Chapter 12 #2
“Newbie!” I lifted my eyes to find Luther waving at me, his face lit with a bright grin.
He was sitting at the back of the room with his friend Kaden at his side.
He beckoned me over, but I hesitated. I was keen to keep a low profile, and I was already getting enough attention at school as the new kid.
I wasn’t sure sitting with Kaden and Luther would help take the focus off me.
Veronica’s smug smile turned to a dark glare when she heard Luther call out to me. Something about the way she scowled at me pushed me toward the guys though. I wasn’t about to let her obvious disapproval get to me. Plus, it wasn’t like I had anyone else in the class to sit with.
Luther gestured at the seat next to him as I approached. “Sit with us, newbie.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I have a name, you know.”
“And a very cute one at that,” Luther said with an approving nod. “So, are you going to sit down or not?”
“Uh, sure.” I still didn’t quite trust Luther.
He had a constant air of mischief about him, but he was being friendly enough, so I lowered myself into the empty desk at his side.
Veronica’s searing gaze had followed me to the back of the room, and I tried to ignore the scowl practically burning holes in my skin and focus on Kaden.
“I’m Isobel,” I said, introducing myself before he could start calling me newbie too.
“I know.” He gave me a small smile. “I’m Kaden.”
“I know.”
His smile tugged upward into a grin. Kaden wasn’t nearly as big as Luther or Noah, but he was just as handsome, and his glasses made him look like a cute Clark Kent. It was easy to see why the girls at school were all enamored with these boys.
“How’s your ankle?” Kaden asked.
I frowned and glanced down at it. “You guys heard about that?”
“Oh yeah,” Luther replied. “Noah wouldn’t shut up about it at breakfast.”
My eyes darted up to meet his. “He wouldn’t?”
“Nope.” Luther let out a chuckle. “Sounds like you can be a little stubborn, newbie. I think he was surprised you didn’t want his help. Most girls would have been happy to be Noah’s damsel in distress.”
“I’m not stubborn,” I muttered.
Luther’s face lit up. Noah had clearly told his friends all about our encounter this morning.
I wasn’t sure what to make of the fact he’d shared the details with them.
I hadn’t planned on telling anyone about it, but I couldn’t keep it from Cress once the nurse revealed he was involved.
Why would Noah feel the need to tell the story?
Maybe he’d been annoyed by it all and was complaining to the guys.
Or maybe he was making fun of me. Hopefully, Luther and Kaden were the only ones he’d spoken with.
The last thing I needed was word getting around school that Noah had come to my rescue.
“So, is there a reason you invited me to sit with you?” I asked in an attempt to derail conversation about this morning.
Luther winked. “I told you, newbie, I’ve got a good feeling about you. Plus, I’m still on a top-secret mission to uncover all your deepest darkest secrets. Like, for instance, where are you from?”
I frowned. “That’s hardly a deep, dark secret.”
“Then tell us all about it.”
Why did everyone at this school ask so many questions? It was becoming harder and harder to keep my home life to myself. I took a deep breath before answering. “A place called Rapid Bay.”
“That’s down the coast, right?” Kaden asked
“Uh, yeah,” I replied. “You know it?”
Kaden nodded. “My aunt used to have a place in Rapid Bay. We went there all the time when I was a kid.”
I hadn’t expected either of the guys to be aware of my hometown. It might have been a popular place for wealthy people to vacation in, but it was small enough to be fairly unknown.
I gave Kaden a tight smile in response. Unlike him, I wasn’t part of the vacation crowd.
My family didn’t own a property on the foreshore, and I didn’t spend my summers working on my tan.
My hometown was a stark mixture of people who had it all and those who just got by in life, and my mom and I definitely fell into the latter category.
“You really get to live there year-round?” Kaden asked.
“Uh, yeah.” I was growing increasingly uncomfortable. It felt like Kaden was one question away from discovering that I spent most of my time serving food to people like him.
“How long have you lived there?” Luther added.
“My whole life.” They looked ready to fire yet another question at me, so I quickly continued. “Are we really going to play twenty questions in math?”
“What better time than during math?” Luther shrugged. “It has to be the most dull subject in the world, and Kaden’s always a total drag and actually listens to the teacher for most of it. I figure you will be more entertaining.”
I let out a soft laugh, pleased that Luther was so easily distracted from his interrogation. “Well, you’re in for some disappointment. You’ve now surrounded yourself with two drags.”
Luther’s expression fell. “Oh, no. You’re not a nerd too, are you?”
“I just try to do well in school.”
He leaned back in his chair and groaned up at the ceiling. “She is a nerd.”
Kaden gave me a bright smile though. “Luther’s always impossible to sit with in class. Maybe between the two of us we can get him to concentrate.”
“Ha! You wish,” Luther replied. “Now, I’ve just got one more reason to be a total distraction.”
The teacher walked into the room, and I expected Luther to quiet down as the man signaled for the class’s attention. Luther kept on chatting away like the teacher wasn’t even there though.
“It’s not like it matters if we do well in these classes. Our parents just bribe the teachers to give us good grades anyway, so there’s really no point in actually trying.”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, so I shot him a scowl just in case he was serious. “There is a point if you want to learn,” I hissed back at him.
Luther didn’t respond, and I wondered if I’d actually gotten through to him. His silence lasted all of two minutes, and I stifled a groan as he started prodding my arm with the end of his pen.
“You don’t really want to learn though, do you?”
I didn’t look at him as I replied. “Yep.”
“But, why?”
There were plenty of ways I could answer his question—because I enjoyed school, or because I wanted to get good grades so I had options once this year was over. I didn’t say anything though, hoping the silent treatment might work with him.
It didn’t.
He kept prattling on in a one-sided conversation instead.
“You know no one actually uses math in real life, right? I mean, I guess accountants and people with other boring jobs use it, but no one actually wants to do that. Unless … You don’t want to be an accountant, do you?
Maybe that gut feeling I had about you was wrong.
I didn’t think my gut could ever be wrong, but—”
“Luther?” I hissed, turning to him.
An innocent smile was plastered across his face. “Yes?”
“Shut up!”
Several sniggers sounded from the other students in the room, and I realized I’d almost shouted the words.
I immediately lowered my head closer to the desk and wished I could disappear.
Thankfully, the teacher didn’t reprimand me.
He just carried on like I hadn’t said anything at all, and I had to wonder if it was because he’d already given up on trying to control Luther.
Either that or Luther’s parents really did bribe the man.
I felt another poke on my arm, and I lifted my head to see Luther and Kaden both grinning at me.
“I think math is going to be fun this year,” Luther said.
I couldn’t have disagreed more.