Authors: Lia London
Just in time for the fire trucks to arrive. The firefighters leapt to the ground to see a porch on fire and a
crowd of angry, scared teenagers.
***
With the ground steaming and the crowd gone, Mom sat next to me on the charred remains of our porch. She cradled a dozing Kelsey in her lap, and continued answering the police officer’s questions. Finally, the man snapped his notebook shut, folded his arms across his rather round frame, and stared at me.
“Young man, this is not going to go well for you
if those boys decide to press charges.”
“Officer, he did nothing but invite a few friends to a party. How can anyone blame him for what happened?”
“According to the witnesses, the Wind came from his direction, and some of the kids say he has had a long-standing feud with that crowd, so—”
“I don’t believe this,” said Mom, rubbing her eyes.
“Those brats set fire to our porch, opened a huge Dirt Hole in our yard, and you’re accusing my
son
of—?”
I put my arm around her. “It’ll be okay, Mom,” I said.
The officer sighed artificially and stuffed his notepad into his back pocket with difficulty. “We’ll be in touch, Ma’am. And…I’d make sure you get those boards fixed before someone breaks through the porch steps and sues.”
He spun on his heel and waddled down the walk, missing the dirty look my mother shot him.
“Mommy, am I in trouble?” mumbled Kelsey sleepily.
“No, honey,” said Mom, kissing her head.
“Is Kincaid in trouble?”
“Hush, sweetie. Go to sleep now.
You can snuggle with me tonight, okay?” Mom stood up carefully and carried Kelsey inside, cooing soothingly to her all the way.
I sat on the edge of the Dirt Hole, trying to collect my thoughts. Now would be when Kelsey would normally be watching Saturday morning cartoons, but she was still curled up fast asleep in Mom’s room. The whole thing with the police officer had me really upset. He acted like all the damage was my fault, and that the injuries to the Punkers were worse—even though they could be healed in five minutes. With a heavy sigh, I stood up, looking down into the hole.
“I wouldn’t dive until you install the actu
al pool,” said Amity behind me in a weak attempt at humor.
I gave her the courtesy laugh. “You’re up early for a Saturday.”
She shrugged and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. “Did you watch yourself on
The Morning Edition
today? You were in the section with all the ‘features’ on local celebrities and stuff.”
“I’m a celebrity?” I asked, raising my eyebrow.
She didn’t look at me. “Well, you’re…infamous, sort of.”
I sank back down to the ground. “Are you
kidding me?! What are they saying?”
“Jack’s mom must be behind it
, covering up.”
“What are they saying?”
I repeated through gritted teeth.
“They’re making Jack and the Punkers out to be victims of the kind of chaos that happens when Nomers and Mages mix.”
“Victims! They’ve been pulling stunts like this for—”
“I know, Kincaid, but Mrs.
Bagler is hardly going to let her son look like a delinquent, is she?
The Morning Edition
was really impressed with the fire blowing thing,” she said, off-handedly. “However, they were sure to condemn the destruction. Somehow they thought
you
started the porch fire. Callers were mostly making the case for banning all magic use in minors.”
The barking, sarcastic laugh that came out of my throat scared birds into flight. The next thing I knew, I was in the Dirt Hole, kicking
and tearing at the sides. “How can they think I did any of that? I’m an average Mage at best, and I can’t even…” I clawed at the edges of the hole, throwing clods of grass and dirt at the tree where the Punkers had hid.
Then Amity
jumped in with me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She mumbled soothing things I didn’t understand, but it calmed me down. She tugged me to sit down, and we lay back on our backs at the bottom of the Dirt Hole staring up at the cloudless sky. Her fingers laced around mine, and she gave me a gentle squeeze. “It’ll be okay,” she said. “You’re building something beautiful and useful, and in ten years, everyone will love what you’ve done. We’re all rocks in a river, remember?”
“I’m not my father,” I said.
“I’m sorry I dragged you into all of this, Amity.”
“You didn’t drag me into anything.”
“I did. Don’t you remember how pathetically I hit on you that first day?”
