The Scarlet Stinger (LRDA Book 1)

Chapter 5

Normally Talia would be happy to spend the hour watching Bryce type on his computer but she had a case and Jigsaw was refusing to answer her messages.

"Talia," Bryce called.

She looked up. "What is it?"

"Mrs Smith said we're partners for the next assignment."

Talia shut down her computer and unplugged the USB. She turned her full attention to him. "Really? What are we doing?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Goofing off again?"

She shrugged. "She already saw my programme."

"Well, we have to do something for a business," Bryce said.

Talia didn't think of the case for the next hour while they decided what they were going to do for the project and it wasn't until she was sitting with the others at their usual table that it came back to mind.

"Weren't you supposed to be looking after Nicolai?" she asked.

"He'll be here soon," Carter said. He looked at the door. "Speak of the devil."

Nicolai walked toward them. "If you called me here to take me back to the nurse and strip me again, then I refuse."

"You asked him to do what?" Miranda asked Talia.

"You're refusing to do what?" Carter asked Nicolai. Miranda punched his arm.

Talia rolled her eyes. "He's being overdramatic. I did not ask him to strip."

"But you did take him to the nurse," Miranda said.

"Why did you call me?" he asked.

"I didn't." Talia looked at Carter.

Carter dragged Nicolai down onto the bench between him and Miranda. "Davis is waiting on you just outside those doors. Stay here."

"You told them?" Nicolai asked.

"Who doesn't know about him picking on you?" Miranda asked.

"The point is, you're not leaving this table until lunch is over," Carter said.

"I'm leaving," Nicolai said. He tried to stand. Both Carter and Miranda pulled him back down.

"Just stay and eat lunch with us," Talia said. "Juniper might bite them this time and we wouldn't want that. She will get banned from the school. Maybe even put down."

"I thought you said she won't bite anyone unless you tell her to," Miranda said.

"Exactly," Talia said. "I already took a risk by having her bark at them yesterday. Telling her to attack them would be worse."

"Do services dogs usually know commands like that?" Nicolai asked.

"No," Talia said. She didn't elaborate.

Carter put his arm around Nicolai's shoulders. "So, for Juniper's sake, just stay."

"By the way, your calculations were spot on." Talia said. She held up the meter. "No spikes or dips. Well, nothing that wasn't intentional anyway."

Nicolai tried not to smile but it didn't work. "I looked up how to do it online since I knew it was important. It took a while to figure it out and I kept rechecking just to make sure and since the fillings so far have been mainly vegetables I figured it would be alright."

Talia nodded. She picked at the food in her container. She really didn't want to eat but she'd already taken the insulin. She would much prefer another calzone or burrito to plain rice and grilled fish.