The new group that was in front of me looked at each other before they looked at the group that was on the other side of the phone screen and me. Their faces were grave and nervous, and I had a feeling that they were worried about Cal.
"Cal is an innocent," I said and took a bite out of my food before I covered my mouth. "Even if I dislike his guts, I can't hurt him... badly."
"Badly as in..?" Yaz trailed off and raised an eyebrow. Worry for her brother filled her eyes, and I had a feeling that she thought I would hurt him much worse than I anticipated if he did attack me.
"Badly as in kill," I replied and shrugged. "He's on the right path to get his ass handed to him, but he isn't on the right path for me to go full on "beast mode" as Jack likes to say." I gave him an annoyed look, and he grinned before he shrugged.
"Hey, you do have that mode," he said. "I am just glad that it has never been directed towards me."
Yaz furrowed her brows and looked down while she bit her lip. "Should... my brother be worried?" she asked, finally, and looked up at me. Worry filled her eyes, and I had a feeling that she was more worried about her brother than he was.
I offered her a small smile and shook my head no. "He won't be able to get to that point, not in the matter of a few days, if he doesn't do anything too stupid," I said.
Yaz raised an eyebrow. "Like?" she asked.
"Kill someone that is innocent," I replied. I shrugged and ate some of my food. "I might have exploded something in chem lab, but I knew that no one was going to get hurt except for that sub's pride." I shrugged and smirked. "She didn't want to be there anyway."
"But that didn't mean you could blow something up, Miss Lanchester, and could have potentially caused someone harm," Copo said, and I grinned. He gave me a pointed look, and my grin grew wider. "It doesn't matter that your father is a chemical engineer and that you have been doing formulas for as long as you remember."
I shrugged. "Not as long as I have been fighting but sure," I replied.
"So my brother is safe?" Yaz asked.
"Unfortunately," I replied and wrinkled my nose in annoyance, and she snorted but looked relieved. "However, I will kick his ass if he decides to be a dick to me."
Yaz gestured as if to say, "be my guest." "His head is getting a bit too big for his britches anyway," she said. "I am sure that it'll take someone as "lowly" as you to bring him down a few pegs."
I snorted and pressed my lips together before I looked at Bryson. "He isn't worth anything with that headspace," I said, my tone firm and hard. "If he is a leader or a second in command or whatever, then he does not need to be. That is how wars and shit are started because men will think with their ego or their other brain and not with their actual head."
The new group that "wanted" me to be a part of their group looked at each other in silence before they looked at Bryson to see what he had to say about my remark.
Bryson was silent while he studied me. He reached for his plate and pulled something off of it, and started to eat it while he studied me further before he looked at Charlie to see what he had to say.
Charlie shrugged and didn't respond. He cocked his head and studied me, slowly chewing something that he had put in his mouth before I said something.
I furrowed my brows and looked at them. "What?" I asked while I looked at them, confused. "I mean, it's true; isn't it?" I looked at Charlie when I said that.
Charlie shrugged but didn't respond. He gestured to Bryson with his head, and I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He indicated that it was better to ask Bryson and not him.
"Well?" I asked, and Bryson cleared his throat and shrugged, too. I rolled my eyes and scowled but didn't say another word on the issue because I had a feeling that no one was going to answer me.
"Ok, what about Treble?" Grayson asked, changing the subject, and I looked at him. "Should he worry about you, still?"
I nodded. "He should always worry about me, especially if we are alone together and there is no one that can stop me from killing him." I picked something else off of my plate and ate it. "He knows, so he hasn't been near my friends or me. We aren't in the same classes together, rarely pass each other in the hallways, and he leaves when I enter a room, and ya." I shrugged. "It's not that I told him to leave the room, but he does on his own."
"And must I remind you that you almost went to jail for attempted murder," Copo reminded me, and I rolled my eyes and scowled. "If I were him, then I wouldn't be around you either."
"Well, it's a good thing that you don't have anything to worry about, don't you?" I sassed back. I shrugged before I took another bite of my food. "Besides, it's not like I can't do anything since I am like six hours away and in a different state than you."
Jack snorted and leaned back in his seat. "I don't think that will be a problem if something happens to one of us and you hear about it," he said and looked at Kayla, who had been silent through the whole conversation before he looked at me.
I stayed silent and pressed my lips into a thinner line because he was right; if something happened to my friends, then I'd be going straight there in six hours or less and dealing with the problem myself, even if it meant that I'd be the one in trouble.
Reggie cleared his throat, and I looked at him. "Ich nehme an, ihr ist etwas passiert, dass Sie ihn fast umgebracht haben? (I take it that something happened to her for you to almost kill him?)" he asked and nodded towards Kayla. "Ich fing den Blick auf, den er ihr zuwarf. (I caught the look he gave her.)"
I set my jaw and slowly nodded. "Ja, (Yes,)" I said, my voice hard. "Es ist ihr passiert. (It happened to her.)" My voice turned slightly darker while my anger flared, and I had to look away from them so that they wouldn't see the gold that I knew was in my eyes.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly calmed down and was able to make sure that my eyes weren't gold when I looked at them again. I kept my face blank while I calmed my anger, even though I knew that there would be a bubbling point until I couldn't control it any longer.
"Was ist passiert? (What happened?)" he asked.
I smiled bitterly and shook my head, not answering him. "Es steht mir nicht zu, das zu sagen. (It's not my place to say,)" I replied, my voice shaking slightly. "Das kann ich ohne ihre Erlaubnis nicht sagen. (I can't say that without her permission.)"
"Du kannst ihnen sagen, (You can tell them,)" Kayla said, her voice barely above a whisper that I had to strain my ears to hear her. She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat, not looking like the strong female that I knew she was.
She looked pale and afraid, something that I knew happened when we discussed this in the past. Her eyes were wide and filled with tears while she looked around, thinking that he was in the shadows to get her and finish what he had started before I had shown up and saved her.
I wasn't surprised that she knew German, so it didn't shock me like it shocked the rest of our group because they were looking at her with wide eyes and open mouths. "Bist du sicher? (Are you sure?)" I asked instead and raised an eyebrow.
Kayla hesitated but nodded. "Ja, (Yes,)" she said. "Kopenhagen kennt nicht einmal die ganze Wahrheit. (Copenhagen doesn't even know the whole truth.)" She glanced at our, well, their, principal before she looked at me. "Sie können es ihnen sagen. (You can tell them.)"
I pressed my lips into a thin line and nodded before I cleared my throat. Worry for my best friend filled me, and I knew that she would be reliving those moments while I talked about them. "Du willst aussteigen? (Do you want to step out?)" I asked and tucked my head closer to my chest.
Kayla took a deep, shuddering breath and shook her head, no. "Ich werde in Ordnung sein, (I'll be fine,)" she said softly, even though we both knew that she wouldn't be. "Es wird gut sein, darüber zu sprechen. (It'll be good to talk about it.)"
I heard the doubt in her voice, but I didn't comment on it, knowing full well that she didn't want me to bring it to everyone's attention.
Instead, I cleared my throat and nodded before I looked at my group and then the group that was gathered around me. "So, this happened back in ninth grade," I said and leaned back in my seat.
I ignored the plate of food in front of me, my focus only on the people that were gathered around me. My jaw was set while I looked at them, the anger boiling just below the surface as it had done in the past.
"But in all honesty, I can remember this as if it only happened yesterday."