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She’d been so kind then.
So sweet.
She still was.
But she could be sour too.
And a little haughty and moody.
Would Melike have gone through the same stages if she’d survived?
I killed that question as suddenly as it had appeared.
“What’s the word for seahorse?” she suddenly asked, running her fingers over the embossed stitching of the one on her lilac cap.
“Seahorse.” I grinned.
“In Turkish, you ass.”
“Again with the language.”
“Yes, I want to learn a language. Your language. Mum has been learning with her apps. I know you help her practice sometimes. Help me. Teach me and then I won’t have to call you an ass because you won’t be one.”
I tried to keep a stern face but failed. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shook my head with a low chuckle.
“I’m glad I amuse you.” She winked. “Now...teach me more words. Otherwise, I’m going to jump overboard and go see Mum with her hands full of sea cucumbers.”
“Finish your math homework and then I’ll give you a few more.”
She crossed her arms. “Words then maths.”
I copied her. “Not gonna be coerced, Neri. It’s Sunday. You’ve put this off all weekend. Jack told you explicitly what would happen if you left this boat without every single one of those questions filled in.”
“You do it, then.” She shoved her e-tablet and workbook toward me. “You didn’t even finish school. Bet you can’t answer half of them.”
I stilled.
I’d deliberately never answered any questions about my past with her, yet I supposed it wasn’t hard to conclude some of them. I’d been sixteen when she found me. I’d already been on the run for almost a year. And I had no ability to continue studying now that I lived here illegally.
For all her quips about my intelligence, curiosity got the better of me, and I picked up her e-tablet, careful not to smear the screen with sweaty fingers.
She sucked in a breath as if she hadn’t been expecting me to obey. Staying quiet, she inched closer, the tips of her sun-streaked chocolate hair tickling my forearm as I scooted her textbook nearer, looked at the equation, and didn’t even have to use the method it recommended to work it out.
Colours bloomed in my head.
Inherent knowing chased after them.
I scribbled an answer down in the appropriate place, enjoying the satisfied rush.
So much more fun than sudoku.
I might technically be a dropout, but...my brain didn’t know that.
“How did you do that so fast?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I’ve always been good at numbers. They feel smooth in my mind and arrange themselves most of the time.”
“Feel smooth?” She cocked a delicate eyebrow. “That makes no sense.”
