A Murder Of Crows {5}

I walked towards class the next day, the sky gray again. Rain all week, apparently.

"Jpeg!"

God, no, maybe if I just ignored her and kept walking, I wouldn't have to deal with this shit so early in the morning.

But of course, Val caught up to me, a smile on her face. A boy walked next to her, and he had on the Crows pin. What an amazing morning, truly made me want to have a tasty bowl of Cheerios and bleach.

"What?" I said.

"This is Cole," Val introduced. "Cole, this is Cor."

"Hi," Cole said.

"Yea, hey. What do you want?" I asked Val.

"To introduce you guys, duh. That's why I just walked up to you and introduced you," Val said.

"Okay? That was pointless, but thanks for the waste of time," I said.

Val elbowed me. "Friends are good to have, Cor."

"I know. But this was still a waste of time," I said.

Look, I got it. Friendship and relationships were important. I wasn't edgy like Kieran, who probably said things like social interaction scared him. But I didn't want anything to do with the people I was stuck with, and I certainly didn't need to grow that circle of trouble with even more kids involved with all this stuff.

"He's a little grumpy," Val told Cole.

"He's also standing right here and can hear you," I reminded.

"Yea, I know," Val said. "So anyways, Cole, Cor is a little hard to warmup to at first, but he'll come around."

"Or he'll walk away," I said, speeding my pace.

"See you at lunch!" Val called after me.

I entered the building and went towards my first class. Kieran and Mia were talking in the hallway, so I went up to them. If I went into the room too early, I was worried Jamison would be in there and try to talk to me.

"Val is taking on her role a little too well," I said as I joined them.

"She's good with people," Mia said. "I'm not sure how you're going to pull this off, though."

"Thanks for the confidence," I said.

"Cor."

As soon as we heard Jamison's voice, I could feel the tension in the air. Mia gave a cold look in Jamison's direction, and Kieran's face took on that terrifyingly blank expression he got when he was going to do the Doctor's work.

I faced Jamison and he held the textbook out to me. He was a little stiffer than before, well aware of the tension swallowing us.

"Thanks for letting me use it." He forced a smile, as natural as he could manage it.

I held up my hand. "Keep it. I don't want to carry it around all day. I'll take it back at the end of the day."

Jamison's smile turned rueful. "Damn, I was hoping I wouldn't have to keep it all day."

"Your hopes are dashed," I said, and nodded towards the classroom. "Just drop it on my desk during our last class."

"Fair enough. I'll see you at the end of the day, then," he said.

"We literally have every class together. You'll see me plenty," I said. "Hopefully you'll only bother me at the end of the day."

"No promises." He put the book back in his bag and entered the classroom.

That tension still hung thick in the air. Kieran wasn't looking at any of us, just watching the doors as if he was waiting for someone to enter the building. Mia crossed her arms and turned to him.

"Let's go already," she said.

"It's your job to keep a close eye on him during all of this. Don't screw it up," Kieran said to me before following Mia into the classroom.

I'm the one that gets stuck with Jamison and he's the one who's pissed?

Should've just gone to public school and avoided this shit.

I went into the room and took my seat. As the lessons started up and the school day got going, I just hoped I would have to face as little irritation as possible.

But then lunch came along and ruined all my hopes and dreams of that.

"Took you long enough to get here. Even Val beat you," Mia said.

"Long line for the tater tots," I said, gesturing to my tray. "Why does it matter? You never talk to me anyways."

"And I don't intend to start. But Kieran has something to say," Mia said.

"There goes our budding friendship, Mia. I even bought us matching T-shirts," I said.

"What the hell, Cor? You never bought us matching T-shirts," Val said, frowning.

"Well that's because you piss me off constantly and I can't even pretend to like you," I said.

Her frown deepened. "I'm sensing a disturbance in our friendship."

"And I'm sensing an increase in my aggression. Shut the fuck up so I can talk," Kieran said.

We obeyed, that image of the blood on his gloves still fresh in my mind. Kieran looked as satisfied as he ever got, and leaned forward a little, hands on the table.

"I got a text on my phone," he said.

Oh, great. Another job from the Doctor.

"Meet in my room tonight. Details there," he said. "Val, did Cole say anything?"

"We're just making friendly small talk right now," Val said, frown replaced by her usual smug smile. "I don't know why you hate him so much, Kier. He's a little feisty, but a sweet kid."

"Valeria," Kieran said, voice sharp.

Val waved her hand dismissively. "Yea, yea, I'm pissing you off, what else is new?"

"You know, this whole fake befriending Jamison thing is going to be hard if the two of you try to kill him every time he's around," I said, pulling Kieran's attention away from Val.

