“I screwed up.” Bern leaned against the counter. His grey eyes were full of remorse. “I had a modern history exam. It’s not my strongest class, and I needed at least a B to keep the scholarship, so I had to cram. I gave it to Leon. He ran the lineage and the background check, but forgot to log in to the DOD database.” “It’s okay,” I told him. Leon was sixteen. Getting him to sit still for longer than thirty seconds was like trying to herd cats through a shower.

