Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy) (63 page)

Sisters as far apart as they could be.

I shuffled through drawers, trying to figure out the most likely spot for a birth certificate and other identity documents. After going through the dressers, I tried the closet, the side tables. Nothing. Suddenly I remembered that there was a box under the bed.

I knelt and pulled the old shoebox out. Inside was an old photograph of my stepmother, possibly the only photograph of anyone in our family in the entire house. I glanced at it once, and something thick and heavy settled over my heart. Fear. Even when she wasn’t here, I felt her whispering, telling me to stay locked away, because other people were bad. I could feel my knees pressing against the wood floor, or my throat and how it burned when she forced me to drink vinegar and lemon juice. I turned the photo over, feeling better without those critical eyes looking at me.

I put it aside and checked the other contents. Old needles from injections she must have gotten and she never threw away, old pill bottles, notes she’d scribbled on and then left. They weren’t really legible. There wasn’t anything else inside. She kept her photo with some old trash?

I returned the box, but kept the photo. I checked over the bedroom again. No birth certificate? No information on us? Where was Marie’s information?

Maybe Marie knew. I crept up the stairs quietly. Marie’s bedroom door was open, so I stepped inside.

She wasn’t there. Her bedroom was cluttered with old clothes stacked in the corner, and her school books, barely touched, were in the corner. I found a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a short note:

Couldn’t find my birth certificate. I’ll need that. If you know where it is, let me know?

I left it, and then left the photo of her mother with it. I thought she might like it.

I headed down the hall to my bedroom, half expecting one of the boys to be inside. I don’t know why, maybe because they were always around these days.

I didn’t hear the voices until I opened the door halfway. When I stepped in, the voices silenced. Dr. Green, Kota, and Mr. Blackbourne were standing in my bedroom. Victor and Gabriel sat on my bed.

I don’t know what shocked me more, the fact that they were in my bedroom together or that they’d been whispering. I had a flash of thought that someone was in trouble. The most surprising was the doctor and Mr. Blackbourne being there, too. They almost never showed up to this house.

The sudden silence told me more than I was probably allowed to ask, but I did anyway. “Secret Academy meeting?”

The corner of Kota’s mouth inched up a little. “Sort of.”

“... In my bedroom?”

“Nathan’s house is a mess right now. North and Nathan are doing a little renovation.”

Renovation? They must have started while I was working with Luke. “Ah.” I lingered in the doorway, gazing at their faces. I guessed Kota’s mother was home or else they would have gone there. Victor’s fire eyes centered on me, a simmer for the moment Dr. Green smiled pleasantly as he sat at the foot of the bed.. Gabriel was on his back on the bed, his fingers strumming an invisible guitar. Mr. Blackbourne was standing resolute, his steel eyes subdued into curiosity.

I refocused on Kota, whose green eyes behind his glasses lingered on me, silently asking me if I needed something or else could I give them a moment. I shifted from one foot to the other, trying to figure out what was wrong that required a secret meeting, but couldn’t come up with anything. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Well...” Dr. Green said, even while Mr. Blackbourne and Kota were starting to say no. “Actually, there might be one thing.”

“We can’t have her involved,” Mr. Blackbourne stated.

“It’s not involving her,” Dr. Green said. “It’s asking her opinion. That’s not getting involved.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, ready for them to tell me there was a bomb or a fight or a boogeyman that needed to be taken care of.

Kota glanced at the others quickly before settling his gaze back on me again. “Silas is out on an Academy job.”

“I haven’t heard from him since the football game yesterday.”

“Right, and there’s another job he could take, too. One that’s... well the Academy really wants him on this one.”

“So why not call him?” I asked.

“It may compromise his current job,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “We try not to submit Academy details about jobs via text or phone calls. It’s too easy to intercept.”

“Isn’t there a secret code or signal you could use?”

“Not now,” he said. “Especially since Volto went silent. We secured ourselves as much as possible, but it’s limiting now when we aren’t sure where he might be. If we use code, it’ll be obvious.”

“So no Bat Signal?”

Gabriel cracked with laughter. The others grinned, except for Mr. Blackbourne, who simply said, “No. We need to talk to him in person.”

“Do you want him to come back?”

“We want to tell him to hurry with his job, without compromising it, and without alerting anyone else as to why we need him back. We just need to know if he’ll be back in time to take this new job or if we need to tell them to go to someone else. Everyone else either can’t do it or they’re busy.”

It took me a moment to think of what to do, but after I had it, I dipped my fingers into my bra, pulling out my new iPhone in the pink case. The old one had cracked. I forgot how many phones I’d been through the last few months. I punched a message at the screen.

“What are you doing?” Kota asked. “We said not to ask him directly to come back.”

I finished my text and sent it. “I didn’t.”

Mr. Blackbourne gave me a scrutinizing look. “You just sent him a text?”

“Yes.”

His eyes narrowed. “I wish you would have shown it to me first.”

My phone vibrated to life in my hands. I checked the screen. “He’ll be back tonight.”

The room silenced. Did they not expect me to help? Isn’t that what they asked me to do?

“What did you say?” Dr. Green asked.

I shrugged, holding out my phone, allowing them to read the screen.

Sang: “Miss you.”

Silas: “7.”

“That means he’ll be back at seven, right?” I asked.

Surprised filled each of their faces. Victor was gawking. There were smiles on the other faces, and Mr. Blackbourne’s stood out the most, a millimeter at most, but dazzling me with the warmth.

It was Kota who finally nodded. “Yeah,” he said.

“Is that all you needed?”

“Uh huh.”

“I’ll uh... guess I’ll go see what North and Nathan are up to.”

The Ghost Bird Series

House of Korba

♥

Book Seven

♥

Written by C. L. Stone

Published by

Arcato Publishing

Coming Fall 2014

ABOUT C. L. STONE

C
ertification

• Marvelour of Wonder
  
• Active Participant of Scary Situations
  
• Official Member of F.A.M.E.
  

Experience

Spent an extraordinary number of years with absolutely no control over the capping of imagination, fun, and curiosity. Willingly takes part in impossible problems only to come up with the most ludicrous solution. Due to unfortunate circumstances, will no longer experience feeling on a small spot on my left calf.

Skills

Secret Keeper | Occasion Riser | Barefoot Walker | Magic Maker | Restless Reckless | Gravity Defiant | Fairy Tale Reader | Story Maker-Upper | Amusingly Baffled | Comprehensive Curiousness | Usually Unbelievable