Within The Families

8: Test

Twirling the pencil in my hand, I sigh, zoning out of my online class for the eighth time today.

Poking my cheek with the end of my pencil, I strain my mind as I try to piece the puzzle in my head together to make even the slightest bit of sense to me.

'Who could possibly be eliminating mafia families and why?'

"Ms. Santos!" I snap back to reality, blinking my eyes rapidly at my computer screen.

"Yes, Mr. D'Luca?" I mumble into my microphone, boredom lacing my tone.

"Am I boring you, Ms. Santos?" He asks in clear sarcasm.

"A bit," I mutter under my breath.

"Excuse me?" He raises a brow.

"Huh?" I play dumb.

"What?" He looks back confused himself, I shrug, tucking my lips between my teeth to suppress my smile.

"Nevermind, let's move ahead with the lesson shall we," he dismisses and carries on with his class.

'I hate private tutors'

But with some psycho on the loose after my family, Xavier was not about to let me attend normal school--even if winter break is just a couple of weeks away.

Baring through class for another twenty minutes, I log off sending Mr. D'Luca a message that there's a problem with the wifi.

With a quick change from my current attire into my gym wear, I make my way to the basement gym to work out a bit in the hope to help me calm my racing mind down.

"You should be in class." Not even a foot through the gym doors and I'm stopped by Noah's voice.

"Network issues," I lie swiftly, depositing my gym phone on the bench in the far end of the gym while trying to decide which workout I should begin with.

Settling on starting with the treadmill, I make sure to stretch first before getting on.

'How do I bring this up?' I wonder to myself as I frame and reframe potential phases I could use to start the conversation.

I let out a shot breath, "Noah?" I call out while I try to think of the best way to put my thoughts into words.

"Yeah?" He replies, while still punching the living daylights out of the punching bag hanging in front of him.

"Um," I dial the speed of the treadmill down a bit as I try to find my words.

"There has been a lot going on recently," I start.

"Hm," he hums back, the interval between his punches slowly increasing.

"But there's something...it was important but then the whole thing happened and..." I cut myself off when I realize I'm ranting, just as Noah stops pinching altogether and turns to completely face me.

I stop the treadmill, and hop off of it. "What's on your mind irmãzinha?" Noah asks before chugging down an entire bottle of water that sat beside him.

"The mafia," I blurt it out and within an instant, I can see his demeanor change as his eyes go impassive.

"What about it?" He asks monotonously.

"I'm fifteen now Noah," I sigh. "You guys promised that you would tell me all about the whole 'mafia thing' when I turned fifteen," I explain.

"And before you say it, I know things haven't been...ideal lately, but I still deserve to know," I add swiftly before he has a chance to reply.

Silence takes over us and lasts a couple of daunting minutes. All while I stand in my spot trying to study him, so far I've got nothing.

"The only thing we can achieve by reading you into this is an increase on this price on your head," he says after a prolonged spell of silence.

"My head has a price?" I blurt out without thinking.

"At this point Astoria, all of our heads have a price on them," he replies, his voice void of any emotions.

"But how is keeping me in the dark going to help either of us?" I question finding myself losing the battle.

"Ignorance is bliss," he shrugs.

"Oh yeah, just like it was the last time," I retort crossing my arms across my chest challengingly.

He stares at me blankly for some time absorbing my words, before breaking his gaze away from me with an unfamiliar look in his eyes.

"You might want to think this through Astoria, really think this through," he advises, a tone of unexplainable strain in his voice.

"I have thoughts this though Noah, that's why I'm here," I say with determination.

"You have no idea what you're walking into, Ria," he sighs and I frown.

"I think you're underestimating me, Noah," I reply.

'How bad can the big bad mafia world be?'

He smiles softly at me before shaking his head. "Fine," he gives in causing my eyes to widen to twice their size.

"But getting in isn't that easy," he adds swiftly immediately toning down my enthusiasm.

"What's that's supposed to mean?" I title my head sideways.

"You want in just like the rest of us got in at fifteen, don't you?" He asks and I nod wordlessly.

"Well, then you will have to undergo the same process as we did back when we turn fifteen," he says and I frown.

"What process?" I inquire.

"A test, of sorts," he says.

"It will be divided up into three different tasks. What those tasks are you have to figure out for yourself, and neither will any of us tell you when your test will begin," he explains further.

"So how am I supposed to figure out what my tasks are?" I ask confused.

"That's for you figure out," he shrugs.

"At the end of the three tasks, you'll find out if you passed or not," he sums it up.

"So? You still want in?" He asks and without a moment of hesitation, I nod affirmatively.

"Good, then I would suggest you keep a cautious eye on your surroundings," he advises while gathering his things.

"Because once your chance is gone, there are no second round," he adds just as he leaves the gym, putting me in deep thought.

'How am I going to get through with this?'

Author's Note:

Hey guys, so I know a lot of you are mad at me about taking down WTB.

But after keeping the book up for more than a year here on Wattpad, I was offered an opportunity to earn from my work and I took it.

For those of you wondering, the book is available on Ireader.

And no this book will not be taken down at all and will be completed here itself.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Thanks for reading, I really appreciate you guys.

Comment &vote

~Kia