“Riley, Quinn is here,” Jacob announces needlessly.
“I can see that. You can let her go, you know,” she admonishes him with a tilt of her chin. “He’s a little excited if you can’t tell.” Riley already looks different. The slight slope of her shoulders and the shadows in her eyes are lighter. Not gone, because I’m sure this young lady has had more than her own fair share of darkness to endure, but having her brother with her seems to be suiting her nicely.
Jacob releases my hand and a blush races up his neck. “Sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I crashed when we got back,” I offer without adding the needless details of what happened last night.
Riley comes a few steps closer. Her eyes roam over my face. “Thank you, Ms. Shaw, I can’t…it means so much to me, to us, what you did for us.”
I lift my hands. “That was all Gri—Director Stone and Mr. Winters. I was just along for the ride.”
“But you made it possible,” Riley tells me.
I reach for her hand and fold mine over top of hers. “You made it possible, Riley. All I did was tell the right people.” I meet her eyes and hope she can see I’m talking about more than just getting her brother to Havenfall. She enabled them to survive out there.
Riley bites her bottom lip and I see a glassy sheen cover her eyes. I keep her hand within mine and grin over a Jacob. If any of my instincts are right about her, she wouldn’t want him to see her upset. “Your big sis is pretty amazing, but you’re really brave too, Jacob. You guys are an awesome team.” Jacob peeks over at Riley and then down at the ground. Seeing I’ve embarrassed him too, I change the subject. “I hear it’s almost time for dinner. Have you seen the cafeteria yet? Talk about delish.” I release Riley’s hand after a little squeeze.
“He’s been thinking about dinner since lunch.” Riley lets out a watery laugh.
“There was so much food, I didn’t know what to get.” Jacob’s eyes go a little wide. I’m pretty sure that lean body of his will be filling out in no time. “You wanna eat with us?” he asks, sounding oh so hopeful. His eyes briefly dart to Evan, but return quickly to me.
“Jacob,” Riley hisses.
“Heck yeah I do. Thanks for the invite,” I answer before the offer can be rescinded. I know eating on the student side isn’t an issue, some of the teachers do it for lunch, Alice already told me as much.
“Count me in too.” Evan is leaning back slightly with his hands clasped behind his back. Riley’s eyes get wide, but she doesn’t say anything.
“Cool.” Jacob grins, I can see a slight hero worship building as he mimics the way Evan is standing. Who could blame him? The way Evan handled Thomas was pretty inspiring, even if a little brutal from a human perspective, but he’s not human. None of them are.
“We should go then if we want first dibs.” Riley looks at a small digital alarm clock near one of the two beds positioned in the room.
“I’m ready.” I take one last look around, noting the sparseness of the space, there are no pictures or personal items. I hope that will change now that the two of them are together. But the room seems comfortable. There are two matching desks, one has a small Chromebook and a notebook opened to what looks like homework. The other is empty, but I’m sure it won’t be for long. Jacob will have his own assignments soon enough.
Evan opens the door and holds it for each of us to file through. I wait until the siblings go and trail behind them. Jacob looks over his shoulder as if to check that we’re still with them.
A few other students are coming from their rooms, the lure of food is usually a good instigator. We get a couple of looks, even a few whispers, but for the most part the kids seem to ignore us.
I notice Jon up ahead, coming from a room down the hall. When our eyes meet, he does a double take. “Ms. Shaw?”
“Hey, Jon, how are you?”
“Good, good. Something wrong?” He looks past me to Evan, who’s just a little behind me.
“No, just heading to dinner. How’s your day going?” I stop when I reach his side.
“Good, great. Yours?” His voice cracks as his eyes dart to Evan every once in a while.
“I can’t complain,” I answer, even though I totally could. “We’re heading down, see you there?”
“Yeah, I’m just waiting on a friend.” The door Jon is standing near opens and a pretty girl steps out. Her mouth rounds into an ‘O’ when she sees us. But she doesn’t ask any questions. Not while we’re there anyway. I do see their heads close together after we walk away though. I can’t tell if it’s Evan or me that’s causing the stir.
Once we reach the main floor, we head to the cafeteria. The noise coming from the open double doors greets us before we can even see them. It sounds like hundreds of voices layered over others, each louder than the next to be heard over the din. Seems like it would be hard on supernatural hearing.
Entering the doors, I note the size difference of the two cafeterias. This eatery is much larger than the one on the staff side, but set up similarly. There’s a long buffet line and a few freestanding cooler units placed near the east wall. The other side is compiled of tables and chairs, with a soda fountain and condiment station against the opposite wall.
No one seems to notice as we enter. There are a few other staff members seated around one table in particular, and a few more milling about that seem to be watching the group.
Kids are smiling, eating, and talking with their tablemates. Jacob is the first to grab a tray, but instead of getting in line, he turns and hands it to me. “Thanks,” I tell him, warmed by the gesture. Evan makes a grunting sound as he reaches for his own tray. “What looks good?” I peer over the variety of selections.
“Everything!” The boy sighs happily. I can’t fight my smile. I had a few friends in college that could eat like a shifter, but I know their appetite tends to be unrivaled.
