Chapter 44

Noah and Logan are already stretching when we reach the track.

“We can use you for sure,” Lisa says. “Claire and I are terrible runners, and we’re dragging Noah and Logan down.”

“Truth,” Logan says.

Lisa snorts, hops up, and starts to jog. I follow her. She seems to be jogging pretty easily, which is good news for our team.

“Where’s Claire?” I ask.

“She’s ‘out sick’.” Lisa makes air quotes. “Claire got bumped to alternate by Coach yesterday. She’s a little annoyed, but she’ll come around.”

“Oh.” I feel even worse now. “That’s too bad.”

“Don’t feel guilty,” Lisa says. Her voice drops to a whisper. “She’s awful.”

I don’t know what to say, so I focus on jogging slowly, consistently, like a human would. I don’t do a very good job, because two laps in, Lisa’s practically panting next to me. I slow down. “Sorry.”

Lisa laughs. “You run like a freaking robot. Are you about done? We aren’t supposed to run more than a mile today, since it’s the day of a race and all.”

“Sorry.” I slow to a walk. “Is our team any good?”

“Logan’s amazing and Noah’s pretty decent too. They kind of drag the rest of us along.”

“Noah and Logan seem pretty nice.”

“Nice?” She looks at me sideways. “Logan is, I guess, if he likes you, but I’ve never heard Noah described as nice.”

“No?” I think about him taking pity on me in my odd clothing, showing me around, and even offering to let me cheat. He had no way to know I didn’t need it. Nice is precisely the word I’d use.

“No.”

“Okay. Care to elaborate?” I ask.

“Noah’s smart, he’s hot, and he’s uber rich. He’s not even nice-adjacent. Good news is, if he’s being nice to you, that means he likes you.”

“So he’s usually a jerk?”

“Nah, not a jerk per se, but arrogant and stand-offish and elitist? Definitely.”

“Arrogant isn’t always bad.” I think about... well... every single evian I know.

“I suppose he has reason to be. His dad owns, I dunno, like all of China or something.”

“Really?” I try to pretend I didn’t already know. “He doesn’t look very Chinese to me.”

“With those big blue eyes, you mean? Well, I’ve seen his parents at some school things, and his dad does.” She laughs. “But his mom looks like a movie star. A white movie star. But no matter how he looks, he’s like the richest guy at our school, and at Trinity, that’s really saying something.”

“Huh.” Interesting. She knows almost as much as Alora. I could’ve just asked Lisa. I wonder what it’s like to have a life that’s an open book.

“Trinity’s crawling with rich kids, though. And once you get past a billion or so, what’s the difference? Logan’s dad owns the biggest computer company in America, and Tawnya’s mom runs the second biggest software company. Anna’s dad’s a five-star general and her mom runs a huge security firm. Conflict of interest, much?” Lisa smirks, and wipes sweat off her forehead. “Comparatively, my dad’s shipping business is almost embarrassing.”

“I doubt that,” I say. Lisa seems genuinely kind. “I’m sure your parents are wonderful.”

“I said almost.” She grins. “We do alright. What about your parents?”

“They’re both dead. I never even met my dad, but Mom died last week.” Silence. Awkward, awkward silence.

“Oh,” she says. “I’m so sorry.”

Well, that effectively shut down the entire conversation. I clearly suck at girl talk. Lisa slows down and I speed up until I’m lapping her and everyone else, too.

“Hey, Rebecca,” someone yells.

“Rebecca,” someone else grabs my arm. “That’s enough,” Edam whispers in my ear.

I’m the only one still on the track. I finished my race day warm-up laps, and kept on going. A little too fast, judging by everyone’s expressions.

“Dang,” Noah says. “We are so winning today.” His smile nearly cracks his face in half.

After all the excitement of PE, I’m glad to be leaving school by third period.

Trinity may be the richest school in New York, but we still ride in a little yellow school bus to the track meet. I’m sitting on a seat alone, waiting for all the students to arrive, when Edam sits down in the seat across from me. “So, turbo racer, everything okay?”

I blush. “I got distracted.”

“You need to pace yourself next to someone today, and it can’t be Logan.”

“I know, Alora told me. He’ll probably be pacing himself against someone else.” I sigh.

“Not saying anything here, but on your second full day as a normal kid, you’re running faster than any professional athlete.”

