Page 9 of Poet & Protector

Neville’s stare now conveyed a very clear ‘why are you stating the obvious.’ He didn’t otherwise reply.

I tamped down a frustrated growl. “And since Ms. Castillo isn’t giving us any in-class time to work together, we’ll have to plan something else.”

“Seems like.”

Two words. My name, and two words. That’s all I’d gotten from him.

Given that he’d gone back to staring at me silently, it appeared I was going to have to helm this ship or abandon it and fail the assignment. I was generally a good student, but an F was pretty tempting at the moment. It would bring down my grade point average but would likely spare me a lot of suffering.

“Should we meet after school?” I tried again. “In the library or something?”

“You want to meet in the library?” Neville replied, distaste tinging his question.

“Or something,” I answered in a flat tone, annoyed by his attitude. At least he said more than two words.

“I don’t like the school library,” he said. “Too many humans.”

He fell silent and I became even more irked that he didn’t bother to offer an alternative. I was about to point out his lack of helpfulness when he spoke again.

“And I don’t write as well indoors.” Neville rubbed the back of his neck, as if telling me that made him uneasy.

Like I care where he prefers to write. Wait…he writes? Like, writes more than the homework we’re assigned?

“Uh…okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. I hadn’t been expecting him to share his writing habits and now I had more questions.

“Would you mind meeting in the woods?” Neville asked, still agitated.

“I’m a wolf,” I replied. “I don’t make a habit of writing in the woods, but I do enjoy being outdoors.”

“Cool.” Some of the tension went out of his shoulders. “There’s a place. It’s not too far from the Burnout, so you won’t have a hard time finding it. I’ll draw you a map.”

A map? Where the hell does he want to meet?

If he was luring me out into the woods to kill me so we didn’t have to do this assignment together, I was going to be really pissed off. I also knew the logic of that last thought didn’t work, but I didn’t care. I shouldn’t have agreed to meet him in a strange place. I was making all the effort in this new ‘partnership.’

He hunched over his notebook, pen scratching on paper for a couple of minutes. He ripped the page out and handed it to me.

“Four thirty, okay? Shouldn’t need more than an hour to get this sorted out.”

“Sure.” I didn’t know exactly what he meant by ‘sorted out.’ I thought about asking, then decided it wouldn’t garner any kind of helpful answer.

He went back to writing in his notebook. I sat there, feeling confused. There were only five minutes left in class, but we could have used them to start talking about the assignment.

When Neville noticed I was still sitting next to him, he cast me a sidelong glance. “I think we’re done here, Mason.”

How many weeks was this project? Four? God, it was going to feel like an eternity. Banes were such assholes.

I rolled my eyes and went to sit with Bryn and Fey until class was over.

NEV

After the bell rang, I stalked to my locker, cursing my bad luck. I was never going to survive this project. I should have told Mason I’d do the assignment for both of us, and we didn’t need to bother with meeting up after school. Instead, I’d invited him to a place I’d kept mostly to myself for years. I still couldn’t figure out how I let that happen.

I didn’t see it coming, being paired with him. I hated group projects. I did everything I could to avoid them, and up until now I’d been successful. This one came out of nowhere.

I can’t believe I drew him a map.

I chalked it up to the shock of Ms. Castillo first springing the assignment on me and following up with giving me a partner who was a Nightshade. I didn’t do well with sudden change and always took a little while to adjust to whatever new situation I found myself in.