Page 10 of Surge of Fire

Granger often jokes about loving to eat. I think he does it because he feels insecure about his size, but the truth is that Aydan and I eat just as much as he does. We just have different body types.

We get a spot by the window in the corner and dig into our food in silence, other than the sounds of our feasting. It's nice, like old times. We're just three wild animals barely coming up for air as we eat our body weights in breakfast foods.

“Remember your mom's biscuits and gravy?” Aydan asks, followed by a moan.

My stomach rumbles at just the thought of them. My mom's an incredible cook. One of the best. She makes nearly everything from scratch. I heard she cooks even more since dad passed, but she just gives it away everywhere she can.

There were several times in my life where she tried to teach me how to cook, but we both realized pretty quickly that I wasnota natural cook. I wasn't lucky enough to have her skills.

My mom likes to say that she's as good at cooking as I am at climbing a tree. But sometimes I think that she got the better of the two skills.

“How is your mom doing?” Granger asks.

My food turns to ash on my tongue, and I swallow it like a rock. "She's still staying busy. Traveling a bit."

“That's good, I guess,” he says, flashing me a sympathetic smile.

My father passed right before I left for college. I'd almost not gone as a result, but my mom had convinced me that she was fine. The life insurance was enough to pay off the house and pay her bills, so she could spend her days baking, cleaning, and knitting. All things she loved.

She just usually did those things with my dad next to her. My awesome dad who was the glue that held our family together.

But those are dark thoughts I don't want to get lost in. “How about your family?”

Granger wrinkles his nose, which I understand without him having to say a word. His parents are very different people from Granger. They're both mechanics who own and run a shop in our town. All three of his older brothers work at the mechanic shop because they're copies of their parents. They're very hands-on people who don't mind getting dirty. It's actually one of their favorite pastimes, along with fighting.

The problem is that Granger was the one that always ended up hurt in these fights. They didn't seem to understand that they had one kid out of four who just wasn't into fighting and getting dirty. Granger was book smart. He liked to think and analyze everything. He liked to explore too, but he preferred his time staring into microscopes just as much.

“The family is fine. I visited recently and wow. I got a wedgie. More wedgies than I can count, actually. And my hair was messed up. And I got a black eye. Even though I’m a full-grown man.” Granger pokes angrily at his eggs.

I shake my head. “They haven't changed much.”

His frown deepens. “Well, now they have about a dozen little kids. And so far, all of them have taken after my brothers.”

I wince, unable to help myself, imagining twelve little kids with exactly the same personalities as his brothers, dad, and his mom. Now, for the first time, I'm glad that I couldn't afford to go back home and visit.

“What about your parents?” I ask Aydan.

He freezes.

Damn it. Damn it. Think, Samantha, think!

One thing about Aydan is that he doesn't really enjoy talking about his parents, which had momentarily slipped my mind. I know his dad is kind of a rough guy, and his mom is a quiet woman. But the way Aydan reacts to any questions about them still surprises me.

“They're fine,” he says.

They're fineis Aydan's way of saying he doesn't want to talk about it. I'll probably ask more later, maybe after a few drinks. Something about the night always lets Aydan talk a little more freely than the daytime.

“Okay,” I say, plan in place.

We finish eating and clean up our stuff, heading for the door of the cafeteria. Excitement bubbles between us again, so strong it's almost palpable.

“Do you think it's too early to ask about our schedules?” Granger asks, flashing a grin.

“It couldn't hurt,” I say, although I'm sure most of that will be covered in orientation.

Orientation is just a couple of hours away, and I definitely have butterflies in my stomach. We’re here to get hands-on experience, science credits that will help carry us to graduation, and make impressions that might lead to jobs. I just really hope I'll actually end up getting to work in the wildlife sanctuary, for my classes now and hopefully in the future.

They'd said no one was guaranteed a specific assignment for our classes, but that they'd do their best to put us in our specialty-interest fields.I hope that’s true.

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