Free Seeds of Discovery by Breeana Puttroff Page B

he produced from the leather pouch so she could wipe her mouth. He watched her expression – she wondered if he was mentally placing bets over which color was going to take over first – the nauseous green, or beet red.
    “Looks like she handles needles about as well as you do.” The new voice startled both of them.
    “Thomas! What are you doing out here?” William rose to greet the boy who had walked up behind them. The two of them hugged tightly for a long moment, which utterly surprised her. So maybe William wasn’t completely anti-social.
    The first thing she noticed about the boy was his incredible resemblance to William. They both had the same dark hair, deep gray eyes, high cheekbones, and pale skin. Comparing their heights, she could tell that the boy was younger than William was, but his shoulders were already much broader and he was more muscular.
    Red was definitely winning now – it had been bad enough having one person see her like this.
    Studying him caused a niggling feeling inside her, too. He was so – familiar, even though she was sure she’d never met him before.
    “After Aelwyn brought your note that the girl had followed you, I thought I’d come see what was going on for myself .” The new boy grinned. “It looks like you might need some help.”
    She didn’t have much time to decipher what they were talking about. William went back to messing around in the pouch, and for the first time in weeks, she wasn’t the least bit curious about what he was doing.
    The other boy knelt down in front of her. “He sure knows how to make friends, doesn’t he?” He grinned. “I’m Thomas, by the way. I’m Will’s brother. I’m guessing you must be Quinn?” She nodded, unable to wrap her mind around the situation. William had a brother? How did Thomas already know her name? And Will? She had never imagined the stoic William with a nickname.
      Thomas withdrew a metal canteen from William’s backpack, and although she was still feeling like she’d rather crawl under a rock, she let him help take a sip of it. “Good girl,” he said.
    “Sorry,” she said, still embarrassed as she lay back down against her jacket, her queasy stomach finally starting to settle a little.
     Thomas’ eyebrows knitted together. “For what? Hurting yourself ? I can’t imagine you did it on purpose. Don’t be sorry, don’t be worried, just let Will finish patching you up, and then we’ll take you home with us.” The way he smiled at her told her that he meant it, which was surprisingly comforting given that she had no idea what he meant by them taking her home with them.
    He poured some of the cold water onto a cloth, and held it against her forehead, which helped even more, but the pleasant feeling was quickly interrupted by a freezing, wet sensation on her leg that made her jump. A second later, she caught the scent of rubbing alcohol, and her stomach flipped over again. Her first instinct was to pull her leg away, but Thomas, who had been studying her face rather intently, placed his hand gently, but firmly, against the top of her calf, securing her leg to the ground.
    “I know, sweetheart, but that’s not going to help. I need you to hold still for a minute. Take a deep breath and focus on something else.” Normally, she would have been irritated at being held down, and at being called sweetheart by some boy she’d just barely met, a boy who was younger than she was, but somehow Thomas put her at ease immediately.
    Thinking about anything except how humiliating this was, she inhaled deeply and tried to concentrate on the alternating pattern of light and dark green stripes on the sleeve of her shirt. It almost worked, but she lost her focus and winced at the sharp pinch of the needle. Thomas used his free hand to squeeze her fingers gently until the sting of the anesthetic subsided a little, and she managed to exhale.
    “Sorry, honey,” Thomas said, “this wasn’t what you signed up for, was