Page 12 of Hateful
I stand beside him, slightly disoriented, and look around the room. All around me students are getting to their feet to head back to their classes. My eyes flick up toward the stage. Dean Robin still stands there, arms folded.
And once again, she’s looking directly at me.
My stomach churns at the sight of her. I duck behind Neville, shielding myself from her sight, and shuffle out behind him.
“You okay?” Neville asks concernedly as I crouch next to him.
“I’m fine.” I glance over his shoulder. The girls’ dean has disappeared from the stage, so I’m clear. For now.
She knows where to find me, so I know it’s just a matter of time until she does.
Neville, Rafael, and I let the crowd carry us out of the assembly hall and into the corridor outside. I shrug my backpack onto my shoulders and tug on the straps.
“So, next class?”
Rafael stops. “I think someone might want to talk to you,” he says, nodding ahead of us.
And it seems that time is now.
Somehow, Dean Robin has already found me. She saunters toward us with her heels clicking across the tiled floor, reminding me in a way of how Olive used to do it whenever she was around baiting Jasper by flirting with me. I look around frantically for escape routes, but there are students everywhere.
I can’t exactly hide, but I can attach myself to a group moving past. I can make it difficult for her to catch me without making a scene. And that, I think, is something that neither of us wants.
Idon’twant to talk to her. Right before I left last semester, she said something about me helping her, trying to get some dirt on Bleakwood. I’m not ready to do that. I don’t want to. I only agreed so she wouldn’t expose the fact that I’m a girl and get me expelled.
She doesn’t seem like the kind of person I want to get overly involved with. But she also seems like the kind of woman that Idon’twant to cross.
“Mr.Trevellian! It’s good to see you.”
I freeze, my face forming a rigid smile out of habit. “Hi, Headmistress Robin.”
“DeanRobin,” she corrects me, coming to stand in front of me. I see a flicker on her face for a moment when I use the insulting term. It slipped out in the moment I turned to address her. My own little rebellion.
It’s a small thing, and one that leaves me feeling the littlest bit guilty. But I like how it sounds rolling off my tongue, so I make up my mind here and now that she’sHeadmistressfrom here on out.
She’s still staring at me with those piercing eyes of hers. “How was your break?”
“Fine,” I say, shuffling my posture so that I’m still slowly moving away from her.
She doesn’t reply, and I let the silence between us stretch out for as long as I can stand it. I don’t have anything to say to her. I can force her to take the initiative.
Finally, she sighs and says, “I was wondering if you’d have time—”
I’m steeling myself up to just agree, to face this surely inevitable thing when suddenly Rafael comes to my rescue.
“Alex, we need to get going,” Rafael interrupts her, seizing me by the elbow. “You know how our professor gets when we’re even a little bit late for class.”
“Right,” I reply gratefully, taking a whole step back away from her this time. No more timid shuffle. “Nice seeing you, Headmistress.”
“Dean,” she calls after me as we rush past her.
Neville follows in our wake, stumbling over his own feet. “Don’t you have a free period after this?” he asks Rafael curiously.
“Just keep walking, Neville.”
The three of us push down the hallway before darting around a corner toward a nearly deserted corridor.
“Thanks,” I pant as Rafael releases me. “I owe you.”
