“What, you’re not going to show me!?” Luca presses,ughing and reaching again for my schedule.
my
“No way!” I shout, turning so that my back is to the arm of the couchand I’ve got feet between us, ready
to kick him away if I need to. I grew up with brothers and cousins, after all I know how to do a couch
war. “I didn’t even get a look at it yet!”
“Well, then just tell me what your track is –”
“I cannot,” I say, holding my paper close so that it mysteriously covers half my face. “It is…a state
secret.”
Lucaughs again, leaning forward. “You spy,” he hisses, and then quick as a snake he snatches the
paper from my face, immediately leaning away and holding the paper far out of my reach.
“Give it back!” I demand,ughing, and throw myself after him,nding half in hisp as I reach for it.
Lucaughs hard, but holds his long arm even across Rafe’s body. Rafe, grinning and obliging,
snatches the paper out of Luca’s hand and gives it to Jesse.
“Not fair!” I shout, ring at my brother and my cousin, even though I’m stillughing. “I didn’t even get
to look at it yet –”
“Well you’re a shit spy, Ari,” Jesse says, grinning at me and lining my schedule up with his and Rafe’s
on hisp, “if you don’t get the information and keep it to yourself for more than ten seconds.”
“Well, I haven’t learned anything about being a spy yet, Jesse,” I say, rolling my eyes at him even as I
grin. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Congrats, Ari,” Rafe says, grinning at me. “I know you wanted Espionage Track.”
“Seriously, Shrimp, congrattions,” Luca says, smiling down at me, and as I turn my face to him I
realize that I’m…well, I’m kind of still sprawled over hisp, aren’t
I?
I blush beet red, mumbling something about how I’m happy too, and do my best to gracefully crawl off
of my mate and back to the corner of the couch.
68%
Luca grins at me, his smile widening as he notices my awkwardness and my blush. “You’ll be great at it
at least you’ll definitely be able to squeeze into all sorts of
Material ? N?velDrama.Org.
tiny spaces.”
I prove him right by pressing myself deep into the corner of the couch, and when I nce to my side to
I see Ben grinning at me in absolute wicked delight. I give him a dirty scowl, which just makes him
laugh harder.
“Looks like we’re all teamed up tomorrow afternoon,” Jesse says, looking up at me and Rafe with
raised eyebrows, leaning over to pass our schedules back.
“What, all of us?” I ask, taking my paper from Luca when he passes it to me, d to have a minute to
look at it. “Are you guys Espionage too?”
“No, we’re both Warrior,” Jesse says, leaning back in his chair and studying his schedule. “Ben, do you
have a weird unnamed ss in the afternoon with the three of us? What track are you, anyway?”
“I’m Ambassador,” Ben says, studying his schedule, “and no, I’ve got diplomacy every afternoon this
week. Weird, though, that you guys have a cross–track ss. I didn’t think those existed.”
I study my schedule, surprised and interested to see that Jesse is right. Almost every morning this
week I’ve got Chemistry and Marksmanship, but twice this week – tomorrow included – I’ve got an
unnamed seminar in Room 1260.
“You’re not in it either, Luca?” I ask, lifting my chin to peer over at his sheet. Seeing my interest, he
hands his schedule to me and scooches closer so that we can study the papers together. He presses
his shoulder to mine to do so, and I pretend not to notice the tingles that immediately flood my left side.
I guess he does too.
“Nope,” Luca says quietly, his eyes moving back and forth between our schedules. “Looks like we don’t
have a single thing together, Shrimp.” He sighs and sits back, studying me with a sad twist to his
mouth. “Well, it was nice knowing you.”
“I’ll remember you fondly,” I reply with mock seriousness, making him burst into a grin.
“Nah, you guys will see me all the time. With a sweet ce like this?” Luca leans forward, grabbing his
unfinished dinner off the coffee table and starting to dig in again. “I’ll be here all the time.”
12:48 Sun, 10 ar
I smile a little bit at the prospect, leaning down to pick up my own unfinished te.
“Someone light a fire.” Jesse says, leaning back in his chair and still studying his schedule with interest.
“Let’s get cozy. After all, I heard someone say there was coffee cake.”
