*

"It makes me uncomfortable he was brave enough to say it in front of you," I confessed to Mia a few minutes after the unsettling encounter.

Mia opened one of her notebooks and produced a pen from her s.h.i.+rt pocket, scribbling down some words to show to me. "'Who am I going to tell? More importantly, who would believe me?'" I frowned, "Why wouldn't anyone believe you?"

She didn't answer me, at least not with a written word. Her eyes dropped to the ground, ignoring my other attempts to make her talk or even have a proper conversation. The moment we got on the grounds of the dorm, Mia ran inside and closed the door behind her, leaving me to walk alone to the shed in the backyard.

I ran the last two days over in my head. The twins nearly get kidnapped, and when the men failed another comes offering me money to simply look away. I wondered if I needed to call the police. But what would I say to them? It didn't sound like the twins' parents were going any further with the police. And he sounded like he was after all the girls, not just the twins. "Oh Mother, what have you signed me up for?" I mumbled as I pushed my bike beside Ava and Robyn's bikes and headed inside.

I went straight to the kitchen. Mia was sitting on the kitchen counter before Bonnie, who had a First-Aid kit sitting on her lap. When she heard the door, I stared into the eyes of pure anger.

She slammed the First-Aid kit beside Mia and furiously rolled towards me. "What happened?" Aside from my Mother's, I've never been more frightened by a woman's yell as I retreated around the counter. She got stuck on the corner, but quickly followed me, throwing demands at me as I hopped on the counter and out of her reach. Mia started clapping, finding the whole exchange funny. Bonnie, on the other hand, was furious. "Get down here!"

I was trying to supress a laugh as I made my way to the other side of the counter, eventually standing by Mia. "No, I don't know what you'll do to me if you catch me," I said. I never could outrun my Mother, but I knew I could outrun Bonnie. Or rather, outclimb.

She rolled back to Mia, her cheeks flushed as she said much more calmly, "What happened? She won't tell me."

I pondered lying like I had with Alexis, but Bonnie and Mia were close, the truth would come out eventually. "Some girls knocked her over when she was holding things. She sc.r.a.ped her knees and hand," I informed. Mia hadn't seemed to mind Bonnie knowing the truth.

Bonnie made a short sigh as she opened the First-Aid box and rummaged through it, pulling out some large, rectangular band-aids. "This should cover your knees. But we need to clean them first," Bonnie informed. She opened a drawer and pulled out a thick rag. She dampened it in the sink and rung it out, gently pressing it against Mia's knees. Mia winced at first but grew numb to the pain eventually. It wasn't until Bonnie applied Dettol that Mia started physically objecting, becoming so daring as to kick at Bonnie.

"You guys were home late," she stated as she pinned one of Mia's legs down.

I sat by the kitchen counter, watching Bonnie tend to Mia. "I umm… went to see Alexis," I informed, "Gave her a bag of crisps." There was a sudden tapping. It confused me at first, but I noticed it was Mia, tapping her fingernail against the counter by her side. Bonnie seemed to be listening. I didn't understand the taps, but Bonnie did.

"What is she talking about, Landon?" she asked, she turned in her chair. "What man?"

I smirked, "I thought you said no one would believe you," I said.

Bonnie raised her voice again, "What man?"

I pressed my lips together, pondering before standing up and saying. "I think this is something everyone needs to hear. Are the others home?"

Bonnie shrugged, "I think so." She pulled out her bell, Mia copying, as they started ringing them. The noise vibrated on my skin, made my stomach feel queasy and, somehow, make my eyes water.

When they stopped, I heard someone running, and a moment later Ava came flying into the room, slipping on the floorboards because of her socks. "What is it? Has something happened?" She braced herself against the lounge as she searched the room for danger, only to find none.

Moments later, Robyn appeared, less frantic as Ava, and glanced around the room. She seemed equally confused. Soon after, Estelle appeared, rubbing her eyes and mid-yawn as she blinked away a sleepy look. "What's with the ringing? I could feel it from upstairs." She didn't greet anyone, she approached the lounge and hopped over the back to lay down.

"Are the twins here?" I asked.

Ava blinked, "No, their Dad insisted on some 24-hour care while they get a couple of things in order." She looked past me to Mia and Bonnie, "Has something happened?"

"I just didn't want to have to repeat myself." I wondered if I needed to tell Alexis about this but recalled her being a scholars.h.i.+p student like myself. I recounted what had happened that afternoon, my words managing to even sober up Estelle's sleepy nature. None of them spoke, or interrupted, even Ava was momentarily to perplexed to sign what I was saying to Robyn, who seemed to get the gist about what I was saying.

