A Murder Of Crows [boyxboy]

A Murder Of Crows {21}

                We entered the dining hall together and grabbed our trays. We piled food onto them and I followed Jamison back to his usual table, where Kenz, Nia, and Cole already were.

                "He's eating with us again?" Nia said in surprise.

                "Is that a problem?" Jamison said, raising an eyebrow.

                "Oh, no! I was just surprised," Nia said.

                I took a seat next to Jamison. He shot Nia a warning look, and she sank down in her seat a little like a scolded child.

                "Switching sides?" Cole said to me.

                "Hear I'm not the only one around here to do that," I said, a taunt to let him know I wasn't ignorant to his history with Kieran.

                Cole's eyes narrowed the slightest, but he shrugged. "Where's Val?"

                "I don't know. I'm not her keeper," I said.

                "You can call her, Cole. She's welcome to join us," Jamison offered.

                "Nah, it's alright. I was just wondering," Cole said.

                "Here, Jamison. I thought you should look over some of the Crow candidates. Headmaster Crowe gave me the list," Kenz said, handing a folder to Jamison. "He's look at students coming to the Academy as freshman, as well as students already here who show good potential."

                Jamison forked some food into his mouth and began looking through the papers in the folder. He looked up at Kenz in surprise.

                "Your sister is a candidate? Good for her," he said. "I'm sure Cole will love to work with Jill."

                Cole suddenly looked terrified. "Jill is a candidate? Oh my god. No. She's going to replaced Kenz as my mom if she gets in."

                "She'll make sure you're doing your job properly," Kenz said. "Besides, you two get along."

                "Yea when she's not scolding me like a mini-you," Cole said.

                Jamison laughed. "Now imagine if I had a sibling. Then you'd really be screwed."

                "I didn't ask for this," Cole groaned.

                "I thought the staff picked the Crows?" I said, though I wasn't surprised the Crows themselves had a big say in who was in their exclusive little group.

                "Oh, they do. But Headmaster Crowe likes our input. He wants students who will work well together so there's no conflict in the group," Jamison said.

                "Headmaster Crowe trusts Jamie's judgment," Nia said. "He said we've done some of the best work he's ever seen from a group of Crows."

                "We all work well together. Even Cole works well when he actually works," Jamison said.

                "Thanks for the compliment, dad," Cole said.

                "How did you get in on this group of Crows?" I asked Nia. She was still the wild card, the one I hadn't figured out. She didn't appear to have a connection to any of the other Crows, and no connection to Kieran or Mia.

                "Jamie was looking for new members," Nia said, smiling proudly. "He thought I'd be good here because I was working in several Academy clubs and trying to help out with Crow volunteer projects whenever I could."