The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 4, Continued, Again

Science class I took careful note of all the things that could be used as weapons, there were much more in here than any of the other classrooms. Ninth period was the last class of the day and one of my favorites. JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) was a military type gym-slash-law-slash-how-to-be-a-decent-person class and since my parents were in the military they made Aiden take it, I decided to take it of my own accord but I think it would have made my parents proud to see me doing it. We learned pretty basic things about how to address our commanding officer (Sergeant. Not Sir because he's only an enlisted rank and not an officer.), how to fall in, fall out, and place our bags. Of course I already knew all of this stuff. At the end of class we got our books and then school was over and I waited outside the school for Noah and Olivia with Caleb.

When they got outside I introduced Caleb to them as my friends and introduced them to Caleb as a friend. Because they certainly weren't my siblings. We all walked back to the Hudsons house together and parted ways with Caleb at the end of our street. He was staying in the house across the street from us so that he could keep an eye on me. Oliver is so melodramatic sometimes. I mean, I can kind of understand having a detail at school, but at the house? No one would be stupid enough to try anything around civvies. Yeah, I understand that there are civvies at school too, but it would be so much easier for someone to be taken quietly at school with no one noticing than in a house with only a few people in it. Besides, school can be dangerous even if you don't have an international target on your back.

As promised, I sat at the table with everyone else to teach them German. Basic words like hello, goodbye, no, yes, please, thank you, you're welcome. Their names were the same in English and German so I ignored that. Then I taught Anton those same words in English. It took about an hour for them to get it right but only a few minutes to teach Anton, I guess since he's been hearing it for so long he's a natural. Afterwards we all went to our respective rooms and had homework time. Since it was the first day of school, we didn't have any homework so instead Olivia suggested that we decorate my side of the room. I protested, but eventually gave in just to have something to do. Olivia grabbed a bunch of craft supplies and spilled them out on the floor. Inside was ribbon and tape and magazines and a bunch of other things that I would usually only use as weapons. While she was decorating, I sat in the corner of the room and drew a picture of her. After putting one of my many signatures at the bottom right corner, I carefully ripped it out and gave it to her. She looked at it for a moment before engulfing me in a hug that caught me off guard. I picked her hands up and took them off my shoulders while trying to still my hand that had decided to start shaking again.
“So,” I asked her while she continued to decorate, “Are any of you biological? I mean, like did Hannah and Robin adopt all of you?”
“Yeah, And I was actually adopted before Noah. Which kind of makes me older if you think about it.” She told me.
“So what’s your story?”
“Well, My bio mom died while giving birth, and my father was never in the picture. So I was adopted by Mom and dad almost immediately. But Noah’s dad died in a car crash when he was five and his mom has a life sentence. Mom and dad adopted him after two years of foster care.” She shrugged and I decided to drop it.