Page 23 of Omega Chattel
By my break time, I had only completed half my math problems, and read very little of the science articles.
I explored the house a little, ending up in the game room.
Oren came in all energetic and happy.
“I finished my studies early for the day. You interested in a ping pong challenge?”
“Sure! I finished early, too!”
I was good at ping pong and I wanted to prove I could do something right. A lie like that could have gotten me the closet back at the farm. But I didn’t want perfect Oren to upstage me, and who would know I hadn’t finished my assignments? I’d catch up later this evening.
I beat Oren in every match. He won some games, but I won more, and by the time we were doused in sweat and laughing over missed serves, I saw it was five o’clock.
I pushed the damp hair from my eyes as I looked again at the clock to be sure I was seeing the numbers right. “Wow, we’ve been going at it for two hours.”
“’I’m better at video games,” Oren said. “But I’m at the computer too much. This was fun. But next time, I swear I’ll beat you.”
“Like hell.”
“Have you seen the backyard yet?”
“No.”
“Come on. Let’s go out and cool off.”
Oren led me down clean, sparkling hallways that smelled of lemon cleanser and to a room of windows. French doors opened onto a wide veranda with an oak deck, a wooden patio table and metal chairs, and a fountain. Beyond that, down a couple of cement steps, was a huge green yard of grass and trees. The grass was broken up with little patches of flowers and plants.
“We each have a garden,” Oren pointed. “You can have one, too.”
“I took a class in gardening,” I said, feeling proud to be able to say so.
Oren took me on the backyard tour, pointing out the vegetable gardens, the flower gardens, and proudly naming each plant.
I nodded as if I knew their names, too, but in reality all I’d ever grown in gardening class back at Zilly’s had been radishes and lettuce. And I had a potted ivy plant in my room. I knew little about flowers. At Zilly’s, they wanted Omegas to learn about the pretty stuff to please their future Alphas, but I hadn’t paid attention to that part of the class. I’d wanted to grow things I could eat. It seemed much cooler.
But that class had been over too soon and I’d never pursued gardening further.
I stood on the grass, breathing the fresh, flower-perfumed air and let the breeze cool the skin at my temples as it blew through my hair.
It really was wonderful here. I couldn’t imagine going back to the Trenches now, even if my day had been somewhat frustrating. No way!
In that moment, I swore to myself I would double down on my studies and work twice as hard tomorrow.
Chapter Eight
Tarin
Alli sat before me in the chair beside my desk as I looked through his work for the day. He was silent, looking at his knees, strands of his brown hair falling forward to shadow his cheeks.
“Did you not understand the math explanation here on page six?” I asked.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of? You didn’t finish the homework problems. And what you did do, well, a lot of your answers are incorrect.”
Alli’s hands folded together in his lap. He pressed down hard until his knuckles were white. “They are?”
“Yes. This one has to be done over, I’m afraid. Do you have questions? I can answer them.”
