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  Ten minutes later, Rylan offers to put the mat away, then joins us as I take her next door to show her around the gym. “Man, those boys in my class are going to be so jealous,” she says, talking about her morning spent with Rylan and I. “They are such jerks, maybe I should show them some of my new moves.”

  “Whoa. Hold on a second. What do you mean they're jerks?” I ask, looking down at her to find scowl on her face.

  “Oh, just these guys in my class. Ever since dad died, they’ve been mean,” she grumbles.

  “What are they doing to be mean?” I ask, glancing up at Rylan to find the same questioning look on his face.

  “Oh, you know, just saying mean stuff. About how I was there and didn’t even try to stop him, that it was my fault.”

  “What?” I screech. “How come you’ve never told me this?”

  A guilty expression comes over her face. “I just didn’t want you to worry. You’ve already been so kind to me.”

  “I don’t want you thinking like that, you know you can always come to me if something is bothering you. Now, which boys are bugging you? I’ll sort them out,” I promise.

  “No, you won’t,” Rylan scoffs. I shoot a glare in his direction to find him smirking back at me. “Your idea of sorting it out is probably beating up a bunch of nine-year-olds. I’m not going to let you risk your ranking or graduation like that. I will handle it,” he says, mischief behind his eyes. My glare disappears as I wonder what it is he is going to do to these poor boys and I suddenly feel very sorry for the boys, who no doubt, are about to have a storm of terror brought down on them.

  Rylan’s promise to handle Morgan’s problems has her swooning all over again. “Gosh, isn’t he dreamy?” she suddenly says as Rylan breaks away from us to put away a few weights away that were left out. “My friend Cammie, in my language class, says she is going to marry him one day,” she declares. I glance up at the man in question to find him smirking to himself, knowing he can hear our conversation.

  “Oh really?” I ask Morgan. Seems I have quite the competition on my hands. “You’ll have to tell Cammie to get in line, apparently every girl at The Academy is waiting to get their hands on him, even the teachers,” I say.

  “Really?” she questions, her eyes widening.

  “Oh yeah, even the old ones,” I say as Rylan turns around to join us once again, shaking his head in exasperation.

  We take Morgan down to the shooting range and watch her face turn into shock at the huge display of weapons that stand before her. She takes it all in, enjoying every last second of it.

  Eventually, Rylan disappears and I take Morgan to the cafeteria, where we meet up with Jacinta and have some lunch. An hour later we end up back in our dorm room to work on her homework that I promised I’d help with, though after twenty minutes of my painful struggling, Jacinta takes over and in no time, they are done.

  I drop her off at her dorm room later that afternoon, making her promise to tell me if she has any more problems with those boys in her class, though I know from now on. She will never have to deal with a bully ever again. Not once Rylan is through with them.

  Chapter 12

  A few weeks pass and I get right back into my routine. Morning session with Rylan, getting my butt kicked, a full day of classes and then combat training in the afternoon, where I finally have a chance to do my own butt kicking.

  I sit in my dorm room with Jacinta and the boys, relaxing on our Friday night after yet another huge week of training. We all lay snuggled up on Jacinta’s bed watching a movie, the four of us nearly spilling out of the small single bed, yet somehow, we make it work.

  We’re about halfway through the movie when Daniel scoots closer to me and whispers in my ear. “I think we need to leave,” he says, indicating to Jacinta and Trey next to me who seem to have started an epic make out session.

  “Oh geez,” I groan, getting up off the bed. Daniel follows behind as we make our way over to the window.

  “Where are you going?” Jacinta asks, a little breathy.

  “Anywhere but here,” I laugh as I push the window open and begin climbing out.

  Daniel quickly climbs out after me, throwing his arm over my shoulder and leading me away.

  “So where are we going?” I ask, pulling my jacket tighter around me.

  “No clue,” he says.

  “Let’s go sit somewhere, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about,” I say.

  “Really?” he asks confused, clearly having no idea what’s going on. “What is it?”

