House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) (32 page)

Some of the other people started paying attention to it. People pointed toward it, redirecting attention from the game to the screen. Karen said something next to me about it, but I was dodging my head trying to see around someone. I stood up on the seat, trying to look over the sea of heads.

The announcer asked people to calm down and let everyone know that the game would continue shortly and that the injury didn’t appear to be bad. It didn’t seem as though the people in the booth had noticed anything else.

In bright flashes, the box on the screen blew up, a cartoon explosion with lots of blinking. There were bits of cartoon debris that fluttered around the box, scattering the pieces.

And then the box came back. It did it again, only this time the sequence was faster.

“Nathan,” I shouted. A panic was filling inside me. Somehow, I knew. This was it, whatever it was. “Something’s wrong.” I don’t know how I knew, but I did. That display board didn’t show anything but ads before and now suddenly the image of the explosion felt like a message.

Nathan gripped my arm, sitting on the edge of his seat. Caution was one thing. Giving into fear was another. If we started to move too quickly, it could escalate everyone else around us into panicking.

Karen stood next to me, her face trained toward the screen. “Who messed with the screen?” she asked. Derrick stood up next to her, checking it, too. Everyone around us was looking now.

“It’s got to be a joke,” Derrick said. “A bad one. After the week we had.”

A rumble started below the stands. At first, it sounded like everyone was stomping their feet and making noise that rattled the bleachers.

Then a thick, white cloud formed below the stands, filtering up through the spaces between the benches. When I turned, more of it billowed out of pipes hanging in every corner of the bleachers.

“Oh shit,” Karen said. She reached for my arm, clutching it like she needed to hang on. Nathan was on my other side, turning, looking where we were looking. His blue eyes wide, his mouth dropped open.

I’d never seen him in such a panic. I froze, not knowing what to do.

A fearful scream overtook the sounds of the rattling stands. Another joined it. There was a rush, and a swoop of people started running for the steps to get out of the path of the fog swirling up at our feet.

“We have to get out of here,” I said, my voice off pitch with the fear filling inside me. With the fog lifting and the smoke coming down from the corners, it started covering everything. It crept up my legs, licking across my skin, cool and thick.

A broad hand met my back. Smooth. Confident. Calm.

“Derrick,” Nathan called at him, loud in my ear behind me. “Grab Karen. We have to go. Now.” He clutched me closer around the waist, grabbing my hand and directing me to step long and down, stepping down the seats instead of the flooded walkways filled with people trying to get around and get out of the stands.

Derrick followed his lead. Karen held onto my other arm and we moved forward together. If one teetered, the other caught and stabilized.

But we weren’t fast enough. The fog overtook us until it was coating our faces, surrounding our bodies. We couldn’t see where we were stepping before, but now we couldn’t see in front of our faces. Karen and I gripped at each other to hang on. Nathan clutched me tighter.

“Keep moving!” Nathan called. “Don’t stop.”

“There’s too many people,” Derrick said. I could feel it. I was right behind Karen. She swayed at a rush of people going by. The stadium was shaking louder. Screams were louder down here. Voices, shouts, stomping feet, the rattling of the stands. It all consumed us as much as the fog.

“Jump the front of the stands,” Nathan said. “Go over that rail. Don’t worry about the stairs. We’ll run out into the field.”

My mouth filled with the fog, trying to catch my breath. Nathan’s hand moved, covering my mouth.

“Try not to breathe too much in,” he said.

It was hard to move forward with the whole stadium shaking, but we went as fast as we could.

At the base, the crowd of people trying to get out was pushing to the side to follow the ramp down. Derrick clamped onto the rail and jumped over, getting on the other side and lowering himself down. Nathan caught up and followed.

“Let’s go,” Karen said, squeezing my arm and urging me forward.

I grabbed the rail, throwing my leg over and lowering myself down. The moment Nathan had his arms around my waist, I let go and he put me down next to him.

“Run!” he shouted.

I tried. For a moment, it was all white.

