the flashlight.
The bindings come off, and I drown myself in sweats and a hoodie before jogging back to the girls' dorm again.
I get in my usual way and settle down with a book, a soda, and some granola bars I pinched from the cafeteria. Setting my stuff on the coffee table, I notice some spatters of red wax, and some scorch marks, like somebody set candles up here, too.
My first thought is that the Student Council knows I come here, and thought they'd surprise me here, too. But joke’s on them. I haven't been coming for the last week or so. Setting my mouth in a determined line, I settle in with my book—some story about a half-angel who summons ghosts called Spirited—and decide I'm making a stand here.
These guys, they all think I'm a dude. Pretty sure they will beat me up if I push too hard, but I don't care.
So for a while, I read by flashlight. Since I don't have my phone, I have no idea what time it is, and I don't want to get stuck out here too late. After a few chapters, I stand up, gather my things, and then pause to study the class picture that's hanging on the wall.
Across the top, there's the Adamson All-Boys Academy crest with the lion inside the shield. Underneath it, however, it just says Adamson Academy. The all-boys part is missing. Guess the picture is hanging on the wall in the girls' dorm. Maybe they were trying to transition to the new name?
Leaning in, I study the faces in the photo, scanning across the boys until I come to … a girl. My mouth drops open as I lock eyes with her smiling face. She's kneeling in the front row in a pleated blue skirt and blazer, her hair long and dark, bangs straight, cut right across her arched brows. There’s a small key around her neck with a little ribbon tied around it.
I had no idea there ever was a female student in this school. My dad never mentioned it. The way he presented the information, I was supposed to be the first girl to attend Adamson.
“What the hell?” I reach my fingers up and brush them against the girl's face, a frown taking over my lips. I'd wondered why there was a half-finished dormitory, covered in dust, and abandoned like we were living in the Last of Us, but … I never knew they'd actually started accepting women into the academy. “Huh.”
Moving away from the photo, I head back to the window and climb out.
As I'm walking back to the dorm, I hear movement in the bushes and pause, turning the flashlight that direction.
A flash of color catches my attention, and I feel the blood drain from my face.
“Hey!” I shout, but whoever it is takes off running, and I don't get a good look at them. Doesn't mean I don't get chills down my spine, or that I myself don't start running. I don't stop until I'm safely inside the downstairs lounge.
Ranger is there, lying on the couch with headphones on. He narrows his eyes at me as I pass, but I don't care. I flip him off and force myself to walk the rest of the way back to my room.
As I fall asleep that night, I can see that girl's sapphire eyes, staring back at me.
“Dad, you don't understand!” I snap as he moves around the kitchen, sloshing coffee onto the toes of his loafers and cursing. He grabs a wad of paper towels and dabs at them while I desperately try to plead my case. “They broke my phone.”
“Yes, Charlotte, I know,” he says, getting irritated with me. “Church Montague already came by and apologized on behalf of the entire Student Council.”
“He did?” I ask, blinking in surprise.
“He said you guys were horsing around, and that Micah … or was it Tobias? … anyway, one of those McCarthy twins, bumped into you and it fell out of your pocket. He already purchased you a new one.”
My mouth drops open.
“N-no, that's not how it happened at all!” But Dad is beyond late, and has pretty much stopped listening to me. He hands me a box from the kitchen island, and I look down to see a new Samsung.
I had an iPhone.
My mouth purses, and I squeeze the box with tight fingers.
“I had an iPhone, not a Samsung.”
“They're exactly the same,” Dad says, pushing past me and heading for the front door.
“They are