Page 10 of My Orc in Uniform

Yeah, well, maybe you ought to ask again.

“Look,” Memnon announced out of the blue, not looking at me as he grabbed his coffee mug. “You know she’s special. I know you know she’s special. Just…get on with it.”

“Special, how?” I blurted.

His gaze finally met mine with a scowl. “I’ve seen the way you look when you talk about her. Stop fucking around and go claim your Mate already.”

I slammed to my feet. “What?” My voice was too high. “She’s not myMate.”

Except…that weird feeling in my chest? MyKteervery much liked the sound of that.

My twin brother scowled. “Swear by the goddess, there’s something in the water around here. Just go to the game, stupid. Leave me alone.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but he shoved away from the table, eggs half-eaten. Holding his coffee mug, he limped toward his bedroom, as if telling me the conversation was closed for now.

And I stood there in the kitchen, my blood buzzing from all that sugar, myKteerclawing at my chest, my uniform suddenly too tight. I was going to go to the game tonight, wasn’t I? I was going to look for Rissa, and I dunno whether I was going to talk to her or not, but I was going to look for her at least.

Mate?

No, my brother was the idiot in this situation. I didn’t know Rissa; we hadn’t hung out at all. She wasn’t my Mate, and Memnon was just an asshole.

Yeah.

Chapter Four

Marissa

“GooooooWarthogs!”yelled the cheerleading squad from center court as three of the girls did backflips and the rest waved pompoms and screamed. All of us in the bleachers did the “hog tusks” sign with our forefingers against our lower lips and cheered right along.

The cheerleaders’ signature music started, a fast-paced hip-hop number, and they all began the choreographed dance moves that were going to send them to State. On the sidelines, Kelly boogied along with them.

I shoved my straw between my lips and gulped down the lemon-lime soda, even as I turned away.

You don’t have any right to be jealous of her. So what if she’s hot and confident? So what if she’s not boring? So what if she ends up dating Simbel, just like she said she would? You turned him down.

Oh yeah, thanks, subconscious. That makes me feelmuchbetter.

My gaze sought out the group of teen boys up at the top of the bleachers. Patrick’s head was thrown back, and he was laughing along with his friends and one of the guys who was mimicking the cheerleaders’ dance moves.

I narrowed my eyes. Was that Hank? If so, hedidhave some pretty good moves. Maybe I should mention to Kelly she ought to recruit him.

No, you’re in a snit about Kelly, remember?

Oh yeah, the infantile jealousy snit. I sighed.

Patrick looked sohappy, and that made me happy. My little baby bear, my partner for so long…was growing up. He was becoming a really cool young man, and I had to trust him to make good decisions.

But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t do what I could to keep the bad influences away from him.

As I watched, Jaxon passed around an order of nachos, and Patrick took a few, saying something to his friend. And as Hank lost his balance in a particularly exuberant move, Brian and Ethan lunged to grab him. Huh. They didn’tlooklike bad influences. They looked like a normal friend group…

A normal friend group who committed acts of petty vandalism when they got bored.

Maybe the secret is to keep them from getting bored.

Sipping thoughtfully, I turned back around to face the court as the cheerleading performance was ending—andnearly screeched as Simbel slid onto the bleacher beside me. As it was, my straw popped from my mouth, and I sprayed him with soda.

“Hi, Rissa.” He was smiling and didn’t seem to notice my gaffe.

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