Her mouth flattened a second. She pushed forward, resting her elbows on her knees. That same surveying look didn’t waver. “Can you fight?”

“Yes.”

“You in school?”

“No.”

“You want to go to school?”

“I’m here first.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What does that even mean?”

I tipped my chin up this time, my tone a little cooler. I’d just been rock steady before. “Means that’s my personal business and not yours.” The truth is that I didn’t know what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go. But who was she for me to explain all of that to? I took a breath. “My brother wouldn’t want me to come in here and be disrespectful, I have to add on, ‘no offense.’” I turned up one corner of my own mouth, letting it fall the next beat. “You want to know about me? I’m a fighter. I ain’t no bounty hunter. Never shot a gun, wore a vest, used a Taser, and honestly, never wanted to do or use any of those. But your people found me in a job that I didn’t like being in, and I’m here for the next four years, at least. I need to do something. I need to make money. Somehow my brother thought this would work for me. If you know my brother, people tend to trust him. I guess this is me trusting him.”

Her eyes inched closed the more and more I spoke.

At the end, she held her head up, straightening back as if she thought I was a snake about to strike. “I don’t know your brother, but I’ve heard his reputation. I’m trying to assess if you’re going to be a gigantic pain in my ass or not.”

“No.”

She didn’t flinch. “Then I’m also trying to determine if you’ll be a danger to my people or not.”

I flinched on the inside. “No.”

I had a bit more bite in my tone.

Her eyes opened wider, just a centimeter. She heard that, too. “You didn’t like that, huh?”

I didn’t respond.

She didn’t look like she thought I was going to respond and, chewing on the inside of her cheek for a moment, she let out a sigh. Reaching behind her, she grabbed the papers and handed them to me. “Fill those out. Come back tomorrow at five, dress in all black.”

I grabbed the papers and stood. “Five in the afternoon?”

She shook her head, a smile starting. “Nope.” She was almost beaming when I turned to go. “Hey, Bren.”

I looked back.