And what if the vice principal called my parents? They had never received a call from a vice principal on a behavior issue from one of their children before. I could see Mom and Dad’s shocked expressions morph into a cold disappointment. A discussion of logical consequences would ensue. Maybe I could plead with the vice principal to give me detention and not tell my parents. As I thought, I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand.
“This is bad,” Sean was going on. “We need to see your shaman to find out what to do.”
I wasn’t listening. His voice was a faraway drone as my mind filled with all the terrible punishments Mom and Dad might devise should they hear about this. They might take away my car, my credit cards, or my cell phone for an entire week. Riley would eviscerate me with words of contempt. It would take months to live down what had just happened in front of the whole Honors English class. Maybe there wasn’t enough time in the universe for that to happen. Today’s incident surely would cause people to believe Martin’s version of our date. I was wondering if I shouldn’t broach the subject of home schooling to my parents, when Sean’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Can you focus for a minute here? Do you understand that your House and mine are Sworn Enemies? A treaty between them requires that if any of the members meet, that their life energy be released to the universe. We have to see your shaman right away.”
“What are you babbling about?” I asked, impatient with his interrupting my thoughts with nonsense about shamans and houses. “Are you crazy?”
“Probably. You don’t know anything, do you? At the very least, has your shaman talked to you?”
“I don’t have a shaman. Though probably about now I could use one.”
“Yes, you have a shaman. We both do.” Sean looked up and down the hallway again to make sure we were alone. “What I’m going to tell you is going to sound really off the wall, but I want you to hear me out.” He exhaled loudly. “The two of us were created by a species of aliens who live below the surface of Earth in a place they call Geminay. I met them last May when they abducted me while I was out riding my horse. They kept me in their palace. That’s how I know about us being Sworn Enemies.”
“Aliens?” Sean’s words were just ludicrous enough to distract me from the matters at hand. “Aliens who live below the surface of the Earth? Really? Is their spaceship in the shop?”
“Oh, that’s nice. Sarcasm. And while you’re at it, explain the diamonds in our eyes and what just happened in there and what happened with Martin.”
Sean crossed his arms over his chest while he waited for me to answer back.
I grew somber. “I can’t explain what happened to Martin. No matter what you may have heard, I didn’t drug him.”
“I know you didn’t.”
“How?”
“Because you’re a Sworn Asset and you drained his life energy,” Sean said flatly. “Martin is lucky to be alive.”
I narrowed my eyes at Sean. While I liked the fact that someone believed me, I didn’t buy his explanation for what had happened. “What you’re saying is not even possible. Human beings can’t just drain off each other’s energy.”
“Human beings can’t.”
“Oh, that’s great. If I’m not human, what am I? Some kind of mutant chimpanzee?”
“Your shaman should have explained this to you.” Sean wore an expression of exaggerated patience. “We’re hybrid humans created by a species of aliens who live below the surface because they come from a planet that has a small red sun and our yellow sun is too much for them. They have cat’s eyes with gold pupils because of the low light on their home planet. That’s why our eyes are like this. We’ve been modified so we can live on the surface with humans.”
His story was just ridiculous enough to entertain me. “So you expect me to believe that we’re, like, part alien? Can you prove one single thing you just said?”
“If you want proof, look in the mirror. Or ask your shaman. Ask the one who gave you that jewelry.”
My heart skipped a beat. I bit my lip.
“Your shaman is missing, isn’t she?”
I nodded. “All I know is that the neighbor lady who sold Mom the jewelry has vanished. After her garage sale, Mom didn’t see any lights on in her house and newspapers were piling up on her front door, so she called the police to do a welfare check. They found the house empty. She’s nowhere to be found.”
Sean rubbed his temples. “This is bad. If you are the Sworn Asset from the House of Beck, you and I were never supposed to meet. Our shamans were supposed to keep us apart. Did this woman tell you anything?”
“No. She was Mom’s friend, not mine.” I became defiant. I wasn’t going to say anything that would have the police come for me like they had for Jonathan. “And I don’t believe a word you’re saying about aliens who think they can tell us what to do.”
