Stranger Series Box Set

by Heather C. Myers

  Sophie blanched. “How long is long?” she asked.

  “Long.”

  The red head frowned. Now she was getting frustrated with him. “I thought the purpose of these training sessions was to help me control my strength, not go running,” she said.

  “There are two kinds of boxers, kid,” he explained, folding his arms over his chest and revealing just how big they really were. “Fast ones and strong ones. You’re already strong. We need to get you fast. History has shown us that it’s the fast ones that win fights because of their endurance. I’m going to get you both strong and fast. You’ll be unstoppable.”

  “But,” Sophie looked away, out at the view of the sea. She suddenly didn’t want to be here anymore, “I hate running.”

  Will rolled his eyes. “Get over it,” he said, and then, relenting only slightly, “We’ll go slow.”

  14

  Once Anatomy and Physiology was over, Jane was still bristling at Professor Murdoch’s outing of Sophie. Professors weren’t supposed to do that. Even Elle, who was always half-asleep during early classes, was upset about it. Sophie brushed off their anger good-naturedly and thanked the two after they had walked her to her Tarot class which was still located on the first floor, down the hall. Once Sophie was inside, Jane and Elle headed back to their room for their free period. As Elle proceeded to attempt to fall back asleep, Jane put the final touches on her Numerology essay. When she finished, she went online to read some fan fiction until five till nine, when she and the newly refreshed Elle exited the room in order to give themselves enough time to walk all the way back to the Ack Building. They met Sophie at her Tarot class and would walk her to Astrology, a class the three shared.

  “So?” Jane asked once Sophie emerged from behind a tall guy—obviously Aqua, judging from his blue and silver uniform. “How was it?”

  “I love it!” Sophie exclaimed. “I mean, there’s this weird guy in class, but he didn’t even look at me, which was refreshing. Professor Neal is incredible. I can’t wait to practice more with my deck.”

  “You’ll love Astrology then,” Elle said.

  And she did.

  The trio wasn’t even out of the classroom before Sophie proceeded to tell Jane and Elle how interested she was in learning about herself through Astrology and didn’t know that there was more to it than just the sun signs. Luckily, Professor Alexander only assigned a quick chapter of reading along with the year-long assignment of keeping a daily log of their horoscope and seeing if it was actually accurate.

  Break lasted fifteen minutes and that meant the trio separated: Elle back to Ignis thanks to her second free period, Sophie onto the field in order to train with Will, and Jane to Numerology. She climbed the flight of stairs and headed down the east hallway until she reached the fourth door on the right.

  The minute Jane stepped into the classroom, she stopped short. Someone was sitting in her seat. Not just anyone, but the tall Aqua who had been in Sophie’s Tarot class. She glanced around, unsure of what to do. A couple of students filtered in behind her, giving Jane odd looks. She felt her cheeks flush. That was her seat. Everybody knew it. She had been sitting there since she was a Year One taking the introductory classes. Now, for the first time in over four years, someone was in her seat.

  She knew what she had to do.

  With as much grace as she could muster, Jane walked to the third column of seats and headed down the line until she reached the fourth desk. She slid a polite smile onto her face before she said, “Excuse me?” He finally looked up at her from what appeared to be some sort of graphic novel with big, cerulean eyes. “You’re sitting in my seat.”

  He blinked once at her. “No I’m not,” he said—was that an accent Jane heard?—before refocusing on his reading material.

  Jane’s mouth dropped. “Yes you are,” she said. She nearly stomped one of her feet in order to emphasize her point but still possessed the power to resist such childish behavior. For now. “I’ve been sitting here for the past three years. That is my seat.”

  “Jane?” Jane turned to see Brielle looking at her with concern. “Is everything okay?”

  “He’s in my seat,” Jane replied. “Brie, tell him I’ve been sitting here since Year One.”

  “She has been sitting there since Year One,” Brielle told him dutifully. She slid into her usual, still unoccupied seat adjacent to what used to be Jane’s seat. She cocked her head. “Are you new? I haven’t seen you before.”

