Page 10 of Knox Academy Omnibus
I head over to my car, get in and start her up. I pause for a moment and then run my hand gently over the top of the dashboard. “Have a little patience with me,” I say out loud to the car. I don’t feel as stupid talking to...her...as I expected. I smile, glad to have taken Amelie’s advice and begin the drive back to the academy. The whole way home, I’m thinking about that kiss and how soon I can see Amelie again.
Chapter Five
Amelie
I’m rudely and suddenly woken from a dream of joy riding with Aadi and Smalls, by a strange shrill noise that seems to be drilling into my skull.
“Susan, shut the fuck up!” I yell a moment later when I realise where the god-awful sound is coming from. She doesn’t listen though, so I roll over and hit snooze on my alarm.
That doesn’t stop her though. What the fuck? I sit up, and angrily stab at the screen until it finally - thankfully - falls silent. I peer at the screen, bleary eyed and see Susan cheerily informing me that it’s 5am and I have detention in less than an hour. Fuck that. It’s fucking Saturday and I thought Kalen was joking! Who in their right mind would give that idiot the power to issue detentions? Where was the warning, the second chance, the stern talking to that usually comes first?
Susan continues to go off when I ignore her alarm and I wonder how I get her to shut up. She must be waiting for the inbuilt gps to register my movement towards the detention location. What did Elsie say? Be at the back sports oval by 6am?
I quickly bring up the school map and happily see that my bedroom window looks out towards the sports oval she was talking about. Easy.
I get out of bed, cross to the window and open it. I then pick Susan up, apologise to her, and fling her as far out of the bedroom window as I can. I have no idea if it works, but when I slam the window shut, it doesn’t matter because I can no longer hear her. Hallelujah!
I climb back into bed, roll over, and promptly fall back to sleep.
Banging wakes me from my slumber. What the hell’s a girl got to do to have a little sleep around here? I pull the covers up over my head and hope whoever is on the other side of the door gets the memo.
“Open up Amelie, I know you’re in there.” I sigh with relief; it’s Elsie. I was expecting it to be Kalen or the twins coming to force me to go to detention.
I reluctantly roll out of bed and stomp to the door, swinging it open to find an overly peppy Elsie staring back at me. She smiles and lets herself into my room.
“I went to spring you from detention but imagine my surprise when you were not there.”
“Were you really surprised that I wasn’t there?” I say closing the door.
“Only you would skip a detention with Mr Knox.” She laughs, shaking her head as she makes my bed.
“Are you really making my bed?”
“Yes, if the only thing you do in a day is make your bed, at least you can say you accomplished something.”
“Or...I could get back in it and say I accomplished sleeping all day.”
“Nonsense, get dressed, we are going for breakfast.”
I throw on an oversized hoodie and a long pair of yoga pants, and run my fingers through my hair. “Done.” Elsie looks at me like I have lost my mind. “It’s breakfast Elsie, not a fashion parade.”
She shrugs and we both leave to go for breakfast. Back home, a strong black coffee was the breakfast of champions. I hope to get some today. I can’t imagine a school for criminals banning coffee; there would be complete and utter carnage.
Without Susan, I have to rely on following Elsie. One thing I have never been good at is directions; I could turn left into a street and still not know how to find my way out. Which really made it hard, running from trouble. Hiding usually worked well in those circumstances though.
We walk side by side and Elsie talks about everything she has planned for the day, I only catch ‘makeover’ and ‘library’. I tune out after that.
I wonder what Aadi and Smalls would be doing right now. It would be about six at night. Smalls would probably be fixing up someone’s car, Aadi would be telling him to hurry up and get dressed so they could head out and get pissed. I’m going to miss hanging out with the guys, drinking and getting into trouble. Smalls would death-glare any guy that even looked my way, and Aadi would just laugh when I had a tantrum about never getting laid. I always had to be sneaky about spending time with guys. Anyone that would come near me really had to have a death wish. If Smalls found out, he would make sure they never walked again. Helped my cause somewhat, because I never wanted a permanent guy; no-one would ever measure up to the connection I have with Smalls.
He is my ride or die. It’s fucked, I miss them so damn much that my chest physically aches. I wonder if I can find a way for them to come visit me? I doubt I would get away with four return airline tickets on the new stepdaddy’s credit card...but I’ll save that thought for when I get really desperate.
I take a mental note to find a way to make my own money; there has to be a way to scam some of these rich pricks out of their money. I just have to think about it. Four grand would cover the cost of flights but I doubt the incubator would host. I’m good at manipulating people, so it might pay to see how far I can push stepdaddy to see if I can get him to agree. I just have to figure out what his deal is, I’m not stupid enough to believe this whole saint who saves kids bullshit. I just don’t get that vibe from him. Where I come from, reading a person accurately can be the difference between life and death.
I wouldn’t say that we have gangs... they may like to label themselves that, but it’s nothing like you see on tv. We just stick to ours. We protect what’s ours. If I were in Australia right now, Smalls would have taken me from the court and we would be in hiding until it all blew over. My father knew Smalls would protect me, so he kept him busy whilst they loaded me on a plane. It wasn’t fair. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.
My anger boils.
I thought I wanted to find a way to ditch this place and get home as soon as I could, face the consequences when I was back on home soil. But now I’m not so sure. My being here is all her fault. I want to tear her life apart; let the dominoes fall at her feet and be there to laugh in her face. An eye for an eye, that’s our code.
