With a long sigh, she pursed her lips.
I’d take it as an okay, fine. Amazingly, she had downloaded the flashcard app. Or I bet Lorcan had when he’d tried to tutor her. “I’ll help you with the Latin.”
After we’d gone through a few pathetic runs, she cleared her throat and said, “Layla?”
I looked up at her.
“Thanks…”
I shrugged.
“For whatever you did to make sure I didn’t drown.”
I nodded.
“So, you really want me to come back here?”
It would be so easy. I could walk out of here instead of trying to tutor her last-minute. Let her reap her losses and get kicked out. Yet, I couldn’t. Dad wasn’t wrong in sending us here together. We’d both inadvertently had each other’s backs. But I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the right thing to do. Should I want her to return to this mysterious place that helped elves discover their powers? Was I subjecting her to more harm than good?
“Hey, it’s not up to me.” I waved the tablet off my lap. “You gotta pass to stay.”
She glowered at the ceiling with a groan.
Summer break was two months? Seemed weird that she’d be staying here to try to pass and I’d have to go home. Further away from my longma.
I sat up straighter and frowned at the memory. Snippets of flashbacks came clearer the more the sedation wore off.
A sturdy, long chain. Why had it been locked up, and by whom?
“Layla?” I glanced up from staring absentmindedly at the bed rail and turned to the door.
Ethel and Paige entered.
“Sabine?” Ethel asked. “How do you feel?”
“Bored. Hungry. Picked on.”
I gave her a look. “No one told you to wear those stupid shoes to a field trip.”
“Yeah, well, no one knew we’d have to cross a rickety old bridge.”
“Yeah, well,” I shot back, mocking her tone, “it’s thanks to your big mouth that Alwin even changed the location of the final and got us out there in the first pl—”
“Okay. Okay!” Ethel clapped and held her hands up like she was splitting up a fistfight. “Goodness. Sabine, I think they’ll let you leave the clinic shortly. Then you’ll be reporting to Bernadette. Since classes will be out for the summer and dorms will be deep-cleaned, you’ll be rooming with—”
A long, pitiful groan rent the air. Sabine covered her face. “I have to room with Old Bernie?”
Paige held her hand over her mouth as she closed her eyes. Her chest jerking in laughs gave her away though.
“It’s not funny!”
I ignored Sabine. Actually, it was hilarious. Sue me. I liked seeing a little bit of justice served.
“So I’m going back to Texas until August?” I asked.
“Not necessarily.”
I cocked my head at Ethel’s statement.
“You could come with us!” Paige nearly shouted it. “We have to go home and visit the fam in this tiny town in Michigan, like, for all of the two months.”
“We don’t have to visit.” Ethel shook her head at Paige. “We want to visit. We haven’t seen Grandma and Grandpop since—”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Paige took a lunging step closer to me. “But we’d love it if you could come. Right, Mom?”
Hmm. Return home to Coltin to Dad in the trailer park, or go on summer break with the Verlenes in a city I’d never traveled to. Something old versus something new. My hesitation wasn’t about Sabine’s theory that I feared trying new things. Both of those options left me with no chance to find my longma.
“Or…”
I raised my brows at Ethel. She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles. Something had her hesitant.
“Or?”
“Mr. Suthering said you could stay here as a student assistant.”
I grinned. “What does that mean?”
“You stay and work here on campus somewhere. Probably in the greenhouses or stables. Like a hired hand. Sometimes they offer it as a work-experience credit before students graduate—something to include in resumés and college applications for job credits.”
“Perfect.”
Chapter Two
At the dorms the next day, the Green House girls’ supervisor, Marcy, and I said goodbye to the Verlenes. I promised Paige I’d email her daily, yet she was still bummed that I’d declined their invitation to come. Or maybe that small town in Michigan was really boring and I’d sentenced her to a long summer of no fun by herself.
Ethel took an extra minute chatting with Marcy before they departed. I hadn’t realized they were that close of acquaintances.
