Elite (Eagle Elite #1)(18)

Nixon walked in. For the first time in two days I wanted him to pay attention to me. I wanted him to walk over to my desk and say our wager was stupid. I wanted that damn access card. In fact, I would kill for the one elevator ride a week, and I’d only been in school for five minutes.

“Today we’re going to work in teams.” He began handing out sheets of paper. “I know many of you are familiar with Settlers of Catan. It’s a board game where you are in charge of your own country and you sell and trade with other countries. It’s more complicated than that, but today I want you to form your own countries. Each of you has something someone else needs, whether it be oil, wheat, or even land. You will barter with team members in order to build your own country. Come up with a flag and a team motto. You have the rest of the class period.”

Sounded easy enough. He handed me the paper. I noticed there weren’t any names assigned on it.

“I raised my hand.”

“Yes, Farm Girl?”

Rolling my eyes I asked as nicely as possible, “Aren’t the teams assigned?”

People snickered as if I had just asked the dumbest question in the world.

Nixon didn’t snicker, nor did he smile. “Nope, you work with groups. So pick a group and work with them.”

“Any group?”

“Any group,” he snapped.

Okay, I grabbed my sheet of paper and approached the three people to my right. “Hey, can I work with—”

“—We don’t work with whores.” The blonde girl flipped her hair and then gave me the bird. Lovely.

I walked toward the back of the classroom where the guy who was drinking during class sat with his group. “Do you guys possibly have room for one more?”

The guy opened his flask taking a big swig and then wiped his mouth with his jacket. “Yeah, we’re totally into threesomes, aren’t we?” He looked at the other girl in his group and high-fived her.

Tears threatened again.

I hated this school.

I hated stupid Phoenix and Nixon and Chase and everyone!

With a steadying breath I marched to the front of the room and politely waited for Nixon to notice me. He was reading some crazy long book in a different language. Boring.

“What can I do for you, Trace?” His eyes didn’t leave the book.

“The groups won’t take me.”

“Then I guess you fail.”

I gasped. “It’s not my fault...”

“Ah, there’s the excuse I was looking for.” This time his eyes met mine. “This is the real world, Trace. You can’t just tattle on the mean kids in class. Nobody wants you to be in their group? Be in the group anyways. Make them notice you, make them pay attention. Now, run along.”

Part of me was shocked at the truth of his statement, while the other part wanted to smack him on the head with that super large book and then burst into tears.

I fisted the paper in my hand and marched toward the back of the room again. “The third part of the threesome is here. Let’s get started.”

The students around me looked shocked and then, surprisingly, we began working on our project. I looked back at Nixon. He was watching me intently, and then he nodded just once and went back to his book.

By the time class was finished some of my embarrassment had left me. I walked down the hall with a purpose, despite the mean stares and snickers around me. Monroe waved me over from one of the windows. I still had five minutes before history so I went over to her.

“So, how was class?” Monroe took a long sip of coffee.

“Bad. Then worse, then… surprisingly better.”

She exhaled in relief. “Good. I was worried about you.”

“Thanks.”

“Sister,” Nixon said from behind us.

“Lucifer,” she greeted coldly.

I didn’t want to turn around, but my body made me. It was like I couldn’t help but ask for trouble.

“Please tell, Farm Girl to stop looking at us,” Nixon said coldly. “Why was he pissed? I was the one who was taken advantage of! And all because he wanted to prove how important he was!”

I quickly averted my eyes and bit my tongue to keep from saying something offensive.

My eyes fell on all the students around us. They were watching and waiting, and I was getting sicker and sicker by the minute.

“Thanks for… this,” Monroe said.

“I’m doing it for you. Not for her,” came Nixon’s reply. “Wouldn’t want anyone uncomfortable.”

I flinched.

Monroe grabbed my hand and placed an access card in it. Somehow it didn’t feel right that she would be afraid of her own brother. But then again maybe this was just how things worked in her family.

Within seconds all four pairs of shiny boots left my line of vision and marched down the hall. I gulped and looked at the access card.

It was red.

I flipped it over, but there was no bar code.

“What is this?” I asked Monroe. She was putting on lip gloss and practically ignoring me, but then again she did have a short attention span.

“It’s all I could do, Boots. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell him you lost yours, so I came up with another story to tell Tex and Phoenix. Nixon doesn’t like irresponsibility. He’s a control freak like that. At any rate, at least you can eat.” She patted my shoulder and walked off.