They all snicker, but I play along. "She was the only one happy to see me. Plus, I'm only here for her anyway. You tools, I can do without."
Zella surprises me and doesn't blush. Normally, it's all she does around me. Wells chuckles, and Cameron acts perturbed at my response. I really hope he isn't into Zella as well. I like the guy; I think we could be friends.
"Okay, so what did I miss? Have you figured out how to ace this test next week?" The last thing I want to do is study. I’d rather spend the next hour getting to know Zella, alone, but I'll have to make do.
I’ll ask her out on a date, preferably without twiddle dee and twiddle dumb around.
"Ah, not exactly. These two like to gossip." She points with her thumb at the guys. "It's always best if we get that out of the way first."
They both nod and grumble their agreement.
“Time to start though,” Zella tells us.
We all pull out our study guide, notebooks, and textbooks. I'm not a notebook kind of guy, so I slide my laptop out of my bag, open up a new doc, and get ready to do this thing.
Working our way through the guide, I realize how fucking lost I am in this class. I missed three classes and fell asleep through one of the two I've attended. So yeah, I'm fucked when it comes to this text next week.
Wells elbows me, and I snap my head toward him. He's giving me a dirty look. That's when I realize that they've been talking to me.
"Ryker, you alright?" Zella asks in her sugary soft voice.
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry." I clear my throat. "Did you ask me a question?" I look at her and grin; I'm not sure I love the concern etched on her face.
"Dude, you are not ready at all for this test, are you?" Wells narrows his eyes at me.
Not getting into this. "Nah, I'm fine. Just preoccupied," I tell him. I glance at Zella, and she still looks concerned.
I'm probably going to fail this test. Being here for this study group should help, but I can't focus, and I feel like an idiot next to these two guys. They make me look like a lazy asshole who doesn't go to class. I mean, I don't go to class, but I'm not a lazy asshole. I do other shit when I skip class.
"Let's keep going." I motion to the table and look down at the guide.
"Actually, I've gotta head out. I've got a date." Wells closes his book, stacks his papers on top of it, then shoves them into his backpack.
Interesting. "Oh yeah, with Louisa?" I ask him while looking at Zella, out of the corner of my eye, for her reaction. She's smiling. Hmm. Based on that, I'd say she's not interested in Wells.
He stands. "Yeah, we've been talking again."
"I'd love to meet her sometime." Zella beams up at him.
Yeah, definitely not interested.
"Yeah, sure. Maybe we can get together this weekend or something?" Then he says his goodbyes and exits.
I kind of hope Cameron scrams too, but he leans back in his seat, looking all comfy.
"So, Ryker. I've got to ask. What kind of hacking do you do?" He crosses his arms over his chest and looks genuinely interested. If it weren't for his posture, I would have said he was trying to be a dick, but I don't think that's the case.
"Nothing major. Just a little of this, a little of that. Nothing that would get me into a lot of trouble if I were caught, which won't happen." I wave my hand in dismissal. I don't bother keeping the arrogance under wraps.
Cameron smirks at my reply, but when I look at Zella, she’s twisting her finger in her hair and is wearing a tiny frown.
Damn it. That does not bode well for me. "Does that bother you?" I'd rather get this out of the way now.
Her eyebrows dip. "No, but I have a question."
"Shoot."
She bites her lip, pondering what she's about to ask. "Would you be able to hack your way into some closed adoption files and find out who someone's birth parents are?"
Well, I wasn't expecting that. I blink a moment. "Whose parents?" I cut my gaze at Cam; his mouth is slightly agape and he's looking at her with sympathy.
She looks down at her fingers, sitting on the table. I can barely hear her when she says, "Mine."
I clear my throat but don't break my eye contact. "Okay." I drag out the word.
Zella heaves a heavy sigh. "I recently found out I was adopted, and I'd like to know who my birth parents are. I don't know if I want to meet them, but I want to know they exist. Or that they at least did at one time."
Fair enough. But I have questions. "How did you find out?"
I was applying for a passport, and I needed my birth certificate. I didn't notice it at first, but the issue date was nearly a year after I was born."
Next to her, Cameron grumbles and shakes his head, "God damn passport."
Zella glances at him, smiles sadly, then continues on. "I did some digging and found out the only real reason this would occur is if something changes on your certificate, such as the change of parents in case of an adoption. Arming myself with knowledge, I confronted my mother about it, and after she realized lying to me wasn't going to work anymore, she finally told me the truth. She adopted me when I was nine months old."
"Does she not know anything about your birth parents?" I wonder how Zella managed to turn out so sweet when raised by someone who seems so controlling and very honest. After hearing muttered comments from Cam, it sounds like she was also overprotective and not extremely supportive.
"She said it was a closed adoption. That she has zero information on them."
Cameron rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.
I lift an eyebrow and look at him. "You think differently?"
"Yeah, her mom's a piece of work. It wouldn't surprise me if she had names." I nod.
Zella sighs. "Anyway, I was just wondering, since you have the skills, is that something you could figure out. I would pay you, of course."
I reach up and scrub a hand down my chin. "Look, Blondie, I want to help you, I really do, but hacking into government servers, that's risky." I'm going with complete honesty here.
Cameron lifts his eyebrows and mutters, "Right."
So, for good measure, I add, "Risky, but I could do it. It wouldn't be easy; there are a lot of steps, and it wouldn't be a quick hack. The government is extremely protected, and not to mention, how much trouble I'd get into if I were caught. The job would also be expensive, and I wouldn't want to charge you for it."
"How noble of you," Cameron bites out.
"Stop, Cam." Zella shoots him a glare. "I understand, Ryker. I didn't realize it was so risky. It all makes sense though."
I feel bad. Real bad. Everything in me is telling me to throw caution to the wind and do this for her. "I could do some digging. Maybe you have rights as an adoptee to information."
This has her perk up a bit. "Really?"
"Yeah, let me see what I can do. What's your birth date, and what was the state your birth certificate filed in?" I really don't know much about her at all.
"February sixth, two thousand. Mississippi. Solitude, to be exact."
I jot the date and town down on the corner of my study guide.