جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 420

Before Christian could say more, the door opened, and the last person on earth Cadence cared to see stepped through. “Good morning, Cadence, Christian,” Ashley said, looking more than a little out of place, and Cadence assumed that if she’d known either one of them was working out in here, she probably would’ve picked a different room. The glass windows in the hallway didn’t do much good if you didn’t use them.“Hey,” Cadence managed, plastering a smile on her face, though she didn’t shift her eyes to see what Ashley was doing. It sounded like she was taking a spot on one of the ellipticals in the back of the room.According to her countdown, she had thirty minutes left, and Cadence wasn’t sure what was worse—going back to the discussion she was having with Christian or trying to carry on a conversation with Ashley. She hoped neither one of them wanted to speak and was relieved to see the minutes tick of

Cadence continued. “I know. I just… I didn’t really want to go to lunch with her, but I thought that I might as well do it if it could also get Christian off of my back.” He said nothing, and she knew it sounded pretty despicable, but the girl could’ve said no. She ran a brush through her hair and approached a nearby mirror with her makeup bag in hand. “Anyway, no lunch with Jamie. But I will see if he wants to talk soon.”“Okay,” Aaron said quietly, and it began to annoy her how much it bothered him that she’d set Ashley up with Christian. She knew he would deny any mention of the fact that Ashley clearly had feelings for him as she’d brought it up before, and she was sure he didn’t like her that way, but it was bothersome, nevertheless.Cadence finished putting on a touch of brown eye-shadow and lip gloss, thinking that was good enough for what she had planned and pull

Cadence took a drink of her soda and then asked, “So, Orlando, huh? Did you go to Disney a lot?”“Oh, yeah. All the time,” Ashley nodded. Cadence had never been, but she’d always wanted to. She let Ashley talk about all of her favorite rides as she finished up her sandwich and cut into her fries. She noticed that most of the salad was still in the bowl and figured that was because Ashley was doing most of the talking. Cadence practiced her listening skills and learned that Ashley had two sisters and a brother, all older, none of which were interested in Transforming and only one sister was still within the window of being able to. Her mom hadn’t Transformed either, but her grandmother was a Hunter. Her dad was a human and wasn’t capable of changing into anything other than, as she put it, a “grumpy, balding full-time fisherman.”“I feel like I’ve been talking forever,” Ashley finally proclaimed as

Elliott didn’t seem completely convinced, but he didn’t question her further, and Cadence settled in to wait, thinking Jamie should be done soon. There was no reason to tell Elliott she sort of didn’t want Aaron there because she was hoping to talk to the other Guardians present, except for Brandon, in private if the opportunity presented itself.Without meaning to, Cadence counted eight more trips up and down the length of hallway directly in front of the door for Brandon before they could see Jamie was finished. He was approaching them with some sort of container in his hand. Christian opened the door for him and literally rubbed his hands together, a big grin on his face.The white plastic container seemed to hold a collection of other smaller, clear containers, and Cadence felt slightly nauseated thinking they contained her sister’s muscle tissue. Jamie shook his hand at Christian. “Back off there, Gollum,” he said. “Half o

There were two chairs positioned in front of Jamie’s desk, and for a moment, Cadence foresaw bickering between Christian and Elliott as to who deserved to sit in the one she didn’t occupy herself—trusting neither of them would want her to stand—until Jamie, also likely envisioning the problem, picked up another chair by the door and carried it with him to the desk where he set it so that all three of them would have a place to rest. Since this one was slightly different than the other two, Cadence chose to sit there so that there could be no discussion of who got the better seat. She imagined this was what having children must be like and hoped these two alleged adults could at least sit near each other and not resort to eye poking or hand slapping.Jamie discarded his lab coat and went around and sat behind the desk. He still looked like a doctor in a white button-down shirt and red striped tie. She thought it was just as well that he was on the other