourage, walking into the front office of the school with Lex and Jessica on either side of me and Nicholas trailing behind. I was pretty sure he’d been instructed to stay with me, to make sure I was okay and to call Lex if I got in over my head. My own personal, if somewhat reluctant, guard dog. And Lex, no doubt, was there to keep an eye on Jessica.
The office secretaries looked up when a bell chimed above Jessica’s head as we entered. I could tell from their wide eyes that they knew exactly who we were.
“Good morning,” Jessica said. “I’m Jessica Calvin Tate. I believe my daughter spoke with one of you on the phone about my son?”
I looked at Jessica in surprise. She was different. Straight backed and clear eyed, speaking in a steady voice above her customary murmur. Her armor was surprisingly effective.
“Oh, uh, yes,” said one of the secretaries. She was pear-shaped and overdressed, a housewife who’d had to get her first job after losing her husband, and she didn’t quite meet Lex’s gaze. She turned to the other woman, who was sitting behind a desk and staring openly at me. “Could you get Dr. Singh, please?”
The bell chimed as a kid walked into the office. “Mrs. Day, I have a note from my mom—” He stopped when he looked up and saw me. “You know what—I’ll come back.”
He hastily retreated from the office, and Nicholas, who was slumped in a chair against the back wall, snorted under his breath. I was suddenly worried. It had been weeks since the photographers at the airport, and I’d just assumed interest in Danny Tate had ebbed, but maybe the protected enclave of Hidden Hills had kept me from realizing how big a deal this all was.
I took a breath and swallowed down my nerves. I could handle a little scrutiny. First you’re an oddity and then you’re furniture. Teenagers are too self-absorbed to care about another person for very long.
The secretary gave Jessica some paperwork she needed to sign, and while she was reading it over, a person I took to be Dr. Singh emerged from a hallway that branched off from the administrative area behind the counter. She was an Indian woman in her fifties or sixties who wore a sharp gray suit that matched her gray hair and sharp eyes. She looked at me without hesitating or staring when she introduced herself as the school’s head guidance counselor.
“Mrs. Tate, Daniel, please follow me, and we’ll get you squared away,” she said.
She led Jessica and me back to her office while Lex and Nicholas waited in the outer office. As we walked, I put my hands in my pockets and felt Mia’s lucky penny. I pinched it between my fingers.
Dr. Singh closed the door to her small office behind us, and we sat down across the large desk that dominated the room.
“So, Daniel,” Dr. Singh said, knitting her fingers on top of a folder of paperwork, “this is a big step for you.”
“I guess so,” I said.
She just looked at me for a long moment before nodding and going on. “And, Mrs. Tate, it’s good to meet you. I’ve spoken at length with your son and daughter about how best to help Daniel reintegrate to the school environment, and Principal Clemmons and I have discussed the situation with his teachers. What I want to be absolutely sure you understand, Daniel, is that we’re here to support you. We know this might not be the easiest transition, so we just want to keep the lines of dialogue open, okay?”
I just wanted to get the hell out of that room. It was small and airless, and I could tell Singh wasn’t stupid. The less time I spent with her, the better. “Yeah, okay.”
She slid a piece of paper across the desk toward me. “This is the schedule we’ve drawn up for you. I’ve put you in ninth-grade classes for your academic subjects, just as a starting place. No one expects you to do any work yet. Just listen and focus on settling in. Nicholas isn’t taking any electives this semester, so the only class of his I was able to put you in was the school’s mandatory health class, but you do share a lunch period. If at any time you feel like you want to alter this schedule in any way, that’s no problem. Nicholas will be walking with you to your classes until you get your bearings, and if it ever becomes too overwhelming, you’re of course welcome to call your mother”—Dr. Singh looked up at Jessica—“or your sister to come and pick you up. There’s no need to jump straight into the deep end.”
“I think I’ll be okay,” I said.
“That’s a great attitude,” Dr. Singh said. “I’d also like you to come meet with me regularly so I can see how you’re getting on. For the next few weeks, I’d like you to come here instead of going to your homeroom class. After that, if things are going well, we can meet perhaps just once a week.”
“No,” I said. I couldn’t spend that kind of time with Singh. She’d be too hard to play, I could tell. If I acted too normal, she’d get suspicious, but if I played my traumatized victim routine, she’d make the Tates put me into therapy or something else that would get me caught. I had to stay away from her. I turned to Jessica. “Please. I just want to be treated normally.”
“Daniel—”
“Doctor,” Jessica interrupted, “I support my son’s decision. We’ve discussed this step extensively at home, and it’s very important to Danny that he returns to a regular routine. No special treatment that will single him out.”
“I really can’t recommend that, Mrs. Tate,” Singh said. “These are special circumstances, and Daniel will need—”
Jessica didn’t blink. “I’m afraid I have to insist.”
I stared. Who knew this steely woman existed inside Jessica’s dissolute shell?
Dr. Singh opened her mouth to argue, but Jessica stared her down, and, with obvious effort, the doctor nodded instead. “Okay, we can see how things go. We’ll adjust if it becomes necessary. And, Daniel, I want you to know you can always feel free to come and speak to me if you want. Understood?”
“Understood,” I said.
? ? ?
The paperwork was done, and we left the office. Lex gave me a tight, nervy hug and asked if I was sure I wanted to do this.
“We can just go home,” she said. “Cane is supposed to propose to Brooke today.”
I smiled. “I’m okay. Really.”
She sighed. “Okay, then. Call me if you change your mind. I’ll come right back and get you.”
She fussed over me. Straightened the collar of my shirt and smoothed my hair. I flinched, and she pulled back.
Jessica just stood there.