"If you don't want me invading Mexico, then you'd be smart to make a counteroffer," Yuki said in a low voice as the USA leader, a sophomore named Cyprus, shut his locker and secured the lock on it.
"You're going to have to speak up," he said, turning. The silver dog at his side stared at her with chilling white-blue eyes, looking more like a wolf than a husky. Cyprus held the leash connected to Achilles' green service dog vest, but Yuki wouldn't have dared try to pet the dog even off-duty.
"I'd like incentive to not invade Mexico," Yuki stated. "I've got a big enough military to be a thorn in your side."
Cyprus hummed in thought, his gaze leaving her lips to stare down the hallway. "Rhett warned me that might happen. I give you an inch and you'll take all of Central and South America—is that how it works?"
Rule three: be the picture of calm.
Yuki smiled, hoping it dazzled like Era's, the perfect combination of mystery and intimidation. "That's how the game's played. Mexico isn't worth the resources to defend it but you don't want to show you're weak by failing to come to an ally's defense. So I'll cut you a deal." Most of the students had cleared out to watch the football game outside, leaving the building empty without anyone to witness their exchange.
Cyprus fidgeted with the leash in his hand. His attention seemed to be drawn to something behind her, but Yuki refused to let that distract her. "What's your price to back off?"
"One nuke," Yuki said.
"I already told you I wouldn't trade you one at the beginning of the game." Cyprus' jaw set in a hard line, brown eyes glittering with danger. Stubborn. Even more stubborn than Sila had been.
"Yeah, but" —Yuki took a step closer, teeth still bared— "I'm not asking nicely this time."
Cyprus stepped back while Achilles whined beside him. He wrapped the leash around his hand, then unwrapped it a couple times before answering. "Fine. You can't use it against me though." She almost laughed at the ill-concealed venom in her classmate's eyes. It was just a game, yet some people took it as a personal attack when she cornered them.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Yuki set her weight back on her heels and shook Cyprus' hand. While he and Achilles left, the latter's nails clicking against the linoleum floor, she unwrapped a blue raspberry lollipop and stuck it in her mouth.
Footsteps approached from behind her. "You're a real b, you know. It's a shame since I heard you used to be on the side against bullies."
There was only one person he could've heard that from, unless some of those bullies attended Zenith and she just hadn't recognized them. Chuckling, Yuki leaned against the lockers, letting the sweet flavor of sugar coat her tongue. "So, Ethan. You've got a backbone after all."
He hung back in the shadows where the light from the front windows didn't reach. Based on Cyprus' behavior, he'd been there the whole time.
"I've always been a bully, you know," Yuki continued. "When I was younger I preferred to bully the bullies." Her mother had despaired of making her a "proper young lady" when she'd come back from school with bruised knuckles and split lips. She'd always thought herself to be indestructible—that nothing could keep her down if she fought hard enough to stay standing.
"What changed then?"
The lollipop cracked beneath her teeth, shards of sugary dust settling in her mouth. "When you're younger, everything seems so cut and dry," Yuki finally said. "The world's black and white, right and wrong. Everything seems so simple, so easy."
Ethan edged out of the shadows, the sunlight splitting him in half, equal parts light and dark. "So what you're saying is you've lost touch with what's good and bad? Who's the bully and who's the victim?"
Yuki blew her bangs to the side with a puff of air. "It's not that deep, Ethan. I had fun bullying the bullies. I have fun fighting for people to give me what I want."
But more than that she'd had fun pushing the boundaries of what people expected, what her parents expected. Pushing herself to rise to the challenge, to break records, to overthrow the social norm. She'd pushed and pushed until the day the boundaries disappeared and she stumbled into a world that was rainy, foggy grey. Even worse, she wasn't indestructible anymore.
If she couldn't be strong, what then?
