CHAPTER 147: 147-DO THEY SPIT?

Clementine:

I gave him a smirk because I knew he was putting a lot of trust in me.

"Don’t worry, I don’t break trust," I said, removing the smirk from my face when he kept watching me for a little too long.

"Why did your friends accuse you of it?" he asked, bringing up the fact that my childhood best friend Troy and I had drifted because of this very issue—the trust.

"Well, let’s just say we were young, and he didn’t let me explain myself," I said with a shrug.

"Why didn’t you transition?" Since it was my turn to ask a question, I shot it at him quickly, so much so that he frowned, then only moved his eyes around as if trying to figure out where it came from.

"What?" he asked.

"Back in the north, when the black wolf was attacking me. Why didn’t you transition?" I questioned, trying to make it sound like it wasn’t a big deal. But it was to me. I wanted to know why he acted a certain way at certain times.

"Well, I wanted you to take the charge. I was hiding in the shadows, ready to attack him if you couldn’t control it. But I knew you had it together," he said. I didn’t respond, so he continued.

"I would have been unrecognizable if I shifted."

Now that was the answer. That was the truth. But somehow, it gave me goosebumps.

"What do you mean by that? Unrecognizable? Would you be so deadly?" I questioned, my eyes fixed on his face, looking for any reaction.

He just shrugged, not responding to the question.

"Ian, did you lie about the things my squad mate told you about me?" As soon as I asked, he started laughing, then leaned back dramatically.

"I’m serious," I insisted, and he slowly stopped laughing. His eyes landed on me.

"What do you think?" he asked.

I took a deep breath, ready to give him my piece of mind, knowing it would be hard for him to take. He would probably judge me for it, but it was my truth.

"I think, even though they hated me in the past, even though they said a lot of things about me back then, things have changed. If you had told me they said all that about me while they were still in their hating-me period, I would have believed it. But now, after they’ve promised to redeem themselves, and they’re actively trying to do so, I just don’t feel like it’s the truth. I think you made all that up. I can differentiate between their words and your own," I said, watching him look impressed for some reason. Both his eyebrows were raised high on his forehead.

"You really are special, Clementine," he said, shocking me with his response.

"Why did you lie?" I asked. He just looked down and started plucking grass with his fingers. A very visible pout formed on his lips.

"Do you have a problem with them, or with me being friends with them? Do you think we’ll group up and bully you or something?" I asked, trying to get something out of him. I truly believed in listening to someone instead of just shutting them down. The more you communicate, the more you find out what they’re thinking about you or what their next plan is.

"Is it true that you know, or that you can differentiate?" he asked. His hand froze in mid-air, the grass half-plucked. His eyes were on me, waiting for my response.

"If my friend is in danger, or if someone is spreading a lie about them, I will know," I said confidently.

He just nodded, eyebrows raised, lips down as if impressed, then finally plucked the grass.

"Anyway, we should head back. By the way, I brought you here because I wanted to warm you up for what I’m going to do next," he said smoothly as we got up, so smoothly I almost didn’t catch it.

"What?" I asked.

"We’ll leave early morning to go spy on the magical train," he said, making my eyes go wide.

"That will be dangerous," I said.

He started walking back toward our dorm room. "Exactly, and I love dangerous activities."

That was all he said before I began to follow him, and he went silent.

Once we arrived at our dorm, we both fell asleep too. We woke up to a loud alarm blaring from the speakers, realizing we weren’t the only ones napping. Maybe the other crusaders had fallen asleep as well, because the next thing we knew, they called us to the main hall for dinner.

We all freshened up and headed to the hall. Our group arrived first, and the others started rolling in. It was a sad sight. The hall used to be full, but now there were far fewer people left.

Then the white squad arrived. But instead of sitting down, they were holding trays this time. Usually, the food would be served first, and then we would arrive. I guess we had new servers in town now.

"You— long-haired girl, come here," Oriana said, pointing at Suki. Suki clenched her jaw so hard I swear she might have knocked a tooth loose. But then she forced a smile, since the ringleaders were all sitting together in a huge horizontal line in front of us, a big table loaded with food before them.

"My salad doesn’t have enough dressing," Oriana said dramatically and sassy, pointing at the salad. Suki kept staring at her face, which was creepy, before taking the salad bowl and walking away.

"Are you sure they’re not spitting in our food?" I asked my squad member.

However, what I didn’t expect was the ringleaders hearing me. I thought we were at a good distance from them, but I guess because it was so silent and the only noise was from the dishes, they heard me.

"Because we have cameras everywhere, we would know if they were doing such a thing," Ms. Lenora spoke up, causing me to awkwardly sink in my seat while everyone looked at me. Even the white squad, who were coming out with the dishes, suddenly stopped, narrowed their eyes, and looked at me.

"Don’t worry, they won’t spit in your food," Ms. Lenora added that just so the white squad knew what I was talking about.

At that moment, I noticed Ian stretch his legs and pass me a glance. I remembered he had told me the ringleaders also act very sketchy.

"I hope not, because this time we won’t let you deal with them. We’ll take matters into our own hands," thankfully, Yorick spoke up, loud enough to divert everyone’s attention to him. Suddenly, no one cared about my concerns, and I was so grateful to Yorick for that.