Page 77 of Changeling
When Cam finally left, seeing how late it was and considering the early start they had planned in the morning, Sasha followedhis old friend to the door and pulled him in for a close, tight hug—one Nathan figured the redhead had been holding back ever since the high school. It didn’t make up for nearly a decade of being separated, but it was a start.
Gettingaccesstotheschool during the day was so easy that Nathan felt sorry for the kids at the mercy of such thoughtless school officials. Sure, it had a metal detector—which Cam warned them about so Nathan knew to leave even his ankle blade behind, much to his chagrin—but only at the main doors.
Nathan felt a little naked with nothing but his hands to defend himself with as they walked the halls leaving the principal’s office, though he didn’t mind losing the guns for a while. They had stopped to pick up their guest passes, wholly believed as Private Investigators hired anonymously by concerned parents—Sasha’s idea, and an alias he used often. Put a little fear into a school board, especially a private one that they might lose students, and more importantlymoney, and they acquiesce to anything.
“Wow,” Sasha commented as they side-stepped yet another kid with an overstuffed backpack running for class. “This place sure is hectic for having so few students.”
“Fifteen hundred is few to you? Your ‘graduating class’ was, what,six?”
Sasha laughed and rolled his eyes at Nathan. “Let’s talk to people as they come and go through the auditorium. When it’s slow, we can look around. The kids are going to be our best bet, since teachers might cover certain things up to protect the school’s image.”
They had reached those same double doors from last night. Sasha pushed one of them open as they went forward and held it for Nathan behind him.
Whereas the auditorium had been dead and colorless in the dark last night, now it was bustling and filled with energy. The seats were a dark teal and fairly new, and the stage curtain was a deep red. There was still no set, but the stage was full anyway, covered every inch in various shaped, aged, and sized dancers.
Nathan and Sasha stood just inside the doors and watched for a while. There were a few students milling about in the auditorium chairs, some doing homework, and a few discussing things over clipboards, probably about the up and coming set.
“Well, we might as well grab someone and start in,” Nathan suggested.
“Okay,” Sasha nodded, “I suppose we could start off with—ouff!” He cut off abruptly as if he had been jumped. When Nathan turned swiftly at the sound of Sasha struggling, he realized that his first assumption wasn’t entirely wrong. An older dancer who had been practicing in the back had just twirled his way right into Sasha, knocking them both to the ground.
Mr. Dancer was sprawled on top of Sasha once they hit the floor, wearing a T-shirt and sweats. He was also barefoot, but that’s not what Nathan noticed most. The kid had a shock of turquoise hair.
“Oh crap!” the teenage boy cried. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even see you. Oh…hey,” he said with a sudden change of heart, smiling down at Sasha when he finally managed to lift himself up. “Never mind. You can break my fall any day.”
Sasha laughed jovially as if there was nothing creepy about a teenage dancer boy hitting on him. “I think Icausedyour fall more than broke it.”
“Either way,” the kid said dreamily. Actually dreamily. Like with adreamyquality to it.
“Okay, jailbait,” Nathan said maybe a little firmer than necessary, “I think it’s about time you let the redhead up off the floor.” He reached a hand down to help the kid up, more to get him off of Sasha than anything. Of course the boy had to go and give him this shit-eating grin like he had no idea he had been doing anything wrong. At least he took Nathan’s hand and got up as asked. Sasha crawled to his feet soon after.
“If either one of you is a new drama teacher or something, I’m even more excited to be in this show,” the kid grinned, this time giving Nathan the once over.
“I think we’re a little old for you,” Sasha said, though still completely unruffled.
“I’ll be eighteen in a month,” the kid said hopefully.
Nathan pulled Sasha to his side. “We’re here to ask questions about all the accidents happening at the school, okay? Does being this forwardusuallywork for you?”
Whatever adhesive had been keeping the kid’s smile in place started to fail. He renewed it valiantly, but Nathan saw the slip. “Like it would make a difference,” he tried to say dismissively. “So you’re Cam’s friends, huh?”
“Cammentioned us?” Sasha asked.
The kid shrugged. “Said he’d called in the big guns. Guess that’s you.” His eyes flicked over Nathan appreciatively. “I see what he meant.”
Nathan scowled.
“So I’m guessing that makes you Evelyn,” Sasha said. They hadn’t asked Cam if the kid knew he was an incubus, though obviously Wade knew. Just in case he didn’t, however, they weren’t about to give that detail away. “Or, uhh…Leven, right? That’s what you prefer?”
“Please,” Leven said with a slight wrinkle of his nose, “but I’ll have to answer your questions later.” He walked down a row to pick up his bag off one of the chairs. “Sadly, I have regular classnow. Psych though, so bearable. I’ll catch you two later?” He moved past them for the doors and stopped just beside Nathan—a littletooclose—to whisper, “Leave the stagehands ‘til last. They practically live here.Meyou can have any time. Later!” he finished brightly, and then was out the doors in a flash of blue-green, still barefoot.
After Leven left it took Nathan a full minute to come back to himself. Sasha’s laughter helped. “Okay, he’s pretty awesome,” Sasha said.
Nathan’s first response to that was‘huh?’“Did we just meet the same kid? Jailbait practically threw himself at us.”
“Not us,” Sasha grinned, nudging Nathan in the side. “He pretty much forgot all about me after getting a look at you. Ruffled your manly feathers a bit, did he?” Sasha accompanied that with a swift rustle of Nathan’s short hair.
Nathan hated when people messed with his hair, but he had the strongest urge not to fuss over it right now. “Shut up. It’s creepy,” he shuddered. “I’d be just as freaked if he was a seventeen-year-old chick.”
