“How well you know me,” I said with a smile.
I picked up her suitcase and began taking it up the stairs.
“That’s the problem,” she replied, following me closely. “I don’t know you at all and to be honest the way you pretend to be one person to the rest of the school and someone else in private is creepy. I don’t know which one is the real you or whether or not it’s a huge mistake to trust you.”
“That’s one of the things I like about you, Jaden. You always speak your mind.”
“Yeah, well that gets me into more trouble than you know,” she replied, quietly.
When we reached the third floor, I put her bag down and began climbing up to the fourth floor, where my room was.
“Wait,” she said. “You haven’t told me why you were waiting.”
I turned to see that she was staring at me as though I were a puzzle that needed solving.
“I wanted to make sure you continued your exercises over break,” I said.
Jaden rolled her eyes.
“Of course, I did. That was the agreement, wasn’t it?” she replied.
“Then I will expect significant improvement tomorrow morning,” I told her.
“That’s really all you wanted? Why do you care so much?”
“I really don’t think it’s safe to tell you anymore than you already know,” I said.
“I don’t know anything,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before we have a full-scale Council investigation of this school and when that happens things are going to get ugly.”
“I thought you worked for the Council.”
“I do,” I replied. “Or I did. I don’t know anymore.”
Her eyebrows rose and her eyes widened.
“Look,” I began. “The Council is dangerous. They won’t hesitate to kill everyone in this school if it suits their purposes. We need to keep training.”
She blinked once as she processed my words.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She turned and walked away. I stood there kicking myself for revealing more than I’d intended, but I was strangely impressed by how well she had taken it.
***
The first morning back from break, Jaden and I ran through the woods and for the first time, she managed to keep up with me.
“Well done,” I said, coming to a stop in front of the gym doors.
“Thanks,” Jaden said, breathlessly.
“Don’t be too proud,” I instructed. “It’s not enough that you match me. You must surpass me.”
“Wow. Thanks for the confidence boost. You know I only Transitioned a few weeks ago. Why do you have to be such a jerk?” she replied.
“You don’t understand,” I told her. “You have to be ready.”
“Ready for the Council?” she asked. “If they come here there’s not going to be anything, I can do to stop them and you know it!”
“No,” I agreed. “You won’t be able to stop them, but if you’re good enough you can get yourself and your human roommate out before they kill you both.”
“Shaylee?” she gasped. “Why would they hurt her?”
“Why would they spare her? They don’t have a good track record with humans and you know it,” I replied, not wanting to give anything away or suggest Andrew’s crazy prophecy.
“If you wanted me to learn faster you should have said!” she shouted. “I don’t know why you’re so concerned about the Council coming here or what other secrets you’re keeping, but I’ve done everything you’ve asked so far so don’t blame me for not learning fast enough. I don’t even know why you care about helping me, because you won’t give me a straight answer.”
“I’m sorry,” I replied. “You’re right. You’re making good progress. I promise that when the time is right, I’ll tell you what I know. I’m just not used to trusting people.”
“Okay then,” she said. “Until you’re ready I’ll just keeping trusting you that this is really important and not something that I shouldn’t be involved in. Even though you put on this cold uncaring exterior, I can tell that underneath you’re a good person.”
I could see from her expression that she meant what she said.
“That’s the nicest thing anyone has said about me in a very long time,” I told her.
“That’s because it seems like you don’t care about anything or anyone but yourself. But I can tell, for whatever reason you care about my ability to protect myself and protecting this school from the Council.”
“You’re right,” I said, realization dawning on me. “I do care.”
“Why do you seem so surprised?” she asked.
“Because I had very determinedly decided not to care and up until this very moment, I’d thought I was succeeding. The realization that I’ve cared this whole time, it’s actually a relief.”
“And you caring about this, it’s a good thing. Right?”
“I think it could be a very good thing,” I said with a smile.
“Whoa!” She said with a laugh. “Enough with the happy smiling thing you’ve got going on. You’re scaring me.”
***
I walked into Anatomy just before the bell rang. The very first thing I noticed was Shaylee reading over her notes the way she did nearly every morning. The second thing I noticed was a boy named Kevin Vincent sitting in my seat.
I walked over to him and put as dark an expression as I could on my face when he saw me.
“You’re in my seat,” I said, my voice a menacing growl. “Move.”
“Mr. Tremain,” Mr. Downey said from behind me.
I slowly turned and glared at Mr. Downey. He seemed to not notice my ire as the small sweaty man continued smiling at me.
“I took the liberty of assigning you a new lab partner for this semester. If you’ll just take a seat over there, I’m sure Miss Parker won’t disappoint,” he said.
“No,” I replied.
“N…no?” he stuttered.
“No, I will not sit over there. I’ve grown accustomed to my lab partner and do not want a different one.”
My tone closed the conversation and Mr. Downey stared up at me, clearly unsure what to say. By the time I turned back to Keven,