"I'm sure Kieran can give you some tips on how to befriend Jamison," Val said, bringing his death stare right back to her.

"I don't need tips. I need them to go along with this plan. If I have to suffer, so do the rest of you," I said.

"See, Kier? You have to behave," Val said. "That means smiling and being friendly when Jamison is around."

"If you kill her, you'll regret it when you need blackmail," Mia said as Kieran clenched his hand into a fist.

"I don't think I'd ever regret it," Kieran grumbled.

"Kieran's hatred aside, you know I'm right. You're the ones who wanted me to go along with this plan, but I can't do that if you won't," I said. "So it looks like we all get to suffer. Lucky us."

"Just come to my room after classes," Kieran said. "That means you too, Jpeg."

"Lucky us," I repeated.

Val kept up a conversation with the other two as I started to eat. Hopefully this new job wouldn't require much work on my part.

Lunch ended and we made our way back to class. I was still trying to mentally figure out how Val's plan was going to work. Kieran couldn't seem to keep himself in control around Jamison, and I was guessing he was the same way around Cole. Sure, in theory it sounded good to give them what they wanted so they'd leave us alone, but in reality, Kieran could make that very difficult for us.

Whatever. That was his problem to work through. I'd do my part, and let the others figure out how to do theirs.

At the end of the day, I began packing up my stuff from my last class, dreading the meeting in Kieran's room. I'd already seen him leave the classroom, Mia in tow.

A thump sounded on my desk, making me jump a bit. I looked from my textbook up to Jamison, who had an apologetic smile on his face.

"Wasn't trying to scare you," he said.

I took the textbook and shoved it into my bag, standing up. I didn't have time for him right now. Kieran would bitch at me if I got there too late, and I didn't want to deal with that.

But, of course, Jamison followed me out of the classroom. Sooner or later he'd run out of excuses to keep talking to me.

Please let it be sooner.

"Do you want to get dinner with me and my friends? I could introduce you," Jamison offered.

"I'm busy tonight," I said.

"Maybe another night, then," Jamison said.

I stopped walking and faced him. "Why? What about our interactions has made you think I want to eat dinner with you and your friends?"

He shrugged, looking unconcerned by my questions. "It's just good to know people. It's not like you're the only person in the rotation I'm trying to be friendly with. But, well..." He tapped his Crow pin. "A lot of kids don't want anything to do with me. They think they can't have any fun if I'm around because I'll report them or something. You don't seem bothered by me being a Crow."

"Why would I? Good for you, you get a fancy pin," I said.

Jamison frowned and touched his pin lightly. "It's a very fancy pin. I don't appreciate the sarcasm."

"Fanciest pin ever made, sure. Still doesn't make you as special as you'd like to think," I said.

"I didn't say it makes me special," he said.

"And yet here you are, acting special," I said.

Maybe it wasn't right to treat him like this. But I knew how the Crows could be, and I knew some in the past had abused the power the school gave them.

"Hey, Cor!"

I let out a sigh of defeat. I just couldn't catch a break today, huh?

Val came up to me, Cole trailing besides her. Jamison nodded at Cole.

"Hey, I was just about to head to the dining hall. I was just seeing if Cor here wanted to come," Jamison said.

"I'll go with you. I'm assuming these two are going off together," Cole said.

"You're assuming right. Cor and I have a puzzle to finish," Val said, moving to put her arm around my shoulders.

I stepped away from her. "Don't do that."

"Well, at least it's not just me you're rude to," Jamison said, grinning a little. He turned to Val. "I'm Jamison."

"Don't let it bother you. I'm Val, and I'm very used to Cor's rudeness," Val said.

"Well, we'll leave you two to your puzzle. Come on, Cole. The others will be waiting for us," Jamison said. "Bye Cor, bye Val. See you around."

"Come on, Jamie. See you later, Val," Cole said, giving a short wave and heading off with Jamison.

"Bye Cole! Bye Jamison!" Val said, grabbing my hand and forcing me to wave to them.

"Can we just go already? Kieran's already going to throw a fit," I said.

"A smile wouldn't kill you, Cor," Val said, dropping my hand and heading off down the path.

"What was there to smile about just now?" I said.

"It'd make you look friendlier," she said with a shrug. "Hate to ruin your dark aesthetic, though. You and Kieran are so damn edgy."

"I'm not edgy! The school gives us black uniforms," I said, gesturing to her own black outfit. "Kieran dresses like that even outside of class."

"Well, we all knew Kieran never stopped being an angry 14 year old," Val said.

We reached the dorm building and went inside. We wandered the building until we reached Kieran's room. Val reached out, but I slapped her hand away and knocked on the door. The last thing we needed was for Val to break into Kieran's room and piss him off.

