“And when was that?” he probed.
I pursed my lips. “1916,” I admitted softly.
“Oh, my,” he said.
I knew he was surprised. It was a long time to be out of school however you looked at it. Education had moved on a lot since then, too, though the change was much less between the 50s and now that it was between the early 20th century and the Atomic Age. It was also a significant amount of time between being Made and being elevated the way I was. Nothing about this situation was usual.
After a moment, he said, “Well, regardless of how long it’s been, you need help or you won’t pass this class. I’m assigning you a tutor, one of the best math students we have. His name is Shannon Lockwood and you’re to meet him at three in study room four, in the main building.”
I was stunned. I’d expected him to tell me I needed remedial help and suggest a tutor. I hadn’t expected him to assign Shannon, though. I wondered if Shannon was going to show up or if he’d feign having an unavoidable time conflict.
“I’ll be there,” I assured him.
“Excellent. In the meantime, the Deputy headmistress informed me that until you’ve caught up satisfactorily, you’re to take your exams in one of the study rooms. They’ll be an open book and proctored by myself. I’m afraid you’ll miss your lunch period on test days, in order to make this possible.”
“I understand,” I said. It was fine. Human food only boosted the vitality of my kind. It was our other, main, food source that kept us youthful and strong, and we only needed to feed in that way every six weeks.
“Good. Now, on to another matter. You’re to join us this evening at nine in front of the bookshop.”
Us? Who the hell was ‘us’?
“There’s someone very eager to meet you,” Professor Lambert continued.
Shit. I had a terrible feeling about this.
“It’s such an honor for a mere student to be invited, so don’t disappoint us and not show up. I’m sure you know how to behave when in the presence of a Sponsor,” he said.
Yup, this was so not good, if my suspicions were correct.
“Oh, bring a change of clothing and shoes. The ones you’ll be wearing are likely to get wet.”
Fucking hell.
* * *
Imade it to the study room fifteen minutes early only to find Shannon already there. He glanced up as I came through the door, shifting his gaze away from me to someplace besides my head the moment his eyes met mine.
“Whatever it is I’ve done, I’m sorry,” I blurted out. Usually, I wouldn’t have given two shits about what someone outside of the Family thought. Shannon was different, though. He knew River was a Legacy, though to him it just meant my Family had attended this place for generations, and he was a scholarship student, but he didn’t kowtow to me. He also hadn’t pulled the upperclassman superiority thing. I’ve watched my fair share of movies and TV over the years, though lately not so much. Enough to know these were both things that happen in school settings. I liked him; he was a genuine sort of person. What you saw was what you got, unlike with the rest of the Family’s members and me. We were wolves in sheep’s clothing and nothing we said or did with those not in our confidence could be trusted. Except I wanted Shannon to. Trust me, that is.
He swallowed visibly. “It’s not that. You haven’t done anything. I just couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t what?” I asked, moving closer. The look of distress on his face set my protective instincts firing. “Who was it?”
He turned away. “Who said it was someone saying anything?” he mumbled.
“Don’t be like that. It’s obvious that someone has said or done something to make you react in this manner.”
His shoulders slumped. Yeah, I knew it. Anger suffused me as I placed my hand on his shoulder and he flinched. Someone had scared him badly and I intended to find out who it was and deal with them. I turned him gently, but firmly, to face me.
“Tell me. Please,” I begged him.
He sighed in defeat. “Fine. But please, don’t tell them I said anything, okay? If they say anything else, we can just tell them that Professor Lambert assigned me as your tutor, okay?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, not liking the implications one bit. “So, whoever it was told you to stay away from me? To not be my friend or to help me with my math?” My mind raced as to who that could have been and only came up with two names connected to me. “Was it Henry or Rusty?” I asked shortly. “Or both?”
“Well, neither of them, directly,” Shannon hedged.
I raised my eyebrow at him, waiting for him to elaborate. “Go on.” My tone brooked no argument.
