Without Mercy - Lisa Jackson [47]
Making her way to her car, she listened to her messages and saw that Rhonda Hammersley had called just before five. “Ms. Farentino,” her message said, “we’re offering you the position at Blue Rock Academy according to the terms discussed with Reverend Lynch this afternoon. Please call me back and let me know that you’ll accept. You can reach me on my cell till eleven-thirty tonight. Otherwise you can leave a message. Thank you.”
Jules was floored.
It was really going to happen; she was being hired. Suddenly her palms were sweaty, and she wondered if she could pull off her plan.
She replayed the message, and then, looking at her watch, noting that it was already eleven-twenty, she placed the call.
Rhonda Hammersley picked up on the second ring.
“This is Julia Farentino. I got your message and, yes, I accept. Thanks!”
“Good!” Hammersley sounded genuinely pleased. Within minutes, the deal was done, at least preliminarily.
Jules was to drive down to the school by the end of the week, meet with Lynch, and sign all the appropriate documents. She’d have a few days to settle into quarters and meet the staff and students before starting work the following Monday.
Jules did an about-face, walking back into the restaurant where she found Tony, the manager, in his small office. She let him know that she needed some time off for a “family emergency” but didn’t elaborate. Tony gave her the what-are-we-gonna-do-without-you? routine, but she worked it out with Dora, another waitress, who wanted more hours. Dora would be willing to cover her shifts for the next few weeks.
Anticipation fluttered in her chest as she drove home. By the end of the week, she would see Shay. She only hoped that her sister wouldn’t give her up and ruin the entire ruse.
Nona checked her watch. Twelve fifty-three in the morning. She’d pretended to fall asleep earlier, waiting for her stupid new roommate to finally turn out the light. Shaylee Stillman didn’t play by the rules and refused to obey the lights-out order at eleven. She’d gotten away with it. Probably because there were some kids who had to stay up later to get all their homework done. Lights-out was the one rule that could be bent a bit, especially if you stayed awake in the name of education.
Now the dorm was quiet aside from the soft hum of the furnace blowing warm air through the building. No one was talking in the hallway, no footsteps passed by their door on the way to the bathroom.
She sneaked a peek at the sprinkler head. She wasn’t even certain that all of her actions were being followed, though that was the rumor. But who knew for sure? Tim Takasumi, the TA who worked with a lot of the electronic equipment for the school, had made it sound like there were cameras in the sprinkler heads in each room, but she’d never seen one, and she wasn’t sure she could trust Tim. He was beyond geeky and really bought into the whole Blue Rock Academy rah-rah routine.
It would be just like Tim to start a rumor about hidden cameras to keep the myths about this place going. Rather than leave the program, Tim had stayed on after “graduation” and was working on some sort of accelerated college program via the Internet with the professors here. That’s what the TAs did; they stuck around. Nona figured that they were part of some kind of secret group; she’d overheard Missy Albright whispering to Eric Rolfe about a meeting late at night in some freakin’ shelter of some kind. Whatever that was.
Not that Nona could be bothered with whatever cult was happening. She didn’t care if the kids involved were dropping acid or drinking blood. She had more important things to think about.
Specifically, her boyfriend. No, make that her first real boyfriend. She didn’t count the creep back home who had hit her so hard he’d knocked out one of her teeth; that hadn’t been love. She knew that now. And, boy, were things heating up. She was still a few months shy of sixteen and in love!
Her boyfriend had vowed that he loved her, that he needed her, and he knew just where to sweep his fingertips to