Page 96 of No Ordinary Girl
Her face lit up. “I’m glad. I knew you two would get along famously. I’m happy to hear you’re well, Annabelle. The last few times I’ve seen you, you seemed a little overwhelmed, a bit stressed. I worried about you.”
I was stressed, but I didn’t want to admit that. I was away from my family in a completely new world, surrounded by strangers, and studying subjects that were foreign to me, and was expected to find a missing toddler, all the while. Of course I was stressed.
“I’m okay,” I said, silently thanking the heavens that she didn’t have mind-reading abilities like me. “I just miss my family a bit, but I get to chat with them on most days. And my little sister and I chat via text.”
She nodded quietly. She was emotional -- I could feel it so intensely. She felt sorry for me.
“I’m great,” I added quickly. “Really. I love it here.” I didn’t want her to pity me. I was doing just fine.
“I know we’d negotiated a flight back at Christmas to see your family…” she started and my heart sank. She couldn’t go back on her promise. I couldn’t miss Christmas with my family, and I wasn’t sure if my parents could afford the flight.
I could always take the bus…
“Christmas is so far away,” she continued. “How would you like to go home for Thanksgiving?”
I suddenly lost the ability to speak -- I was just so surprised. “Yes!!” I finally choked out, despite the huge lump in my throat.
She smiled. “Then it’s settled,” she said. “RAMS will fly you out at Christmas as well, of course. You’ve been such a great asset here, Annabelle. You deserve this.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You and Leo make quite the team,” she said. “I had a feeling you two would work well together.” The teasing tone in her voice made me blush like a nun in a cabaret.
“Yeah, he’s great.”
“You’ve made a lot of friends?” she asked curiously.
“Yes. Well, there’s Alicia, of course,” I told her. “And the kids from the case,” I added, although I wasn’t too sure I could consider Brianna and Ace friends -- they were closer to nemeses. “I was kind of a loner at my old school,” I confessed. “The kids thought I was a freak.”
She laughed. “Well, one thing you learn when you get to be my age is that we’re all freaks.”
I smiled. “Especially here.”
“That’s why they call it Freak Academy,” she said with a smirk. I was surprised to realize that she was aware of her school’s nickname. “We’re not like everyone else here, we don’t follow the crowd, get caught up in it, in that little box. You can never make a difference in this world unless you step out of the box.”
“Well, RAMS is definitely out of the box.”
She beamed. “That’s how I like it.”
Simone Adler was an exceptional woman -- if I hadn’t realized it before, I certainly did now.
A knock at the door startled me. I turned around to see Mr. Black.
“Hello, don’t mean to interrupt,” he said. Simone Adler was larger than life, and so was he. His mere presence made you stop and stare. I wasn’t sure if it was his size, the stylish black suit he always wore, the sculpted angles of his face, his smooth deep voice, or his intense aura.
“Please come in, Cedric,” Simone said cheerfully. “You remember the lovely Annabelle Jenkins?”
He shook my hand with a very strong, slightly intimidating grip, before settling into the seat next to mine.
Simone turned to me. “I asked Cedric if he’d mind having a little chat with you. You seemed a bit down, and I thought you might like to talk to someone like you, someone who understands what you’re going through. How does that sound, Annabelle?”
That sounds intimidating and slightly terrifying. “Uh… it sounds okay, I guess.”
I turned to Mr. Black, who was smiling at me. He looked like a completely different person when he smiled; a lot friendlier. I thought that it might be nice to share my emotions. I hadn’t really done that with anyone, except maybe with Leo, because with him, I really had no choice -- he could read me like a book.
Simone sprang to her feet. “Well, I’ll leave you two for a little bit.”
Following what seemed like a whole century (it was most likely about three seconds), Mr. Black cleared his throat, and said, “I looked at your file, Annabelle, and it seems that you and I have a lot in common.”
