Page 46 of Riot Rules
Carrie rounds on me like a hellcat.“You smashed up Fitz’s office?”
“Yep.” I can’t wear the hoody I wore last night. I’ve never worn a hoody to class before. Showing up in one this morning would be really fucking dumb, considering that the two vandals who broke into the school last night were wearing black fucking hoodies. Lucky for me, last night was cold as hell and I wore a light sweater underneath the stupid thing to keep warm. I put on my t-shirt and the sweater, smoothing my hands over my hair. Carina’s still staring at me. “What? He deserved it. Haven’t you ever wanted to knock the fucker down a peg or two?”
“No! Fitz is the nicest teacher at the academy. How did he possibly deserve that?”
Ahh. Right. I mean…to the other students at Wolf Hall, Fitz probably would seem like a solid guy. He does his best to make our classes fun, and he goes easy on us when we don’t have time to complete our assignments. But he’s tried too hard from the fucking beginning, letting us curse and say whatever we feel like, as if we can be ourselves around him because he’s cool. Because he’s essentially one of us. It’s pathetic.
And that was before all of the shit with Wren, too. Now, I have extra reason not to like the bastard. “We were sending him a message,” I say. “He’s fucking with the house. Pax and I figured it was time he got a little warning about his behavior. That’s all. Sounds like the folks downstairs are blowing the whole thing out of proportion. It was just a desk and a couple of chairs. And the whiteboard. And the grey sofa.”
“Just his desk and—” She takes a deep breath. “God, Dash. Is this some weird ass retribution over him giving you detention?”
A bark of laughter flies out of my mouth before I can swallow it down. Like I’d get so bent out of shape over a petty detention slip.
“You’re gonna have to tell me what’s so funny. I amsoconfused right now.”
I almost tell her. Wren’s secret nearly slips out of my mouth like its mine to share, but I’m saved by the piercing shriek of the bell, calling students to first period. “Shit. I’d better go,” Carina says. She isn’t done with me yet, though. “Meet me at the observatory tonight? I think we need to talk.”
20
DASH
“This iswhat I get for being a fucking gentleman.” Pax nurses his right hand, glaring at me like it’smyfault that he’s in so much pain.
“We live on a mountain, man,” I mutter. “Not smart to go grabbing hold of plants without checking if they’re poisonous first.”
“I grabbed hold of it soyoucould climb down that fucking steam vent. I was being courteous, and now I’ve got fucking leprosy. Is it supposed to blister like that?” He holds his hand right under my nose, displaying a pretty gross looking welt that has, indeed, started to blister.
“Put some fucking cream on it, dude. You’re gonna be fine.”
“No fucking poison sumac inNew York.” He rolls his sleeve down, covering up the angry rash. “Never would have happened if we were attending a schoolin civilization.”
“Be grateful you didn’t go in that undergrowth to take a piss. You ever gotten that shit on your dick? It’s the worst.”
He looks appalled. “Do you have something against your cock, man? You don’t seem to take very good care of it.”
“Alright, class. Yeah, yeah, yeah, alright. I know. Simmer down.” Fitz has entered the room. He goes to throw his fancy leather record bag onto his desk, then chuckles ruefully when he remembers that he doesn’t have one anymore. He hangs the strap of his bag off the corner of a bookcase at the front of the room—one wewouldhave smashed to kindling last night, had we had the time—and turns to face the class. “Looks like some of you had an eventful night last night,” he says. With his hands in his pockets of his faded jeans and the sleeves of his tailored black shirt cuffed up to his elbows, he looks like he made an extra effort to dress down for our lesson today.
“Excuseme.” Damiana Lozano looks thoroughly put out. “Where do you get off, blamingusfor this? We wouldn’t destroy our own shit. Not when this is the only classroom where we get to sit on chairs that don’t make our asses go numb. Doesn’t make any sense. It was probably a freshman. Or one of those Edmondson kids, getting us back for fucking that dude’s mom.”
Hah! Hadn’t thought about that. Pax is expressionless, but he lets out a bemused chuckle. From an outsider’s perspective, this could definitely be payback for the boys fucking that kid’s mom. The administration’s going to have a hard time pinning this on us either way.
Wren hasn’t said a word about this infraction. He was sprawled out on his leather couch when I snuck into the room five minutes ago, and he actually seemed entertained by the whole thing. I didn’t go running with them this morning, though, and I didn’t drive up the road with them, either. He must in the very least suspect that I had something to do with this.
“I’m going to choose to believe that it wasn’t any of you guys,” Fitz says. “It’d sting pretty bad if it was. I’ve always thought I’ve shared an understanding with this class. But I will say this. If any of you have anaxeto grind—” He looks pointedly at me, “—then I really hope that you’ll come and discuss your issue with me directly in future. I’m not planning on replacing my desk, but the other furniture, the stuff Iwillreplace, isn’t cheap, and I’m paying for it out of my own pocket, so…”
My fucking hero. He can cry me a river. He earns six figures working here, and his costs are all taken care of. He has a great apartment down in Mountain Lakes that I know for a fact is owned by the academy, and he eats here for free Monday through Friday. He can afford to replace a couple or chairs and a whiteboard. My heart doth not bleed for the man.
“Hey. Where the fuck did you sleep last night, anyway?” Pax whispers. “I came back around and looked for you when Hugh went to get Harcourt. Thought the poor bastard was gonna have a heart attack.”
“The attic.” Luckily, I’ve had time to plan my response to this question. It’s only natural that he asked. The attic above the academy is a well-kept secret. You can get up there through the janitor’s closet on the fourth floor of the girl’s wing, or there’s an actual staircase that leads there from the boy’s wing. Pax has been up there once or twice, but not in years. He probably forgot the place existed. He wouldn’t have looked for me there.
He grunts, appearing to accept my explanation. “Anybody see you go up there?”
I shake my head.
Fitz coughs loudly. “I hate to interrupt your little tête à tête, boys, but we’re kind of in the middle of something, so could you please shut the fuck up and pay attention.” His words drip with open venom. Our classmates chuckle nervously under their breath and behind the backs of their hands, wanting to jeer and laugh at a teacher commanding us to shut the fuck up, but they know better than to think they’d get away with it.
“Sorry, man.” Pax slaps a hand on his chest, all mock apology. “We were just trying to work out what type of message this trulyheinousact was supposed to send.”
