The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 516

Luca sits down and we all lean forward as Rafe and Jackson take their folded notes and quickly open them, glancing through the contents. I lean over Jackson’s arm, trying to read it myself, but he laughs and pulls it out of my sight. “Confidential, Clark.”

“Oh, you’re going to tell me anyway!”

“Maybe,” he mutters. “If you’re nice to me.”

“I’m always nice to you!”

“It’s not a big deal,” Rafe says, taking a deep breath and putting his own note down, looking over at Jacks. “Is yours the same as mine? Notification that the Games are being moved up? And that we’re…”

“Co-captains,” Jackson replies, putting down his own letter, a little smile on his face. I look around at all of the boys’ faces, trying to gauge the impact of this news.

“W-what does this mean?” I ask quietly, anxious.

“Don’t get worked up about it, Ari,” Rafe says, turning his eyes to me. “It’s…faster than they’d usually run the Games, probably because of the war. It just means that Jackson and I have minor adjustments to our schedules so that we can begin to plan our strategy. We get a weekly study hall to meet and come up with our plan, look through Cadet profiles, organize our draft list.”

“Draft list?” I ask, screwing up my nose, looking around at everyone else, kind of baffled that they’re all taking this in stride like it’s completely normal conversation.

“The order in which they’ll pick their team,” Luca says, grinning over at me. “Which Cadet they’ll pick first, which last. Who is a priority, who isn’t. I, obviously…will go very quickly.” Jokingly smug, he gestures to himself with a confident wave of his hand.

I laugh, taking the bait and leaning forward to grin at him. “Only after me, Grant. I’ve got the only sniper rifle on the field.”