  I let out a groan, really not wanting to bring this up. We find a spot hidden in the shadows of a building, which will hopefully keep us hidden from any teachers walking around. “Oh geez, where do I start? Um… Ok. Do you remember that day, a few weeks ago, when I collapsed during training?”

  “Ah… yeah, I’m not going to forget that day anytime soon,” he says. “But go on.”

  “So, you came to visit me in the infirmary and spoke to Rylan,” I say.

  Understanding flares in his eyes as he figures out what this is all about. “So, he told you?” Clearly remembering the specific moment he told Rylan he had been in love with me for 4 years.

  “No,” I confirm. “Rylan didn’t say a word.”

  “Then how?” he asks, cutting me off before I have a chance to explain.

  “I woke up the second I heard your voices. I heard it all.”

  “Right…,” he says slowly.

  “I’m sorry, I should have told you earlier or let you guys know I was up, but my head was aching and I didn’t have the energy-”

  “No need to apologise,” he says, cutting me off once again. He puts his arms around my waist and pulls me in close.

  “How come you’ve never told me? I mean four years? Really?”

  “I don’t know, I guess I never really had the guts until I saw the way you were falling for Rylan and I knew it was different with him. I guess that kind of forced me to try. I mean, I kind of told you at the beginning of the year and all that got me was one steamy night in a club.”

  I cringe at the memory. “Yeah, but you didn’t tell me the extent of it.”

  “I figured that would have kind of freaked you out,” he grins.

  “You must know, if things were different. It would have been you,” I tell him.

  “I know,” he says, placing a kiss on my temple. “That’s what makes it hard, especially now with Trey and Jacinta together. Makes me think, if I wasn’t such an idiot and told you ages ago, maybe we would have been together,” he says.

  “Maybe,” I agree.

  “No,” he says on second thought. “You would have still fallen for Rylan, the second he got here.”

  We sit in silence for a short while, my unanswered comments lingering in the air, though we both know, without a doubt, that no matter what the circumstances, I would have still fallen madly in love with Rylan.

  “So… Nora?” I ask.

  “Yeah… Nora,” he groans. “I mean, I don’t know. It started as nothing, just another way to help get over you, but now. I’m not sure, it might be something,” he says, thoughtful.

  “Are you falling for her?” I ask.

  He scoffs and smirks at me. “Why? Are you jealous?”

  I smack his arm. “Stop being an idiot,” I say. “Answer the damn question.”

  “Fine,” he says. “Yes, I think I’m falling for her.”

  A smile pulls across my face and I look up into his eyes. “I’m happy for you,” I say with sincerity.

  “Thanks, B, that means a lot coming from you. I got to say, I was a bit nervous about telling you girls. I wasn’t sure how you would take it,” he says sheepishly.

  “You know, we will always support you no matter what, it was just a shock that it was Nora of all people. But I promise, I’ll even try being nice,” I say, making a show of drawing a cross over my heart. “But if she does anything to hurt you. Jacinta and I are going to shred her to pieces.”
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br />   “Believe me. I know,” he laughs.

  “So…,” I start.

  “Spit it out,” he demands.

  “Does this mean you’re not in love with me anymore? I mean, you're over me now?” I cringe.

  He smiles down at me. “Just about, pretty girl. Just about.”

  Relief pours through me and my whole body visibly relaxes. “Come on, let’s take a walk, then I’ll drop you back at your room, hopefully, they would have finished by then,” he cringes.

  “Ok, but when we get there, you’re the one checking,” I laugh.

  “What? No way. Now that she is my sister that just seems morally wrong. You’re definitely on checking duty,” he shoots back.

  “Fine,” I grumble as we walk out past the junior campus. We stay hidden in the shadows of the building as we make our way around. We sneak up the side of the boy’s dorms and come to a halt when the sound of a window sliding open, breaks the silence of the night.

  We spy the particular window in question and watch in fascination as a leg comes through, followed by a female’s body, her face still stuck deep inside the window as we hear the sound of a kiss goodbye.

