Friends vs. Family

by C. L. Stone

  But didn’t he already have that answer? What did Sang do when she was lonely? She found the first available one of them that was close by. And how did he feel about it? Nothing. Well, he missed her. Kota missed her now. However, if he couldn’t be there next to her, he wanted Nathan or Victor or any of them with her. He didn’t trust anyone but his Academy brothers to take care of her. When he had watched Sang crawling into Gabriel’s lap at the party, he was happy she was happy. He did want her in his own lap, but he felt he could wait. She was right there.

  He grumbled to himself. This was confusing.

  “I think we need to put this off,” Dr. Green said. “Focus on the rules and we’ll talk about this later when she’s in better shape and we’re all more familiar with her. It may turn out none of you want to date her. The Academy might learn about her and want to take her into another group. We don’t even know if she’ll want to stay with us or if she even wants to date any of you.”

  “That’s correct,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “So rule one, no one touches her further unless she moves first. Rule two, no intimate date locations unless she suggests it first. Three, until the appointed time where a decision is made, no one should date another girl and no more guys can join the group. Sang’s too vulnerable to bring in another member or could feel hurt if she sees you with another girl.”

  “So if she kisses one of us? We can kiss her back after that, right?” Gabriel asked, his eyes squinting, as if trying to understand exactly what he could get away with.

  “If she really does it first. A kiss on the hand, you can kiss her on the hand. A kiss on the mouth, then you can kiss her there. You can mimic how she touches you,” Mr. Blackbourne offered. “And you all have to agree to this. No jealous arguments about who gets to hang out with her. No one fights over who is holding her hand today. If that happens, I’ll have to insist you all back off even if she does try to take it a step further.”

  “I think that’s a call for a unified agreement,” Dr. Green said, putting his hands behind his back and smiling pleasantly at all of them. “Are we in agreement with three rules in the case of Miss Sang Sorenson? Plus the job of finding out the truth and then deciding if we convince her father to let us take her?”

  Everyone turned to Luke, the first in line at the table today. Luke’s dark eyes focused on the opposite wall, as if already dreaming up what he was supposed to do. “I am willing,” he said in a quiet voice, “and I will obey.”

  It was an impossible request. The first girl in the group, and they were making crazy promises. It meant Kota couldn’t date her until she asked him out. Or maybe he could. Hadn’t he kind of already asked her? His mother did, but Sang had said yes. Did that mean he could take her? He couldn’t kiss her like he wanted. He thought about all the ways he had touched her before. What could he do with her now?

  Victor was next. “I am willing,” he said, “and I will obey.”

  “I’m unwilling,” North rushed in. North always had to cast a different vote, Kota knew that. Being unwilling, though, just meant he wasn’t happy with the rules. “but I will obey.” And there it was. He wasn’t happy but he would follow through. It was enough.

  “I am willing, and I will obey,” Silas said, his voice strong, as if he’d already made his decision for everything and he was waiting for the meeting to be over.

  “I am willing, and I will obey,” Gabriel said, staring off at the table.

  “I am willing, and I will obey,” Nathan repeated, flexing his fists. Kota knew this meant he wasn’t happy with it.

  Kota was last. He could bring this all to a halt right now if he said he would not obey. Three words. I won’t obey. The ruling would be overturned. If he did, it would force them all to back off and remain strictly platonic with her. No one could date her if she stayed with their group.

  If he did decline though, he would have to establish himself as platonic with Sang for a while, and hope that sometime in the future the others would find other girls they wanted and they could overturn the decision. Maybe Sang would outright say she wanted out of the group and join another Academy family, but she could still date him if she wanted.

  It was a big risk. This would assume she was interested in him at all. It would cut off her chance with the other guys if she had feelings for one of them. How would she know they wanted her if they weren’t allowed to tell her or pursue her? Could he expect her to wait as a friend in a slim hope she might understand and still want to be with him? If they all establish themselves as platonic, what would stop her from trying to date someone else?

  All Kota knew was that his need to touch her and to hold on to her was winning out. If he agreed, he could go home to her as soon as their job was over and curl up with her in that damn attic all evening. Someday maybe she’d kiss him and he could then kiss her back.

  Could he risk that she might kiss one of the others? What would he do if she did?

  Share her or possibly lose her forever.

  Kota knew the answer to this. “I am willing,” he stated, inducing a pitch of assurance. He would not be misheard in this instance. He knew this weeks ago when he first started watching her, before that first night he bumped into her. He wanted Sang, even if he had to share her. “And I will obey.”

  THE END

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  Books by C. L. Stone

  The Academy Series:

  Introductions

  First Days

  Friends vs. Family

  Forgiveness and Permission (Coming Soon)

  Other C. L. Stone Books:

  Spice God

  Smoking Gun

  READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE NEXT BOOK IN THE ACADEMY SERIES

  T he A cademy

  Forgiveness and Permission

  Year One

  Book Four

  by C. L. Stone

  onslaught

  If you had asked me last week when my life changed, I might have said it did when I met Kota Lee and he dragged me into the world of the Academy with secret agendas and boys who were handsome, who knew how to infiltrate, spy and rescue and did so on a regular basis.

