Hannah's Hero - Ruby Dixon Page 0,28

I know I should not fall for it. So I calmly walk up to the fire…and dump him off my back.

“Oh my god,” one of the females says, jumping to her feet. “Are you all right?”

I do not turn to check on N’dek. If he has twisted his arm…good. It will at least give him something new to gripe about. I head toward the beach. “I will be gathering firewood if anyone needs me.”

7

HANNAH

The next day, I am completely and utterly desperate. Brooke and Taushen have their bags packed and even though I haven’t yet figured out what I’m doing, they’re waiting on me. Brooke took me aside this morning and I swore to her that I’d find someone to go with me.

Now it’s been a few hours, the morning’s getting late, and Brooke’s casting me worried looks and pretends to check a non-existent watch every time I look in her direction. I know they’re ready to go. Taushen has paused to talk to Raahosh while Brooke braids Tia’s hair, but I can feel the time slipping away. If I don’t produce a buddy asap, they’re going to ditch me.

And I doubt this opportunity’s going to come up again.

I wring my hands, looking around the busy camp for a likely target. Normally the main fire area is quickly deserted as the suns get high in the sky, because everyone’s busy. People scatter to do fishing, or tanning, or hunting. Today, though, everyone’s loitering around camp and that’s a good thing. It means I have a bigger pool to pick from.

I just don’t know why so many people are hanging around camp. Did I miss a memo?

R’jaal is sitting with I’rec and S’bren near the fire, and they seem to be watching a conversation that Penny, Sessah, and Tia are having. Flor sits nearby on a skin, working on a construction project of some kind.

I decide there’s no time like the present to ingratiate myself into the conversation, figure out what’s going on, and perhaps win someone over with an enticing trip to the fruit cave. Maybe Penny would work? She hunts, after all, and Brooke didn’t say it had to be a guy, just that I needed a hunting buddy to keep up with. So I plop down on the other side of S’bren (not my favorite person, but desperate times and all that), smile widely, and lean in. “So what are we talking about?”

The group gets quiet, and I swear for a moment, I feel like the fat kid asking to sit with the cool kids at lunch.

But then Flor wiggles her eyebrows at me. “Everyone’s been all tense so R’jaal said we should have games.”

“Games?” I echo, my heart sinking. “What kind of games?”

“Fierce competitions,” R’jaal says. “We had many such things on the islands. They go on for many days. We will also take some of your human suggestions and incorporate them so all may have a chance to participate.”

“Ice planet Olympics,” Penny says, excitement in her eyes. She claps her hands and I notice that all of the alien men watch her with interest…or watch her jiggle, at least, since Penny’s pretty busty.

“Our sa-khui ancestors practiced such games,” Sessah adds proudly, his gaze locked on Tia as she gets her hair braided. “Games of skill so we can prove ourselves in front of the females and win a pleasure-mate. It is how it was done before the humans arrived.”

“Sounds fun,” I say flatly, but it doesn’t sound fun at all to me. If everyone’s all excited about games, no one’s going to want to leave camp with me. I glance over at Penny, but she’s casting an excited look at R’jaal, as if stupid ice planet Olympics are the only thing she’s ever wanted.

I look around the campfire for a sympathetic face, but the only one who looks as sour as I am is N’dek, who sits on the far side of the fire, alone. He doesn’t look as if he likes the idea of games much, either, and I can’t blame him. He’s going to feel more left out than ever.

“Well, y’all better stand back because I’m gonna kick ass and take names,” Flor says proudly. She’s also just about the tiniest person here, and that’s not lost on S’bren or I’rec, who smirk with amusement.

“One of the games is a horn-lock,” S’bren says proudly. “Your fragile human head will be crushed.”

“Nope,” Flor says. “I overheard that headbutting thing last night and I’ve got a