The Academy Read online

  No, I can’t think that way! I lifted my chin. If I let him intimidate me, I’m as good as dead. I have to have a plan…a strategy. Suddenly I knew what I was going to do.

  “Come on, then,” I said, though my throat was so dry I could barely form the words. I dropped my arms, leaving myself on display, though every instinct I had cried out against it. I was praying that Broward and his cronies would keep their eyes on my body and away from my hands. They did. I slipped one arm behind me and searched blindly with my fingertips for the extra shampoo pellet on the small waist-high ledge in the corner of the stall. “Come on,” I said again, palming the pellet and praying he hadn’t noticed.

  “All right now, that’s more like it.” Broward swaggered forward and turned the shower off with a twist of his wrist. With his other hand he was pulling down his trousers. I fought to keep my eyes above his waist but I couldn’t help noticing the thick, stubby male member which came into view. My stomach rolled but I tried not to let the disgust show on my face. “Bet you’ve been wanting me all this time, huh, baby?” he drawled, leaning toward me. “Bet you—”

  Jumping forward, I smashed the pellet into his right eye. It popped at once, spraying his unprotected eye with stinging shampoo.

  Broward roared in pain and staggered backward, clutching his face. His pants fell to his ankles and he tripped, falling into Dawson and Nodes who had been standing eagerly behind him.

  Nodes went down as well, slipping on the wet floor to land flat on his back. Dawson pinwheeled his arms awkwardly, trying not to fall. I didn’t wait to see if he would manage to retain his balance. Grabbing my towel, I fled, jumping over Broward’s supine form in one desperate leap.

  I would have made it if Broward hadn’t shot out a hand and grabbed me by the ankle. I fell to the floor in mid flight, like a bird shot from the sky, my towel twisted awkwardly around my torso. My knee cracked hard against the ungiving tiles and my bruised side shrieked at me on impact.

  “Oh no you don’t, you little bitch,” Broward snarled. His right eye was still squinted shut but his left was filled with malevolent hatred. “Now you’re gonna get it twice as bad.” Gripping my ankle tighter, he began to reel me in.

  Desperately, I kicked at Broward’s face with my free foot. My heel connected with his nose and I heard a dull crunching sound. Something wet and hot spurted against my sole and Broward howled in agony. I was fairly sure I had broken his nose but somehow, in his rage, he managed to keep his grip on me.

  “Let…me…go!” I shouted, kicking again with each word.

  “I don’t think so.” His face was a bloody mask of fury as he dragged me toward him. I could feel the bones of my ankle creak at the bruising pressure of his meaty hand.

  I struggled desperately, scrabbling at the slick tiles, fighting the hand locked around my ankle. My towel felt like it was squeezing me in half—it had somehow twisted like a constricting snake around my breasts and hips. Nodes and Dawson were beginning to get to their feet. If I didn’t get away soon—

  “Let him go.”

  The deep, commanding voice made me gasp and look up. I felt a rush of relief when I saw North standing there, glaring down at the scene on the shower room floor. His face was filled with righteous fury—one look at him sent Dawson scrambling away on his hands and knees.

  Nodes, however, wasn’t so quick to give up. He reached for me and grabbed my arm, obviously intent on holding me for Broward.

  The next minute North was a blur of motion and Nodes howled. I saw that several of his fingers seemed to be bent at a wrong, unnatural angle. Crying in pain, he scooted away, cradling the broken digits against his chest.

  “Anyone else?” North looked at Broward challengingly. “You want a taste too? I’ll break both your arms for you if you don’t take your hands off Kris right now.”

  Broward’s face twisted in hatred. “After what that little bitch did to me? I don’t think so.” In one convulsive move he got up on his knees, still clutching my ankle. “I’m gonna—”

  To my relief, I didn’t get to hear what he had had planned for me. North went into action again and this time the moves he used were nothing like the ones he had shown me during our Judo lesson. They were fast, efficient… and deadly. Before I could blink, he kicked out, snapping Broward’s thick wrist like a matchstick. Broward let out a high, breathless scream and abruptly released me.

  With the bully’s hold on my ankle finally broken, I scooted backward, still fighting with my towel. But North wasn’t done yet. Leaning down, he grabbed Broward by the collar and yanked him upright. When he saw the way Broward’s pants were puddled around his thick ankles, his face turned even darker.

  “Wilkenson thought you were up to no good when he saw you sneaking back onto campus but this is worse than I imagined. What the hell were you planning on doing, Broward? Wasn’t bullying Kris and beating him up bad enough for you?”

  Broward looked up, his face curled into a nasty sneer, his broken arm dangling uselessly by his side. “What do you think I was going to do, huh? The same thing you’ve been doing with that little bitch all semester, that’s what.”

  North glared at him. “What Kris and I do is none of your business. He’s under my protection.”

  “What do you keep saying ‘he’ for, huh?” Dawson demanded, from the relative safety of the far corner.

  “Yeah,” Nodes snuffled, still cradling his broken fingers. “Stop tryin’ to pretend. We know you know what Kris is.”

  “What are you talking about?” The honest look of confusion on North’s face seemed to strike Broward as suddenly hilarious.

  “Look at him—he doesn’t know!” he howled, although his words came out muffled, due to his broken nose. “He doesn’t know.”

  “You son of a bitch. I don’t know what?” North demanded, shaking him.

  “Your little roomie is a girl, North” Broward sneered, nodding at me. “Don’t tell me you really didn’t know. Jameson is a girl.”

  Abruptly, North seemed to go crazy. With a low growl, he turned on Broward and began to beat him. I heard another snap and then the bully was gasping and clutching his leg. I felt sick when I saw the boneless, rubbery way his calf suddenly bent in the middle. He fell to one knee but North wasn’t done yet. His deadly hands flew and then a white shard of bone, streaked with red, was poking out of a hole it had torn in Broward’s shirt sleeve. Next, North targeted his already bloody face. His own face was white with fury—he was completely out of control.

  “Stop! Stop it!” I gasped, horrified by the violence. “Don’t, North—you’ll kill him!”

  My voice seemed to get through to him somehow. Panting, he stepped away from Broward who was in a heap on the floor.

  “I warned you.” His voice was shaking. “I warned you what would happen if you came after Kris again. Now get out.” He looked up at Dawson and Nodes who had stunned looks on their faces. “Go on—grab him and get him out of here. Before I give you two some of the same.”

  Scrambling, they managed to each hook an arm around Broward and drag him toward the door. The bully was unconscious—either that or dead, I thought with a shiver. He didn’t protest even when his friends bumped his broken limbs roughly in their haste to get away from North.

  They left a trail of red on the white tiles that made my stomach turn but at last they were gone. Then the bathroom was empty except for myself and North.

  Slowly, he turned to me. I had finally managed to get to my feet and get my towel knotted securely around me but the look on his face made me feel completely naked.

  “Is it true?” His voice was barely more than a whisper and the look on his face was terrible to behold.

  “Of course not,” I lied frantically, still trying desperately to keep my secret—Kristopher’s secret. “Broward is crazy. They’re all—”

  He held up a hand to stop me. “No more lies, Kris,” he said tiredly, wiping his bloody hands on his uniform pants. “Tell me. No, don’t tell me…show me.”