  “I am,” he replied but he kept his eyes on Jane. “I’m sorry, but does the professor have a seating chart?”

  “Um, no.” Brielle looked apologetically at Jane.

  “As I thought,” he said. “Since there is no seating chart, there is no way I am sitting in your seat.”

  Oh yes, there was definitely an accent. A Southern accent. And more than that, there was a thick arrogance laced through it. It couldn’t have anything to do with his looks though. Not that he was bad looking, per se, if one found tall, skinny guys with big eyes and a Southern accent good looking. He had short, dark auburn hair that was cut close to his round head and while his teeth were predominantly straight, Jane could tell he had never had braces due to the slight imperfection of his two front teeth. To put it bluntly, he looked like a geek; all that was missing were thick-rimmed glasses with a piece of white tape in the middle, indicating he had broken them time and time again, and a pocket protector.

  It was obvious that he was no Adonis nor did he possess any type of muscle that would reveal he was some kind of sports star, so that left intelligence. The reason he sounded so arrogant was because he must be incredibly smart and probably assumed that he was more intelligent than anyone he encountered.

  Jane bit her lip, causing the ever-perceptive seat stealer to narrow his eyes at the gesture. He must be paranoid that Jane was going to try something in order to make him give up his seat.

  Perhaps she could peek into his mind to try and figure out a way to get her seat back.

  The moment she attempted to do just that—a violation that could result in a detention or sometimes worse—his eyes widened. Without thinking, Jane immediately spun around and plopped into the seat in front of him. At that moment, Professor Butler strode in a few minutes late as usual, throwing out a casual “Good morning” in his Scottish brogue.

  “I felt that!” a voice hissed from behind her, his hot breath invading the back of her neck.

  Jane rolled her eyes, deciding to ignore him. Instead, she turned her attention back to Professor Butler. It was no wonder why every girl and gay boy in AckPec had major crushes on him. Not only was he Scottish, but he was relatively tall with broad shoulders and muscles everywhere. Everywhere. He had dark hair and grey-green eyes that sometimes looked blue, especially when he wore blue shirts. Jane’s favorite feature of his, though, was his crooked boyish smile that somehow had the power to be mischievous and endearing at the same time.

  “Calm down, now,” he said as a couple of girls made their way in late. He dropped his knapsack on his chair before looking at his students. “I know you’re all excited to hand in your essays, but we have some business to attend to first. It seems we have a new student, a Mr …” he headed to the podium where he kept his roll sheet, “Calvin Joseph.”

  “That’s Dr. Calvin Joseph,” the guy from behind Jane corrected.

  “Of course,” Professor Butler said, nodding his head once. “Dr. Calvin Joseph. I hope you find your time in this class both beneficial and fun.”

  “Probably not,” the doctor replied. “It’s rather ignorant to suppose that humans are affected characteristically depending on their date of birth and the letters in their name. Since this was the only class that dealt with numbers, I had no other choice than to choose this as an elective.”

  There was a long, loud silence that hung in the air. Jane couldn’t believe he had just said that. For whatever reason, she had the feeling that this Dr. Calvin Joseph didn’t even realize how rude his words were becau
se, to him, his opinion was a fact.

  “Right …” Professor Butler decided to call roll rather than admonish Calvin.

  Wait a minute, a voice inside Jane’s head said. Didn’t Ethan mention that the only person who’s a quis besides you and Depogare is some guy named Joseph and that he also got his PhD at sixteen? Isn’t he the guy you’ll have quis training sessions with?

  Jane suppressed a groan and buried her face in her hands. Could this day get any worse?

  One of the girls who had walked in late gave Jane an odd look before taking the empty seat off to her left and directly in front of Brielle. Jane must have stolen her seat. Guilt gnawed at her in her stomach, but there was nothing much she could do, not with Calvin in her seat. Jane recognized the girl as being a Year Six Aqua. Though the two had yet to speak to each other, she knew her name was Kat Murphy, a shifter. She had long, curly dark hair that reflected red under certain lighting and clear, cobalt eyes. She had full lips—the top one smaller than the bottom one—and a curvy figure. Jane knew little about Kat. Despite sharing classes since Year Four, the two never interacted. Occasionally, Kat was called on to answer a question, and she was correct about half the time. An average student. She also had a sardonic voice, heavily sarcastic.