  Daniel begins chuckling beside me at the display put on by these young teenagers. Probably reminding him of his own youth. The girl finally pulls out of the window and my stomach drops. No.

  Daniels chuckles are immediately replaced with an angry snarl as Millie flies out of the window and shoots herself across campus. My mouth hangs open in shock and I start forward, ready to go after her. “No don’t,” Daniel says “Wait till the shock has worn off. You’ll probably say something you shouldn’t and then she isn’t going to tell you about it, or who the guy is and besides, she not doing anything that we weren’t doing at her age.” My eyes widen in shock at the thought of my precious little sister getting up to the kind of things that I used to do. Daniel cringes, clearly realising where he has just gone wrong.

  “Why wouldn’t she have told me about this?” I whine, heartbroken that my little sister is growing up and suddenly keeping secrets. I mean, when did she start hiding things like this? What else is there that she hasn’t told me? Millions of questions begin shooting through my mind and a sudden need to sit down comes crashing over me.

  “I don’t know, babe, but I do know, that if we just take about… hmm… 10 steps that way, we can find out who the guy is,” he says.

  Yep. That got my attention.

  We sneak forward towards the window as if we are in a James Bond movie, Daniel taking it far enough to even drop into a forward roll. I stuff my hand over my mouth, trying to mask the laughter that is threatening to break out. We finally make it to the window and I drop down to my knees beside Daniel, so we can each sneak a quick glance at the occupants of the room. Daniel makes a dirty comment about me being on my knees, which I quickly respond with a fist in his stomach. He coughs and sputters something about ‘deserving that’ while I get started on my mission.

  I look into the room to find a boy, who must be around 14 years old, tall, dark hair, kind of scrawny looking. Though I can definitely see, for a 14-year-old, is kind of attractive. He’s got nothing on my boys though. But I understand Millie’s attraction.

  “Do you need me to beat him down?” Daniel whispers beside me.

  “Not sure,” I say. “I’ll get Millie to introduce me, then I’ll let you know if he needs a beat down,” I laugh.

  We begin to sneak out from under the window, back in our 007 roles when a very familiar throat clears behind us. A guilty grin spreads across my face as Daniels turns an unhealthy shade of white.

  “How is it you always catch me when I’m doing something stupid?” I ask.

  Rylan’s arms cross over his broad chest. “I don’t know. Call it a gift,” he stares down at us with an equal amount of annoyance and amusement shining through his eyes. “I’d really like to hear an explanation for this.”

  Daniel cringes. “Yeah… I don’t think there is a good one,” he says, glancing at me.

  “Bullshit,” I cry, causing Rylan’s eyebrow to raise in question. “I have a great explanation.”

  “Well,” he says, the annoyance gone from his eyes, leaving just the amusement. “Please. Do share.”

  “Millie has a secret boyfriend.”

  “What?” he snaps. “Since when?” he demands, apparently adopting a protectiveness over my little sister which completely warms my heart.

  “I don’t know,” I cry. “We just caught her sneaking out of his room.”

  “But she is only 13,” he says.

  “I know,” I whine, once again.

  “Geez B. Do I need to remind you of the things you used to get up to when you were 13?” Daniel asks, forcing Rylan’s gaze to focus in on him, curiosity written all over him. “Besides it’s not like she is the only Moore sister with a secret boyfriend.”

  “Shut it, D-Bag,” I scold. “And no, a recap of my Junior years will not be necessary,” I say in warning.

  “Come on,” Rylan says. “You can stalk this kid in the morning, you two need to get back to your dorms before a teacher who will actually get you in trouble catches you.”

  I stand up on my tippy toes to give him a swift kiss good night. He reaches out and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear before sending me on my way.

  “Oh, Daniel,” Rylan calls. “Get Trey out of the girl's room.”

  “Will do,” he responds. Rylan sends me a mischievous wink that has the butterflies returning in my stomach before he turns away and disappears into the darkness.

