Chapter Five: Art of Manipulation

When I opened my eyes, something seemed quite off. I sat up and looked around. I was back in my bedroom at home. The windows were wide open, letting in the bright California sun and the smell of a saltwater beach. I ran my hands over my duvet and could feel the satin on my fingertips rather than the scratchy wool blankets of the academy. I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs, unsure of what was happening. I out onto the patio in a panic, feeling the warm sun on my skin and the light wind through my hair.

"Infinity Elizabeth, whatever are you doing?" A familiar voice caused my skin to prick with goose bumps. I turned my head to see my father sitting at the patio table with a newspaper in his hands.

"Dad?" I nearly toppled my father's chair over from jumping on him with such force.

"What are you doing?" He let out a throaty chuckle. "I came home a week ago. Where was the excitement then?"

"I had a dream, a very realistic dream." I sat down at the table with him. "It was just so vivid I actually believed it was real." My father put down his newspaper and folded his hands under his chin. He may have been gone a lot, but he was devoted when he was actually home, at least when he didn't have himself buried in his research. "There was an accident on your last trip. The boat disappeared and you were presumed dead, so mom sold the house and we went to go stay with Grandma Maisie and Aunt Amy. I apparently was a witch or something and mom made me go to this awful academy ran by awful people. I actually thought it was real."

"Well, I'm right here. Nothing happened to me. You certainly do have a vivid imagination." Although my reaction to the dream seemed ridiculous, I was relieved that he was taking me seriously and sparing my feelings no matter how foolish I was acting. "But sadly I do have to go back to Bimini for migration season in a few days and I'll be gone for quite a while. What do you say about us spending the day together, just the two of us?"

It was great spending time with my father. He took me surfing and we decided to go shopping at the boardwalk. He bought me a new sun dress and we got cold drinks from the food vendor. I felt truly happy for the first time in a long time. I couldn't remember the last time I was able to spend time alone with my father and talk to him about all of the things going on in my life and things going on in his research. Even though he had come home several days before, I couldn't seem to shake the feeling of dread that came with my dream. As if he could still sense my dread, he put a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close. "It's going to be okay, Infinity. But you need to wake up."

"What?" I looked over at my father, thinking that I misheard him.

He turned to me and repeated himself. "Wake up, Infinity! I actually want to get the good breakfast." The world around us faded and I found myself looking into Zelda's face as she gently patted my face. "Wow, you were really out. I almost feel bad for waking you up." She murmured.

"What?" I was confused. My mouth was dry, my eyelids were heavy and I could feel beads of sweat all over my skin. I stared at the peeling wallpaper that covered the walls, the bare light bulb in the center of the room. There was no sunshine here. "No!" I could feel tears streaming down my face before I could stop them. I tried to wipe them away in vain.

"Hey, what's wrong?" A surprising look of worry rippled through Zelda's usually serious features. I wordlessly rose from the bed and walked into the bathroom. I hoped she wouldn't follow me. She did. She gave me privacy as I stripped off my night clothes and forced myself under the still freezing shower stream. As I fought the urge to shiver, I could hear her voice through the curtain. "Manfred had dreams too when everything first happened with his mother. He would wake up and expect her to be there. He never showed her any affection, but any time she tried to get away and have a chance at happiness, he was the one who was there to stop her."

"You and Asa are so quick to point out the awful things he does." I tried to turn the subject away from me. "Why do you stick around him?"

"Sometimes it's the easier choice. He isn't always what he seems."

"I don't believe that at all." I quickly finished my shower, wrapped myself in a towel and made my way to the sink to brush my teeth. Zelda followed out not that far behind me.

"You look like you're going to be sick." She said, peeking up at my reflection in the mirror. "Do you want me to take you to the infirmary?"

