Page 20 of Brutal King

“Don’t be surprised if your peers resent your attempt to just coast on your family name.”

The students around me now grumbled loudly.

“Tsk, tsk,” Kobe said with a shake of his head. “This is not the place for the coddled, spoiled, and pampered. I think that fact will be made abundantly clear soon enough.”

He looked at the students in the class. “I urge you all to keep your eyes and ears open. Don’t let that one get by because of her daddy’s name. Make her work for it the way you will have to.”

Everyone glared at me, their lips tight with disappointment as they shook their heads at me. I wanted to get up and leave the classroom, but gritted my teeth and sank a bit lower in my chair waiting until the class was over before I stormed out.

Chapter 7

One class with him. Surely I could get through one class with Kobe smirking so arrogantly at me. But as I moved on to my next class, my shoulders fell when I saw him there. Only this time, he appeared to be just another fellow student and not a teacher’s assistant.

Seeing him in there was a little unexpected. While many of the same students from the Restaurant Business class would normally take a management class, this was Advanced Restaurant Management.

Oh... right. That was it. I was in an advanced class with students in their second year. That explained Kobe’s presence. Oh, how it must irk him to see me there as his peer.

I couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

Don’t let him get to you, I told myself as I entered the class. Ignoring his presence, I turned to take a seat as far away from him as I could.

He spotted me and immediately stopped talking to the cute redhead he was with and walked directly to me.

Shit! What did he want now?

“What are you doing in this class?” he said, more an accusation than a desire to know how my talent had given me an advantage. “This is an advanced class.”

“I know,” I said as if I didn’t have a care in the world. But inside, I was shaking with rage and frustration.

“I’m one year ahead of you. It’s bad enough that I’m the assistant to one of your professors... but this... This is unacceptable.”

“Then change class,” I said with a disinterested shrug.

“No,” he hissed as he came closer. “You change class.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“You’re a freshman,” he went on. “You have no business being here. A freshman!”

I turned in my seat to look up at him. “For your information, Mr. King, I have every right to be here. In case you may have forgotten, my parents have had me working in their restaurants since... well since forever. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t work in one restaurant or another. Right after camp, I started traveling with my Dad, visiting and helping out at our restaurants. I had more restaurant experience by the time I was twelve than most students in this class... including you.”

“After camp?” he muttered suddenly. He stared blankly at me for a moment. I could have sworn he was looking for a snappy comeback, but none came. Did he even remember being at camp with me at all?

“I believe that everyone is here,” the professor said from the front of the class. “If you will please take your seats and we will begin our first class.”

The students were quiet and respectful, reverent even as they took their seats and faced the professor.

Dressed in a dark suit with a navy tie, his hair primly combed back and his shoes as shiny as could be, he commanded authority without the menacing tone Ms. Manley seemed to rely so heavily on.

“Hello, class. I am Mr. Singh,” he said as he spelled his name out on the board beside him. “I am not at this culinary institute to educate you on any of the culinary arts. I, with my business acumen, am here to show you how to run a restaurant. It’s all good and well that you learn the techniques of haute cuisine. It’s admirable that you wish to one day share your innovative recipes with the masses. However, if you are unable to get a restaurant up and running, and should you manage that, if you are then unable to sustain that restaurant, not many people are going to have the opportunity to enjoy your innovative dishes.”

Clasping his hands together in front of him, he looked over the class. “I do believe I see a familiar face among us.”

Everyone looked around wondering who he was referring to.

But I saw. I saw that he was looking directly at me. Was I in for another drag through the mud?

“Many of you, if not all, have heard of the Lee family and their successful chains of high-end cuisine.”