On the Edge of the Blade: Book One

Chapter Seventeen

"Rise and shine, Mr. Grumps!" a familiar cheerful voice said.

Winter rolled over, grabbed a random pillow, and threw it at the voice.

"Hey!" it said, then sighed. "Come on, Winter. It's morning."

"I know, Lumi," Winter grumbled. "Go away."

"You'll be less tired if you wake up," Lumi persuaded in a sing-song tone.

"I'm not sure that's how it works." As he said it, Winter realized that she was probably right. He was always more tired after lying around for hours than he was after moving. But he couldn't tell Lumi any of that, especially if he didn't want to get up. "Go away," he told her again, not really expecting her to listen.

The bed bounced as Lumi jumped on it.

"Ow!" Winter yelped. He sat up and threw his pillow at her, effectively knocking her off the bed.

"My strategy worked!" Lumi exclaimed, laughing.

"Unfortunately," Winter grumbled. He pulled off his covers, making sure to smack her in the face with them.

"Hey! What was that for?" Lumi disentangled herself from the blankets.

"You woke me up and expect me not to smack you?" Winter asked.

"Good point." Lumi pushed his blankets back toward him. "Come on."

Winter lay back on his bed. "You shouldn't push the blankets toward me," he said. "Now I want to stay in bed." He grabbed his phone from his nightstand, his mouth falling open when he saw the time. "Lumi, it's five am!"

"And normally you would get up at four." Lumi ripped the blankets off the bed. "Is this better? Are you feeling more enticed to get up now?"

Winter groaned and forced himself to sit up. "I'm feeling enticed to do anything to get you to stop pestering me to get up."

"If you want me to stop pestering me, then get up. Are you coming or not?"

"Where are we going?" Winter asked as he grabbed his phone and a book and followed her out of his room.

"Where do you think we're going?"

"Um, the kitchen? To eat breakfast?"

Lumi looked over her shoulder and gave him an amused look. "Nope."

Winter racked his brain for another destination. It was Saturday on the first day of vacation, so it wasn't like there was a lot on their schedule. "Practice?" he tried.

Lumi gave him another amused look. "Nope."

"Just tell me." They emerged from the hallway to find that the rest of the Foxes were up and cooking breakfast. So were the Artjoms, which was odd since they usually had breakfast in their own apartment. Apparently, they had decided to walk the long, exhausting fifteen feet to have breakfast in the Foxes' apartment. "Lumi, are you sure we're not going to the kitchen?"

"Oh, we are, but I meant, where are we going after that?"

Winter blinked as he slid into one of the empty seats on the table, between Mani and Iluq. "Why didn't you tell me that the first time I said the kitchen?"

She shrugged, taking a seat across from Winter between Eira and Anonna. "I like watching you make the wrong guesses."

"You're weird."