The Academie (24 page)

“
Welcome to Common
Grounds. Can I help you?”

I wasn’t prepared for the chipper
young blonde woman behind the counter who greeted me as I walked in
the door. “Uh, can I just have some water, please?”

“
Sure.” She flashed a
bright red smile before grabbing a cup and heading for the
faucet.”

“
Thanks.”

“
No problem. Let me know
if you need anything else.”

I found a seat along the window. After
being trapped in the same space for the past several months, it was
nice to have a different view. Across from me, an old woman with a
walker parked beside her was talking to a much younger woman. By
the appearance of the second woman, I was guessing she was the
caregiver.

“
Mrs. Norbert, if you
remembered to take your medicine every morning, you wouldn’t have
this problem.”

“
Ah!” the old woman said,
scrunching her face and waving an arm in disgust. “The pills don’t
make me feel better. I can’t remember anything when I take
them.”

“
The pills help your
confusion.”

“
No! They steal my
memories!” She was obviously frustrated. Collecting herself, she
continued. “Today I feel alive again. I can remember so much more.”
The old woman’s eyes were tired, watery. She looked at the younger
woman. “This morning, I remembered the time Bud—my husband—took the
car out while I was at the dress shop.”

The caregiver sighed but didn’t
interrupt.

“
He said he’d wait in the
car. He wasn’t allowed to drive anymore, you know, because of his
condition. He hadn’t even asked to drive in years. So I didn’t
think anything of him staying the car. Everyone knows men hate
dress shops.”

The caregiver smiled.

“
Anyway, I couldn’t have
been in there twenty minutes. But when I came out, the car was
gone! I had to call the police; what could I do?”

Still smiling, the caregiver shook her
head and shrugged her shoulders.

“
Do you know where they
found him, Nancy?”

Nancy shook her head. “The candy
store! Can you believe it? The candy store! All because I wouldn’t
let him have any candy, he said.”

Nancy laughed, a big belly laugh, and
I could see that she was really enjoying her company
now.

“
Oh, was I mad!” She hit
the table for emphasis. “I fumed the whole way home. But he just
sat there, eating his candy.” She paused. Then her expression
changed. “It seems funny now, but I wish I’d let him have more
candy.” Her watery eyes grew wetter, and she looked
away.

Nancy said nothing, but she laid a
gentle hand on the old women’s arm.

My thoughts were interrupted by the
sound of a child screaming on the other side of me.

“
I don’t want
it!”

“
Johnny, you have to eat
it.
This
is what
we have. We’re not made of money!” The frazzled, young mother ran
her fingers through her hair. Under her breath, I heard her say,
“
We can’t even pay the
rent
…”

Next to her stood a man I’d guess was
in his late twenties, though his face was creased with worry lines
beyond his years. As the kid continued to holler, the man got up,
walked to the counter, and returned a moment later with a box.
“We’ll take it home. Come on, drink your juice,” he said to the
boy.

The child’s crying slowed to a whimper
as he picked up the cup and slid the straw into his mouth. As he
drank, I watched silent tears run down his face. I tried to smile,
hoping to cheer him, but his gaze quickly shifted back to his dad,
and the silent tears continued to fall.

Somewhere in the back, someone dropped
a tray of dishes.

I turned back to the window. Cars sped
by on their way to who knows where. People frowned from within
them.

When I slid through the fence, I
imagined anywhere was better than The Academie. Now I wasn’t so
sure.

I pulled out my BMP sandwich, grabbed
a napkin out of the table dispenser, and scraped off the mustard
and pickle. I knew I’d still be able to taste the remnants of their
flavors. That’s the way life is sometimes: you can fix things up,
but you can’t make them all better.

I didn’t run away that day. Instead, I
did what I’d never thought I’d do: I went back. I did it
reluctantly, but the reality of the cold, hard pavement to sleep
on—or worse—a jail cell, didn’t sound better, so I walked back and
slid between the fences when it appeared no one was
looking.

I thought they’d know I’d been gone. I
figured they must have cameras around or some other way to figure
out that someone had breached their security. But no one was there
to greet me at the door when I returned, and catching a glimpse at
the clock, I was able to make it to the locker room just in time
for Basic Fitness.

It wasn’t until dinnertime that I ran
into trouble.

“
Miss
Thompson
.” The voice came from behind me,
but I recognized it immediately.
Sergeant
Murk.
“You didn’t report to sixth or
seventh period this afternoon.”

I didn’t reply.

“
Where were
you?”

“
Around,” I
shrugged.

“
Well dear, here you do
not pick and choose which classes you will attend. Here you will
attend
whether you like it or
not
.”

I kept my mouth shut.

“
So that you will not
forget this in the future, you will have the privilege of cleaning
your dorm bathroom this evening.” Her smile was hideous.

I tried to remain perfectly still. Why
give her the satisfaction of knowing she was getting to
me?

“
Perhaps in the future,
you will choose to be a respected member of our academic community,
like your brother.
Amazing
that you come from the same family.”

