"I hadn't thought about it yet," Ashe grumped. "Too many other things going on."
"Come on; Mr. Harris said last year that yours was noteworthy," Sali nudged Ashe with an elbow.
"But it didn't win anything."
"But seventh-graders hardly ever get any of the prizes," Sali pointed out. "You can check the list outside Billings' office. All the winners are posted there."
"I know." Ashe had walked past the list for seven years. Students' names were painstakingly engraved on shiny metal strips affixed to a polished wooden plaque, along with the year in which they won. Ashe had never paid much attention to it before. He decided to do that the following day.
"See ya, dude," Sali waved and took off toward his home. Ashe still had a ways to go.
* * *
"Mom, they won't hurt Cori, will they?" Ashe still worried about her, even if she had betrayed him. His father and Radomir left the house shortly after rising to question Cori under compulsion.
"She might be afraid at first, but they only want the truth. Besides, Marcus, Mr. Winkler and the werewolf physician are all going to be there, with Lavonna and Nathan. Nathan won't let anyone harm his girls." Adele placed leftovers inside the fridge before turning her gaze on Ashe.
"What are they going to ask her?"
"They won't pry into her private life. They only want to know the facts surrounding James's death. They'll ask her if she killed him. We know the answer to that already, but it has to be placed in the records that she said it under compulsion. And then they'll probably ask her how she found James. Where he was, what she saw, things like that."
Ashe nodded. If it were he, he'd be scared to death. It didn't matter how many times somebody said that no harm would come to him, compulsion or not. "I think I ought to go do my history homework." Ashe slid off the kitchen chair and walked toward the door leading downstairs. "I'm glad you're feeling better, Mom."
"I felt better the moment your father came home," Adele sighed. "Go do your homework. I know you're worried about Cori, so if I hear anything, I'll let you know."
"Thanks, Mom." Ashe opened the door and clomped down the steps. He found out about Cori sooner than he imagined he might; her father, Nathan, brought her over after the questioning was done.
"She wanted to see you," Nathan said as Ashe stood inside the kitchen, staring openmouthed at Cori.
"I'm sorry I blabbed," Cori hugged Ashe tightly, crying on his shoulder.
"Blabbed?" Adele asked. Of course, Nathan was still listening, causing Ashe to flush to the roots of his hair.
"I told Mom and Dori that Ashe will be sent to Cordell Junior High in the fall because he can't turn," Cori wept, clinging to Ashe. Ashe stood, his arms limply at his side, unsure what to do with the moist affection.
"Ashe, young man, how did you find that out?" Adele now stared at her son, who was peering at his mother over Cori's shoulder. Cori still had a death grip on Ashe's slender body.
"Mom," Ashe disentangled Cori's arms and stepped away from her as she wiped her eyes and offered him a pitiful expression. "It wasn't hard to figure out, was it?" Ashe lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I mean, everybody was in an uproar over Randy Smith's letter, right after I got the note from Principal Billings. It didn't take a genius, Mom. I can add two and two, just like anybody else." Ashe's voice was grim as he grabbed a still-sniffling Cori's hand and led her to a chair at the kitchen table. After getting Cori seated, he sat in the chair next to hers.
"We're in the clear, everything was just as Cori described it," Nathan sighed, taking a seat across the table.
"Cori, can I get you a soda or something?" Ashe's mother asked.
"A soda would be nice. Do you have more orange?" Cori wiped the last of her tears with the heel of a hand.
"I do." Adele pulled two bottles from the fridge and handed one to Cori and the other to Ashe. "Ashe, you don't need to let this worry you. I think everything will be fine and you won't be sent off to that school." Ashe noticed his mother said that school with distaste.
"Mom, humans are okay. They're like us. Most good. A few not." Ashe twisted the cap off his bottle of orange soda and drank.
"That's an insightful opinion from a twelve-year-old," Nathan observed.
"He's twelve, going on forty," Adele laughed.
"I read books all the time—humans write them," Ashe pointed out. "They write about werewolves and vampires and witches and wizards. While most of their stuff isn't based in actual fact, there's one theme running through all of them." Cori was now staring at Ashe as he spoke.
"What's that?" she asked. Cori didn't like to read, much like Sali.
"That even though you're different, you don't have to mistreat other people because they have differences, too. The bad ones need to be removed from society, but that's true for every race and culture."
"He is forty," Nathan laughed. Ashe smiled. A laugh from a vampire was a rare occurrence, indeed.
* * *
Ashe knew something was wrong the moment he walked into the school building Tuesday morning. Teachers were lined up outside Principal Billings' office and whispering. They became quiet whenever a student walked past, but Ashe could hear them perfectly before and after he walked by. The whispers concerned Old Harold. He hadn't come to clean the school the night before.
Ashe knew nobody could check on the school janitor until after nightfall, unless his home had been broken into. Right then, Ashe was wishing for the cell phone his parents said he was too young to have. He wanted to call his mother and tell her. He desperately wanted to tell his dad so he wouldn't have to worry about the old vampire caretaker alone, but his father was asleep. Ashe began to notice the trashcans that needed emptying and shoe streaks on the tiled floor that hadn't been cleaned away. Old Harold never got sick and never shunned his duties. Ashe's worry ramped higher the more he thought about it.
"I already know," Ashe held up a hand to keep Sali from bursting with the news. Ashe dropped his book bag beside his desk and gave Sali a helpless look. "What if he's dead?" Ashe had to concentrate to keep his emotions under control. Old Harold had come to the house many times to talk with his dad. He'd always treated Ashe kindly. Ashe had also listened while three werewolves admitted that they thought Old Harold killed James. Had someone gone after him when they knew Radomir, Nathan Anderson and Aedan Evans would be elsewhere? Ashe didn't like where his thoughts were going.