“This is cool!” Seph said. “Did you do all this in the last three weeks?”
“Nah, I've had the same room for three years.” Trevor glanced nervously at his watch. “I guess we have a little time. You can clear the stuff off of that chair and sit.”
Seph sat in the desk chair. “Are you a senior?” he asked, trying to put the other boy at ease—knowing he could do it with a touch of his hand, but best not to try that with someone he'd just met.
“Junior,” Trevor replied. “I'm from Atlanta. Buckhead area. Got no business being so far north. I about freeze to death every fall.” He snatched up a heavy sweatshirt from the bed and pulled it over his head.
“I'm a junior, too,” Seph volunteered.
Trevor asked the inevitable question. “Where're you from?”
“Toronto, but my last school was in Switzerland. So I'm used to the cold.”
“Switzerland, huh?” Trevor stopped looking nervous and started looking impressed. “Why'd you leave?”
“It didn't work out.” Seph rolled his eyes.
Trevor nodded, as if this answer wasn't unexpected. “The Havens your parents' idea?” He gestured vaguely at their surroundings.
“My parents are dead. I have a guardian. A lawyer. He set it up,” Seph replied, thinking that he should buy a T-shirt that said, ORPHAN from TORONTO. It would save time in these situations.
“So what's the deal here? How do you get along with the staff?” Seph continued. Not that Trevor's advice was likely to be helpful in his case.
Trevor leaned forward, putting his hands on his knees. “Oh, I was in trouble a lot before I came here, too. You just need to follow the rules. Do that, and you'll be okay. They specialize in boys who've had problems at other places.”
“Really?” Great, Seph thought. I've landed in some kind of upper-class reform school. Trevor seemed normal enough, though, and he'd been there three years. “Do they kick you out if you get in trouble?”
“No one gets expelled from the Havens,” Trevor said. “You'll see. Their program is very—what they call— effective.”
Something in the way he said effective sounded almost sinister. It made Seph want to change the subject. Trevor's laptop caught his eye. “I have my computer set up, but I don't see any jacks in my room. Is the cabling included or do I have to pay for wiring?”
“We don't have our own Internet access,” Trevor said.
Seph stared at him. “Why not? It's so easy. They could use a campus-wide wireless network if they didn't want to lay cable.”
Trevor shook his head. “No, I mean, we're not allowed. They have computers in the library. You can do searches in there if you want, but they screen the sites.”
“That's crazy. They can't do that. I have friends online.” Seph didn't remember that being mentioned in the glossy brochure.
Trevor shrugged and looked at his watch again. “Well, it's about time for swimming. You'd better get changed if you don't want to be late.”
Seph rubbed his aching temples. “I'm going to pass. It's been a long day already.”
Trevor's eyes widened in surprise. “Dr. Leicester excused you?”
“Not exactly.”
Trevor stood up. “Then you'd better get ready.”
It seemed that the visit was over, so Seph stood also. “Oka-ay, guess I'll get ready, then,” he said.
“I'll wait for you, if you hurry up.”
But Seph didn't hurry fast enough, because a few minutes later he heard Trevor at his door. “I'm going ahead. I'll see you down there.”
Seph changed into his trunks and pulled his sweatshirt and jeans on over them. Descending the stairs two at a time, he left the building and followed a wood-chip path back through the woods toward the waterfront. He didn't see any students around; they must've already gone down to the cove. A sign at the dock pointed him to the right, down the shoreline, to a well-worn path along the water. A cold slither up his spine said he was being watched. Twice, he turned and scanned the path behind him, then shrugged and walked on. Finally, the path turned back into the woods. Hey.He turned again, and this time a stocky boy with wire-rimmed glasses and a ruddy complexion stood in the middle of the path. He wore husky-style jeans and a sweatshirt, and blinked his eyes really fast, like he was nervous.
“Hey,” Seph said. “You late for swimming, too?”
“No, I … ah … I d-don't …”The boy began coughing, struggling to draw breath. He groped in his pocket and produced an inhaler. He took a long pull off of it, and put it back. Then, with a determined look on his face, he extended his hand to Seph.
“I'm Seph McCauley,” Seph said, thinking maybe you got excused from swimming if you had asthma. He gripped the other boy's hand, then flinched as he recognized the sting of power. “Hey! Are you … ?”
“Listen. I n-need to talk to you.” The boy looked up and down the path, mopping sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his sweatshirt.
