Free The Academy - Friends vs. Family by C. L. Stone Page A

He pressed his ear to the carpet.
    I slid off the bed, crawling between Luke and Nathan. I put my ear
to the carpet, too, and held my breath to hear better.
    Kota and Mr. Blackbourne talked over each other. Victor and Dr.
Green occasionally cut in. I couldn’t really understand what anyone was saying
because of distance and how everyone was talking at once.
    I caught one phrase from Kota, “Sang isn’t ever going to know.”
    My hand fluttered up to my mouth, and I shoved my lower lip
into my teeth. More Academy secrets?
    I realized as I was listening that I was staring at Nathan’s chest
while on my side. I looked up, catching his blue eyes gazing back at me. He
caught my hand at my mouth and brought it to his chest, warming it. He pressed
his palm over the back of my hand as he looked at me. “Don’t listen anymore,”
he said softly.
    “But is it about me?” I asked. “Did I do something wrong?”
    Nathan’s face darkened and he reached out to me, pulling me across
the floor to him. His arm wrapped around my waist, his fingers spread across my
lower back. He held up his head with his other arm as he looked down at me.
“We’re listening to conversations not meant for us. They’ll tell us when they
want us to know.”
    I swallowed. The secrets hung in the air like spider webs. They
tickled across my skin but I couldn’t collect them to examine them.
    “Sang should know,” Luke said. He rolled across the floor, bumping
into me, pressing me back up against Nathan and smashing me between them. I
smirked, trying to roll back into him and push him back. He kept coming,
grinning.
    “We’re not making that decision,” Nathan said.
    Luke shoved me into Nathan again.
    Nathan grunted, pushing at my back so I rolled against Luke.
    “Hey, what the hell?” North called to us from the doorway.
    I sat up on my knees to look at him, confused. Nathan propped
himself up on his elbows.
    “I leave for a minute and you’re all fucking around with Sang on
the floor.”
    Luke sat up. “We were just...”
    “I don’t care,” North growled at him. “Stop it. Mr. Blackbourne’s
going to come up here and kick the shit out of you and then we’ll all get it.”
He pointed a finger at Nathan. “You come with me and help me haul this shit up.
The rest of you find her homework and help her with it.”
    There was a collection of groans. I blushed.
    North caught my look and he pursed his lips. “Sang, keep these
boys in line, will you?” He disappeared down the hallway. Nathan jumped up,
following him down the hall.
    Luke fell on his back against the carpet again. “Nag.”
    “I don’t feel like doing homework,” I whispered.
    Gabriel slid off of my bed, dropping in a heap on the floor. The
glint from the light above caught in the three black rings in his ear, and
sparked to life the green stones in his lobes.
    “Let’s pretend we’re doing it,” he said.
    My heart tripped. “Okay.”
    Gabriel smirked and shook his head.
    Luke picked up my textbooks off of the bookshelf. I grabbed my
book bag sitting on top of my trunk against the wall. I sorted through the
books, pulling notebooks out of my bag. Of all the things to worry about right
now, homework and school were far from my mind. Still, with the work spread out
in front of me, I thought if we were going to waste time anyway, I might as
well actually do the work. I found a pencil and a sheet of geometry problems.
    Gabriel randomly opened a notebook, thumbing through it. “What’s
this?” Gabriel asked, holding on to some folded notes.
    I blinked at him, sitting up again from the floor. “I thought my
mom got all those,” I whispered.
    Gabriel unfolded the notes, his lips moving as he read it over.
“Goddamn. They’re nasty.”
    “What’s that?” Mr. Blackbourne asked, walking in. His eyebrows
furrowed and he was frowning.
    Kota trailed behind him, his eyes sought out mine. His skin
bunched around his eyes, a painful stare. His fingers curled into