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Jennifer Lynn Barnes – Heir Games
Jennifer Lynn Barnes – Heir Games summary
Heir Games – read an introductory excerpt online for free
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Inheritance Games
This edition published by arrangement with Curtis Brown Ltd. and Synopsis Literary Agency Images © Shuttersock
Published by arrangement with Random House Children’s Publishers UK, a division of The Random House Group Limited
All rights reserved. The book or any part of it may not be copied, reproduced in electronic or mechanical form, in the form of a photocopy, recorded in a computer memory, reproduction or in any other way, or used in any information system without obtaining permission from the publisher. Copying, reproduction and other use of a book or part of it without the consent of the publisher is illegal and entails criminal, administrative and civil liability.
Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
© Samarina A., translation into Russian, 2021
© Edition in Russian, design. Eksmo Publishing LLC, 2021
When I was little, my mother was constantly inventing games. "Who will keep silent the longest." "Eat the cookies as slowly as you can!" And our favorite of many years, Marshmallow, a game in which you had to eat marshmallows while pulling on a puffy warm jacket so as not to turn on the heating in the house. When the electricity went out, we played Flashlight. We never walked with a calm step, but always ran a race. The floor was almost always "lava". And pillows were needed primarily in order to build fortresses.
Our longest-running game was called I Have a Secret. According to my mother, everyone should have had one – at least one. Sometimes she guessed mine. And sometimes – no. We played this game every week until my fifteenth birthday, until one of my mother's secrets ended up in a hospital bed.
And soon my mother died.
“Your turn, princess. The hoarse voice brought me back to reality. “I won’t sit here with you all day.
“I’m not your princess,” I objected and made a knight’s move. – Now you go grandpa.
Harry glared at me. How old he was, I did not know, and had not the slightest idea how it happened that he became homeless and settled in the park, where we now played chess with him every morning. But he was a strong opponent – I knew that for sure.
"You're a terrible man," he grumbled, looking down at the blackboard.
Just three moves later, I crushed him.
"Checkmate, Harry!" You know what that means!
He gave me a grim look.
“That you buy me something to eat and I won’t mind.”
These were the terms of our long-term wager. If the victory was for me, then he had no right to refuse a free treat.
A tiny twinkle of gloating flared up in me.
“It’s great to be a queen, whatever one may say!
I managed to go to school, but miraculously.Making everything back has long been in my habit. With estimates, it turned out exactly the same story: I always walked around the edge, checking on my own experience, what amount of minimal effort is needed to get the top five? The reason was not too lazy, but practicality. An additional shift at work is clearly worth getting for homemade 92 points, and not 98.
I sat in the lesson of Spanish and wrote an essay in English when I suddenly called to the director. So as I was supposed to be quieter of water below herb. Such as I did not cause the directorial office. Such as I tried to make as few missing as possible – and in my case they could not be allowed at all.
– Avery! – said Mr. Altman, director of school, seeing me on the threshold. His voice was far from welcoming. – Sit down.
He fell his hands on the table and looked at me.
– I guess you guess why I called you.
If it comes at all about the weekly poker game, which I was satisfied with the parking lot, so that it was to buy breakfast for Harry – and sometimes myself, – I did not have the idea what the administration could cause.
"Sorry, but no, I don't guess," I admitted, accepting a humble view.
Mr. Altman paused a little and handed me a stack of papers bonded by a stapler.
– This is a test in physics that you wrote yesterday.
"Well, yes," I replied. Mr. Altman clearly waited for a different response, but I did not have it. I am strongly prepared for this test. And I could not write it so bad that I was called to the directorial office.
– Mr. Yeats checked work, Avery. You are the only one who correctly answered all questions.
"It's great," I said, although I was so washed the second time to answer him "Well, yes."
– No, young lady. The fact is that Mr. Yeats is specially verification in such a way that they are extremely difficult to fulfill. For twenty years, no one has yet solved all the tasks correctly. Now understand what is the problem?
– In a teacher who comes up with the complex tests that most students do not cope? – I sodged me, did not have time to bite the language.
Mr. Altman squinting.
– Avery, you are a good student. I will not be afraid of this word, brilliant, given your circumstances. That's just not remember that you have taken the maximum score before.
Fair remark. So why do I suddenly have a feeling that I hit me under the breath?
"I am with great sympathy about your situation," the director of Altman continued. – But I want you to be honest with me. – He carefully looked into my eyes. – Did you know that Mr. Yeats keep files with tasks in the cloud? – he asked. So, it means that he thinks I have schitri. He sat at his desk and did not reduce a heavy look from me, but it seemed that I didn't see the very essence.
– I want to help you, Avery. You are perfectly cope, especially in those difficult conditions that you had to face.I would hate to see your plans for the future, which you are probably building, fail.
– Plans that I probably, formation? I repeated. If I had a different surname, if my father was a dentist and my mother a housewife, he would hardly have allowed himself such a wording.
“I'm in the penultimate grade,” I said. “Next year I will graduate with a high school diploma that contains at least two semesters of academic work. Based on the results of the exams, I will be able to apply for a scholarship and study at the University of Connecticut, one of the best universities in the country where they teach actuarial science.
Mr. Altman frowned.
– Statistical risk assessment.
Of all the paths available, this one would be the most effective in helping me achieve excellence in poker and math. In addition, with such an education, it was easiest to get a job, as evidenced by global statistics.
