A Murder Of Crows {6}

I laid on my bed, hands behind my head and staring up at the ceiling. I'd sent Brayden the message to meet at the parking lot tomorrow, using the Doctor's current signature so he knew the message was legit.

The Doctor changed his signature fairly often, but his customers always knew what it was. Not that anyone would ever dare to cross the Doctor if they had half a damn brain. He'd made it quite clear what happened to anyone who tried to betray him and sell him or his people out to the cops.

I pushed those thoughts from my mind and checked the time, squinting until the numbers were readable. I got out of bed and grabbed a towel and my shower stuff, leaving the room and heading down to the bathroom.

Kids moved groggily through the hallways, getting ready for class. I pulled one of the shower curtains over and turned the water on, stripping out of my clothes and stepping under the spray of warm water.

Val had been kind enough not to annoy the shit out of me last night, so I'd gotten ahead on my work to make time for tomorrow. Kieran would snap my neck if I wasn't fully focused on my part of his idiotic plan.

When I was done showering, I wrapped the towel around my waist, brushed my teeth, and left the bathroom to go back to my room. Val had gotten me in the hopeless habit of locking my door anytime I was in my room, so I clicked the lock into place and yanked open my closet door.

It was raining lightly outside, and I wondered if we could use the shitty weather this week to our advantage. If it was raining hard enough tomorrow, it would make it even harder for anyone to spot what Kieran was doing in the parking lot. Plus, people wouldn't be walking around outside, so there'd be less chance of someone just happening to stumble upon the scene.

I pulled on shorts, a white T-shirt, and my dark blazer, fixing my hair in the mirror. I put my sunglasses on, relieved as my vision cleared up and I could see properly.

I gathered my stuff and left my room. Some kids had jackets on over their blazers, hoods pulled up. Some had umbrellas, squeezing under them with their friends as they left the building.

It was hardly even raining, though. Sure, the building we were headed to was a little bit of a walk, but it was just rain. It wasn't going to hurt.

The rain suddenly stopped hitting me and I looked over. Val smiled cheerfully, moving closer to make room for Cole to fit under her umbrella with us.

"It's rain," I said. "I don't need an umbrella."

"You're going to get sick. You're wearing shorts!" she said, gesturing to my legs.

"I'm fine. It's not that cold out," I said. "The cold just weakens your immune system, which makes you more susceptible to getting sick. I'm warm enough, I'm not going to get sick, and it's too early to be dealing with you."

"Strong friendship going here, I see," Cole said.

"I'm still his favorite," Val said.

"I don't even have a favorite, but if I did, it wouldn't be you," I said.

Val pulled her umbrella away so that the rain was falling on me again. "Suffer."

I held my hand out, a few drops hitting my palm. "It's rain. I'm not suffering."

It was good. I'd checked the weather, and it was supposed to rain pretty hard all day tomorrow. That would give Kieran some cover.

Val pulled Cole closer and stepped back so the umbrella covered the three of us again. Cole looked from me to the dark sky.

"I see those sunglasses are really doing some work today," he said.

"I'll tint them even darker so I don't have to look at that atrocity you call an outfit," I said.

Cole wore the usual black Crowe uniform, but he had on bright red high-top sneakers. Maybe I was wearing sunglasses in the rain, but at least I didn't look like an emo circus clown.

Val rolled her eyes. "Cor has bad eyesight and a sensitivity to light. Cole likes the color red. No fighting this early, boys."

"Not fighting, just thought it was a little odd, is all," Cole said with a shrug. He glanced down at his red shoes. "Someone's got to bring a little color to this place."

My mood sank even lower as Jamison came over to us, a hood pulled over his head. "Morning, everyone."

"Morning Jamie," Cole greeted as Val waved.

"Sorry, no room for you under here," Val said, shaking her umbrella a little. "Unless Cor says something mean again. Then you can have his spot."

Jamison tugged on his hood a little. "I'm good. It's barely even raining. But thanks, though." He looked at me, a half-smile on his face. "I take it you'll have an excuse if I invite you to dinner tonight?"

