Page 111 of The Seducer
Shelly shook her head. “I’m not being negative. But ifignoranceis bliss, I can hardly expect your level of happiness, can I?”
Marco started laughing using a sing-song voice. “Shelly, Shelly, Shelly, how empty my life will be without you.”
She stiffened, as if waiting for an insult to follow, and when it didn’t come, she looked confused.
“We’ll all miss you,” Finn said, and the feisty girl, who was battling with Marco with the intellect of an adult, blushed red for a second, reminding us that, genius or not, Shelly was still just a fifteen-year-old girl with her own insecurities.
“If I can’t stay here at the school,” Tristan said. “Can I go to a different school and study aerodynamics? I wanna build hybrids like you have here. They are so much cooler than the slow drones we have in the Motherlands.”
Archer leaned forward. “I have a friend who designs drones; we went to school together.”
Tristan’s eyes lit up. “That’s what I wanna do. Design them, build them, and fly them.”
Archer and Finn exchanged a look and Archer shrugged. “I could ask Wrestler what route he took to get there. Maybe he’ll take Tristan on as an apprentice or something.”
Tristan was on board right away. “Yes, that would be spectaculious.”
Finn frowned. “That’s not a word.”
“It’s slang,” Kya informed him. “I use it too.”
“Come here,” Finn told Tristan and when he came close, Finn grabbed his shoulder in a tight grip and pulled him eye to eye. “If you want to stay here in the Northlands, you gotta quit using girly words like that.”
Tristan nodded, a serious expression on his face.
Archer took back the conversation: “The only thing about asking Wrestler for help is that I fear he’s not going to be interested once he hears that Tristan is a Momsi.”
When Kya and Christina objected to the word, Archer held up his hands. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but a male from the Motherlands doesn’t get much respect here. It’s not your fault, Tristan, it’s just how things are.”
Tristan’s face fell and he slumped down on a chair next to Finn.
“You know what,” Finn said and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Maybe it’s time for that paternity test. If you are my son, then you’re a real Nman, and that’s all Wrestler needs to know.”
“How are we going to make a test like that?” Tristan asked.
Finn gave him a sly smile. “You leave that to me. I’m a doctor, after all.”
Tristan sat up a little straighter and looked around the table. “Do you all see the resemblance between me and Finn?”
“For sure,” Marco said. “But that’s a good thing, Tristan.”
Finn flipped Marco a finger and tousled Tristan’s hair. “Don’t listen to him. I’m a handsome son of a devil and one day you will be too.”
“Tristan is already handsome,” Shelly said matter-of-factly, and studied the boy before she added, “Maybe even pretty.”
Boulder, Archer, and Marco protested while Finn covered Tristan’s ears.
“There’s no need to insult the boy, Shelly,” Archer reprimanded her.
“What did I say?” she asked and looked to Christina and me. “I only said Tristan was pretty, how is that bad? I wouldn’t mind being pretty, but I’m not.” With Shelly’s severe acne and large bushy eyebrows she was anything but a beauty and she was fully aware of that fact.
“You didn’t say anything wrong, Shelly,” I said with a soft smile and placed my hand on top of hers. “I’m sure Tristan understands that you meant to pay him a compliment, and I bet he’s puzzled by the men’s objection to being called pretty.”
We all looked at Tristan, who confirmed my words with a small bob of his shoulders. “It’s not a big deal.”
Boulder snorted. “Take it from us four men. In the Northlands you don’t call a man beautiful or pretty unless you’re inviting him to a fight.”
“Which is another reason why staying here isn’t a good idea, Tristan,” I said. “You don’t understand their culture and it’s a dangerous place for a boy like you. Not all mentors are as nice as Archer and Marco.” I didn’t look at Finn when I said the words. I knew he understood my concerns after he had shared his traumatic story with me.
