The Return: Disney Lands (18 page)

“Jess!” Amanda called out, seeing her for the first time. Across the room, her fellow Fairlie gave an awkward wave, tossed back her pale hair.

Behind Jess, Langford and Dirk were approaching. Amanda struggled out of the beanbag.

Jess reached Tim, bent as if to kiss him on the cheek, stunning Amanda—
totally unlike her!—
and, clearly, Tim. Jess moved past Tim to be a spectator of the foosball
match.

Amanda had never seen Jess kiss anyone, never mind a virtual stranger, never mind as theatrically as she just had. It had been
a performance.
Why?

Casting her eyes down, she saw that Tim no longer held the two folders. What had he—

“Mr. Walters! A moment?” Langford’s authoritative voice stopped both the Ping-Pong and foosball games. Everyone in the room froze, looking at Tim.

Jess had used the fake kiss to get close enough to Tim in order to snatch the folders away from him. She’d done so just moments ahead
of Langford’s unannounced arrival. Jess kept the
files hidden, her back to the two men.

“Yes, sir?” Tim pulled himself up. He stood a full three inches taller than Langford.

“We’d like to take a look at your closet prior to your boarding the shuttle.”

“My closet?”

“Do we have a hearing problem, Mr. Walters?” Langford said distastefully.

“Them blue shoes,” said Dirk, and won
a belittling look from Langford.

“No problem,” Tim said. He glanced at Emily, then Amanda. Panic.

Forcing a smile, Tim joined the two men.

Clearly distressed, Langford next addressed Emily. “Miss Fredrikson? How’s that cloaking project of yours coming along? Extra credit, wasn’t it?”

“It was—is—yes, extra credit,” Emily croaked out, adding awkwardly, “Bernie’s my adviser.”

“Yes. I hear it’s coming along nicely.
Very
nicely.”

Recovering herself, Emily said, “I guess. It isn’t fully operational yet.”

“Oh, really? I’ve heard differently.” Langford smiled tightly, his lips pressed together in a thin line. “Bernie is quite impressed. I think I’d appreciate a
demonstration. This evening, perhaps, after classes. Before dinner?”

Dirk’s intense stare had not
yet left Emily. Amanda shuddered; it was so disturbing.

And Langford’s scrutiny swung finally to her.

“You, young lady, are aware that certain areas of the hotel, the dorm, are out of bounds without passes, yes? That venturing into these areas without permission can,
and will
,
result in immediate expulsion.”

“Yes, sir,” Amanda said. “We were told the rules during orientation.”

“Being told is one thing. Hearing quite another. I suggest you learn to
listen
, Miss Lockhart.”

Amanda nodded again. “Yes, sir.”

“I needn’t remind you that there’s a long line of well-qualified applicants on our waiting list.” His gaze swung back to Emily. “That goes for you, too. Seniority
in the program will not protect you.”

“No, sir,” Amanda and Emily said, speaking almost in
unison.

“Enough. ‘Toby’ will do. Remember, Amanda, we’re all colleagues here at DSI.”

In stark contrast to Langford’s words, Tim walked off with the two men like an inmate being escorted down Death Row.

L
ATER, AS THEY WALKED TOGETHER
down
the central hallway of DSI’s Technical Resources and
Applications department, Amanda pulled Jess aside and into an empty classroom. Jess untucked her shirt and handed Amanda the two folders.

“I had no idea
what
you were doing.”

“It was an air kiss, nothing more, I
promise
you.”

“It was brilliant!”

It was the first chance they’d had to talk since arriving at the school building;
Jess had jumped onto the dorm shuttle van seconds before its door had closed. She’d ridden in the
front with girls Amanda didn’t know.

“Why did you disappear like that?” Amanda inquired.

“To get rid of his blue Converse,” Jess said, as if it were obvious. “I found Tim’s sneakers and disposed of them. Threw them out the window. I ended up out there, too,
on the fire escape, but I got
rescued by Miles. Do you know him? Tallish, red-brown hair, cute? He let me use his room to make my exit.”

“You saved Tim, Jess! I had no idea.”

“That’s a bit overly dramatic.”

“I thought you weren’t going to get involved?”

“I thought you and Finn were a thing.” Jess narrowed her eyes—and then abruptly looked away, her lips twisted bitterly. Amanda blinked, confused.

“What’s
that supposed to mean?”

Jess stared fixedly at the wall clock. “Whatever. Look, I don’t want to be late for class.”

“Jess! What is that supposed to mean?”

Jess had tried to dismiss it, telling herself that Amanda and Tim were just new, instant friends. But that had all changed when
they’d returned
from the basement. Amanda was all best buds, all flirty with Tim, keeping Jess out of it because she’d refused to play along.

For the first time in their shared lives Jess had seen Amanda as competition, and it felt awful. She knew what Amanda was trying to do: punish her for not agreeing to break the rules.

Emotions flooded her. Hate and love. Clarity and confusion. And anger, strongest
of all. It bubbled up inside of Jess until she was ready to explode. The only way her body had found to express
the pent-up bitterness and resentment was through a single tear that traced its way down her cheek unexpectedly. She felt humiliated for letting that happen.
⁶

“Jessie?” Amanda said, seeing her crying.