"No. I'm fine." I focused on my reflection and saw that she was right. I was looking a little pale and there were bags around my eyes. I didn't have time to try and hide how awful I felt, I just quickly blow dried my hair and tied it up into a ponytail. "I'm ready." I said finally. Zelda and I walked to the drama cafeteria for breakfast and managed to get there before all of the food was gone. Today's breakfast was toast and jam, bacon, pancakes and tea.

We sat down at a table where Asa and Manfred already sat. Asa looked exhausted and had a large scratch on his cheek that was already beginning to scab over. He also had a twig in his hair. I picked it out and sat down next to him. "Hey, I was wondering when you'd get here." He looked at me and smiled. "I have an algebra test later and was wondering if you would help me study for it during free period. Whenever I ask Zelda to explain things she just makes me even more confused."

I poked at my spongy pancakes and took a small bite, nodding as I did so. I didn't really feel much like talking. "She's a little under the weather today." Zelda remarked.

"I can tell." Asa took the last few bites of his food. "You should let me take you to the infirmary. This weather will only make you feel worse the longer you go without taking care of whatever you have."

My stomach began to churn and I felt a wave of nausea. "It's probably just stress." I frowned.

"Either way, you can't focus on your studies if you're not feeling well. You should go." Zelda encouraged. "If you don't want to go with Asa, I can take you."

"No, she can go with Asa." Manfred grumbled. Asa took my plate for me, not waiting for my answer. I followed him as he dumped it and took it to where the kitchen staff collected them to clean them. I suppressed a chill as we walked down one of the long corridors lined with antique sconces. I crossed my arms but it did nothing, I was still cold.

"I see that you and Zelda are getting along better today." He said. All I could do is nod. I felt that if I spoke, I would end up getting sick. Stress always made me incredibly sick. It was one of the other reasons my mother kept me homeschooled. "I'm happy for her. She needs more female friends. Spending all your time with Manfred isn't good for the spirit. I don't know too much about her, but he says that you two have a good deal in common."

"You're not friends with her?" I spoke slowly when a wave of nausea passed. I began to break out in a sweat and struggled to swallow the excess saliva building up in my mouth.

"Ah, no. Not really. We had a bit of a falling out when she first came to the academy and things have been awkward ever since." He pushed a stray hair out of his face and shoved his hands into his pockets. "This is a little weird for me to tell someone that I just met, but since I already told you that my parents are animal people, I guess I can tell you another fact about myself." He stopped walking and I believed that it was my cue to stop walking as well. We stood in the middle of the hallway on the ugly ornate carpet that seemed to be favored in most of the corridors in this building. "Zelda and I aren't friends because I'm gay."

This information hit me like a freight train. It was almost a little too much to take in at once. He didn't seem gay to me. He wasn't effeminate at all, nothing about him gave that away. Regardless, I didn't understand why that was enough to cause Zelda and Asa to dislike each other. Was she homophobic or religious? I stared into his eyes, unsure of what kind of response he expected of me, or what kind of response I expected of myself.

"I should rephrase that. Zelda doesn't have anything against gays. At least not to my knowledge." He said quietly. He looked at the floor. "You can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, and if I find out that this conversation leaves this hallway, I will jump through your window and kill you while you are asleep."

I arched my brow. "Look, I'm barely following what's going on."

He grabbed me by my shoulders and stared into my eyes. "First things first, I'm in the closet. I would like to stay that way. I just want to get out of here and graduate. Despite this being a school of arts, most of the guys here aren't going to be too happy knowing that I am the way that I am and I would rather not get the shit kicked out of me everywhere I go." He shook me a little and put his face inches from mine. I could see every single freckle across his face. "This second part is very important. I'm not kidding, Infinity. If you do not keep your mouth shut, both of us will die. When they do an autopsy on me, they will find your goddamn heart in my stomach, I promise that. I am not going down alone. I will take you with me."

"Okay, I get it. Just tell me already." I removed his hands from my shoulders and crossed my arms again. He was making me feel even more nauseous.

