get sick," she said, fiddling with her combination lock. "What happened while I was gone? I keep hearing people talk about a fire."
Before I could open my mouth, Coach Fletcher walked in. "Don't bother changing," she said. "There's going to be an assembly concerning the fire. Leave your stuff here and let's go."
"Do we have to?" groaned Madison, who had already donned her gym shorts.
"Yes." Coach marched back out.
Theo and I were still wearing our street clothes, so we walked straight into the hall. I filled her in on what happened during the short walk to the auditorium. She agreed that Henry sounded suspicious.
"But don't write him off, yet," she said. "He obviously cares about you. You should have seen the look on his face when you...passed out at the orphanage. You might as well have been his wife or something. Maybe he just got scared, or worried he would get in trouble. You know how guys are; they can't talk about that stuff."
Lainey and Madison passed by us then, as always wanting to be at the head of the crowd. I waited until they were out of earshot before I spoke again.
"His wife?" I asked.
"You know what I mean," Theo said.
"He does seem kind of romantic. Sometimes he's all I think about." I'd never admitted it out loud before, but I knew Theo would understand.
"Well, yeah, if I had a sickly hot guy falling all over himself for me, it would be a huge deal," she agreed.
"What about Alex?" I teased. "He's not bad looking for a meathead."
"Meh," she said, shrugging. She rubbed glitter out of the corner of her eye. "I still have to think about that. He did send me a get-well email. There were kittens. That has to count for something."
The auditorium was packed nearly to capacity when we arrived. It looked like every freshman and sophomore sat there. I had no idea what to expect. Public execution wasn't out of the question. The faculty members stood along the walls, talking to each other.
McPherson appeared onstage, lit like a ghoul in the stage lights.
"Quiet down now," he said without pleasantries, waiting until everyone was silent. "Although most of you were here last Friday, let me give you a reminder. We had a serious incident. Several fires were set on school properties, causing minor damage. The staff and I have discussed this matter. We will not rest until whoever responsible is punished."
"Some of you may be wondering who among you is to blame. We know of several people of interest that I will be interviewing."
"Do you think he's talking about you and Henry?" Theo whispered.
"Of course he is." Although it was impossible, I felt like McPherson was looking directly at me.
The assembly lasted for fifteen minutes, the whole time McPherson going on and on about personal responsibility and the limits of freedom in the school being in our best interests. Sure, I thought.
When we were finally dismissed, our class filed back out into the hall with everyone else. I started to follow the herd back towards the gymnasium. But Coach Fletcher stood in front of me, stopping me from going further.
"Donovan, you need to go to the office," she said. She had gone back to treating me like any other kid, broken nose all but forgotten.
I sighed. Theo smiled sympathetically as me, raising her crossed fingers for emphasis.
Nerves took me over. I had never really been in much trouble before, save for the time I drew with crayons instead of chalk on the sidewalk in elementary school and had to wash it off for an hour with a garden hose.
I headed to the front offices and walked into the inner sanctum. Carnation bouquets were wilting on the counter, the school colors they'd been dyed with fading. I had been here too often lately.
"I was told to come to the office. My name is Ariel Donovan," I told the secretary. I couldn't tell if she recognized me when I wasn't bathed in my own blood. She pointed with her pen back to McPherson's office. I shuffled across the brown carpet and to my doom.
I knocked on the door, but no one answered. When I opened it, Henry was already sitting, rather casually, in one of the chairs in front of McPherson's tidy desk. His office was just as organized and sparse as his house had looked.
"Hi," I said meekly to Henry.
"We meet again," he replied, brushing dirt off of his shoe onto the floor.
"What's going on?" I asked