When we broke clear underneath the wall of fog folding down in front of the bleachers, the change was significant. I sucked down clean air. My lungs felt chilled and thick and I needed fresh air to squeeze out the fog, and the fresh air was cold and the cycle continued.

Nathan tugged my arm, not stopping. When I stumbled again on the uneven ground, he grabbed me around the waist and lifted.

I hugged him around the shoulders, watching behind us.

The stadium was swamped with the thick smoke, some areas thicker than others. The fog still billowed from the top corners of the bleachers. Other students had taken Nathan’s idea to jump the bleachers and run out into the field. Additional students and parents were trampling down the ramps, stampeding forward. Some teachers were trying to direct people out and to the parking lot.

Nathan slowed at the far end of the field by the fence. He put me down, turning to witness the ongoing chaos.

Karen and Derrick did, too. We were well away from the others. Most students that had followed by jumping gathered on the field with the football players and coaches, checking out what was going on.

North and Silas split away from them, helmets off. North waved to us and then started jogging. Silas ran after him. Nathan waved back, signaling and we waited.

“What was that?” I asked. “What happened?”

“Who rigged the fog machines?” Silas asked as he approached and stopped.

Nathan had his phone out and started punching at the numbers. “Calling Kota.”

“Sang,” North said, reaching for me. “Where’s your phone?”

I felt for it, and then held it out for him. He took it, punched at the screen.

It didn’t light up.

He punched at it again.

Nothing.

“Did the battery die?” he asked.

“It was fine earlier,” I said. Then I looked at my phone.

It had a pink cover.

The last time it had a pink cover was a few days ago when Luke borrowed it to make the swap. I was sure when I looked at it before, it wasn’t on there.

In the moment, it escaped me why my phone was now different. Did Luke steal it from me somehow and give my cover back? But if so, why wasn’t the phone working?

Silas darted around the other boys and then scooped me up, clutching under my butt and across my back to hold me to him. “
Aggele
,” he said in my ear. He walked around a little bit. “You okay?”

I sunk into him, but found the hard material of his football pads difficult to hold onto. I settled for pressing my cheek next to him just to feel the real Silas. My fingers swam into his hair, holding carefully. “Did you see the screen?”

“What screen?”

Karen stepped up next to us. “After the last tackle, the screen was showing an exploding box.”

“That’s not what it says now,” Silas said.

Karen redirected her attention, and I pulled away from Silas to see what was going on.

The screen had changed, showing only one word.

Boom.

A
fter the fog settled, it was discovered by security the fog machines that had been used earlier had been refilled to bursting with dry ice, and the piping was really the hollow part of the stand’s structure and the smoke was directed to come out of every hole in those bars along the bleachers.

Duct tape did the rest. It was the only thing holding it all together. The men in the Security uniforms marched around, asking questions.

That was all I learned about it before I was rushed out into the parking lot, so we could avoid the police who had shown up to take statements. There were some minor injuries with ankles twisted and some scrapes, but for the most part, there wasn’t any damage.

I gave my phone to North, pointing out how it was different. He took it, said he’d ask Luke. Maybe it was a mix up and he put the wrong case with the phone back with me without me noticing. Luke was busy, so we couldn’t ask.

After the he and North changed out of their uniforms, I was to stay with Silas. We’d get a report later as the others were going to stick around to figure out what happened.

The moment I was inside his car, Silas took off down the road. It was dark and my lungs still felt funny from the fog I’d breathed in. He was pretty quiet for the whole ride but I snuck a look every once in a while.

His dour expression changed over time. At the start, I was afraid to say anything. Later, as we neared his home, he seemed to relax.

“That was all,” Silas said. He turned his head to look at me as he pulled into the apartment complex’s parking lot. “You know? A prank.”

“Was it all a build up to this? The bomb threats?”

“Maybe,” he said. “But do you see? No bomb. The guy wanted attention. There were too many people to be able to focus on who it could have been. We’re close with this one,
Aggele
. Tomorrow at the dance, we’ll have so many more Academy people there. No one will get in or out without us knowing. We’ll catch him for sure.”

