Fifty-five

 

Kaleb didn’t show up for lunch. And Talia, weirdly, was watching for him.

Normally, she wouldn’t be able to find him easily in the lunch area. The alcoves, the private spaces, the sheer size of the space meant she shouldn’t have been able to see him at all.

But, she realized, he was always at lunch when she was, and he always hovered somewhere nearby. Every day, she had done her best to avoid him—and most days, she usually succeeded.

Of course, on the day she wanted to see him, she didn’t. She even did a walk around the lunch area, just scanning. She wasn’t sure what she wanted. She was kinda worried about him, and that bugged her because he was such an idiot.

But their conversation had disturbed her, and she thought about it during her entire next class.

Plus, she looked up his dad through the public nets. Not his dad’s financials. Just reports about his dad’s personality.

And she didn’t like what she had seen.

Like most parents, Kaleb’s dad had money. Mostly he used that money to make problems go away. She found the ghosts of some domestic violence complaints, erased when Kaleb’s mom died, but remaining as gaps in the record.

Talia also found some complaints from former employees who worked with Kaleb’s dad, saying he had behaved “unprofessionally,” whatever that meant. And then a couple of those employees moved out of Armstrong, buying expensive property elsewhere on the Moon.

Talia didn’t exactly want to talk to Kaleb about this, but it bothered her, just like his reaction bothered her.

And the fact that he wasn’t here bothered her too.

She grabbed an apple and wandered out of the lunch area. The headmistress’s office wasn’t too far from here. Talia didn’t exactly want to tell anyone that she had forgiven Kaleb—she hadn’t—but she did want to know what was going on.

Her dad would tell her that curiosity could harm her. He had told her that a lot since she looked for her sister clones a while back. But he always seemed a little uncomfortable saying it, since he got overly curious too. Otherwise he wouldn’t do the job that he did.

As she walked toward the headmistress’s office, she saw a couple of security guards standing outside of one of the conference rooms. Talia stopped. They only did that when a meeting was going on.

No one had thought to opaque the walls of the conference area. Inside it, she could see the guys who’d come in with Kaleb that morning, plus some lawyers. She could tell who they were by their fancy suits and the Peyti sitting in the group. A larger version of Kaleb with a florid face and a downturned mouth and mean, tiny eyes sat in the middle of the lawyers. Ms. Rutledge also sat there, hands folded, with yet another lawyer beside her.

At least, Talia thought that guy was a lawyer. She’d seen him around a few times, so she figured he worked for the school.

Kaleb sat all by himself at the far end of the table, his head resting on his arms. He looked worse than he had an hour ago, and now, despite herself, Talia felt sorry for him.

He hadn’t been lying to her. He didn’t want to leave the school.

The question was, did she want him to leave? He was nasty and disruptive and unreasonable. She shouldn’t have to defend him just because he wanted her to.

But maybe he acted tough here because he couldn’t be tough at home.

Or maybe he had learned it there.

She finished the apple and cupped the core in her hand. How come she was the one who had to make this decision? How come somebody else couldn’t?

And she didn’t know who would get hurt worse: the kids around her if Kaleb stayed in school or Kaleb if he had to leave.

Not that she was sure if it mattered.

She tried to figure out what her dad would do, and couldn’t. She knew what he would say. He would say it was her choice.

Only she didn’t know what choice to make.