Free Fractured Mind Episode One (A Galactic Coalition Academy Series) by Odette C. Bell Page B

sir,” she
said with a straight face. Though if you looked, you'd appreciate
her expression wasn't exactly blank – there was a hollowed out,
dead look playing in her gaze.
    Morq spluttered. “You don't have permission
to drop class today—” He drew up his WD to double check.
    He needn't have bothered.
    “No, I don't,” Sarah said.
    Morq's surprise quickly gave way to anger.
“What exactly are you saying, cadet?”
    “I'm saying that I'm planning on cutting
class, lieutenant.”
    Karax sucked a breath through his teeth.
“Ah, maybe we should just—”
    They both ignored him.
    “Get to class, cadet,” Morq warned.
    Sarah didn't move a muscle.
    Lieutenant Morq locked his stony gaze on
Sarah. “I'll give you one more chance to turn around and head to
class, cadet.”
    Sarah didn't move. Sarah stood there. Slowly
tilting her head back until she tore her gaze off the floor and
stared at the lieutenant.
    “Move now, cadet,” he said through stiff
lips.
    They were starting to draw a crowd.
    A whole class full of cadets had emptied out
onto the corridor. One cadet who he recognized as Sarah's friend
wouldn't even look at Sarah. She shifted to the back of the
crowd.
    It was one thing to be reprimanded on your
own, another to be punished in front of your classmates.
    With that half dead expression dragging down
her cheeks Sarah didn't move a muscle. “I don't feel like class
today,” she said directly.
    She didn't mollify her tone, and once her
insubordinate words were out, she made no attempt to retract
them.
    This morning she'd stumbled over herself in
her attempt to retract a potentially insubordinate statement.
    Now she stared back at Lieutenant Morq,
expression completely free from guilt.
    She looked as if she just didn't care
anymore.
    This was where a smart lieutenant would back
down, pull the cadet to the side, and try to ascertain what the
hell was going on.
    Morq was stuck, though.
    There was a class full of witnesses. Of
Sarah's contemporaries, no less. Morq would have to make an example
of her. He couldn't let the other cadets perceive that he was
letting Sarah go without reprimand.
    “Cadet, you are way out of line. Retract
that statement. As a recruit in the Galactic Coalition, you have a
duty to our cause and your classmates.”
    If Morq's snapped words were intended to
have an effect on Sarah, they didn't.
    She stared back at him impassively. “And
what duty, sir, do you have towards me?”
    Morq was clearly thrown. You could see he
was thrown – a blue blush sparked up his cheeks, a telling and
impossible-to-ignore sign for his race. “Cadet, you are way out of
line—”
    Sarah abruptly turned and began walking away
from Morq and the class.
    Morq spluttered. “What are you doing?”
    This was escalating.
    It was time to step in.
    Literally.
    Karax stepped in front of her and stared her
down.
    She drew to a halt, and slowly ticked her
head back until she stared at him.
    “Cadet, get to my office, now,” he said.
Though it was an order, it wasn't snapped. He deliberately tried to
keep his tone even, neutral.
    To be honest, he wasn't giving Sarah a
reprimand – that would come later, when she'd had a chance to calm
down.
    The only thing he wanted to do was get her
away from here, away from the prying, judgmental gazes of her
classmates.
    It didn't work.
    As he looked down into Sarah's gaze, he saw
something crack. Any chance of ending this quietly cracked with
it.
    “Cadet, just head to my office,” he said,
and there was a pleading note to his voice.
    “Why, so you can kick me out of the Academy
quietly?”
    “Nobody is talking about kicking you out of
the Academy,” he dropped his tone in warning.
    “Really? You're thinking it though, aren't
you?”
    He ground his teeth together. He'd thought
he could jump in and de-escalate the situation, but he'd made it
worse.
    She didn't drop her gaze as she stared at
him. It became so intense, it was almost like she was another
person. That fragile