“What's on there, Micah?” Tobias asks, grinning as I curl my hands into fists and grit my teeth.
“It's locked, Tobias,” the other twin whines, and then they exchange a look. “Do you think there's a way we might be able to open it? An unconventional way?” Tobias darts around the counter as Micah grabs my arms and holds me back.
“Don't you dare!” I snarl, but Tobias is already grabbing a meat tenderizer from a drawer and laying my phone on a cutting board in front of him. “This I will tell my dad about. He'll freaking destroy you!”
“Your dad?” Church says, folding his arms over the front of his navy blue blazer. “The headmaster who was making pennies in California until he moved here? You think he has real power over us? That's amusing.”
“Give. Me. My. Phone.” My voice is shaking I'm so mad. Tobias looks up at me, emerald eyes darkening with mischief, and then he smashes the screen while the other boys look on bemusedly. “You freaking prick!”
Spencer lifts his shirt up and turns, so that I can see the massive purple and black bruise on the base of his spine.
“Yeah? We're the pricks? I could barely walk the next day. Don't complain while you get your just desserts.” He drops his shirt, storms over to the door, and leaves.
Micah releases me, and I stumble over to pick up the pieces of my phone, thankful that I have my pictures all set to auto-upload to the cloud. But … that doesn't give me my phone back.
My eyes water, but I refuse to cry in front of these jerks, so I take off for the dorm, open my laptop and video-call Cody.
This time, he actually answers.
“Cody!” I chirp when he appears onscreen, the setting sun on his face, and the ocean in the background.
“Hey Charlotte,” he says, blue eyes hidden behind his shades. He lifts them up after a moment and squints at me. “You crying, babe?”
“I hate it here,” I whisper, hearing my voice crack. This is the first time I've let myself break down since I got to Adamson. I have a serious FOMO issue (fear of missing out) and seeing Cody on the beach with a bunch of our friends in the background is killing me. Glancing outside, all I see are red, yellow, and gold leaves, and a few white patches where snow still lingers.
Fuck Connecticut.
“Yeah? I thought it was temporary. When are you coming back? I miss you.” He smiles, and my heart breaks in two. Touching my fingers to the screen, I sigh.
“I'm really trying. Dad's letting me come back for Christmas, at least. I figure I can make my stand when I'm there. He can't exactly force me to get on a plane back, right?”
Last time around, he'd told me he wanted me to come and see the grounds, help him make a choice. He let me bring Monica and make a girls weekend of it, driving our rental car down to New York City for the day. When it came to leave however … only she had a ticket back to California.
Dad tricked me.
“Hey, that's not too far away, right?” he asks, but I can see he's a little distracted. Cody pauses to yell something to his best friend, Dean, before he looks back at me. “Are you going to let your hair grow out? I loved it when it was long.” Suddenly self-conscious, I reach my hands up to touch my short blonde locks. The roots are starting to grow out, too, and are slightly darker than I'd like. I'm a natural sandy blond, but I've always liked that white-blond look.
“It’s … part of my disguise,” I start, but Cody's guffawing at something Monica's just yelled. She jogs across the beach, her lithe runner's body dressed in an edgy blue bikini that just barely covers her nipples.
“Hey, babe!” she shouts, waving enthusiastically before she throws an arm around Cody's neck, and then leans forward to kiss his phone screen. “We miss you so much.”
“Same,” I say with a smile, touching two fingers to the screen again.
“Oh my god, those glasses are hideous!” she says, lifting her shades up to stare at me. “And that hair. Babe, you have nailed that look. Nobody would ever believe you're a girl underneath it all.” I'm not sure if I should be flattered … or offended?
“Thanks?” I ask, blinking as the two of them get distracted calling over some of our other friends. “Guys?”
“Hey, we're here for this beach volleyball thing,” Monica says, dropping her shades back into place. Cody does the same. “Can we call you back later? We're going to Ivy's cabin for the weekend. We'll have plenty of time to talk between beers.”
“No service up there, cutie,” Cody says, and I frown. His nickname for me has always been cutie. Then again, with his shades on, I can't tell if he's looking at her or at me. Maybe he was talking to me, right? “Anyway, we'll call you before we leave on Friday.”
“Okay,” I start, but they've both already moved on, and I see some flashes of sky and beach before they both call out their goodbyes and hang up.
For a while, I just sit on my bed with my eyes stinging.
My heart feels tight and strange, and there's a sadness sweeping over me that I can't quite place. Finally, I close my laptop, dig through the emergency kit under my bed, and pull out the flashlight.
The bindings come off, and I drown myself in sweats and a hoodie before jogging back to the girls' dorm again.
I get in my usual way and settle down with a book, a soda, and some granola bars I pinched from the cafeteria. Setting my stuff on the coffee table, I notice some spatters of red wax, and some scorch marks, like somebody set candles up here, too.
My first thought is that the Student Council knows I come here, and thought they'd surprise me here, too. But joke’s on them. I haven't been coming for the last week or so. Setting my mouth in a determined line, I settle in with my book—some story about a half-angel who summons ghosts called Spirited—and decide I'm making a stand here.
These guys, they all think I'm a dude. Pretty sure they will beat me up if I push too hard, but I don't care.
So for a while, I read by flashlight. Since I don't have my phone, I have no idea what time it is, and I don't want to get stuck out here too late. After a few chapters, I stand up, gather my things, and then pause to study the class picture that's hanging on the wall.
Across the top, there's the Adamson All-Boys Academy crest with the lion inside the shield. Underneath it, however, it just says Adamson Academy. The all-boys part is missing. Guess the picture is hanging on the wall in the girls' dorm. Maybe they were trying to transition to the new name?
Leaning in, I study the faces in the photo, scanning across the boys until I come to … a girl. My mouth drops open as I lock eyes with her smiling face. She's kneeling in the front row in a pleated blue skirt and blazer, her hair long and dark, bangs straight, cut right across her arched brows. There’s a small key around her neck with a little ribbon tied around it.
I had no idea there ever was a female student in this school. My dad never mentioned it. The way he presented the information, I was supposed to be the first girl to attend Adamson.
“What the hell?” I reach my fingers up and brush them against the girl's face, a frown taking over my lips. I'd wondered why there was a half-finished dormitory, covered in dust, and abandoned like we were living in the Last of Us, but … I never knew they'd actually started accepting women into the academy. “Huh.”