The Inheritance Book 1

Ch 17 Cleaning Up: Elizabeth Rowe [Monday Afternoon, Week Two]

Having to chop vegetables, stir soup pots, set the table, and tidy up in the kitchen a few times a week was bad enough. But this was ridiculous!

Now they--the guests!--were required to clean up the pavilion after the Competition Kickoff ceremony. Unacceptable! They were the contestants, not the cleaning crew. How insulting! Allora should have hired people for that.

Elizabeth watched Jarrett pick up a napkin that the wind had blown onto the grass. He held it up and it was all soggy and disgusting. Touch other people's nasty leavings? No, thanks.

Jarrett tossed the napkin onto the cart, oblivious as to how ungraciously they were being treated. In fact, none of the other kids seemed to be aware either. They were all buzzing around happily, doing what they were told, just like good little worker bees. That must be another one of the differences of growing up in a lower-class environment. Elizabeth had been learning a lot about those since coming to Trecorin.

Jarrett collected the cordial glasses from their table. "Making name badges, drawing pictures, and now baking cakes? Seriously? When are we gonna do some arm wrestling or kick-boxing?" he said, and added in a masculine grunt for effect.

"It's in the packet, weren't you listening?" Elizabeth said sarcastically as she took her usual seat at their table.

"To be honest, every time Haversham talks, my brain checks out. All I hear is wah-wah-wah."

"Same." Elizabeth sighed. "I'm feeling a headache coming on, so I'll let you all handle the cleaning."

Sione droned over and added more dirty dessert plates to the stack. "How nice of you to 'let' us do your share of the work." Sione flipped a strand of Elizabeth's hair over the top of her head.

"Jerk!" She smacked his shoulder. "I hope you guys aren't expecting me to win the cake competition for you. I have never baked a cake in my life."

Sione put the plates on the cart. "You think I was joking when I said I was good at everything? I've been baking my own birthday cakes since I was five. We got this!"

"And you're good at cleaning, so you got that too," she said.

He tried to flip her hair again, but she knew it was coming and ducked away.

Elizabeth pulled her mirror out of her mini-backpack and fixed her hair. While she was at it, she checked her brows and touched up her eyeliner. She glanced around at the other girls. None of them were friend material. Hannah looked exactly the same every day: volleyball t-shirt, ponytail, and not a hint of makeup. Averi badly needed a skincare routine. And the baggy clothes she wore to hide her extra poundage weren't helping either. Kellyn's choice of colors and styles could not be more off, which was why she always looked washed out. Someone should have told her years ago that pale blondes cannot wear white! That Mirabelle was just vulgar, slutty and repulsive.

Sione pulled Jarrett in to form a little circle around Elizabeth. "Has that stalker bothered you again?" he asked quietly.

"No, not since that first time."

"Okay, good. Because if they do and we find out who it is, they will be very sorry," Jarrett said in a show of aggressive protectiveness. He immediately went red when she smiled up at him.

Both Jarrett and Sione liked her, as she intended from the moment she first saw them.

They were equally appealing to her, but in completely different ways. Jarrett, with his wavy, reddish-blonde hair and tall, athletic frame was physically attractive. He would blush and bumble when she looked at him, or when he tried to talk to her one-on-one. She enjoyed knowing the effect she had on him, but his shyness could become boring after a while.