AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“You’re a Gloomy Gus. ” Emma nudged my butt with her boot. She was seated a few steps above me, hanging out on the dorm stairs.
It was the first “sunny” afternoon in days—meaning the sky had gone from gray to a washed-out white—and I’d let her and Yasuo drag me outside. Guys weren’t allowed in the girls’ dorm, and we’d taken to hanging on the front stoop. Annoying as it was, when the Trainees were around, the Initiates tended to leave us alone.
I craned my neck to look up at her. “Only you would say something so corny as Gloomy Gus. ”
“And get away with it. ” Yasuo winked at Emma, and farm girl actually giggled.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s only because she knows she could fillet us with that crazy Buck knife of hers. ”
She glowed from the compliment—as bizarre as it was. “We don’t say fillet; we say skin. ”
“Okely-dokely, redneck. ” I leaned back to elbow her in the calves.
I was trying to cheer up for her sake, having spent the past couple weeks moping around. Since the thing at the beach, both Ronan and Amanda had been acting distant.
To cope, I dove one hundred percent into my studies. Forget German business etiquette—I was ready for the freaking United Nations.
Once Alcántara had seen I’d mastered the business stuff, he asked me to review my Old High German. Not only had I done that, but I had brushed up on my Latin, too. I’d even become halfway decent at the waltz. Nonetheless, I was desperate to know why he was forcing me to focus on such an odd hodgepodge of subjects. I mean, decorum and Althochdeutsch? Weird.
The irony was, all of my discipline had put me at the top of Alcántara’s teacher’s pet list. He was seeking me out more, reviewing my work himself, he’d even alluded to our upcoming mission once or twice. Which didn’t do much for the Ronan/Amanda situation—more irony there.
Whatever. I was getting the hell off this rock. I was sure of it now. I’d travel off-island with Alcántara and make my escape at some point during our mission.
I’d escape the likes of Kevin, the jackass Trainee who’d almost urinated on me, whom I now spotted headed our way. “What’s this meathead want?” I grumbled under my breath.
“Yo,” Yas called to him.
I shot my friend a dirty look. “Do you have to be friendly with everyone?”
“That’s just how I roll, Blondie. ” Yas had spoken the words to me but hadn’t taken his eyes from Kevin, whom he greeted with a lazy nod of his head.
Kevin joined us, and to my surprise, he looked a tad nervous when he caught my eye. I gave him an evil smile.
“Whatcha got?” Yasuo asked, referring to the large rectangular box in Kevin’s hands. “You bringing D. here a peace offering?” He guffawed in that dopey way boys have perfected through the ages.
“Actually, it is for Acari Drew. ” Kevin walked up the few stairs to hand it to me. If I was surprised before, I was floored now. I took it from him, but my blood froze when he added, “With regards from Master Alcántara. ”
Kevin and Yas proceeded to make lame chitchat, which I completely ignored, aware only of the box in my lap. It was long but not too heavy, like a coat box. Emma and I exchanged our WTF looks.
Kevin left—finally—and Yasuo asked, “Are you going to open it?”
Emma scooted down a few stairs to sit next to me. “I bet it’s he
r dress. ”
Yas turned to me. “You haven’t gotten yours yet?”
“What are you talking about?” I looked between them, settling my frown on Yasuo. “And what do you know about dresses?”
“Everyone’s getting dresses,” Emma said. “They’re issuing them for the dance. ”
“Farm girl got hers this morning. ” Yas had an appreciative gleam in his eyes that irked me.
Emma was the closest thing to a bestie that I had on this island—shouldn’t I be the one she turned to for dress chat? I gave him an incredulous look. “How do you know?”
“I saw her on the quad after she got it. ”