He seemed so confident, and then his smile broadened. To him, it was like we’d already won. We just needed to go through with the plan.

I wasn’t so sure, but for the moment, I trusted him. I’d been scared. I had moments where I thought there really was a bomb. With no one having been severely injured, the whole scene now felt like an elaborate prank instead of something dangerous.

As soon as we parked, Silas leapt out. He ran around to my side, opening the door. He was in jeans and a big blue T-shirt and his hair combed back. His breath drifted like smoke from his lips. I hopped out, still unused to the guys wanting to open my door all the time, but they seemed eager to do so.

As soon as I stepped out, he closed the door and took my hand. He didn’t say a word. He just moved, and I followed.

Everything he needed to say was between our palms, and how strongly he held on to my hand. I didn’t understand the meaning of it, but I knew he wanted to keep me close. It’d been a crazy night, but we survived, and it proved to be not as bad as had expected. Well it wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t a bomb and it was over. Maybe something good would come out of it.

He had to release me to unlock the door. When I stepped inside, waiting for him to lock up behind us, I remained quiet, listening. Since it was evening, I expected perhaps his father to be home, and maybe his brother.

Again the different scents caught my attention. Some I now understood. The light smoke. The different colognes. The exotic spices. I breathed it in slowly, Silas’s world in a scent. Past and present, this was who Silas was.

The living room and hallways, at least, were empty. Theo was probably in his room. Charlie could also be behind closed doors. The day before, I felt calm because I thought no one was there with us. Now I was intimidated thinking someone could walk in on us at any minute.

Silas stepped up next to me, stretched and then nudged me. “It’s just you and me,
Aggele Mou
,” he said. “Theo’s in his bedroom. The alarm on my phone is set for the doors and windows this time. Come on.”

I wasn’t sure if he meant we were away from the chaos or we were finally away from the others. I wondered if the others would arrive soon, or if they would be up all night dealing with what had happened.

I started to turn toward the hallway leading to the living room, but Silas redirected me.

The next thing I knew, I was inside his bedroom, and he was closing the door behind us. He flicked on the overhead light.

My heart went into a thunder. My eyes flitted to the television near his bed, the closed laptop, the sports equipment around his room. There was the brisk blow of cool air from the vent above, but otherwise the house was quiet.

Silas immediately went to the bed. He sat down, and removed his shoes and socks. When he was barefoot, he tucked his shoes aside and then sat back. He looked at me, an eyebrow lifted.

I looked back at him, my head tilting, expecting him to get up.

He held out a hand, palm up. “Come here,” he said quietly.

I tiptoed to him. He caught my hand before I could reach out to him. His hand was so big, it nearly engulfed mine as he curled his fingers around my palm.

I stood in front of him, and this way we were almost face-to-face. “What would you like to do?” he asked.

My tongue glued to the roof of my mouth. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding. It was just like the first time I’d been here. I cared about him, but I still felt terrified. I didn’t mean to be. I simply couldn’t think. My mind blanked having him so close. I felt him. I could smell his ocean scent stronger now. It made my heart flutter.

His hands twisted, until he was rubbing one of mine between his palms. His eyes never left mine. “Maybe watch a movie?” he asked.

I nodded.

His smile elevated slightly. He tugged me, until I was sitting beside him.

Without a word, he lifted one of my legs. He tucked fingers into the heel of my sandal and then slid it off, letting it fall to the floor. His palm cupped the bottom of my foot, warming. He kept the leg in his lap and brought the other one up, removing the shoe and putting my sandals near his shoes. This left me sitting back a little awkwardly but I kept myself upright.

After, he slid his palms over my feet, rubbing warmly. He did it quietly at first, focusing.

That’s when I knew it. He was searching for something to say to me. “Silas?” I asked.

He looked at me, an eyebrow going up. His lips parted, he closed them again for a moment. There was a slight shake to his head. “What kind of movie would you like to see?” he asked.