“Why, because Ms. Miller lied to you?” Camille asked.
“You heard it too? That’s my girl. I need you to help me keep tabs on her. She knows something about Simon Graham, and I need to know where he is as soon as possible.”
“Graham? Like Jul Graham?”
“Yes, that’s his daughter. Keep tabs on her, too. I doubt Simon will contact her, but stranger things have happened.”
“What was that Tailor said about a sword?”
Gabriel waved the question away. “Old family heirloom of theirs. I don’t have any swords. He would blame me for the common cold if someone suggested it. Extremely useful boy though...well, technically he’s a man now...” He looked up from the papers at her, eyes narrowed in thought. “Did you say what extra classes they’d given you?”
She handed him the folder of her class schedules. “What’s so bad about this Simon guy anyway?” Camille wanted to know.
“The most dangerous people in the world are idiots who think they’re geniuses. Simon is one of those, except he’s got talents that make him even more dangerous. In retrospect I should have dealt with him years ago, but at the time...” He shook his head. “Getting to the bottom of this Graham problem is numero uno.”
“I thought you said we were here for my education,” she said, folding her arms.
“I lied. A little. The sooner we find Simon Graham, the safer you’ll be. In the meantime, what say we humiliate these Havenwood snobs a little, hmm?” He began flipping through the folder.
“I’m not going to be awesome at English by tomorrow,” Camille grumbled.
“Well, Rin Umino may have given you that,” he said, sifting through her folder and holding up a green piece of paper. “But she also put you in kendo. Are you ready to kick some ass?” he grinned.
Camille grinned back. If there was one thing she did well...
Chapter 6
Mac
At lunch the next day, Destin reiterates his disapproval of yesterday’s tactics. We carry our trays of food to our usual table. Other people tend to not sit by us. Because we’re cool like that.
“Just to be clear - your brilliant plan was to ambush her coming out of Umino’s office and show up late to English so Tailor could publicly ridicule you.”
“Your sarcasm, while hilarious, is not helpful. My plan was to offer gentlemanly assistance to a disoriented new student.”
“And then get publicly ridiculed in front of her.”
I sigh, sitting down. “You know what? Public ridicule is getting to be a sort of daily thing for me, so I figured, why not?”
I cast a glance to our right, where Jul sits alone at a table, forlornly stirring a bowl of vegetable soup. “We should go sit at her table,” I say in an undertone. “Do you see how sad she looks?”
Destin glances over the top of the comic he’s already cracked open. He has a bad habit of reading all through lunch and forgetting to eat. “Far be it from me to stand in the way of young love, but I think that’s a bad idea. I mean I feel bad for her and all...”
“She’s all alone over there!” I exclaim as quietly as I can. “It’s like a tragedy!”
“And yet...”
Oh, how I love that all the grades eat lunch together. It is so cozy.
I push him away. He smells like cigarettes and old laundry. Now I feel like I need a shower, for more reasons than the pudding in my hair.
“Thanks, that was all that was missing from my life,” I say through my teeth.
“You’re welcome, little buddy,” he says, squishing the bowl into my hair one more time. “Don’t forget to drink your milk so you can grow up big and strong! You remember what day it is, don’t you?” He cackles, returning to a table with some other juniors who give him a round of high-fives.
I slide the bowl out of my hair and towel my head with my napkin.
“My point is,” Destin says, handing me his napkins, “I don’t think proximity to us will improve her situation. Exhibit A,” he nods at my hair.
Maybe he’s right. At least for today. It’s Tuesday, and Tuesdays and Thursdays put Hyde in especially high spirits, because that’s when he gets free reign to beat people up in kendo. As you might imagine, this is not my favorite class. I’d rather be pretending not to be totally tiny in karate the other days of the week. With kendo, I still have to pretend not to be totally tiny, but with a sword. What the heck am I supposed to do with a sword when I can’t reach? My only comfort is that Destin sucks at it too, so at least I’m not the only one looking like an idiot. We do a lot better as a team of idiots.
The thing about karate and kendo, like all the other “extracurricular” classes, is that you aren’t just with your homeroom, or even your grade. You’re with whoever signed up for it – or had been signed up for it whether they wanted to or not. In the case of karate and kendo, the only people from our homeroom are me, Destin, Jacques Olivier, and Brandon Underwood. Jacques is from Canada, and speaks French as easily as he does English, and likes to let everyone know it. He’s surgically attached to his cell phone and thinks he’s superior because he hangs out with seniors. Brandon is a lot calmer. He’s pretty much permanently attached at the hip to his girlfriend Kenna, also in our class. When they’re not breaking up, they’re getting back together. Again, to each their own.
Anyway, we’re thankfully spared the company of Hayley’s fancy-pants band, but in return we get Hyde. I’m still undecided as to whether the tradeoff is worth it.
I hit the front of my locker as three of the juniors elbow roughly past me, laughing. I straighten my gi, my white uniform, and glare at their backs as they leave the locker room.
Like clockwork. If kendo is my least favorite thing, it’s the highlight of these guys’ week. They get free reign to attack people with a freaking sword. It’s a dull wooden sword, sure, but it leaves some bruises, let me tell you.
To make matters worse, Hyde is Ikeda-sensei’s best student. A couple of the others can get hits in on him, if they’re lucky, but he’s as yet undefeated. A senior, Poggio, had come close last week, but then Hyde almost broke his wrist. Now Poggio sits on the sidelines with his arm in a sling and Hyde’s back to trying to trip Destin when Ikeda-sensei isn’t looking.
I sigh with resignation as I step out of the locker room into the dojo. It’s Tuesday, so I’d just have to live with it. But today ends up being a lot more...entertaining than I had anticipated.
We have a new student.
There’s Camille, getting a tour of the dojo from Ikeda-sensei while the rest of the class sizes her up. General consensus looks to be ‘I bet I could take her,’ ranging from completely innocent she’s-way-tiny to you- don’t-want-to-know lewd. I mean she’s super thin, you can tell, now that she’s in a gi instead of that baggy sweater, and she isn’t any taller than me. Goldilocks ringlets aside, though, she somehow looks...correct...in her gi. Maybe it’s her posture. I don’t remember her standing this straight before, or looking so formal.
Ikeda-sensei likes to start every lesson with an exhibition match. Most of the time this involves Hyde getting to beat on some poor sap with a full audience. I’m busy crossing my fingers that it’s not going to be me, and sparing a couple of crossed toes that it won’t be Destin.
But Ikeda clearly has something different in mind.
“Today’s exhibition match will be...” Ikeda’s gaze slides across the room, his lips curling. “Hyde and Teague.”
Hyde laughs and hoists his wooden sword onto his shoulder, shoving his way between Brandon and Destin
