Sarah. .? Maybe all that niceness was just a mask. No, Jenna couldn’t suspect Sarah. She might make fun of Sarah, calling her Miss Perfect or something like that, but deep down she instinctively knew that Sarah was a genuinely good person. There was a bit of mystery to her, that was true, but it seemed to be something personal and private. She wouldn’t do anything that would hurt anyone else.
They could forget about Carter — he couldn’t even communicate. For a brief time, when she first entered the class, she’d toyed with the notion that Carter’s oblivious attitude was an act. But once, when Charles had one of his tantrums and sent books flying off shelves, everyone else in the class had covered their heads. Carter hadn’t even flinched until Madame had instructed him to duck. No, the guy was truly out of it.
What about Charles? He could be pretty nasty. . but she remembered how he’d helped her and Ken rescue the kidnapped students. Someone in cahoots with the bad guys wouldn’t have done that.
No, it had to be Amanda. Before she came to the Gifted class, none of them had been threatened by outside forces. Amanda had no real friends in the class so she had no sense of loyalty to anyone. Tracey had said she thought there was some sort of romantic connection between Amanda and Ken, but from the way Ken talked about Amanda now, any friendship they might have had was finished.
And now Amanda had chosen to work in Mr Jackson’s office.
Jenna had always harboured uncomfortable feelings about Mr Jackson, and not just because he was the school principal. There was something about him that gave her the creeps.
Madame had assured the class that no one else at Meadowbrook knew about them. The administration thought the students in Madame’s class had some unusual aspects to their personalities or learning skills, and that was why they’d been brought together for a class under her supervision. None of them, not even the principal, was aware of what they could do. Jackson knew they had ‘gifts’, but he thought they were little personality quirks and talents. Not weird supernatural stuff.
And yet, the way Mr Jackson looked at them. . Surely he suspected something. It was Jackson who brought Serena to their class as a student teacher. It was Jackson who had accepted the man who called himself Stuart Kelley as Jenna’s father. Jenna had no difficulty picturing the principal and Amanda working together to exploit the gifted students.
The Gifted class met right after this class. That meant Amanda should be working in the office right now.
The one good thing about substitute teachers was the fact that they were more gullible than real teachers. Jenna got up and went to the desk.
Mr Roth looked up from his newspaper with annoyance at being interrupted. ‘Yes?’ he asked testily.
‘I need to go to the clinic,’ Jenna said.
His eyes narrowed with suspicion. Jenna elaborated.
‘I think I’m going to throw up.’
That comment set Roth in motion. Frantically, he grabbed an excuse pass from the top drawer and practically threw it at her.
Once out in the hall, Jenna knew she needed to work out another story right away. It wasn’t like she could walk into the office and just hang out. She needed a reason for being there. But what possible excuse could she have for going to the office? She could claim that Mr Roth sent her for some classroom supplies. . but then she’d be handed the supplies and sent back to class. She needed to stay in the office for a while so she could observe Amanda and figure out what she was up to. This was not going to be easy. .
But she was in luck. There was a lot going on in the office when she arrived, and she didn’t have to provide an excuse, at least not right away. A counsellor with a red face was demanding to see Mr Jackson immediately. The custodian was complaining about something nasty in a bathroom, while two teachers were arguing over the use of some video equipment. And a couple of boys who’d obviously been in some sort of fight (and who wanted very much to continue fighting) were being held apart by another teacher.
Ms Simmons, the head secretary, was yelling at them all, telling them to sit and wait until Mr Jackson could see them. Amanda was behind the desk, in front of a computer screen, and not paying any attention to what was going on.
Jenna approached cautiously and tried to get a better look at what Amanda was doing without letting Amanda get a glimpse of her. She couldn’t see what was on the screen but she could get into Amanda’s mind, which was even better. There, Jenna could not only get a vague image of the screen, but she could also get a sense of how Amanda was responding to what she saw.
Amanda was looking at an email inbox. Her own? No, not unless Amanda normally received emails with subjects like ‘Budget request for physical education equipment’ and ‘Board of Education Meeting Schedule’. It had to be Jackson’s email. And if Amanda had access to the email account of the principal, wasn’t that an indication that they were pretty chummy?
Now she needed to know what Amanda was thinking about the emails she was reading. .
‘Hello, Jenna, what are you up to?’ Mr Gonzalez, the counsellor she saw regularly, was standing there. ‘Not in any trouble, I hope!’ He said this with a broad smile, showing that he was just teasing her.
Jenna forced a smile, but it wasn’t easy, because Mr Gonzalez had a booming voice and she knew Amanda must have heard him. She didn’t even have to look at her classmate to confirm this. Her connection to Amanda’s mind had been severed.
At that moment, Mr Jackson came out of his office. ‘Who’s next?’ he called out. Several of the office occupants clamoured for his attention, and Jenna decided to take advantage of the moment to explore the principal’s thoughts.
But as hard as she tried, she couldn’t penetrate his mind. Then she was aware of Mr Jackson staring straight at her and there was a flash of something in his expression that she couldn’t interpret.
‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded to know.
Jenna looked around for an excuse. ‘Uh, Mr Roth needs a stapler.’
Jackson took one off the desk. ‘Here.’
Jenna took the stapler from him. ‘Thank you,’ she said, hoping she sounded polite and casual, but her stomach was suddenly in knots. There was something about the way Jackson was looking at her. .
Hurrying out, she tried to dismiss this sudden sense of apprehension that had come over her. Why hadn’t she been able to get even a glimpse of the principal’s thoughts? And why had he glared at her like that? It wasn’t like he could know she’d been trying to read his mind.
Unless. . unless he knew what Jenna was capable of doing, and he’d blocked her. He’d know because Amanda had told him. Which was precisely the kind of thing a spy would do.
Back in the English class, Mr Roth was still reading his newspaper and the students were still doing whatever they’d been doing when she left. Jenna took her seat, stuck the stapler in her backpack, and opened Jane Eyre.
Much as she liked the story, it was hard to concentrate. Her thoughts kept going back to the scene in the office. Now she was more convinced than ever about Amanda. She couldn’t wait to get into the Gifted class and share her news with Emily, Tracey and Ken.
But there was nothing she could do right now, and there were still thirty minutes of this class left to go. She plunged back into Jane Eyre.
The story grabbed her this time, and soon she was completely absorbed in it. The next time she glanced at the clock, she was surprised and pleased to see there were only about five minutes left before the bell would ring. But as it turned out, she didn’t even have to wait that long to leave the room.