Briar Preparatory Academy

All for a Good Cause

Kate POV

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do? I mean, he may just freak out and... I don't know, have a heart attack or something. He's kinda old if you haven't noticed." Seth says, hurrying to catch up with me. I don't realize I'm walking so fast. I slow down and take a few big breaths before glancing up at him. Seth stands a good eight inches above me.

"Yeah. I think he'll know what to do."

We walk in silence. There's a light sheet of snow on the ground, and more is falling from the sky. There is a full moon out, and it illuminates the snow and makes it contrast against the dark of night like glitter. Curfew is in about twenty minutes, so some students are still milling around the courtyard.

Headmaster Lockharte has an office to himself rather than sharing the staff building with the other professors. He occupies a small stone building right beside the building where most of the student classes are. From the outside, it looks unwelcome and much too solitary.

But the inside is polar opposite. I knock on the door and shove my hands in my pockets. I hear a muffled "Come in" from the inside and open the door. I am immediately greeted by the glow of the fireplace over on the far wall, and four leather chairs set up in the center of a room surrounded by a glass coffee table. A grand desk stands stands ten steps inside the door, and Headmaster Lockharte is sitting behind it, his eyes focused on a stack of paperwork in front of him. He doesn't look up when Seth and I walk in.

"Headmaster Lockharte?" I say timidly.

"Ah. Yes, Miss Sanders? Take a seat." The headmaster says with a weary smile playing across his lips. He looks tired, his old eyes blinking a hundred times. I take five seconds to study them. They look so familiar, almost as if they belonged to someone else.

"Umm... we're not interrupting anything are we? If we are can come back." I say. Please don't send us away, please.

"Oh no, of course not. Please come in. Good evening, Seth."

Seth nods his greeting. "Headmaster."

Lockharte sets his pen down as we pull up two of the chairs in front of his desk. I fold my hands together in my lap and look back up at Lockharte, who is gazing at us expectantly. I raise my eyebrows and begin. "Headmaster, we haven't seen Celeste at all today and it's beginning to worry us. We were curious as to if you knew where she is? Is she being held by the infirmary for examination, maybe?"

Something dark passes across Lockharte's eyes. He tentatively takes his paperwork and stacks it together neatly before sliding it to the corner of his desk. He then leans forward and looks at us through his spectacles. "You haven't seen her today?"

"No sir. We haven't had any sort of communication with her either." Seth answers.

The Headmaster swallows and runs a hand down his face. He seems to fade away into his thoughts for a few moments before realizing that we are still sitting in front of him. He gives us a look as if we have just arrived and he is surprised to see us. I furrow my eyebrows. "Oh, I apologize for not speaking to you on an earlier basis," he says, his voice tired, "Celeste has in fact been in the infirmary and is being kept for the next few days. She went in early this morning saying that she felt sick. Dr. Alicia is doing all she can to help her recover. She'll return by next week."

I sit back in my chair and breathe a sigh of relief. Seth copies my movements. "Will we be able to visit her?"

"NO!" Lockharte almost yells, which causes me to jump. He rarely raises his voice. "No, I'm afraid not. She's off limits to any other students until she is fully recovered."