"He said all this in front of Mia and everything. He wasn't even scared of us recognising him." I looked to Mia for confirmation, she offered a shrug. "I figured, with everything that he said, I should at least give you guys a heads up."

The atmosphere became tense. Estelle being the one to break the silence with an uncharacteristic line, "I think I need to call my parents." With that, she left the room.

My eyeline found Robyn, who espoused a slightly more panicked demeanour as colour drained from her face and she kept licking her lips, as if she was going to be sick. Ava noticed this and tried to calm her down through sign language.

Aside from scrunched fists, Bonnie seemed remarkably calm about the news

"Should we call the police?" I asked.

Bonnie scoffed. "And tell them what? That a bunch of disabled girls are scared someone is gonna s.n.a.t.c.h them?"

"Bonnie!" Ava snapped.

Bonnie turned her gaze away. Ava sighed, "What you've said is quite serious, Landon. But these families would much rather deal with it privately." Robyn sighed loudly, louder then she probably intended. "And to put what Bonnie said a little more delicately," she gave Bonnie a stare at the promptly ignored, "Girls with disabilities from rich families are often the target of ransoms and such. They don't get a very good… liability if they reported every threat." Even Ava seemed annoyed by this, "'Because everything is a danger to you girls.'" Her voice was mocking someone else. "You're just restricted, not stupid." When she said this, I watched her brush back Robyn's hair to see the hearing aid.

"What about for Estelle? She's not cla.s.sed as disabled."

"She's a pretty princess," Bonnie chimed, "And everyone thinks someone is after the pretty princess."

"Bonnie…" Ava's voice was less aggressive that time.

"Princess Estelle is precious cargo. Just like us, the police would accuse her of being hysterical," Bonnie rolled closer to Mia. "And they made the threat to you and Mia. Not the rest of us," she looked over her shoulder, "For all we know, you're making this up." She pressed the band-aids against Mia's knees.

I was astonished and looked to Ava for some sort of elaboration or perhaps 'Just kidding, we'll call the police right now.' But another silence lingered.

"Landon, it's their decision," Ava said as Robyn stood up and left the room. "Stuff like this gets handled by the families more then the police. The most we can do is notify them."

It was my turn to get frustrated. My jaw was clenched as I pressed a hand against my chest, pretending to scratch at something to hide my habit of checking my heartbeat.

"I'll tell our parents I was with Landon when that man came," she informed, she turned her chair to face Mia, "It'll be believable that he was able to protect me, like the twins yesterday."

Mia sighed and shook her head and signed. Bonnie grabbed her hand. "Mia, he threatened you too."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Believable?"

Bonnie folded her arms and slouched in her chair. "Mum and Dad adopted Mia a few years ago, but because of how young she is they think she over-exaggerates things," I saw the slight curves of a smile, "But let's watch them try and ignore this, huh Mia?"

I ran my hand over my face, what even were these families?

Ava looked to Mia as she scratched at the bandage on her hand. "I saw the fall, that's probably gonna bruise," she commented as she gently hit me on the shoulder and went to follow Ava.

Another wave of annoyance washed over me as I ran after her, catching up to her in the hallway. "What was that back at the school, by the way?" I asked.

She faked ignorance until I pointed it out. "I saw you. You watched the girls knock Mia over and didn't even come over to check she was okay." I remembered making eye contact and how she mouthed an apology to me.

"Oh, you caught that, huh?" Ava joked. She didn't seem guilty by it, but glanced at the carpet, unable to meet my eye.

I held my hands up, "What the h.e.l.l?"

She made a clicking noise with her mouth, looking over my shoulder at the kitchen doorway before saying. "Robyn's… got some new friends," she informed.

"New friends?" I dropped my hands.

She nodded. "Don't get me wrong, Robyn can have friends that aren't me. That's great, that's fine. But I've met them and seen the way they interact and talk to each other, and I don't like them." She spoke quickly and a sense of urgency as she tapped her fingers together. Her voice suddenly got very quiet, almost a whisper. "I'm aware of Mia's bullying issue, but Robyn was walking with those new friends and I don't trust them. I don't want her alone with them."

I raised an eyebrow, wondering just how deep into this problem I wanted to get in. I chose to go all in. "Why don't you like them?"

Ava smirked, "They're just a bunch of kids in our year, but… there's something about them, you know?" She folded her arms and leaned against the wall. "We've known these kids for… two years now, maybe. Robyn is the only deaf girl at school, so there's no one there that she was comfortable around. Other students picked on her, picked on me too for even being a.s.sociated with her. We got ostracized by everyone in our year for a solid six to eight months." She finally looked me in the eye, "Then out of nowhere, at the start of a new school year, six of the most popular and well-liked kids in our year simultaneously come up to Robyn and ask her to be their friend? What are the fluffing odds of that?"