  ----------

  I wake up early on Sunday morning and head out for a quick run around the oval, making sure I don’t overdo it. Due to my new ‘no working out on weekends’ rule. I head back up to my dorm and rush through the quickest shower known to man. I throw my hair up into a bun, put a little lip gloss on and shoot out the door.

  Moments later I arrive at Millie’s door. I give a quick knock and wait the agonisingly long seconds before the door is pulled open. Millie’s dorm mate Lucy, who happens to be Nora younger sister, stands before me mid-yawn, hair a mess and pyjamas tangled around her body. She groans when she realises that her visitor is not there for her.

  Lucy steps away from the door, leaving it wide open and climbs back into bed. I walk through the room and plonk down on Millie’s bed. “Get up brat. You’re having breakfast with me.”

  Millie groans and pulls the blankets higher up to cover her face. “Go away,” she groans.

  “No can do. We have a lot to discuss,” I say, yanking the blanket right off the bed. The cold air rushes her and she pulls her legs up into the foetal position to try and salvage some warmth.

  “Fine,” she snaps and gets up, throwing on some clothes and running a brush through her hair.

  I give her a chirpy smile. “I’m so glad you wanted to join me this morning,” I say, looping my arms through hers, guiding her out of the room and down towards the junior cafeteria.

  We each grab a tray and fill them right up. I get stuck right into my breakfast, my morning run working up my appetite. Millie nibbles at hers between yawns. “What’s up with you? You’re usually a bigger pig than I am,” I ask.

  “Oh, well excuse me that I only woke up two minutes ago. I usually need at least an hour before I start eating,” she grumbles into her food.

  “Why are you so tired? Did you have a late night?” I ask, feigning interest in my breakfast.

  “As a matter of fact, I did,” she states.

  “Oh cool, what did you get up to?”

  She pushes the food around her tray, not looking up at me. “Nothing much, just a movie night at a friend’s dorm.”

  “Awesome, I did the same. Actually, funny story… The boys came over, so we had a big movie night planned, you know popcorn and all. But then Jacinta and Trey got a bit… you know, so Daniel and I left and went for a walk instead.”

  “Um… cool,” she says, clearly having no idea why I’m telling her this story.


  “Actually, the cool part was we walked all the way down here, to the junior campus and then the funniest thing happened. We saw this girl, you may know her, brown hair, green eyes, she looks a lot like you actually. Anyway, she was totally sneaking out the window of the boy's dorms. Crazy.”

  Millie’s cheeks turn pink as she stares very intently at her coffee cup. “Millie,” I say, fixing her with my serious big sister tone, channelling my inner Rylan. “I’m going to give you once chance to come clean.”

  She swivels in her chair and faces me, the guiltiest look on her face. “I’m sorry,” she cringes. “I swear, I was going to tell you, but it kind of just happened.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Robbie,” she says, a faint smile on her lips.

  Dread fills me. “Robbie who?” I ask.

  “Robbie Doyle.”

  “Robbie Doyle?” I screech. “As in Alex’s little brother? Are you nuts? How long have you been seeing him?” I place my hands on the table in front of me, spreading my fingers out wide. I focus on breathing in and out to avoid the sudden panic attack that is seconds from being unleashed upon the world.

  Millie gives me yet another guilty look. “Three weeks,” she sighs. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I know you wouldn’t approve of Robbie.”

  Breathe in. Breathe out. “You don’t know that.”

  “I do know that. But, he is really nice. I promise, he’s nothing like Alex. He is sweet and caring and please don’t be mad at me,” she pleads.

  “Fine,” I say, reluctantly. “But I need weekly progress updates. And certainly, no more dates in his room or making out while you climb out the window. Oh, and I need to meet him,” I say, listing my requirements.

  “Ok, ok, anything,” she says, suddenly a lot chirpier as she digs deep into her breakfast.

  God save me. “Is that all I need to know? Or do you have more secrets for me to unveil?” I ask taking a sip of coffee.