The Tracker Hive Academy Year One - Avery Song Page 0,93

went to the cemetery with me and what flowers did we pick for the grave?'

He looked me right in the eye.

"Red flowers and Zeus," he answered.

I smiled. "Tell your brothers that Charles Sokolov of District A74 manipulated me to kill my entire family and is the reason I'm now dead."

His eyes went wide, realizing what I'd just said.

"N—"

I pulled the trigger.

20

Fuck

~ZEKE~

* * *

"Where's Jade?" I asked, pulling out my phone to check the time as well as to see if I'd gotten a text from our baby.

"I brought hers and Shadow Jade's cookies early and they aren't even here," Zeus grumbled.

"Isn't that a little weird?" Zion questioned.

"Jade may hate mornings, but she's always early," Zackery added.

"I talked to her earlier. She said she was on her way. She was lying on her bed though. She could have fallen asleep again," I reasoned, beginning to text her.

I'd been a little anxious all day. It never was good for me to be anxious. It reminded me of the day our mother died.

If I'd listened to my instincts and hadn’t been a scaredy-cat weakling, she would still be here.

"Zeke? What...are...you...jeez. I have to stop running with so much equipment."

The four of us looked over to see Calvin, who was waddling over to us. He pulled out the seat of the desk and took his bag off to settle it there, all while catching his breath.

"What?" I asked.

"Jeez, Calvin. Why do you carry all that computer shit with you?" Zackery asked.

"It's a computer for a reason. You can store everything on it and sync across all your devices. Don't need to carry three computers and that stupid external hard drive with you," Zeus added, crossing his arms.

"My equipment is important," Calvin defended, hugging his bag like it was his girlfriend. "You're just jealous."

"Of what? Old-school technology? Zion can crack any code with his phone and yet you're carrying all this shit to make notes."

"Research," Calvin stressed, pulling out his laptop and placing it on the desk. He then lowered his bag carefully to the floor and opened up his computer.

With his fingerprint identification, it was up and running.

"Calvin," I groaned. "What were you saying?"

"Right!" He flinched like he’d just remembered. "Where did Queen Jade go? You both said you wouldn't be here until before the assembly. I was going to tell your brothers what you said."

I arched an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about? I was waiting for Jade at our lockers. When it took her too long, I figured she'd fallen asleep and I’d meet her here."

Calvin fixed his glasses, an obvious frown on his face. It was weird to see him actually look serious about something other than technology.

"You were clearly with Jade minutes ago. Sure, I'm a slow runner and I went to piss, but you were there. I talked to you."

"I’ve been here. Ask my three brothers. They can tell whether this," I waved my hand in front of myself, "is the real me."

"Yeah, that's Zeke, all right," Zackery pointed out. "He's still a confident motherfucker."

"With his stupid imagination and wet dreams," Zeus grumbled.

"And we have the same connection. Are you seeing things?" Zion questioned. "If you want an assessment, let me know."

When Calvin simply stared at the four of us, I sighed. "Calvin, I'm legit serious. Need to check my tracker app or something?"

Calvin settled in his seat, his eyes glued to the screen as his fingers began to type furiously across his light-up keyboard.

The four of us exchanged looks, the guys feeling my anxiety.

He's making me worry.

"Why would he say he saw you and Jade?" Zackery questioned through our mental communication.

We didn't use it unless there was an emergency or we were on a mission, but to me, anything about Jade was an emergency if she wasn't here.

"His computer screens are going wild," Zion pointed out.

"Who is Calvin, really?" Zeus inquired.

A nerd who loves to follow Jade around and call her queen, which really pisses me off. That's what we should be calling her.

"That's your protective ass talking," Zeus muttered.

"He's harmless," Zackery stressed.

"Hmm. I don't think a person who just decoded the school's security camera program and is now reversing the footage from an hour ago should be deemed harmless," Zion announced.

We all turned our attention to Calvin, noticing how his eyes glowed a slight green as he focused on the screen.

We moved to gather behind him just as he reached the footage he was looking for. Pressing the enter button, he pointed his finger to