Page 21 of The Mentor
I held up a hand and looked at the three winners. “You get to pick the person you want to work with for the next assignment. However, you can’t pick one from your own country.”
Archer spoke up. “Paysey, why don’t you pick one of the boys to be your partner?”
Paysey’s cheeks turned tomato red with everyone staring at her and I was afraid she would start crying, so I walked over to take her hand, but before I got there, Nathan, who sat closest to her, spoke up. “You can pick me.”
I instantly liked him for the genuine smile he shot her. The boy had two sisters and a bit more experience with females than the rest.
Sultan picked Mila, and Rochelle picked Hunter, and we took all the children outside.
“We’re going to play a game,” Archer explained and directed the children.
Pearl came over to stand next to me, leaning against me so our shoulders touched. “I smell foul play,” she whispered.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Don’t you find it suspicious that none of these boys is the slightest bit ugly? I mean, one handsome boy would make sense, but this…” Pearl narrowed her eyes. “What criteria did Archer use when he chose them? Was good looks one of them?”
“Theyarevery nice-looking,” I admitted. “But so are our children.”
“Our children are normal kids. Maybe Mila and Willow are prettier than the average, but the Nboys…” Pearl trailed off. “I think Khan is up to something.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure but I’m going to figure it out,” she said with a solemn expression in her eyes. “But let’s not talk about that now.” Pearl snaked her hand under my arm and gave me a smile. “Today is such a great day and we’re not going to let anything spoil it.”
I smiled back at her. “You’re right! Itisa good day. And tomorrow will be the children’s first real school day – That’s going to be interesting.”
For a while we stood quietly watching Archer and Marco guiding the children in some sort of game that made little sense to us. The box game had been my suggestion; this one was Archer’s introduction game.
“Should we get involved?” Pearl asked when two boys got into a loud discussion. But before we had a chance to do anything about it, Marco was master of the situation, grabbing each boy with a strong hand and pulling them apart. He shoved them in front of him, leading them away from the group.
“What do you think he’s telling them?” I asked Pearl, not liking the way the two young boys stood with their heads down.
“He’s probably threatening them with a painful death or something.” Pearl’s tone was sarcastic, but the look we exchanged said that none of us would be surprised if it really was the case.
“It’s going to take a while to get used to their ways.”
We both frowned when the two young boys dropped to the ground and started doing push-ups. Marco was counting and some of the Motlander children stopped to watch.
“What are they doing?” Tommy, who stood closest to us, asked.
Hunter turned back and answered: “They’re taking their punishment.”
“But it looks like fun,” Tommy exclaimed. “I wanna see if I can do that.” A second later, Tommy was on the ground imitating what he saw the two boys doing with Marco. Nicki and Raven quickly followed suit, and I couldn’t hide a smile when a small group of the Motlander children were doing push-ups for fun, undermining the punishment that Marco had given the two boys.
“What the fuck are you guys doing?” Archer called out, his hands on his hips and his face scrunched in annoyance.
Raven got up, brushed her hands off, and walked toward him. “It’s not fair that they get to have all the fun, and you shouldn’t call us guys when some of us are girls.”
“Push-ups aren’t supposed to be fun,” Archer explained. “Marco was teaching the boys a lesson because they couldn’t stop fighting. It’s a punishment.”
Raven furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Why would you punish them? Don’t you know that the moment we need love the most is when we’re most unlovable?”
Archer shook his head and sighed. “That’s not exactly how we do things here.”
“So you don’t do love circles?” Raven asked innocently.
“What the hell is a love circle?” Storm asked with a small snicker.
