"Today, class, is the start of your annual project for this subject," the teacher announced during Indianna's history lesson.
Groans could be heard throughout the classroom, but they were silenced when the teacher clapped his hands.
"This project will account for forty-five per cent of your grade, so it is to be taken seriously!" he said. "You are to work in pairs. I'll let you choose your partners, but choose wisely. You'll be working with this person for three months.
"Choose your partners and then come and see me. I'll give you your topic for the project."
"Boring," Greyson muttered as he slid into the seat next to Indianna.
Indianna turned to face him. "Where were you?"
"Just dealing with some shit. No big deal," Greyson shrugged.
"Is everything all right?" Indianna questioned.
"Brandon was hassling Harry about Brooklyn. He just needed putting in his place," Greyson said dismissively.
"Putting him in his place? Greyson, did you hurt him—"
"Relax," Greyson cut Indianna off. "It was just verbal. Chill, sugar."
"You may not like him, but you can cut him some slack. He's just looking out for his cousin," Indianna said and stood up from her seat.
Greyson ignored her.
"Where are you going?"
"To the teacher, to find out what our project is going to be about."
"And who said I was going to work with you?" Greyson asked, smirking at Indianna.
"Well, I can go and work with Brandon," Indianna shrugged, looking at Brandon as he entered the classroom.
Brandon cast a cold look at Greyson, who narrowed his eyes.
"I'm sure he'll be up for it," Indianna added with a smug smile.
"Just go and talk to the teacher," Greyson said with a shake of his head.
Indianna chuckled and walked down the classroom towards the teacher's desk.
"Indianna," the teacher said, looking up at her through his glasses. "Your partner?"
"Greyson," Indianna said quietly.
The teacher sighed and shook his head.
"You're aware of his grades, Miss Hughs? It would be a shame to pair someone with your academic ability with him."
"I'm with Greyson," Indianna repeated.
"Fine," the teacher sighed and handed her a slip of paper. "You have three months. Good luck."
Indianna turned around and made her way back to Greyson, handing him the slip.
Greyson raised his eyebrows at the piece of paper.
"The Life and Death of Mary Stuart. Who the hell is Mary Stuart?"
"Mary, Queen of Scots," Indianna said. "You must have heard of her, Greyson. She was the Queen of Scotland."
Greyson rolled his eyes.
"I can't think of anything else I'd rather spend my time researching," he said.
"I'm sure you can't," Indianna said sarcastically.
"Her life was extremely interesting," Indianna tried to reason.
"I'm sure it was," Greyson replied sarcastically.
"I'm not doing all the work," Indianna said.
"I know," he replied. "But I'm not in the mood to talk about some dead queen right now. I want to talk about you."
Indianna raised her eyebrows questioningly. "What about me?"
"Your birthday. What do you want?"
"Nothing," Indianna shrugged.
"Come on, you must want something, sugar."
Indianna shrugged again. "Not really."
Greyson stiffened when Brandon walked over to them.
"What?" Greyson said rudely.
"The teacher said I was working with you two," Brandon explained.
"Well, you're not, so piss off," Greyson snapped.
Be nice, Indianna frowned.
"There's an odd number, so someone has to be in a group of three," Brandon explained.
"Then it can be someone else, not us."
"Greyson, it would be nice to have the extra help," Indianna said, trying to reason with him. "You aren't exactly thrilled about doing this project."
"I'm even less thrilled about having him work with us," Greyson muttered.
"The teacher told me I was to work with you two, and I don't exactly feel like arguing with him," Brandon shrugged.
"I sure as hell do," Greyson scowled.
Indianna grabbed his hand before he could do anything rash.
She didn't understand his hatred towards Brandon. It was uncalled for.
I don't trust him, Greyson growled.
Greyson, it's a school project, Indianna said.
She looked up at Brandon and handed him the slip of paper with their project written on it.
"I hope you like English history."
It was lunchtime, and Indianna had retreated to the library. Her senses were extremely overwhelming while she was at school, and it was nice to go somewhere quiet, where her head didn't feel as though it was going to explode.
Indianna sighed softly and looked up from the old history book she was reading. Her eyes glazed over when she looked at the seat opposite her, remembering how Cassie had sat there not long ago.
"Hey."
Indianna jumped when Brandon appeared and took a seat opposite her.
In Cassie's seat.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said apologetically.
"That's okay," Indianna said softly, trying to adjust to the loudness of Brandon's voice in the quiet library.
"I'm surprised to see you alone," he said, leaning forward and linking his fingers together on the tabletop.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Greyson," Brandon shrugged. "He never lets you out of his sight. He's like an overprotective dog."
Indianna tried to stop herself from smirking. Brandon had no idea how true that statement actually was.
"He's not that bad," Indianna chuckled.
"I beg to differ."
Indianna shook her head slightly and looked back at her book.
"What are you reading?" Brandon wondered.
"Just a history book. I want to get ahead on the project," Indianna shrugged.
"Speaking of the project, any ideas on where to start?"
"I was thinking you could research Mary's mother, Mary de Guise," Indianna suggested. "It would be nice to have information about—"
What the hell are you doing with Brandon? Greyson's cold tone flooded Indianna's mind, and she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.
Talking.
I'm aware of that, sugar. Come to the canteen.
My senses are a little... sensitive right now, Greyson. I don't want to be in a loud and noisy place.
Then tell Brandon to fuck off—
No!
"Indianna?" Brandon said, waving a hand in front of her face.
She blinked in surprise and smiled sheepishly at him.
"Sorry, I zoned out."
"That's okay. So, you were saying?"
"Oh, right. We could—"
"Hey, Indie!" Kal said loudly.
The librarian glared at him as he entered the quiet library. Kal slid into the seat next to Indianna and looked at Brandon.
"Hey, Brandon," he said in a rather polite tone. "Can you do me a huge favour?"
Brandon frowned. "Sure?"
"Fuck off," Kal smiled.
Indianna elbowed Kal in the ribs, which only made his grin widen.
"Excuse me?" Brandon gasped.
"Well, you can see the door over there," Kal said, pointing towards the library exit. "All you need to do is stand up, walk in that direction and leave. Voila."
"Kal, shut up," Indianna hissed.
"I think you should let Indianna choose whether she wants me to leave or not," Brandon said, narrowing his eyes at Kal.
"No, I don't think I should," Kal shrugged.
"It seems that Greyson never lets you out of his sight," Brandon said, looking at Indianna. "If he doesn't have eyes on you, then one of his followers does."
"Brandon," Indianna frowned.
"Followers?" Kal snorted. "How would you feel if one of his followers ripped your head from your shoulders? It would be nice to see you squirm, you little rat."
"Why don't you try it?" Brandon said, glaring at Kal.
"I think I'm going to enjoy this," Kal smiled.
He stood up, but Indianna grabbed his arm and yanked him back into his seat.
"Stop it!" Indianna gasped. "Stop, now!"
"He started it," Brandon shrugged.
Kal snorted, mimicked Brandon and flipped him off.
"Kal," Indianna warned.
Kal turned to Indianna with a cheeky grin.
"Indie," he said, matching her tone.
"Stop winding him up," she sighed and looked at Brandon. "I think it would be best if you left."
Brandon gritted his teeth but nodded stiffly. He stood abruptly, turned on his heel and walked out of the library.
"Good riddance," Kal said.
Indianna sighed and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.
"Greyson sent you," she said.
"Yep," Kal nodded.
"How am I meant to work with both of them?" she groaned. "This project is worth forty-five per cent of our final grade, and I don't want Greyson's hatred for Brandon to mess it up."
Indianna shook her head and looked at Kal.
"Why do you all hate Brandon so much?"
"We've never got along with him. He's a little shit who cares about nobody but himself," Kal shrugged. "He can't be trusted."
"Trusted with what?"
Kal shrugged his shoulders.
"Anything."
Indianna was absent-mindedly copying answers from the tatty textbook in front of her into her notebook during maths after lunch.
She had expressed her annoyance to Greyson about him sending Kal to get rid of Brandon, but Greyson hadn't shown much sympathy. His words had been, "I hate the cunt."
The conversation had been dropped after that, but Indianna was giving Greyson the cold shoulder. She refused to give in to his attempts to distract her.
She blocked out his voice and tried to ignore the faint buzz of tingles she felt from being so close to him.
But it was hard.
She stiffened when Greyson rested his hand on her leg, but she refused to look at him. She gulped as she wrote down the next equation.
Greyson leaned closer and whispered something in her ear that made her blush.
Greyson! she said, turning her head to stare at him with wide eyes. Stop!
Greyson smirked at Indianna and moved his hand slightly higher on her leg, keeping his other arm around the back of her chair.
We're in class! she gasped and glanced cautiously towards the teacher.
They were seated at the back of the classroom, and Greyson's hands were hidden by the desk, but Indianna still couldn't believe how shameless he was being.
"You didn't seem to have a problem teasing me earlier when my mother was in the room," Greyson said lowly into Indianna's ear.
Indianna grabbed his wrist to stop him, but she couldn't ignore the heat rising in her cheeks.
Try and stop me, and I'll make this worse for you, Greyson warned.
Indianna sucked in a sharp breath and gritted her teeth. Her eyes darted around the classroom.
Everyone seemed oblivious.
"G-Greyson," she whimpered. "You can't do this here."
"Oh, yes I can, sugar," Greyson smirked.
Brooke glanced over at Greyson and Indianna. She raised her eyebrows when she realised what was happening.
"A classroom?" she murmured to herself.
Harry looked at Brooke. "What?"
"Those two are more distracted than anyone I've ever seen," Brooke whispered.
Greyson glanced down at Indianna and couldn't help but smirk when he saw her squirm beneath his teasing.
"Told you I'd get you back."