I opened my mouth, but Val whacked me in the shoulder with her umbrella. "He doesn't have an excuse. He and I will be there!"

"Don't talk for me," I said, rubbing my shoulder.

"You can't avoid Jamie forever. Trust me," Cole said.

"I'm very persistent. Speaking of which, Cole, you still haven't studied for that math test next week. After dinner, that's what you're doing," Jamison said.

Cole gestured miserably towards Jamison. "See? Can't avoid him forever."

"Fine. But if something comes up, I'm out," I said.

"I'll make sure you're free," Val said, and I wondered if she would actually murder Kieran and Mia just so I would eat dinner with her. The worst part was that I didn't put it past her.

Val put her umbrella away as we stepped inside. Jamison pushed his hood back, running a hand through his hair.

"Let's meet at the bottom of the stairs in the dining hall around five?" Jamison offered.

"Sounds good to us," Val said, nudging me a little.

"Stop speaking for me," I said, pushing her away. "I can speak for myself."

"Five it is," Cole said. "Come on, Val. Let's get to class."

"Bye Cor, try to cheer up!" Val said before following Cole away.

"Guess we should get to class too," Jamison offered.

"Cor."

Kieran's voice was certainly not something I wanted to hear at any point in time, but especially not when I was standing with Jamison. I turned to face Kieran as he came over to me, that tension flaring right back up even as he pretended not to notice Jamison there.

"Dinner tonight," he said.

Oh, god. Which was worse? Kieran or Jamison?

"Already have plans," I said. Jamison might be annoying, but I could only handle so much of Kieran's angst.

"Excuse me?" Kieran said, narrowing his eyes.

"He's getting dinner with me," Jamison said, stepping up next to me. "You're welcome to join."

The laugh that escaped Kieran was a surprised, unhappy sound. "That's a hard fucking pass."

Jamison shrugged. "The offer stands if you change your mind. We're meeting at five."

"I won't change my mind," Kieran assured. He roughly shouldered past me and joined a crowd of kids in the direction of our first period class.

"It's too early for this," I grumbled, following in the same direction.

"I'm surprised you picked me. You sit with him at lunch. I assumed you two were friends," Jamison said, walking alongside me.

"That's not exactly the word I'd use," I said.

"Oh? Then do you mind me asking when you sit with him?" Jamison said curiously.

"Because of Val," I said, which was true.

Jamison just nodded and, thankfully, didn't question it any farther. We entered the classroom and I swerved away from him to go take my seat.

Classes were slow, the weather seeming to drag down everyone's mood. Students seemed more tired, and teachers seemed to be dragging their ways through lessons.

It was almost a relief, though. Slower classes meant I could more safely zone out to think about dinner tonight and the job tomorrow.

If Jamison tried to hang out with me tomorrow, I'd have to turn him down. While Kieran getting caught wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, he wasn't getting caught because of my mistakes. I didn't want him after me for revenge.

And I'd have to be careful with what I said around Jamison and his friends. He'd be remembering every word, looking for a lie, a slip in my story. I couldn't let him find it.

By the time classes got out, I was dreading dinner. I was ready to crawl into bed and sleep the rest of the week away.

Still, I had time to kill before I had to meet them, so I might as well do my homework and try to free up my workload for tomorrow. I walked my way back to the dorms, not minding the rain. It had picked up a little, but was still light enough not to bother me.

When I reached my room, I groaned a little. My door was already open a crack, and I knew what that meant.

"Val, you don't live here," I said, shoving the door open and heading into the room.

Val shut the door for me and sat back down on the end of my bed. "Our puzzle."

"I have work to do. I won't have as much time to do it all tomorrow," I said, sitting at my desk and taking my work out. "Be quiet and do your own work, or else get out."

"Cheer up," she said, but pulled her own work out. "I'll keep an eye on the time so we're not late for dinner."

"Joy," I muttered, flipping open a textbook and tuning out Val.

Val stayed quiet as the two of us did our homework. It was nice to have something to focus on that didn't involve drug dealers or intricate lies.

"Hey, Cor," Val said, throwing a notebook at me. "It's time to go. We have to meet Jamison and Cole."

