A/N: Like you need me to say anything. You're not even reading this fic, so why should I even bother putting my thoughts up here?

I'm eating Junior Mints and drinking Sprite, what more could I ask for? MONEY: whimpers: I need to cash this freakin' check before I go insane.

Chapter Sixteen

The Monday back, their plan was ready to play out. If they didn't get the information soon, summer break would seal them out of the entire deal completely. Charlie wasn't going to take the chance of letting Ada stay at the school like she was any longer. It reminded him too much of Emma and Ollie Sparks.

Charlie outside the door of his practice room once again; he'd been thrown out once again by Mr. Paltry. He didn't need to do much to make Mr. Paltry throw him out. All he needed to do was mess up once and Mr. Paltry would get frustrated and toss him out. He had counted on this happening.

He heard a song playing that sounded like the song Ada had been singing for so long. It was very loud and sounded as though it was taking everything to play it. Fidelio appeared around the corner and winked at Charlie. Suddenly, the music stopped and Morgan appeared, apologizing to her teacher. "I have to get some air ma'am. It's stifling in there. Don you mind if I do?"

Then, she walked over, grinning at Charlie. "Well, there's that. We've got a few minutes. Olivia should be doing what you asked of her and so is Emma, since they'll both be in the auditorium working with the set and clothes."

As if on cue, there was a loud crash and Manfred's voice yelling at Olivia. "VERTIGO! WATCH WHERE YOU PUT THAT THING! YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!"

Charlie and Fidelio smiled weakly at each other, wondering just what Olivia had done to Manfred that had almost killed him. The three walked up the stairs toward Mr. Pilgrim's room. Charlie once again heard him playing that sad song. It didn't seem to end as they passed by and carefully walked past a few other rooms. This was the dangerous part of the school, where the Bloors slept.

They found Dr. Bloor's room, Charlie remembering where it was from the last time he'd been called to Dr. Bloor's office. He also remembered Manfred's mother, wandering around listlessly because she couldn't play music any longer.

They stayed down the hallway away from Dr. Bloor's office. Morgan reached a hand up and wiggled her fingers a moment. Then, she closed her eyes and it looked as though she gripped something in her hand. "It's locked. I'll have to try from the other side," she said in a low voice.

Charlie and Fidelio both looked at her oddly. Charlie almost asked what she meant when he heard a click from the door and then Morgan's hand turned, the door opening down the hall.

"How did you do that?" asked Fidelio, trying to figure it out.

"It's harder than line of sight, but I can open doors by imagining I'm on the other side of the door. I just can't do anything that I don't already know what the other side looks like. Like a trunk or any lock that requires a key."

They walked in and all three split up, looking through Dr. Bloor's cabinets. Charlie could barely read Dr. Bloor's handwriting. It was almost gibberish what he saw. Fidelio had just as horrible luck. "I can't read any of this," said Morgan from the other side of the room.

"Chicken scratch, all of it," said Charlie.

"He's a doctor all right," mumbled Fidelio.

There were footsteps walking down the hallway. Morgan used her power to close the door carefully and locked the door. Whoever was walking by, wasn't Dr. Bloor, thankfully. They walked past his office and up the stairs.

Charlie's heart thumped loudly in his chest as he hurriedly looked through student folders. He suddenly found his own and frowned. He wanted to look at it, but he had to find Isidore before the next person came up was Dr. Bloor himself. Then, his file wouldn't even matter, he would be both thrown out and had his brain completely wiped by Manfred.

"I found it," said Charlie with a grin. "Fidelio, get something to write with."

"I've got it," said Morgan. A pen suddenly flew right at Charlie and hit him on the head.

"OW! Watch it, Morgan!" he hissed as he bent down and picked up the pen.

Charlie pulled out a scrap of paper from his book bag and wrote down the address of where she was supposed to live; at least what he hoped was real. He also wrote down her parents' names and closed the drawer.

Charlie heard a faint sound at the door. He turned to see Morgan's hand in the air again, holding onto the doorknob. Someone was trying to get in, but Morgan was holding them off.

"I was afraid of this. Charlie, get out that window there. Emma should be on stand by, like you asked," she hissed.

Charlie nodded and ran to the window. The door kept moving in Morgan's hand, the lock locked tightly. She wondered why, if Dr. Bloor was at the door, why he wasn't using his key to unlock the door. She was putting too much concentration on holding the door closed to see if she could scare whoever was on the other side.

Charlie looked to Morgan and motioned for her to come. She nodded and carefully walked to the window as she stared at the door. Charlie and Fidelio were on the ledge and walking toward a small platform outside Mr. Pilgrim's room. Morgan let her concentration go long enough to get out onto the ledge. The door opened and she saw a flash of red hair. "Ah!" she gasped. Had she managed to unlock the door in the same moment?

Something grabbed her ankle. She hit the ledge and fell forward, hanging out of the window partially. She kicked at whoever had her with her other foot as she grabbed onto the ledge with her hands.

Charlie and Fidelio looked back to see Morgan hanging from the ledge by her hands and a flash of red hair from inside the room. "Pike's at it again," said Fidelio with a frown.