"Every word out of your mouth convinces me that you're an awful person and I shouldn't even be trying to warn you," Ethan said with a frown. He did look rather put out, like he'd prefer to be anywhere else. With his shifting eyes beneath his sweatshirt hood and the nervous jumping of his leg, Yuki wondered how he'd managed to approach her at all.
"Well, I'm glad you've realized that." She tossed her lollipop stick in the trash and headed toward the entrance, assuming he'd want to follow her out to get away from whoever he was avoiding. If the warning was worth it, he wouldn't leave after making it this far.
"I want my ring back," Ethan hissed in a whisper behind her. He followed Yuki back to the picnic table under the maples, the bones of their branches now stripped of leaves.
"Let's keep walking." She didn't want to linger here in plain view, though a check of the library window didn't reveal Era's watching eyes.
The last thing Yuki wanted to do was give Ethan his ring back. All her plans hinged on having a ring that wasn't Rhett's without sacrificing her own. An equal exchange of queens placed her back at square one. But Ethan had brains enough to know that telling Rhett or Era of his ring would force her hand.
She had to give it up. Ethan had better make it worth her while.
After turning the corner, Yuki swiveled on her heel and ground to a halt. "I'll give your ring back after you give me the warning."
"You shouldn't trust Era." Ethan huffed, chest heaving as if he were out of breath.
Yuki raised an eyebrow. So much for a grand warning. "No shizzle, Sherlock. You think I haven't figured that out?"
"Shut up and listen to me for a couple minutes," he snapped, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "You shouldn't trust Era because she considers her friends to be disposable. Haven't you wondered why she doesn't have any from her own year? She's a senior, yet her close circle consists of you, a sophomore, and Sophia Lim who's a junior."
Maybe she'd been too harsh. Ethan had some guts after all. That stacked two surprises on top of each other for this week. After Rhett had called in to the school sick, she'd texted him two things.
I'm sorry. Again.
And—
If you're still asking me to the dance, my answer is yes.
He hadn't replied back yet.
"Look, Ethan," —Yuki sighed, running a hand through her hair— "it's nothing personal that I asked for your ring. Since you're not playing the fortune game this year, it seemed like the most logical option. But if you think you're going to convince me not to play too, then you're dead wrong."
Sophia on the other hand, hadn't been wrong about Ethan's choleric temperament. The skin of his neck bled to the shade of a beet, while his clenched fists indicated he might be thinking about strangling her. "This isn't about some game!" After he stomped off for a brief moment, he returned with flared nostrils but moderated breathing. "Have you heard about a girl with the family name Iwasaki?" he ground out between his teeth.
Yuki shook her head. "Nope, never met her. Does she go to Zenith?"
"Used to," Ethan said quietly, his gaze still darting around as if the trees held hidden cameras. "And I know you've never met her because she disappeared earlier last year before you got here."
A chill swept over Yuki, raising the hairs on her arms. "Why'd she disappear?"
"Some suspected kidnapping, others suggested she ran off with some guy. The last time anyone saw her was leaving a party with Era. But when she was never found and her parents left town, whispers started to go around that someone wanted her to disappear. Someone powerful."
There had to have been some investigation. People couldn't just disappear into thin air like that, could they? "Who was she?"
"She was Era's best friend." Ethan put his backpack down and unzipped it. "I never met her either, but news about her disappearance went around and I did some more digging. My older sister graduated two years ago so I found her yearbook." He pulled it out of his backpack and opened it to a page captioned "The Asian Cultures Club".
Among the dozens of students in the picture, two drew Yuki's eyes to the center of the group. Era, a fortune cookie presented to the camera in one hand while her other formed half a heart. To her right, another girl completed the heart gesture, a girl with lively, laughing eyes. A girl with her hair cut in the hime style.
You look just like her.
Yuki traced her finger along the names below the picture that listed everyone left to right. She passed over Era's and stopped at the one beside it, heart threatening to burst out of her fragile chest.
Flaws have a way of catching up to people. Ends their legacy prematurely.
Pearl Iwasaki.
Chapter Word Count: 1570