Two weeks after the attack on the prison, the council reopened the schools. There was a lot of rah-rah talk about not letting fear rule their lives and not letting the extremists win. Dylan went back and forth between thinking it was pointless and reluctantly agreeing with the council.
If the town stayed on lockdown, they were letting the extremists run their lives, and that was even worse than having the council and the wardens control them. But if Morgan and his buddies did attack… none of this would matter.
Everyone was nervous and skittish. More people than usual gave Dylan odd looks in the hall that first morning back. At least more than the new normal. It was like old times, and not in a good way.
A lot of kids were whispering to each other when Dylan walked into homeroom, and everything went silent the second they noticed him. They must have been talking about the attacks, but it was weird that they didn’t ask him any questions. Everyone knew he’d been there.
When Dylan got to second period, Toby bounced out of his seat, throwing one of his hands up in an exaggerated wave. “Dylan. Come sit over here.” He was a short, skinny guy and always wore a baseball cap turned around backward. Before Aiden came along, Toby had avoided Dylan, afraid of him like most of the other kids. They weren’t exactly buddies now, but they were friendly.
Tiago already sat at the desk next to Toby, his expression dark. Dylan slid between them, looking between the boys. “What’s going on?”
“They think we had something to do with the prison break,” Tiago said.
“What?”
“There’s a rumor—and I don’t believe it at all,” Toby said. “But people say you and Tiago might be helping the extremists.”
“What?” Dylan shouted, so mad the edges of his vision blurred. How dare they? How fucking dare they!
“Please keep it down,” the teacher said, barely glancing up from her desk.
A surge of rage went through him, and he tensed.
“Dylan.” Tiago put a hand on his arm. “It’s not her fault.”
Dylan considered throwing a fit anyway. If he was going to get blamed for things no matter what, at least he could get in trouble for something he’d actually done. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t been kicked out of class and given detention dozens of times before.
But Cat Boy was right. Dylan wanted to find out who started the rumor and make them pay for it. As soon as his mind turned in that direction, he came up with suspect number one. “Warden Bully,” he growled.
The man had been demoted to guard duty, but he’d found a way to punish Dylan for it.
“Yeah, probably.” Tiago looked more upset than angry.
Dylan let out a string of curses, but he kept his voice low. As more people entered class, they chose seats as far away from the three of them as they could. Even if they weren’t listening to the lies, the look on Dylan’s face probably put them off. “What about Aiden? Are they blaming him too?”
Toby made a face. “From what I’ve heard, it’s more guilt by association. With his best friend and his boyfriend involved—” Toby brought up his hands. “Just relaying info, I don’t believe any of it—but people are making the connection.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” Dylan muttered.
“And make people think he was right?” Tiago said.
Toby leaned closer and rubbed his hands, in danger of tipping his desk over. “What you need is a countercampaign. If Warden Bradley is the source of these rumors, then we need to discredit him.”
Tiago arched an eyebrow. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”
The kappa’s expression wavered. “I just want to help. I’m not brave enough to go out and fight bad guys, but I can defend your reputations.”
Dylan didn’t know what to say to that, but thankfully Tiago had it handled. “When you put it like that, it’s practically noble.”
Toby’s smile returned. “Okay, so give me all the dirt, and I’ll make sure it spreads through the whole school.” Toby was on the school newspaper staff, so he could make good on that promise. Freshman year the paper wasn’t a big deal, but after all the stuff that had happened the past few years, practically everyone read it. Dylan had given two interviews, mostly so the staff would shut up and stop bothering him.
The bell interrupted them, and Dylan struggled to focus on class. As soon as the period ended, they resumed their conversation.
“Mr. Johnson demoted Warden Bully for what he said about me, so this is about revenge.”
“Ooh, that’s good.” Toby nodded. “And everyone knows about the drama last year and how the principal banned him from school. So it’s not like he’s a reliable source to begin with.”
“Nichols is no fan of Bradley, so you might be able to get some info out of her,” Tiago suggested.
“Good idea.” Toby scribbled something in his little notebook.
“If you need to quote me or something, I’ll swear I didn’t have anything to do with the breakout.” A little worm of guilt twisted inside Dylan. He hadn’t helped them, but Morgan and his buddies were only here because of Dylan. Indirectly, this whole thing was his fault.
“Me too. You can—” Tiago closed his eyes and blew out a breath. “I’m willing to do an interview about what my parents did to me. Maybe if people understood…” He shrugged.
“Wow, that would be great!” Then Toby sobered. “I mean, it would be great to get your story out there, but only if you’re comfortable. I don’t want to like, exploit you.”
A little smile pulled at Tiago’s mouth. “I spent most of my life hiding. I want to be honest now, even about stuff I’d rather not talk about. But I’ll think about it.”
Once again Dylan had to admire Cat Boy for being so brave.
“Yeah, yeah. Of course. Let me know if you decide to do the interview.” Toby jotted down more notes.
“Thanks for being on our side,” Dylan told him.
“I’m a journalist. I’m on the side of truth.” Toby winked. “Catch you later.”