68%
“Best coffee cake in the world,” Luca says, nodding towards the pastry box as I take myst bite and
move eagerly to the fire, starting to re–stack the logs so that they suit my liking a bit more. “You’ve all
got to try some. Nan would die, if she knew a Prince and a Duke were eating something she baked…”
And a Princess, I think to myself, opening the flue to the chimney with a little smirk on my mouth. But,
at least some secrets have to be kept tonight, right?
Ben and Luca stayte, but not toote – walking a fine line between knowing that they’re not going to
be able to sleep tonight for the sake of excitement, and wanting very much to get a lot of sleep tonight
so that they’re fresh for tomorrow.
Plus, our little room is very cozy at night, it turns out. We spend a couple of hoursughing and chatting
around the fire, the oilmps that Rafe lights around the room giving everything a particrly
comfortable glowing ambiance. The coffee cake really is very good, and I think we all over–do it a little
bit on the sugar and snacks after two weeks of eating the nd suppers that the barrack cafeteria
provided.
As the hours pass I rx, wrapped up in the fuzzy green nket Rafe gave me, warm and calm, a little
unable to keep my eyes from drifting back to Luca’sughing face. I let myself fall quiet, allowing the
boys take over the conversation, and instead I just…listen. As their words fade to a steady hum I drift
away into my own thoughts, thinking about how much I like my life right now, how lucky I am to be here.
How much I want to tell my mom everything, all about it.
My hand drifts to the hair ribbon in my pocket, and I doze off a little while I stroke the soft velvet with my
thumb.
“Hey,” a soft voice says I don’t know how longter, and my eyes slowly drift open. It takes a second for
me to focus on Luca, leaning towards me a little, but then I gasp with guilt as I realize that in my sleep I
stretched out and my feet have drifted
12:48 Sun, 10 Mar
into hisp. “Oh, I’m sorry.” I gasp, starting to pull them back, “I’m hogging the
couch –”
68%
“No,” he says,ughing, putting a warm hand on my calf, letting me know I don’t have to jump away.
Slowly, liking the feel of his hand on my leg a little too much, I rx. “I’m just leaving now.” He
murmurs. “But I wanted to say goodnight.” Slowly – almost like he doesn’t realize it, Luca’s thumb drifts
across my calf, slowly pressing the soft muscle there.
It’s almost the sort of thing he wouldn’t notice that he was doing. But when I move my eyes back up to
his, and find his intense stare already on me?
Yeah. He knows what he’s doing.
“Oh…” I say. kind of at a loss for words, but when I nce up at the clock I startle. “Luca!” I gasp,
leaning forward to smack him on the shoulder, “You have to get up in seven hours!”
“Eh, I’ll be all right,” he says, shrugging and ignoring my weak blow. “Besides, it was
almost meditative –” very rxing listening to you snore just now
I gasp, sitting up straight. “I did not –”
–
“You did,” Jesse calls over his shoulder, heading to the bathroom.
I look around, seeing that Ben is already gone, and Rafe is carrying the tray full of empty tes over to
the dumbwaiter.
“Good night, Shrimp,” Luca says,ughing softly feet from hisp
at as I move my and let him stand up. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I say, yawning and watching him pull his boots back on. “Sleep well.” “Oh, I will,” he says,
ncing over at me. “I just hope I have some…good dreams.”
I go still, pink creeping over my cheeks as I look sharply up at him, trying to figure
out…
But he just smirks at me, shaking his head a little as if I just confirmed something. He stands up
straight, putting his hands on his waist, studying me.
“Oh, go away,” I sigh, standing up too, “I’m too tired for this.” I wave a dismissive hand at him, tossing
my pretty throw nket on the couch.
48 Sun, 10 Mar
Lucaughs, but I just give him a shove towards the door and head for my little nook.
my
My mate calls his goodbyes to us and closes the door behind him as I jump into.
little fluffy bed, snuggling down into the pillows and pulling the warm nkets over me. I’m very pleased
to find that the bed is already toasty warm- probably due to the way the nook is nestled in next to the
fire ce.
“Night, little sister!” Rafe calls to me from across the room.
“Night, Rafe!” I mumble back. “Jesse!”
But honestly? I’m basically already asleep again as soon as my head hits the pillow.
Because tomorrow is a big – big day, and I can hardly wait for it to get here.
Presuming, of course, there are no nighttime interruptions that get in the way…