Rise of Alpha (The Prodian Journey #1) (16 page)

“Should we schedule something this weekend?” Shannon asked.

“Schedule what?” I had no clue what she was talking about.

“Our photo session.” She showed a hint of a smile.
 

I remembered now. She wanted me to pose for her. Eager to please, I nodded, even if I hated the whole idea. “Where do you want to do it?”
 

She thought for a moment. “I want a nice background.”

How about my bedroom?
I wanted to say, but that wouldn’t go over well, so I tried to come up with something else. “Um . . . you want nature as the background?”

“Yeah.”
 

“What about the Huntington Library? They have pretty flowers and plants there.” I couldn’t believe I was talking about this stuff with a girl. I’d come a long way.

Her eyes lit up. “Oh yes! That’ll be perfect. I want to see the Corpse Flower.”

Great! She’d be taking my picture next to the
Amorphophallus titanium
, an unattractive plant that smelled like . . . well, it lived up to its name. What a way to boost my ego. I tried to smile anyway.
 

“Should we go on Friday since it’s a holiday?” she asked, looking hopeful.
 

Being a softie, I had to go with the flow and she was going to drown me with all these ideas I had never tried before. “Sure, I’ll pick you up around ten?”
 

Mr. P walked in the room, halting any further conversation. For the rest of the period, I switched between listening to him and keeping an eye on Shannon. She looked so sad. I wanted to help, but only time would soften the pain.

Just before the bell rang, the door opened, and Carionis walked in with a swagger. Mr. Peters raised an eyebrow.

“I’m a transfer student. Sorry I’m late, but there was a mix-up with my schedule.” There was an undeniable arrogance in his voice.

“We’re almost done here, so we’ll just see you tomorrow.” Mr. Peters dismissed him. Carionis glared at me before he turned around to leave, and the bell rang soon after. I sighed. This was going to suck.
 

Introducing Carionis
 

Second period was uneventful, thank God. When Ms. Sweeney asked us to produce our first analysis on
The Glass Menagerie
, as I’d predicted, Shannon came up empty. Good thing I’d worked on an extra analysis for her.

“Here, I got you covered.” I handed her the paper.

She glanced at it and began skimming. “I can’t take this.”
 

“Look, you had no time to write anything. I don’t want you to flunk this subject, so I went ahead and wrote it.”
 

“But it’s cheating,” she protested.

“Only if we’re caught. You’re not going to say anything, and you know I won’t. If you want, you can return the favor,” I whispered.

“How?” she asked, looking perplexed.

“You can work on the next scene for us. Think of it this way. I took care of the character analysis, and you have my back on the next one. Then we’re even.”
 

She considered my proposal for a moment.

“Is there anything you want to share with us, Brian? Did you want to be first to read your analysis?” Sweeney walked over to our desks, keeping a close eye on Shannon, who still seemed to be deliberating. “Or perhaps Shannon would want to go first.”

Startled, Shannon flashed me an ‘I’m going to kill you later’ look and nodded her head. “Yes, I can go first.” She stood up and walked to the front of the classroom.

Before she began reading, she took a deep breath. Thank God I’d printed the damn thing. There was no way she’d have been able to decipher my hieroglyphic handwriting.
 

“I’m going to discuss Tom Wingfield and his double role in the story.” Shannon started off a little shaky, but as she went along, her voice grew stronger. She covered just about everything I’d written, except a few times when she looked up and spoke without reading. I stared at her in disbelief. Despite everything, she had done her reading.
 

When she finished, Sweeney looked pleased and called for the next student. Shannon walked along the rows of seats and grinned at me just before she sat down.

“Thanks,” she whispered.
 

“I didn’t do much. It seems like someone actually did their homework,” I whispered back, glancing at Sweeney.

“I had a chance to do a little reading before, you know . . . ”
 

I knew what she meant and nodded. After third period, I didn’t see Shannon again until I ran into her in the hallway before the last period. Kevin had her cornered by the lockers, so I picked up my pace and ran in their direction.

Kevin had his back to me and didn’t hear my approach. I caught a bit of what he was saying. “How can you be so stupid? You dumped me for that freak-boy?”
 

Shannon’s eyes blazed with anger. “First of all, I’m not stupid. It was smart to break up with you. And it’s none of your business who I hang out with.” She tried to move, but Kevin’s arms wrapped around her waist.

“Don’t you miss this, babe?” He brought down his mouth onto hers in a punishing kiss. She tried to push him away, but he didn’t budge.

“Stop it. You’re disgusting.” Shannon slapped him across the cheek.
 

My rage now blinded me. I seized Kevin’s shoulders and yanked him back. He released Shannon and turned around, and his earlier grimace was replaced by a wicked grin. “Freak-boy wants another bitch-slap, I see.” He cracked his knuckles and stepped forward.

“Stop it, Kevin!” Shannon tried to step in between us, but I pulled her aside.
 

“You’re way out of line, Masters,” I said, holding my ground and squaring my shoulders.

He stopped a few inches away and looked down at me. Yep, I had no way of getting out of this one without bruises, a broken bone, or a black-eye.

“Why don’t you just tic your way out of here, and I’ll forget I ever saw your face today?” Kevin snapped his teeth together.
 

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

Okay. I didn’t have to turn to see who had spoken. I’d recognize that arrogant, lazy drawl anywhere.