  Today, if you asked me the same question, I would say it was when my mother told me she wasn’t my mother.

  My name is Sang Sorenson. I was your untypical straight A student who was shy and never had a friend in my life until I met Kota. I had an abusive... I guess I should call her a stepmother, who didn’t want me and a father that was never there and didn’t want me either. The only thing my father asked me before he disappeared back into his double life was to keep my head down and keep an eye on my older half-sister until the end of the school year and to take care of my stepmother if she managed to make it out of the hospital. He left us money and a house. We were on our own.

  And my sister, Marie, didn’t want me there, either. After I revealed to her what our father had said, she claimed she didn’t need a babysitter and she could handle things herself.

  But I made a promise to my father, and from that to the dead mother whose name I didn’t even know. He had promised her to take care of me and I would allow it, for now and I wouldn’t abandon my sister like our parents had abandoned us.

  But I also had Kota, Luke, Nathan, Silas, North, Gabriel, Victor, Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green. Nine friends. Nine members to my own secret family. They looked after me and promised to be there for me no matter what.

  Except I had a sketchy idea of what family meant, and what they wanted with a girl with such a complicated situation.

  I could only wish, with all my h
eart that they would stay and not leave me alone.

  They were all I had left to believe in.

  I heard the footsteps of a couple of boys in the hallway before they managed to open the door to my bedroom, inside the two story gray house on Sunnyvale Court. It was Saturday. I could sense it was another hot day for late September through the glare of sunlight assaulting me from the window. For me, having grown up in Illinois, I was unused to the warmth of southern summer so late in the year. The boys kept telling me I could expect summer days on through November. It seemed impossible but I’d believe it when I felt it.

  The footsteps quieted by my door. The handle was twisted, the door had been unlocked. I was under the sheets and blankets on my bed, the one Victor bought for me. I could still smell him in the sheets since he’d spent the night with me. He didn’t need to, none of the boys did, but they did it anyway often enough. Marie and I were alone, but we were never really truly alone when the Academy was always watching.

  I’d slept in. Seven am was late to sleep in for boys who were usually up and working at dawn. However, Victor had me up late watching a movie, and I was feeling lazy.

  My skin electrified. The boys in my room were being sneaky. They were up to something and I had no idea what. My fingers clutched the blanket, ready to hold tight to it or push it back and jump up and catch them at whatever they were doing.

  The edge of my blanket was collected at the foot of my bed in someone else’s grasp.

  Silence. Either side was waiting for the other to strike first.

  My blanket was yanked from my grasp. I raced to pop up and go after whoever it was. Instead I got a spray of ice water smack in my face. The edge of a shrill cry caught in my throat but I held it in. Screaming was pointless.

  There was a rush for the door. I caught Nathan and Gabriel dashing out, large Super Soaker guns in their hands. Nathan was shirtless, his muscular, tanned body leaving me breathless. He wore red sport shorts, and was barefoot. His reddish brown hair was wet, sticking up. Gabriel’s leaner frame was also shirtless, wearing camouflage shorts. Two locks of blond hair stuck wet to his cheeks and the rest of his russet brown hair was raked back, hanging behind his ears. White crystal studs hung from each lobe, and three black rings were pierced into his right ear toward the top crest.

  Sounds like thunder rumbled through the house as the two of them raced down the front stairs. They threw open the front door and ran outside.

  My wakeup call had been delivered.

  More footsteps rushed up the backstairs. I jumped up on the bed, moving to the wall next to my door, pressing my back to the frame. I’d gotten hit in the face once and I didn’t have a weapon. I was outmatched for speed and power by all of the guys so it didn’t matter who it was. I hoped I could wager sympathy from my new assailant.

  The footsteps padded closer, slowed, stopped behind the wall.

  I peeked out into the hallway.

  Luke peeked back in at me. His shirt was gone, too. His khaki shorts hung low on his hips. His tapered shoulders were starting to get a little pink from sun. His longish blond hair was sloshed behind his head, tied back with a clip he’d probably borrowed from me. He grinned down at me, his brown eyes brightening.

  “About time you got up,” he said. He stepped back, holding out a second Super Soaker gun. Pink. “Look what the Kota fairy got for us.”

  I grinned. Kota bought us new toys. I took the pink gun from Luke, holding it in my hands and feeling the weight.

  “I’m going to run out the front door,” Luke said. “Head out the back and around the house. I’ll try to get their attention. You do that super silent thing you do and sneak up on them.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t know what he was talking about. What super quiet thing? Tiptoeing?

  I raced back to my bookshelf, snatching up a hair clip to twist back my hair quickly to keep it out of my eyes. I checked my clothes, soft gray shorts and a light pink bra cami tank top. I was decent enough for water guns.

  I ran down the back steps, listening as Luke did the same on the front steps and headed out the front door. I would have to hurry.

