Queen of the track

XVIII.

I glance over at Rissa and give a small shake of my head, silently telling her I'll talk to her later.

Once Graham finished reading an extract from the book and assigning a practice essay question for us to answer, I turn to Rissa as I flick open a new page of my notebook.

"Connor and Gray got into a fight." I whisper.

"What?" She leans closer to me. "When?"

"Before class."

"Let me guess, Connor started it?"

I nod at her. "And AJ finished it."

Her eyes widen, "Is the kid still walking?"

I sigh, "for now. I managed to stop AJ fighting him here, so instead he proposed an actual fight. Somewhere else."

Rissa's left eyebrow raises. "Holy shit, are you serious?"

I nod, just as Graham announces this is to be a silent assignment, halting the hushed whispers throughout the classroom. 

When class ends and we walk over to calculus, I fill Rissa in on the rest of what happened with AJ.

"Damn." She says once I've finished. "I get he needs some way of getting his anger out, and he hates Gray...but going back to the ring?" She shakes his head.

"I know." I say, sitting at my desk and watching AJ and Connor walk in.

AJ takes his usual seat next to me and takes out his books, but doesn't say anything. I can faintly hear Connor and Rissa whispering behind us.

I look over at AJ as he replies to a text, "You need to pick the boys up today."

He snaps his head up to look at me, and furrows his brow. "What? Why?"

"Because Graham gave me detention." I reply with the same look.

He breathes out a frustrated breath, "fine."

"Fine?" I repeat. "I tell you I got detention, because you made me late to class, and that's all you can say?"

"I didn't make you late to class, you made yourself late by butting into my business."

"Axel and Raven," the teacher calls out to us, eyebrow raised. "Is there a problem, or can we start the lesson?" She asks.

I clench my jaw and turn away from AJ, he does the same. The teacher looks between us and nods.

"Alright, class..."

I tune out when my phone buzzes in my jacket pocket. I take it out and glance down at the screen, scowling at the words and who they're from.

Without raising suspicion I zip my phone back into my pocket and get on with class, ignoring the faint buzz every so often.

When we walk out of the classroom an hour later, my phone buzzes again and I read the other texts I received during class.

"Catch you later," I say to the others as they walk in the other direction.

I turn and watch them walk away before heading towards the main doors, and out into the parking lot behind school.