“Don’t.”

“What did I do?”

“Really?”

“Really!”

“It’s not the
first time, you know. It’s just the first time it mattered.”

“The first time?” Amanda blinked once, then again, finally getting it. “Tim? Oh, come on, Jess! Seriously? Me and Tim? No, no, no! You made a point of not going with us! And
you were the one who saved him by tossing the sneakers. I can’t compete with that!” She blinked again, almost laughing from her sheer bafflement. “I
don’t
want to
compete
with that.”

“Have you happened to see the way he looks at you?”

“Gimme a break. I could say the same thing.”

“You get all the breaks, Amanda. Believe me!
All
.”

“You are totally wrong about this, Jessie.”

“Do not call me that! I’m not taking anything any way. Stuff like this, it can’t be undone, you know? You can’t
push
it back into place.” Jess stole
another
look at the clock. “Whatever. Look, we’re going to be late for class.”

“Jess! Please!”

Jess left the room, simmering with rage. Amanda repeatedly called out her name through a tight throat, but the door eased shut on its automatic hinge.

Leaving her alone.

J
ESS STOOD OUTSIDE THE DOOR
marked
VICTORIA LLEWELYN
–
STUDENT COUNSELING
. Convinced the summons resulted from her disposing of Tim’s sneakers, Jess considered saving everyone the trouble of her being formally expelled and just
returning to her room and packing.

“Miss Lockhart?” A woman’s voice flowed smoothly from the office.

Jess apologized and entered, taking a chair across from the desk.

The woman surprised Jess
by taking a chair in front of the desk alongside her. Tentatively, they turned to face one another.

“How’s it going?” the woman asked.

“Excellent.”

“Are you nervous, Jessica?”

“A little, I guess,” Jess lied. She was terrified.

“Because?”

“You know,” Jess muttered.

“Tell me.”

“Look, the only way I’ve managed to survive is by sticking up for others.” Jess’s hands
were sweaty; she tried to wipe them surreptitiously on her jeans. She
couldn’t meet Peggy’s eyes.

“Commendable.”

“If you don’t understand—Wait? What?” Jess registered the woman’s positive tone a little late.

“We encourage teamwork, Jessica. For many years, every executive position within the company had both a creative and a business side, each with its own employee. The system was
modeled off
the relationship between Walt and Roy. Teamwork leads to success in all avenues of life. Teamwork like that displayed by you and Amanda, for instance.”

“Yeah, well, I guess.”

“Before we continue, I must ask you to read this and, if you’re agreeable, sign it.” The woman pushed a sheaf of papers forward and smiled encouragingly. “It’s a
nondisclosure agreement. NDA, for short.”

“I thought I signed everything already.”

“You have signed a good many contracts, haven’t you?” She had a warm smile; it seemed to stretch fully across her face. “In fact you signed a document very similar to
this upon admittance. But this particular NDA is different. You must read it closely. It states that anything and everything said between us here today will never be spoken of again.
Ever.
It’s to remain a secret, between us.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“Not at all. It just means we can talk openly and freely and that nothing said here gets repeated.”

“Did Amanda sign one of these?”

“I couldn’t tell you if she did, could I?” Another smile. “Let me ask you this: why do you think you’re here? Why are we having this conversation?”

“If I don’t help someone,”
Jess said tightly, looking back at her lap, “how can I expect anyone to help me?”

“Jessica, perhaps we should start over.” Victoria “Peggy” Llewelyn gathered and composed herself.

“I’m not accusing her or you of anything.”

“You aren’t?”

“Why don’t we start with the agreement. If you don’t want to sign it, that’s no problem. Meeting over. No harm done.”

Meeting over?
No dice;
she wanted to know what was going on. Jess skimmed the document and signed. Peggy thanked her, and framed it deliberately into a stack of papers on her desk,
careful to line up the corners with surgical precision.

“Jessica, our school seeks to foster accelerated development in certain individuals.”

“No need to recruit me. I’m all in.”

The woman’s face was expressive as well as kind,
and she was given to pursing her lips to prevent a full smile and squinting to imitate amusement. It felt practiced. Oddly, she was nothing
like the Peggy Amanda had described to Jess.

“That’s what I want to talk to you about. Being ‘all in.’” Her eyes never left Jess’s as she spoke. “The Imagineers would like to invite you, Jessica,
to join a group, an elite group of outstanding thinkers.
It amounts to a think tank, but because we’re Disney, we call it the Tink Tank.”

Jess grinned. “Are you serious? I love it.”

“The objective of the group is, paraphrasing Walt, ‘To dream the future.’”

“Aha…my dreams.”

“Your dreams. Yes.”

“You aren’t the first.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“To want my dreams,” Jess said, upset.

“Again, I believe you’ve misunderstood me,
Jessica. No one wants to use you. We’re familiar with your past, and we’d never repeat the trauma you and Amanda endured. We
want to team you up with other extraordinary minds to explore opportunities in the present—and the future. Imagineers, DSI instructors, a few gifted personalities like yourself, all in the
hope of bettering the company’s future and, we hope, mankind’s.”