Page 4 of A Scandal in Homeroom
“His mother’s going to be President someday. Mark my word. That’s a friendship you want to cultivate.”
It was a very Holmesian thing to say. We didn’t make friends, we cultivated connections based on their future potential usefulness. In fact, there was not one person in this world I could truly call a friend. A person I liked, who liked me for absolutely no other reason than that. Everyone served a purpose, immediate or future.
“Oh, and I danced with arguably the most beautiful girl in school today.”
Croft did look up then, his eyes narrowed.
“It’s a fact,” I said, sensing his disbelief.
“Don’t let your head get cluttered with nonsense. You’re here to further your education as a citizen of the world.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Dinner?”
“Order whatever you’d like to have delivered. I’ve got plans later this evening in the city.”
My brother always had plans. He seldom spent a night in, and, not for the first time, I wondered exactly what he did with his time. It wasn’t like he was teaching a class into the late hours of the evening.
I didn’t question him on his plans because we both preferred our privacy. I found that if I didn’t interfere in his world, he didn’t interfere in mine. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and made my way upstairs to my room via the back staircase.
My room, like the entire townhouse, had been professionally decorated in a way I didn’t care for. But at least the bed was comfortable.
I threw myself on it and considered the ceiling as my brain regurgitated the events of the day. Who I’d met, the impressions I’d formed. Connections I still needed to make.
However, it always came back to the feeling of Irene Adler in my arms as I danced with her around the gym.
* * *
Later that Night
Thornfield Home
Reen
“I don’t like this,”I said, as I looked around.
Coyle Simmons and I were standing at the top of the stairs to the basement of Thornfield Home.
I shuddered, even though I knew the building was empty.
When I’d left Thornfield Home the last time, I’d promised myself I was never going back. Even if it meant running away. I’d never believed the state’s plan to shut down the home would last. That the foster parents who had accepted all the kids from the home wouldn’t eventually want to send us back.
I’d been wrong. This was my second year with the Sumners, and they didn’t seem in any rush to kick me out. Janie, too, was comfortable with her foster mom. Even though both of us drew the short side of the stick, and were living with families who had taken us in primarily for the extra state income fostering provided.
So we were still on the West End of town.
Meanwhile, Heath had scored the Earnshaws and was living it up. Jerk.
“What are you talking about?” Coyle said. “This is perfect. We can fit ten, maybe even twenty tables, down here if we put them side by side.”
Coyle Simmons was a senior and someone I knew I couldn’t trust, but in this instance, I had no choice. Together, we were working for a boss who wanted us to expand upon the game I’d begun this summer.
It had been so simple in the beginning. Beth had taken a job at The Club and Janie had taken off for a Habitat for Humanity’sthing in Haiti, so neither of them were around as much. I’d been bored and searching for some excitement.
I’d watched this movie about an underground poker game and thought that was something I could do.
I knew this town and its inhabitants like the back of my hand. Rich, bored boys liked to play games. So I sent an email to a few people who I knew would bite, rented a room in a dive motel just on the outskirts of town, and provided them with high-end whiskey and vodka while they played Texas Hold’em until the early hours of the morning.
They tipped me generously and I walked away with three hundred dollars cash, net profit. While poor Beth had spent her night hauling around other people’s dirty dishes for a percentage of tips, which amounted to a quarter of what I made. It made no sense to me why she’d taken the job in the first place. It’s not like she needed the money.
