Hawthorn Academy- Year Two Page 17

  "Okay, fine. I'm in the chess club." Izzy rolled her eyes. "But he's the president."

  "Okay." Cadence didn't bother writing that one down. "What else?"

  "Ballroom dancing, which he got trophies for back in Chicago where he's from."

  "So have you, in Boston!" Cadence dropped her pen and pad, clapping her hands and squealing. "Partner up with him for the talent show and boom, you’re essential too."

  "Cadence, you're a genius." Izzy leaned over and hugged her.

  "You just told me I needed to study more." She giggled.

  "Genius isn't just academics." I smiled, then rubbed my growling stomach. "I think it's pizza time, ladies. Let's head out and celebrate this stroke of brilliance at the Engine House."

  My friends agreed, so we packed up our papers and notebooks, then headed into the early autumn day together.

  "Bubbe?" I knocked on the rear door of her office, the one at the bottom of the back stairs. I'd just gotten back from my day out with Cadence and Izzy, and I'd promised to visit her this weekend.

  "Just a moment, Bissel!" I heard her voice call from down the hall.

  Her footsteps sounded solid and reassuring on the other side of the door as she approached and opened it. We smiled and hugged, then I followed her down the hall. She paused outside the entrance to the kitchen and turned to face me.

  "Your friends are here, Harold Hawkins and Faith Fairbanks. They brought something I think you ought to see."

  "Oh?" I blinked but nodded. "Okay."

  She opened the door and I walked in, then sat across the table from Hal and Faith. Bubbe set an empty mug in front of me and poured red zinger tea from a pot. After that, she took her half-full beverage from the table and headed into the hall to do rounds for her boarders and patients. Mine was the only mug with steam rising from it, so they'd been there for a while.

  "Hi, you guys." I wrapped my hands around the warm cup. "What's up?"

  "Remember last year, before you righteously dumped the poisonous bastard?" Faith studied her nails.

  "Yes, unfortunately." I nodded.

  "You asked if his mother could look into Hal's family. Well, she did, but he waited until now to tell us about it. Anyway, he gave us this."

  Faith pushed the piece of paper across the table toward me. I didn't look at it, at least not yet.

  "Why are you showing me?"

  "We thought you might have some idea what this means." Hal tapped a line at the bottom of the paper. "You're fanatical about the folks down at Providence Paranormal College."

  "Oh. I'll help, I just didn't want to go poking around in your private stuff. Not after all the mistakes I made in that area last year."

  "The mistakes turned out to be an advantage, though." Hal sighed. "Alex came through, but I can't get my brain around why."

  "He sent it to us by way of Arick Magnuson, who positively quaked in his boat shoes." Faith rolled her eyes. "At least we've got one ally among the first-years. You made quite the impression on him in Familiar Bonding."

  "I hope you're right." I sighed.

  "The document seems to be in order, anyway." Hal tapped it again. "But this bothers me. Something about it feels almost too familiar. Uncanny, even coincidental."

  "All right, all right. I'm looking."

  I held the paper up, reading the words printed on it. The document was brief, mostly a list of names with relationships to Hal's father.

  "Gamila Haddad Hawkins is my grandmother. She made the stained glass mural on the doors to the academic wing." He shook his head. "I never met her, though. She's fae and went away for some reason. Business with a monarch, maybe?"

  "I don't know. I only remember your dad saying his mother made that artwork."

  "Let's stay focused on Stephanie's side of the family." Faith sniffed. "What there is of it."

  "There's nothing here about her except that your mother's maiden name was Kiln." I tapped my temple, trying to remember. "And you're right, it rings a bell. Reminds me of something I heard, but it's off somehow."

  "Absolutely." Hal nodded. "It's unique because everything on Dad's side is a birth or baptismal record, but hers is a GED record at North Shore Community College. She covered up being a dhampyr, but that can't be all."

  "That name must be an alias." Faith said. "It makes sense, but if you're hiding your status, why do it with a name so odd it draws attention?"

  "Because you aren't sure what your name is?" I shrugged. "Her kind were victims for ages, moved from one place to another and fed from. Maybe Kiln was the only name she could think of that wouldn’t hurt anyone."

