Free The Initiation by Ridley Pearson

apologetically. The English boy grinned back at me. When he lifted his hand slowly, I saw he held a red envelope and a small white piece of notepaper.
    â€œYou picked his pocket! How clever, Mr. Holmes,” I said.
    â€œLet us get to it before he realizes he’s lost it. Afterward, I think it best if we leave it on the floor, don’t you?”
    â€œClever and mischievous!” I said, drawing James’s desk chair to Sherlock. “We’re going to get along great, you and me.”
    â€œYou and I ,” he corrected. “You Yanks have butchered the use of ‘me’ to the point it’s barely recognizable.”
    â€œWhatever,” I said. “Show me the note.”
    I read the note my brother had received.
    Aloft in the middle of the seven ribs you will find it, but only by night.
    â€œ I can understand why Jamie went nuts,” I said to Sherlock. “You were right about what itsaid. That is uncanny.”
    â€œLucky guess.”
    â€œYou’re not psychic or something, are you?”
    â€œI am something,” he said, and I laughed.
    â€œYes, you are.” I didn’t mean to smile as widely as I did. It felt like I was flirting, which was definitely not the case. “‘Ribs.’”
    â€œOnly at night.”
    â€œIs that significant?”
    â€œIt’s interesting, certainly.”
    â€œBecause?”
    â€œBecause there’s either something waiting there, or there isn’t. Right? It’s a curious choice to add night into the equation, given that the entire school is now in required study hall followed by an imposed curfew.”
    â€œA prank? Someone angry at James because of Dr. Crudgeon’s assembly, and trying to get back at him by getting him into trouble? Oh my gosh! I’ll bet you’re right!”
    â€œI didn’t say anything of the sort,” Sherlock said, “though it is an intriguing theory, that.”
    â€œWhat else is there? Why else tell him it has to be done at night?”
    â€œWhy else, indeed? For that, one first must assume it is not a prank. So let us take that position, shall we?” The boy had a curious way abouthim. I got the feeling his mind worked at supernatural speeds, that he was somehow five steps ahead of me. I didn’t appreciate such arrogance, even if unspoken, and realized I would either have to admire it or, as James had done, resent it.
    â€œYou won’t make many friends if you’re always like this, you know.”
    â€œAlways like what? Myself? Then the friendships aren’t worth making, dear Moria. Would you have me a chameleon, always changing myself to fit the color of those around me? To what purpose? Am I to be six people? Nine? And what if I’m one color with one friend, another with another, and suddenly those two and I are together? What color then?” I’d hit some nerve, a dentist with a probe. “No! Better to know than to not know. A pillar of wood split into toothpicks won’t support a thing.”
    â€œThat is so random. Forget I said anything.”
    â€œThat’s an impossibility. Of course I can’t forget what you said. How is one supposed to forget what has already been heard? You realize scent and sound are the only two senses we cannot control. We can elect not to touch, to taste, to see. But once you say something, you’d better be able to live with it, because it can’t be forgotten.”
    After just ten minutes with Lock, I wasbeginning to understand why James had fled the room. I admired the boy greatly, I even felt drawn to be in his company in order to see what might come out of him next, but the idea of not being able to turn him off like I could a confusing TV show was indeed somewhat terrifying.
    â€œI’ve bothered you,” he said, sounding anything but sincere. “My apologies.”
    I snorted. He understood I wasn’t buying the apology. Later, I would look back and