Dragon Fire Academy 1 First Term an RH academy romance - Rachel Jonas Page 0,20

around a few who reek of grade-A toe cheese.” It was the only thing I could think of on the fly.

“Toe cheese?” Tristan nearly choked on his food when he laughed. “I’m afraid to ask.”

I nodded with a smile. “You can thank my brother for that little gem. Kid has a knack for coming up with random insults. Telling someone they smelled like toe cheese, boiled quarters, or hotdog water were his go-to comebacks from ages seven to ten. I guess that one stuck with me.”

The offensive odor calmed down and Toni’s appetite had apparently returned when she went back to eating.

“Well, if anyone’s interested, I got the scoop on the northern hemisphere of Sanluuk.”

Blinking at Marcela when she made the claim, my thoughts went back to the sinister warnings we all heard when we arrived several weeks ago.

“Well, spill!” Toni urged.

“So, get this. The big bad danger lurking about, waiting to prey on innocent co-eds like ourselves is just some volcano.”

Manny reared his head back when he scowled. “Like, is it active or something?”

Marcela shrugged. “Beats me. All I know is that’s the answer we were given when some kid in my group asked why they were getting all butt-hurt about people going to the northern side of the island.”

“I’ll bet it’s a lie,” Tristan countered, raising his brow in suspicion.

Agreeing, I nodded. “Besides, if someone’s dumb enough to walk up to an active volcano, that sounds like a pretty fair outcome to me. I say let the stupid ones weed themselves out.”

“Player eliminated,” Manny added.

“Exactly. Natural selection, right?” Toni laughed.

Marcela shook her head at all of us, only cracking a dim smile.

There was something important I needed to take care of before nightfall, and glancing down at my watch, I remembered time was running out.

“Hang with you guys later?” I asked, taking one last bite as I stood.

“Sure, but where you running off to?” Toni asked.

Breathing deep, I thought of an excuse, seeing as how telling the truth wasn’t really an option. My birthday was closing in on me—and so was my inevitable first shift. With my workload, I had to take action while I had the time. Honestly, I was afraid to put this off until the last minute. Even with two months to spare, I was on edge.

The strange dream I had before my first day of class turned out to be a recurring one, and I hadn’t ruled out that it was a sign I was changing. If that was true, it made what I had to do today even more necessary.

“Uh, just a … thing,” was the only answer I could come up with. Real smooth, Noelle. That didn’t sound suspicious at all.

Toni tilted her head curiously. “Would this be a thing you’re doing with a boy?”

When she asked, Tristan shifted in the seat he occupied beside the one I just left. He lifted his head, clearly listening, but trying to pretend he wasn’t. Over the past few weeks, it dawned on me that, while he was friends with us all, he’d shown signs of being interested in me in other ways. The clearest signs were him volunteering to carry my books from the classes we had together, and also the bagillion questions he asked about my guardians. He wanted to know things like whether they had ever made a pass at me, or if any of them were my type. I always answered with a resounding heck no, and I think he was finally starting to get the hint that they had been assigned to do a job, and that was all there was between us.

“Nope, no boys,” I said chipperly. “You know me, happily single and whatnot.”

The side-eye Toni gave made it clear she hadn’t bought that last part. “Fine, but I’ll be in the room when you get back,” she sighed, doing a terrible job hiding how badly she wanted to know where I was off to.

“We’ll probably stop by there, too,” Marcela decided, speaking for herself and Manny. “Maybe we’ll binge on movies or something. Or we can just find some random trouble to get into,” she added with a smile.

“Sweet.” I laughed and then got caught in Tristan’s heavy stare. “What about you? You dropping in later?”

He seemed pleased I asked, but was far too cool to let it show that he was eager. “Uh … yeah. Most likely,” he answered, keeping his tone low and even.

Part of me wanted to tell him he could relax around me, because