"Zelda doesn't like me because Manfred went through a little phase where he didn't know if he was completely straight or not." His voice was barely above a whisper. "So we fooled around a little bit and that is what helped him figure out that he's as straight as a board. Zelda ended up finding out because she overheard Manfred and Salem talking about it. As much as they fight, they tell each other everything. Salem respects him enough not to go into his head. Zelda had a huge crush on him at that point and although she never outright said anything to me, her behavior gave her feelings on the subject away."

"Right." Another wave of nausea hit me.

"The other reason I'm telling you this is because Salem told me that you were starting to develop a little bit of a crush on me." I could hear his words, but I was more worried about the warning rumbles in my stomach. "I don't know much about you, but from the time we spent together I can tell that you're a great girl. That's why I wanted to tell you now, to spare your feelings. I'm sure if I was straight I would be interested in you as well, but this is just how I am."

"Sorry." I couldn't hold it anymore. I turned away from him and spotted an open classroom door. Praying for a garbage can, I ran into the room, found what I needed and vomited until my throat was raw.

After deducing that stress and anxiety were the cause of my illness, the nurses in the infirmary let me catch up on a little sleep. They told me not to stress out too much and to try and take it easy the next week. I left and was able to rejoin my classmates in the courtyard for break. Manfred and Salem were talking by the woodpile. Zelda and Asa were nowhere to be seen. I approached them and as soon as Manfred saw me, he turned his back to me. He knew that I knew.

"I told you that you'd figure out what Asa was all about soon enough." Salem smirked. "At least it was just a harmless crush and no one really got hurt." He looked at Manfred. "You did tell Asa to manipulate her in any way possible. Bet you didn't think it would come back to bite you in the ass."

"What?" I was confused.

"Can I tell her?" His face almost split in two with a smile. "I'm gonna tell her anyway. I love it when Manny learns a lesson and regrets his behavior." He clapped his hands together. "I'm surprised you didn't recognize Asa's voice when you met him in the library. He was the one who almost found us when we were hiding in the closet." He turned back to Manfred. "Yes, we were hiding in that closet. Asa was literally centimeters away from us and still couldn't find us. So much for heightened senses, am I right?" He chuckled. "Anyways, when Manny realized Zelda couldn't get along with another female long enough to try and turn you into one of his brainless minions, he gave the task to Asa. Asa decided that the best way to manipulate a young teenage girl was to flirt with her, make her trust him, lead her on. Well, I like you, Infinity. I think you and I are going to be great friends, and I like to do favors for my friends. I made Asa tell you the truth. I don't believe you are a threat and there is no reason to needlessly hurt you like that." He glared at his brother, who still had his back turned to us. "Zelda and Asa will do just about anything Manny asks of them. Those are his friends, so I don't care. But because I happen to enjoy your company, I wanted Manny to know that you're off limits. Has that been understood, Manfred? She has done nothing wrong. She is not a threat." The seriousness of his tone made my stomach drop.

To my surprise, Manfred grumbled a half-hearted affirmation.

Because Manfred, Asa and Zelda were the only endowed in the drama department I still found myself hanging out with them. Although I knew that she was just as manipulative and spiteful as Manfred and Asa, I still liked Zelda. She grew on me during my first week and I would like to think I grew on her. I thought I felt a change in Zelda's personality, so I asked Salem about it when I ran into him during the end of my free period in the library. "Is she just being nice or is she just trying harder because Asa failed?"

"Now, now." He sat down the book he was reading and smiled his signature mischievous smile. "That sensitive information comes at a price." He turned his cheek towards me and patted it. I knew what he wanted but I lightly tapped him on the cheek instead. "Oh, you're no fun. Come sit down and the Marvelous Omniscient Salem will tell you what you want to know." He spoke with a comical gypsy accent. "I'll need to read your palm."

"Salem." I sat down in the chair next to him and gave him a warning look.

