The Doorknob Society (The Doorknob Society Saga) Read Online Free

to listen. None of what happened today makes any sense and what about that guy you were fighting? He used your trick to disappear. I’ve never seen anyone able to do that trick but you.”
    “Trick,” Dad sighed, leaning back against the kitchen counter. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. I knew he was searching for just the right words. “I always told you I’d teach you that trick someday. The thing is—it’s not a trick—it’s something much, much more than that. It’s time you learned, you need to know everything. That’s part of the reason I brought us home.”
    I didn’t like the sound of that and so I kept silent.
    “We’re not just here for a pit stop this time,”—he took a breath and then let me have it— “it’s time you went to a proper school.”
    “Are you kidding me? You don’t mean—” I shook my head. He couldn’t do this to me. He just couldn’t. This night was crazy enough, I wasn’t even sure what had happened and now he lays this on me? I didn’t want to go to some regular school. I’d traveled with my family my whole life, I’d seen more of the world than most people and that’s the way I liked it.
    “Yes, I do mean that it’s time you attended the Paladin Academy.”
    “Dad, we talked about this and I told you that I don’t want to go to some stupid prep school just because it’s family tradition. I’m already enough of a freak as it is. And if you think you can do this to distract me from everything that happened tonight you’re crazy.”
    Could this day get any worse? Shut up , I warned myself since it just might. I’d been worried about this since the day Mom deserted us. I was always afraid Dad would decide it was time for us to settle down. I liked our life and all of its craziness; it also kept me from having to think about Mom.
    “This isn’t debatable.”
    “Just great.” I walked out of the room, Dad following me into the living room. I dropped down on the couch, deflated and wanting to argue but knowing it was useless. “Now are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
    “Soon, but for the moment we both need a good night sleep. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
    I didn’t know if Dad was just trying to avoid explaining what seemed impossible to explain or if he knew just how tired I really was. I could feel it in my bones like I had run a marathon or swam the English Channel.
    “Is anyone else here?” I decided to give him the night and start fresh tomorrow.
    “Nope, your grandparents are on one of their round-the-world trips again. No rest for the retired so it would seem. So the house is all ours.”
    “Which room?” Since I was little I had slept in all five bedrooms in the house, never knowing which one I could call mine. If I was going to be here for a while, I hoped it wasn’t one of the smaller ones.
    “Since we’ll be staying here while you attend school...”
    I sneered at the comment and thought I still might be able to make him reconsider when we talked tomorrow.
    “Hmmm, and you never know when your grandparents will be returning or if Uncle Archie will be visiting, so I think you need to have a room where you won’t be disturbed.” He grinned and it got wider by the minute.
    I rolled my eyes and scrolled through my texts looking for a distraction. Nothing was going my way and nothing made sense anymore, but then it hadn’t for a while, and so I said, “Any room will do.”
    “Alright then let’s see shall we?” And with that Dad walked from the room and headed for the stairs.
    I reluctantly followed him up the flight of stairs. We didn’t stop at the second floor, we turned heading up to the third... the attic.
    Why the attic? Curious, I continued after him and through the open door and came to a dead stop.
    Dad stood in the middle of the attic. Gone were years of collected junk replaced with an old four poster bed and nightstand, two dressers sat off to the sides. I spun around in a circle