Page 54 of Raised By Wolves

“What the hell is this?” he asks.

“I’ll ask you not to curse,” Mrs. Simon says prissily. “It sets a bad example.”

Chestersupremelyresents being told what to do. But he reminds himself that he needs to be civil to this woman; he’s the one who handed her these two feral kids. With exaggerated politeness, he sets the paper back on her desk. “Sorry, what theheckis this?”

Mrs. Simon slides it into a folder on her desk. “We had state-mandated testing last week,” she says. “Kai and Holo’s scores were… surprising.”

“Look,” he says, “you know they haven’t been in school before now. They’re smart kids—they’ll catch up. You just have to give them a chance.”

Mrs. Simon gives him a thin-lipped smile. “That’s not thekind of surprising I’m talking about, Chief Greene. What I mean is, their scores blew everyone else’s away.”

Chester’s first feeling is disbelief. It’s quickly followed by chest-swelling pride.Their scores blew everyone else’s away!

Maybe he shouldn’t feel this way—they aren’thiskids—but right now he’s as proud of them as he would be if he had raised them up himself. “Well,” he says gruffly, “thatissurprising.”

“Thanks a lot,” Kai grumbles. “I guess you thought we were stupid or something.”

“Because we’re not,” Holo says. “We know all kinds of things. You think Spanish is hard? We had to learn to speakWolf.”

Mrs. Simon tucks the test scores into her desk. “Though they still struggle with appropriate behaviors, Kai and Holo are excellent students. They remember everything. And they’ve clearly been educated by…”—here she glances over at the sullen-looking teenagers—“someone.”

“Or something,” Kai mutters.

“How do you do it?” Chester asks them.

Kai looks up at him, her expression resentful. Her mood’s been dark ever since the visit to Hardy’s farm. “Are you asking how we live up to this school’s low expectations?” she says. “It’s simple. We don’t have our faces in our phones all the time. We pay attention. We listen. It’s what we’ve always done.”

“I think they were homeschooled,” Mrs. Simon says over Kai’s head.

Kai rolls her eyes.

“We were woods-schooled,” Holo retorts. He grabs a Rubik’s Cube from Mrs. Simon’s desk and starts twisting it around. “Wolf-schooled. World-schooled.”

Mrs. Simon looks for a second like she’s going to scold him, but then she turns to Chester. “I’m sure it’s challenging, taking care of these two,” she says. “But they’re doing much better than I ever would have expected.”

“Again,” Kai says bitterly, “thanks a lot.”

“I’m very proud of them,” Mrs. Simon goes on, ignoring her. “It’s seeing improvement like this that keeps me coming back to this job.”

Chester smiles at Kai and Holo. “Good job, you two,” he says gruffly.

Holo grins back. Kai doesn’t. But Chester could swear he sees the tiniest hint of a gleam in her eye.Maybe she’s not quite as hard as she pretends to be, he thinks.That wouldn’t be a bad thing.

CHAPTER 39

AFTER SCHOOL, HOLO and I walk into town and find a booth at the diner. Lacey hustles out of the kitchen to greet us. She cooks, waits tables, and seems to basically run the place by herself.

“Fries and Cokes?” she asks, wiping her hands on a stained white apron. “In celebration of your incredible test scores? Chester called me right away. I’m so proud of you!”

I really can’t understand what the big deal is. “Fries, yes please. Cokes, no,” I say. After a lifetime of drinking only water, I can’t get used to Coke’s fizzy sweetness.

“But I want a Coke,” Holo whines as Lacey hurries off to get our fries.

I try to ruffle my brother’s hair, but he dodges my hand. “You don’t want to turn into a regular, normal human, do you?” I ask. My tone’s light, but my question’s dead serious:How much do you really want to be just like everyone else?

“I don’t know,” he mumbles grumpily.

The booth behind me creaks. “And what, exactly, does it mean to be a so-called regular, normal human?”

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