"How exciting," I said, shutting my notebook and putting away my homework. "I'm assuming it's not just them we're eating with?"

"Probably other Crows, too. But it's good. We need to worm our way into their circle," Val said. "Besides, I'm starving. Let's go get dinner."

We left my room together. Val didn't bother grabbing her umbrella this time, instead just stepping out into the rain with me.

"The weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow," I said.

"I'm aware. It almost sounds like you're worried about Kieran," Val said, cracking a small grin.

"I'm worried about myself. Don't confuse it," I said. "If he gets caught, it'll look suspicious on me, you, and Mia. Jamison's already wondering why I hang around Kieran if we're not friends."

"That's because you don't try to be friends with anyone," Val said. "You should smile more and talk to us at lunch."

"I don't want to," I said. We both knew why I was in this mess in the first place.

We reached the dining hall and went inside together. I shook my head a little, water droplets flying from my hair. Val shook out her braid a bit before dragging me along to the stairs.

Jamison and Cole were already waiting for us. Jamison waved us over, Cole just nodding at us in greeting.

"Hope you guys don't mind if one of our friends joins us," Jamison said as we started up the stairs.

"Hey, the more the merrier," Val said.

Great, more Crows to keep an eye on us, how fantastic. Maybe I should've just gotten dinner with Kieran instead.

We grabbed trays and separated to get our food. We met back up and Jamison led us through the dining area to a table in a quiet spot. The four of us sat down together, and I wondered just how awkward of a dinner this would be. What the hell were any of us supposed to even talk about?

Jamison took out his phone and texted for a moment before setting it down on the table. I sipped on my drink, waiting for someone to pick a topic.

"So who else is joining us?" Val asked.

"Oh, there she is," Jamison, holding his hand up and waving to someone.

I turned as a girl came over to us. Val's eyes lit up a little, and I felt my heart sink. Great, just what the hell was Val planning?

"Hey," the girl greeted, sitting down with her tray of food. "Sorry I'm late. I had a meeting with one of the teachers."

"You're fine," Jamison said. He gestured to us. "This is Cor, and this is Val."

"Hi, nice to meet you," the girl said. "I'm Mackenzie. These guys usually just call me Kenz."

She had on the Crows pin, not that I was surprised by that. She looked between all of us.

"Did you meet them in your new rotations?" she asked Cole and Jamison.

"We did," Jamison said with a nod. He looked to us. "With the attacks happening to Crowe Academy students, we thought it'd be a good idea to spread the Crows through the classes. We want to help, and if more people know us and trust us, we're hoping they'll come to us if they feel like they're in any danger."

"That's a good idea," Val said. If good idea translated to bullshit lie, sure, it was a great idea. "It is pretty scary. I heard they're mugging kids that walk alone."

"We doubt it's random," Cole said. "Half those kids weren't known to go wandering around alone at night. We think they're being targeted."

"You two haven't had any problems, right? No suspicious messages or anything?" Jamison said.

"Nope," Val said, shaking her head. "Cor?"

"No," I said.

So they did know the mugging rumors weren't entirely true. They already knew kids were being targeted, which meant they probably knew it was a drug issue. How could they not know?

"Well, let us know if anything comes up. We'd hate for anything to happen to you guys," Jamison said. "Anyways, let's bring up a lighter topic, huh? This is a little dark for dinner."

"You're the one who brought it up, dumbass," Cole said.

"Stop fighting," Kenz said, her tone stern.

"Sorry, mom," Cole grumbled.

"I take it you're a junior and you're a senior?" Kenz said, pointing from Val to me.

"Yep! I'm in Cole's rotation, and Cor is in Jamison's," Val said.

"Keep an eye on Cole. He gets lazy about his work," Kenz said.

"I'm helping him study after dinner," Jamison said.

"I'll call my biological parents and let them know they've been replaced by you two," Cole said.

"Feel free to adopt Cor, while you're at it. He could use some stern guidance," Val said.

"Leave me out of this," I said, sinking down in my chair a little.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him, too," Jamison promised Val.

"Please don't do that," I said.

