Page 11 of See Me After Class

"Desdemona Davenport, although she may prefer to go by Dessie."

Dessie. I rolled the name on my tongue. It tasted deliciously dark. "She's… something else."

"She also doesn't look remotely interested in you," John observed keenly. He wasn't wrong. The new girl walked past the two of us, sparing only a slight nod at him. I got nothing despite putting on my best bed-breaker smile.

"Huh," I replied. "Maybe she bats for the other team?"

"Or maybe," John remarked, slapping a decisive palm on my shoulder, "you're not her type. At any rate, you'd best leave her alone. There's something off about her."

John Galbraith was a man of many talents. Among them was his ability to sniff trouble from a country away. But just as he enjoyed staying away from it, I welcomed and embraced it. Trouble was my choice of breakfast, especially when it came looking like her.

"I'll take your word for it." I humored him anyway.

"By that, I'm going to guess that's the last thing you'll do." He sighed resignedly. "I can't stop you."

"You can't."

"Be careful."

"I will."

John inclined his head, and I loped after Dessie Davenport, all thoughts of lunch gone from my head. "Hey," I called out to her. No response.

Huh.

She paused at the foot of the stairway leading to the bedrooms for the junior staff. "Hey," I breathed, catching up with her. "I'm Leon."

Her shoulders stiffened for a slight second, and then, she did a half-turn. "I know who you are. I just don't care."

"Meow," I said appreciatively. On the inside, I exulted.It speaks!

She began climbing up the flight of stairs. I watched her take two steps and stagger slightly, the weight of her Louis Vuitton suitcase clearly too much for her slight frame.

"Here, lemme help." I bounded after her and caught her bag before it tumbled down.

"You're not supposed to go up," she pointedly remarked. "You're too old to be here."

I bared my teeth. "I have a thing for breaking rules."

"You say that like it's something good."

"Spend some time here, Miss Davenport." I hoisted the bag and fell into step beside her. "And you'll see that a bit of rule-breaking does a lot of good for the nerves."

She stopped. "Or, it could be that you break the rules because you think it's the only way to get attention. It's your insecurity speaking on your behalf. It isn't as badass as you'd believe. At least, I don't particularly care for it.

Quite the bitch, I thought to myself.I like her.

"What do you do, then?" I changed the topic entirely.

The staircase took a rounded turn before leading to the fourth floor, just under the attics.

"I'm a child psychiatrist," she said with a touch of dry tiredness as we passed a number of doors belonging to rooms housing the junior staff. She stopped in front of the one that saidDavenport, D. C.

"That'll be me." She gave me one more side glance. "You are very persistent."

"About what?" I asked, surprised.

"You followed me up here." She frowned pointedly. I read between the lines. You followed me up here even though I didn't want you to.

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