“I—I have a YouTube channel,” Noah stammered, his cheeks pink. “I was introducing everyone in the group.”
“But not me? Why not me?”
“No, you too, of course, I, um, I just hadn’t gotten around to . . .” His voice trailed off as he dug his phone back out of his pocket, almost dropping it twice in the process.
“How’s my hair?” Madison smoothed it with her hand.
“When does her hair not look perfect?” Zoe grumbled under her breath.
Julian walked into the room, followed by the rest of the boys on the team and Dani. Hunter’s gaze quickly found me and then quickly found my breasts. I turned away, crossing my arms over my chest. Laila saw me do it and rolled her eyes in his direction.
“OK, I’m going to be the one to ask since everyone else is chickenshit,” Madison said, pointing to the handcuffs on Dani’s wrists. “Do you need help getting those off? Because I know where they keep the machetes.”
Dani blinked, clearly startled to find that Madison was talking to her. Her lips twisted into something that was almost a smile. She used two fingers to snap the handcuff open.
“It’s jewelry,” she said.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Madison said with a disappointed sigh. “I was looking forward to that story.”
Dani actually laughed at that, revealing a small gap between her two front teeth. I caught Laila discreetly rolling her eyes again, and I suppressed a smile.
“All right, guys, we’re diving right into training today,” Julian said. “I know you’re tired, but we’ve decided on only two weeks of training for this team, so we’re going to be moving pretty fast.”
“Two weeks?” Priya squeaked, echoing my thoughts.
“You all had combat training in school,” Julian said. “We think two weeks should be enough to get you ready for some simple stuff. You’ll continue training after we go out there.”
“But we’re the bad team,” Zoe said.
“You’re not the bad team,” Julian said quickly.
“Uh, we’re not great,” Zoe said. “No offense.” Archer looked kind of offended.
“You’re not a bad team, you’re a young team,” Julian said. “Everyone is eighteen or under.”
“How old are you?” Gage asked.
“Nineteen.”
“How are you qualified to do this?” Gage asked.
Julian’s eyebrows lifted a little. “Sorry?”
“Why are you a team leader? What’s your background? Besides being Grayson St. John’s best friend.”
An awkward silence fell over the team, but Julian smiled.
“I actually helped Grayson build all of this from day one,” he said. “We spent the past six months putting together training and battle plans. And Grayson and I used to take daily combat classes together, in addition to what we got at school, so I’m pretty skilled at fighting myself.” He nodded at Madison. “Maddie too. She could be a team leader, but she declined.”
Madison leaned back on her hands. “I don’t appreciate being given responsibility.”
“I am qualified to train you guys and develop our battle strategies,” Julian continued. “But it’s true that I’m not that much older than you, so please feel free to come talk to me anytime. I know that for most of you, this is your first time away from home. I’m here for whatever you need.”
His eyes flicked to me for a second, a smile briefly crossing his lips. I returned it.
“Let’s get going, then. We’re doing a couple days of basic hand-to-hand, and then we’ll move to working with weapons and armor. Teams of two today.” Julian patted his pockets. He frowned and then made a deeply annoyed noise. “Dammit, Edan!”
“What?” Edan’s wide-eyed innocence looked genuine. So it probably wasn’t.
“Whatever, keep it. I remember.”
“Are you sure it’s not in your sock? I feel like it’s in your sock.” Edan pointed. A piece of paper was sticking out of Julian’s sock. Priya giggled.
“Dammit, Edan, how do you even . . .” Julian trailed off as he grabbed the paper. He glared at Edan and shoved it in his pocket. “Noah, you’re with me, Patrick and Priya . . .” He trailed off as he regarded us. He glanced from me to Gage.
“Yo, no,” Gage interrupted.
“Sorry?” Julian asked.
“I’m not sparring with her. I saw her at tryouts. I need to be with a dude who can actually fight.”
I flushed. Gage smirked at me in a way I knew well—daring me to say something back but certain that I probably wouldn’t. He was the kind of guy who liked publicly embarrassing people (and I bet he enjoyed doing it to girls the most).
Julian opened his mouth to respond.
“I saw you at tryouts too, and you were flat on your ass most of the time,” I said evenly. “At least I stayed standing most of the time.”
Someone snorted loudly. Priya giggled.
Gage’s nostrils flared. He muttered something under his breath and stuffed his hands in his pockets. His face was red.
“Did I ask for your opinion?” Julian spat out the words with such hostility that I didn’t recognize his voice for a second.
The team went completely silent. Across the room, the Canadians paused their practice to stare.
“This isn’t high school gym class.” Julian’s voice was still loud, but a little calmer. “You don’t get an opinion, you don’t get detention if you’re rude. If you can’t take this seriously, you’re off the team. Are we clear?”
We could be kicked off our teams? What were we supposed to do if that happened? I didn’t have any money for a return ticket—would I just be stuck in France forever?
Gage swallowed and nodded. I didn’t think he had a plan if he was kicked off either.
The Canadian team leader called something to Julian in French. Julian replied, also in French. I didn’t think it was very nice, because the other team leader widened his eyes a little like, Wow, and then turned away.
I pressed my arms to my chest and grasped one wrist. This angry version of Julian made me nervous.
He let out a sigh, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. The anger drained from his face. “Sorry,” he said to us. “I don’t mean to be an ass,
