Kaz

                                    

                                          


                          
Kaz was probably dressed too fancy for school, but he wasn't much of a sweatpants and t-shirt kind of guy. Besides, nobody in the school was going to say anything, not even the teachers. They were all too scared of him. 
                          
Kaz knew the school was scared of him. It was impossible not to notice. The way they whispered around him and moved out of his way in the halls. The way nobody would look him in the eyes. Inej, Nina and Jesper were the only ones that would. Kaz could tell Matthias was still wary of him. Kaz hadn't given Matthias a reason to distrust him. Then again, he hadn't given him a reason to trust him, either. 
                          
With the rumors that flew around, Kaz knew that Matthias had reasons not to trust him. Kaz Brekker always keeps a knife on him. He ran away from his foster home. His hands are bloodstained, that's why he wears the gloves. His touch burns. Kaz Brekker once killed a man. He secretly works for the FBI. 
                          
The FBI rumor was his favorite. As if he'd ever work for the government. But some of the rumors were true, others made up. Once, Kaz had even planted Inej to spread a rumor about him. 
                          
"Are you sure you want me to do this?" Inej had double checked. 
                          
"Of course." Kaz nodded. "I like to know who's talking about me. Besides, they're never going to stop talking about me. I might as well control what they're saying." Inej had nodded and the next day, the fact that "Kaz Brekker stashes gold in the school" was the only thing Kaz could hear people talking about. 
                          
Of course, this just sent the school into a spiral trying to find the gold. When some kid asked him about it, Kaz just said "Where all gold is. At the end of the rainbow." That night, Jesper snuck into the school and stuck rainbow stickers everywhere. 
                          
Kaz could still remember being called down to Principal Haskell's office the next day. He got out of trouble pretty easily because Haskell was scared of him to begin with and because it didn't take much to convince him that he had nothing to do with Jesper breaking in. No, he only remembered the conversation because of the pure look of shock on Haskell's face when he thought about somebody breaking into his precious little school. 
                          
"He really believed you had nothing to do with me getting in here, huh?" Jesper had asked afterwards. 
                          
"He's just trying to make it to retirement. He doesn't want to deal with anything." Kaz shrugged. 
                          
"As if I could get into the school without the master lock pick." Jesper had thrown his arm around Kaz. Kaz remembered tensing up, causing Jesper to drop the arm. 
                          
"The hideout, tonight. 7:30. Nina says it's urgent." Kaz had ordered before leaving Jesper in the middle of the hallway. 
                          
The hideout was an abandoned building Inej had found by a cemetery. Kaz had sent her there to look for something else, but the building she had found was much more valuable than the information Kaz had sent her there for. 
                          
Since then, any one of them could decide if they wanted to meet at the hideout. Sometimes, people called meetings just for fun. Kaz mainly called them for business reasons, but he would show up to all the meetings regardless. 
                          
There was a meeting, called by Inej, set for after school on the first day. She said it wasn't urgent and wasn't mandatory, but Kaz knew everybody would show up anyways. Between the five of them, it was rare people missed meetings unless it was urgent. 
                          
Kaz waited for Inej after school. He stood right outside the flagpole, keeping both hands on his cane. He tapped it against the ground a couple times, watching other students walk by him. Some were holding hands with their boyfriends or girlfriends, others were staring down at their phones. 
                          
He didn't have to see Inej to know when she was beside him. 
                          
"Ready?" Kaz asked. Inej nodded, and they went off together in the direction of the graveyard. 
                          
"How was school?" Inej asked, her footsteps silent as they walked. Kaz's cane made up for any noise that Inej didn't make. 
                          
"Same as last year." Kaz admitted. "People make senior year sound so exciting, but it feels just the same as junior year." 
                          
"Well, it's only the first day." Inej reasoned. "It's bound to pick up." 
                          
"You said the same thing last year. It didn't pick up." Kaz pointed out. He turned off of the sidewalk they were walking on and onto a beaten dirt path leading into the woods. 
                          
"Well, then I was wrong last year." Inej admitted. "But I don't think I'll be wrong this year." 
                          
"We'll see, Wraith. We'll see." Kaz pulled his cane out of a muddy part in the path. "Ugh." 
                          
"We can clean it when we get there." Inej offered. Kaz nodded, inspecting how much mud was on the cane before he started to walk again. 
                          
"How long do you have until you have to be at Heleen's house?" Kaz asked. 
                          
"I don't know. I don't care." Inej shrugged. "She won't do anything other than yell at me." Kaz nodded. He knew much worse could come if Inej came home late and somebody was still waiting for her, but he knew better than to bring it up. "We're here." Inej whispered when the building was in sight. Inej broke into a run and sprinted the rest of the way to the concrete building. Kaz watched as she went down the stairs. Her hair was braided neatly down her back, a few hairs out of place from the busyness of the first day of school. The braid bounced as she ran, and her feet still made no noise. 
                          
Kaz didn't know when he had stopped walking, but he started again. He went down the concrete stairs and found his friends in a furnished basement that had once been empty, but was now full of life.