frowned at the shoe and then at her.
“You go out with clothes,” he said, tugging his khakis before looking at another girl’s wispy skirt.
“So, what you have on you is another form of preparation for the big, bad world. Turn out your pockets. Go ahead. Make a pile in front of you and let’s see what you’ve selected to help you make your way through the world today.”
We looked around at each other before slowly starting to pull stuff from our pockets.
I had a piece of chalk, a Sharpie, my cell phone, the keys to the Beast, my wallet, some cash ($7), my school ID, and a pocket knife. Some kids had just their school IDs and their phones. Most of the girls had some kind of lip-gloss or lipstick.
Very quickly we were done… most of us. The sound of clinking objects caught my attention and I turned to look at Caeco, Mack, and Jetta. The piles in front of them were huge and growing by the moment.
Pocket knives, disposable lighters, mini tools, several brands of tactical pens—you know, the kind that will write upside down in the bottom of a swimming pool and can punch through the top of a can—small containers, ziplock baggies, razor blades, small first aid kits, at least one tube of super glue, little flashlights, a roll of quarters, and the list went on.
Jenks was parked in front of the three, looking through their piles and nodding to himself or frowning at this or that item. When Jetta reached up under her shirt to her bra and pulled out a little knife, he took note, which would have been creepy except his eyes were glued to the knife. Immediately, he held out his hand to see it, then held it up to the class.
“Very nice, Miss Sutton. Class, this little beauty is called a Hideaway Knife. That’s its brand name. Designed by an engineer who discovered she didn’t like being unarmed…ever. See the loop where the handle should be? Unless I miss my guess, it’s been custom fitted to Miss Sutton’s first two fingers.”
He gestured at her to raise her arm and then fit the knife over her fingers, leaving her with a steel loop over her middle and index fingers, with a two-inch bladed triangular razor edge jutting out from the looped handle.
“Miss Sutton wasn’t born with claws—so she bought some. And they can’t get knocked out of her hand; she can handle things while wearing them and they can be hidden virtually anywhere—and she’s plated them in silver,” he said, eyeing the blade closely.
His hand touched the paracord bracelet on her wrist and he jerked back as if burned. Looking at his fingers then her bracelet, he nodded.
“Tell us what you have here, Miss Sutton,” he said, looking pleased, as if being burned by a student was a good thing.
“Well, these are paracord, so I can use them for all kinds of things in an emergency. The one on my right hand has a survival kit woven into it. You know: fishhook, line, wire, can-opener, fire flint, and even a little handcuff key. And I’ve modified both of them,” Jetta said.
“Yes, you have. What have you added?”
“Well, I wove an additional wire into them, made of silver, and I threaded a number of different-sized silver beads onto it.”
“What good are they?” he asked.
“The beads and wire make a pretty good protection from getting my wrists grabbed, by any… well… by any weres,” she said, flashing a defiant expression.
“Weres or vampires, eh Miss Westing?” he said, turning to the pale vampire chick who was lurking, er, sitting in the corner of the room, a noticeable gap between her and her neighbors. She gave him a cool nod.
“Smart. But what else can you do with them?” he pressed Jetta.
“The various sizes fit inside the hollow points of most common pistol ammo. If I come into possession of a handgun, it’ll likely have hollow points in it and I can make them effective for werewolves, er, all weres and I guess vampires, too. I can glue them to the top of a shotgun slug or open the case of a buckshot round and put them inside.”
“And how would you come into possession of such a weapon?” he asked.
“Honestly, Mack can just go buy them here in Vermont. This is America. Guns are all over the place. Hell, half of the houses in this state probably have at least one gun in them.”
“Clever girl. Now then, what’s