Chapter Eighteen
Alexandr Miroslav
“Right, because drugging them will get them to spill something of importance. Really, do you think at all?”
“And what’s your great idea, huh? Cold, sober torture?”
“Well, they won’t be forgetting it, I can tell you that!” Ajax huffed and tapped his cigarette against the ashtray next to him.
After the last time we’d turned the room into a smokescreen, the fine establishment decided it best to place one in front of each of us.
How accommodating.
August seemed to come to the realization of something, because he said, “Wait a minute, you’re only saying that because they’re on the football team and The Fenlon Society. You want them gone, and you want it to be painful. This benefits you.”
Rain arched a brow at the information but remained otherwise indifferent.
“What does Marigold think? Thaddeus must see something there.” Paris spoke after a large swallow of wine.
I furrowed my brows at the almost empty cup before turning to watch Marigold’s reaction. Rain muttered under her breath and took another drag of her cigarette when the former caved into herself at the attention, “We’ll never get anywhere.”
Wolf softened his voice, not at all the insulting tone he’s taken with Ajax, “Any idea is a good idea.”
I ran a hand over my face to cover my growing amusement. He would have made a good school teacher.
Except, my laughing mood dimmed when I thought of ‘teacher’, because Mr Browne had flashed in my mind.
He was someone I didn’t want to think about unless absolutely necessary.
Marigold looked around before speaking, “I think we should go after Scott, because he’s the most reckless.
Study what makes him tick and use it against him.
Have R-Rain kick him from the team and make his grades slip.
When he’s at his lowest, offer a way out—at a cost.”
“That,” Rain started, “doesn’t sound completely idiotic.”
To everyone in the room, she was practically calling Marigold a genius.
Paris placed her elbows on the table, something Rain pursed her lips at. “She’s brilliant, our Goldie.”
“Goldie?” I asked.
Paris met my eyes, and with a bright glint in her eyes, she said, “Why, of course. If you’ve got a nickname, why can’t anyone else?”
August went to ask, but Rain cut him off, “Don’t even attempt. You can have your fun once we’ve laid out a proper, well-articulated plan.”
“Well, you can ask that Theodore of yours to find any bylaws that would get Scott kicked from the team, and from The Fenlon Society–” I started to say.
“I know the bylaws by heart.” Rain interrupted, her tone serious.
“… Of course.” You do, I wanted to finish but chose not to antagonize during such an important conversation. “Well, if you need anything, we are here. Aside from that, someone will have to distract him from his education.”
Like a circus act, we all turned to Paris.
“Why are you all–oh, no! No. I refuse.”
“We’re all making sacrifices.” Rain tried to mediate, but she only seemed to be making things worse.
“Oh, I’m sure you are. Tell me, what the rest of you are going to do?”
I tapped the end of my cigarette against my respective tray, waving the idea away. “Alright. You’re right. Paris can’t be the only option possible.”
August thought to himself for a moment, before asking, “Does he ever need tutoring?”
Rain shook her head. “No.” She knew where August was going. “So, we can’t exactly teach him false information.”
I remembered the grades I’d gotten back after spending sleepless nights smoking in my dorm. “What about distressing him?”
Wolf tilted his head, following my train of thought. “Ajax has the master key to the Quarter dorms. Right, Ajax?”
The boy in question sent furtive eyes around the table before glaring at Wolf, mumbling, “Yeah… I do.”
His reaction alone solidified something in my narrow eyes that Wolf must have caught, because he met my gaze and blinked in that slow, placating manner.
Rain hummed, and my eyes drifted to her. She was watching Ajax with a look of indifference, and it had suddenly occurred to me. Why would Ajax have a master key if she was the student body president?
A cough sounded as the door to the room slid open. All eyes turned to the intrusion with different expressions. I was only glad someone had finally come to take away my hunger.
A very animated and lively girl with plain brown hair and eyes to match—nothing memorable about her to any stranger—met my eyes as she tried to subtly wave the smell of smoke away.
“Sorry.” A nervous chuckle tumbled from her lips as she moved into the room. “My name is Lily. Liz–Elizabeth isn’t available today, so I’ll be your server. Can I get you all started on anything?”
Paris was the first to move, lifting her glass with what was supposed to be a sharp grin, but came out slightly watered down, what with her glass being empty. “I’ll have another–”
“She will have a glass of water,” Rain, thankfully, cut in.
The server stood between Marigold and August as she looked around the table, scribbling down the water without a second thought to Paris’ free will. Avoiding or perhaps having not noticed the eye stand-off happening across the table.