“They’re our creators. They think they have the right.” Sean became dead serious. “Our houses are Sworn Enemies. The penalty for us meeting is death. Lord Amin warned me about you when I was in Geminay.”
“He warned you about me?” I said, annoyed at being seen as a threat by yet another boy.
“Yes, he’s the First Shaman of the House of Picard.”
“Just what makes you think I’m a Sworn Asset—whatever that is?”
“Who else could you be? I could feel your power as I was walking down the hall toward this classroom. I could feel your power when you were sitting outside with your friends. I thought it was because you’re the most beautiful girl on this campus, but you’re so much more than that. Lord Amin said the Sworn Asset would be.”
His words were so surprising that I lost the ability to speak for a few moments. I liked the part about being the most beautiful girl in the high school, though I didn’t believe him. He must not have seen Cosette, Parisa, and Gail. The rest sounded like a lot of pretty fiction designed to manipulate me.
I jerked my chin. “And you expect me to believe all that just because you say it?”
“It happened right in front of you. You know what you did to Martin at the movies and to me just now in the classroom. Can’t you trust your own eyes?”
I hadn’t trusted my own eyes for months, not since the diamonds showed up. And I certainly wasn’t going to trust someone who clearly knew Martin.
“Okay, fine, you’ve had your laugh at my expense. When you and Martin put your little pea brains together to make up this story, did they overheat?”
“For your information, Martin and I are not close, though clearly you know him well from the way you were hanging on him outside a little while ago.” Sean tipped his head toward the steps at the far end of the building. “We need to get out of here. My car is in the parking lot. Let’s go.”
My jaw dropped at the suggestion. Ditching school? He wanted us to ditch school on top of getting us sent to the vice principal’s office? I would no more ditch school than I would walk around with a bra tied around my head. And I certainly wasn’t going to leave campus with a boy I had just met who claimed that we were part alien.
My irritation flared at him. “Don’t you think I can see that you’re working with Martin to get me expelled? What did he have to do to get you to go this far?”
“This isn’t about Martin! This is about us—you and me! We’re in danger. Why do I have to keep saying that? Don’t you understand English?”
“Apparently not very well,” I snapped.
“We were never supposed to meet. Our Houses are Sworn Enemies. The jewelry was meant to keep us apart. You can’t deny what just happened in there.”
“Watch me.” I poked his chest with my index finger.
The second my finger touched Sean, a loud crack that sounded like a blast from a shotgun filled the corridor. Sean flew from me, crashing into the door of a classroom of students who were having their first trigonometry class. The voices inside the room hushed and the math teacher’s eyes were wide when he came to peer out the window of his classroom door.
I stared at my hands in shock. I had barely touched Sean.
He shook himself off. “You’re going to have to learn to control that. Now let’s go.”
“Hey, hey, hey!” shouted a security guard who had just come up the stairs. He was a big man, broad of shoulder and thick of thigh. Heavy, wraparound sunglasses circled his small, shaven head. “That’s enough out of you!” he bellowed at me as he rushed toward us. His cry echoed and rolled like thunder down the long, empty hall. “Darcy Hinson, keep your hands to yourself,” the guard bawled even more loudly. Then he glared at Sean and lowered his voice. “The vice principal is waiting.” He clamped his hand down on my shoulder. He was wearing black leather gloves and dug his fingers through my thin shirt into my flesh. The sensation was heavy and tingling. “Let’s go.”
Teachers were coming to their classroom doors and looking out, their heads poking into the hall like prairie dogs out of burrows. The guard kept his hand on my shoulder as if I were a condemned prisoner being marched to the gallows. Sean followed. As we made the long walk toward the vice principal’s office, stray students and staff stared openly, some grinning, some nervous, their eyes following us every step of the way. All the office staff froze at their desks to watch Sean and me being directed into the vice principal’s office.
Silently the security guard ushered us inside and jabbed his leather finger at the chairs. Trembling with humiliation, I sat down slowly, eyes to the floor, my face burning. The vice principal, a fat man behind an enormous desk, leaned forward in his vast leather chair. It squeaked loudly as if his bulk caused it to cry out in pain. The security guard stood just inside the door, his face inscrutable. The vice principal gave him a long look.