"Oh, come on. Just humor me. I'm bored as hell sitting in here reading about crazy Miss Havisham and her dirty wedding dress." I rolled my eyes and gave him my hand. "Now it's like a real date." He laced his fingers in mine. "Okay, Zelda is being honest and does enjoy your company. Her best friend just left the academy about a week before you got here and as much as she loves my brother, she needs a break from him. You two have so much in common, being young geniuses and all. But don't confuse that for loyalty. She would sell you out to Manfred in a second if she really had to." He let go of my hand and leaned back on the couch. "Any other questions?"

"Yeah. Just one. Where is Lyell?"

"You know I can't answer that. Nice try though." He looked up at the clock on the library wall. "You better get going or you're going to miss your bus."

I would have made my bus on time if I hadn't looked back one last time before leaving the front door. I saw Manfred harassing Charlie and I knew there was no way he would make it to the bus so I hung back. The academy was quite a long walk from Filbert Street and I didn't want him to have to take that walk alone. When Manfred started to get meaner by the second, I intervened. "That's enough. You already made him miss his bus. We're leaving now." I grabbed Charlie's arm and pulled him towards the door.

"I'm not finished." Manfred barked.

"Yes you are. He wasn't given detention so you have no reason to hold him after school hours. It's already bad enough that we have to carry our trunks the whole way in freezing weather. He's twelve, Manfred. There is no reason to speak to him that way. He's still a child." I opened the door and stormed out, not really caring about the repercussions. I would probably get in trouble for disrespect and insubordination, but I didn't think there was too much he could do since it was after school hours and I wasn't being retained for any school activity or discipline. Manfred was yelling something behind me but I didn't care. We had a long walk ahead of us. "What a jerk. What was he holding you behind for?"

"He blames me for his mom leaving." Charlie began to pull is luggage behind him. Luckily both of our trunks had wheels. "So he has been extra nasty lately."

"How is that your fault?"

"It's quite the story." He sighed. "The Bloors and the Yewbeams are distant cousins. My great great grandpa married Manfred and Salem's great great aunt. Well a long time ago, my great grandpa and his brother Henry were sent to go live with their mother's brother while their little sister was dying and Ezekiel Bloor, their cousin and Manfred's great grandfather wasn't happy about it. An artifact of the Red King's called the Time Twister was passed down through the Bloor family and it had the ability to jump you ahead to the future when the conditions of weather and time and probably lunar phase were the exact same as the time period you left. Ezekiel used the time twister on Henry on the coldest day of the century and it never got that cold in Bloor's academy ever again until this past January so my great great uncle appeared this year and is the same age as me."

"I think I can see where this is going. Henry gave Mrs. Bloor the Time Twister, didn't he?" For some reason, I didn't find these stories as hard to believe anymore. Charlie nodded. I couldn't blame her for wanting to leave. It made me feel bad for Salem though. "Why didn't Salem go with her?"

"He said he was needed here, I guess." Charlie shrugged. "I think he's the only one stopping the Bloors from killing us all and there's nothing that they can do about it because he's so incredibly powerful. If any of them wish the slightest ill will towards him, he can change their minds. He refuses to help either side though. He thinks what they are doing is wrong but won't go as far as to betray his family."

"What can I say? I'm Switzerland." Salem's voice said from behind us, causing us both to jump. "You really pissed off Manny, you know. He's in there cussing up a storm. He's going to make you pay for that next week. He'll probably try to give you detention for insubordination but I'm sure I can get you out of it. Can I give you two a ride home? It's freaking freezing."

I looked at Charlie and he smiled gratefully. "That would be really awesome, Salem."

"It's no problem." He winked and led us towards the parking lot. "It'll be a bit of a tight fit with your trunks because my car isn't quite as big as Manny's but we'll make do. I'll stick your stuff in the trunk and Charlie's in the back seat with him." He pulled out his keys and unlocked his car with the remote. The car that beeped was a silver two-door with tinted windows. I started walking to the wrong side of the car but stopped myself. I didn't think I could ever get used to the fact that they drive on the left side of the road over here. Salem loaded up our things and started the car. We were blasted with loud music. He quickly fumbled with the knobs and turned it down. "I'm sorry. I don't usually have other people in my car."

