Jess and I sat just outside the dining hall, ignoring the freezing temperatures to discuss the Christmas break developments before dinner. She cut me off mid-rant about my mother's drama when she pointed, wide-eyed over my shoulder, and I whipped my head around and choked on a laugh so intense it brought tears to my eyes. Coming through the woods toward us, Katia and her two besties were Smurfs. Head to toe blue. While it hadn't been their doing, they played it off well with short white dresses, white hats and white heels.
Not wanting to miss their grand entrance, we quickly ducked into the hall and watched the explosion of laughter their arrival caused. They pranced and twirled and shimmied into the cafeteria, pausing to pose in front Kellen, who tried unsuccessfully to hold back a smile.
As she passed my table to hers, she threw a glance back over her shoulder at him and fired an imaginary gun at him. Hijinks was officially back on.
-.-
Confusion. That was the overwhelming feeling in the auditorium as we waited for the assembly to begin. Where was Headmaster Sorensen? Who was the man standing side stage beside Ms. Penzant in his place?
A strange feeling settled in the pit of my stomach as his eyes swept over the student body. He had that air of authority, the entitled kind that so many of our parents exuded. The kind that meant no matter how things used to be, they would soon be his way. He strode to the center of the stage, eyeing us all with obvious distaste.
"I am Headmaster Corbis. I will not be running this place as my predecessor did. You will not be my best friends, and I will not be playing Grandpa to any of you." His tone was eerily emotionless and somehow mocking as he spoke to us. "I will not tolerate tardiness, backtalk, substandard uniform, or any of the antics your previous Headmaster might have put up with." His hard gaze fell on the Triad, still tinted blue, and I don't know how Katia didn't shrink down in her seat.
This man was terrifying, and we all watched our leaders surreptitiously as he marched off the stage and left the assembly altogether. What in the world was happening? Ms. Penzant watched the man leave with her lips sourly puckered before she approached the podium. She calmly explained that Headmaster Sorensen had been replaced suddenly over the break for unforeseen reasons and advised us to make the transition of administration smooth.
-.-
"What the hell happened to knocking?"
Katia was unfazed by Kellen's tone, but as she noticed the rest of us there, looked a little startled. "I did knock."
"Well, it's customary to wait for an answer before barging in. Jacks or I could have been naked for all you know."
"That would have been a sight," she mused, sauntering into the room. "Jacks and Kellen dancing around naked with a bunch of clothed juniors drooling over them... I didn't know you opened a strip club in your room, Kellen."
"Funny," he said in a clipped tone. I thought it was, and then the ensuing image in my head of both him and Jackson doing wildly inappropriate dances made me wince. Thanks for that, Katia!
"We need to discuss something, kiddies." She washed her gaze over Jess, Ashley and I as her blue lackeys entered. "Leave."
Though he grumbled that she was ordering around his soldiers, Kellen ushered us through the door, slamming it shut behind us.
"Ugh, I can't stand her!" Ashley grumbled. Jess hushed her as we strained to hear through the closed door.
"What are we going to do about the new Headmaster?" Katia asked.
"What makes you think we need to do anything?" Jackson drawled lazily.
I could imagine Katia looking at him as if he was inconveniencing her by speaking. Sure enough her voice came across as patronizing, "Kellen, this conversation really only needs to involve the two of us."
Before we could even begin to panic that they'd catch us, Katia directed everyone else into Jackson's room.
"If you wanted to talk alone, why'd you bring your Smurf posse with you?" Kellen huffed.
"You're the one who restarted things, Kellen. You had an out... "
"What? And play the guy that fell apart after his girlfriend messed around on him? Really, that tart meant about as much to me as Jackson's sneakers do. They're fun to use once in a while."
"You're disgusting, Kellen." Katia said what we were all thinking about his gross toxic male bravado. Maybe she couldn't hear past it, but Jess and I had spent enough time being invisible in his dorm to share a small frown at his sad attempt at hiding his hurt.
"You brought it up, Katia."
"Whatever, Kellen. I'm not here to talk about that anyways. What does the new Headmaster mean for Hijinks?"
I could almost hear Kellen shrug. "Nothing."
"What about—?"
"What about what, Kat? It's not like we prank within the school anyways, it's all out here on our own time. So we go on, if he's really as nuts as he seems, then we meet again and rehash the Code. Other than that, get out of my room. I still haven't forgiven you for the pictures."
"Kel, I..."
We heard him move across the room and open a door and yell, "If you have boobs, get out!"
-.-
Phones went off, a surge of rings and beeps and buzzes throughout the cafeteria and like good little sheep, we all looked as if of one accord and took in the newest update. Not like we didn't already know—coffees all around the hall were being spit out.
Hadn't I already told myself I was looking for a way to get out of this mindless lackey thing? It was harder than I'd imagined it would be; some things were so ingrained in me that I couldn't help myself. Like the need to spy on everyone constantly, or checking my phone anytime there was a hijINKs update whether or not I cared. The worst was involuntarily gauging Kellen's or Katia's reaction or mood.
I looked around the table at my friends with annoyance; I knew I wasn't the only one who hated being treated like a peon. They were all discontent, but none of them, not one of them, ever stepped even remotely out of line. My need to break out of the stupid assigned role, made me unhappy with my friends' complacence. I had to say or do something soon, or I'd explode all my anger on them.
-.-
The update on my phone went ignored for a whole twenty minutes, and I was pretty proud of myself for it too. Then Jess plucked my earbuds out and decided to tell me about it. Apparently a few Thunderbird freshmen had gone full tilt and come back from break with a heavy arsenal of pranks. Needless to say they were wiping the floor with the Hellhound freshmen. They'd racked up our points by two since classes let out and it wasn't even close to dinner yet.
I glanced at Jess and rolled my eyes. "I told you I don't care, Jess."
She yanked me from my seat and led me to a far corner of the library in search of a book and some privacy. "Nicole, you've been kind of off since Fight Night. I was trying to give you some space, but now I just want to know what's going on with you? You used to love squashing those Hellhound turds. We used to plan missions together."
I didn't respond. I had to be careful what I said, as much as she was my best friend, she was also Jackson's sister. Her loyalties would always lie with blood. She took my silence for reluctance to talk.
"Nic... There're just so many things... you go running till you pass out, you skip out on meetings when Kellen calls us. You had that whole thing with your dad when you told him off... Are you guys okay, by the way?"
We were so far into the back of the library that the space between the racks was a claustrophobic narrow path. Books touched our shoulders as we pressed on, and the towering shelves blocked the light, so it was dim. I knew this far in, I didn't need to worry about people overhearing my secrets.
"Please talk to me, I feel like we don't talk anymore."
The look Jess wore when she turned, and her fingers caressing my hair out of my face, made me crack. Suddenly all those things that I had kept to myself came careening out of my mouth like a geyser. I didn't really know what I was saying, or in what order.
I ranted about Kellen and Jackson and their orders, and being expected to obey without question no matter what I'd been doing. I vented about feeling like a sheep every time there was a hijINKs update I didn't want to check but still did because my phone had beeped. I raged about Fight Night, and their brilliant decision to tell my father—the patron saint of domestic violence victims—that I'd been beat up by some meathead boyfriend.
Jess let out a sound somewhat between a sigh and a chuckle and enveloped me in a hug. We stayed pressed to each other between the dark stacks of musty paper for quite a while before leaving. For the first time in the history of our friendship, Jess joined me on a run.