T.R.A.C.K: Debut Single

Chapter 5: Kris

“Your turn.”

            Ashley drew a card, and his eyes widened. I suppressed a smirk. This was too easy. Had he ever heard of a poker face?

            Nervously he peeked at me. “I--”

            “Kris…”

            A chill ran down my spine. The voice was soft and threatening, and most importantly, right behind me.

            That boy really moved like a ghost. I never even heard him enter.

            “…You’re a bad influence!” Tyr snatched the cards out of my hand exasperatedly. Ashley put down his hand obediently, looking relieved. Ah, well. At least he knew enough to know he was bad at this. But Tyr was not done with me. “Don’t you have anything better to do?!”

            “No, not really,” I answered in all honesty. While the others were at school or college, I was stuck with Ashley here. And, big as the mansion was, it held no more surprises for me after the first few days.

            “Nah, you don’t fool me,” said Ryder lazily, plopping down next to me. “Have you even been into the game room?”

            Somehow or another, Ryder had managed to bully Tyr into stocking one of the many empty rooms around the house with all the latest technological gadgets. I did not know how he did it, but from the way he ranted about it I gathered that we could play every video game that ever came into existence within those four walls.

            “But what good will it do?” I protested. That was the root of all my restlessness, I realized. “I need to do something productive!”

            Ryder snorted. “Is that why you dropped out of school?”

            I glared him down, but I had to admit, he was not one to be intimidated easily. “I graduated. A long time ago.”

            Tyr cleared his throat, trying to cut through the building tension. “Look, Kris, it’s my fault, I didn’t tell them before--”

            “No, it’s my business, I should tell them,” I interjected coolly. I had nothing but respect for Tyr as a leader, but sometimes you simply needed to take the bull by its horns. Even if I had all the time in the world to kill now, procrastinating felt like a sin. “I have an IQ of 180, graduated from high school when I was 15 and have been wasting away at Harvard for four years before Tyr here bailed me out.”

            Ryder did not even blink until I reached the last few words. Then his jaw dropped and he rounded in on Tyr. “Harvard? How on earth did you manage that?”

            Tyr grimaced. “You would be surprised how many people are willing to swap identities for a place in Harvard. But there was all that paperwork…”