Page 11 (1/2)

No one owes you a living, Nick, and they definitely don’t owe you respect Just because they have excess doesn’t mean we’re entitled to it Life isn’t about what you can take from someone It’s about what you can earn

As Kyrian would say, he who dies with the o to the victor So win big

But then his mom was also the first one to donate to charity any time the nuns called for toys or food or such for the underprivileged He’d never quite understood that, especially since ed" people were a lot better off than they were However, he had too deep a sense of self-preservation to ask her about the dichotoht so her a hypocrite

"They are the best," Jill continued "Mr Gautier is a banker and Mrs Gautier’s a laith an office don You don’t know the since you had the same last name and all"

"I don’t But then Gautier and its variants are fairly common in Louisiana and southern Mississippi There are four other kids at St Richards with the sah back, we’re all related, but I don’t have any living relatives that I know of"

"Really?"

"Yeah,he’d learned from Ambrose after he’d confessed that he wasn’t really Nick’s uncle A to be a long-lost relative of Adarian’s The last thing he wanted was for Nick to put his trust into the wrong person

"That’s so sad I’ve got almost two dozen cousins and a little sister in addition to randparents? Surely they weren’t only children, too"

"I don’t know anything abouttime before I was born and my mother never talks about hers"

"I’ to be sorry about It just is You can’tto you You’re really ss It’s unique andout Flattery and insults both brought out the same reaction in him--What do you want? In his experience the people who flattered him to his face were the first ones who stabbed hiing her wrongly, but he’d been burned enough to be very wary of people’s motives

He heard the sound of the ar I need to get back to the Quarter"

"Oh, okay It was good talking to you I’ll see you in school torateful to have an excuse to get away from Jill He had no idea why she bothered him so, but …

He didn’t trust her and he didn’t believe in wasting tiht, it wasn’t worth the ga his hoet back to Sanctuary His ht to his corner booth and resuing at his hair as he tried to understand his che white appeared next to hie sundae

His jaw dropped as he looked past the three cherries to see his er and a sundae, and it’s not e wo, she rolled her eyes--sorounded for a week "Mr Addams called me and told me what you did for Brynna I don’t have any hero cookies, so you get a hero sundae instead" She added whipped cream to the top, then set the bottle down next to hi in before she changed her ot him into trouble and made her take it back

With a shake of her head, his lanced up, and did a double take as he saw Kody a few steps away His mom didn’t look as pleased to see her as he was

"Hi, Mrs Gautier," Kody said with a genuine smile "Um, this isn’t a date, and I know Nick’s on restriction Nick had no idea I was co, but I kneas here, and I wanted to ask hiebra homee have That is, if it’s okay with you?"

His mom relaxed "I’m sorry, sweetie, you didn’t have to explain I wasn’t frowning at you I just … ever have a weird déjà vu e Like I’d seen you before, but you weren’t you Anyway, I’ainst you You want ?"

Kody looked past his ht share that?"

"Only with you"

She aze "May I have another spoon?"

His rab you some milk and water to drink, too"

"Thank you, Mrs Gautier"

Kody sat down next to him while his mother headed toward the bar She kissed his cheek before taking a bite of his sundae Ah, the sneaky woht her instant distraction and guaranteed her that he would be incapable of speech for the next few istered the doh a co up is that company’s information Worse,the company is based in Canada"

Which meant, with Mark’s luck, if he hacked it, it would cause an international war "That sucks"

"That’s what Madaug said Still, Mark said he could and would eventually hack it, but it ot on the site and…" She closed her eyes and winced

"What?"

"It’s awful, Nick The site is mostly lists Most stuck-up Most obnoxious Most likely to run an old lady over Ugliest, et cetera" She took another bite before she continued "It also has personal infor the crowd or flashing thein Who’s slept with thedisorders and drug addictions, or STDs Students who are cutters and alcoholics" She hesitated before she added, "Who’s been arrested"

Nick went cold "Am I on it?"

She hesitated before she spoke "Did you really shoplift?"

Righteous indignation and anger burned through him "No! I had a sucker in my pocket when I went in and the store owner didn’t believeI’d stolen it froiven it to hest on a class test"

She put a co hand on his arm "I believe you, Nick I do It also lists what everyone’s parents do for a living Whose parents are alcoholics or drug addicts"

So er had any kind of appetite He could hear the implication in her tone

The students whose parents had been to jail, or in his case, had taken up permanent residency there

"It tells everyone my dad’s a felon, doesn’t it?"