Chapter 28 GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Chapter 28 GROUP ASSIGNMENT
Alexander's POV

The door hit the wall so hard the sound bounced off every tile in the room.

I pulled back instantly. Caitlyn stumbled sideways in the water, grabbing the pool edge to steady herself. The moment her lips had been aiming for had not happened.

Mr. Cassel stood in the doorway. He was a tall man with reading glasses always pushed up on his forehead. He looked at Caitlyn. Soaking wet, uniform completely ruined, hair plastered to her face.

He looked at me. Shirtless. In the pool. Four inches from the girl who was soaking wet.

He took off his glasses, cleaned them on his shirt, put them back on, and looked again as if he was genuinely hoping for a different result.

"Interesting," he said. "I leave teenagers alone for ten minutes and apparently we are now filming romance dramas in school facilities."

"Sir, that is not what happened," Caitlyn said immediately, her voice steady.

"Wonderful," Mr. Cassel said. "The guilty ones would always say that."

I pressed my fingers against the pool edge. "Can I go now?"

I didn't mean it as a question.

"No, Mr. Hollander." He looked at me over the top of his glasses. "Congratulations. Detention. After school. Bring a cloth because you will be cleaning the area.”

He turned his attention to Caitlyn. "Miss Storm. Out of the pool now and find a change of clothes before your next class because this," he gestured at her, "is not a uniform."

He turned and walked back out. The door swung shut behind him.

The pool room went quiet. Caitlyn pushed her wet hair out of her face and looked at me with an expression that I could not fully read.

"Well," she said.

"Don't.”

I pulled myself out of the pool in one movement, grabbed my towel from the bench and walked to the changing rooms without looking back.

Lily's POV

I heard from Sena first about what had happened in the pool area. That wasn’t the first time, but if it was from Sena, it was probably true. She usually didn’t say things like that unless she was sure, and she never lied. She was the kind of person who only repeated things when they had been confirmed through at least two sources.

She stopped me in the corridor outside History with her books pressed against her chest and a look on her face.

"You heard, right?" she said, looking around.

"About what?" I asked, though I already had an idea what she meant.

“The pool thing, Lily. I'm surprised you haven't. Everyone's literally talking about it.”

“Oh…”

She bumped my shoulder all of a sudden with a look. "It was probably nothing. The teacher apparently overreacted. But people are saying…"

"It is fine," I said. "Thank you, Sena."

I smiled at her.

She looked at me for a moment longer. "Okay," she said softly. "Okay. See you inside."

She went in and I stood in the corridor for a moment.

It is fine. You are dating Jake. The bond is what makes Alexander feel loud inside your chest. It is not real. It is chemical and supernatural and it is not real. Caitlyn and Alexander in a pool room is absolutely none of your business and you do not care.

The bond chose this exact moment to pulse hard and unhappy directly through the centre of my chest like it had heard my internal monologue and personally disagreed with it.

I pressed my fingers against my forehead. "Stop it," I said under my breath while walking into the class.

Alexander was already at his desk.

He did not look up when I came in. He was staring at the desk surface, completely still. His jaw was tight and his hands were flat on the table.

Jake was beside me. He pulled out my chair and I sat down, he immediately started telling me something about football drills. I smiled and nodded watching Alexander not look at me from across the room.

Luckily, Jake didn't notice.

Mr. Cassel came in two minutes late, set his bag on the desk and scanned the room.

"Before we begin," he said, "detention students will remain after school today. You know who you are. I will not be saying any names."

The class fell silent as all eyes turned.

Caitlyn, near the window, examined her nails while Alexander stared at his desk.

"Also," Mr. Cassel said, picking up a stack of papers and beginning to walk between the rows, "before I forget."

He paused.

"Nightfang has been selected for the Regional Inter-School Research Initiative. A collaborative academic project with three other institutions. Subject this semester is vampire-human social integration. Historical, biological, cultural and ethical dimensions." He set papers down as he walked. "Groups of five. Final submission counts for forty percent of your term grade."

The whole class groaned.

"Groups are student-selected," he continued. "Five minutes. Go."

The classroom turned into chaos instantly. Chairs scraped and names were called across rows. Two girls near the front grabbed each other's arms before he had even finished the sentence.

I sat very still.

Jake leaned toward me immediately. "Obviously us," he said, already looking around for who else.

"Obviously," I said.

I was looking at Alexander without meaning to. He had not moved. He was sitting in his seat with his arms folded watching the room. Then Caitlyn appeared at his desk.

I watched her lean over it. Watched her say something low that I could not hear. Watched his expression shift.

He looked across the room at Jake. Jake raised his eyebrows.

Alexander gave a small single nod that meant something in their private language of two boys who had been best friends since childhood.

Jake turned to me. "The four of us apparently," he said.

I looked at my hands. "Caitlyn wants to be in our group."

"She is being strategic," Jake said with a small shrug. "We have you. Human-vampire integration project. It is actually smart."

I said nothing.

It was smart. I knew it was smart. I also knew that being in a group with Caitlyn for a project worth forty percent of my grade was approximately the same as willingly stepping into a trap. A large one at that.

"Complete," Mr. Cassel called out, moving between desks. He stopped close to us and counted. "Hollander, Sinclair, Danvers, Storm. That is four. You need five."

He looked around the room. His gaze moved to the far left corner near the window.

A student sitting there had not moved during the entire five minutes. Not to claim anyone. He was sitting with his arms folded and his eyes on the window.

"Mr. Vale," Mr. Cassel said.

The student turned his head slowly.

I did not know him well. Damien Vale. He had transferred at the start of semester. I had seen him in the library twice, always alone, always with more books open than one person needed.

He looked at our group.

"Unfortunate," he said.

Mr. Cassel looked at him without any expression. "Life is hard, Mr. Vale. Welcome to the group."

Damien Vale stood, collected his things without hurry, and walked across the room to our cluster. He sat in the empty seat at the end of the row. He looked at each of us.

He held his gaze on me for exactly one second longer than on the others. Then looked at the window again and said nothing.

I looked back at the front of the class.

Jake leaned close to my ear. "He is a little strange, yeah?"

"A little," I whispered back.

From the end of the row, without turning his head, Damien Vale said quietly, "I can hear you."

I pressed my lips together.

Vampire hearing. Of course.

Jake cleared his throat. "Good ears."

"Yes," Damien said simply, and went back to looking at the window.