“Why?” she asked, confused by his reaction.
“We hardly ever get to see Karter fight,” Brendan explained. “We know he can, and he’ll often demonstrate things in class, but I can’t remember the last time we actually saw him in a full-on proper duel.”
Alex snorted. “I’d hardly call what we were doing ‘fighting’. I got my butt kicked, in case you didn’t notice. What you saw was a picture of my life over the summer holidays.”
Sebastian sighed wistfully. “I’m so jealous.”
Alex shook her head in bemusement.
“You’re wrong, you know,” Kaiden said as they reached the food court. “You fought well, regardless of the outcome.”
She glanced over to find him looking at her with warm eyes.
“Uh, thanks,” she stammered, annoyed that such a simple comment could fluster her. So not cool.
His lips curled up at the corners, almost like he could read her thoughts, and she quickly turned back to the others. “I need to clean up, so I guess I’ll see you all later.”
“See ya, Queenie,” Sebastian said with a final karate-chop.
“You’re not eating?” Declan asked before she could move away. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“No, I’m fine,” Alex lied, but her traitorous stomach chose that moment to grumble loudly. All five of her classmates raised their eyebrows at her, and she added, “I’m just going to eat in the Rec Room tonight.”
She really didn’t want a repeat of her miserable lunchtime experience. Hiding out seemed like a perfect idea to her, at least until the rumour mill died down a little. She knew how these things worked—if she gave it time, people would move on to the next piece of gossip.
“Snack food isn’t very nutritious,” Brendan said. “And the Rec Room doesn’t provide anything else.”
Who did he think he was? Her dad? Yeesh.
“Why don’t you eat with us tonight?” Kaiden offered. “It might be a good idea if we all show a united front.”
Alex looked at him in confusion, but she noticed some of the others nodding their agreement.
“Um… Why?” she asked. “Not that I don’t want to eat with you guys, it’s just… I’m not sure why you think that’s a good idea?”
“Strength in numbers,” Nick said. “People think you and Karter, uh, you know… So, maybe it’ll help dissolve the rumours if they see us all together. It’s pretty obvious we’ve just come from Combat. That can only help. If they see we don’t have a problem, then they might realise there’s no truth to what’s being said.”
Alex looked at their messy appearances and knew that, if nothing else, the physical evidence would show they’d just come from Karter’s class. But she wasn’t sure about the rest.
“It can’t hurt to try,” Brendan said.
“Why do you all want to help me?” Alex blurted out.
“Did you see the mood Karter was in when he entered the Arena?” Nick said. “Next time he might take that out on all of us, not just you. It’s for our benefit as much as yours.”
He had a point. And she was starving.
“Okay, let’s give it a go.”
Together the six of them entered the food court and were met with the rowdy noises of students fading instantly into silence.
“Awwwkward,” Sebastian muttered from the corner of his mouth as they stood in the entryway with most of the academy staring at them.
Declan leaned closer to Alex and whispered, “This happens every time I walk in here. It’s a consequence of being so devastatingly handsome.”
She choked back a startled laugh. It was such a Jordan-like comment that she wondered if the two of them had been separated at birth. Either way, his words provided a distraction from the uncomfortable atmosphere.
“Let’s grab a table,” said Kaiden, gently pressing his hand to the curve of her spine and leading her forward.
As they walked across the room, Alex glanced over and made eye contact with D.C., Jordan and Bear, who immediately moved to join her and the uncharacteristically protective Combat boys. The moment their small group sat down at a table, the whispers started. But Alex found they didn’t bother her as much this time around. Maybe it was because fewer people were watching her, no one was outright laughing, and the tone of their quiet comments sounded more curious than malicious.
“I guess you guys were right,” Alex told her Combat classmates when they all had food in front of them.
“We’re always right, Alex,” Brendan said with an arrogant grin. “You should know that by now.”
She stuck a chip in her mouth and rolled her eyes at him.
“What I want to know is, who started the rumours, and why?” Jordan said.
He’d been in a bad mood all day, sticking to Alex’s side like glue and glaring at anyone who so much as looked at her when he was around. While she’d had the worst first day back imaginable, she was willing to let it go and hope for a better day tomorrow. But Jordan was clearly out for blood.
“I don’t know who started them, but I think I know why,” Sebastian said.
All eyes turned to him, but it was Nick who explained, “It’s because you’re a threat now, Alex. They see you as competition. Last year you… well, you kind of sucked at Combat. And we weren’t quiet with our opinions.”
“I still suck,” she said. “Just less than before.”
“No, there’s a huge difference,” Declan said. “And last year you were terrible, but as far as we knew, you weren’t trying to get better. We had no idea about the obstacle courses Karter had you working on.”
Alex shuddered at the memories.
“Most of the students here can only ever dream of making it into Epsilon Combat,” Brendan jumped in. “They’ll never have what it takes, and because of that, they’ll always be jealous of us. They thought you were one of them since you, uh…”
“Sucked?” Alex repeated helpfully.
“Yeah,” he said with a grin. “But now that you’re actually showing your potential, they’re lashing out at you. You used to be part of the hive, now you’re the queen bee. And not all the worker bees are content to stay in middle management for the rest of their honey-making lives. Since there’s nothing they can do about changing their potential, they’re acting irrationally. Consider yourself stung.”
After a thoughtful moment, Alex said, “That has to be the strangest analogy I’ve ever heard.” She shook her head. “I’m honestly not sure if you’re trying to make me feel better or worse.”
“Don’t worry too much,” Kaiden said, stealing a chip from her plate. “It’s just the first day back, and people are bored. But they’re also easily distracted. It won’t take long to blow over; they’ll have forgotten all about it soon enough.”