Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy) Read Online Free PDF

the couch, with my feet flat on the floor, and my hands positioned in my lap. For a moment, I sat straight as an arrow, until I realized he probably would think I didn’t like him, or something was wrong. I forced myself to sit back, until his arm was grazing my shoulders. His fingers stretched out and folded over my collarbone, welcoming me to lean into him.
    I breathed in deeply to try to remain calm. The scent of his sweet spice cologne awoke so many memories all at once – even the first time we met.
    That’s when it struck me. Our lives had been in such a fast forward state for weeks. Mr. Blackbourne’s orders had forced us to completely stop. With nothing before me now but several days of free time, I felt like we were starting at the beginning. Who was Kota Lee when he wasn’t leader of the Academy group? What was he like when we weren’t fighting or working, which was usually all the time?
    “Well?” he asked quietly, his fingers brushing softly against my shoulder. “Any homework tonight? Do we want to get that out of the way?”
    I wanted to say yes. It was brilliant of him to think of it. I yearned for something to distract us and homework seemed perfect. It would at least give me something to focus on until I got more comfortable being alone with him.
    But I didn’t have any tonight. I’d caught up at lunch time like we normally did, and my afternoon classes didn’t have any. “Did you have some?” I asked in a small voice, hoping.
    His eyebrows scrunched together as he thought for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think I do,” he said. A smile caught in the corner of his mouth. “I’d say study, but maybe we should skip it.”
    “Skip it?” Was this really the same Kota that asked me about homework and studying every single day?
    He scanned the room. He got up, fished the television remote from the entertainment center, and sat back down again. “What do you like to watch?”
    I didn’t have a clue. I hadn’t watched any sort of TV program in weeks. I had no idea what was currently running. My finger fluttered up toward my lips. “I don’t know.”
    His gaze followed my finger. There was a slight dip in the corner of his mouth, but he corrected it quickly. He rotated the remote in his hand, as if reconsidering. “How about a game?” he asked.
    I perked up at this. A game! That was perfect. Plenty of distraction. Why I needed something to distract me from him, I didn’t know. Deep inside, I wondered what would really happen if he had to focus on me, but I was too scared to find out. “Okay.”
    He smiled, and got up again to find the Xbox controllers. He stopped halfway back, looking down at me on the couch with his eyebrows scrunched again.
    “What?” I asked. I expecting him to pick up his phone and find some Academy business he needed to get to.
    He strolled forward again, and placed the controllers in my lap. “Find a game you want to play,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He dashed around the couch, back toward the hallway. A second later, I heard his footsteps on the stairs going up to his room.
    He didn’t pick up his phone, so I guessed it wasn’t Academy work. I got up, crossed the room, and knelt in front of the television, gazing at the collection of video games. He had a lot, mostly single player games. I didn’t want to play alone. Did Kota play games by himself when no one else was around? I checked the titles. A lot of them were role playing, with swords and bows and arrows. So he liked fantasy games?
    As I searched for something that was two–player, Kota returned, hauling one of the large blue bean bag chairs across the living room. He dropped it in front of the couch, and turned it over until it was sitting upright. “Thought this might be more comfortable,” he said.
    Just one? I turned from him, appearing interested in the games in order to hide my excited smile.
    “Did you find one?” he asked.
    “Which one is the car racing one?” I asked. I