“What was Ethel telling you?” I asked after their car pulled away.
Marcy shrugged and pushed off the wall she’d been leaning on. She always seemed to need the support, or perhaps it was a lazy slouchy habit. A morsel of an attitude.
“Nothing much. Just to keep an eye on you.” She winked.
“Babysit, you mean?”
“Nah. Nothing that extreme. Seems you’re good at taking care of yourself, anyway.” Marcy elbowed me gently in the ribs and headed inside. She might have been referring to how I’d gotten out of the lake, but that wasn’t all on me. The longma saved me. And unless Ethel told Marcy…but even Ethel didn’t know all the details…
And I won’t be sharing the deets either.
Unease bubbled in my stomach at the thought of my longma. I at least knew it was alive…but captured? I couldn’t let that stand.
I followed her into the building. We walked through the emptied dorms, all the rooms devoid of chattering girls and clutters of clothes. Nearly everyone had left for home or vacation until school resumed. It was…nice. Quiet. Un-peopley, just the way I preferred.
“But you will be under my supervision. Not just in the dorms, but for work, too.”
“Yeah? Doing what?” I was kind of pleased she’d be my boss. I hadn’t had any issues with her. She lacked that stiff formality so many of the instructors had, maybe because of her age.
“We’ll start at the farm.”
Where the heck is a farm around here? Then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Olde Earth seemed to have the hiding-big-things art down quite well. “What does the Academy farm?”
Marcy shrugged as she continued through the vacant dorms. “They don’t specialize in crops for market value. More for the research.” She sighed as we came to my and Paige’s room. Come August, we’d need to move our belongings upstairs to the floor where the sophomores resided. For now, I’d been told, I could have the room to myself. Another perk. Another first. As much as I enjoyed rooming with Paige…a whole room just for me!
“When I was a student here, I focused on farm management.” Again, she took up her post leaning against the wall. Arms crossed and one foot to the wall, she watched me take my chair at my desk.
“When did you graduate?”
“Two years ago. I didn’t want to leave, so after I graduated, Glorian hired me as a dorm supervisor and Suthering hired me to manage some of the farm operations. I prefer the greenhouse, specifically, but the work tends to overlap.”
I’d never really thought about what Marcy did when all of us students were at class. Seemed she kept busy. I hadn’t wanted to leave for summer break because of my longma, but why had she wanted to linger after being done with all of her courses?
“So, get a good night’s sleep tonight, girlie. Tomorrow we’ll start pretty early. Well, right after your run, okay?”
I nodded, grinning, thankful she’d respect my routine.
“You can begin in the stables with Flynn.”
My brows shot up and I fought a smile. Flynn? He was staying too? The disappointment I’d felt at not having said goodbye to him for the summer evaporated.
“I think he’s going to be under Otis’s charge, but we’ll see how it pans out for the first day.” Marcy knocked her knuckles on the door and left.
&nbs
p; Huh. This might actually be…fun. A summer here, with Flynn. Without instructors watching me and…spying on me since the sea monster incident.
Not only would it be fun, we could actually try to find my longma.
In the morning, as promised, Marcy took me to the farm operations. When I returned from my run—with no longma—and showered, I set out to find her. She had a small, old pickup truck waiting at the dorm exit, and I hopped in. “Oh, hey!”
Flynn was already there, sitting in the middle of the bench seat. He grinned. “Morning.”
“Ready?” Marcy leaned over, her blonde curls draping over the steering wheel as she met my gaze.
I nodded. What a difference the seasons made. During the school year, she was dressed casually or in semi-schoolish clothes. Here, she wore a tank top, showing off the start of a sleeve of tattoos. Black symbols swirled and stretched from her collarbone, over her shoulder, and down her bicep. Gave her a sharper edge and erased some of her Barbie-ish quality.
“How’d you get to stay for break? You don’t have to go home?” I asked Flynn.
“Suthering offered the work credit, and I accepted.”
