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“Dr. Casera will explain everything,” MadDog said as if that settled it.
“Great,” I mumbled.
Prison would’ve probably been a betteroption.
According to the pamphlet Mad Dog had givenme, Arcadia University housed 123 students in their sprawling27,000-acre campus which included trees and more trees. ArcadiaUniversity was proud of their history of safety, learning, andbuilding character. That’s not what it actually said, but that’swhat I saw. “It doesn’t say anything about downed internet andarmed guards.”
Mad Dog sighed. “This is a specialschool.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t make me feel anybetter.” I shoved my hands into the pocket of my hoodie as Mad Dogparked in an empty spot. “Why is it empty?”
“It’s not. We just came in through adifferent entrance. This part of the area is restricted to newstudents.”
“So we don’t see the real students.”
He parked the car in an empty slot. I knewhe wanted to tell me something by the way he was looking at me.Apparently, he decided it not worth it and got out of the car. Ifollowed him.
Like a dog, I’d been following him, hatingmyself more and more. We entered a nondescript brick building. Thewalls were fancy dark wood with pictures of old important lookingwhite people. The big furniture inside the place looked expensive.Mom had taken me to the museum once and I remembered they hadfurniture like this in one of their sections. Too fancy to touch.She’d left me there to meet up with one of her marks and I’d fallenasleep under a King Louis section and got picked up by security.They had fed me a sandwich and juice. It'd been nice until Momshowed up. She had beat me black and blue that night and stuck mein the closet. I’d been seven. Daniel suggested next time I don’tget caught. But at least I got beat on a full stomach.
A tall older man with salt and pepper hairmet us inside. He turned to Mad Dog and I swear, his blue eyessparkled. Sparkled as if they were made of glitter.
“Mr. Brennan,” he said, shaking Mad Dog’shand. “It’s good to see you.”
Mad Dog nodded. “Carl,” he said tightly.Then he turned to me. “Tomás,” he said. “This is Dr. Carl Casera,he’s the headmaster.”
I gave a little bow and felt like an idiotafterward. Dr. Casera’s smile was infectious. Meaning, it made mewant to smile too. See, Mad Dog had me listening to books and NPRduring my recovery and I was learning big words too.
“Tomás, good to finally meet you. Mr.Brennan has told me a lot about you.”
I stiffened and turned to Mads who had takenthat very moment to ignore me. “Lies, I’m sure,” I said, faking myvoice to sound as snooty as Dr. Casera’s. Daniel always said if Ididn’t know what I was doing, just fake it. Mad Dog glared at me. Idecided to drop the accent.
Dr. Casera led us to an office that lookedas unused as the salt and pepper shakers on my kitchen counter. Weused them as paperweights sometimes. Maddox and I took the seatsacross from his desk as he sat down and clasped his hands on top ofthe clean wood surface. His eyes trained on me. “First andforemost,” he started. “you will always be safe within the campusgrounds.”
I looked at Mad Dog who didn’t look at me. Iturned back to Dr. Casera. “Why wouldn’t Inotbe safeoutsidethe grounds?”
Mad Dog leaned forward. “Dr. Casera, Tomásis a special case.”
As in I’m an idiot and have no clue what wasgoing on.
Mad Dog went on. “He’s transitioned late asI have just acquired him.”
I felt like a piece of furniture, and notthe nice pieces in the lobby of this place.
Dr. Casera’s eyes did that sparkling,awareness thing again. “Ah, yes, I understand.” Then he looked atme. “Well, young man,” he said. “Arcadia is quite a specialschool.”
I didn’t think Casera knew that in my worlda “special school” wasn’t a good thing.
I learned that Arcadia housed 123 studentsfrom all walks ofthelife. All the students at Arcadia hadblood ties to families who preferred discretion. I got that to meanthat they were criminals like the Brennans. Mafia types. Which didnot make me feel better. The campus, however, was secure withstrict guidelines and confidentiality was taken seriously.
He handed me my school ID with the nameTomás R. “Within the school,” he said, “You will be known as TomásR. All your records will reflect this alias to keep you safe. It isencouraged that students do not share their real identities forsafety reasons as you can imagine, I’m sure.”
Rival families wanting to kill each other,though the administration couldn’t do jack if a student decided toshare.
Got it.
He handed me a round chip. Made of lightsmooth wood and the size of a quarter. “This is your token. It willdesignate your status to anyone outside the school if you were tofall into problems of a legal matter.” He nodded at me as if I knewexactly what he meant. I didn’t, but I didn’t want to feel like anidiot, so I kept my mouth shut. “Most students put it on a keychain or leather strap around their neck. You should always, alwayscarry it with you. Understand?”
I nodded and played with the round disk. Ithad a clasp like a locket. I opened it to expose a silver coin withan engraving of a raven encased in an uppercase B. I turned to MadDog who was staring at me. “That’s the Brennan sigil. Keep it onyou and hidden.”
