The Academy: Book 2 (18 page)

             
“Why was the door locked?” he growled.

             
“Can we talk about this in the back room, honey? You’re angry!”

             
Travis wiped the black drippings from his mouth with the back of his hand.

             
Asa thought:
How much older is Travis than Roxanne? Ten years?

             
“Please. Let’s go sit together. We can talk about this,” Roxanne begged.

             
Travis rubbed his temples, and without saying a word, he went to the back. Roxanne stood, and wiped a tear from underneath her eye, right beneath the just-healing bruise, and followed him. She didn’t even look at Asa.

             
The leopard shut her eyes and went back to her nap.

             
Asa heard a door shut, and all was quiet for a moment. He didn’t know what to do:
Leave or stay?
He now knew that Roxanne hadn’t brought him here for punishment, but he still didn’t know the purpose of the meeting.

             
The walls didn’t do much to muffle the sound of Travis’s scream. “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? DO YOU KNOW WHO HE IS?”

             
“Yes,” he heard Roxanne say. “Keep your voice down!”

             
“MY VOICE DOWN?! ASA PALMER, IN YOUR LIVING ROOM! I WANT HIM OUT!”

             
Now it was Roxanne’s turn to yell: “THIS IS MY APARTMENT!”

             
Asa heard him hit her from the living room. A clear
smack!
broke through the air like the crack of a whip. It sounded as though he backhanded her. Asa tensed up so hard that the glass of lemonade he was holding shattered in his hands. Ice, lemonade and glass rained onto the sand below. Asa’s hands were sticky with lemonade and blood.

             
He hurried to clean up the mess as Travis’s voice took on a new level of aggression.

             
“Don’t EVER, EVER talk to me like that!”

             
She was crying and didn’t respond.

             
Travis stormed out the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. His shirt was covered with black liquid, and he spat his dark saliva onto the wall where it struck heavily. Asa stood, glass in his hands, and watched the Multiplier walk by. Travis didn’t glance in Asa’s direction. He stormed out the front, slammed the door shut behind him, and then it was quiet again.

             
Asa continued to clean, not knowing what else to do. He wondered if Roxanne needed help in the back;
had he knocked her unconscious?

             
But going into her bedroom without invitation seemed to Asa like an intrusion on privacy. Leaving also seemed inappropriate because he still didn’t know why she had called him here in the first place. And so, he meandered back and forth from the sand to the trashcan, making sure that he cleaned up every speck of blood and every shard of glass. When that was done, he put Roxanne’s glass in the sink, and even washed a few dishes that were dirty. A dishwasher sat in the lower cabinets, but still, he hand washed what he found.

             
Asa went back and sat on the couch, contemplating what had just happened.
Roxanne is dating a Multiplier. ‘DO YOU KNOW WHO HE IS?’ Travis had yelled. What had he told Roxanne? Surely nothing about the contract,
Asa thought.
That’s secret information: she’s not supposed to know that.
But, the more he thought about it, the more plausible the idea became.
She seemed to know that Robert King had been shot,
Asa told himself, remembering the odd comments Roxanne had made out in the snow.
So maybe he trusts her. Maybe she knows about what went on last semester—about how the Multipliers killed my teammates in an attempt to make me earn fewer points. Maybe she knows that the deaths weren’t my fault, as everyone seems to think that they are.

             
The back door squeaked open, and Roxanne came out. Her cheery mood was gone, and she held a bloody rag up to her lip. Asa tried not to stare, but he couldn’t help it. She came around and sat on the couch beside Asa. She removed her rag to show that now, in addition to the bruise beneath her eye, she had a bloody, busted lip. Luckily, none of her teeth had been broken.

             
“Don’t tell anyone, okay?” she asked. “It’s a stupid thing to say, I know. Nearly everyone thinks he beats me, but no one outside of the relationship knows for sure. Except for you, I guess. I want to keep it that way.” Her eyes looked intense and hurt all at the same time.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Asa said.

              She reapplied the bloody rag for pressure, and opened up a small drawer in the bamboo coffee table. She took out an envelope. On the front the name “Roxanne” was written. “This is why I brought you here,” she said. “I wanted to show you this. It’s from Dr. Gill, you know, the guy that made the Gill initiative. He’s one of the owners.

             
“Anyway, I read it, and wanted you to see it. I thought it might help; our team has a long road ahead of us. It’s going to be hard for the others to ever trust you, but maybe if you know, it’ll be more likely.”