  "My mom never had much empathy," Hal said, "And she’s the opposite of genuine under the masks she wears in public. No, Aliyah. I can't afford to entertain the idea that she's somehow secretly sad. You never met her, so I don't blame you for misjudging her."

  "Parents screw up." Faith put her arm around him, leaning his head on her shoulder. "They're flawed, they make mistakes. The really bad ones do horrifying shit on purpose, like sell their kids to the highest bidder, which is my guess about how she ended up here."

  I couldn't say anything. My own folks were as close to perfect as you could get, despite my mom's estranged family. Anything I said would sound trite, so I looked at the paper again, trying to think of an alternate path to discovering Stephanie's true identity. My brain kept going back to Logan's parents and how they’d put out an Amber Alert to the police. That gave me an idea.

  "Have you thought about missing person records? Cold cases?"

  "No." Hal blinked. "I hadn't."

  "I had." Faith sighed. "It takes a lot of in-person legwork all over New England. We'd have to hire someone for that. A private investigator."

  "How much do you think it would cost?" Hal raised an eyebrow.

  "No clue." I shrugged. "I don't know whether minors like us can legally hire them anyway, but it's something to look into."

  "I'll check on it." Hal gave me a wan grin. "Thanks for brainstorming with us, Aliyah."

  "I'd hardly call that a brainstorm, but you're welcome. I was wondering, what brought you here?"

  "More vitamins for Nin and a checkup. Can you believe it's been almost six months since the last time?"

  "Wow." I shook my head. "So much has happened since then."

  "How's Dylan holding up, by the way?" Faith asked. "We've barely seen him since the beginning of the year."

  "He's not doing so great. Feels left out of everything, mostly." I sighed. "At least he's got guitar."

  "It must be even worse with the café closed. I heard about you confronting Alex the night it happened. Good job getting information out of him. Maybe that's why he finally gave the report to us."

  "That's not why I did it. Total knee-jerk reaction. I'm kind of embarrassed." I let out a deflated little sigh. "At least I didn't light up the lobby in a bad way."

  "I don't blame you one bit." Faith sniffed. "We still need to keep an eye on him. You know how Grace has our entire social structure planned out? You can be sure Tempe's got something similar going on, and if I were her, I'd counter you with Alex. You might have caught him off-guard that time, but be careful."

  "I'm sorry, Faith." Hal shook his head. "You should be the one leading our crowd. You were born for this, but instead, you're stuck ushering me around."

  "I wouldn't be anywhere but with you, and Grace is doing just fine." Faith squeezed his hand. "That girl has an uncanny knack for managing any task she puts her mind to. Besides, I like using my powers for good." She grinned.

  "What did Grace say the first day? We're going to nice them to death?"

  "It might not be that simple, but that's the idea, and I'm sticking to it." Hal nodded. "What did you say last year? Kindness is punk AF?"

  We all laughed at that. Bubbe returned with Nin's vitamins to a room full of mirthful teenagers. I followed as we escorted Faith and Hal out the front door. After they left, I turned to my grandmother and hugged her.

  "Bubbe, thank you." />
  "What for?"

  "For being so kind to my friends. Helping us all. Going above and beyond. I appreciate it."

  "Bissel, it's the least I can do. After we get to be a certain age, many adults think back to the teenage years, remember it as some golden age, but then we get even older and remember the rest. How hard it all was at the same time."

  "There's something Logan says in Creatives: that it's almost impossible for something bright to stand out unless the background’s darker. He's talking about art, I know, but isn't art like life?"

  "And the other way around." She sighed, but the corners of her mouth turned up instead of down. "I know I already did my rounds, but would you like to have a look at our current guests?"

  Of course I would. I followed my grandmother down the hall, filling the rest of my Saturday with the familiar but still fascinating task of helping around her office.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Much like the previous year, the weeks went by in routine. Bubbe returned Clementine to campus on Monday at dinner time. I saw it happen; we had our take-out dinners adjacent to Darren. The lounge was cramped because only part of it had opened before the café, which remained closed.

