Free Moby Clique by Cara Lockwood Page A

the campus lawn and my attacker falls to the ground next to me.
    It turns out to be Heathcliff.
    He groans and rubs his stomach. “What did you do that for?” he says, clutching his side and breathing hard.
    Glad to see him alive, I throw my arms around him and hug him close. He grunts as I nearly tackle him flat.
    “Besides, I thought I told you to go,” he says in my ear.
    “I guess I’m not very good at following directions,” I say, releasing him from my hug. “Are you okay?” I inspect him for damage and notice he’s got a small cut above his left eye, and that his knuckles are bleeding.
    “Fine, until you hit me,” he says, wincing as I help him to his feet. We start walking back to my dorm.
    “Who were those guys?” I ask him. “They looked like pirates.”
    “I don’t know, but I’ve seen them around since school started,” he says.
    “What did they want with a Bard student?”
    Heathcliff shrugs. “I don’t know.”
    The bell tower tolls five more times, signaling the fact that I have less than a minute to get to my dorm before curfew. I remember Ms. W warning me about disobeying any Bard rules and the juvie consequences, and I realize I have to go. Heathcliff senses it, too.
    “You’re safe for now,” he says. “They don’t come onto campus grounds, at least not that I’ve seen. The student must have wandered into the woods.”
    “I should warn Lindsay, though, just in case,” I say. “Make sure she stays clear of the woods.”
    “Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” Heathcliff says. “You get back to your dorm. Tell Ms. P what’s going on.”

Eleven
    Despite running all the way to my dorm, I miss curfew by literally a nanosecond. The last bell tolls as I sprint into the door, and come face-to-face with Ms. P.
    “You’re late,” she says, tapping her watch.
    “By…a…second…” I wheeze, still trying to catch my breath and putting my hands on my knees. Surely, she’s not going to punish me for a second?
    “That means an extra week of toilet duty,” she says curtly.
    “But, Ms. P, that’s not fair,” I say, straightening. “And besides, it wasn’t my fault.”
    I explain to her about the guys who looked like pirates, and the fact that they were carrying the Bard runaway, and how someone needs to go into the woods after them.
    “Just what were you doing off campus? And who were you with?” Ms. P asks me. These are not the questions I’m expecting. She doesn’t seem too perturbed by the idea of pirates kidnapping Bard students.
    “Is that really important? I mean, the pirates or whatever…”
    “Of course, it’s important. Anytime you break campus rules it’s important.”
    “Ms. P, punish me later, okay? Can we deal with the bigger problems first? Like kidnapped students?”
    Ms. P frowns at me. “Fine,” she says. “I’ll go now to Headmaster B and see if we can get this sorted out.”
    She turns to leave me.
    “Ms. P?” She doesn’t even know how many we saw. She doesn’t know all the specifics. “Wait…” I say, grabbing her skirt reflexively. As I do, a small picture frame falls out of her pocket. It clatters to the ground in front of me. “Sorry,” I say, reaching down to pick it up. I see it’s a picture of two small children. Are they hers? The ones she left behind?
    “I’ll take that,” Ms. P says abruptly, whipping the photograph out of my hand. She scowls at me, and then quickly drops the framed photo into her pocket again.
    “Um, so I don’t have an extra week of toilet duty?” I ask, hopeful.
    “Oh no. You do have toilet duty,” Ms. P says, setting her lips in a thin line. “It doesn’t matter why you were late, you were still late. And I think I’ll add on an extra week since you just admitted to me that you went into the forest. Another Bard rule broken. Now, off to bed! That is, unless you want to add another week?”
    Sometimes I really hate Ms. P.

    At the top of the stairs, I run straight into Parker Rodham. She’s