  I ran past the side door, flew through the family room and unlocked the back door out onto the screened in back porch.

  The morning greeted me with a wave of thick heat. A basketball was bouncing in the driveway and there was the echo of shuffling tennis shoes meeting the beige concrete. I closed the door behind me, jumping down the brick steps to land on the blue utility carpet.

  From where I was, I could see Silas’s tall, strong frame nearly hovering as he stood on his toes over North. North might have been a few inches shorter, but the fierceness in his almost-scary face from his intense eyes and strong, two days unshaven jaw, you’d never know it.

  North clutched the basketball in his hand, avoiding Silas. Kota flew into view, his black rimmed glasses sliding down his nose, sweat making the hunter green t-shirt he wore stick to his back. North tossed him the ball. Derrick, a boy from up the road, raced after Kota, trying to block him as Kota aimed for the basket and tried to get off a shot. Derrick was probably the same size as Kota, wearing only a pair of cut off jean shorts that hung low off of his hips, revealing a trace outline of dark boxers underneath. Derrick was deeply tanned from long days spent outdoors all summer. He was a new face, though, as he hadn’t been there all week, when the other boys had. Word must have gotten out that the house was no longer a place to stay away from.

  I was surprised, too, to find Micah and Tom, a couple of twelve year old boys, in the backyard, bouncing on top of a large trampoline. The trampoline had been something like a consolation prize from my father before he last left. He never even finished building it but North fixed it up. I hadn’t been on it yet, mostly because I didn’t want to enjoy it. I didn’t like the meaning of it. I didn’t mind the others using it. In fact, I was glad. At least someone liked it.

  My ... stepmom would have had a fit seeing all these boys running around the yard, through the house, and playing with me.

  I ran for the screen door in the porch that led out into the yard. I flung open the door, stepping out into the grass, feeling the heat heavy around me, the water swishing in the gun in my hands.

  North stopped in mid-step, glancing over at me and temporarily distracted from his basketball game. He smiled after me, his black hair hanging in his eyes. I gave him a small wave and a wink before dashing off in the opposite direction, heading around the back of the house toward the side yard, taking the longer way around to the front.

  I crouched by the bushes surrounding the front porch, glancing over them for Nathan and Gabriel.

  Luke was dashing around the front yard. Nathan was on his heels and after him. They aimed their water guns at each other, spraying the other one down with a fresh blast every few seconds. The front yard was large and bare, with plenty of space for running around. I didn’t have much to block me if I just ran out there. And where was...

  A spritz of cold water caught me in the back. I squealed and without thinking, started to run. I found out where Gabriel was. So much for the surprise attack.

  “Oy, Trouble,” Gabriel called after me, laughing.

  I flew across the yard. My cover was blown. Time for rushing in head first.

  I pumped my water gun and aimed for Nathan as he dashed after Luke. I caught him in the back with the spray of my gun. He turned, spotted me and started running.

  I cut across the yard, Gabriel was after me, too, taking a different angle. I ran as hard as I could toward the porch but there wasn’t much point. Both of them were much faster than I was.

  Gabriel managed to cut me off before I made it to the steps. I aimed my gun at him as he started to squirt at my chest and stomach. I caught him in the face as I turned again, intending to run back around the house.

  No use. Nathan caught up with me, scooping me up by hooking his arm around my waist and dropped me into a soft tackle to the ground. I landed on my back. He sat square on my hips. I aimed my p
ink gun at his face as he aimed his orange one at mine.

  “Say ‘mercy’,” he warned, his eyebrows shifting above his blue eyes, a wide grin splashed on his face. Droplets of water sashayed down the ripples of his abs.

  “No,” I called out. I pulled the trigger to squirt water at him.

  Only I’d forgotten to pump my gun and I got the last of a trickle before the pressure ended.

  Nathan made an evil-sounding cackle. “Brave words from a dead girl who forgot to load her gun.”

  He fired. Ice liquid shot at my face. I dropped the gun to hold both hands up at the end of his, blocking the spray. The water still caught me against the neck and around the top of my shirt.

  “No,” I squealed, laughing. “Stop.”

  Gabriel came over, standing over my head, his camo shorts dripping on my face. He aimed his gun at me. “You should know better than to put your gun down.” He squirted me in the face with a short shot.

  I blocked my head with my arms. The water bit into my skin with a sharp chill. “Holy crow, how is the water so cold?”

  “We put ice in it,” Gabriel said, pumping his gun.

  Luke flew over me, jumping over my body and aiming his gun at Gabriel and catching him in the side of his head. Gabriel shot off after him. Luke flew over the rail of the front porch, using it as a bunker as he aimed over it at Gabriel and fired. Gabriel crept around the bushes, crouching up the steps. They both shot streams of water at each other before Luke flew back over the rail, landing in the yard to fly across the grass toward the side of the house. Gabriel went after him.

  Nathan laughed, aiming the gun back at my face. “Come on, say mercy and I’ll let you up.”

  “No,” I squealed, giggling and pushing his gun away, reaching for mine.