The House of Grey- Volume 4 (7 page)

Molly smiled weakly
.
“
Y
ou have no idea
,
Monson dear. No idea.”
The conversation took a brief reprieve as the trio neared
T
he Barracks.
About a dozen
MIB and CIA
officer
s were making a racket securing the area as the emergency medical staff tended to the injure
d
Mark and Jim. Molly
skillfully
maneuvered the boys
through the area
using her
talent for
intimidati
o
n
on anyone who tried to stop
them
or ask them questions. Monson stole a glance at the
two
figures
on the ground.
He truly hoped that there would be no permanent damage.

Monson,
Artorius
and Molly used the regular student entrance instead of
the
Horum Vir
’s private elevator, which meant that there were several flights of stairs in
their
foreseeable future.
Monson
did not mind
,
though. It would be nice to work off some of the excess energy from the night
,
and of course,
th
ere was pondering to attend to
.
P
ondering that could not wait much longer.
He
groaned. It was going to be a long night.

He
and the others passed through the boys’ entrance of
the
dormitory and moved straight
to
the elevator in the middle of the
floor
.
Idly, somewhere on the
edge
of his wandering concentration,
Monson
noted that this was the first time he had been to
one of
the dormitory
floors
. The thought
unsettled
him a little. Not that this was shocking or anything
.
R
outinely
,
and really without
any discussion
, the boys opted to gather in
his
apartment
for obvious reasons. He made a mental post
-
it to correct that
the
next time they all had some leisure time.

Molly marched Monson and
Artorius
to the elevator
.
“I really should give you three a scolding and yes
,
I mea
n you three. I know that Cassi
us is involved in this. Where is he?”

Artorius
and
Monson
exchanged glances
,
though
it was Artorius
who
spoke
up
. “In truth, we really don’t know.”

“Really?” replied Molly
doubtfully.
“You have no idea where he is?”

The elevator door chimed as it touched down and
its
doors opened.“No
,
we really don’t
,
” continued Monson
,
as they entered the elevator
. He
leaned
back as the doors started to close
.
“He left us short
ly
after—”

“Hey—hello, can you hold the elevator?”

They heard
a
voice off in the distance, but
the actual words were drowned out by Molly
’
s banshee shriek, which
scared everyone within
earshot
.
She was jumping
around as if she were possessed.
“A rat! I just saw a rat
!
Kill it
!
Monson, Arthur
,
get it!
”

Monson searched frantically.  Now that she mentioned it, he
had
see
n
something in his peripheral
vision
zip through the closing door at the last second
,
but he’
d
just figured it was—

Monson went
rigid
as he felt something rub up against his leg.
He
dipped
down
and gazed into bright yellow eyes that
stood out
sharply against
pitch
-black
fur
.
He
smiled.
It was the cat Monson had seen Grayson holding.

“Molly
,
relax.
It
’
s a cat. And h
e’s a friend.” Monson offered a hand, which the cat met with enthusiasm
.
“Well
,
hello there, it’s been a while
.
H
ow are you—wait
,
you weren’t the one
who
call
ed
out
a second ago. Then who—”

“Thanks guys
.
I really didn’t feel like waiting.”

The doors parted with another ding.

Monson,
Artorius
, Molly and even the black cat stared
awestruck
at Damion
“
T
he Diamond” Peterson.

Chapter 4
0 - Journal

January 1

I really don’t know how to start this. I think it’s stupid to start by greeting yourself or your journal, as if it’s a person. Seriously, who does that? Then again, never mind, moving on—

I have been meaning to do this for a while but something seemed to always get in the way. I’ve been thinking that getting my thoughts down on paper might help to remember some of past. Nothing so far; then again, I’ve only been writing for ten minutes. Is it sad that I’m already thinking about scrapping the whole idea? What can I say? I’m 15 and have the attention span of a three-year-old. Oh yeah, I’m 15! HA! That’s the big news today. I am 15 years of age. Sweet right? I don’t feel any different than when I was 14, but I doubt anyone ever does. We’re supposed to have some sort of party later but who knows if that will actually happen. Artorius and Casey both left for vacation 2 weeks ago. It’s not that big of a deal, but it has been lonely.  The new semester starts this week, too. I’m actually really excited for it. It’s been way too quiet around here. In the spirit of new beginnings, I thought it would be nice to do a simple recap of what’s been happening the last couple of months.
I think the thing that stands out most in my mind is Cyann’s garden. Wow—you should see it. I don’t want to put in too many details in case someone reads this, but it’s something. I just kind of ran into it while walking behind the Yard. Can I, just as a side note, say that I hate that name, The
Yard.
I would call by its real title but I just realized that I don’t know what it is. Dumb
.
Something about that seems wrong. Anyway, so I was behind the Yard, walking back from sixth period, and just sort of ran into it. I’ve gone back a couple of times since and no one else has approached that I can see. For someone who is secretive she is not very sneaky.
And wow, the place is magical—she’s something, that girl, even if she has the disposition of a wet rabbit. (Disclaimer: If you ever read this, Cyann, I did not write that; it was my evil self. Hit him with your bokken.)

