The Academy - Introductions (26 page)

He nodded, rubbing a hand through his hair. “We can’t tell
you everything. We’ve been told to never tell anyone and we didn’t want you to
find out. We thought it was unfair to you to be with us when you didn’t know
what you were getting in to. It’s not that we wouldn’t trust you not to tell
anyone...”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t.”

“I didn’t think you would,” he said. “But it isn’t just us.
The Academy requires strict confidence. Something we might accidentally slip to
you, if it got out it could damage the school. If you didn’t know, you couldn’t
say anything. We should have trusted you at least to warn you. You should know
who you’re mixing in with.” He sucked in a breath and then blew it out between
his lips. “I’m sorry about that. I want you with us. The others want you with
us. We have to ask you the biggest favor in exchange. We’re required by the
Academy to keep some secrets. You can’t ask us to tell you. Could you stay with
us even if you knew we were keeping something from you?”

We stood in the street together. My eyes drifted to the
quiet houses, where people were sleeping. I could see Nathan’s home not far
away, a light still on somewhere. Kota’s looked so silent, too. How odd I felt
about it now. I wanted to belong to this place. I wanted to fit in. How I
longed to be normal and here I was with guys who I thought were exactly that,
only to learn that I was completely wrong. In my mind, I tried to think back
about what he would consider weird. Was it that their personalities were so
different and yet they still hung out with each other? Was it that secret way
they communicated? Was it how coordinated they were when it came to everything?
I didn’t dislike it. What possible secret could a school ask a bunch of
teenagers to keep. Why did Kota make it sound so dangerous?

“Will you stay?” Kota asked softly.

What else could I do? This was where I lived. The boys,
despite the confusion, had been so nice to me. They weren’t normal. They
weren’t what I was expecting. Why did it just seem like such a natural thing to
be around them? Flashes went through my mind of their touches, their smiles and
the way they talked to me. Maybe they had secrets. Didn’t I have a few? Could I
turn them away for being different when I was asking them the same?

A soft smile touched my lips. Why did this feel different
than when he had originally asked me to be his friend? Somehow this felt like
just the beginning and I didn't fully understand it. I wanted to try, though. I
wanted to know. “I’ll stay,” I said. “As long as I’m wanted.”

His lips curled into a gentle smile. “Always.”

“Kota?” a voice called from up the road. We turned to see Nathan
jogging up to us. He was barefoot and no shirt, just a pair of shorts. He
slowed when he saw me. “Sang?”

How did he know we were out here? I started shaking again.
I’d ignored them all evening. They must be upset.

Nathan closed the space between us and I thought he was
going to say something. Instead, he reached his arms around me and brought me
close to him, as Kota had done, in a big hug. I smiled, feeling his strong arms
around me.
Friends hug
, I thought.
Get used to it.

He lifted me up off the ground until my toes dangled. “I’m
sorry, Sang,” he said. “I didn’t mean it.”

“I know,” I breathed out, unable to get a full amount of
air in my lungs as he was squeezing me so tight. “Kota explained it. It’s
okay.”

“I’m just really sorry,” he said. His body shuddered and he
put me down. His serious face locked on mine. “Don’t be mad.”

I looked at Kota, pleading with my eyes for help
explaining.

Kota smiled at me, knowing exactly what I needed. “Let’s go
inside,” he said. “Sang, will you spend the night again?”

Nathan’s mouth fell open. “What? She spent the night with
you?”

An hour later, I was wearing a pair of Kota’s pajama pants
and Nathan's shirt, lying awake in Kota's room, in his bed. Nathan was in the
roll-away bed and Kota was in a sleeping bag on the floor. Kota had sent a
quick text to the group letting the others know where I was and that everything
was okay.

The replies back were numerous but Kota told them all to
come by in the morning.

“We have a lot to talk about,” Kota said to me as he relaxed
on his side on the floor. “I’m sure you have questions. I can’t promise I can
answer them all.”

I did have a lot to ask. The Academy made them keep
secrets. They were best friends. If I wanted to be a part of it, to get them to
trust me, I had to earn it. I wanted to know their secrets. I wanted to be
accepted as one of them.

It could wait though.

I had friends that wanted me. For now, it was enough.

~A~

Update Report:

Silas Korba: Enrolled

Lucian Taylor: Enrolled

North Taylor: Enrolled

Dakota Lee: Enrolled

Victor Morgan: Enrolled

Gabriel Coleman: Enrolled

Nathan Griffin: Enrolled

Notes from Green

Enrolled without a hitch! Principal
Hendricks again thanked us for our participation. Cameras are set up securely
in various classrooms, in the hallways and within the inner offices. Still
trying to insert one with Mr. McCoy’s office.

Further note: I’ll be taking on an
additional student to my experimental Japanese class for the school. Have the
secretary prepare a dossier for a Miss Sang Sorenson.

Notes from Blackbourne

Please have the secretary send a copy of
the search results of Sang Sorenson to me. Nothing further to report.

T
HE
E
ND

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Books by C. L. Stone

The Academy Series:

Introductions

First
Days

Friends vs. Family (Coming Soon!)