“You were cute in your pat
hetic-ness,” she said. There was a long pause while we stared up at the sky. “You know, this would be a great place for a hot tub.”
“If I manage to stay out of jail for all of this, I’l
l earn some money and get one.”
“
I bet my dad would hire you to run errands at his office,” she said, suddenly perky. “You should come meet him!”
“Before or after I’m arrested?”
“After you’re
showered
. You stink.”
***
Mom had other plans. By the time I got out of the shower, she had sent Amity home and made my favorite breakfast, strawberry crepes with drizzles of chocolate on top.
“
Things are that bad, huh?” I asked, seeing her bent over a stack of papers.
“Worse.”
I served up a few crepes and sat down next to her before she went on.
“Homeowner’s insurance doesn’t cover magically induced trauma to a building by minors.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Honey, Mages can get great medical insurance because enough of us are
healers that we don’t need the big claims, but property damage…The laws are against us in that…We’re going to have to hire someone.”
I suddenly didn’t have much of an appetite after all, so I swirled the strawberries around in the chocolate sauce. “Is Kelsey going to get in trouble?” I whispered.
Mom closed her eyes and kind of groaned. “I don’t know what to do here, Kincaid. She’s to blame, of course, but…”
“I’ll take the blame,” I said. “I already did
it, according to
The Morning Edition
.”
We looked at each other for a long minute until Kelsey bounced into
the room.
“
Good morning, Kelsey!” I said as brightly as I could. I stuffed a big forkful of crepes in my mouth and slid the chocolate sauce across the table to her.
We spent the rest of the day not talking about the trouble I would be in when the cops finally came to lay charges for the “a
ttack” on Jack and his friends. In fact, we spent the whole weekend worrying about it, but they never came.
I let my guard down, thinking maybe it had all blown over and some denied insurance claims would be the worst of the aftermath, but as Amity and I stepped onto school grounds, we saw a crowd had gathered. Most were students, but there were some adults holding picket signs saying stuff like “Stop Mage Violence!” and “Re-Segregate!” Vans from Channel 5 News and
The Morning Edition
blocked the way to the main steps.
There was also a police car. The way cameras flashed
as soon as I showed up, I could tell they were all waiting for me. In a bizarre tide of arms and legs, I was swept towards the police car. People kept badgering me with questions, most of which I couldn’t even hear. I sort of nodded vaguely. Everyone was shouting—either to have me set free, or to have me locked up.
The cop
put his hand on my shoulder. “C’mon, kid. Let’s go.” I lowered myself into the back seat, and he slammed the door shut. As we pulled away, I looked back at all the chaos. It was like something from a movie, all this focus on me. That’s when the craziness of the situation washed over me. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be reading me my rights or something?”
The cop looked at me in the rearview mirror. “Relax, kid. You’re not being arrested.”
“I’m not?”
“I told you, we’re just bringing you in for questioning.”
“Oh.” I slumped back. “So why didn’t you come get me yesterday?”
“Couldn’t get clearance
‘til today.”
That sounded dumb, but I figured the big bosses were gone on the weekend. Sure made for an exciting show, coming to get me at school, though. In fact, by the time we got to the station and the cop plopped me down in the lobby, I could see the
Channel 5 breaking news report of my non-arrest on the wall-mounted TV. The sound was turned down, so the whole thing was about as clear to me on screen as it had been in person, but I noticed how much I kept saying, “Okay.” I guess I’d been in a trance. In the background, I could see more of the students, including my friends and some of the people from the party. Their faces looked sympathetic, though Curry looked like he was trying to avoid the cameras. Elizabeth and Amity were crying. Blakely and Whittle were trying to calm people down.
Then the screen changed to close-ups of the damage at my house and
the news anchor reappeared looking serious. The lettering behind him said “Mage Violence on the Rise”.
The TV cut to a commercial break, and I leaned forward, rubbing my eyes. I felt so tired.