Moving on, I think that the biggest scandal/news for the school over the last couple of months was the Gossip Guy debacle back in late October. The story is a long one so I don’t want to get into the details, but let’s just say that people lost A LOT of faith in the site when it reported that Damion “The Diamond” Peterson was in the hospital. OK, that statement is a little misleading; it’s true he was in the hospital. That wasn’t the problem. It was the REASON he was in the hospital that got everyone worked up. Damion left school to get his appendix out. That’s right. He left for
routine
,
albeit emergency surgery, so consider his shock when he found out that most of the school thought he was dead or close to it. Molly, Artorius and I were the first to see him in “one piece” upon his return. Yeah…that was an awkward conversation.

Which brings me to my next item of discussion. I’m totally crazy. YES I SAID I’m completely crazy. I just mentioned that Damion had not in fact been attacked in my private weight room but had left for an emergency surgery. So consequently,
he wasn't even in the weight room, let alone trying to kill me there.
(Granted I didn’t ACTUALLY ask him that question. Oh, by the way Damion, do you remember pulling out a knife in casual conversation and trying to stab me? I’d be carted away. The plot is not as simple as I’d like, though. The only evidence I have that I’m not completely delusional is that the weight room was in fact destroyed. So I’m thinking I did that during one of my little crazy person episodes and just don’t remember. I don’t know why Damion was involved. Still trying to figure that one out.

Classes for the semester ended on a high note, my favorite being Mr. Gatt’s class. The end-of-semester project was especially revelatory. Are you ready for the information? I don’t know if you are. OK, I will just say
it: ATLANTIS, IT EXISTS
. I know, right? I was shocked as well. Let me explain. Instead of a test, Mr. Gatt paired us into teams and we did a sort of mock trial thing where we tried to determine if Atlantis existed, and my team totally won. Between you,
me and the pen here,
I actually convinced myself for a bit that Atlantis was a real place. I know—crazy, right?  Highlights of that experience were the following: Derek totally lost his cool. I have no idea why, but he started blubbering like an idiot. It was awesome. Next was the “expert” testimony that Taris put on. I seriously can’t EVEN describe it.  Taris Green, scientist: way too hot. I’m telling you. I think most of the guys in the class took up a collection to force Taris into the scientific field, claiming that there is a governmental interest in it. I thought their argument was pretty convincing. The government in this country has been trying, with no success, to improve the math and science scores among primary, secondary and higher education students for like the last 20 years. So the senior class at Coren University actually put forth the hypothesis that if the professors looked like Taris, there would be a lot more interest. (Letter to Future Self. I have enclosed a picture of said scientist, Taris Green. When you read this in 20 years and behold her, remember to thank me. Sincerely,
Your
Past Self.)

Beyond that, everything has been completely normal. No really, I mean it. I haven’t seen or heard from my “angry” selves in a long time, which is weird. It’s been so long that I have to wonder if they were ever real in the first place. But my nightmares are still there. I am constantly dreaming of this massive mountain pathway, a trail in the wilderness, that for some reason I can’t get myself to traverse. There’s also this sort of roaring in the background that is driving me batty. The only thing that comes to mind is white water. I have to admit, it’s starting to get frustrating.

The buck doesn’t stop there, either...I am now learning Casey’s Galo form (this is the striking form that Casey favors so much). I’m pretty good at it, too. Maybe because it’s a lot like using a blade…I don’t know. But, it seems that I have completely lost the ability to see Casey’s flash fist (something that he was all too eager to point out). We’ve tested it a couple of times now.  I mean
,
I can’t even feel it anymore.  Don’t ask. I have NO IDEA why.

So, what else? Oh, to spite Casey I adopted a cat. OK, not really to spite him. I adopted the cat because I like the cat, but I did name him BOB and that was definitely to spite Casey. (He thinks it’s a stupid name). Casey has been a bit distant lately, ever since the night we went to meet up with Baroty and ran into Kylie. Again, that’s not exactly true. She didn’t actually see us. I wonder if they would make up if I told her that Casey was the one who kept her from being hog-tied. Probably not. A more interesting question is why she was skulking around that night and what the documents were all about. Side note: Isn’t skulking a great word? I love it.

The new school semester starts this week, I’m pretty sure I mentioned that. I’m wondering how the students are going to adapt to the changes here at Coren, which are extensive. When Baroty announced his project to redo Coren’s Campus, he wasn’t messing around.  He’s creating lighted walkways, weird obelisk works of art, and the western dormitory is almost completely gutted. The MIB presence here has also heightened for some reason.  Not that I’m complaining, they don’t affect me all that much.
But Baroty is
not
even here most of the time
, so why are they hanging around?