"We have to do something. She'll be taken to Dr. Bloor and Manfred will hypnotize her completely," Charlie said. His heart was in his throat as he tried to think.

However, Morgan was planning on just trying not to fall. Her hands gripped the rock ledge, but she was slipping. Tears came to her eyes as she growled and let go with one hand and swung herself up to get a better hold. Suddenly, a hand shot out and grabbed both her wrists. "Get up here," growled Asa.

Morgan looked around wildly for another way out. If Asa got a hold of her, she would be thrown out of the school with her father in tow. Charlie and Fidelio would be found out and then they would get thrown out as well. "Let go of me!" she cried out at Asa.

"You idiot! Do you want to die!" called Asa as he started pulling her up.

There was a sound, the call of a large bird. Morgan grinned as Asa looked out over the window ledge to get a better hold on her. "What are you grinning at, MacGregor?"

"Nothing you can see," she said with a bright smile. He blinked at her, frowning at her strange behavior. Then, he felt nails dig into his arms. He let go of her out of reflex, but shot down to get her again. He gave a shout as he saw her slip away from his hands.

Morgan fell, eyes clenched shut as she hoped what she thought would happen was right. She felt feathers beneath her when she hit something. She grinned and held onto Emma's bird form as it flew to the ledge where Charlie and Fidelio were and then into the woods.

Charlie, Fidelio and Morgan all hugged Emma tightly, laughing, and whooping at their success. They each ran back toward the castle through a series of hiding places and went back to their classes. It had been an exciting event for one day.

"Did you hear? Asa's been put into detention for being caught in Dr. Bloor's office," said a girl not far from Morgan.

Morgan appeared in the poor girl's face. "What?"

The girl nodded, looking somewhat disappointed. Morgan recognized her as being in the choir. "I heard it was because Dr. Bloor caught him looking through his file cabinets and trying to escape through the window."

"Is he going to be expelled?" asked a girl next to Morgan.

"No, Dr. Bloor took pity on him since he's Manfred's friend," she said.

Morgan got back in her seat and looked to Gabriel. "So he gets detention and we would end up getting expelled if it had been us. Lovely to know he doesn't play favorites," grunted Morgan.

Gabriel smiled weakly. "I'm sure there's more going on, than that. Nothing here is what it seems."

Morgan frowned as Dr. Bloor yelled at them from the teacher table. "I SAID NO TALKING! MacGregor! Detention!"

Morgan rubbed her face. She hoped Charlie wouldn't get detention, so he could get to Ada's home before something happened to her that they couldn't fix. Gabriel patted her on the shoulder and looked over at the Drama table. She raised an eyebrow at him as he blushed faintly and looked back to his dinner.

Morgan shook her head and ate the rest of her dinner as quickly as she could, though little good that did. All it did was make sure she had finished before everyone else. She still had to wait on everyone else to finish so the next courses could be passed down the table.

When dinner was through, the endowed children each had to walk to the King's Room. Charlie sighed as he waved to Fidelio and followed Morgan and Billy to the King's Room, sitting down across from the portrait.

Morgan sat across from Asa as usual, the two glaring at each other hotly. Manfred sat at the end with Zelda on one side of him and Ada on the other. Gabriel sat with Tancred and Lysander, though looked down the table frequently toward Manfred and Ada. Corazon sat down next to Dorcas, who was leaning toward Asa rather closely.

Asa rolled his eyes and pushed Dorcas off of him. "Stop leaning on me, you twit," he grunted. Dorcas seemed to shatter as she looked to the table, and then she glared at Morgan across the table.

Morgan blinked, wondering what would cause Dorcas Loom, a girl only a year younger than her, to start looking at her as though she was ready to launch herself across the table and strangle her.

Morgan hurriedly pulled her homework out and started working on it, trying to keep the image of Dorcas ready to kill her out of her sight. "Miss Loom, get to your work," said Manfred.

Charlie looked to the portrait of the Red King and concentrated on trying to get inside it without alerting Manfred. He heard faint song playing, a low voice singing. It was warm, like the Earth, and enveloped him in a strange sort of sadness as he listened to the tune, barely hearing any words.

"Bone! Do your homework!" growled Manfred.

Charlie was pulled from the portrait by whatever force Manfred held over him. He sighed and went back to his homework, writing his answers without really thinking.

Morgan looked to Asa again, looking to his arms. She wondered how deep the marks she'd made on his arms earlier that day. She could feel cloth under her fingers as she turned completely red, trying to make her power stop. The last thing she needed was another detention before summer break.

Asa was looking at her. She could feel his eyes boring into her head. She thought for a moment there was going to be another row, but he said nothing and she suddenly felt skin under her fingers. Her eyes widened as she looked to see what had happened. He'd pulled his sleeves back, complaining it was too hot in the room. She saw the marks she'd left and almost blanched at her ability to make marks that deep. They were scabbed over now, but that meant they had been bleeding before.

She looked back to her homework hurriedly, sinking slightly in her seat in embarrassment. He may have deserved a lot of what he had received from her, but her act of desperation had been pretty brutal looking. She heard Dorcas gasp and try to talk to Asa once again. She didn't care. She felt absorbing information would be better than listening to whatever else was going on inside her head or in that room.