Everlance Academy

Chapter 27

"I think if I hear the words just a few laps more out of Sarah's mouth ever again, I will actually commit murder."

"On Sarah or yourself?"

"Still debating."

I laugh wholeheartedly and lay an arm around Nora's shoulders as we walk through the corridor to the dining hall together with Olivia.

I can't say that I disagree with her, though. Practice had been extra hard today since we were preparing for yet another competition in about a month.

"Tomorrow will be even worse!", Nora continues to complain while pushing the two wing doors open. "She said we're going to—okay, what the fuck?"

The three of us have stopped in our tracks in front of the doorframe, looking at the scenery in front of us. The tables in the dining hall, which are usually spread out in the room, forming tables for groups of six, have been rearranged.

There are fewer group tables now, but they have more capacity. One table arrangement leaves room for about ten people.

I scan the room for our friends. Since we waited for Nora, who takes annoyingly long in the shower, we are late, and the room is pretty crowded. Most of the seats are already taken.

"June, Nora, Liv! Over here!"

I search for the source of the voice over the chatter in the hall to find Ivy waving at us excitedly. She is already sitting at a table. When we walk towards her, we see that she has reserved three chairs for us. How thoughtful.

Six people are already seated; four of them are no surprise. Noah, Ivy, Thalia, and Cal are looking at me, each saying a quick hello.

What makes me almost choke on air, however, are the two remaining people, who I don't usually sit with.
Addie and Nikolai seem to have invited themselves to our table.

Nikolai looks up at me, winks once, and then goes back to studying his hands.

I am beyond confused.

"Okay, does anybody want to enlighten me on what's going on?", I ask no one in particular.

Noah looks up to me. "No idea. The tables were already like that when we arrived."

"Yeah," Addie nods, "and our friend group had to split up due to the lack of free stools. So we hoped that it would be okay for you guys if we sat here?"

Though she started talking to me, I know damn well that her question is directed at Olivia and Thalia.

"Exactly," Nikolai says all of a sudden, startling me. He's locking at me with an almost mocking expression, asking, "Will that be alright with you?"

I refrain from sticking my tongue out at him and keep my face free from every emotion.
"Of course.", I shrug, "whatever."

Two of the seats that were still unoccupied are now taken by Nora and Olivia, leaving me the spot between Cal and Ivy, which I'm more than okay with. Cal always gives me a share of his dessert.

I leave the table to get myself a tray and some food.

When I turn around to go back, the hall goes quiet all of a sudden. I look to find the reason, just to see that Mrs. Everlance is standing in the middle of the room with a microphone she got from God knows where. Quickly, while making no noise, I hurry back to my table while listening to what our headmaster has to say.

"Good evening, everyone. I hope you had a nice day. As you've all already seen, we have a new seating order. I ask you not to rearrange the tables; they were put the way they are for a reason."

I stop listening to what she is saying and focus on my boyfriend across the table instead. He's drumming with his fingers on the table in what I thought was a random rhythm.

When I start to pay closer attention, I realize how wrong I was. A small smile forms on my lips.

Two times long. A pause. Long, short, two times long. Another pause.

Morse Code.

I furrow my eyebrows in concentration, making mental notes on the letters he is forming. After a while, the pattern repeats, and I know he's told me the whole message.

My room. 11pm.

I restrain a grin and nod once to signal that I understood. He grins at me mischievously, just for the slightest second.

"... which is why I want all of you to sit exactly as you are now for the rest of the term."

My head snaps back to Mrs. Everlance. Loud murmur erupts in the hall at her words, some happy, some angry.

Thalia grunts. "A seating order for meals?", she asks sarcastically, "what are we, five?"

I turn to her. "What happened? I zoned out."

"Someone drew on the tables. So in order to keep that from happening, we have fixed places now, so they can keep track of how tidy you keep your table. The seat you have now will be yours for the rest of the term. No switching," she explains.

I nod, butterflies coming to life in my stomach. I glance over to Nikolai, who is making a point of looking anywhere but at me. However, I see the corners of his lips tugging upward.

***

"June? Wait a second!"

I turn around surprisedly to find Nora hurrying towards me through the dark corridor. With my toiletries in my hands, I wait for her to reach me. I hadn't seen her since dinner ended two hours ago, and I was just about to go to bed.

Or pretend to go to bed.

"You okay?", I ask while she regains her breath.

"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. It's just... it's about the seating order. In the dining hall."

"What about it?"

"Well...", she scratches the back of her neck. "I hope you know that I didn't choose my seat to be a pain in your ass."

I raise my eyebrows. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

She wrings her hands. Sighs. "I didn't mean to complicate things by forcing you to sit across from Nikolai. I know that might be irritating, given your... relationship."

My heart skips about ten beats, and my jaw almost falls to the floor.
What the hell?

"How... how did you... how did you know?"

She looks up surprisedly. "Know about what? The way you feel about each other?"

I only manage a small nod in response.

She shrugs. "It was pretty obvious. I saw the way you guys looked at each other at that one party."

Shit, shit, shit.

"No one was supposed to know...", I mumble defeatedly.

Nora snorts. "Well, that sucks. Because everyone knows. Ivy can't shut up about how she thinks it's so romantic."

With every word she says, my heart keeps sinking lower, it gets hard to breathe.

Nora looks at me compassionately. "You don't need to be ashamed. Honestly, I get it. I mean, just look at the guy."

The corner of my mouth tugs upward.

Nora continues talking. "All that Oh my God, look at me, I'm the captain of the basketball team. I'm so attractive, I get to be an ass to the whole world, and no one gives a shit because I'm sooo mysterious. And everyone falls for it. It's almost funny."

Slowly, very slowly, I look up to her from where I was staring at the floor.

Nora shrugs again. "And yeah, the whole school knows what you two think of one another. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the two of you can't stand each other."

I could both laugh and cry with happiness.

Nora didn't find out about our secret relationship. She thinks we hate each other. No, according to her, the whole school thinks we hate each other.

I have to physically keep myself from smiling. "Oh. Yeah. That. It's fine, Nora. I know you wanted to sit next to Thalia."

Her cheeks flush in an instant, and she looks down. "It's not like that," she mumbles.

I nod slowly and say, Sure, it's not.", sarcastically.

Nora sighs. Laughs a little. Then looks back up at me. "So we're good?"

I smile. "We're good. And don't worry about me and Nikolai. We'll survive."

"Okay. I just wanted to make sure."

"That's very nice of you."

She shrugs. "So now that that's settled... I'll go to sleep, okay? I'm tired as hell."

I walk backwards to my room while waving my hand at her. "Goodnight. See you at breakfast, apparently!", and disappear around a corner.

***