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Not So Much A Nerd

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chapter 4: The Rival Syndicate's Warning

...Xander...

No one should’ve known.

Not this fast. Not this soon.

And yet, the note in my hand said otherwise.

"We know who you are. Watch your back."

It was written in clean, even strokes, the kind made by someone who had no hesitation. Someone who wasn’t just playing games.

I stood in front of my locker, staring at the paper, my mind running through a hundred different scenarios.

Who?

Who had figured it out?

Jason? No. He was still licking his wounds from our last encounter, too busy nursing his pride to pull something like this.

The faculty? Unlikely. Blackwood Academy had a reputation, sure, but its staff wasn’t in the business of poking at things best left alone.

That left only one real possibility.

The Syndicate.

A rival organization that had been moving into NOVA’s territories for the past two years. Their influence had started creeping into places it had no business being.

Including, apparently, this school.

I folded the note carefully and slipped it into my hoodie pocket, making sure my face gave nothing away. No tension. No reaction. Just another student going about his day.

But I wasn’t alone.

Celeste was watching.

She was a few lockers down, leaning against the cold metal like she had all the time in the world, her expression unreadable.

She hadn’t spoken yet. She didn’t need to.

She was waiting for something.

Waiting for me to react.

I shut my locker with a quiet click and turned to walk away.

Celeste followed.

“You’re tense,” she said, her voice casual but her eyes sharp.

I didn’t slow down. “Am I?”

She sighed. “Don’t play dumb. It doesn’t suit you.”

I kept my expression neutral, but she wasn’t wrong.

Celeste wasn’t the type to let things go. She noticed details other people ignored—the way I moved, how I always seemed to anticipate things before they happened.

She had already seen too much.

And now, she was pushing for more.

“What was in the note?” she asked.

I gave her a lazy smirk. “Just an invitation to the chess club.”

Celeste didn’t blink. Didn’t roll her eyes.

She just watched me. Studied me.

Then, slowly, she tilted her head. “Who do you think sent it?”

I shrugged. “Maybe I have secret admirers.”

She snorted. “Right. Because ‘watch your back’ is such a romantic message.”

I didn’t respond.

Because I knew what she was doing.

She was testing me, waiting for me to slip up, to react in a way that would confirm what she already suspected.

That I wasn’t just some nerd who happened to be good at dodging punches.

That I wasn’t normal.

Silence stretched between us, the buzz of the hallway fading into the background.

Then, finally—

“Be careful, Xander.”

It wasn’t a joke.

It wasn’t a warning.

It was a statement.

A truth.

And for some reason, that unsettled me more than the note itself.

---

That night, my phone rang.

Not my school phone—the one I used to keep up my cover.

This was a different line. A secure one.

One that only one person in the world had the right to call.

I picked up. “Grandfather.”

A deep, measured voice came through the receiver. “You were compromised too fast.”

I exhaled, running a hand through my hair. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You underestimated them.”

I frowned. “I don’t even know who ‘they’ are yet.”

A pause.

Then—

“Then find out. And end it.”

Not a suggestion.

An order.

I clenched my jaw. “You think it’s the Syndicate?”

“They’ve been expanding into new territory. If they suspect NOVA has infiltrated Blackwood, they’ll try to eliminate you before you become a problem.”

I shifted, my muscles already coiled, my mind moving through different possibilities.

“They got to me too fast,” I admitted. “I barely made a move. That means they either already had someone watching the school before I got here…”

“Or someone here is feeding them information.”

Silence.

I knew what he was saying.

Someone at Blackwood Academy was a traitor.

I had walked into enemy territory without knowing it.

And now, I was being hunted.

My grandfather’s voice was calm, steady. “This isn’t just about you, Xander. If they know who you are, they know who you belong to. They know about NOVA.”

And that meant they knew about him.

I inhaled slowly. “So, what? You want me to start eliminating suspects?”

“Use your intelligence, boy. You were sent there for a reason.”

Right.

Because I wasn’t just any operative.

I was his grandson.

That meant I wasn’t allowed to fail.

Not even once.

I ran a hand down my face. “Fine,” I muttered. “I’ll handle it.”

There was a pause. Then—

“See that you do.”

The line went dead.