Kevin pivoted to face Carionis. “Well, well. Who do we have here?” He sized up this new contender. “So, the new guy is freak-boy’s babysitter. Ooh, I’m terrified!” Kevin pretended to shudder. Several kids who had gathered around us snickered.

“The name’s Car, and I’m going to make you cry for your mama.” Carionis hooked his thumbs on his pockets and smacked his chewing gum loudly,

Kevin smirked and covered the distance between them in two giant steps. “So you have a big mouth, too.” He threw a punch, but Carionis sidestepped and countered with a sharp jab to Kevin’s stomach.

Kevin staggered backward and yelped. Some students clapped and cheered while I moved in Shannon’s direction.

“Are you okay?” I inspected her face.
 

“I’m fine.”

Carionis took Kevin’s shirt in his fist. “If you want a rematch, I’ll be around.” Then he dragged the wheezing boy to the principal’s office.
 

It was unheard of that someone would volunteer to go the principal’s office, but then, Carionis wasn’t a normal character.
 

I took Shannon’s hand. “Let me walk you to your next class.”

Shannon didn’t move, pulling me back. “I saw him at Dad’s funeral. Mother told me he’s related to you. Is that true?”

Okay, now the bastard was family. I guess someone forgot to send me the memo. “Yeah, he’s a cousin from out of state. He arrived right before the funeral, so I brought him with me. He’s a bit odd, as you can see.”

Shannon was silent for a moment. Just when I thought she wasn’t going to buy my feeble cover-up, she nodded her head. “Does he live with you?”

Hell no!
I shook my head. “His parents got him a place somewhere nearby.” My lies were piling up by the minute.

The bell rang, saving me. I walked Shannon to her class before running to mine. Jesus, this whole thing was snowballing into one large mess. I wonder how difficult it would be to get in touch with Matro. We needed a little talk.

I came home exhausted. After I dropped my backpack on the chair, I headed to the fridge to hunt for leftovers. There was a container with pot roast.
 
My mom had sliced it up already, so I popped some bread in the toaster and waited. I made myself a sandwich and brought it into the family room. Before I flopped down on the sofa, I doubled back to snag a drink, too.
 

After I’d downed my meal, I felt a little better. I closed my eyes. I had no idea why I was so tired. This whole Aarmark thing was zapping all of my energy.
 

I must’ve fallen asleep. When I woke up, hours later, I heard my mother talking animatedly in the kitchen. Then came Carionis’ voice and Mark and Darryl’s answering laughter.
What? What the hell did I miss?
I shot out of the sofa and into the kitchen. They all looked up at my abrupt appearance.

“Hi, baby-boy!” Mom smiled. She was wearing her ‘I’m the boss in the kitchen’ apron and had a spatula in her hand. “Your friends are here. I invited them for dinner. Your dad’s running late, as usual.” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh, great.” I went over to the counter, where they were all seated on the barstools. I threw Mark and Darryl a questioning look, but they shrugged their shoulders in response. When I locked eyes with Carionis, he shrugged, too. He looked strange without his usual dark denim, black shirt, and piercings.

If not for the mohawk, I wouldn’t have recognized him. I guess he wanted to make a good impression. Way to go, shit-face!

“I heard Car is a new student in your school. How exciting,” Mom said while dishing out hefty portions of pasta. “Did you know that his father is a doctor, too? He runs the OB-GYN department at Cedars.”

“Oh, yeah?” I feigned interest. So Carionis had been weaving his story already.
 

“Take your plates and eat while it’s hot.” She waved us to the dining room. We picked up a plate each and went to sit at the table. All of us were poised to dig in when my mom signaled us to stop.
 

“We’ll say grace first.”
 

I rolled my eyes when she took my hand and prodded me to take Mark’s. Once we were all holding hands, she began to enumerate the things we should be thankful for.
 

We all muttered amen when she was done and started our race to see who would finish first. It had been a contest for the three us for a long time. The rule was that whoever finished last would help with the dishes. Like pigs that hadn’t eaten for days, we devoured dinner as fast as we could.
 

Unsuspecting, Carionis took his time and finished last. We all laughed when he found himself letting Mom teach him how to load the dishwasher. This gave me a little time to talk to my friends, so we headed upstairs. Once we got to my room, I closed the door.

“What the hell is
he
doing here?” I asked, giving my buddies a venomous glare.

“Bro, we all got here at the same time. I was going to ask you the same thing,” Mark answered, turning on the television and PS4.

“He’s cool.” Darryl pressed the remote to pick his character.

“Whatever.” Maybe Carionis was cool, but he was also arrogant. I refused to trust him completely.

“What are you so worked up about? I heard Car saved your ass from another beating from Kevin.” Mark chuckled.

“There’s nothing funny about it.” Great. Now everyone thought I was incapable of fighting my own battles.

“It’s better than looking at you with a big lump on your face,” Darryl said.

The intro music of
Call of Duty
started playing. “True. It’s just that he thinks he’s all that,” I retorted.

There was a rap on the door before it opened. Carionis was standing outside, my mother next to him. “Here you are. You boys have fun,” Mom said and patted him on the arm.

“Thank you, Mrs. Morrison,” Carionis answered.
 

As soon as the door closed, we all burst into laughter. When Carionis joined in, it helped to alleviate my earlier irritation somehow.