Chapter 21

KATHERINE.

“Oh. My. God. We've been standing here for ‘hours’. Where are these dorks?”

“We've only been here for a couple of minutes.”

“Einstein said time is relative, Katherine. It's relative.”

“I don't think you're using it in the right context.”

Josie drew her brows together slightly. “Really?” she asked and I shrugged. “...God, this test better be easy.” She then wrapped her arms around me and placed her head on my shoulder. “I’m so cold, Katherine. Warm me up.”

“I can warm you up all night, Baxter,” a boy that was several feet away from us called out and he and the boys around him snickered while I frowned, recognizing him as one of the people Josie told me she’d unfortunately flashed during the bonfire. She said he’d been bothering her ever since.

Josie lifted her head and when she glanced at him, a wide smile appeared on her face. “You know there'll be a brain test, right? Are you sure you're up for it, Josh?” she replied loudly and the way his smile fell elicited my own. Everyone around him, but him, laughed. “Theo must have had a fucking big laugh when you applied.”

My ears perked up at that. ‘Theo laughing?’ I tried and failed to imagine how he’d look like doing that because I couldn’t picture him with an expression that wasn’t blank or a frown.

“Idiot,” Josie muttered before returning her attention to me. “Speaking of idiots, have you reported that bitch?”

It took me a few moments to realize she was talking about Poppy. She, Priyanka and Lenore had told me to report her to the school. “Oh, ehhh…” I drawled and she raised a brow. “Are they actually going to do anything? The Dean likes Poppy.”

“Really?” she asked, surprise evident in her voice, and I nodded. “What the fuck?’ How do–”

“Silence,” a voice commanded and all the conversations taking place in the clearing stopped as we all glanced at where it came from to see Theo, Blake and Hunter standing in front of Killian Blackwood’s statue. They all looked serious as their gazes surveyed the faces of applicants in the clearing and we all moved closer so we could hear them. “Attentiveness,” Theo continued. “Intelligence.”

“These are the three things you’ll need as a member of the CMES,” Blake added.

“They’re like a fucking cult. What the fuck?” Josie whispered in my ear and I had to bite down on my bottom lip to stop myself from laughing at her tone.

“But first, you have to become a member,” Hunter stated.

“I don’t know how many of you are here, but only ten will be chosen. And those ten will be the ones that pass this test.” Back to Theo.

“Do you think they practiced this in the mirror? Had little scripts?” Josie whispered again and a snort almost escaped me. Now I was imagining what she just said.

“Josie, stop.”

Theo’s eyes immediately darted to me and I stood ramrod straight, snapping my mouth shut, before a small frown crept onto his face. I wasn’t getting into his good books anytime soon, was I?

“Some of you aren’t smart enough to figure out how to solve this and if you think you fall into that category, I suggest you leave now.”

“Catch it, Josh,” Josie cut in with a laugh and a couple of people, including me, snickered while Theo’s gaze snapped to hers.

“Silence.”

“Sorry, Theo.”

He shot her a displeased look and her mouth made an ‘o’ shape before she mimed zipping her mouth shut. Then Hunter grabbed a black box from the platform on which Blackwood’s statue was on and handed it to Blake who opened it before pulling out a golden coin.

“The key is the coin,” Blake said, holding the coin up and I saw that it had the letter ‘B’ engraved in it.

“When you find the key, you find the coin. And to pass the test, you have to turn in the coin.”

“Find the key by the third day…” Theo continued after Hunter. “You have twenty-four hours.”

****

“So I'm not going to become a member of the CMES club,” Josie stated and I glanced at her, surprised. We were back in my room and she was lounging on my bed while Priyanka and Lenore were in Lenore’s dressing room.

“You're giving up?”

“I'm not giving up. I'm just–” She gestured wildly in the air before heaving a sigh. “They gave us a test to find something with no clues and what was that Theo said again? Find the key by the third day, you have twenty-four hours? What does that even mean? Do we have three days or twenty-four hours?”

Yeah, that was confusing. I was going with twenty-four hours though.

“Maybe time is relative for Theo too,” Josie added and I snorted.

“Again, I don’t think that’s the right context.”

She huffed and flopped backward on the backward just before Lenore and Priyanka walked out of the dressing room and she rolled over to face them. “I won’t give up if Lenore decides to be a sweetheart and gives me more hints.”

“Just give up,” Priyanka said without even asking for context.

“You suck, Pri.” She rolled over to face me once more before drawing her brows together. “Hey, you said Dean Bryman likes Poppy earlier,” she said and I nodded. “So you’re not going to report Poppy?”

“I don’t think I will.” With the way the Dean had talked to me on Monday, she’d probably tell me it was my fault that Poppy pushed me into the pool so I didn’t think there was a point in reporting.

“Hmm…. So I can clock Poppy when I see her?” Josie added and the corner of my mouth turned up but as I opened my mouth to tell her she shouldn’t do that, Priyanka spoke.

“Already beat you to it.”

‘Huh?’ My gaze darted to her and she shrugged at whatever expression I had on my face as she sat next to Lenore on her bed.

“I saw her at the CMES clubhouse while you guys were having your meeting. I was pissed and she was being annoying so…” She shrugged again like it wasn’t a big deal while my mouth fell open.

“What if she reports you?!” I asked, surprise evident in my voice, but she still didn’t seem bothered.

“Then I’ll report her for running into my fist.”

“But–”

“The Dean doesn’t like Poppy,” Lenore cut in and my gaze slid to her. “She just favors those higher up in the hierarchy.”

It took me a moment to process what she just said. ‘Ah…’ So according to the Dean, I was ranked lower than Poppy… No wonder some students were so comfortable using their pack’s name and position in it to get ahead in the fucking lines in the dining hall.

“You should see how she gushes over Lenore and Blake especially. She even–” Priyanka cut herself off and kissed her teeth before taking a deep breath. “Report Poppy. She tried to ‘kill’ you and you don’t seem to be taking it seriously. We’re your witnesses so Bryman won’t want to brush it under the rug.”

I swallowed. I hadn’t thought of it like that and by it, I meant Poppy pushing me into the pool. Drowning could occur within seconds and if Theo hadn’t been in the pool then, I might have died. ‘Fuck. Was that actually what she had been trying to do? I mean… Fuck.’

I blinked at Priyanka and glanced at my phone on the desk.

I despised the fact that the Dean wouldn’t want to brush what happened under the rug only because the packs my friends were from ranked higher than Poppy’s but there was absolutely nothing I could do to change how things worked around here so I was just going to have to get used to it.

“Okay.”