The Academy: Book 2 (16 page)

             
“I can’t talk real good, Asa. Do you notice that? Most of the people here, they talk real good.”

             
Asa jerked and writhed, and Stan continued talking.

             
“You know why? It’s cause this place takes the peoples with the most skills. Most of ‘em talk good. They got school-skills. I didn’t go to school, Asa. I was picked for something else, Piggy.” He leaned close to Asa and spoke with hot breath. “I killed my parents. I then killed the officer that came to investigate. I fed his body to our dogs, and they never found him.” Stan laughed a bit. “That’s what I’m good at. Some are good at math, some science. I guess that the Academy thought it ‘pressive that someone small as me was able to kill like that.”

             
His deep blue eyes looked completely insane.

             
My drill,
Asa thought.
If I can activate my drill…

             
Last semester, Teddy had installed a drill onto Asa’s armband. This drill used the programmable fabrics of the armband and was able to tear through rock. Flesh was no problem for the tool. In order to activate it, he had to pull a portion of the armband’s fabric towards his hand. When he did this, the armband was programmed to create a small hole that he could place his thumb in. Once his thumb was in position, all he had to do was make a fist to activate the weapon.

             
Asa’s eyes rolled in their sockets and he looked at his armband, which was covered in dirt and snow. Stan was still smiling and sweating on top of him. Asa moved the armband to his mouth, bit down on the fabric, pulled, and then placed his thumb into the small hole that was created.

             
Stan wasn’t concerned at all with what he had seen Asa do. Very few students knew about the drill that Asa and Teddy could activate on their armbands.

             
Still being choked, Asa kept his hand flat for a moment, knowing that if he put it into a fist the drill would hum to life. From there, he could reach his fist up and direct the fast moving fibers to tear up Stan’s rib cage.

             
Asa’s face turned purple, and Stan’s grip hardened. He didn’t want to slack now, with Asa’s death so close.

             
But still, with the murderer atop him, Asa thought,
do I really want to kill him?
Asa remembered how his reputation had changed so much after Shelby’s death last year. He imagined that after this death, the students would have an enormous incentive to kill him; their safety would be on the line. Killing Stan would mean the absolute, nonnegotiable end of normalcy at the Academy for Asa. There would be no more second chances, and every student would be an enemy, except for maybe Teddy.
Maybe.

             
On top of that,
Asa thought,
I don’t want another reason for bad dreams. I don’t want his blood on my hands. I don’t want to see someone else die.

             
With consciousness slipping, Asa just lay there as Stan continued to choke him. He felt as though the ground suddenly tipped at an angle, and a wave of light-headedness tried to overcome him.

             
Stan was really smiling now. “You dead, Piggy,” he said.

             
If Asa could have spoken, he would have said, “You’re right.” It wasn’t that he wanted to die, it was just that he was sick of being accused, and he didn’t want anyone else to be hurt. He didn’t want to have to clean himself after Stan’s chest exploded over him either. And he didn’t want to have any more bad dreams.

             
But then, Stan spit on him, and his mind changed. It wasn’t that the spit was incredibly offensive to Asa (
it’s not any more offensive than trying to kill me
), but it started a train of thought. First, Asa thought that he was glad the saliva was clear; he thought of the Multipliers, with their black saliva. In his dying moments, he remembered the contract. He remembered how, if he and Charlotte died, the Academy would become an organization of Multipliers and then they would take over the world.

             
What’s worse? Having to clean off Stan’s insides, or having the world fall to the Multipliers.

             
Now, purple faced, Asa smiled, and looked Stan in the eyes.  He mouthed the words “Kill you.”

             
Stan’s expression changed from jubilation to puzzlement.

             
Asa was about to close his hand into a fist and then drill out Stan’s heart and lungs from his rib cage when the tension on his neck was released, and Stan was gone all together.

             
Stan flew from the spot where he held Asa into a nearby tree, and Roxanne stood above them. Her foot was still extended in the air where she had used it to kick Stan.

             
“What’s going on, Stan?” she asked.

             
Asa began to cough harder than he knew was possible. He turned over on his hands and knees, spat sputum into the dirt, coughed and gasped.

             
Stan stood up and pointed at Asa. “He was flying through the woods, I caught him; and he didn’t answer my question earlier.”

             
“So you thought you’d
kill
him?” Roxanne asked incredulously.

             
“Well,” sputtered Stan, “He’s a murderer. We all know that.”

             
“He’s a part of our team!”

             
“Yeah, but why was he out in the middle of the jungle?”

             
“I don’t know, did you ask him?”

             
Asa continued to cough and gasp. He was feeling much better.

             
“No,” Stan said. “I didn’t ask ‘im.”

