Borrowed Courage

Chapter Six

The next day was like any other for Brooke. She left the apartment complex at six-thirty, travel mug of black coffee in hand, and found her self-proclaimed seat at the back of the school bus. As early as it was, she practically had the whole thing herself. Yet her body was tense, thoughts reeling as she waited for him to show. She snuck a glance at the dingy lobby of the apartment down the street, and jolted when the bus doors hissed to a close.

Kaleb was nowhere to be seen.

"Shit." She hissed under her breath, twining her earphone cord between her fingers as she watched the scenery whiz by. It was ironic, really. Just the day before, Brooke had caught an earlier bus for the sole purpose of avoiding being noticed by him, and now his absence had her practically sweating bullets.

Surely he escaped. The rational side of her argued. He said the landlady would let him out eventually. Just you watch, he'll turn up at school like nothing even happened, that insufferable little bastard.

With a huff, Brooke kicked her shoes up against the seat in front of her and stared absently down at her open hand. It had happened hours ago, but the feeling of a borrower-sized Kaleb Finch struggling against her grasp remained fresh in her mind. She probably would've chalked the whole ordeal up to her overactive imagination if the evidence wasn't right there in her camera roll.

Obviously, the first thing she'd done after getting back to her family's apartment was look up 'Upsize' on her laptop. Considering how panicked and secretive Kaleb had been about his apparent ability to shift between borrower and human size, it was only a little unsurprising that nothing of any relevance came up. A few more dead-end searches later and Brooke had found herself leaning back in her seat with her hands behind her head. Either this was all one big practical joke, or she'd had just stumbled across the biggest conspiracy of the borrower race. That in itself was a lot to think about.

She'd contemplated asking her dad about it, but had instantly shot the idea down.

No, Brooke. She chided to herself. No way are you getting any more involved with this.

Brooke had witnessed enough over the last two months to know that anything even remotely related to borrowers was bad news. Now that she knew Kaleb Finch was one, she was inclined to have as little to do with him as possible.

"Guess that all depends on whether he'll actually leave me alone." She muttered bitterly as she strode into the school building, hand clenched around her coffee. With a thought, she downed the rest of it in one swig. If she was going to get through this day, she'd need all the liquid courage she could get. That done, all that was left to do was steel her nerves, take a deep breath and enter the classroom.

Well, fuck.

Kaleb was already waiting at his desk, tapping away at his phone without a care in the world. He didn't look up as she entered, which Brooke took as a golden opportunity to slip past the other mingling students and into her own seat up the back. She let out the breath she didn't realise she'd been holding and got to unpacking her things for class. With any luck, by the time he noticed her arrival, class would've already begun and Brooke would be left in peace.

That was what she was thinking, anyway, until Kaleb rounded in on her out of nowhere and planted his hands on her desk. Sighing, she met his royally pissed expression with her own neutral stare.

Right. As if the universe would give her a moment of peace.

"Wow." Brooke droned. "Someone ate their wheaties this morning. Look at how big and strong you are."