Page 175 of Knox Academy Omnibus
“I love that!” She beams, looking down at the puppy. His eyes are already drooping, the excitement of being adored all too much for him. “What do you think? Marshmallow Lucy-Fur the First.”
“That’s pretentious,” I point out.
“Good.”
“I thought you said Lucy was a girl’s name.”
“It is. But it’s fine for a middle name.”
“Well, I love it!” Elsie beams.
“Me too.” Amelie smiles back.
“Fine.” I sigh. “It’s a bit of a mouthful though.” It’s not like it matters if she calls it a sappy name like Marshmallow if it’s not going to grow into a ferocious beast anyway.
“I love him, Kalen. We’ll call him Mo-Mo for short...I always wanted a dog, but we could never have one back home. Thank you.” The look she gives me is so earnest that I feel warm inside. Fuck, now who’s the sap?
“Why did you get her a puppy anyway? Is it a Valentine’s gift?” Elsie asks.
“Yes. No. Kinda. You said to Elsie it would take pizza and puppies for you to forgive me. So that’s what I got. Plus, didn’t you hear me sing?” I open my mouth to repeat my mashup, but Amelie’s hand flies out to cover my lips.
“Please don’t!” She laughs before letting her hand drop, her face turning serious. “So you’ve been spying on me?”
“Hardly,” I scoff, trying to hide my racing heart. “I just asked around a little on what might make you happy. I had a little help from Elsie.”
It’s a little white lie, but hopefully she won’t realise. I’m praying on her falling in love with this puppy and forgiving me.If she finds out that we listen in on her most private moments, she’ll kill us. We’ll never be forgiven. And I couldn’t live with that.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Amelie
After lunch Kalen takes Marshmallow to have a sleep and a potty break, and the rest of the day drags on. All I want to do is play with my new puppy. I’ll never admit it, but his gift was pretty spot on. We always wanted a puppy growing up, but my father is allergic, so the best I had was a pet fish named Scooby, who ended up with some kind of fungus and died. After his loss I never asked for another pet again.
I’m in two minds about the guys: on the one hand, I’m pretty sure that they’re still lying to me and spying on me...but then I ask myself why. Yes, the twins and Kalen messed up last term and they will still answer for that. Somehow. I now know this Order of The Sadists, or whatever they called it, is in the equation. Their lies and behaviour have to be connected to that somehow. Doesn’t make it right, but it does go a small way towards explaining things perhaps.
To top it off, Sawyer took me to breakfast and he gave me my gift: he named a star after me. I swear I’m lucky he gave it to me in public, I was a wet mess. Then Slate texted and said he wouldlike to take me to an open mic night, so I’m yet to see what he has gotten me. Onyx walked up to me and handed me a card and said “not a Valentine's gift”, then walked away before he even saw me open it.
I can’t lie and say I wasn’t excited to see cage fighting lessons inside.
The bell goes to signal we’re done for the day, I pack my stuff away and don’t even wait for the teacher to dismiss us. I’m out the door and through the corridors before most students have made it out of their classrooms.
Kalen is waiting by the back oval where we agreed to meet, and the fluff ball is at his feet trying to tear at his pant leg. Kalen’s trying to be stern with the puppy and is telling it to knock it off when he spots me walking – okay running – in his direction.
“This thing needs to go to obedience school, it won’t stop eating my trousers,” he complains. I laugh.
“We just need to get him some toys; puppies need lots of attention.” Hmmm, kinda like Kalen.
I sit down and Marshmallow jumps into my lap and kisses my face, making me smile. Kalen joins us on the grass while we play with the puppy.
“What the fuck is that?” Onyx demands, coming to stand next to us, his form shading us from the sun. I look up and see both the twins are looking down at us.
“That's my puppy,” I say enthusiastically.
“What sort of idiot would get you a puppy? No offence,” Slate adds.
I snap my head to Kalen and he snorts and shrugs at the same time.
“Where do you plan on keeping it? Dad hates animals and Laura seems too self-absorbed to like anything other thanherself and money.” Slate really seems to not like this puppy idea.
