03 Spirit by Brigid Kemmerer

Author:Brigid Kemmerer [Kemmerer, Brigid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-06-04T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

While they shared a campus, the middle school and high school had different hours. Hunter and the Merricks had to be at school early, the middle schoolers didn’t start until after nine. He couldn’t exactly skip class to stake out seventh and eighth graders—that would probably draw attention.

Instead, he decided to head over at the end of the day, to watch the younger students as they bolted for the buses to go home.

But that meant Hunter had seven hours of class time to kill.

Other students spent that time building locker shrines to the students who’d lost their lives. Hunter spent most of it feeling like he could have stopped the whole thing.

Or like he was betraying the Merricks somehow.

He tried to talk himself out of that feeling. He wasn’t planning to feed Kate information about them. And what were they doing for him anyway? Letting him live in their house until they decided to pack up and leave town? Michael had made a comment this morning that he was going to figure out how much money they had to work with. There was talk about leases and walking away from the business and—Hunter had to leave the room, because it all pointed toward leaving him here to deal with this mess.

And even after reading through all the files, he had no idea where his mother stood on everything. She wasn’t a Guide—unless she’d also hidden that from his father. Hunter had run all kinds of scenarios through his head, but he couldn’t make any of them work at all. Did she approve of his father’s profession? Of Hunter continuing his mission? If she didn’t, she sure wouldn’t have left him with weapons hidden among his things.

To say nothing of his father’s old files. Did she know about the Merricks? Those files had been held together by an ancient rubber band; he didn’t get the impression anyone had read through them recently.

He wanted to call her, to confront her and demand answers.

But maybe she didn’t have answers. She’d hidden those things when she could have come right out and given them to him.

Not to mention that he’d spent months grieving for his father and wondering how anyone would ever understand him again. She’d known. All this time—she’d known.

His thoughts were spinning out, not finding traction anywhere. Hunter actually looked forward to fourth period, when he could see Kate and tell her what he’d learned, what he’d planned.

But Kate didn’t show for fourth period, and his texts went unanswered. Now he felt like a fool, sitting around like an eager puppy expecting a bone.

As usual, he was standing at a crossroads, with no idea which direction was right.

Instead of heading to the cafeteria at lunch, he went out back, to where a few concrete picnic tables were lined up under the pine trees. The weather was still crap, with rain dripping between the branches to soak the ground and seal the chill to his body, but it was outside, and deserted, and he could feel the elements and think.

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