"I'm trying to socialize him," Val explained.

"I'm not a dog." I shot her a dirty look.

"I'm sure we can help with that," Kenz said, ignoring it when I turned the dirty look on her instead.

I wasn't against socializing or anything. It's just, if I was going to do it, I wanted it to be on my terms with people I chose. This current situation certainly wasn't of my own choosing.

So we ate and they talked. Jamison kept trying to pull me into the conversation, but I let myself slip back out of it easily. They kept the conversation light; asking about our class work, our teachers, whose classes we'd been in previous years. They didn't try to pry for any personal information, just tried to break the ice and test how talkative we were.

Kenz checked the time. "I've got to go. I have a tutoring session in a few minutes. Jamie, make sure Cole studies tonight."

"Goodbye, Kenz," Cole said, waving her away.

"You better get 100 on that math test, or I'll forcibly sign you up for my tutoring sessions," Kenz said before standing up. "It was nice to meet you two. Bye, everyone."

She left the table and Cole let out a relieved breath. Jamison raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"You're not in the clear yet, Cole," he said.

"Goddammit. Yea, fine, I'll meet you in my room. I'll go grab some practice sheets from my teacher and meet you there," Cole said, getting up. "See you tomorrow, Val. Bye Cor."

"Good luck studying, Cole," Val said.

Cole grumbled something as he walked away with his tray. Val sprung out of her seat and stretched a little.

"I'm going to head out, too. I have some things to do. Bye guys," she said, leaving me alone with Jamison.

"Guess we better go, too," he said, and the two of us got up.

We set our trays down near the dish-washing station and went down the stairs. We stopped by the door, looking out at the rain tapping against the glass.

"You were really quiet. Is everything okay?" Jamison asked.

"Everything is fine," I said. "I just didn't have much to say."

Jamison rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. I know it was probably boring conversation. We just didn't want to bombard you guys with questions. Give us another chance tomorrow?"

"Can't. I have a paper to work on tomorrow," I said.

"The history one? Yea, that's pretty time consuming," he said. "I promise I'll drag you to another dinner with us and not bore you. I'm determined now."

"How exciting," I said.

Jamison looked past me, and his expression already told me who I was going to see when I turned around. Sure enough, there was Kieran. Mia was waiting down the hall, arms crossed as she watched us. Kieran stepped up to us and I begged for the cold embrace of death to just take me now.

"Well, it looks like he has something to talk to you about, so I'll get going. I have to meet Cole now anyways," Jamison said. Those words seemed to spark more fury than before in Kieran, and Jamison's expression said he damn well knew it. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Cor. Have a good night."

He left the dining hall and Kieran clenched his fists. I waited a few moments for him to calm himself down.

"Why are you cornering me here?" I asked when I was sure he wouldn't hit me for talking.

"You're the one who didn't come to dinner, dumbass," he said.

I furrowed my brow a little. Huh. Interesting.

"Well, what do you want? I still have some work to finish up," I said.

"Did you send it?" he asked.

"Of course I did. And yes, I already made sure I can access the feed for tomorrow. I did my job, so go bother someone else," I said.

"Just be ready on time tomorrow. This will be hard enough to pull off without you slacking," he said before heading away to meet up with Mia.

I left the dining hall, heading out into the rain. I started down the path, thinking about dinner.

It was different than sitting with Kieran, Val, and Mia. It was a lot calmer, a lot more normal. But it was also dangerous. Maybe I didn't get along with Kieran, Val, and Mia, but I knew they'd protect me from getting caught if it meant saving their own asses. I knew their intentions. I knew what to expect most of the time.

With Jamison and his friends, I had no clue. I didn't know what they were planning. I didn't know how to act around them.

Maybe I just wasn't made for a quiet, mundane life. I doubted I'd always be stuck with the chaos of being caught up with a drug dealer, but maybe I'd always be stuck living a bizarre life, always on edge and thinking ten steps ahead to save myself.

So be it. I wouldn't drop my guard around Jamison and his friends. I wouldn't drop my guard around anyone. I'd just do my job and push through until I was in the clear and away from this current mess.