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I didn’t hear him right. Surely I couldn’t have heard him right. My chest tightened as if someone was trying to squeeze the life out of me. I swallowed hard, forcing down the lump in my throat that threatened to gag me. This can’t be happening. It’s a nightmare – some cruel joke. It has to be!
“We’re doing everything we can to find out how the crash happened.” Chris’s voice pushed its way into my thoughts, sounding miles away. I stared at him blankly. “As soon as we know anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Are you sure they’re...” Matt trailed off. His voice was husky with emotion.
I vaguely noticed a horrified look on Matt’s face as I tried to force myself back to reality, a reality I wasn’t sure I was ready to face.
“As sure as we can be.” Chris put his sunglasses on, hiding his own moist eyes, but his weak voice betrayed him. You'd have thought his parents had been the ones to die. “I can’t give you any details, but I wouldn’t be here if we weren’t sure.”
How could you let this happen, Lord? I'd expected bad news, but this was even worse than I'd feared. Both of them, gone? I wanted to get up and run out of the room, but I felt glued to the seat.
Chris cleared his throat and stood. His hands were tight fists at his sides. “You can’t possibly understand how sorry I am. If you need anything, just call. Matt knows how to reach me.”
I sat, staring straight ahead, until Chris had closed the door behind him, trying to sort out the mess of facts and emotions that swirled through my brain.
“They’re not dead,” I whispered, as my thoughts cleared. “They can’t be.” I refused to accept it. Chris was wrong. He had to be wrong.
“Scott,” Matt said softly. He laid his hand on my arm. Matt was tough, but his mom had died when he was younger and I knew he understood. “I’m sorry. If there’s anything I can do...”
“I just need to go to my room to think.” I shook my throbbing head and pushed myself out of the chair. Things just didn’t make sense. “Chris isn’t telling me everything.”
“Are you suggesting he lied to you?” Matt asked, his eyes darkening angrily.
“No! I’m just... I don’t know.” I broke off in frustration. I didn’t need an argument with my best friend on top of everything else. “Look, I’m sorry. I just need to think things through, all right? It's a lot to take in.”
“Believe me, I know,” Matt said, compassion replacing his quick anger.
We left Superintendent Hinkly’s office and walked back through the waiting room silently. Each of us was too absorbed in his own thoughts to speak.
What were my parents doing in town? I pushed open the door leading to the hall, only partly paying attention to what I was doing. Did they crash coming to see me? That thought just made me feel guilty. And why on earth would Chris be so upset about their crash? Surely as an FBI agent or whatever he is he's gotten used to breaking bad news to people.
“Oh!” a girl yelped in front of me. “Hey, watch the door.”
“Sorry, Trinity,” I apologized, blushing.
Trinity Shiloh was a pretty blue-eyed junior with wavy, shoulder-length red hair always pulled back into a ponytail. She was the coach's daughter and another close friend, but she could still made me feel awkward.
“Is the game over?” I stammered, looking for something to say. “Did we win?”
She looked away, uncomfortably playing with a locket her dad had given her for her tenth birthday. “Nah. Not without you two.” She lifted her blue eyes to my face, concern still reflected in them. “Are you okay? That tackle looked awful.”
I gave her a smooth smile. “Dr. Grant says I'm fine. Nothing to be worried about.” Except that my life has been turned upside down. My smile faltered and my stomach turned again.
Trinity narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “What aren't you telling me, Scott?” She glared at Matt. “What's he not telling me?”
“He just found out...” Matt began.
“Some bad news about my family,” I finished firmly. I didn’t want to hear the whole thing all over again. I’d tell her later. “That’s all.”
“He found out his parents were apes,” a high-pitched voice mocked behind us. “He’s disappointed he couldn’t rank Neanderthal.”
The three of us turned to face a short teen with black hair spiked a little in the latest style wearing a pair of designer jeans and a tee shirt with the logo of an expensive teen clothing company advertised across the front. He looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place him.
“You!” Trinity recognized him immediately.
“What are you doing here, cheater?” Matt snarled as he shoved past me. “You'd better have come to apologize for your rotten behavior at the game.”
“Let it go, Matt.” I rolled my eyes and sighed. Now I recognized the sneering teen that had hit me. I was in no mood to deal with him right now, or mediate a fight between him and Matt.
“Daytonas don't apologize,” the spoiled little brat sniffed. A mean smile curled his lips. “Besides, we won, so I don't even see why I should.”
With a low growl, Matt lunged for the teen, pulling up short when I stepped between them.
“I'm Scott McCully,” I introduced myself and offered the kid my hand, determined to put the game behind us. “The offices are closed. Can I help you with something?”
“The name’s Winston.” The teen drew himself up to his full height and ignored my hand. “Winston Daytona the third. Of the Boston Daytonas. I’m here visiting your school.”
“I don’t care if you come from the NASCAR Daytonas,” Matt snapped, taking a step toward the smaller teen. “You can’t just be rude to whoever you want.”
“And you do owe Scott an apology,” Trinity added. “You could have really hurt him out there.”
“Forget it.” I placed my hand on Matt’s shoulder. Winston was an annoying jerk, but all I really wanted was the privacy of my own room. “Let’s just go.”
“What’s the matter?” Winston stood on his tiptoes to get up in Matt's face. “Neanderthal boy need to keep you from doing something you’ll regret?”
“I already regret having met you,” Matt seethed, turning with some effort to follow me. “I’d better go before I make you regret having met me.”
