The Academy (33 page)

I clenched my jaw. He’d probably heard something from Hinks, who didn’t seem the type to keep quiet about the caning North had taken for me. “Whatever you heard, it’s not true. I told you, North and I are nothing more than roommates.”

“Maybe
now
you are but I’m willing to bet that there was
something
between you at some point.” Wilkenson looked at me reproachfully. “And here I thought you didn’t swing that way.”

“I don’t,” I said shortly. “And neither does North.”

He raised an eyebrow.
“Touchy.
Anyway, I was more surprised about North than you. He’s so straight he’d make a ruler jealous.”

“Yes, he is. And so am I. So just drop it, all right?” Wilkenson’s continued probing into my private life was beginning to get on my nerves. Especially now that I
had
no private life with North anymore.

“Fine.” Wilkenson dropped my arm abruptly. “Be that way if you want.”

I sighed. Great, now I had managed to alienate my only remaining friend. “Look, Wilkenson, I’m sorry—”

“No, no—don’t mind me.” He was already walking away, his nose in the air as though he smelled something bad. “I’ll leave you alone to sulk. Let me know when you’re finished pouting about whatever it is that happened that you refuse to talk about. I’ll be around.” He flashed me one last sardonic look and lost himself in the now crowded hallway.

I stopped dead in the middle of the hallway and stood there like a lump, letting the other students walk around me. I was miserable—completely miserable and there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing except tell North my secret and I couldn’t do that. So I was stuck.

Eventually I got moving again and trudged down the hallway, heading for my last class of the day—mandatory physical-fitness. As I walked into the echoing gymnasium, I caught myself keeping a wary eye out for Broward and his cronies. Then I remembered Wilkenson’s 'juicy gossip'. Well, there was one problem solved, anyway. Without the bully constantly looking to beat me up, I should be able to take a shower in peace after class. As long as his remaining friends didn’t come after me, that was.

Today Coach Janus had us playing basketball—a sport from Earth-that-was that seemed to have been invented specifically for tall people, which left me out. I spent most of the class sitting on the sidelines watching my classmates take turns trying to get a striped orange ball through a net. To my relief, Broward was indeed absent and his two large henchmen, Nodes and Dawson, ignored me completely. Still, just to be on the safe side, I waited until most of the other students had finished their showers before sneaking back to the gymnasium locker room myself.

The locker room had just about cleared out and all the shower stalls were unoccupied by the time I got there. I checked to be sure and only when I was satisfied that the long row of showers was really empty did I walk quietly down and take the one on the very end.

Feeling nervous and edgy, I turned on the hot water and waited until it was steaming before stripping off my clothes. Then, making sure the shower curtain was completely closed and my towel was close at hand, I stepped quickly into the spray.

The hot water went to work on me at once. As I popped a shampoo capsule over my head, I felt my tension beginning to ease. I was still unhappy about the situation with North but I no longer felt like doubling up in misery. It was a vast improvement.

I rinsed my hair and soaped my body as well, rubbing my unbound breasts to ease the pain from being wrapped all day.
Just have to make it until the end of this semester,
I told myself as I washed.
Then I can leave The Academy behind forever and get a job in the private sector.
I wouldn’t have to pretend to be someone I wasn’t there. Females were counted equal with males and a woman could be a captain or a navigator if she proved herself—which I fully intended to do.

I thought about flying through the vast reaches of space, exploring new places, seeing worlds I’d only imagined. That was my dream, the
real
reason I was here, I reminded myself. I hadn’t come to The Academy to fall in love, I’d come to get out from under my father’s thumb, to see the stars, and of course to facilitate Kristopher’s dream of being a professional musician. I had almost achieved all that—my goal was in sight. I just had to make it through a few more months and I would be free.

I was actually beginning to feel better when, unbidden, North’s words rose in my mind.
“I can see it now…We’ll have our own ship. I’ll be the captain and you can be the navigator.”

Abruptly, my unhappiness came back in a flood. There would be no ship now. No exploring the stars with the man I loved by my side. There would just be me, alone in space. That was,
if
I managed to get through the final exams without getting picked for a DNA check and losing a hand.

“Oh North,” I whispered, leaning my forehead against the cool tile wall. “I hate this. I wish things could be different.”

“I’ll show you different, freshie.”

Before I could register the familiar voice behind me, a rough hand had me by the arm and was turning me around.

Caught off guard, I flailed, nearly slipping on the slick tiles. A fall to the shower floor would have been painful but it might have saved me—I could have covered myself. Unfortunately, Broward’s grip on my arm was too firm. He dragged me up, glaring at me with a wicked light in his piggy little eyes.

I stared at the familiar, hateful face in shock. “You…you were expelled,” I gasped, trying to cover myself with my hands. “You’re not even supposed to be here!”

“Yeah, but I had a little unfinished business.” He grinned at me. “
You
, freshie. So I came in the back way and told Dawson and Nodes to keep you here for me. Thought you might sneak out the back but—” He stopped abruptly, his eyes widening. “Dawson…Nodes…you see what I’m seeing?”

“Damn,” Dawson said, from behind his shoulder. “Look at him…her.”

“What the hell?” The dimwitted Nodes, standing on Broward’s other side, appeared confused. “Where’s his dick?” he asked bluntly.

“He doesn’t have one, idiot.” Broward’s eyes left my face and roamed my body instead. “He’s a she. Freshie here is a
girl.”

“Leave me alone,” I tried to back away but Broward wasn’t about to let me go. His beefy hand tightened on my upper arm, holding me fast.