“Are you new?” he asked.
“At this location I am,” the security guard said. “The fire caused the district to shuffle us around.”
The vice principal nodded, losing interest. He turned his attention to Sean and me, lowering his brow and curling down his thick lips in a mask of sadness. Once his expression conveyed enough regret and disappointment, he began on me.
“Miss Ridgeway says that you created a scene in her classroom this morning.” His gaze came from under his bushy silver eyebrows. “Then you created another one in the hallway. Six teachers called in the disturbance. Five said the two of you must have set off a firecracker. We’re not even a half an hour into the first day of the school year, so you’d better choose your words carefully.”
He wanted me to explain what had happened, as if I could. My hands still tingled from whatever it was that I had done to Sean. I wanted to shout out the truth, but the cool hand of caution stopped me. I hadn’t forgotten watching Jonathan being swallowed up inside a police car, never to be seen again, and I certainly didn’t care for that fate. The truth would only make everyone think I had lost my mind. I glanced at Sean and saw the diamonds in his eyes. His unblinking stare warned me.
“Don’t look at him,” the vice principal said sharply. “Answer me.”
“My necklace had twisted around my hair somehow,” I said, hating how the lies sat on my tongue. “It felt like a huge chunk of hair was being pulled out. I screamed and kind of overreacted. Sean was only trying to help.”
“Miss Ridgeway says that you kept accusing Sean of burning you.”
“That’s because I was panicking, and my hair being pulled out felt like a burn.” I allowed myself to look ashamed. I thought the vice principal would like that. “And I blamed Sean when I shouldn’t have. I was freaked out by having a strange boy touching me like that. I had never seen him before. You have to believe me. Miss Ridgeway had that wrong. It was all my fault. Sean shouldn’t be blamed for any of that. He’s an innocent here. You should send him back to class.”
“I don’t think so,” the vice principal said, his tiny eyes looking like chips of coal in his doughy face.
“She’s small. I think I scared her,” Sean said.
“It’s a strange thing how he managed to scare her twice,” the security guard said to the vice principal. The lenses of his glasses replayed every movement in its reflection.
The vice principal lowered his brow even more. “Yes, that is strange. You shoved a boy you claim to never have seen before into a wall and a door.” Without waiting for a response, the principal turn to Sean. “Did her necklace pull her hair the second time?”
“I really can’t say.” Sean sat up straighter in his chair. “She didn’t hurt me either way. She’s very small.”
“Size is irrelevant,” the vice principal said, giving me a mournful look. “This high school doesn’t condone violence for any reason regardless of the size of the student. No person on this campus has the right to put his or her hands on another.”
He aimed his stare at Sean. “You seem to be the victim here, so I don’t think I will need to call your parents, though I will say that my first impression of you has left me disappointed. Your file from the other school lists no behavioral infractions. I hope you don’t think you can come here and act just as you please. And you, Darcy, your poor choices today speak for themselves.” The vice principal’s vast chest rose and fell with a deep sigh. “Your parents have high hopes for you, just like they did for your older brother and sister. I believe their names are Carson and Riley. Do I have that right? They never would have acted like this. Poor choices have consequences.”
I quit listening as soon as he mentioned Carson and Riley. My whole life I had been hearing about how wonderful they were, how intelligent, polite, and ambitious, as if I were just the opposite and their achievements were a list of what I needed to do to remediate myself. I looked at Sean from the corner of my eye and wondered what he was thinking. As the vice principal rambled on, I let my attention wander to the security guard, who was staring raptly out the office windows into the reception area.
I followed his gaze and saw two men showing badges to the clerk. My heart jerked in fear. The vice principal’s droning voice faded away as I watched the men come toward the office where we sat. My heart started pounding. The men stopped in the doorway and glanced at everyone inside the office through their dark aviator sunglasses. The skin tingled on the back of my neck.
“May I help you?” the vice principal asked coldly. His surprise at the interruption turned into annoyance.