“Anything else?” Lily looked around, and as her gaze neared me, I lowered my own.
Ajax rattled off his usual, slightly irked that the pretty server he seemed to think he was building ground with wasn’t here.
Better luck next Friday.
She went around the table from Ajax, looking to Rain, then Marigold, August, Paris, and then finally, she reached me.
“And you, sir?”
I didn’t expect my voice to waver, and it didn’t, “I’ll have whatever he’s having.” I gestured to Wolf before flipping the menu closed and nudging it down on the table.
She nodded and turned to Wolf expectantly.
Wolf went to speak, as if to protest, before he let out a huff. “No pressure.”
Ajax jeered, thinking we were similar in situations. That I too had a thing for The Gallery servers. “Don’t fret, Wolf. Sasha isn’t picky.”
Paris clicked her tongue and winced. “You’re being loud.”
Rain felt it necessary to hit the nail right on the coffin. “That’s not him, dear. That’s the alcohol.”
Her term of endearment wasn’t by any means warm-hearted, and I couldn’t understand why Rain had suddenly dropped her stoic mask as of late. Perhaps she felt more comfortable joining in on the usual antics already surrounding her.
Paris, props to her, didn’t rise to the bait. “Well, we’ve got things to discuss. So, get on with it, Wolf.”
The boy in question looked conflicted, almost distressed, as his eyes jumped from dish to dish on the menu, a hand under his chin.
I felt I’d shot myself in the foot with this one, because I hadn’t, in a million years, anticipated this.
“Oh, for the love of–” I lifted my own menu and ordered the first thing on the page, something with steak. Wolf let out a breath when she looked to him after scribbling down my order with a weird look sent our way, and he smiled. “I’ll have what he’s having.”
He’s got to be joking.
Slowly, I turned on him with a glare but, like an idiot, he only caught my eye and smiled.
As the server, Lily, nodded with a promise to return, August stopped her with a few words. “Sorry, I think I’ve seen you before.”
Her eyes widened when the conversation drifted away from her practiced script. “I don’t know–”
August gasped with a snap of his fingers, “That’s right! You’re that girl that writes plays at the old theatre.”
She seemed to pause, everyone did, but the glint in her eyes was there. She wasn’t afraid of what he knew, in fact she seemed to revel in it. “Uhm, yeah,” she spoke hesitantly at first, before clearing her throat. “Yeah, that’s me.”
She stood awkwardly in front of us like her very own one-woman act, but it didn’t feel like an achievement. More like a student being forced to come up to the front of the class and present a presentation they hadn’t prepared for.
“Well.” Rain broke the silence with that same higher-than-thou authoritative tone, “That’s certainly an accomplishment. However, we do have important matters to discuss, I’m sure you understand.”
It wasn’t as rude as it was blunt, but Lily looked exhausted, her job clearly stretching her thin, and seeing the glint in her eyes dim at Rain’s words was uncomfortable to watch.
She straightened, nodding stiffly. “Right. I’ll return when your orders are ready.”
As quickly as she arrived, she disappeared.
“Well. Thank you, August, for that heartwarming, and yet unnecessary, display.”
Without missing a beat, August replied, “It’s no worries. I’m sure your heart will warm and understand the feeling one of these days.”
Her eyes narrowed, but she knew him, and it was best not to engage when he baited anyone into a verbal spar. Not that she would lose, he just prioritizes patronizing over winning.
“Scott Kensington will have his reputation tarnished, his grades low, his extracurriculars stripped, and only then will we strike.”
Wolf turned to me. “You wanted to distress him?”
I nodded, immersing myself in the conversation, “We can start by searching his dorm. And if there’s nothing, we start breaking his perfect cycle.
Leave his window unable to open, restrict his hot water, turn off his heater, take assignments or textbooks.
No student can show up to class prepared to learn in those conditions. Tire him out and drain him dry.”
It didn’t take long to form a perfect plan, the benefits of planning with hand-picked students of the Founder’s Society.
And then, the conversation drifted to something just as interesting.
“Sasha?”
I blinked. “Hmm?”
Wolf exhaled the smoke from his cigarette, and his speech came out slightly muffled, “What extracurriculars are you thinking of joining? You’re the only one who isn’t committed to any clubs or societies.”
“Oh.” I straightened at the conversation piquing my interest. “What extracurriculars are you all tied down to?”
Ajax puffed out his chest instantly. “The Football team and The Fenlon Society.”