She turned and left, and I restrained
a scream. If I had to hear one more thing about what a model
student Matt was, I thought I might just lose it.

“
What’s all that about?”
Ruby asked when I reached our table in the cafeteria. Murk had
cornered me near enough to my friends to make me a
spectacle.

I sighed and rolled my
eyes. “Nothing. I had a surprise visit from my parents today.” My
friends around the table started to look excited, so I continued
before they could cut in. “I learned that my grandma died—a
month
ago. And while my
parents came to visit my brother weeks ago to share the news, they
chose not to offer me the same courtesy. Of course, being the model
citizen Matt is, he too neglected to tell me. I suppose he never
found the right opportunity, given the fact that I only see him
once a day in class!”

“
Oh…Allie, I’m so sorry,”
Ruby said.

“
That boy is cold. I say
you sit him down and—”

“
She chucked Dodge Balls
at him,” Ruby said, interrupting Tina. “You’d think he’d get the
hint.”

Cayden put his arm gently around my
shoulders.

I wish he were
Bryan.

“
So, where’d you go?”
Robert said.

“
Nowhere really. I just
needed space outside of class to think.”

That night, cleaning the girl’s
bathroom was gross, but it seemed a small price to pay for what I’d
gained that day.

35.
mass delusions

“
You knew grandma died and
you didn’t tell me?”
I grabbed Matt by the
back of the shirt after English class, forcing him to turn and face
me.

“
Oh good, they told you.”
He seemed oddly at ease.

“
Why didn’t
you?”

“
I don’t know.” He
faltered. “What good would it have done if I had? You couldn’t do
anything, and it would have interfered with your
studies.”

“
So what? I have a right
to know!”

“
It doesn’t change
anything, Allie. Whether you find out now or three years from now,
she’s still going to be dead. Since you can’t see her anyway,
wouldn’t it be nicer to believe that she’s still out there
somewhere?”

I stood, shocked.
Was this his logic? Was he trying to protect
me?
“I don’t understand you anymore, Matt.
We used to be close. Now I don’t even know how to talk to
you.”

“
I’m just focused, Allie,
and you should be too.”

“
Focused on
what
? This place is a
nightmare. All I think about is getting out of here.”

“
Well, maybe that’s your
problem.”

“
What?
Who said I have a problem?
”

“
I’ve been told that you
have been resistant to the program.”

“
Who told you
that?”

“
I also heard you were
found in off-limits areas.”

“
Who’s telling you this
shit? What business is it of yours?”

“
They want me to help keep
you in line.”

“
They?
”

“
But I told them no. I
can’t control you any better than mom or dad ever have.”

“
What the
hell
are you talking
about? You are my
younger
brother! What do you know about
anything?”

“
I know that you are
causing trouble, and they don’t like it.”

“
I haven’t done anything.
And
you
can stay
out of it. It’s none of your business. As far as I’m concerned,
you’re not
anything
to me anymore.”

I turned and stormed out the
door.

For the next few weeks, we didn’t even
look at each other. He’d get to class early, sit down in the front,
and I’d sit in the back. Then he’d stay after class to talk to
Sergeant Roke, giving me the opportunity to slip out the
back.

It was a perfect
arrangement.

Except it felt all wrong.

In April it rained a lot, as April’s
tend to do, but the world was filled with flowers now—both on the
Academie grounds and in the neighborhoods I could see through the
fence. This helped me feel happier in general.

But that’s when things got really
weird.

I was sleeping the first time it
happened: his voice came to me. It was Bryan calling out, searching
for me.

I woke with a start. The voice was
gone.

The second time I heard it, I was in
Math class. Sergeant Prattle was doing her thing, rambling
on—something about linear equations, and there it was out of
nowhere.

“
Alllieee.”
It was Bryan’s voice, clear as day.

I looked around the room, but no one
else looked affected. How could they not have heard
that?

“
Alllieee.”

Prattle continued on,
unfazed.

That night, I looked
up
auditory hallucinations
on the Acadenet.

Auditory hallucinations are often
caused by psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia.

Great, now I’m
psychotic.

I looked up schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is often caused by a
loss of contact with reality.

Yeah, that’s about
right.

But the next day was even
stranger.

In history class, I was flipping
through the pages to the World War II chapter we were working on,
when an illustration caught my eye. For the briefest moment, I
thought I had seen a copy of Bryan’s painting—the size of an entire
page. But when I flipped back to find it again, I
couldn’t.

“
Something wrong, Miss
Thompson?” the Sergeant asked.

“
Oh…. No,” I
stammered.

“
Page 225.”

I nodded and turned to the correct
page.

But through the rest of
the class, I couldn’t help but wonder what could be going
on.
Was it the shots? Was it stress? Was
this The Academie’s way of punishing me for my escape?

Or could it be possible
that I really was losing my mind?

In biology class, things got stranger
still.

“
Alliee…”
the voice called again.

“
ALATHEA THOMPSON!”
it shouted suddenly, causing me to
jump.

The class turned all eyes
on me.
Did they hear it?

I raised my shoulders and shook my
head at those who continued to stare.