I grimaced, "Fluffing?"

She paused. "I don't like swearing…" She became bashful as she puffed out her cheeks.

I continued. "I'm not the one to ask about that. I haven't been in one school for more then two years since I was twelve." I had been to six different proper schools in my time travelling with Dad since I first left this little town, and for two years in fact my Dad had hired a teacher to follow us around and home-school me. I had very little clue how normal high school students behaved.

"Well, as a person who has been around these rich sn.o.bs nearly all my life, I can guarantee you, something like this doesn't just happen. Okay? It builds up, or there's a tragedy, or another connection outside of school like sports or clubs. But just, out of nowhere, for some reason, they're suddenly interested in being her friend." Ava threw her hands in the air, "Robyn is an amazing girl, I know that. But they sure as h.e.l.l don't."

I t.i.tled my head, my earlier frustration disappearing as I said, attempting to defuse her growing anger, "You're strangely adorable when grumpy."

I had expected a blush, or maybe her telling me to shut up, but Ava countered with, "And you're just adorable."

I'm not ashamed to admit I blushed.

"And going back to Mia," Ava cleared her throat before saying matter-of-factly, "She's a psychopath. May G.o.d have mercy on the girls who bullied her."

It was jarring, "Pardon?"

Ava sighed, admitting she didn't know how the explain it. "Mia, as far as I know, has a very low E.Q, which is basically emotional intelligence, and the fact she chooses to be mute doesn't help either." She bit the inside of her cheek, "From what I gather she isn't bothered by the bullying. She craves it even. She just waits for a reason for hit back."

I was shocked. "Are we both talking about Mia here?"

Ava nodded, "Oh yeah. She's smart, Lancer. Not just writing smart either, she knows a lot about science and human biology. Last year, a group of girls kept throwing her backpack up a tree, at first, she did nothing about it, but they started throwing jewellery, her hat, anything she was carrying." She looked over my shoulder again, and lowered her voice, "She mixed isocyanide and water and sprayed them. Girls reeked for days." She took a step closer and spoke even softer, "I don't know if this is true, but I apparently a few years ago, one of the girls in her year started teasing her. Mia popped out her elbow and broke her nose."

I widened my eyes, trying, and failing, to picture how a little girl could accomplish that. "Surely that's not true."

Ava shrugged. "I wouldn't out it past her." She twisted her arm, so it was turned as far as it was able. "She's a smart kid. Only need a little bit of pressure in the right spot to break something." She tilted her head when she spoke, staring at her arm as if she was remembering. "I mean, think about it. Twist of the arm, a knock to the knee, and you can defeat a giant." She sighed as she dropped her arm, quickly opting to cross them.

It suddenly became very hard to swallow as I said with a steady voice, "I, personally, don't pay attention to rumours, and will believe that if I ever see it." It seemed far too absurd Mia could do that, the little girl who less than an hour ago clung to my arm because she was scared. I cleared my throat, "Why does that justify you ignoring Mia when she fell over?" I asked.

"Because on top of being heartless, she's also a liar," Ava expressed. "I love her, but Mia will throw you under the bus if it means she won't get the blame."

I found this hard to believe. "Mia? You're still talking about that reserved little thing sitting on the kitchen bench?"

Ava shrugged, "I'm just telling you what I know after living with her for two years. But who knows," she placed a hand on my shoulder, "Maybe I don't really know Mia at all."

With that, she left me in the hallway. I walked back to the doorway facing the kitchen, where I saw Mia pressing down the band-aid on her elbow and rubbing her eyes from the sting of the disinfectant. Bonnie was in the middle of comforting her.

"Don't worry about those girls, okay?" she said in a soothing voice, "They're only intimidated by you. You know that, right?"

Mia made an audible sniff, although I couldn't tell if she was in distress or just in momentary pain. "You're an eleven-year-old girl amongst some stupid, arrogant fifteen-year-olds. They just know you're smarter and stronger then them, so they'll do everything in their power to bring you down," Bonnie informed, "But when they hit you, you hit back."

Mia bit down on her lips and made a hesitated sign gesture.

Bonnie nodded, and mirrored the gesture, "Yep. Harder."

*

It wasn't long before I witnessed Mia 'hitting back.' The next day, I needed to go to the bathroom during cla.s.s and saw Mia carrying a golf club and a bag I didn't recognise to be hers. She didn't see me, and I barely caught a glimpse of her as the went up some stairs.

During lunch, I sat with some friends from my cla.s.ses and heard them talking about some girls during P.E getting struck down by golf b.a.l.l.s that came from seemingly nowhere.