Finding Jade

Chapter 12

C H A P T E R 1 2

Apparently, the crazy secretary actually works at Beaconsfield, not Riverdale. Nothing surprises me anymore.

"Good morning, Jasmine," she says as I walk into the office. She's standing beside a photocopier behind the main desk. "Need a late slip, I take it?"

I stare at her. "Don't you work at another school?" She stops whatever she's doing at the photocopier and walks over to the desk. "You mean Riverdale? No, I was just over there making sure you made it here. I guess you could say I had a cameo appearance." She laughs loudly.

I grimace. I've only been in this place about two minutes, and already the weirdness has started.

"Yeah, I need a late slip," I say, looking over at the clock. It's already 9:15. Sleeping was hard last night. Every muscle in my body screamed with pain any time I moved even slightly. The pain woke me up so many times I lost count. I overslept my alarm by an hour this morning.

"Glad to see you made the decision to attend here," the secretary says as she initials the late slip. "And it's a much better choice you're making today by showing up. We really don't encourage skipping classes." She smiles widely, like an airline hostess who's just offered me pretzels and a soft drink.

"You know I skipped school yesterday?" I ask. "How come no one called my mom?"

"My sister saw you downtown. We find it's better to discuss your poor decision-making here at school with you, rather than worrying your mother."

"Your sister saw me?" I ask. "How did your sister know who I was?"

"She's a bit, how shall I put this? Eccentric."

"That still doesn't explain how she knew. Seriously, how did you know where I was?"

The secretary answers me with a smile and silence.

I glare at her, annoyance building up in me like a sneeze, and suddenly it hits me. The woman outside the subway yesterday — the one with the badly bleached hair and startling blue eyes — she was familiar because she looked so much like this woman. They're clearly twins.

"Does your sister have some ..." I pause, trying to think of the most polite way to ask my question. "Mental illness?" 

She laughs again, and this time the laugh ends with a little snort. "Don't let my sister fool you. She might come across as crazy, but she's saner than most people. The reason she stays on the streets and in the underground is because she sees and hears things most people miss. She's our eyes and ears here at Beaconsfield."

For the first time, the secretary's mood grows serious. "My sister reported to us that you were extremely reckless yesterday. You need to listen to your Protectors. Things are changing. The Earth is in trouble, and these climate disasters and the subsequent shifting in human populations are only part of it. There's talk that demons are with us. Talk that they are walking amongst humans again. That's why we're gathering as many Seers at Beaconsfield as we can."