I couldn’t hide my flinch. Wow. Kind of a curt, evasive answer. And, ouch? Maybe he’d gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. I dismissed his attitude and cast my gaze out the window, watching the dorms get smaller as Marcy took us away from the central hub of campus.
We drove past and around the woods where I ran, and when we steered the general direction of the lake, I stiffened in my seat. Just seeing the distant edge of water had me breathing shorter bits of air.
Flynn moved his hand toward me, almost as though he planned to put it on my thigh, but when Marcy spoke up, he darted it back to his lap.
“Farm ops are past the cliff, so it’ll be a little more of a drive.”
Instead of taking the path we’d walked on with the Botany class, Marcy guided the truck to the left. We headed over the rockier area of the hill and ended up in a large, flat meadow. Right about the same spot Flynn, Lorcan, and I had snuck out and walked to at the beginning of freshman year. We bounced and bustled our way down the rugged drive until the structures were clearer.
Red-roofed stables were tucked into the cliff. Pastures were filled with trimmed grass. Fences trapped horses in. Beyond the long building, where I assumed the horses stayed, was another, taller facility with clear windowpanes for a ceiling. Most likely a greenhouse.
“What do you think?” Marcy asked as she pulled the truck toward what seemed to be a small parking lot.
What did I think? For starters, it was a relief that no animals flew in the sky. Only normal, gravity-obeying horses grazed behind the split-rail fence. The whole drive out here, only normal creatures came into view.
Flynn sighed, almost like he’d been preparing himself for the perytons as well. “Can’t wait to get started.”
Marcy jumped down from the truck and we exited. She led us to the wide-open doors of the stables, dust flying up with each one of her booted footfalls.
Boots. Huh. I glanced down at my sneakers. Probably should find me a pair of work boots if I’m going to be around horses. I stole a peek at Flynn’s feet and saw his shoes were rugged and outdoorsy enough to pass for boots.
“Hey-o!” Marcy called out, twisting her voice like she wanted to play cowgirl.
“Be right there.” The voice that called out from the darkness within the stables absolutely boomed.
Marcy turned to face us, sliding large aviator sunglasses from her pocket onto her nose. “Otis has been here with the horses for years.”
“You calling me old?” he hollered from inside.
“Older than dirt!” Marcy called back. “Anything you want to know about horses, he’s the man to ask.”
Maybe he can tell us why some of them fly? I squinted against the bright sunlight that had just tipped over the treetops behind the stables. I need boots and sunglasses.
“Whatcha got for me this time?” Otis asked.
A large man ambled out of the stables. Dirt swirled with each of his heavy footsteps. The huge guy lumbered, shifting his massive body toward us with a significant limp. I wouldn’t call him bald, but the white hair on his head was thin. Wrinkles after wrinkles lined his craggy face, yet his smile was youthful. Rosiness colored his cheeks and nose, not like a blush as I was used to, but more like a permanent redness like Santa’s.
Once he reached us, he stood up as straight as he probably could. He had to be nearing seven feet tall, but even at that height, his weight seemed unproportionally excessive. Heavy, like he’d liked to eat desserts more than he’d cared to exercise as he’d aged. He held his arms behind his back and nodded at us. “Hi there.”
“Otis, this is Flynn and Layla.” Marcy stepped to the side, out of the way.
“Hi.” Flynn waved his hand before sticking it back into his pocket.
“Nice to meet you,” I said and gave my own wave.
He chuckled a deep sound which gave to coughing, squinting his clear blue eyes almost closed. “You hear that, Marcy? She said it’s nice to meet me.”
Marcy smirked in something of a smile, likely well-used to his humor.
“Let’s see if you’ll say that after today.” He winked at me.
Uh…okay?
“First day in the field is always…eye-opening.” Marcy glanced between Flynn and I and then tipped her chin toward Otis. “You think you can handle both of them?”
“New trainees are always so much fun.” Otis nodded.
“I think these two like to stick together.” Marcy raised her brow. “Let’s give them a chance to break in together.”