             
“I’m the captain, Stan, not you. And if you continue to take situations like this into your own hands, I’ll give my option of firing you from the team some serious consideration.”

             
“Understood,” Stan said.

             
“Now, you go make sure everyone else finishes their run safely. I’ll deal with Palmer.”

             
Stan left, and Asa could feel Roxanne’s eyes as she stared at him. When they had been alone for a whole minute and Asa was beginning to calm down, Roxanne asked: “Do you feel good enough to fly? I need to talk to you in my apartment. Here isn’t private enough.”

             
Asa wiped the spittle from his mouth and looked at her. They were completely alone in the jungle. “This isn’t private enough?”

             
“That’s what I said. Stand up. You’ve got classes later; we need to start moving.”

             
Asa’s legs were shaking, but he was able to stand. He took a few more moments to catch his breath and then, without saying a word, Roxanne spread her wings beside her. They were covered in thin, yellow feathers that stood out in the jungle. Following her lead, Asa spread his wings out too: they were the simple bat wings that all Fishies were given upon arrival at the Academy.

             
“Do you feel up to flying yet?”

             
Asa nodded, looking at the bruise on her face. He reflected at how easily she had kicked Stan off of her, and wondered what could have caused the bruise.

             
Roxanne leapt into the air and began to ascend. Shortly afterward, the two of them were flying side by side over the Moat, towards the fourth semester students’ mountain.

             
The moat reflected the mountain perfectly in the still water. Finish Line Mountain was what some referred to this mountain as, obviously because it represented the last step in a student’s training before she or he could become a graduate.

             
Multiple clear streams trickled down the gradual slope of Finish Line Mountain, coming from the snowy peak high above. The region on the mountains that was covered in snow had been descending slowly downward in recent months, Asa noticed. Finish Line Mountain was layered with thick pine trees. As Asa and Roxanne flew towards the mountain, he was unable to see the entrance for the fourth semester students’ dwellings.

8

Roxanne’s Apartment

             
As they flew through the air, high above the steaming Moat, Asa wondered why Roxanne was taking him all the way to her apartment just to reprimand him.
If she was going to kick me off, couldn’t she have done it in the jungle? And why is she acting as though the conversation needs to be secret?

             
Asa could feel the corners of the altered polaroid picture poking his chest. It rested inside his suit, in between the fabric and his skin.

Far below, off to their right, Asa could see Conway’s house. The roof w
as packed thick with snow, and soft yellow light came through the thin curtains from the main room. Excitement boiled up in Asa’s mind as he wondered what Conway would say if he saw the picture of Asa in a lab coat with glasses. Asa almost couldn’t wait to know if his suspicion that the mutated gorillas around the Academy were trying to help him was correct.
If not, then why were the Multipliers trying to kill them? And why was the gorilla that Jen came across carrying a picture of me?

Far below, a team was practicing Winggame in the early daylight. From so high up, the faces below were unrecognizable; the height made them the size of ants. A male voice drifted through the air to Asa, as the captain shouted orders to his teammates.

“I DON’T CARE IF THERE’S SOMEONE RIGHT ABOVE YOU! IF YOU’RE GOING TO HIT THE WATER, PULL UP! IT’LL BE THEIR FAULT WHEN YOU KNOCK THEIR TEETH OUT!”

Again, Asa longed to play a fair season of Winggame. He wanted to actually test himself against the other players; he wanted to sh
ow what he could do in a game, and make a new reputation for himself. He wanted to be known as a winner, not a cheater or murderer.
And now, in addition to those, I’ll also be known as the first student to be kicked off their own Winggame team.

With all that had already happened since he woke up, Asa was somewhat surprised to see that it was still only 7:55 AM. He already felt tired, and he still had a full day ahead of him. After Asa’s meeting with Roxanne, he would have to hurry back to his home mountain, which was sometimes called Mount Two (because it held second semester students), for “Flying Class” at 9:00 AM. Asa was confused by the title:
I already know how to fly, though. Wouldn’t it have been better to offer the class last semester?
After this was a “Responding to Medical Emergencies Class,” and then, directly after that was a class that was broadly named “Science Class.” He wouldn’t have a break until the afternoon.
And then I’m going straight to Conway’s,
he told himself.

Asa followed Roxanne as she began to descend into Finish Line Mountain. Instead of the entrance being in the front, as
the entrance was for Fishie Mountain, the student entrance into this mountain was located along the right side, carved into the rock. Asa saw it clearly, even from a distance. Great stone lions flanked the door on either side. The door itself was eighty feet tall, and covered with a glass overhang. The overhang had a minimal amount of snow on it, but a raccoon was busy sweeping it clean, brushing off bits of snow that drifted to the ground.