CHAPTER 6
“Did you hear about Dirt?” Dawn heard someone asking as she passed by.
She didn’t pause. Instead, she hurried toward class and tried to drown out the voices in her head. The voices were a constant for her. They were the thoughts of everyone around her, and they weren’t always nice. Sometimes they were full of personal things she didn’t want to know about people. Often, they were about her.
It wasn’t uncommon for her to see the disdain people felt for her even as they stood there, talking to her in a polite manner. People thought she was weird or stuck up because her choices didn’t revolve around popularity. Some feared her because they had seen or heard of her doing things they couldn’t comprehend. That was the thing about her gifts - no matter how hard she tried to keep them under wraps, word got around anyway, and people were always frightened by the unknown.
“Your shirt is on inside out,” Liam told her as she sat down, shaking his head as a slow smile spread across it.
“Jesus,” she said, looking down at it.
She had gotten up late and dressed in a hurry, but how could she not have noticed her shirt was like this? Shrugging, she pulled it over her head and flipped it around. Girls and guys alike sat looking at her with odd expressions as she smoothed it back down and sat in her seat.
“Really, Dawn?” Liam said.
“What? I have on a tank underneath it. It’s not like I just stripped in class.”
“I’d give you a dollar if you did,” a ginger lad named Alastair laughed from nearby.
“I’ll give you a dollar,” Liam snarled at him.
The smile faded from the ginger’s face as he sat back in his seat and returned his gaze forward, careful not to look back in either Dawn or Liam’s direction. Dawn felt elated. Liam was jealous. Maybe he didn’t think of her as just a friend, after all.
“All right, class. Before we get started this morning, I would like to talk to everyone about the events of yesterday. I’ve just come from a meeting with the headmasters this morning and learned that one of our own – I won’t mention his name, but many of you know by now who it was – is in the hospital in very serious condition.”
Everyone was silent. Most listened with rapt attention, though a few were disinterested. Their thoughts angered Dawn. They were callous and didn’t care about one of their own being harmed, because in their eyes he was not worthy of their compassion. Dawn tried to ignore their internal dialogues as she refocused her attention on their teacher.
“It has come to our attention that this was a result of certain students in this school that subjected an innocent fellow student to severe bullying. Their actions caused irreparable damage that may well result in the death of this student.”
“He’s going to die?” a girl named Lily asked, wide-eyed.
“There is a strong possibility that he could,” the teacher responded.
Dawn knew that Lily felt bad. She had done nothing to Harlan, but she had also done nothing to stop the boys she knew tormented him. In her own way, she held some responsibility to what had happened, and she was well aware of it, even if she never admitted it aloud.
“A list of names has been formed that will be called upon throughout the day to come to the headmaster’s office. Please note that not everyone on this list did anything wrong. Some may be witnesses to events, and some may be completely innocent of any knowledge regarding what has happened, so do not speak of those who are called in hall gossip. This is a gravely serious matter, and such nonsense will not be tolerated.”
Everyone was quiet as they all thought about this for a moment. Dawn suddenly knew everyone in the room that knew anything about the matter and also those who did not.
“So, when I call the following students’ names, you will go to the front office and wait to be called in for questioning. There will not only be headmasters and instructors, but also members of the dragon council. Do not be alarmed. Just answer as truthfully as you can.”
Several heartbeats quickened around Dawn and thoughts ran wild. Dawn could see that there were many that had known about the bullying, most not involved, but they had known just as well as Lily had what was happening and chose to do nothing.
Dawn wondered to herself if she would have done nothing had she known. She would like to think she would not have let it continue, but if she were being honest, she might have deemed it not her fight until it was already too late, just as some of the others had.
“Dawn McCord?” the teacher said.
Dawn’s head shot up, not understanding at first why she had been called. She had been absorbed in her thoughts and already forgotten what the teacher was talking about.
“Yes?”
“I need you to go to the headmaster’s office.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Don’t waste time. They have a lot of people to see today.”
Dawn got up reluctantly, aware of all the eyes on her and the thoughts wondering what she had to do with the situation. None of them had been in the corridor yesterday and, even if they had, there was no way for them to know what she had seen, felt, or done. It would not keep them from thinking the worst of her though. Still, she didn’t care. Picking up her bookbag, she made her way out of the classroom and up to the school office.
“Good morning, Dawn. I’m sorry to pull you out of class,” Kergot told her as she entered.
Dawn looked around the room. She was relieved to find that the only ones present were Kergot and Penelope. There weren’t even any members of the dragon guard, not even her father.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.
“What? No, of course not. I have made a list of the young men and women I need to talk to today. I made it from memory, based on what I learned from you in the corridor. I just wanted to see if you would look over it and tell me if it is complete and accurate, to your knowledge.”
“I see,” she replied. “Will anyone know that I am the one that told you about these people?”
“No. They will be questioned very thoroughly based upon what I know and what they are thinking at the time I ask the questions. They will have no way of knowing what led me to them, and I would think most will assume that Harlan told me something while he was still lucid.”
“He was never lucid after Tommy hurt him,” Dawn said solemnly.
“They don’t know that and they don’t need to. Even if we were willing to reveal your gift, you are still a third party. I can’t take this to the dragon council based solely on your account as an uninvolved party, if that makes sense.”
“It does. What if they don’t confess?”
“People have a way of turning against one another when it benefits them. Some will confess. Some will tell on the others. In the end, they will all pay for what they’ve done. That much, I promise.”
Penelope said nothing, merely sitting in to observe, it seemed. Dawn was beginning to think that was all she was there to do, but then she spoke to her.
“Dawn, none of this was your fault. I hope you feel no guilt for revealing the people who did this. They have to learn this is not okay. They have to learn the consequences of their actions.”
“I know, but thank you,” Dawn replied, handing the list back to Kergot. “It seems to be correct. Except for one I didn’t know about. Lily Abbott. She is in my first period class. Her thoughts reveal that she did nothing, but she witnessed others doing something, and she feels guilty about not having said or done anything. I think she would be willing to change that if asked.”
Kergot nodded and wrote something on the list. Dawn assumed he added Lily’s name.
“You can go,” he told her.
Dawn left, returning to class. Several students asked her what they had wanted, and she just told them they had asked what she knew and sent her back. There were distrustful looks at her until more than a dozen of them were also called and returned.
She began to understand that many of the students would be called to mask those that might provide information or just in case they might offer up unexpected information. As more of them were called up, fewer seemed to wonder what she might have said during her time. The looks faded away and everyone seemed equally ill at ease. The day seemed to drag on forever.