He didn't seem to hear her. His shiny eyes were fixed on the stage. His face was eager, tense.
Desperation tingled in the palms of Cassie's hands. She reached across Suzan to grab his left arm, and with all the power she could summon up, thought: Sean!
She felt it go out of her like a blast of heat, just as she'd felt it when she was facing the pumpkin-patch dog. A burst of pure power. Sean's head snapped toward her, his expression full of astonishment.
"Put your hand down," she whispered, feeling shaky and exhausted in the aftermath. Sean looked at his hand as if he'd never seen it before and hastily snatched it down. He gripped the seat of his chair, eyes still sideways on Cassie.
Now Suzan was cringing away from her, Cassie realized. Both the strawberry-blond and Sean looked scared. Cassie looked toward the stage and saw the new principal looking directly at her, his lips curved in a faint smile.
Great. He likes it, and my own friends are afraid of me.
Black John continued to gaze at her steadily for a moment, then turned the slight smile on the rest of the auditorium.
"Very good. Those of you who've been chosen will please remain after the assembly to learn about your new duties. The rest are dismissed. Good morning."
Hairs lifted on the back of Cassie's neck. "Chosen?" she whispered, looking around. There hadn't been any selection. But some of the students who'd had hands up were moving to the stage in a quiet, orderly manner. Portia and Sally were among them.
Don't you see? You've got to see now how strange this is, Cassie thought, twisting to look at Mr. Humphries standing in the aisle. But Mr. Humphries didn't seem to find anything unusual about the proceedings. He looked calm and rather pleased as he motioned his class out. Tranquilized, Cassie thought, shivering. Hypnotized.
Black John was still standing at the lectern. She could feel his eyes on her back as she walked out of the auditorium.
Cassie fell back as her writing class walked down the hall, slowing to stay with Nick and Suzan and Sean. Suzan and Sean looked at her oddly, but Nick put his arm around her.
"That was pretty good," he said softly. Cassie felt better, until she noticed he didn't have his handout.
"I left it on the seat," he said, and Cassie's heart sank a little further.
"That's littering," she said. "And littering's a Type-A offense. Nick, we've got to be careful - he's out to get us."
"No kidding," Adam said, joining them. His blue-gray eyes flickered once over Nick's arm around Cassie's shoulders, but his expression didn't change. "Have you read over the Prohibited Actions, Type C?"
Cassie hadn't. She thumbed to the last page of the handout and looked. "Skateboarding, roller-skating, or bike riding . . . playing or wearing radios on school grounds . . . smoking or using tobacco products . . . these are supposed to be worse than Type-B offenses like using drugs or fighting?"
"They seem to be a little specifically directed," Adam said grimly.
And then Cassie knew. She remembered her very first day of school at New Salem High, "nearly being knocked off her feet by the Henderson brothers - only at the time she didn't know it was the Henderson brothers. She'd only seen two crazy guys with heavy-metal T-shirts and disheveled blond hair, rollerblading down the halls and listening to Walkmans.
She swallowed hard. "They're for us," she whispered. Adam met her eyes, nodding.
"Smoking," Cassie said. She clutched Nick's hand, turning to look him full in the face. "Nick, please, you've got to be careful. He wants to get us and we're not ready to confront him yet . . . Nick!" She had a terrible feeling about this. Nick hated authority, took any rules as a challenge. Right now she didn't see any sign of him changing, by his expression. "Nick!"
"Punishment for Type-C offenses is getting sent to the office," Adam said. "He is trying to get us, Nick. He's playing his own little game."
"Nick, I want you to promise me you'll try not to get in trouble," Cassie said. "Please, Nick. You have to promise."
Nick looked down at her slowly. Cassie tightened her grip on his hand, returning the intensity of his gaze. Please, she was thinking. For me, please.
Nick's brow furrowed and he turned away.
"Okay," he said, nodding slightly, eyes on the ceiling. "Okay, I'll try - not to get caught."
Cassie's muscles relaxed. "Thank you," she whispered, just as Diana, Melanie, and Laurel came up, faces bleak.
"Did you get that stuff in the beginning, about the previous administration allowing certain activities to go on?" Melanie asked. "That was us he was talking about. The Club and its special privileges. He said all that was going to change now."
Cassie spoke softly. "He was telling them we're not in power anymore. He was as good as giving them permission to ..."
Her voice died away. She and the other members of the Club looked at one another silently.
"Everybody get your guns. Sounds like it's open season for witches," Nick said finally. He put his arm around Cassie again.
"Let's get out of here," Suzan said.
"We can't," said Laurel. "Leaving school grounds without permission is an offense."
"Everything is an offense," Suzan said.
"Where are Chris and Doug?" Cassie asked sharply. "And Deborah?"
Everyone looked around. Aside from Nick, the Henderson brothers and the biker were the ones most likely to get into trouble.
"They have history first period, but I think their class went back without them," Sean volunteered. "I think they're still in the auditorium."