"Oh I love Nirvana. It's okay." I smiled at him.

"What kind of music are you in to?" He pulled out of the parking lot and rested his hand on the gear shift.

I nervously recited the bands that I liked listening to, not expecting someone like Salem to be interested in the same things that I was.

"You need to hang out with me some time. Your taste in music is parallel to mine." His smile was massive. "You struck me as a girly kind of music girl. I don't know. I was thinking country music for some reason." He moved his hand from the gear shift to my leg and shook it. "You have to meet my band."

"Just because I lived in America doesn't mean that we all only listen to country music." I teased. "You're in a band?"

"Yeah, with a couple people from the academy. RWe don't really have a band name or anything yet. We just screw around during free periods a few days a week if we're not busy." He adjusted both hands on the wheel. "So where is it that we're going? While the rest of my family seems to keep very close tabs on your family, I personally have no idea where you live."

"Oh. 9 Filbert Street." Charlie said from the back seat. Salem nodded and turned off of the street the academy sat on. I didn't say too much on the way back home. I was too deep in my own thoughts on how this week had played out and Salem could sense that. So he engaged in conversation with Charlie.

"It's really nice what you and Henry did for my mom, Charlie." He said when we finally stopped in front of Number 9. "Someday, I will repay that favor. All I can do for now is tell you that you will be reunited with your father again." He shut the car off and pocketed his keys. "Let me help you take your stuff in."

"Oh no, you don't have to." I began to protest.

"It's rude to make a woman carry everything." He was already popping the trunk before I could say anything else. "Lead the way, my dear." He also took Charlie's luggage.

Charlie ran up the stairs and opened the door for him and Salem sat everything down in the foyer. "Thank you so much for bringing us home, Salem." Charlie said.

"Charlie? Infinity?" Maisie came flying out of the kitchen, her face was beat red. "Where on Earth have you two been? The busses came by already and neither of you got off. I was so worried! I called the academy and they weren't helpful in the slightest. Amy was about to call a taxi and come looking for you." She stopped when she saw Salem. "Oh, hello! I'm Charlie and Infinity's grandmother. Who are you?"

"My name is Salem, ma'am. They ran a little late for their busses so I offered to drive them home. It's too cold to walk." He rubbed the back of his head. "I guess I should be getting back now-"

"None of that Ma'am nonsense. Call me Maisie, dear." Maisie wiped her hands on her apron. "Why don't you come in and have something to eat?" She winked at me and then I realized she was completely misinterpreting the situation. I guess Charlie noticed too because he looked back at us and smirked.

Salem looked back at me for approval and I nodded, taking his coat off of his shoulders for him and hanging it on the hook next to mine. We walked into the kitchen where Maisie had numerous different foods for us to eat. I think she took pity on us and for the awful food we had to endure during the school week. Aunt Amy sat at the table with a calculator and a stack of bills. She looked up at us when we walked in the door. A very tired smile played on her lips. "Welcome home, loves. How was your first week?" She looked up and noticed Salem. "Oh! You made a friend, I see. I'm guessing it went well. I'm Amy, Charlie's mother and Infinity's aunt."

"Salem Bloor." He shook her hand and didn't seem offended when Aunt Amy instinctively stepped back from him. "I'm the 'nice' Bloor. Charlie can vouch for me, can't you?" He looked over his shoulder at Charlie, who nodded in agreement. "I'm actually the bane of my brother's existence, I believe."

"Salem drove us home." I added. "Manfred caused Charlie to miss his bus so I stayed behind and he offered to drive us."

"That was very nice of you. Please help yourself. There's plenty for everyone." She grabbed three plates from the cupboard and handed one to each of us. "I have to work the afternoon shift at the grocery store tonight so I'll see you both tonight. It was nice to meet you, Salem." Aunt Amy hurried passed us and out the door.