“But … what if….” She tries pulling her hands away.
“No, stop.” I keep my hold firm. “Why would it be okay for you to do whatever it takes to figure out what’s going wrong with you, but not me?” I stare deep into her eyes. “I need to do this, or my future is gone.”
It takes a moment, but she nods. “Okay, I get it.” She places her hands in her lap and glances out the window. “My parents are always on me about not failing, so I understand needing to do anything possible to get a leg up.”
A huge weight lifts off my shoulders. I didn’t realize how important it was to have her on my side. But there is something about her no one but me seems to see. My best friend is special, and I don’t think her healing powers are just an anomaly. She’s meant for something big in this life. I pull her into a hug.
She wraps her arms around me and hugs tight. “But we have to be smart.”
We? I like the sound of that. I should have known she wouldn’t let me go off alone. “What do you mean?”
“It means,” she says, pulling back, pointing, “no asking questions about the prison reaping. It will seem obvious after what happened earlier today. So, don’t do anything stupid.”
“Hey.” Did she accuse me? “I don’t do stupid things?”
“Oh, really?” She places her hands on her hip. “What about the time you dropped by my house and my mom told us not to eat any of the brownies. You stole one on your way out. I had to listen about how I had a thief of a friend for weeks. I almost couldn’t hang out with you anymore.”
Okay. I did do that. But come on. They were brownies. “I disagree that it was stupid. It was delicious, and I don’t regret one second of it.”
“Seriously?” She shakes her head. “Can you just behave, please, and let me handle it?”
“I promise not to do anything stupid.” I hold my hand out with my three middle fingers up and my thumb holding my pinkie down. “Brownies honor.”
Giggling, she walks over to the section of my room where I keep my hair supplies and grabs a brush. “I’ll take what I can get.” After she pulls her hair up into a ponytail, she turns to me. “Come on, let’s get to class.”
We make our way out of the house and stop at the kitchen to grab some granola bars.
When we walk outside, Christina takes a bite of hers. “You know, I’ll see what my parents know about the prison reaping tonight at dinner. They’re probably involved in some capacity since it’ll be a high-level job.”
That’s true, but I hate getting her involved with my dirty work. If they found out she was snooping, it would turn ugly. “Well, okay. But please be careful.”
She turns to me and gives me a sad smile. “I’m always careful. I have to be.”
And that’s the sad reality of her life. Her parents are narcissistic individuals who only care about themselves and their status. I wish she had the type of parents she deserved.
The school comes into view a short time later.
Since it’s not a lecture day, we didn’t bring our backpacks, so we go straight into the gymnasium. The floors are covered with pads and at least fifteen of our other classmates are here. We head over to the wall to line-up with everyone else. At least this class is one I shouldn’t have to struggle so hard with.
Mr. Cox walks out and scans everyone that’s already there. “Okay, guys. We have a big day. Let’s get started.”
This is one class I enjoy for several reasons. It doesn’t hurt Mr. Cox is one of the hottest teachers around. He’s probably just ten years older than us, muscled, and easy on the eyes.
“One would think,” he says as he paces in front of us, “that being a reaper would be an easy job, but every now and then you will run into a fighter. Someone not ready to go.”
“Yeah, but we got that power.” One of the jocks in our class pushes off from the wall and steps toward the teacher. “It doesn’t matter if they want to go or not.”
I don’t know why Jeremy has to act this way. He’s a good-looking guy, but has an ego the size of Texas. And you know what they say about Texas. Everything is bigger there.
Not ignoring the snide comment, the teacher saunters over to him. “When you begin reaping, it takes a minute for your powers to kick in. With rare exceptions, only those with decades of experience can do it instantaneously. Yes, you may find yourself in unfavorable situations.”
“Either way,” Jeremy squares his shoulders. “I can take care of myself.”
What a moron. Those are the worst kind on the field from what my brother says. They are overconfident and arrogant and get themselves into trouble.
“Oh, really?” Mr. Cox turns and scans the rest of the class. “Would anyone like to challenge Jeremy here to a fight on the mat? This is where I wanted our lesson to go today anyways.”
Jeremy’s friends beside him drop their gaze to the floor.
The guy next to me looks at the door which is the opposite direction of where the teacher is standing.
Okay, this is bullshit. None of the guys are going to challenge him so it’s got to be me. “I’ll do it.”
“What?” Jeremy snorts. “You? Really?”
This douche is going down. “Yeah, me. You got a problem with that?”
The teacher scans me up and down. “I’m okay with it.”
Game on. I grin. “All right, let’s do this.”
“Coach, are you serious?” Jeremy’s mouth is hanging open and one of his friends is laughing.
“What’s wrong?” Mr. Cox crosses his arms. “You scared?”
“Huh?” Jeremy runs
