Chapter 2: Emergency Assembly*
1304 Words
The auditorium smelled like dust and old carpet.
Five hundred students shuffled into the rows, talking too loud, treating the “emergency assembly” like an excuse to skip Algebra. Sabrina stayed near the aisle, close to the exit. Old habits. Mr. Davis had drilled it into her: always know two ways out. Always sit where you can see the door.
Ethan sat beside her, two seats in. He’d tried to sit on the aisle, but Sabrina beat him to it without thinking. He noticed. His mouth quirked, but he didn’t say anything.
“Relax,” he muttered. “It’s probably just another fire drill. Or someone’s t****k went viral and the principal wants to lecture us about it.”
Sabrina didn’t answer. Her eyes were on the stage.
Principal Morales was up there, flanked by two people Sabrina didn’t recognize. One was a woman in a navy blazer, sharp posture, eyes scanning the crowd like she was counting heads. The other was a man in a suit that didn’t fit quite right—too stiff, like he’d borrowed it for the occasion. Neither of them looked like they belonged in a high school.
“Thank you for your attention,” Principal Morales said into the mic. The feedback made half the room groan. “We have a few visitors from the Department of Homeland Security who wanted to speak with you briefly.”
Homeland Security.
Sabrina’s stomach dropped.
She glanced at Ethan. He was frowning now, picking up on her tension. “You okay?” he whispered.
“Fine,” she said. Too quickly.
The woman in the blazer stepped forward. “I’m Agent Reyes. We’re here because of a security incident overseas that may have implications for students with international ties.”
International ties.
Code for _we’re looking for you_.
Sabrina’s fingers curled around the edge of the seat. Don’t react. Don’t move. Don’t let them see you recognize it.
Agent Reyes continued. “We’re simply asking that if you’ve recently moved to the country, or if you’ve been contacted by anyone claiming to be from abroad, you report it to the office. This is standard procedure. No one is in trouble.”
Standard procedure. Right.
The man in the suit stepped forward next. He didn’t introduce himself. “We understand this is disruptive. We’ll be in the office all week. If you have information, come forward.”
Information. About her.
Sabrina’s pulse was in her throat. She could feel Mr. Davis two rows back, probably doing the same thing she was—scanning exits, calculating time to the nearest stairwell.
The assembly ended as quickly as it started. Students stood, talking, shrugging it off.
Sabrina didn’t move.
Ethan nudged her arm. “Hey. You’re pale. You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said again. This time it sounded more like a lie, even to her.
“Because you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Ethan said. “Or a Homeland Security agent.”
She forced a laugh. “Maybe both.”
He studied her for a second, then stood. “Come on. Lunch is next. You need food. And I need to know why you flinch every time someone says ‘international.’”
Sabrina followed him out, keeping her head down.
She didn’t see the man in the suit watching her from the back of the auditorium.
---
Lunch was chaos.
The cafeteria was louder than the hallway, if that was possible. Trays clattered, people shouted across tables, someone was throwing fries. Sabrina sat at the edge of a table with Ethan and two of his friends—Maya, who had purple streaks in her hair and ran the AV club with him, and Kade, who was quiet and always had a sketchbook open.
“So,” Maya said, leaning forward. “You’re the new girl. Columbus, right? What’s it like? Do you have those huge football stadiums?”
Sabrina hesitated. Columbus was fake. But she’d memorized the brochure. “Yeah. Big. Cold. Lots of snow.”
“Snow?” Kade looked up from his sketchbook, intrigued. “We get like, two inches a year here.”
Sabrina nodded, safe on neutral ground. She could talk about weather. Weather didn’t have spies.
Ethan wasn’t done though. He watched her like he was waiting for something to slip. “You said you moved for a ‘fresh start,’ right? What happened in Columbus?”
Maya elbowed him. “Dude. Don’t interrogate her on day one.”
“It’s fine,” Sabrina said quickly. Too quickly again. “My parents just got new jobs. Here.”
Ethan nodded slowly. “New jobs. In tech.”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t push. But he didn’t stop watching either.
Lunch passed in a blur of forced small talk and Sabrina trying not to look at the cafeteria doors every thirty seconds. No one else seemed worried. No one else had Homeland Security agents asking about international students this morning.
When the bell rang, she was almost relieved.
Almost.
---
Her next class was English.
She sat in the back again, but this time Ethan was two seats over. He passed her a folded note halfway through class.
It read: _You’re lying about Columbus. And that’s okay. I won’t tell._
Sabrina stared at it. Her hands shook.
She wanted to crumple it, throw it away, deny it.
But she didn’t.
She wrote back: _How do you know?_
He replied instantly: _Because no one from Columbus says ‘lift’ instead of ‘elevator’ when they’re nervous. I heard you in the hallway._
Sabrina’s blood ran cold. She hadn’t even noticed.
She didn’t write back.
When the bell rang, Ethan caught up to her in the hallway. “Hey. I’m not trying to expose you or whatever. I just… I get it. Everyone’s got something they’re hiding.”
Sabrina stopped walking. “What are you hiding, Ethan?”
He hesitated. For the first time, the easy grin was gone. “My dad’s in prison. Federal fraud. We don’t talk about it.”
Oh.
Sabrina swallowed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, shrugging like it didn’t hurt. It did. “Point is, I’m not gonna out you. But if someone’s looking for you, you should know I’m on your side.”
Someone’s looking for you.
He said it so casually. Like it was obvious.
Sabrina didn’t answer. She couldn’t.
---
After school, Mr. Davis met her at the side entrance.
“Did you see them?” he asked quietly, walking her toward the car that wasn’t a car—it was a beat-up Honda with tinted windows and a fake license plate.
“Homeland Security,” Sabrina said. “They knew.”
“They suspected,” Mr. Davis corrected. “There’s a difference. But it means they’re closer than we thought.”
Sabrina got in the car, hands trembling. “What do we do?”
“We stick to the plan,” Mr. Davis said. “You go to school. You make friends. You don’t give them a reason to look harder.”
“And if they do?”
Mr. Davis glanced at her in the rearview mirror. His eyes were hard. “Then we move you again. But I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
Sabrina didn’t believe him.
That night, she dreamed of smoke over Camelot.
And of Ethan’s eyes, when he said _I’m on your side_.
---
The next morning, there was a new student in Algebra.
Tall. Blonde. American accent too perfect.
He sat in the seat in front of Sabrina and turned around, smiling.
“Hi,” he said. “I’m Alex. Just moved here from London. You’re new too, right?”
Sabrina froze.
London.
Valerion’s capital.
And his smile didn’t reach his eyes.
----
- Writer
