Page 29 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

“Dude, I’ve given up trying to make sense of the Y chromosome. They are as baffling as a buzzing insect on a congealed lump of human excrement. As for the second question, maybe they’re doing work here. Theyarean environmental company so perhaps they’ve got something …environmentalgoingon.”

“What’s baffling about a fly on a turd?” Tara asked as she turned to face her friend. Elias had made it into the gym, so there was really no reason to continue to stare after him like a lostpuppy.

Shelly rolled her eyes at the same time she made a motion for Tara to get up. “The fact that anything would want to sit on a lump of excrement. How much more baffling can youget?”

Tara supposed that was a fair point. But she wasn’t convinced about Shelly’s explanation for Jax and Elias hanging around in Buffalo. They hadn’t said anything about workingnearby.

“We’ve got to get to class. We have a test in English, or did you forget? We can get some extra studying in while the job fair is finishing up,” saidShelly.

Tarahadactually forgotten about the test, or at least it had gone right out of her mind the minute she’d laid eyes on Elias. It was easy to forget things when she was looking at him and he had turned that intense scrutiny on her. She followed Shelly toward the front door of the school and sighed. It was going to be a long, unfocused day, and that personality test was going to be burning a hole in her backpack until she could get home and look atit.

“By the way, I’m taking you home today and we can fill out the forms together. So, forget about walking home,” Shelly said as if she could read Tara’smind.

“I thought we wereexploring other options,” Tara said with asmirk.

“There's no reason to look too eager. We won’t have any negotiating room if we look like we’ve put all our unfertilized chicken ovums in one wickercontainer.”

“Eggs in a basket, bitch. Just say eggs in a basket.” Tara sighed. “I thought the weird breakdown of words only applied to your profanity. You’re killing my brain cells with trying to figure out what you’re saying. And negotiating? What exactly are we negotiating? And what about when you told Jax that you were definitely in if all the males were as good looking as Elias? That wasn’t tooeager?”

Shelly waved her off. “I’ve had time to gain some self-control and dignity. I’ll proceed with more caution, especially since hot Elias opened his mouth and inserted his, no doubt, hot foot. And consider my linguistic acrobats an exercise for your mind. It’s making your brain cells stronger, not killingthem.”

“It’s makingmewant to kill you.” They reached their lockers and retrieved their books. “And don’t start with your foot fetish. It was creepy enough the last time you started talking about a guy’sfeet.”

“I make nopromises.”

“Fantastic.” Tara grumbled and followed Shelly, who was practically frolicking, to class. It made her want to trip her best friend. Which probably made her a badBFFF.

“I think this is going to be a great day, Tara-bear,” Shelly said as they entered their Englishclass.

“Do I want to know why you think it’s going to be a greatday?”

“Because any day that starts with two guys having a urinating competition over you is bound to bememorable.”

“Memorable and great aren’t necessarily synonymous,” Tara pointedout.

“Don’t defecate on my urination parade,” Shellywarned.

Tara held her hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. Just quit hollerin’ about crapping and pissing,please.”

“Deal. Now, sit. We’re going to ace thistest.”

Chapter9

Shelly passed a cup of hot chocolate over to Tara as the pair sat around Tara’s dining room table. Their day had pretty much been uneventful, despite Shelly’s declaration that it was going to be a memorable day, after the interesting morning. Tucker had sat with them at lunch and had apologized for putting Tara on the spot when he’d made the comment about her not being a rock you tossed away. She’d shrugged and told him not to worry about it, and thankfully, he’d dropped thesubject.

“Can you believe these questions?” Shelly asked, pulling her TGTE aptitude test booklet in front of her on the table. The front cover bore the company’s logo set against the backdrop of a snowymountain.

Tara grunted and chewed on the end of her pencil. “Um, no, I cannot. This is nothing like any personality test I’ve evertaken.”

Shelly’s brow furrowed as her eyes scanned the page. “I mean, even the demographic questions are weird. ‘Are your parents both living?’ ‘If not, how did they die?’ ‘Did your parents move around a lot as a kid?’ ‘Did you have vivid nightmares as a child?’ ‘If so, please describe in the blankprovided.’”

“And they just get weirder,” added Tara. “‘Would you describe yourself as (a) a cloud (b) a river (c) a mountain or (d) acampfire?’”

“I’m definitely a campfire,” saidShelly.

“Why? Because you’re sohot?”

Shelly rolled her eyes. “Psh, of coursenot.”

---