I am Amazon

Secrets

I shook my head. “Nothing useful – if Sam Harrison is a contact, she must have him under incognito or something, because I would have noticed if she’d encrypted his name.”

“Are you sure?” Damia was cryptic.

“She’s not that inventive, Damia,” I returned, a little affronted. “And besides, I recognised everybody’s name on her roster.”

Damia shrugged. “Then I don’t know, Seffie. I was so sure she was keeping in contact with him.”

No more was said on the matter, and we continued to avoid the conflict between our mothers as we finished changing and headed off to class. I had two more left in the day.

Classics I was prepared for; I stared silently at the whiteboard as one of the male students gave a presentation on the Ancient Greeks, and refused to be perturbed by it. At some point, I would have to control my anger when it came to these things – or I would run completely mad.

“I saw you running today,” Turner said as I slumped down into my chair in English. “You were good.”

Of course, there were still things in this world that would irritate, rather than anger me – and still potentially drive me mad.

I nodded in response, opening my book to the page written on the board and skimming through it. It was a good thing Dawes was taking a sick day, as I really didn’t think I could handle another minute of him. Our substitute was an older, balding man, who didn’t speak except to “hush” Turner when he showed any sign of noise.

“I’ve never seen anybody run like that,” Turner continued, not put off by my silence, or the ensuing “hush,” after his words.

I nodded again, beginning to focus on the exercises on the board. There were seventeen questions and I hoped to finish all of them by the end of the lesson. Concentrating on the text and not on the boy next to me was my only hope of remaining sane.

Refusing to give up entirely, Turner changed to a new subject. “Are you not going to speak to me at all?”

I murmured: “That’s the plan.”

“But I’ve done good deeds,” Turner protested, with a slight smirk. “You should reward me.”

I really wasn’t in the mood for his cheeky attitude today. I was exhausted; driven to the point of insomnia after encountering his friend last night. I’d tossed and turned, and what little sleep I managed to grab was filled with nightmares.

So I didn’t rise to his harping on; “Silence is golden,” I answered, and proceeded to ignore him for the rest of the lesson.

I returned home late that night, after putting Idra through her paces at the gym. She was stronger now; able to lift the spear without it wobbling, but not quite strong enough to make it soar straight through the air.

But I was becoming increasingly worried about her reaction to men. As we’d come out of the gym, she visibly flinched and ran to my side when a middle aged man entered the foyer. He’d barely glanced at the two of us, but his presence changed Idra. She’d been having a bit of a go at me two seconds before, but the minute she saw him, her attitude was forgotten and she never left my shadow.

This had never been so severe before. Sure, she’d always been shy and a bit skittish, but it had never come to the point where she refused to leave my side.

I sighed as I considered my options. My immediate thought was to sign Idra up for a martial arts class – or some such thing that would force her to interact with men. I dismissed that thought rather quickly. Not only would I be hunting her down after she ran away screaming, but she would forever associate men with fighting.