Page 19 of The Ruling Class

“I’m always in luck,” the boy—whose last name was apparently Rhodes—replied. “I think I got some really good shots up there.” As I processed the fact thatthismust be Emilia’s brother, the boy in question held up a camera, which he had most decidedly not been holding on the roof.

“You’re telling me you were up on the roof of the chapel taking pictures?” the teacher asked skeptically.

I gave the boy—Asher—a look. This was never going to work.

Asher met my eyes, and his own sparkled. I could practicallyhearhim thinking,challenge accepted.

“I was digesting what you said in your lecture on perspective in photography,” he told the teacher. “You told us to think outside the box.” He tilted his head to the side. “I feel so …edified…”

I snorted. Audibly.

“Asher, do you think I’m stupid?” Mr. Collins scowled at him.

“Not at all,” Asher replied. “Do you think I’m edified?” He grinned. Beside me, Vivvie grinned. The smile was catching.

Mr. Collins shook his head. “Stay off the roof,” he ordered. Then he paused. “Stay offallthe roofs.”

The fact that he felt he had to make that clarification told me a great deal about Asher Rhodes.

“Sir, yes, sir,” Asher replied. And then, to my shock, Mr. Collins left it at that. The other teacher didn’t say a word to Asher. It was like someone had just flashed the wordsnothing to see hereon a neon sign. The crowd dissipated, and Asher met my eyes and arched a brow.

“What just happened here?” I asked Vivvie, bewildered.

Vivvie shrugged.

“People like me,” Asher informed me helpfully. “I’m very likable.”

“No, you aren’t.”

Asher grinned like I’d just professed my love for him. He lifted the camera up and snapped a picture of me. “Give it a couple of days,” he told me ominously. “You’ll see.”

CHAPTER 13

It didn’t take long for word to get around that I’d taken on Emilia’s case. Forget the fact that Ihad not taken on Emilia’s case. And the fact that random high school juniors didn’t just declare themselves in business and start “taking cases.” To the Hardwicke student body, the fact that I’d been with Asher and he’d managed to evade trouble was evidence enough that I was embracing my fixer title.

Like it or not, Iwasn’ta random high school junior. I was TessKendrick. And between Anna Hayden and Emilia Rhodes, people were starting to think that meant something.

It was just my luck that Asher was in my World Issues class. He greeted our classmates by name and accepted a wide variety of high fives on his way to the seat next to mine. He blessed me with a goofy, beatific smile.

Kill me now.

“Congratulations,” Dr. Clark called out at the front of the room, clapping her hands together. “As a reward for being mylast and favorite class of the day, you get to turn in your internet censorship essays!”

A round of groans went around the room. Once we’d handed in our assignment, she turned on a flat-screen television at the front of the room—to CNN.

“Prepare wisely,” Dr. Clark said.

Prepare for what?I wondered.

“Debates,” Vivvie told me helpfully.

“We are at the mercy of the daytime cable news channel gods,” Asher elaborated, twirling a pencil in his fingers like a miniature baton. “Whatever issue the pundits are discussing, we’re discussing.”

All around the room, people were taking furious notes. I had no idea what the people on the screen were talking about. Five minutes in, I stopped even trying to decipher it, until the show cut one of its hosts off midsentence.

“Breaking news,” the television declared. A wave of unease went through the room as the news feed cut to a man in a military uniform, issuing a statement. All eyes in the room went immediately to me.

No. Not to me, I realized.To Vivvie.