Break in…like a shoe?
I shared a glance with Flynn. Why did they make it sound like we were readying for a marathon?
Hours later, sometime well after a normal lunchtime, I lay in the grass near the stables, away from grazing horse mouths, and groaned.
“Are we going to be able to get back up?” Flynn asked next to me. Even his sigh sounded fatigued.
“You can drag me out of here.” I closed my eyes and focused on the hint of a cool breeze flittering over my face. In the shade, it was kind of nice out here. Nothing near the oppressive heat Texas had.
“At least we know what they meant about ‘breaking us in’ now.”
I huffed and then groaned as I sat up.
For our first morning of work, Otis didn’t go easy on us. After finding a pair of old, forgotten boots for me, he started us on pitching hay. Then mucking stalls. After that, moving bags of feed. Next, we were dragging hoses. Carrying water buckets. Hanging up saddles. Some more pitching or shoveling of…whatever. I’d lost track. We had yet to actually be near the horses. As alarming as it was that everything was so heavy, I wasn’t ready to complain to them. To Flynn, now that we were alone for a belated break, yeah. We were both beaten. I’d admit my exhaustion to him.
I allowed a small grin at the realization I’d kept up with Flynn. A taller, stronger guy, and I’d—just barely—managed to keep up. He’d done twice the amount of labor, but we’d done the same kind of labor regardless.
We’d been so busy or near Otis that we couldn’t even talk. Nor would we have wanted to waste the breath with speaking.
“I bet it will feel even worse tomorrow morning,” I warned. Any time I pushed myself too hard running, I felt the difference the morning after.
“We’ll survive.” He leaned up to one elbow and faced me. “I’m sorry about earlier. In the truck.”
I quirked a brow and grabbed the water bottle Marcy had provided.
“I was kind of…short with you.”
Hmm. Right. I’d done a fine job trying to forget about it until he mentioned it.
“I was embarrassed to talk about it then. With her in the truck.”
But he wasn’t too shy to open up to me? I crossed my legs and paid attention.
“My foster family stated that they didn’t want me to come home for break. I guess they thou
ght they were done with me for good.”
Ouch. I inhaled deeply. I was no stranger to feeling unwanted. But I knew if Dad could have me home for a little bit of the summer, he would have welcomed me. He’d replied with go ahead to my email explaining the summer work offer. Dad wasn’t so sentimental that he’d try to limit my chances for job experiences.
“I’m sorry.” Screw that. I was sorry, I felt horrible for him to be rejected, but I refused to let him get stuck in it. “But I’m not. Because now you’re here. With me.”
A smile slowly took over his lips.
“Right?”
He nodded and twisted his lips, like he wanted to hide the full stretch of his grin.
There. Now he wasn’t so morose. “And we can be miserable together, torturing our bodies while we ‘work’ here ’til classes start.”
He sat up fully and reached for the lunches Marcy thought of ahead of time and packed for us. After he tossed me a brown sack, he shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll get used to it.”
Before he could drop back to that sad voice, he cleared his throat and said, “Well, we’re here all right. Now tell me what really happened in the water. I saw…”
“A monster.” I explained as much as I could while he ate, and then I opened up the container holding my sandwich. While I ate, he gave me his thoughts.
“I saw…the arms? His head? Jesus, its mouth was like a black hole with swords for teeth.”
I nodded, struggling with too big of a bite of PB&J. Yeah, I remember.
“When it went under, I couldn’t really track it. The waves blocked it.”
Another nod. I’d figured his vision would be limited. He seemed to think for a moment before asking, “The chain, can you describe it?”
What for? A chain is a chain. And someone had used it on my longma.
“Not really.” I swallowed and drank some water.
“Did it look like a leash?”
I thought back to some of the sturdier restraints the animal control officers used at the shelter back in Coltin. “No. It was…thicker? Beefier? Like an industrial-strength chain.” Something you’d see in a shipyard, almost.
Discovery: Olde Earth Academy: Year Two Page 2
