“You’re not some romantic rogue anymore,” I say, voice thin. “You’re a problem. And problems? I cut those out.”
Jav studies me for a beat, his gaze unreadable.
“Give me one week,” he says.
I blink. “What?”
“One week. Let me prove I can be a part of this place. That I’m not here to mess up your life. If I can’t handle it, if it gets too complicated?—”
“You’ll leave?” I finish.
He nods.
I stare at him, the hallway closing in. Kids’ laughter echoes from the classroom behind us. A bell chimes down the corridor. Everything feels too sharp.
“Fine,” I say finally, the word scraping out of me. “One week.”
He gives a slow, satisfied nod.
“But if you so much asbreathethe wrong way near Ben?—”
“I won’t,” he says, quietly.
I look at him hard.
One week.
And I already feel the clock ticking.
CHAPTER 6
JAV
The hardest part of pretending to be a teacher isn't the kids. It’s not even the tiny chairs or the smell of finger paint and old cheese crackers.
It’s the damn lesson plan.
“You want to teach capitalism to five-year-olds?” Garkin asks, blinking slowly as he flips through a stolen copy of Foundations of Early Learning: Age 4–6.
“I want to teach economics,” I correct, adjusting the puppet I’ve jammed onto my clawed hand. “This is Baxter. Baxter distributes plush puppies. There’s demand. The crackers are the currency.”
“You gave the plushies names?”
I glare at him. “I’m creating a market economy. The names build trust.”
Garkin mutters something under his breath about the galaxy going to hell.
We’re in the back of my borrowed apartment near the Haven-7 academy district—technically owned by a front company under the Redscale family, but now it’s my teacher lair. The walls are plastered in finger paintings I may or may not have ‘borrowed’ from the art room to blend in. On the table sitsa spreadsheet of snack allocations, fake curriculum notes, and three stuffed creatures wearing sunglasses.
“Look,” I say, pushing the worksheet across the table. “Kids get five crackers. They can use those crackers to ‘buy’ a plushie, or save them to trade for time on the hover-pad. Supply and demand. Value. Delayed gratification. It’s genius.”
Garkin snorts. “It’s gambling with goldfish snacks.”
“They’re learning financial literacy.”
“You’re learning how not to swear in a classroom.”
He’s not wrong.