“Sure go,” Winston taunted as the three of us walked away from him. “You haven’t seen the last of me.”
“Ugh,” Trinity groaned as we left the administration building. “I'm glad he doesn't come to our school. Can you imagine dealing with that every day?”
“It would take the patience of Job,” Matt muttered glaring back at Winston.
Trinity raised an eyebrow and looked to me.
“From the Bible,” I answered. “He was put through horrible trials, but his faith in God kept him from sin.” I nudged Matt with my elbow. “You should have asked for the patience of Job before you rushed that jerk on the field.”
Matt blushed. “Yeah. Sorry.” Fire flared in his eyes, replacing the apology as he looked at me. “Nobody messes with my friends.”
“I'll remember that, the next time I'm tempted to get my revenge when Scott strikes me out in softball,” Trinity laughed as we reached the boys dorms. “In the meantime, perhaps you should read up on that Job guy. Sounds like you could learn a few things.”
Waving to her, Matt and I headed into the Alexander Hamilton boys’ dorm. We climbed a flight of stairs and walked down the hall to our second floor dorm room. Our room was just the same as the rest of the rooms on our floor: two bunks, two dressers, and two desks. Nothing was allowed on the walls, so the only personal touch was a cork board above each desk that the students could decorate with pictures or posters.
As I swung the door open, my eyes rested on a picture of my parents and me tacked to my cork board. It was from a trip we had taken last summer. They were smiling out at me as if nothing could ever go wrong. As if we would always be a family. I snatched the picture off the cork board and laid it face down next to the computer on my desk. The reminder of my loss was more than I could bear to look at right now.
Why, Lord? Why take them from me like this? I crossed the room and tossed myself onto my bed while Matt closed the door. Trinity's teasing about Matt reading Job probably could apply just as easily to me right now. I could relate to his feelings of loss.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” I protested after a moment, staring blankly at the ceiling. “My parents weren’t even supposed to be just outside town, they weren't supposed to get in until today.”
“Maybe they came back early,” Matt suggested. He pulled his chair away from his desk and straddled it, folding his arms across the back of the chair.
“Maybe,” I said slowly. My thoughts were clearing, but things still didn’t make sense. I rose to one elbow and turned to Matt. “But still, Dad’s a great pilot. A careful pilot. Careful pilots don't just crash. Something made him crash.”
“Chris said they were still investigating,” Matt reminded me with a shrug.
“They? The FBI? FAA?” I asked, feeling a little exasperated. “Who does he work for anyway? He's never said.”
“He doesn't really talk about it much,” Matt answered slowly, as if he feared incriminating his brother. “He's in law enforcement. Some security group, I think, sort of like your parents' work for Global Security Services.”
“Why would a security group be investigating a plane crash?” Things just weren't adding up. “Haven't you ever asked him where he works? Seriously, what kinds of conversations do you guys have at the dinner table?”
Matt flushed and I instantly regretted my words. Chris and Matt's dad had fought over Chris's career plans when he'd left for college. It was precisely the topic they would avoid most carefully.
“Sorry, Matt.” I dropped back on the bed and threw my arm over my eyes. “That was out of line.”
“No, you're right,” Matt agreed reluctantly. “I guess his being involved is a little odd.”
“More than a little odd,” I clarified. “Chris isn’t telling us everything.”
“Maybe he doesn't know anything more,” Matt pointed out, a little defensively.
“Well, someone could have at least told me something before now.” I sat up and tapped my chest for emphasis. “They’re my parents. Besides, if they crashed just outside of town don’t you think we’d have heard something on the news? Wouldn’t a plane crash just outside Baltimore draw a little attention?”
“Normally,” Matt agreed tiredly. “I don't know, Scott, maybe they tried to hush it up.”
“Why?” I got up and paced the small room anxiously. “Why would anyone want to hush up a plane crash involving two normal citizens? Unless...”
“Unless what?” Matt sighed and shook his head slightly, as if he was beginning to see where this was headed and didn’t like it.
I was pretty sure I didn’t like it either.
“Unless my parents weren’t really normal citizens.” I stopped mid-stride and turned to face Matt.
“I’ve met your parents,” Matt reminded me, looking as if he was thoroughly convinced I'd lost it. “They're not exactly the same kind of security guards as Chris. No offense, but the most danger your parents have ever faced is the risk of heat exhaustion at a baseball game. Do they even carry guns?
“You don’t know them like I do.” I crossed to my desk and picked up the picture I'd laid down. I turned it to Matt, pointing to a fading mark surrounding my dad's eye. “They’re not normal. They’re supposed to be the kind of security guards that protect paintings and famous people. Not the kind that get up and go on long trips at all hours of the night. Not the kind that come home from work looking like they’ve gone five rounds with George Foreman.”
“Everybody has bad days.” Matt responded weakly, uncertainty on his face as he looked at the photo.
“And Chris – you saw him – he was really upset.” The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that I was right. “More upset than just a friend giving bad news. It was personal to him. What if they worked with Chris?”
“Maybe Chris could tell you more.” Matt didn't even sound like he believed it anymore.
“Like he did today?” I scoffed. “You heard him; he can’t give us any details. We’ll have to find out for ourselves.”
“Right, because that's what any teen would do in our place,” Matt said sarcastically. “Are you insane? If you're right, that's all the more reason to leave this to the pros!”
“Pros like Chris who can’t – or won’t – tell me what’s going on?” My voice filled with determination as I clenched my fist and looked back at my parents’ faces in the photo. “I have to know what happened to them. No matter what it takes.”