“Food,” Markus said dropping a plate with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches down in front of me. I looked around the lab, Trip left an hour ago and I hadn't even noticed Markus leave or come back in. “Eat. You missed lunch,” Markus said.
I grabbed a sandwich in one hand and kept poking my circuit board with the other, until Seth walked over and grabbed the circuit board, “Eat first,” he said as he sat next to me.
I pouted, but did as Seth instructed.
“How do you like it so far?” Seth asked.
I shrugged, “It's cool,” I said. “I'm starting to like it here.”
Seth grinned and we bumped shoulders, “Good.”
“Ever been out?” I asked.
“Once, on my fifteenth birthday. Trip, Kelsey, Jackson, Cody, Walt, Laura, Taven, Jack and I went out. We saw a movie, went shopping, ate at McDonald's, Applebee's and a Hard Rock Cafe. We went to a board walk and an amusement park,” Seth said and, as he described it, he sounded distant. I grinned at Seth and kept eating. “What did you normally do?”
“Well, I had these friends,” I started. “Jacob, Luke, Zac and Michael. We liked to hang out at the playground and the skate park.” I grinned, “We could get onto almost any roof in the city. Normally we just hung out and stuff. We always ate at Bailey's and helped out. Luke and I always watched the neighborhood kids for their parents. We used to take the kids to the parks and whenever there was a carnival in town we always went. Sometimes we didn't even have money to get on the rides. We'd just go, hang out and watch the rides. Sometimes we'd sneak into movies and bounce back a forth until we'd get bored.”
Seth laughed, “Sounds fun.”
I shrugged, “It was more fun at night.”
“How?” Seth asked.
“We used to run on the roofs and hang out. A lot of times, we camped on kid's roofs and hung out,” Ash said.
“This morning, why didn’t you answer Trip’s question?” Seth asked.
“I didn’t want to,” I said.
“Why?” Seth asked.
“Cause I didn’t want to.”
Seth gave me an odd look and started to say, “Why didn’t you-”
“Don't ask,” I snapped.
YOU ARE READING
The Academy: Ashland
Ciencia FicciónMeet Ashland. She's sixteen and has been living in the Divine Lorraine, since she was eleven with five other kids. She knows how to fight, steal and shoot. Life wasn't good for Ash and her friends, but it wasn't terrible. They did odd jobs and helpe...