  Familiar Bonding proceeded, and we discovered Lena's element was poison. That shocked me. Shyness wasn't usually a personality trait amongst poison magi, and possums tended to avoid them, but she ended up bonding with the little marsupial despite all that.

  Arick was a wood magus like Lee Young. He didn't find his familiar among the ones Nurse Smith presented, either. He bonded with one in the library, but not before he completely lost hope. I only saw it because I offered to return a book for Ezekiel.

  "It's not going to happen, Mr. Ashford." Arick put his head down on the counter, something I'd never seen a student do in the library. "Is Academic as boring as they say?"

  "Why not have a look at the introductory text, Arick?"

  He pulled a large battered volume out from under the counter and set it beside the boy's head. It made a faint booming sound, but hollower than I would have expected from a tome that size. Arick stood up immediately, staring at the cover, which shook slightly before bouncing up and down.

  "Oh, dear." Mr. Ashford took a step backward. "Cover your faces, students!"

  As if in demonstration, he held his palms over his mouth and nose, like the masks carpenters wear to keep out wood shavings. Moments later, I copied him, rushing to Arick's side to encourage him to do the same. I knew what was coming.

  The book's cover flipped open, letting out a voluminous cloud of papery dust. I squinted, wanting to see the critter emerge. I'd never watched one hatch before.

  The pointy head looked more canine than reptilian, but that was because bookwyrms were chimera. It shook its mane out, sending up more dust, then yawned, revealing its froglike tongue. When it tried to climb out of the now-hollow tome its egg had been laid in, the poor creature succeeded but ended up falling headfirst off the counter.

  "I got you!" Arick dropped to his knees, catching the critter in his hands.

  Mr. Ashford lowered his hands, holding them to his heart and smiling. My mouth dropped open as I watched Arick stare into the bookwyrm's eyes. It let out a dusty croak.

  "You're welcome, Skinner." He stood up absently, totally enthralled with the wingless critter perched in his hands.

  "Your bookwyrm's name is Skinner?" I grinned. "Like the psychologist?"

  "He hatched from an education textbook, so that makes sense," Mr. Ashford said.

  "Well, it looks like you've got yourself a familiar, Arick." I grinned.

  After that, he was all smiles. He waited with me as I returned the book, and I had the privilege of going with him to tell Nurse Smith the good news. Our remaining time in Familiar Bonding was spent on critter training and care, much to Dorian's relief. He and Mercy still needed practice.

  Faith and Hal ended up asking Nurse Smith to conduct lessons in the same room as his infusions, mostly so they had company. He seemed slightly better, which was no small relief, especially with the specter of Parents’ Night spooking Logan. He talked about it at breakfast one day.

  "I don't know what to do, Aliyah." Logan shook his head, then gazed into his glass of juice. "They're going to show up. It's Elanor's last year. What if they try to take me home?"

  "It's Massachusetts, and my mom knows all the laws, which are in your favor. She'll be here with Bubbe. They'll stick up for you."

  "I can't shake the feeling that they're going to do something awful." He shuddered, almost knocking over his glass.

  "I understand, mate." Dylan patted his shoulder. "This year has sucked so far, but once we're past Parents’ Night, it's all fun stuff. Extramurals. Remember that? Maybe there's some good on the horizon."

  "I guess so." Logan shrugged. "It's just, nobody else had their parents toss them out, then call the cops on them."

  "You might be wrong about that." I waved a hand at the bustling cafeteria, thinking about my mom. "Maybe nobody here has been through that, but somewhere in the world, it probably happened before."

  "I'm still scared. Can't help the feeling it'll go sideways no matter what I do. I know what you say about assumptions, so I guess I'm an ass."

  "At least you're a smart ass, Logan." Dorian sauntered by with a tray full of empty plates. "I wouldn't be managing if it weren't for you, so at any rate, I'm glad you're here."

  Logan stared at Dorian like he was a cooler full of ice-cold soda on a hundred-degree day at the beach. He strode by, seemingly oblivious to the attention.

  "If I could only find a girl who looked at me the way you do at the Goth." Elanor appeared from somewhere behind me, shaking her head. "You've got it bad."

  "No, I don't." Logan jerked his arm so hard he knocked over his juice.