“I'd really like to talk to you,” Seph said, unable to believe he'd met two wizards in the space of a few weeks. “But I have to get to swimming. Could we meet later, maybe at dinner?”
“No. I c-can't … That won't …”
“Hello, gentlemen.” Seph looked up to see a handsome young man in a tweed sport coat with leather patches on the elbows, carrying a battered leather briefcase.
“H-hello, Aar … M-Mr. Hanlon.” The other student looked petrified, like he was about to wet himself. Or have another asthma attack.
“Joseph. Aren't you supposed to be at swimming?” Mr. Hanlon asked, smiling.
“I was just on my way.”
“Good. Best be going. Dr. Leicester doesn't like it if you're late.” Hanlon placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and propelled him down the path the other way.
“I didn't get your name!” Seph called after him. But the boy only hunched his shoulders and kept walking.
That guy has issues, Seph thought, continuing down the path. I don't know how much help he'll be. But I'll try to find him at dinner.
Eventually, the path broke out of the trees at a place where the ocean cut back into the shoreline, creating a protected inlet, lined with stones, out of sight of the school buildings.
There must have been sixty boys in the water, their heads sleek and dark against the gray surface. A few more were stripping off their sweatshirts on the shore. All of them looked miserably cold. Seph spotted Trevor treading water ten yards out.
Dr. Leicester stood on the shoreline, dressed in a heavy sweatshirt, jeans, and windbreaker. When he saw Seph, he blew sharply on a whistle to get everyone's attention. “Boys, meet Joseph McCauley. This is his first day at the Havens, and he is late for swimming.”
The reaction to this was remarkable. The other boys all looked away or looked down, as if they wanted to avoid any connection to his transgression. Some of them peered back toward him, when they thought Leicester wasn't looking.
Seph smiled, lifting his hands in apology. “Sorry. I got confused. I was waiting for everybody at the spa.”
Laughter floated across the water, then quickly dwindled under Leicester's disapproving gaze. The headmaster didn't seem susceptible to Seph's legendary charm.
Seph left his clothes on a pile of rocks some distance from the water's edge, and hobbled over the stony beach to the water. He'd hoped that the water would be warmer than the air, but was disappointed. It was like stepping into snowmelt. His feet went numb immediately. He waded out to his knees, then to his waist, gasping.
The water was murky and unpleasant. The rocks along the bottom were slippery and invisible, so that even in the cove the waves threatened to knock him over. Something squirmed under his left foot and he thrashed backward, into unexpectedly deep water. His head went under, and he swallowed a mouthful. He came up like a sounding whale, spraying water everywhere.
He'd had enough. A few quick strokes took him back to the shallows. Shivering, teeth chattering, he hauled himself onto the shore. He'd almost made it back to his muddle of clothes when someone gripped his arm.
It was Trevor, covered in gooseflesh, lips pale with cold, water sliding off his dark body onto the rocks. “Get back in the water, Seph,” he said, without meeting Seph's eyes. “Just do it. Come on.” He put a cold hand on Seph's shoulder as if to urge him along.
Seph blinked at him. He looked over his shoulder at Dr. Leicester, who stood expressionless, watching. All right, he thought. If he was going to try to stay here two years, it was best not to get into a battle of wills on his first day. Gritting his teeth, he picked his way back across the beach and waded out into the water, not looking back to see if Trevor was following.
This time the water seemed more tolerable. Maybe he was getting used to it. His extremities tingled as the feeling returned, and he was no longer shivering. He strode ahead more confidently, continuing until the water lapped at his collarbone. Though the sun was gone, intercepted by the surrounding trees, he felt almost warm.
He looked around. The other boys stood as if frozen, staring down at the water in disbelief. Another minute passed, and the surface of the water began to steam in the cold air. He might have been neck deep in the warm Caribbean.
No. This can't be happening. Seph looked over at Leicester, who was in conversation with one of the boys on shore. He hadn't noticed that anything was amiss. Seph splashed toward a crowd of boys standing to one side, near the shoreline, positioning himself so that his head was just one of many pocking the gray surface. Now, just relax, he commanded himself, closing his eyes, trying to loosen his muscles, to empty his mind.
How long could he last? He was in trouble already, and it was just the first day.
He sorted through a litter of memories from his school career. The homicidal ravens at St. Andrew's. The explosions and fires in Scotland. The wolves that had startled the nuns in Philadelphia.