Page 125 of What You Wish For

Mrs. Kline was staring at me like I’d lost my mind—and was about to lose my job, too.

I came to a stop next to Babette. “It’s time to shut this down, don’t you think?”

But Babette looked at me through her glasses and then—just barely—shook her head.

But I didn’t understand. I leaned in closer. “What are you waiting for?” I whispered. “Fire him.”

But Babette just gave that same, imperceptible head shake again—and then, from her expression, I knew.

I took her hand, squatted down next to her, and very softly I said, “You can’t really fire him, can you?”

Her eyes had tears in them now. Just barely, she shook her head.

“But you told me you could because…?”

“Because I knew Duncan would only believe it if you believed it. And you are a terrible liar.”

I nodded. I kissed her on the cheek. I gave her a little hug. And then I turned around, and I marched right out of the room.

I didn’t even know where I was going. I charged my way through the courtyard, and shoved the school gates open. I didn’t even have my purse with me. I was so angry, it was like rocket fuel. I needed to move or it would burn me up.

I hadn’t even finished listening to Kent Buckley’s plan. I didn’t even know if there was a way to fight it. I didn’t know if this was a done deal or a foregone conclusion or what.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was Duncan.

The point was he’d been in some kind of cahoots with Kent Buckley this whole time. He’d been hanging out with me—acting like a friend—when all the time he’d been working with the enemy. He’d been helping Kent Buckleysell the school? Of all the worst-case scenarios I’d pictured, this wasn’t even in the running. I’d thought we’d cured him. I thought we’d solved it. I thought the threat was over.

Apparently not.

I was two blocks from the seawall when I heard running feet behind me.

“Sam! Wait!” It was Duncan.

I did not wait.

The sun had gone down. It was dark. I kept moving.

“Sam!”

I knew Duncan’s legs were longer than mine, and I knew he’d eventually catch up with me, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to make it easy for him.

I didn’t even know where I was going. I was just… going.

When Duncan finally caught up with me, I wouldn’t slow, and Iwouldn’t look at him, and I wouldn’t wipe the tears off my face. What I would do was yell: “Are you kidding me right now? You’ve been in cahoots with Kent Buckley this whole time? You’ve been eating Babette’s food, and hanging out with me, and bonding with the teachers—letting us all like you, and root for you, and help you—and you’ve been some kind of enemy spy all along—forKent Buckley? Of all the douchebags in the history of douchebags—that guy? Really?”

These weren’t even questions that needed answers. I was just talking. Just making noise. Just attaching words to the primal yelling.

But Duncan tried to respond. “No! No. I didn’t even know about this until today.”

I kept charging forward, not looking at him.

“Okay—technically, I knew last fall. I knew when I started that Kent Buckley wanted to turn the place into a fortress. And at the time I was all for it, honestly. When I first got here, I totally agreed with him about the Death Star. I couldn’t believe you guys were teaching kids in that crumbling old building with nothing but Raymond for security. It offended me, honestly. It made me angry that you would be so willfully ignorant of the world we’re living in right now.”

When we hit the seawall, I didn’t even break stride, just turned and kept going, crossing my arms against the sea breeze. But my pace was slowing some. At first, I’d only wanted to yell, but now, I couldn’t help but listen, too.

“So yes,” Duncan went on, “I helped him. That’s what he told me the job was—that’s what he said the school wanted—a total security revamp. That’s why I walked in with that water gun last fall. Kent Buckley had told me this group was super pro-guns.”

---