I shrug. “What can I say? I dazzle people.”

“You dazzle me.” Edam’s blatantly staring when Noah and Logan climb up the bus stairs.

“Uh hey, Adonis, you okay?” Noah asks. “You’re kind of creeping me out. Home girl’s like, what? Seventeen?”

I laugh. They’re right, of course. By human standards, Edam’s way too old for me. And if we weren’t both going to live another thousand years, the age difference might creep me out.

“Coach Renfro was just giving me some tips,” I say. “Thanks, Coach.”

Lisa drops into the seat in front of us and turns around immediately to flutter her eyelashes at Edam. “I’d love some tips.”

“Oh,” Edam says. “Okay, well, let’s talk about pacing.”

Edam must have done his homework while I was studying calculus. There’s no way he even knew the basic rules of cross country before we came to New York.

“So, we all run our own race?” I ask.

Lisa nods patiently. “It’s technically a team sport, but really it’s just scored in teams. You run the race yourself, and every single person on the team could win individually, you know, by getting the best time.”

“So, you get the most points for the team by getting the fastest time?” I ask.

“Just run fast,” Edam finally says, clearly suppressing a smile. “That’s all you really need to know. Later this week we’ll start training all of you on pacing and whatnot.” He winks at me. “But if you run like you did in today’s warmup, we should be fine.”

We arrive at the meet and I realize for the first time it’s not just a single school we’re running against. “Wait, how many teams are here?”

“It’s the Collegiate Invitational,” Logan says. “There are teams from all over the country.”

“Crap.” Judica knew I wanted a week to decide, and she knew I was with Alora, but I’d rather not have my identity and location splashed all over the internet. I shouldn’t have come.

We all stretch together before the race, but when they call us over to the starting line, Lisa pulls me aside.

“Hey, you shouldn’t have brought that necklace.” She points.

“This? I never take it off.” I promised my mom and I’m not breaking that promise posthumously. Besides, it’s not safe, especially since only two guards followed us to this enormous regional event.

“Well, you can’t wear it for the race. Regulations.”

I tuck it under my t-shirt. “Who will know?”

“I don’t want to get disqualified because you won’t take off some expensive piece of jewelry.”

I want a friend, but not at the expense of prudence. “I’m not taking it off.”

She frowns. “Why?”

No one knows about my necklace, not even Judica. I’m certainly not telling Miss Nosey. But I’m not used to people not listening to me. I think back on the things I know about her and examine my options. I could punch her in the nose or call Edam over and make him tell her to shove it, but both would attract undue attention. To avoid that, I need leverage.

“What shipping company did you say your dad owns?” I ask.

“I didn’t say.” She looks at me sideways. “Why?”

I glance at her jersey. “Your last name’s Brayden. So your dad must run B&F shipping.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “How do you know that?”

“You probably heard I didn’t know much about calculus on the first day.” I imagine that kind of mean-spirited gossip happens among humans too.

She squirms. “I might have heard a few jokes.”

“I spent my time studying other things. My family may not rival Noah’s, but we boast varied and extensive interests. For instance, I know B&F shipping needs approvals from US Customs to import most of its valuable items. Many of your goods originate in Indonesia.”

“Uh, this is getting weird.”

I smile. “I also know Mr. Constantine. He’s pretty important with the CBP, so you might have heard your parents complain about him.”

“What do you know about him? Or the CBP?”

“My mom and Mr. Constantine go way back. He sent me a pretty nice baby gift, if I recall correctly.”

Lisa clears her throat.

“It’s not a big deal if I want to wear my necklace under my shirt. I mean, it would be such a shame if Templeton Constantine decided to look a little closer at each item, delaying or refusing delivery. I mean, if things got bad enough, your parents might struggle to pay your tuition.”

Lisa pales and takes a step away from me. I don’t enjoy scaring her, but staying safe matters more than trying to mimic life in a high school sit-com.

Or maybe I’m a little more like Judica than I want to believe. The difference is, I won’t hurt Lisa unless I have no other choice. Not that she knows that. She shoots a few strange looks my direction while we wait to start, but I ignore them. At least Noah and I are in the first heat, along with Logan.

I pace myself by staying just behind Noah. Logan lags behind a few miles in and I wonder why absently, but I don’t worry too much. After all, Noah’s fully human. If I’m pacing off of him, I’ll be fine, right?