I waited with him, anticipating we would leave in a minute.
The room only had a few subtle differences since the last time I was here. Dr. Green had added an origami lion on top his desktop monitor, next to frogs and bears he’d placed there before.
The radio that had been on top of the cabinet was gone, replaced by a Bluetooth speaker. Next to it was a vase with a few stemmed roses.
I waited in the silence with Mr. Blackbourne. When he checked in with me, I raised an eyebrow, asking silently how long we were waiting.
He showed me his hand, quietly counting down seconds.
Not long.
His desk held the packet that had been left on top of one of his organizers. “Did you need to look at it?” I asked quietly.
“This afternoon,” he said.
Must not be that important. I breathed slowly, allowing my nerves to settle and for him to let me know when to make the next move.
After a few more moments, he opened the door and held it. “Shall we?” he asked.
He was waiting for something here in the office. Or someone. I had a gut feeling I knew who it was.
I stepped out into the hallway. He closed the door behind himself and then, at a pace a little slower than I expected, guided me back toward the entryway of the office.
I followed close to his arm, keeping my hands to my sides, and minding to keep my head raised.
We walked slowly out of the hall just as Mr. Hendricks was crossing to the front desk. He wore a brown suit, matching his thick pair of glasses. His bald head reflecting the light from yellowed fluorescent bulbs over us.
And Ms. Wright was at the desk as well, signing the same clipboard document Mr. Blackbourne had signed. She wore a turtleneck, making her head appear to hover over her wide-framed body. She looked up shortly at Mr. Blackbourne and then at me.
Mr. Blackbourne did a very short acknowledgement of Mr. Hendricks and Ms. Wright before moving on past him toward the main door.
That moment stretched for me, feeling Mr. Hendricks’s gaze shift from Mr. Blackbourne to myself.
This was what it was all about. I was back. I was wearing the uniform. I was beside Mr. Blackbourne.
I was with them.
I was one of them.
This confirmed everything he suspected about me from the beginning but could never prove.
I kept my head up, my focus returning immediately to Mr. Blackbourne. I was here because Mr. Blackbourne and others wanted me to be here, but I was with them, under their protection.
They couldn’t hurt me. The moment Mr. Hendricks retreated, I knew he couldn’t do a thing about what I was wearing, where I was going or what I was doing. He couldn’t affect my grades or call my parents. There was nothing left for him to threaten me with.
I floated out of the office alongside Mr. Blackbourne. My confidence grew with every step. No longer was I his shadow, hoping to go unnoticed. It wasn’t just about wearing the uniform. It was about being with him, directly. There was no question now.
He took a long route around the school, at a steady pace. Mr. Blackbourne passed through hallways starting to become populated with students, and through the cafeteria. My eyes blurred, unseeing the reaction, but feeling it as we moved. The number of eyes that focused on me increased as we passed through more populated areas. Voices rose behind us. Questions. Curious comments.
He was making sure everyone knew.
One of Us
Music Room B’s chairs were precariously stacked high on one side of the room, enough so that some of those stacks leaned over. I wasn’t sure if anyone else actually used the room besides us if they were still stacked after a week of school being back in session. The linoleum floor’s corners were layered with dust. The chalkboard still had dusty chalk outlines from months ago.
The room was empty. The others hadn’t arrived yet as far as I knew, or they were hanging around the courtyard while we were here early.
Once we were out of eyesight from the rest of the school with the door closed, I relaxed, breathing out slowly through my lips.
Mr. Blackbourne put a gentle hand to my lower back in a warming touch. “You did beautifully, as always.”
“I didn’t know it’d be a parade,” I said. I knew the uniform had a purpose, that it would draw attention. I wasn’t expecting to walk all over the place to get here. It was actually good. It got this out of the way the moment we arrived.
“It was just good timing,” he said. “I caught Mr. Hendricks driving in as we entered. A little serendipitous.” He crossed to the wooden upright piano on the other side. He took off the messenger bag and placed it on top before turning around.
“What about taking the long way to get here?” I asked.
“That was me making my presence known to other teachers. And who I really worked for.”
“A school that doesn’t really exist?”
He nodded shortly. “I represent something of a higher standard. I’ve no qualms or loyalty to anyone here, including Hendricks. This is important to establish. It also helps to know students can be chosen to enroll at any time.”
This idea had changed from when they first started going to the school. At first, they’d blended in, or tried. Mr. Hendricks continued to keep us identified as ‘other people’ regardless of the effort they made. So the strategy has changed. No more hiding.
I had remained by the door, gazing into the room. The room seemed different to me. It was familiar, yet it didn’t intimidate me like it had in the past. “So what do we do now?”
He unbuttoned the front of his gray jacket, shaking it off his shoulders to place on top of his bag. “We’ll wait for the others. They’ll need to question several students and teachers before they get here. Also, I believe Mr. Lee was going to determine if someone was following you yesterday by checking the cars in the parking lot.”
“That could have been anyone,” I said.
“It could have been, including someone from Mr. Hendricks. Or this Volto character. At this point, we need to prove coincidence, not assume it.”
That was true.
Mr. Blackbourne took to putting a few of the chairs down from their stacks. I helped to push them a little closer to the chalkboard.
But before long, Kota arrived, followed by Nathan. They both wore similar uniforms, with Nathan carrying his jacket under his arm and without a tie. Kota wore the whole ensemble together, with a tie tucked into his closed jacket.
I brightened seeing them, especially walking in together. Nathan looked tired, with dark shadows under his eyes, but he perked up when he saw me. He shortly waved to me while waiting on Kota to get through the door, and hurried to me to give me a quick, deep hug.
“Did he tell you about your sister?” Nathan said in my ear. I sensed him dropping the jacket on the floor behind me to complete the hug.
“Yes,” I said. I held his hug for a long moment before I stepped back a half step. “I’m still kind of processing.”
He held at me a moment longer, looking at the outfit and grinning. “Hey, we match. About time you wore that.” He broke off the hug to pull back and then looked up at Mr. Blackbourne. “They didn’t do anything else last night, but they didn’t want to come into school today, even though I said they should. Marie’s scared shitless of this place now.”
“Probably more fear of embarrassment than actual fear,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Her getting called in repeatedly gets her teased in class. But also, I imagine she’s tired of Mr. Hendricks’s threats, and I don’t blame her. However, she’s got to know by now it’s meritless. We’ve told her as much. He never gives her any punishments. And he asks the same questions.” He sighed and then looked at me. “What do you think? Should we give you sister and her friend what they want?”