  “Brielle Hale?”

  Without even thinking, Brielle raised her hand and called, “Present.”

  Jane watched as Kat immediately spun around and locked eyes with Brielle. “You’re Brielle Hale?” she asked in a hushed voice, raising a disbelieving eyebrow.

  Brielle pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Yes,” she said. “Why?”

  “That is so cool,” Kat said. The girl’s lips spread wide and Kat gave Brielle an appraising look. “I heard about what you did to Megan Cleary and how you got detention for it Sunday morning. Everyone’s talking about it.”

  Jane’s brow pushed up. Brielle had detention Sunday morning? That explained why she wasn’t there at breakfast.

  Brielle swallowed. “They are?” she asked.

  “Hell yes. You are amazing, Brielle Hale. Everyone knows that that bitch totally deserved it. I would have paid anything to have seen her face. Was it good? What did she look like?”

  “Um, I wasn’t paying attention, really,” she murmured as she dropped her eyes to the surface of her desk. Her cheeks pinkened at the attempt to get her to gossip, an activity Jane knew Brielle avoided participating in.

  “You have Palmistry next, right?” Kat asked. At Brielle’s nod, Kat continued, “You have to sit next to me. I still can’t believe you did that. Hale, you are a god among men, seriously.”

  At that moment, Kat was forced to turn back around in order to respond to Professor Butler’s call at her presence. Jane smiled at the interaction. She hoped Brielle would go for it; everyone needed a friend in their residence hall.

  Once Numerology had finished and they turned in their essays, Jane was ecstatic that she had a free period. Calvin Joseph—Dr. Calvin Joseph—was driving her crazy. He seemed to have a comment about everything Professor Butler was attempting to teach for today’s lesson, which happened to be an introduction to Master Numbers. Somehow, Professor Butler managed to keep his patience by simply ignoring him. However, other students weren’t as subtle about the annoyance with him, clearly emphasized by the glares and hushed insults they threw his way.

  Jane wasn’t sure if Calvin simply couldn’t hear the comments directed at him or if he, like Professor Butler, was good at ignoring them. She almost felt sorry for him, but at that moment he opened his mouth and spewed some superior snark about how ridiculous this was, how this was nothing more than a waste of time, a hobby, for those too incompetent to understand the true nature of the universe which could only be figured out through science.

  By the time Professor Butler released the students, Jane was thankful for the opportunity to simply escape.

  Except, once she walked out of the door, she was stopped by Ethan.

  “Ah, Miss Cabot,” he said with a friendly smile, “just the person I was looking for. And there’s Dr. Joseph.” He beckoned the arrogant beanpole over.

  Jane felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach. What was going on?

  “Miss Cabot, you have a free period right now, don’t you?” Ethan inquired innocently. “Since Dr. Joseph is new to the campus, I was hoping you’d take the time to show him around.”

  Jane opened her mouth to argue, but the look on the dean’s face said that this wasn’t a request. Her shoulders sagged in defeat.

  “Thank you very much, Miss Cabot,” Ethan said, and with that, he disappeared.

  To say there was a moment of awkwardness hanging between the doctor and the student would be an understatement. Then Jane cleared her throat and dropped her eyes to the tile floor.

  “Well, let’s get this over with,” Jane muttered under her breath, turning around and heading down the hall.

  It only took him two strides to catch up to her, thanks to his ridiculously long legs. “Did you know,” he began, tilting his chin downwards so Jane could hear him, “that your skirt is approximately eight centimeters above your knee?”

  The hallway was empty, students already in their next class or off to enjoy their free period. Jane wished she could run off and join them. She stopped upon hearing his words.

  “What?” she asked.

  Calvin stopped himself, seemingly surprised at Jane’s abrupt paralysis. “Your skirt is approximately—”

  “Yes, I heard that,” she said through gritted teeth. “What are you talking about?”

