Somewhere Over the Freaking Rainbow - By L.L. Muir Page 0,51
Lucas fumed, so Jonathan had exploded for him.
Then he’d read the fear in her and done what Jonathan did best, soothed her.
“I’m sorry. This just doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand what I’ve done wrong. I am being punished?”
“Truly, I’m not sure.” Lucas put a heavy hand on her shoulder.
“Perhaps you were mistaken. Perhaps it was only my suggestion you heard, that you not worry about me or come looking for me, that it was important that you do not.”
“Silly Skye.” Lucas finally had a slight smile for her. “Your suggestion is how we knew where you were. We listened only for a moment before young Jamison blocked us out.”
“Talented boy, for a mortal.” Jonathan smiled too.
“I worry about what might have given him such talents. And where those talents will lead him.”
While in Jamison’s mind, Lucas must have come across those Texas experiences. And though she was tempted to ask, she felt it might jeopardize the promise she’d made Jamison.
“So, let me get this straight, Lucas. You are allowed to speak with me, but not influence me.” She looked from Lucas, to Jonathan, and back.
“Exactly. See? We are not Amish.”
“No influence. No interference? No advice.” She couldn’t hide her smile.
“What are you thinking?” Lucas lost his humor.
“That I’m not being punished at all. It’s a teenager’s dream, actually. Pleasant parents.”
“Aren’t you going to ask the obvious question here?” Jonathan ignored the sharp look he got from Lucas.
Skye sifted through their conversation, back to the beginning.
“Have you ever heard of this happening before?”
“There it is. The question.” Jonathan raised his brows and waited.
“Well?” Skye crossed her arms and waited for the ball to drop.
“We’re not allowed to answer. It might influence your choices,” Lucas growled in Jonathan’s direction.
“Can I ask you something else?”
“You may ask. We will answer if we can,” Jonathan said simply.
“If I wanted to go Home...now...before completing my assignment, would I be allowed? And has anyone ever done so?”
“Do you want to go Home?” Jonathan looked surprised.
“She wants answers, Jonathan, and thinks she can only get them there.”
“You’re right. I want answers. And now I can’t ask the questions.”
“It depends on whom you ask.”
Lucas gave Jonathan a sharp look. She wasn’t the only one toeing the line that night.
“No advice,” Lucas roared.
“Oh, was that advice?” Jonathan raised an innocent brow.
Lucas shook his head, his eyes closed as if praying for patience. “Maybe I’ll be told to shun you next, brother.”
“Maybe you will.” Jonathan grinned and winked at Skye.
Lucas backed against the corner and rolled his shoulders into the hall, his robes billowing from his quick exit. He disappeared through a doorway.
“Be careful, Jonathan. I’d hate for someone to be truly punished because of me.”
Jonathan shook his head then quickly followed Lucas’s path, as if summoned, leaving Skye feeling uncommonly, and completely, alone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The substitute for English class was the principal’s secretary. She looked scared to death of the copy of Lost Horizon sitting in the middle of the desk. After she pushed it aside with her pencil, she picked up a stack of papers and tapped them on the desk.
“Jamison Shaw, come here.”
He swung his butt out of the chair and went to the front.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Don’t be sassy. Take this.”
He refrained from explaining that where he was from, it was polite to use “sir” and “ma’am.” Instead, he clamped his lips shut and took the envelope she held out to him.
“Someone pass these papers out. You, Rachel is it?”
Miss Phillips hurried to the secretary and took the pile of essays from her. Her big smiles alternating with sympathetic shakes of the head announced each grade before the students could see for themselves. The sub shouldn’t have given them to a student to pass around, but the woman probably couldn’t put the names to faces.
“Open up your novels and read for the rest of the class period.” She never looked up. Stupid woman; the whole class could have walked right out and she wouldn’t have noticed or wouldn’t have cared. She had better things to do, it seemed, like trying to hack into Mr. Evan’s computer.
Rachel looked at him and shrugged. No paper for him.
The envelope in his hand was addressed, “Return this to Mr. Jamison Shaw, first period.”
He broke the seal. Black ash smeared across his desk. Digging through the mess, he found an unburned section. His name, in his own handwriting, sat next to a large red ‘A’.
Good ol’ Mr. Evans. Fear and fight, buddy.
Skye came in late.
“Miss Somerled, take roll.” The sub didn’t even look