“Maya! You come mop up this water before someone breaks their neck!” she yells across the room.
“Yeah, sorry,” I mumble. She raises one eyebrow. “Ma’am,” I add.
“Rule number one, be on time.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Mr. Burnett told me your punishment,” she nods to my busted lip. “You can work in here but no trouble. I don’t take to trouble in my kitchen. Everyone gets along and everyone works. Since Matthew broke his wrist, you’ll be taking over his station.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say, following her across the room to a wide row of sinks. “Dishes?
“Yep. You ever wash dishes before? Like this?”
“Yeah. Er. Yes, ma’am, I have. Not a problem.”
She looks me over. “You’re big. Keep an ear out. I’ll be hollering at you to carry stuff. You can help Eric with the heavy lifting. Mr. Burnett says you’ve got 20 hours to fill. That’s two hours a day for two weeks. Where’s your class schedule?”
“I left it at the dorm. Should I go back?”
She sighs. “Tonight. After dinner, drop it off. I’ll work it around your classes.”
“Thanks.” I don’t know why I’m grateful, but she’s got flowers on her shirt, and there’s no uniform in the corner with a Taser on his belt. We both turn at a loud crash. Eric is on the floor, feet waving in the air, a container turned over on his chest. Carrots roll across the floor. A girl stands behind him with a mop and a guilty look on her face.
“Lord, help me,” Constance says, shaking her head. “Tonight. Don’t be late.”
“No, ma’am.” I bolt from the room as she tears into the kitchen staff.
4.
Missing
“There.” I step back from the oversized calendar month I’ve tacked to the wall, and put an X through yesterday’s square with my pink glitter pen. “We can put all our assignments up here and then there’ll be no question about deadlines.”
I turn and face my teammates. Well, two of them. Two others are missing.
“I’m emailing Dr. Anders, asking what we should do about Sonja. Maybe she’s bailed on the program this year.” Julian says, fingers streaking over his laptop keys.
“She’ll be here,” I say. “She must have had some kind of emergency.”
He shrugs. “Personally, I’m okay taking on her part of the project. I’d rather work alone anyway, but this means you two have to take up for Ethan.”
“Did he get kicked out after all?”
Julian shakes his head. “His stuff is still in our room. I just saw him.”
“So he can’t even be bothered to make it to our first meeting?” I huff.
The door swings open. Speak of the devil, and he shows up in rumpled jeans and a slept-in shirt one size too small, outlining each and every cut of muscle of his chest. Ethan snags a chair with his foot, sets his bag on the table next to my brother, taking up space with his elbows. The yellow-orange envelope bounces across the table.
“Nice of you to make an appearance,” I say, sitting across from the boys.
“Miss me?” Ethan’s smile isn’t nice.
“You were right behind us, where did you go?” Julian asks him.
“None of your business.”
I cross my arms over my chest, pushing my breasts up high to get his attention. “You tried to get out of our group, didn’t you?”