  “The academy’s code states that skirts can only be two inches above the knee. Yours is three inches.”

  Jane blinked. His eyes were distracting her. “So?” she forced herself to say.

  “So?” He sounded miffed at her dismissal. “So your skirt is one inch too high. You’re breaking the rules.”

  Jane rolled her eyes and continued on, pointing out the history and Tarot classes. “If it bothers you so much, don’t look at my legs,” she said as though it was the most obvious statement in the world.

  When she reached the west staircase, she proceeded to stomp up them. Jane hated the clunky shoes, but at least they were good for something. They continued down the second story with Jane pointing out more classrooms and offices. Calvin was surprisingly quiet, and it was only when she finished and asked him if he had any questions did he finally speak.

  “I do, actually,” he said, tightening his long fingers around the strap of his bag. “Why are you so adverse to the rules?”

  She was forced to stop again. “What?” she asked, her voice sharp. She spun around to lock eyes with him, and even though he had seven inches on her, her stare was unflinching. He leaned his head back, surprised at the action.

  “It’s merely an observation, but,” he continued on as though speaking to some misbehaving child, “you seem to either be unfamiliar with the academy’s code of conduct or you are familiar with it and choose to ignore their clearly-stared guidelines.”

  Jane could not believe this. Was he really lecturing her about breaking rules over one inch on her skirt?

  “What’s your problem?” she snapped, throwing her arms out in frustration.

  “My problem?” His voice was laced with disbelief.

  “Yes, your problem.” She furrowed her brow. “You’re new to the academy, and yet you can’t keep your mouth shut about how much better you are because you’re a doctor and you know science. Well, so what? This academy isn’t part of that world so your skills don’t mean anything here.”

  “What are you saying?” He didn’t sound worried or annoyed, just curious.

  “I’m saying a lot,” Jane said. Her head was starting to hurt. “Number one, if you don’t watch what you say around certain people, you’re going to get your ass kicked. And more importantly, you know everything there is to know about being a human in terms of intellect. But you’re not here to learn about being human; you’re here to learn about being a pec
uliar. So instead of continuously bashing the classes you’re taking as ineffective or useless, why don’t you take the time to learn the subjects and then make your decision after that?”

  Calvin was silent for a long moment. “Your criticisms make sense,” he finally said.

  Jane relaxed and turned back around. All she had to do now was show him the astronomy tower and the various playing fields. After that she would be done with him.

  “However,” he continued from beside her, causing Jane to groan under her breath, “that doesn’t explain your obvious ineptitude at following the rules.”

  15

  Sophie wasn’t lying when she said she hated running. Luckily, Will wasn’t lying when he said he’d go slow. However, that didn’t mean they’d be running for a short period of time. In fact, after one lap around the track, he proceeded to lead her to the main gate.

  “Where are we going?” Sophie asked through deep breaths. She was certain her pale face matched the color of her hair, which wasn’t a very attractive facial shade whatsoever.

  Will gave her a look. “I get bored running around the track,” he said. How was it possible he didn’t sound out of breath? “We’re going to run on the beach.”

  Sophie pressed her lips together to keep from groaning. In all honesty, she thought that all she’d have to do was run around the track once, maybe twice. To her, that was slow. Now she realized that when Will said slow, he meant their pace. Which meant that the more days they ran, the faster he’d expect her to go. On top of that, they’d be running on the beach. As a girl, Sophie recognized the beach’s romantic possibilities and knew that there was nothing quite like a sunrise or a sunset at the shore, but she had never been a beach girl. Sophie preferred mountains which was why she had chosen to come to Tahoe for an undetermined amount of time, before she met Will and Ethan and accidentally killed—

  “Hey, Will?” They reached the main gate. Sophie hadn’t realized there was a door people could use to enter and exit the property. The last time she had been at the main gate was over the weekend at night when she and the trio of girls she had just met were attempting to sneak off campus. It didn’t matter, though. The usage of the door required a passcode which Will was typing in now.