Free Fall For Me ((The Tate Chronicles #1)) by K. A. Last Page A

little trepidation. He was a large man with thick arms and towered over me considerably, although that was not a hard thing to achieve. “I trust you have a reason for being late?”
    “We lost track of time, Sir,” Charlotte said.
    Mr Bruner spun around, a little startled. She must have snuck in and she flashed him her beautiful smile. Mr Bruner blinked; face blank for a moment then shook his head.
    “Very well, please don’t let it happen again.”
    Mr Bruner seemed to forget she was also late and he waved us both away. Charlotte had just used her glamour on our P.E. teacher and I shot her a thank you smile as we ran to the change rooms.
    We changed into our sports uniforms—consisting of navy shorts and a gold polo top, they were quite unflattering. Somehow Charlotte made it look good. I didn’t feel the need to hide from her since she knew what I was. Normally I would have gone into one of the toilets to change.
    I caught her standing motionless, head tilted to one side, staring at me. I was standing so she could see most of my back and I knew what she was looking at.
    “They’re beautiful, Grace,” Charlotte said.
    My back was smooth with no blemishes, besides the rose coloured lines that ran next to my shoulder blades. Each one was about six inches long and the two lines almost joined in the middle, forming a V-shape. I didn’t really know what to say, no one had commented on my scars before.
    “Thanks,” I said, hesitantly.
    “You have wings in there?”
    “Yeah, but they haven’t been out for a while. It’s a bit risky, and with orbing it just isn’t very practical.”
    “Don’t they get cramped?”
    “Like you would not believe,” I said. “Sometimes in battle I unfurl them, makes me look bigger.”
    Laughing, we went back to the court where Archer was waiting by the rope ladder.
    “You first,” he said.
    “No one else wants to buddy with you?” I teased.
    “Odd one out I guess,” Archer shrugged. “Now climb like I’m hot on your tail.”
    I heaved myself onto the bottom rung and looked at my brother with a wide grin.
    “I want you all the way to the top, Grace,” Mr Bruner yelled from the other side of the hall.
    Great, now everyone was looking at me again. I did as he said then jumped down to let Archer start his turn climbing the rope ladder.
    “Why were you two late?” he asked, as he dropped back to the floor.
    “Just talking and lost track of time.”
    “About Josh I bet.”
    “Actually, no,” I said.
    “He came and sat with us today. He was asking where you were.”
    “Really!” I said a little too enthusiastically.
    “Gracie, you need to get your head out of the clouds and stop dreaming about something that can never, ever happen,” he said.
    I hated it when he used his big brother scolding voice. Who did he think he was? He was only a couple of minutes older than me anyway.
    “Why?” I said, looking to the ceiling. “It’s nice up there. You should visit some time.”
    I heard Charlotte chuckling as she slid back down the ladder. She’d climbed it three times while we were having our discussion.
    “Ryan asked Emma out, too,” he said.
    “Wow, that’s great … or not?” He looked a little mad. “Emma will be fine, Arch, she’s a big girl. You can’t wrap her in cotton wool.”
    He scowled. “Since she’s out tonight I thought we could case the cemetery.” Archer glanced sideways at Charlotte. “Maybe see what we can find. A change of scenery would be nice.”
    “Great idea, Charlotte can come with us,” I said. Somehow I didn’t think that was the response Archer was hoping for.
    We moved around to the next obstacle and fell silent for a while. It was kind of hard to talk while running at a spring board, jumping then vaulting over a horse. We still had the balance beam, trampoline and parallel bars to go. Of course the three of us could complete each station with ease, and I caught Josh watching us several times.
    The balance beam was a cinch.