Kieran opened the door and we went into his room. We all had single rooms, even Val, which was a little surprising considering how social she liked to be.

Kieran locked the door and faced us as we sat down. "He messaged me. Our next target is a kid from the local college. Brayden Razy, I guess he's missed three payments and been hiding away in the college to avoid us."

"Alright, so, what's the plan?" Mia asked.

"He has to get his fix somehow. Jpeg, you'll send him an anonymous message with the Doctor's current signature. After the last message we sent, Brayden will be expecting us, so we have to make sure he doesn't see it as a trap. Tell him to meet us in the parking lot of that little coffee shop near the boulevard. It's public enough to lure him out. And make sure you tell him he gets one more extension before he has to pay up," Kieran said.

"What, you're just going to break his jaw in public?" Val said.

"Yes," Kieran said, which made me want to fling myself into the abyss.

"No security cameras there," I said, trying to think through any possible ways that he could ever consider this a good decision. "Minimal traffic in the actual parking lot, a blind spot in the back, but public enough that he won't be expecting a trap."

"Congratulations, you just stated the obvious," Kieran said. "There are security cameras inside. Jpeg will hack the feed to warn me if anyone is leaving. Mia will watch the road and warn me if anyone is coming into the parking lot. I'll handle Brayden."

"And me?" Val said.

"The usual blackmail. I want him to know I'll come down to that campus and beat the shit out of all of friends if beating him doesn't work," Kieran said.

"What if he recognizes you?" I said. "It's one thing to attack someone in the dark, but broad daylight is ballsy, even for you."

"Do I look like a stupid man to you? Or do I look like someone the Doctor trusts for a good reason?" Kieran demanded.

"I wouldn't really say he trusts anyone. But I also wouldn't really say I actually care if you screw yourself over, so sure, I'll watch the camera feed and give you a heads up when someone is walking out," I said.

"A college kid getting paid a visit from us shouldn't put the Crows too on edge," Mia said. "They're only concerned with the Academy students."

"The school might have them investigating to find out who's behind it before the drug truth comes out," Val said. "They probably figure each school in the area has kids working for the Doctor, and they just want to end it here before it gives the Academy a bad image."

"I don't care what their reasoning is. We have a job to do, and that's all that matters. Focus," Kieran said.

"So what day is this happening?" I said.

"Two days. Send him the message tomorrow, and make sure it can't be traced back to you," Kieran said.

"No, I want to be caught and arrested and have my whole future go up in flames. I'm going to sign my whole name right on the message. I'll even give them my address so it's easier to arrest me," I said.

"Just do your job and shut your mouth," Kieran said. "We're done here. Go."

The three of us left Kieran's room and started down the hallway. Val turned, walking backwards so she could face us.

"Who's up for dinner?" she offered.

"Too early. I'm going to the gym," Mia said.

"I'll get dinner later. By myself," I said, emphasizing that last part.

Val let out a dramatic sigh. "Fine. I'll go see if Cole is still there."

"Can you surgically remove yourself from my ass and stick to Cole's instead?" I said.

"What? No! I'd miss you," Val said.

"I wouldn't," I said.

She spun so we were walking the same way again and hooked her arm through mine. "Come get dinner with me, Cor! We can sit with Cole and Jamison."

Mia suddenly grabbed Val's shoulder, a cold expression on her face. No wonder she and Kieran got along so well. They were both full of hatred and unnecessary angst.

"Just Cole and Jamison," she said. "That was the plan. The rest of the crows don't join us. If you want to play them, you go to them, got it?"

"Hm? Something you're worried about, Mia?" Val said, and the innocence of her tone was a dead giveaway that she was fucking with every single one of us now.

Mia shoved Val back a little. "I'm going to the gym."

She walked away from us, disappearing around the corner. I was curious what that was all about, but also didn't want to get involved.

I decided to let it drop, and started heading towards the stairs so I could get to my room. Val followed me.

"We could finish our puzzle," she offered.

"No. I have homework to do," I said.

"Always an excuse," she said, shaking her head. "I'm going to go get dinner. Bye, Cor!"

I didn't respond, just turned into the stairwell and headed for the floor my room was on. Once I was back in my room, I locked the door and sat on my bed, dropping my bag to the floor.

I pulled my sunglasses off, the world blurring. I tossed them aside and rubbed at my eyes, lying back on my bed.

So much work to do. So many people to maneuver.

Couldn't I ever just catch a damn break?

I knew the answer to that was, sadly, no. So I sat up, pulled my regular glasses on, and sat at my desk. I had to stay on top of everything now if I wanted to make it through the rest of this school year with no problems.

I mentally sighed. Knowing my luck, there'd be plenty of problems heading my way.