Midnight Flight (Volume 2) (Broken Wings, Band 2) - Softcover

Andrews, V.C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743428617 ISBN 13: 9780743428613

Verlag: Pocket Star, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

They lived on the wild side. Now these bad girls are paying the price.

At Dr. Foreman's School for Girls, the "students" sleep in barns, work on a farm in the blazing heat, and are subjected to ruthless guards who watch their every move. It's an institution run by the dreadful Dr. Foreman, a woman who delights in administering the worst form of punishment—the mysterious Ice Room where the girls face their darkest fears.

Now Phoebe, Teal, and Robin—three girls from very different worlds—are the newcomers in this desert hell. During their stay, each girl will be tempted to commit the ultimate crime of betrayal as Dr. Foreman cleverly tries to turn them against each other—until they learn that the only way to survive is to stick together...and fight back.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

One of the most popular authors of all time, V.C. Andrews has been a bestselling phenomenon since the publication of Flowers in the Attic, first in the renowned Dollanganger family series, which includes Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. The family saga continues with Christopher’s Diary: Secrets of Foxworth, Christopher’s Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger, and Secret Brother, as well as Beneath the Attic, Out of the Attic, and Shadows of Foxworth as part of the fortieth anniversary celebration. There are more than ninety V.C. Andrews novels, which have sold over 107 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than twenty-five foreign languages. Andrews’s life story is told in The Woman Beyond the Attic. Join the conversation about the world of V.C. Andrews at Facebook.com/OfficialVCAndrews.

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Chapter 1: Orientation

The moment we were alone, I turned to the girl on my left.

"What is this? Where are we? Why are we in this place?" I asked.

"Why are you asking me? How would I know?" she shot back at me. "What do I look like, information please?"

"Well, you were here before me so I thought you might know more," I threw back at her with just as unfriendly a tone.

"We got here only a little while before you did," the second girl said, somewhat softer. I turned to her. "So we don't know any more than you do. I'm Teal Sommers. That's Robin Lyn Taylor. She didn't tell me her name," Teal added with a smirk. "I heard one of those girls call her that." She leaned forward to glare past me at Robin Lyn.

"I'm not exactly in a party mood, you know, and I told you, I don't like to be called Robin Lyn. Just call me Robin. You, too," she ordered me.

"Yes, Your Majesty," I said, and Teal laughed.

Robin folded her arms and turned away. "Well, we're here together so I guess we'll have to talk to each other decently. Where y'all from?"

"Where y'all from?" Teal laughed. "I'm from Albany, New York. I was flown in here just a little before y'all were, I think. I'm very unsure about the time. They took my watch."

"Mine, too," I said, rubbing my wrist. "And my ring. Why did they do that?"

"Maybe they're jewel thieves. They took Robin's watch, too, right, Robin?"

"Big deal. I stole it. I'll steal another first chance I get," she said defiantly, looking at the closed door. "I'm supposed to be at a school, a special school. That's what the judge said," she shouted at the door. "Not some dumpy, smelly building."

"Judge?" I asked.

She spun her head around to me so fast, I thought it would just keep going in circles on her neck.

"What are you, a scholarship winner or something? Is that why you're here?"

I stared, confused.

"Hardly," I finally replied. "My uncle and aunt arranged all this without telling me anything about it. I was drugged, kidnapped, and brought here."

Robin started to laugh and stopped. "Did you say drugged and kidnapped?"

"I know exactly what she means. That's how I felt," Teal said. "My father arranged for me to be transported here. He was nice enough to tell me I was going to a special school, but my parents didn't even let me take a change of clothing. Daddy had a hired goon bring me to the airport and to the plane. Next thing I knew, I was flying away and no one told me where I was going. They kept the windows shut, too. They gave me something to drink, and before I knew it, I was asleep, so I was drugged, too. When I woke up, I was here and dressed in this rag and these stupid clodhoppers as well as this...diaper."

"I guess I shouldn't have expected anything better from my aunt, but why did your father do that to you?" I asked. Even though I had had some of my things when Daddy brought me to live with Aunt Mae Louise and Uncle Buster, I didn't feel much different except I knew why they'd got rid of me. There was no surprise for me there.

