School for Assassins (Rewritten) - Complete

Chapter 15 - May the Best Team Win

There was a multitude of round tables throughout the room, and the table tops were bright red. There was a decent amount of space between each table, just to keep the peace between students. There were three cafeterias on campus. This one was for the older students. Anyone between five and twelve had to use the smaller dining hall. The adults got their own room as well, unless they were on monitor duty.

Dominic set me down and readjusted his hat. Jordan dropped an arm around my shoulders, and I stumbled in surprise. He shook his head. "Ely, Ely, Ely. I promise that we aren't that scary. At least, not for you. We're on your team, Babe. There's no need to be nervous."

If anything, his comment only made me more nervous, and I shook a little. I followed the boys to get some food. There were a couple other teams in the room, and a couple people eating by themselves, but no one else was getting food at the moment. I looked over all my options and asked for a chicken salad. I got a bottle of water and started to follow the guys to an empty table at the corner of the room.

I only got a few steps before Shawn suddenly turned around and took my food from me. He studied me for a moment, looked at the fork and bottle of water still in my hands, and then nodded. "Please don't stab anyone on the way to the table, Princess." He said softly as he started heading back for the table.

I felt my cheeks heat once more and scowled at him, "It only happened twice, and you startled me both times!" I replied, defending myself.

Before Shawn and I could sit down, Jordan gave my arm a gentle pull into the chair next to him, which put me between Shawn and Jordan. Shawn put my salad in front of me, and I took a drink of my water before I set it down. Jordan distracted me for a moment when he accidentally knocked my water off the table. "Sorry about that." He mumbled as he bent down to pick it up.

I narrowed my eyes at him, thinking that something felt off about what he was doing. I just couldn't tell what it was. He gave my water a quick shake, and then handed it to me. "What did you do to it?" I asked suspiciously.

He gave me an innocent look, "Do?" He asked.

"Am I going to die if I drink this?" I asked as I remembered that he said he specialized in poisons.

"No. I can assure you that you will not die. You want complete honesty?" He asked softly. Shawn and Dominic had both paused mid bite to watch us. I gave a small nod and Jordan smiled, "I'd rather not go into details here." He glanced around the room quickly. "The answer I gave yesterday about my specialty is mostly true, but my true specialty is on a much broader scale. What I put in your water will do nothing more than help replace electrolytes you lost during our fights, and it'll give you a bit of an energy boost. I promise that's all it'll do."

I watched him closely for signs he might be lying, but he wasn't giving any off, so I finally took a sip. My water had a slight acidic taste, like lemon water might, but it didn't taste bad. Jordan shook his head and took my water from me. He took a large sip and handed it back. "Had it been poison, I guarantee I wouldn't have just done that." He said.

I felt a little awkward now, but I took another sip and turned back to my salad. Shawn suddenly asked, "Did you treat our beverages to your concoction as well?"

Jordan nodded warily. "Yeah. I haven't given anyone much of a reason to trust me yet, but I wanted to do something to help the team out." He said softly.

Shawn ran a hand through his hair and said, "When we get back to our apartment, you had better explain."

Jordan nodded, "I will." He replied. I wasn't sure what to say, so I settled for giving Jordan a smile. His eyes lit up a little and he went back to eating. Shawn and Dominic went back to talking as we finished our lunches.