Chapter 7

“I’ve been concerned for some time about the levels of violence in your classes,” Ms. Underhill informed me as I sank into one of the two seats in front of her desk. The armchairs were obscenely comfortable...but they were also considerably lower to the floor than average. Given my already short stature, I felt like a child peering up at an adult from my present vantage point, precisely the effect the headmistress was going for.

“Fencing isn’t about violence,” Kira countered from the perch she’d taken on the edge of her seat, her chin level with the desk rather than hidden beneath it like mine was. “It’s about control and restraint and...”

I could repeat our father’s words just as glibly as my sister was currently doing, but something told me Ms. Underhill wasn’t going to be impressed by the well-rehearsed refrain. Not when Kira had recently used her so-called control and restraint to mark the daughters of three major donors to the academy.

“We apologize,” I said instead. “Kira was out of line and I should have been able to stop her.” I swallowed, knowing the school had a zero-tolerance policy toward physical aggression. This wasn’t my sister’s first offense, so she would definitely be suspended. The question was—for how long? And when the suspension was over, would she be allowed to return to class?

As if sensing my distress, Kira rushed in to back me up as she always did. “Yes, I’m so sorry Ms. Underhill. I take complete responsibility for my actions. I’ll apologize to Missy and Callie and Veronica too. I swear, nothing like this will ever happen again.”

Her face was so open and candid, her tone so gushing. And the effect would have been believable too...if all three of us hadn’t remembered the other incidents in vivid technicolor.

There was that time in the cafeteria when my sister had grown bored and started a food fight so severe the entire place had to be shut down for the rest of the afternoon for cleanup. The time she’d gotten tossed out of class after correcting her Latin teacher’s pronunciation then reciting a very bawdy ballad in a language only she and he understood. And how could we forget the way my tiny sister had beaten up three over-sized football players who were trying to take advantage of a slip of a girl behind the bleachers?

Kira’s heart was in the right place...but sometimes her brain didn’t come along for the ride.

So my relief was palpable when the faintest hint of a smile pulled up the corners of Ms. Underhill’s thin lips. “You will be spending one week thinking through your choices during an out-of-school suspension,” the headmistress told my sister firmly before returning her attention to me.

“I appreciate your generosity.” Only when my lungs expanded to their full extent for the first time in several minutes did I realize that oxygen hadn’t been making its way to my lungs quite right ever since the headmistress’s voice had shown up in my class at exactly the wrong moment. Kira needed structure in her life and someone other than me pushing her academically. She’d been bored out of her skull at the public school, and a bored Kira was like a grenade with the pin removed. Bystanders had better brace themselves and wait for the detonation.

The academy was our family’s haz-mat suit. Being able to maintain that protection in light of Kira’s recent actions was more than I’d dared to expect.

So I struggled up out of the depths of the armchair and met Ms. Underhill’s eyes as best I could from two feet lower. Did she sit on a pillow back there to elevate her height? “I promise you that Kira will come back to school on her best behavior and ready to learn....”

“I’m sure she will be,” the headmistress interjected. “But that’s not the reason I brought you here today. As I mentioned earlier, I’m concerned that swordplay is an inappropriate activity for impressionable young minds. Control and restraint can be learned just as admirably at a gentler sport. Something like ballet.”

I cringed, imagining myself in a pink leotard barking orders at a roomful of tutu-clad kindergartners. But this was what I’d signed on for when I promised my dying father that I’d raise Kira myself rather than losing her to the foster-care system. So I merely nodded, keeping my clenched fists hidden beneath the overhang of the desk. “I understand,” I agreed. “I can do that.”

“No, I don’t think you do understand,” Ms. Underhill contradicted. Her head tilted, her mouth pursed, and for a split second I thought the old battle ax felt sorry for me. “I’m afraid I’ve found someone else to fill your position. Your final paycheck will go out in the mail tomorrow...along with a bill for the rest of Kira’s tuition at the normal rate.”

***

“I’ll be better off without that school anyway.” Kira was back on top of the cemetery wall, but she wasn’t dancing through our walk home this time around. Instead, she was skulking, shoulders hunched and feet kicking out at every pebble that dared stray into her path.

Her words, in contrast, remained perfectly controlled as she laid out a plan that would have made our father weep if he wasn’t rotting in his grave. “At the public school, I can land an A without any effort. Which means I can get a job. We’ll be a two-breadwinner family. We can buy a TV and a better sofa. We can eat salami. That’s how it should be. Really, Mrs. Underhill is doing us a favor. I’ll write her a thank-you note as soon as we get home.”

Despite the evenness of Kira’s monologue, she clearly lamented the lost opportunity as much as I did. Because rocks went spraying out in every direction beneath a particularly virulent kick, and this time I had to dodge to prevent being struck.

“How about a milkshake?” I countered. “Or a candy bar? We can talk about school later.”

After all, I’d learned the hard way that it was a recipe for failure trying to out-argue my sister once she’d dug her heels in. Kira was going back to the academy, but I wouldn’t press the issue until I figured out how to pay the full-price tuition. Until then, I might as well keep us both calm so our fox natures didn’t make us say things we’d later regret.

Kira, on the other hand, had no such compunction about speaking before thinking. “You said I needed to steer clear of sugar. You said it made me volatile.”

I had to laugh at my sister’s rebuttal...because, really, how much more volatile could Kira get after being kicked out of school for bitch-slapping three classmates? “I think just this once you can handle a sugar high,” I started...

...then yelped as hard hands grabbed onto my shoulders while the sidewalk spun away from beneath my feet. There were male figures all around me now, the emergence of lanky legs and leering faces proving that I’d been too focused upon my sister’s hurt feelings and not focused enough upon potential dangers impinging from the outside world.

But Kira was perched on top of a wall in a place of momentary safety. “Run!” I told her seconds before a hand landed atop my open mouth, strangling all further sound.

The teenager’s palm tasted like grease and salt, and I was 99% certain my opponent hadn’t washed after using the restroom. Gross. Still, the eyes that advanced toward me were entirely human. And the male’s scent was more fast-food pickles than incipient fur.

So I didn’t bother dulling my reflexes. Just hooked my knees around Pickle Breath’s ankles and pulled so hard he hit the ground with an audible thud even as I struggled to regain my own footing.

Which didn’t leave me in the clear, of course. Not with four other gang members still reaching toward me, their hands making up in number what they lacked in supernatural speed.

Despite the advancing front of heady testosterone, I stole a moment to peer at my sister as she perched atop the wall just where I’d left her. Predictably, Kira had completely ignored my previous commandment. If I didn’t miss my guess, she was currently trying to decide which gang member to leap upon first.

“Go home,” I mouthed again, hoping our opponents had forgotten about the girl’s presence. Just imagining what would happen if they grabbed my innocent sister sent my chest shrinking in on itself, forcing life-giving air out of my lungs....

So I let the barest hint of fox fill my features as I glared directly at her. Let Kira know from my sharpening teeth and darkening eyes that I was serious about being obeyed this time around.

And, to my relief, Kira hesitated only one more second before nodding. Then she spun on her heel and sprinted away so quickly none of the gang members would have been able to catch her even if they’d tried.

The distant shriek of a city bus’s air brakes promised Kira would be safe within seconds if she played her cards right. Which left me with no one to worry about except my lonesome.

Good thing I had aggressions to work out of my own system since the field was currently rather overbalanced on my opponents’ behalf.