"He was, I guess I can safely say, at the end of his patience with me. I was an embarrassment to my mother, who sits at the head of the social table of high society."

"What did you do?"

"I robbed a bank," Teal muttered.

"What?"

"I stole money from Daddy's secret safe, his and my brother Carson's."

"And your own father sent you away for that?"

"Well, it was a little more, I guess," Teal admitted.

"I bet," Robin muttered. "Don't be fooled by her sweet little face."

I turned to her. "What about you?"

"I didn't rob a bank, but I was part of an armed robbery of a supermarket where I worked," Robin said, looking ahead. It was as if she were reminding herself and not telling us. "This is supposed to be an alternative to going to a real jail. My mother darling talked me into it, and like both of you, I was eventually put in a plane and the same things happened to me. I fell asleep and they took my clothing and brought me here."

She smiled and shook her head and then shouted at the closed door, "They're just trying to frighten us with all this...this horror-hotel stuff, but it doesn't scare me! Y'all just wasting your time! You might as well give me back my clothes!"

"What brought you here?" Teal asked me after Robin's screams died down.

"I ran away from my uncle and aunt where I was supposed to stay."

"So, big deal," Robin said. "I bet we've all done that one time or another."

"I was supposed to be in court for hitting this boy with a little brass statue."

"Did you kill him?" Teal asked, her eyes widening with interest.

"No, but I put him in the hospital. He was part of a group of boys trying to rape me."

"So why would they put you in jail for that?" Robin asked skeptically. "It just sounds like self-defense to me."

"There's more to it."

"I bet."

"Look," I said, turning on her, "I don't have to defend myself to you. In fact -- "

Before I could say anything else, we heard the door squeal open, followed by the machine-gun rat-ta-tat-tat of stiletto high heels on the concrete floor.

Out of the dark shadows came a tall, elegant-looking woman, statuesque with a firm figure in a ruby-red skirt suit. She had highlighted golden brown hair, about the base of her neck in length, neatly styled. As she moved more into the light and drew closer, I saw she was an attractive woman with high cheekbones and a perfect nose. She was wearing a soft red lipstick, very understated. A girlfriend of mine, Louella Mason, who was determined to become a beautician, had told me when a woman wants to emphasize her eyes, she de-emphasizes her lips, but this woman looked like she didn't need anything special to make her eyes prominent. They weren't big as much as they were striking and intense.

She paused, looked at the three of us, and smiled so warmly, I felt like getting up and rushing into her arms. It was a smile that brought a ray of sunshine to a rainy day, and, boy, did I need some sugar now.

"Hello, girls," she said. "I'm Dr. Foreman. Welcome to my school."

"This is a school?" Teal piped up immediately. "It's more like someone's filthy basement."

Dr. Foreman turned to her and, holding her smile, said, "No, this isn't the actual school." She looked about and smiled as if she didn't see what we saw. She saw a beautiful lobby or something instead. "This is my orientation center. The school is some distance from here, but I like to meet my girls as soon as they are brought and introduce them to the way things will be as soon as possible. That way, if they don't accept what I say and don't do what I say, I can put them right back on the plane and ship them somewhere else where a far worse fate awaits them. Is this plan all right with you, Teal?"

I could see Teal was both impressed and intimidated that Dr. Foreman already knew which of us she was. Teal didn't answer. She just sat looking at her, her mouth slightly open. Dr. Foreman did not turn away immediately either. She held Teal's gaze, froze that now cold smile on her lips, and only after a few beats, slowly turned back to Robin and me.

"Now then, as I was saying, welcome to my school," she continued.

As if that was their cue, three young women, the one who had escorted me from the plane to the concrete building, and two others dressed similarly with their hair cut identically short, entered and took position just behind Dr. Foreman. They stood with military posture, their arms behind them, hands clasped, and looked forward, not at us, just forward and poised like guard dogs ready to pounce upon command. Foreman's rottweilers, all teeth and muscle, I thought.

"I created my school only five years ago, but I have, shall we say,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Pocket Star
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2003
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0743428617
• ISBN 13: 9780743428613
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 400
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande