“Aymes,” Grace said. “Could you find pictures for the poster board?”
“Sure.” Aymes started typing on his tablet.
“And I figured the rest of us could each take a section from this chapter to summarize.” Grace pointed to the open textbook in front of her. “Who wants what parts?”
None of the other three students looked up from their screens. “Uh, I’ll do the first one,” a guy said after a long moment. One of the girls showed the other something on her tablet.
“Okay, how about you do part two and you do part three,” Grace said, trying to keep her tone light as she pointed to the girls.
“Yeah, sure, sounds good,” one said. She tapped her screen, and a video started playing.
Grace turned and waved at Jasper.
“What is it? Did you find something on Aymes?” Jasper asked as she approached.
“No, my group won’t cooperate,” Grace told her. “Nothing’s getting done.”
“Don’t worry about that. It’s not a big deal,” Jasper replied. “Focus on Aymes, and I’ll give you an A no matter what. Also, you’re not a real student and I’m not a real teacher. But I’ll give you an A in spirit.”
“I’ve never been to an actual school before. Starr had me take private lessons with tutors. I want to do well!”
Jasper lifted an eyebrow. “This is the mall job thing all over again, isn’t it?”
“They’re looking at articles on how to take care of a pet wolfoid!”
“Those are legal to own? Let me see.” Jasper leaned over and peered at the boy’s screen. “Oh, no, now they’re taking Starchatter quizzes on what scent their aura is.” She sighed. “Look, Aymes has been absent since the races started. Pretend you’ve been here the whole time and ask him where he’s been.”
Grace blew out a breath of air. “Okay.”
As Jasper walked away, Grace inched her chair closer to Aymes. “How’s it coming?” she asked.
“Pretty good,” Aymes replied. “I’ve got a bunch of diagrams set aside. I just need to narrow them down.”
“Oh, wow, you’re actually doing work.” Grace resisted the urge to shoot the rest of the group a glare. “Hey, I noticed you haven’t been here in a few pentasols.”
“Yeah, my absences were school-approved. I was doing an…extracurricular.”
“What kind?”
“Uh, internship.”
“Sounds like he’s making it up as he goes,” Jasper muttered over comms. “Keep pressing him. He’s bound to let something slip.”
“Oh, cool. I’ve been trying to get an internship,” Grace said. “How’d you find out about it?”
“I was actually contacted about it. I did stuff online for about a season. Then recently I was asked to help with…field work.”
Grace tried to find some way to make him elaborate, but the bell rang first. She stood up and looked at the others. “Did you guys get your parts written up?”
“I didn’t quite get to it,” one of the girls said. The other two mumbled something similar.
“That’s fine.” Grace forced a smile. “Maybe just print off some stuff for next time? Someone could bring a poster board.”
“Yeah, sure, will do.” The boy’s tone wasn’t convincing.