  It spilled across the table, splashing the remains of my breakfast sandwich in the process. I managed to avoid any of it dripping on me, thanks to Ember. She swooped down, flapping her wings to keep it from falling off the side like an orange waterfall. I tossed a stack of napkins on the liquid to soak up the deluge.

  "Just say something to him already." Elanor sighed. "Do what you can about the stuff you have control over."

  "Yeah, unlike your parents." Dylan rolled his eyes. "If you're going to give him sisterly advice, better to reassure him about that elephant in the room."

  "I can't." She gazed at her shoes. "I'm not an insurance company, and they're practically acts of God. I'll distract them as much as I can." Elanor looked back up at Logan. "I wish they weren't giving you so much grief."

  "Thanks, Elanor."

  "For nothing." I finished mopping up the orange juice, dropping the sodden napkin on my tray.

  "Whatever, Miss Healthy Normal Family." With that, Elanor flounced away.

  "What did she just call me?" I blinked.

  "It's several steps up from the crap Charity said about you last year." Dylan shrugged, then placed his hands on the table. The tips of his fingers paled slightly. "Anyway."

  Something about his fingernails must've caught his attention because he studied them. He cleared his throat, opened his mouth, then closed it again. After another moment, he leaned back and shook his head. Whatever he was going to tell us remained a mystery.

  "Aliyah, I wanted to ask." Logan started bussing the trays. "Will you go to the dance with me? As friends again, I mean. I just don't want to be there by myself, you know."

  "Sure, Logan. At least none of us has to go with Alex Onassis."

  We all laughed, Dylan somewhat flatly. It broke the tension enough to get us through that day, at least.

  As the week wore on, I noticed Hal wasn't as late to class as he'd been at the end of last year. He came in just after the bell, a vast improvement. We partnered up in lab again while Faith headed Bailey off, leaving Dorian with Logan, who was responsible for him academically anyway. Matchmaking had everything to do with it since Faith and Hal noticed Logan’s crush.

  "You look way better."
I waved a hand at his improved color and posture. "Is it the new treatments in Boston?"

  "Partly, but Faith's been helping between classes. We meet at that stained glass mural and do the therapies Bubbe gave us last year." He recorded an observation about the fluid in the flask in front of us.

  "Well, I'm glad that's working and that the doctors allow it."

  "Me too. Who'd have thought the fact that she's an undeath magus would be so serendipitous."

  "Coincidence." I smiled at my friend. "You guys are destined."

  "I won't wager against you on that." He nodded back.

  Neither of us said the obvious: that she was literally saving his life. I think he worried, wondered whether things between them were one-sided. From where I sat, it went both ways. Her family was so toxic it could give Alex's poison a run for its money.

  I pondered my ex-boyfriend. Last year, he'd given Charity a vow to help with some heinous effort, but so far, he’d only denied poisoning Clementine and sent genealogy records to Hal. I couldn't allow his baffling behavior too much real estate in my mind. Faith was right; his mere presence could foil me by distraction if I wasn't careful.

  Temperance was the definitive force in the social scene for first-years, and Alex was almost always on her arm. So far, it hadn't extended to us. Bailey hung out with the third-years. Elanor Pierce was their It Girl, and dating Alex had backfired because Noah hated him. Most of the third-years snubbed Tempe.

  That left her with no choice but to set up a stationary orbit around Elanor's group in hopes of catching defectors before they switched allegiance to Grace. That vindicated her social strategy enough for my classmates to accept Dylan’s misery as collateral damage.

  Every Wednesday, the school cafeteria had high tea after Familiar Bonding. The crowd around Grace grew, while Temperance's dwindled.

  Arick Magnuson brought Giselle Ambersmith, who was his lab partner, to hang out the first week and introduced others each Wednesday. I kept my eye on the rest of the first-years every time because Alex had been sneaky last year, and I had no reason to think he’d changed.

  If only I had more information. Bubbe was my only source, and she remained mum about the lab results. The headmaster continued working on the mystery. He'd sent a memo requesting staff and faculty to come forward with information but had let nothing else slip where Hal could hear or see it. Nurse Smith kept his lips zipped so tightly on the matter that he'd excluded Ezekiel.