“A
pretty
girl, too,” he marveled and his voice was suddenly thick with lust. “A little on the flat side but I’m a leg man myself.”

“Damn,” Dawson said again, and his eyes had gone greedy. “A real live girl right here, under our noses all this time. Just think of all the fun we could’ve been having with her.”

Nodes seemed to finally get the idea. “So if Jameson is a girl, that means that time he beat you at fencing…Hey, Broward—you got your ass handed to you by a girl. You know that?”

“Shut up, you idiot,” Broward snarled, throwing a glare at him. “I didn’t know he was a she back then.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Nodes said implacably. “You still got taken by a girl.”

Broward gave me a cruel smile. “And now it’s time to do a little
taking
of my own.”

My stomach felt like I had swallowed a pound of ice and my legs went suddenly weak. Surely he wasn’t thinking of doing
that.
Being found out was bad enough but being assaulted by a pig like Broward…well, I would rather lose a hand any day. “You…you wouldn’t,” I said, my voice dry with fear.

“Oh
wouldn’t
I?” Broward leered at me. “You know how long it’s been since I had a girl, freshie? My father had me grounded the entire break—couldn’t even get out to find myself a prossie doid. I need a little something to take the edge off—how about you help me out?”

“No!” I finally managed to wrench free of him but there was no place to go but back into the still-running shower. “Get away from me,” I said in a trembling voice. “How dare you speak to me that way? You…you are no gentleman.”

Broward laughed, an ugly sound that echoed and rolled in the tiled corridor. “Well, come to that, neither are
you
, freshie. And you won’t be a lady, either. Not when I’m finished with you.” He unbuttoned his fly and stepped forward, reaching for me. “Now
come
here
.”

I shrank back against the cold tiles, feeling sick and desperate. He was really going to do it. He was going to rape me. And there was nothing I could do to stop him.

No, I can’t think that way!
I lifted my chin.
If I let him intimidate me, I’m as good as dead. I have to have a plan…a strategy.
Suddenly I knew what I was going to do.

“Come on, then,” I said, though my throat was so dry I could barely form the words. I dropped my arms, leaving myself on display, though every instinct I had cried out against it. I was praying that Broward and his cronies would keep their eyes on my body and away from my hands. They did. I slipped one arm behind me and searched blindly with my fingertips for the extra shampoo pellet on the small waist-high ledge in the corner of the stall. “Come on,” I said again, palming the pellet and praying he hadn’t noticed.

“All right now, that’s more like it.” Broward swaggered forward and turned the shower off with a twist of his wrist. With his other hand he was pulling down his trousers. I fought to keep my eyes above his waist but I couldn’t help noticing the thick, stubby male member which came into view. My stomach rolled but I tried not to let the disgust show on my face. “Bet you’ve been wanting me all this time, huh, baby?” he drawled, leaning toward me. “Bet you—”

Jumping forward, I smashed the pellet into his right eye. It popped at once, spraying his unprotected eye with stinging shampoo.

Broward roared in pain and staggered backward, clutching his face. His pants fell to his ankles and he tripped, falling into Dawson and Nodes who had been standing eagerly behind him.

Nodes went down as well, slipping on the wet floor to land flat on his back. Dawson pinwheeled his arms awkwardly, trying not to fall. I didn’t wait to see if he would manage to retain his balance. Grabbing my towel, I fled, jumping over Broward’s supine form in one desperate leap.

I would have made it if Broward hadn’t shot out a hand and grabbed me by the ankle. I fell to the floor in mid flight, like a bird shot from the sky, my towel twisted awkwardly around my torso. My knee cracked hard against the ungiving tiles and my bruised side shrieked at me on impact.

“Oh no you don’t, you little
bitch,”
Broward snarled. His right eye was still squinted shut but his left was filled with malevolent hatred. “Now you’re gonna get it twice as bad.” Gripping my ankle tighter, he began to reel me in.

Desperately, I kicked at Broward’s face with my free foot. My heel connected with his nose and I heard a dull crunching sound. Something wet and hot spurted against my sole and Broward howled in agony. I was fairly sure I had broken his nose but somehow, in his rage, he managed to keep his grip on me.

“Let…me…go!” I shouted, kicking again with each word.

“I don’t think so.” His face was a bloody mask of fury as he dragged me toward him. I could feel the bones of my ankle creak at the bruising pressure of his meaty hand.

I struggled desperately, scrabbling at the slick tiles, fighting the hand locked around my ankle. My towel felt like it was squeezing me in half—it had somehow twisted like a constricting snake around my breasts and hips. Nodes and Dawson were beginning to get to their feet. If I didn’t get away soon—

“Let him go.”

The deep, commanding voice made me gasp and look up. I felt a rush of relief when I saw North standing there, glaring down at the scene on the shower room floor. His face was filled with righteous fury—one look at him sent Dawson scrambling away on his hands and knees.

Nodes, however, wasn’t so quick to give up. He reached for me and grabbed my arm, obviously intent on holding me for Broward.

The next minute North was a blur of motion and Nodes howled. I saw that several of his fingers seemed to be bent at a wrong, unnatural angle. Crying in pain, he scooted away, cradling the broken digits against his chest.

“Anyone else?” North looked at Broward challengingly. “You want a taste too? I’ll break both your arms for you if you don’t take your hands off Kris
right now.”

Broward’s face twisted in hatred. “After what that little bitch did to me? I don’t think so.” In one convulsive move he got up on his knees, still clutching my ankle. “I’m gonna—”