The only ones who looked at all interested were Michael and Ronan, but they weren’t drawn to watch David. Instead they were transfixed on Ruby, even more than before. Ever since David had walked into St. Sebastian’s, Ruby had followed him with her blind eyes as if she could see him enter from the locker room and take his place behind the podium. They would have simply thought she was being hypnotized by his magnetism like so many others had been, if it hadn’t been for the slight sneer that gripped her face and the way she was breathing through her nose. She looked positively disgusted, and it only made Michael and Ronan certain that they were in the company of Rhoswen and that poor Ruby was nowhere to be found.
“In a few short weeks the Tri-Centennial Celebration will be upon us,” David shouted, his voice a bit stronger but not nearly as powerful as usual. “We must be ready to show the world we are invincible!”
Stifling a laugh Blakeley turned his head slightly and whispered to Dr. Sutton who was standing behind him, “Bloke’s gettin’ a little full of himself.” The coach kept his eyes on David, so he didn’t see the doctor’s angry expression or his fangs peek out slightly and press into his thin, chapped lips.
“Takin’ it right over the top he is,” he added.
How Dr. Sutton wanted to teach the mortal a lesson, just like he wanted to teach most everyone in the room a lesson that they were all inferior, pointless. They might be God’s creations, but they had been created before God realized his mistake and built a mightier race, a race that he wanted to see rule the earth. Full of himself? Of course David Zachary was full of himself, but only because he had every reason to be.
David wished he could remember all those reasons as he spoke. He knew his voice was booming throughout the gym. He could tell that many of the faces that stared at him were mesmerized. But there were too many that were drifting from him, gazing out the window, looking in another direction and not at him, not at his extraordinary face. He had to try harder, make them see that in a few short weeks the world was about to change.
“Yes! Show me the way!”
It was only after the words were out of his mouth that David realized he had spoken them out loud and not silently to his daughter. Finally, every face in the gym was looking at him, but for the wrong reason. They weren’t staring at him like disciples eager to drown in his every word, hungry to devour whatever morsels of wisdom he chose to toss at their feeble minds. No, they were ogling him like he was a sideshow act, an abnormality, something that would entertain, something that was ludicrous.
A tiny bead of sweat trickled from his brow and traveled down the side of his face, turning inward when it met the edge of his beard, slipping toward the crook of his mouth. His sweat tasted salty, and it was innately repulsive because it reminded him of the ocean, home of those damned water vamps.
That’s all that was needed to turn things around. Despite the foul taste that clung to the inside of his mouth, David smiled, broadly, knowingly. He was about to show them all that he was still their ruler, he was still in control, regardless of his momentary stumble.
“In honor of Double A’s three hundredth anniversary,” David bellowed, “I challenge each and every one of you to show me the way to victory!”
It was done. He had corralled his hatred to overcome humiliation; he had survived a foe that was more vicious than any he had ever done battle with: his own fear. The battle, however, was only just beginning. As the students began the trek back to their classrooms, one face stood out among the crowd, one face that David knew could not be trusted.
“Headmaster Zachary, I’d like to show you something.”
Flanked by Fritz and Sister Mary Elizabeth, Ruby stared straight ahead, her gaze meeting David’s chest. If she had had sight she would have noticed that it was rising and falling in an increased rhythm; it was definitely something that Sister Mary noticed, but Fritz was too busy seeing who was watching him stand next to his girlfriend in front of the headmaster to notice anything important. “Of course, Miss ...” David began, uncharacteristically forgetting a student’s name.
“Poltke,” Ruby offered. “Penry’s sister.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” David was flustered. He knew the girl was a liar, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it, not surrounded by all these people, not now. All he could do was search the gym for Brania, Morgandy, Dr. Sutton, a familiar face that could provide support. In the meantime while he waited he could busy himself by wiping away the additional beads of sweat that were starting to race down his face and make his temples glisten.
“Are you feeling all right, Headmaster?”
Damned inquisitive nun! In the instant that she spoke, David could not honestly say why he had let her live for so long. Religious zealot, fool! He wished he could pluck out her eyeballs with his fingernails instead of having to answer her condescending question, but he had to exhibit self-control, show them all how important it was to maintain composure and decorum. “I feel wonderful, thank you,” he replied. “It is a bit unusually stuffy in here, however.” Turning away from the old woman, David looked down at the girl. “What is it that you wanted to show me?”
Staring blankly ahead, Ruby bent down and placed her tote bag on the floor. She then pulled out a T-shirt and held it up by the shoulders. “I thought all the students could wear these for the Tri-Centennial Celebration,” she said. When there was no response, she thought she was holding the T-shirt the wrong way; she thought the drawing that Fritz had helped her with was facing backward.
It wasn’t. David just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Ruby was holding up a red T-shirt with the number three hundred written on it in white lettering, clearly in recognition of Double A’s anniversary, except that the zeros in the number were white roses. “Fritz,” she asked. “Am I holding it the right way?”
“Looks smashing, Rube,” he said proudly. “I think the headmaster is just gobsmacked. Ain’t that right, sir?”
They were staring at him, even the blind one, waiting for him to respond, waiting for him to give his consent, his approval, that their foul creation could be used as some sort of a school logo. And why not? What reason could he give to thwart their effort? Think, David, think! But David couldn’t think.
All he could see were the white roses, a symbol of every misdeed, every wrongdoing he had ever committed.
“Headmaster, what do you think?” Ruby asked. “I talked to Mrs. Lorenzo, and she said the art department’s ready to silkscreen one for every student. She’s just waiting for your official authorization.”
David tried to convince himself that the image was merely a stupid drawing that didn’t mean anything, but he knew that it meant everything. “Then Mrs. Lorenzo shall have it,” he finally said.
Before Ruby and Fritz could thank David any further, Dr. Sutton, sensing his leader’s discomfort, swooped in and made up some story about an administrative emergency that needed David’s immediate attention. Brania waited until Sister Mary left the couple before approaching Fritz and Ruby. Just like her father, she was thrown by the girl’s artistic efforts. Proving to be more resilient, Brania found her voice much quicker than David had. “White roses,” Brania remarked. “How incredibly ... clever.”
“Thank you, Brania,” Ruby replied. “I can’t think of any image that is more iconic to Double A.”
“How interesting that you would know that,” Brania said, searching Ruby’s eyes for a flicker of life.
“Even though you’ve never even seen them before.” Ruby’s expression didn’t change, but Fritz thought the air between the two girls was a wee bit thick. But Brania was kind of balmy and got along with very few people, so the tension was really nothing out of the ordinary. She just had to speak again for Fritz to recognize Brania was being her normal, prickly self. “It’s almost as if someone’s doing your seeing for you.”
So that’s what she was getting it. “That would be me,” Fritz said. “Also known as the boyfriend.”
Wasn’t that perfectly conventional. Brania wondered if Fritz knew the truth about his girlfriend, but from what she knew of the boy, she knew he would never win a blue ribbon for being astute. No, he had no idea what he was dating. “I’m glad to see that Ruby’s in such good hands,” Brania said. The truth, however, was that Ruby was much more interesting when she was alone. “Don’t forget to save me a T-shirt,” she added as she walked back into the crowd, shaking her head. She would have to remember to add another item to the growing list of things that bored her: mismatched lovebirds.
Mismatched friends, on the other hand, could be quite amusing.
“I’m free after school if you want a rematch,” Saoirse offered. “I know I probably bruised your ego winning
