Gifted: Now You See Me

thought the secretary looked just a little too harsh considering the situation. So she’d kept the stapler for half an hour — big deal.

Ms Simmons nodded towards Mr Jackson’s closed door. ‘You’re wanted in there,’ she told Jenna.

Jenna’s forehead creased in puzzlement. Now what? But Ms Simmons offered no further explanation. Jenna crossed the reception area and rapped on the principal’s door.

‘Come in,’ the principal called.

Jenna opened the door. And then she just stood there, her hand still on the doorknob. It was an unexpected and unsettling scene that greeted her.

Mr Jackson sat at his usual place, behind his massive desk. On the chair facing him sat Jenna’s mother. By his side stood a uniformed police officer. Jenna wasn’t sure who looked more frightening — the cop with his stern expression, or her mother, who had tears in her eyes.

‘Oh Jenna,’ her mother moaned. ‘Why did you do this?’ She couldn’t seem to bring herself to even look at Jenna as she spoke.

Jenna stared at her in utter bewilderment. ‘Why did I do what?’

Mr Jackson had no problem looking at Jenna. ‘You know our policy about weapons,’ he said.

‘No,’ Jenna replied honestly.

‘It’s in the student guide,’ the principal snapped.

Yeah, like anyone ever reads that, Jenna thought, but she decided it would be wiser not to say it out loud.

‘We have a “no-tolerance” policy,’ the principal continued. ‘Do you understand what that means?’

Jenna nodded slowly. ‘I guess it means nobody should bring any kind of weapon to school, right?’

‘That’s right,’ Mr Jackson said. ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s an assault rifle or a sling-shot.’ He opened his drawer. ‘Or a knife.’

It was a big, sharp knife, the kind that Jenna imagined would be used for carving meat. Jenna stared at it blankly.

‘Where did that come from?’

‘Your locker.’ He placed the knife down on the centre of his desk. ‘Unfortunately for you, we held a random locker search today.’

An odd, shivery sensation went up her spine. ‘I–I’ve never seen that knife before in my life.’

‘Of course you haven’t,’ Mr Jackson said with a sneer. ‘It just sprouted legs and walked into your locker. It even knew your combination.’

Jenna turned to her mother. ‘Mom, I swear, it’s not mine! I didn’t bring a knife to school.’

‘I want to believe you, Jenna. .’ her mother began, and her voice broke.

Mr Jackson finished the sentence for her. ‘But she can’t, because we have the evidence. I’m sorry, young lady, but you’re in serious trouble.’

‘Are you suspending me?’ Jenna asked.

‘Given your history, I don’t feel suspension is an adequate punishment,’ the principal declared. ‘You are being sent back to Harmony House, for an indefinite period.’

Jenna froze. She opened her mouth to protest but no words came out.

And she wasn’t only mute. She had difficulty hearing too. Vaguely, she was aware of being told that the police officer would escort her to Harmony House, but the sound seemed to be coming from very far away. Her mother was saying something too, but the words made no sense at all. Maybe because she was crying as she spoke.

Then she was in the hallway, with the policeman’s hand on her shoulder. The bell must have just rung, because there were people in the hall, and she knew they were looking at her. Strangely enough, she wasn’t upset, she wasn’t humiliated. She didn’t care. How could she?

She’d gone completely numb. She was too shocked to feel anything at all.

CHAPTER FIVE

TRACEY WAS IN THE bathroom when three girls she didn’t know made a noisy entrance. They were talking loudly and excitedly.

‘I saw it all!’ one of them told the others. ‘Police officers took her away! Five or six of them! And she was in handcuffs!’

‘No way!’ another one exclaimed.

‘Really, I swear!’

‘What did she do?’ the third girl asked.

‘I don’t know but it’s serious. They don’t call the police for cutting a class.’

Uneasily, Tracey turned to the group. ‘Who are you talking about?’

‘You’ve seen her around,’ the girl told her. ‘She’s that goth girl. I think her name’s Jeannie or Janie, something like that.’

‘Jenna,’ Tracey said. ‘Jenna Kelley.’ She slung her backpack over her shoulder and left the bathroom.

In shock, she managed to get up the stairs without tripping. This had to be a mistake. Maybe the girl in the restroom hadn’t understood what she saw. Or maybe there was another goth girl at Meadowbrook. She told herself that when she walked into Room 209, Jenna would be there, just as she always was. She even concocted a story that would account for what the girl in the bathroom had seen: a police officer had been invited to speak in Jenna’s last class and Jenna was simply escorting him to the door. There had to be a reasonable explanation. .

But when she walked into class, her heart sank. Emily’s woebegone expression said it all.

‘Do you know about Jenna?’ Emily asked her.

Tracey sank into her seat. ‘I heard people talking. They said she was arrested. Is it true?’

‘It’s something like that,’ Emily acknowledged. ‘I know a policeman took her away. I don’t know what she did, Tracey, but it has to have been something really bad.’

‘But maybe, maybe it wasn’t because of something she did,’ Tracey said. She thought frantically. ‘Maybe. . maybe her mother was in an accident, and the police came to take her to the hospital.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with Jenna’s mother.’

Tracey and Emily turned to see Amanda sauntering into the room. ‘How do you know?’ Emily asked.

‘Because she was in Mr Jackson’s office. First she came, then the policeman came, and then Ms Simmons sent me to get Jenna out of class.’ Amanda sat down and whipped out her make-up bag.

‘But why?’ Tracey wanted to know. ‘What happened?’

Amanda examined her own reflection in a little compact mirror. ‘Well, Mr Jackson did a locker check today. He might have found something in Tracey’s locker.’

‘Like what?’ Charles asked. ‘Drugs? Guns?’

‘I don’t know,’ Amanda replied as she applied lip-gloss.

Ken’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you sure about that?’

Amanda snapped the compact shut. ‘Just because work in the office doesn’t mean I know everything that goes on in there. All I know is that Mr Jackson suddenly decided to do some random locker searches and when he came back, he wanted to see Jenna.’

‘It was a knife,’ Sarah said softly.

Everyone turned in her direction. ‘How do you know?’ Tracey asked her.

‘I saw it,’ Sarah said. ‘I’d just been excused from class to get some water. Mr Jackson and a policeman were in the hallway. Mr Jackson opened a locker and took out a big knife. I didn’t know whose locker it was.’ She shook her head sadly. ‘I can’t believe Jenna would bring a weapon to school.’

‘Why not?’Amanda asked. ‘I mean, she was a juvenile delinquent, right?’

Emily looked stricken. ‘That’s not true!’ She amended that. ‘OK, maybe it was a little bit true, but she’s not