The Secrets We Keep

The Fourth Chapter

Hayden

"Can Mrs. H. Andrews, Damien Andrews, and Hayden Andrews please report to Headmaster Gibbon's office as soon as possible," announces the intercom speaker. 

I look up from writing in my notebook to find the class's entire attention on me. 

"It's alright, Miss Andrew, you can go," my Math teacher tells me and smiles warmly at me. 

"Thank you," I mumble as I start throwing my things into the bag haphazardly in order to get out of the classroom and away from all the prying eyes. 

Out in the empty hallway, I have to dig out the school map lying at the bottom in order to get my bearings. Oddly enough, being shown the Headmaster's office was not part of our tour on the first day last week. But it's on the map and I start following the directions as best I can. 

This school is huge. By the time I find where I'm needed, I'm a little out of breath. There's a table outside the headmaster's office and a lady sits behind it. 

"Your Hayden, I'm assuming?" She asks, her face bored. I nod and she points to the chairs lining the wall. "Take a seat. When the rest of your family arrive, I'll show you in." 

"Do you know what this is all about?" I ask as I take the seat she indicated. I mean, what possible reason would the man need to see all three of us and interrupt our classes?

"You'll find out soon enough," she tells me snottily and puts her head back down. 

I blow out a breath and start folding away my map. I wonder if this meeting is a welcoming thing but that wouldn't make sense, I decide with a frown. It's our second week here, we're not brand new or in need of a welcome anymore. 

I see Damien come through the door next and I shoot him a confused look. But he doesn't seem as curious as I am to know why we're here. He looks deathly pale. His black hair does not hang neatly in his face like it usually does and instead looks as though he didn't bother to brush it after he woke up. What happened to my attention-to-detail brother?

As he comes to sit next to me after the lady explains to him the same thing she did me, I lean over and whisper to him. 

"Do you know what's going on here?"

But he doesn't answer me. He clenches his jaw and stares stoically across the space to the paintings hanging on the other wall. 

"Hey, I'm asking you a question-"

"Shh!" The lady hisses at me and I flop back in my seat with my arms crossed around my middle, fuming. 

Not a second later, my mom enters the room looking harassed. The woman by the desk puts her call on hold and stands up. 

"Great, now that you're all here, the headmaster will see you," she knocks on the door and then ushers us all inside before shutting us in the room. My mom and I share a look. 

'What's going on?' I mouth. 

She shrugs, her eyes flitting all over the room.

The headmaster is an older man with steadily balding hair. When he sees us standing by the door, he stands up and points to the three chairs in front of his beautifully carved desk. 

"Good morning, please all take a seat," he says and waits until we're all seated before lowering himself down again. 

"What's this about?" My mother blurts and then blushes. "I'm sorry, I mean good morning, sir," she corrects and starts smoothing her hands over her pantsuit.