Other C. L. Stone Books:

Spice
God

Smoking
Gun

Turn the Page for a Sneak Peek of Book Two in The Academy
Series, First Days. 

 
READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE NEXT BOOK IN THE ACADEMY SERIES

T
he
A
cademy

First Days

Year One

Book Two

by C. L. Stone

F
OLLOWING
t
HE
L
EADER

M
onday morning in August in South Carolina was uncomfortably
scorching. I was grateful for the shade of the front porch and the sweet
coolness of the concrete on my bare legs. I stared down the mailbox, urging the
postman to hurry.

It was the day before the beginning of school. I had an unusual
affinity for classrooms and homework and being among other people my own age.
It meant I could watch how they interacted and try to understand reality,
normalcy.

This year would be different.

A wasp hovered in the hydrangea bushes along the front of the
porch. I ducked my head as it flew past my ear and beyond toward the neighbor’s
yard.

The mailman’s truck meandered up to the box. The moments ticked by
and I could see him fiddling with a collection of envelopes through the window.
I crouched below the barrier of the porch and out of sight. I prepped my knees
to get ready to run.

The glass door swung open behind me. “Is that the mail?” Marie
asked. My older sister stepped out on to the porch. Her angular eyes squinted
at the crisp morning sunlight. Her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail
that hung at her neck and the strands reaching down midway on her back. Her
t-shirt advertised a marathon she’d never participated in. Her jeans were long,
covering most of her feet except for her toes.

I couldn’t understand how she could wear so much clothing, but I
didn’t really expect her to stay outside for long. I thought of how different
we looked. I had dirty blond hair, or chameleon hair as Gabriel liked to remind
me. He said it changed color depending on the lighting. With my cut off blue
jean shorts and a thin pink blouse, I was barely tolerating the humidity.

I turned again to refocus on the mailman. I could still make it.

In that instant, the mailman pulled away from the mailbox for the
next one down the street.

I flew off the top of the porch stairs, landing hard on the small
sidewalk path that wound around the house and sprinted across the yard. I was
halfway across before Marie managed to make it off the porch. When it was clear
I was going to get there first, she stopped her pursuit.

I pulled out all the mail, shuffling through bills and junk mail
to find an envelope with my name on it. The orange emblem of Ashley Waters High
School was printed in the corner. I held on to it, crossing the yard at a
slower pace. My heart was pounding from both the running and the thrill of what
I held in my hands. A new school, a fresh start, and this time I had an
advantage. This year, I wouldn’t be alone.

“Hand it over,” Marie said, meeting me halfway in the yard.

I removed my envelope out of the pile and gave her the rest. She
took the cluster of mail and headed back into the house. If she had gotten to
it first, she would have kept my envelope and more than likely given it to our mother
and I would have had to fight with her to get it back.

I remained in the yard, waiting for my sister to disappear. When
the front door closed behind her, I spun on my bare feet and sprinted down the
street to Kota’s house.

I couldn’t let my sister know where I was going. My family
couldn’t learn my secret. Not yet.

The boys were waiting for me.

Kota’s black rimmed glasses were sliding down his nose a little as
he was checking the mail. I called to him from up the road. He looked up and
waved to me, pushing his glasses up his nose with his forefinger, masking his
exquisite green eyes. “Did you get it?” he asked.

Dakota Lee and I have a tender friendship. Randomly a week ago he
brought me into his circle of friends. It was how I came to learn about the
Academy, the secret school they held loyalties to. The only problem was I
didn’t know a thing about it and I wasn’t allowed to ask questions. I was going
to keep this promise for the sake of our friendship and for what Kota said was
my own safety. There were dangers around them to which I wasn’t aware of. I
simply had to have faith when they told me to trust them. It seemed surreal to
me but I kept my mouth shut and I kept my eyes open, hoping to glean over time
the answers to the questions that buzzed through my head every time they shared
a glance or whispered something around me. They were my first friends. My only
friends. What else could I do?

I held up my envelope. “Anyone else?” I asked.

“I’m still waiting to hear from Victor and Gabriel. They’re heading
over as soon as Victor confirms.” He flicked through the mail in his hands,
pulling out an envelope similar to the one I held on my hands.

“Hey!” There was a shout from up the street. Nathan jogged toward
us. He was wearing dark running pants and a red tank shirt with a Nike swoosh
on the front. I admired the way his biceps flexed as he held up his envelope.
“Let’s check them out.”

Kota tilted his head toward the garage, inviting us to follow. We entered
the house through the side door in the garage. Kota dropped the rest of the
mail off in a bin near the kitchen. Nathan held open a door in the hallway,
revealing a set of blue carpeted stairs. Nathan held his hand out, ushering me
to enter. I padded my way up the steps to the room over the garage, Kota’s
bedroom.

Nathan dropped onto his knees on the blue carpet and started to
rip open his envelope. I sat cross-legged next to him, doing the same. Kota
went to his desk, grabbing a silver letter opener from his desk set and cut
through his envelope, unfolding the printout inside.

I swallowed as I read my schedule for the upcoming year.