             
She held the letter for a moment, and closed her eyes for a second. When they opened, a single tear slid down her cheek. “I don’t like what they are doing to you, my boyfriend included. I don’t like what the Multipliers stand for. But… but…” she sobbed once, then regained her composure. “I want to live. And since Travis and I started dating, things have kind of… leaned in my favor, I guess. He has a lot of power in this place, they all do. And I want to graduate.”

             
Asa looked at her in the face. She looked back at him. “That makes sense,” he said. He hoped that he was able to communicate how seriously he meant those words.
How could I hold it against her that she is dating a Multiplier if it is increasing her chances of living? It’s not as though they’d stop being terrible to me if she broke up with Travis.

             
“Dr. Gill told me that I could show you this letter, if I wanted to. And I want to. I trust you. But, just know that if you tell anyone what it says, you won’t be answering to me. You’ll be answering to the Academy. Do you understand?”

             
“Basically, they’ll kill me if people find out what’s in this letter?”

             
“Basically.”

             
“I can deal with that.”

             
She thrust the paper in his hands. “Leave it here when you’re done. Just put it back in the drawer. I’ll be in the back if you need anything.”

             
She left him there alone, and he heard her shut the bedroom door. Asa turned the envelope over in his hands. The top had already been torn open, and the letter stuck out a bit. Asa grabbed at it, and unfolded it. The message had been typed up on a word processor, and Gene Gill had printed his name and signed at the bottom.

Roxanne Price,

              It has come to my attention that the student, Asa Palmer, has been selected to join your Winggame team. A fine selection, indeed! Though, it is a selection that comes with its share of necessary precautions, or, words of confidence.

             
He is a fine student, Asa Palmer!

             
I am sad and dismayed to find, however, that his reputation does not precede him accurately. My sources tell me that some think the accidental deaths that occurred last year inside his team were due to actions committed by Asa himself. Koab’s death, Shelby’s death, Darren’s death, Kitna’s death, and Hamm’s death were all merely accidents that happened last year. It was, by no stretch of the imagination, Asa’s fault.

             
That being said, some may argue and have argued that the deaths surrounding the Bulls last year have put Asa at an unfair disadvantage for graduating from this program. They say that not only did his team lose points, but that now his reputation will haunt him for the remainder of his time at the Academy. Though I find these accusations false, I can understand where they are coming from.

             
Hear me on this one: The Academy will do everything in its power to ensure that no accidents befall your team, Roxanne. Do not fear young Palmer, he’s a good boy.

             
Things are changing in the Academy (as they always are). These changes include things that will ensure that mishaps and accidents that led to deaths within the Bulls last year will not occur this season.

             
The importance of you understanding this cannot be stressed enough. This semester’s Task, as you may have already heard, is to be the most lethal yet. It will involve all students at once. Participation will be mandatory. For this Task, students will remain in their Winggame teams. Your survival will depend directly on your teammates’ performances. Therefore, it is of great importance that you trust young Palmer. There is a great chance that your life will rest in his hands at a point in this semester. You will need to trust him.

Please, contact me with questions,

Wishing you the best,

Gene Gill

Darren and Koab did not die by accident,
thought Asa, outraged.
They were strangled to death by graduates and Multipliers! How is that an accident?

He read through the letter once more.
These changes include things that will ensure that mishaps and accidents that led to deaths within the Bulls last year will not occur this season
.
At first, he was tempted to believe the words within.
Maybe,
he reasoned,
with Robert King dead, things really are changing.

But, on the other hand
, he thought,
maybe I’d be easier to kill if they could get me to let my guard down.

For the time, he believed the more cynical approach. Roxanne was still in the back, and Flying Lessons were scheduled to start soon. Not wanting to be late, Asa tucked the letter back into the drawer, and left the apartment.

Rica growled at him on the way out.

9

Flying Class

              Asa’s wings thrashed through the air, fighting to pull him off of the ground. They won, and he watched his feet as they left the earth, and then were higher than the surrounding trees.
I don’t have any problems flying,
Asa thought,
so why do we have a Flying Class now, just when I’m getting comfortable in the air?

             
First, he gained altitude, and then he picked up speed and moved towards Mount Two. A message on his armband had told him that a red flag had been erected on the mountain, and the entrance to flying class would be at the base. From this far away, he couldn’t see the flag yet. The wind whipped around him and tugged on his body. The clouds to the East had turned a sick shade of purple and were lessening the intensity of the morning sun. It looked like dusk outside.