"The boat house."
He was already on the move, drying himself as he headed back inside. I didn’t hurry, soaping myself thoughtfully, not interested so much in a fire as thinking back on what we’d just done, and being pleased. And I was further pleased when, knotting his tie, Kyou ducked around the corner again and leaned close to whisper in my ear: "Next week. Without fail."
I took my time dressing, and cleaned up the hidden garden, wondering what impact a burning boat house would have on who won the Thursday competitions.
Bran had left his run too late. He could not possibly catch up on what I knew they considered one of the most important firsts. But either way, next week I would have one of them. Kyou or Rin.
After school, I headed to the student carpark and spotted Lania waving at me from the front passenger seat of Carr’s blue station wagon. He’d explained during the museum trip that he’d chosen it to fit canvasses and art supplies. I climbed in, wondering if it would be worth it to talk my parents into purchasing a car, since the buses seemed to be increasingly crowded, and once or twice I’d had to wait for the next one. But getting a licence involved a set number of co-driving hours, and that just wasn’t practical on a number of levels.
"Hey Mika," Carr said, pausing a moment for me to buckle up before he pulled out.
"Yay, Mika!" Lania was hyped. "We’re winning you away from your books."
"At least for the afternoon," I said.
"What happened to your neck?" Lania asked, peering at me sympathetically.
It took some effort not to lift one hand to hide evidence, but I’d been clever about incriminating hickeys and said "Scratched it on a twig," with the faintest of shrugs and total truth, since I had taken a twig and scored a red mark right through the centre of Kyou’s little declaration, and then stuck a round sticking plaster over the top, so that the ends of the scratch were visible on either side.
"How often do you do these outings?" I asked, to avoid further questions.
"Once or twice a month. Sometimes we meet later, and do a proper Friday night thing, but too many of us have annoying curfews."
"Mainly people from the Art Club?"
"I guess that’s the core," Carr said.
"No, Class 7C is," Lania said. "During first year our Home Room was Class 7C, with Hanni, Anika, Sean, Dao-Ku, Raj. Everyone else is people from our clubs, or people we’re dating, or just someone who comes along."
"Sounds like a long-time group. Are you all planning to go to Helios U as well?"
"It’s the first choice for those continuing with study," Carr said. "If your course is as competitive as you say, what will you do if you don’t get in?"
"The other primary options are in the US, Britain, or the Netherlands," I said. "I haven’t decided yet. MIT, perhaps, but it’s just as competitive to get into."
"And so you’ll move on again and have to get to know a whole new set of people?" Lania asked. "I don’t know if I could stand that!"
"Well, I’m working to avoid it," I said equably, and let myself enjoy their care in introducing me to their friends, and seeing that I wasn’t made to feel an outsider. I particularly appreciated the serving of gossip everyone handed out about the fire at the boat shed.
"Most likely someone smoking," the muscular boy called Raj said authoratively.
"Wrong!" Sean’s eyes were wide with the delight of gossip. "I got down fast—before half the school turned up and the teachers sent us back—and you could smell the petrol!"
"Arson?" Anika, one of the many loosely crowding three tables of the buffet-style restaurant, exchanged a fascinated and unhappy glance with Hanni. "Someone who has it in for the Rowing Club? Or the school generally?"
Sean, with a glance at Carr, added: "Or just the Three Kings?"
Ten
The question of whether they were being targeted was the very thing I asked Rin on Tuesday.
"I wish I could believe it was just an accident," he said, handing me a steaming cup of peppermint tea. "But it doesn’t look that way, and not being an accident means it’s something that could happen again, in some form. At this stage there’s no way to know whether it’s a random arsonist, or targeting someone in the Rowing Club, or just the school."
"The police are investigating?"
"Yes, though the school uses a security firm that will probably be more involved. There are quite a few cameras on the grounds—fortunately nowhere that can monitor the ins and outs of this garden—but there were none down at the boat shed."
"What happens to the Rowing Club? And the challenges?"
"No Rowing Club for a while. All the sculls were destroyed. Insured, of course, but we’re unlikely to get replacements before the mid-term break, and we don’t row in winter. We’ll probably take up a temporary club, which is a whole world of complications in itself. Until then we’ll randomly draw challenges." He smiled slowly, producing an expression very different from the warm, gentle version he used for his student council role. "We had a foot race for you on Sunday, Cheshire. My advantage."
"Did Bran try to win?" I asked, curiously.
"Bran’s good at keeping his motives to himself. How was he last week?"
"I think he would have preferred this challenge with someone he already knew and liked," I said. "But he has offered to teach me to dance, so I guess he’s planning on trying to get to know me enough to not be entirely uncomfortable getting me naked." I gave Rin a straight look. "Next challenge, he’ll either relax with me, or this will stop."
Rin sighed. "Yes, we can’t go ahead if he doesn’t want to do it. You need to learn to dance, Cheshire?"
"Well, I’ve never had occasion to waltz or anything like that."
"Corascur has its own ballroom dancing club, and it’s worked into the sports curriculum, since a solid portion of the students will eventually attend formal balls. There’ll be a handful of slow dances, which will allow the majority of students to participate. The rest will mostly be waltz, some foxtrot and quickstep, and probably at least one tango. I can only help on the waltz and foxtrot, though—you’ll need Bran for anything more complicated."
"Bran dances that well?"
"Meggan is part of the Dance Club, so he didn’t have a lot of choice, though I’m fairly sure he enjoys dance for its own sake. That’s an odd change of expression, Cheshire."
"Meggan Forster is Bran’s ex-girlfriend?"
"Your study of us missed that? Yes, ever since the beginning of middle school, until last year. I take it you’ve met?"
"Meggan was one of the Rose Court members with us at the Trafala. No wonder Bran was so strange. I was walking down the street with her."
Rin put down his cup, eyebrows lifted, seeming primarily entertained. "And he managed not to be unforgivably rude? I’ll take that as a good sign. Usually, Bran’s mood drops massively if he sees Meggan anywhere. The question of whether he really wanted to play with you must have distracted him."
I thought about asking why they’d broken up, but decided it fell into the category of none of my business.
"What made you three run for school council?" I asked, instead. "It seems to be a big time commitment."
"It is. In part family expectation—we’re walking a line between conforming and readying our plans this year. Next year will be confrontations and yelling, but we’ve been working toward making our choices possible for a long time."
"I hear you’re going to be a doctor."
"The expectation is more medical research combined with business administration, but there’s no objection to starting with practice."