A familiar voice jolted me upright, and I saw Mr. Petercriss and some lady in a business suit entering the lobby. They were speaking quietly enough that I couldn’t make out the words. I picked up a community event flier and pretended to read it, hiding my face. The receptionist recognized the lady and waved them back into the hall leading to the various offices. Right as they entered a door on the left, a lady officer came up to me with a smile. “Are you Kincaid Riley?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Come with me. Detective Sheldon is ready for you.” She led me down the same hall where Petercriss had gone, but about four doors further along. At the door, she ushered me in. “Do you need a glass of water or anything?”
“Am I go
ing to be here long?” I asked.
“Get the kid some water,” said the man behind the desk.
I sat down, sweating already, in front of Detective Sheldon. His elbows rested on his desk, his mouth hidden behind clasped hands. I fidgeted with the zipper on my backpack and tried to look confident. He stared at me, unsmiling until the lady officer returned with a little paper cup of water. Hardly worth the wait, but I took a sip to try and steady my nerves.
“How old are you, Kincaid?”
“Seventeen,” I said, surprised that he’d start with such a pointless question.
One of his hands dropped to his desk, and the other one formed a fist in front of his mouth like he was trying to keep a screaming lecture from escaping. I kept waiting for him to blink. Finally, he asked,
“You’re a Mage?”
I let out a weak laugh. “Not a very good one, sir.”
“I don’t know about that. I saw pictures of a pretty big Dirt Hole in your yard and some impressive fire damage to your porch.”
“That…was someone else
’s handiwork, sir.”
“Someone else?”
“Other Mages did it. Not me.”
“You invite those ‘other Mages’ to your little get-together
on Friday?”
I swallowed another sip of water. “I invited some Mages and some
Nomers, but then other Mages showed up, and—”
“
They crashed your party,” he finished. “You know these other Mages?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And who do you think they were targeting? You? Your guests?”
“Probably both, sir.
They’re not fond of Nomers.” A knot formed in my stomach as I realized that I had no idea of the magical status of my interrogator.
“But you
are fond of Nomers?”
“I…Yes, I guess. I’ve made friends with
some of them this year.”
“So everyone’s getting along over there at Magian High?”
“Um. Better than before? It’s a process, I guess. We’re all getting used to each other.”
“And the party crashers were…?”
“They’re Punkers that go to my school—or at least, they used to.”
“They got names?”
A knock sounded, which was weird because the door had been left open. I turned to see the lady officer giving an apologetic look to the detective. A second later, another woman entered—the same one that had come in with Petercriss.
Detective Sheldon placed both hands on the desk as if bracing himself, and shifted his gaze to her. “Can I help you
, ma’am?”
The woman glanced down at me with an artificial smile and then launched into speech like she was used to giving orders. “I must protest that you’ve taken Mr. Riley out of school for this. This is really unacceptable.”
I stared up at her.
Detective Sheldon let out a puff of air and blinked slowly, as if appeasing a spoiled child. “Mrs.
Bagler, you know we need to investigate this matter to ensure the safety of the Nomers at Magian High.”
Mrs.
Bagler!
“Well, do it after school hours! This is ridiculous and irresponsible,” she snapped. “Besides, this young man is famous for his
support of Nomers. He lobbied
for
desegregation. I can hardly believe that—”
“Yes, Mrs.
Bagler. I know all about him,” he said with a scary edge to his voice.
Mrs.
Bagler stopped talking and stood taller. After an awkward silence, Detective Sheldon spoke with extra control. “Mr. Riley, I apologize for the manner in which your education was disrupted. We will have an officer return you to the school, but I need you to report back here today at…” He checked his planner on the corner of his desk. “3:45. Don’t be late.”
My mouth
was too dry to respond. As I stood to go, Mrs. Bagler said curtly, “Thank you.”
“Sorry for the inconvenience, Mrs.
Bagler, Mr. Riley.”
She stormed out of the office and down the hall. For a moment, I stood there, unsure of what to do. The lady officer touched my shoulder lightly and tilted her head to indicate I should follow her. I looked back at the detective
. He had his head in his hands, staring down at his desk.
Twenty minutes later, I was sitting next to Amity
in chemistry, listening to a sub talk about half lives and wondering what was happening to
my
life.