Page 3 of Renegade

Chapter Three

Karelis

Clutching my backpack slash emotional support bag tightly against my chest, I leaned my head against the dusty window of the bus. One touch of my fingertip revealed that the layer of brown and gray dirt was on the other side of the window. Didn’t make the inside completely clean, but clean enough to be a rest for my head, which was so heavy I feared it might pop off my neck if I didn’t give it a crutch.

The headmistress of the Urban Academy had made sure I had dinner, a feast. I didn’t know when the last time I’d had a hot meal was, but the taste of the first bite of lemon chicken reminded my tongue. Too long. That was its verdict.

My eyes had almost closed when the bus driver shouted something. I picked up my head and looked around for the person she had spoken to but found the rest of the passengers had huddled into the back seats. They clearly already knew each other and were chatting and sharing videos.

“Me?” I asked, pointing to my chest.

“Yeah. I was asking if you were hungry. I always keep some granola bars stashed under the seat next to where you’re sitting. Some students come a long way to get to the academy. Everybody needs a snack.”

I moved my bag to the side and glanced under the green pleather seat. Sure enough, there was a square wicker basket filled to the brim with packaged granola bars, both the healthier version and the ones that were almost candy bars. While I had eaten a hearty dinner, I took a few of the bars and stuck them into my backpack and handed the driver one as well. “Thanks,” I said and thought that would be the end of our conversation.

I was wrong.

“If you ask me, the kids going to that reject academy aren’t so bad. Some were raised under bad circumstances. Others were shunned from their packs. Some rejected by their mates, even at your age. There are all kinds of reasons why kids act out the way they do, and rarely does it have anything to do with being rotten to the core.”

Okay, then. “I thought it was called the Urban Rehabilitation Academy.”

She scoffed and pushed down on the brakes with all her might. The damned pedal went all the way to the floor, but we barely slowed. The driver muttered some words, and only then did the bus decelerate with hisses and groans. “The kids call it the Reject Academy.”

“Are you a…” I began to ask her if she was a witch because of the bus obeying her, but movement outside the window stole my attention. A girl was saying goodbye to a middle-aged couple, probably her parents. They were standing behind her, but even from inside this noisy bus, the words of admonishment and veiled threats could be heard.

She’d better act right—or else.

This was her last chance.

They couldn’t take another embarrassment like the one before.

The last one made me cringe.

Don’t even bother coming home if another incident occurred.

I knew a thing or two about the threats. They started out sounding like love but, in the end, there was nothing heartfelt about them.

The young woman, probably the same age as me, stood facing the bus, with her shoulders slumped and tears welling in her eyes. She bid them goodbye without turning around and, once her foot hit the bottom step of the bus, they turned and gottheir phones out, heading to their expensive cars.

She was already forgotten—or compartmentalized. Neither was a great place to be.

“Can I sit here?” the girl asked after a brief greeting from the driver. She was asking me even though there were plenty of seats empty near the middle.

“Yeah. Sure.”

She had long red braids on either side of her face. Her overalls and red sneakers, along with the braids, gave her a childish charm. Once the bus got rolling again, she straightened her shoulders, swiped her face of the tears that wouldn’t be held back, and began taking the bands from her hair.

“My name is June,” she said and unraveled both braids. She put all of that fiery hair into a bun on the top of her head. With some maneuvering, she took off the striped shirt while keeping the overalls on. Underneath was a cropped black T-shirt. Next, she took off her contacts in a balancing act that would surely vet her into some circus act then put on a pair of black-framed glasses.

I watched in awe as her entire appearance changed in a few minutes. The bus driver let out a loud laugh. “Wow!”

She looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Usually when someone introduces themselves, the other person does, too.”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m Karelis.” I jutted my hand out, trying to smooth over my previous rudeness. “You had me in a trance with the wardrobe change. Sorry.”

“Karelis. That’s unique. Yeah. My parents prefer homely and depressed. That way, they can pretend this is all a mistake and there’s no way they raised a delinquent. They can threaten all they want to. I don’t care anymore. While they were busy with their meetings and socialite parties, I moved everything dear to me to a storage unit. I’m not going back after this semester. I’ll figure out something.”

“I…” I had to be careful as to what I revealed and to whom. “I can’t go home, either. We can’t stay in between semesters?”

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