The Blood of a Nightlock

Chapter Fourteen

Dr. Harden called for a psych lesson early. Raven and I rolled out of bed, quickly got ready, and took the long way to our private office spaces designated for lessons. The walk was quiet as I watched different students move around us in the direction of their lessons. When we finally made it to our class, I was surprised to find not only Dr. Harden in the room, but Hamilton as well. He was standing off to the side with one hand over the other in front of him. A smile lined his lips as he saw me and I gave him an overly dramatic eye roll that he found amusing. It wasn't just him though, once we cleared Dr. Harden, standing behind her leaning on the desk with his ankles crossed over one another and his arms over his chest was Mitchel. His eyes were on me in an instant, watching as I walked over to the first row of tables and sat directly in front of him only a few feet and a table shy of one another. Beside him stood Vaughn. Raven sat down beside me and we both frowned at each other.

"Hi, guys, let's file in." Dr. Harden smiled warmly at the class.

"This looks like a psych eval if I've ever imagined one." Emmet sighed as he dropped down into the seat behind me and Grace followed suit beside him.

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Really?" I asked. "This is how you imagine them? This looks nothing like my psych evals." I cut my eyes to Hamilton. "Where's your recorder?"

He dug in his pants pocket and placed it on the table in front of him with a proud smug smile.

"It's a psych eval." I confirmed as Hamilton laughed.

"It's not a psych eval." Dr. Harden said.

I pointed at the recorder and whispered, "put it away."

He left it in place.

"If it's not a psych eval you won't be needing your little buddy."

"I always need it." He shrugged.

"Dr. Hamilton, that's a really bad sign if you feel as though you need to carry a recorder in your pocket everywhere you go. That coupled with your track record?" I sucked air through my teeth.

"Might have something to do with why, "no one likes me" as you so bluntly put it."

I shrugged a lazy shoulder. "I stand by that."

"I'm sure you stand by a lot of your opinions, Wrenlee, but that doesn't make them right."

"Well, I've never been wrong, so." I shrugged again. "Especially when it comes to you."

"I don't understand why you're so likable. I can't figure it out. Everything that you throw at me is cruel, but yet I can't dislike you."

"I'm just," I drew a circle with my finger in the air, "throwing some shade back at you. Flight risk. Suicidal statistic. Still stings." I whispered the last part.

"Well, maybe I was wrong."

I stared at him in surprise and then swung my eyes to Dr. Harden. "Do you do psych evals on your mentors? I think Dr. Hamilton needs one."

Dr. Hamilton rolled his eyes. "Changing my ways."

"Clearly." I glanced down at the recorder. "If you're going to use it, what are the chances you'll accidentally record over one of our sessions?"

He shook his head. "No way. I keep our sessions close to my chest."

"Creepy." I said.

"You're getting psych evals?" Emmet asked.

"Oh, sometimes I get two in a week." I told him as I turned back to Hamilton and mouthed, "Flight risk."

Hamilton shook his head at me.