An increase in Blythe’s strength and stamina stats came again on Thursday thanks to her consistently working out, putting at them at 7 and 9 respectively.

  She had also been swimming in the pool most evenings after moving in. For fear of bumping into Daisy, she avoided visiting the pool facility in the mornings.

  It was Friday today, and the school supplies and other things she’d requested from her home had finally arrived.

  Before the start of classes, Blythe had stowed the brand new canvas messenger bag containing all the items sent from home in her locker, to be picked up after lunch before her Accounting I class with Daisy.

  Right now was PE, but, as expected, Daisy was avoiding eye contact and being anywhere near her. Blythe had made the right choice in not bringing the bag. She suspected Jessica’s and Sophie’s presence in this class wasn’t helping either.

  They were playing soccer with makeshift goals at the outdoor stadium behind the activity building, where the training hall and indoor pool and other facilities were. Since there were too many students for them all to be on the field at the same time, Professor Grandville would be switching out all the players after twenty minutes to make sure they all got a chance to play.

  The students who were waiting for their turn were allowed to sit on the team benches by the side and watch. The usual non-participants were dismissed to the bleachers, where they feigned ill and chatted among themselves.

  Blythe sucked at hand-eye coordination games. It was why she’d always been the last to get picked when they played team games in PE back in her original world. She supposed that wouldn’t affect her much here since her stamina and strength were too poor to make optimal use of good hand-eye coordination anyway.

  She was concentrating so hard on the movement of the ball that she didn’t notice Jacqueline sidling up to her. Her heart jumped when Jacqueline’s voice, suddenly close, said, “I heard something interesting from Beatrice the other day, Blythe.”

  Blythe’s stomach dropped. Oh no. She knew this was coming. Every time she’d crossed paths with Beatrice after the fountain incident, the latter had looked at her funny. She didn’t know how to breach the topic with Beatrice, so she’d just left it alone and hoped she wouldn’t mention it.

  “What was it?” she asked pleasantly, turning to see Jacqueline’s laidback smile.

  “It was what you did on Tuesday in the dorms. I didn’t think you were a prankster, so I was really surprised. What was the purpose of it? It didn’t sound like a comprehensive prank.”

  Blythe’s smile felt stiff against her face. “I’ve been meaning to apologize for causing her confusion.”

  She glanced back to the field, where Beatrice was trying to dribble the ball past her opponents.

  “Oh? So it wasn’t intentional?”

  What now? What excuse can I give that won’t make me seem like a lunatic? Should I go along with the it-was-a-prank theory?

  It felt like a bad idea to tell a girl she barely knew about her loss of bodily autonomy at certain moments. If her closest friends wouldn’t believe her, why would Jacqueline? It did sound like a stupid justification used in order to avoid accountability for her actions.

  “No, I was merely … I was … I was sleepwalking!” she blurted.

  Now she was a sleepwalking amnesiac. Great.

  Jacqueline didn’t react for a moment.

  Then her eyebrows shot up. “You struggle with sleepwalking issues? Is that why you refused to become a boarder for so long? I always thought it was because of Prince Magnus.”

  That was a ridiculously good excuse. Vigorously, she nodded. “Please, don’t tell anyone. I’m trying to keep it under control.”

  If word got around to her parents that she was sleepwalking in school, she’d probably have to field a bunch of questions about why it hadn’t happened at home. She was absolutely going to blame everything on stress if that happened.

  “Of course not. I’ll have Beatrice keep it to herself as well. We’re not blabbermouths, so you don’t have to worry.”

  For a second, Blythe thought she imagined the blue light. But then the system window popped up before her.

  Was this the game’s way of telling her she’d made wise choices or something? So far, the wisdom increases had only taken place after some ostensibly benign decisions.

  This particular one, however, stirred up a tornado of ire inside of her.

  You’d be happy if I kept your stupid manipulation quiet forever, wouldn’t you? she thought angrily. She didn’t even know if the ‘game’ or whatever it was could hear her thoughts. You just want to make me the bad guy.

  “Blythe? Are you alright?”

  She blinked, pulling her mind out of her angry thoughts. Jacqueline was staring at her with some concern.

  “Sorry,” she said, realizing her mouth was curled and her eyebrows were scrunched together. She tried to go back to a neutral expression. “I was thinking of something else. Um, thanks for agreeing to keep it quiet.”

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  “I hope your physician can find a solution to it soon.”

  As Blythe thought about how her parents would probably get her one if they heard about this, her stomach clenched.

  Likely out of respect for her medical privacy, Jacqueline didn’t ask any other questions related to the topic. They talked about what the other girls on the field were doing instead, and by the time Instructor Grandville called for the switching of players, Blythe had gotten some extra favorability points.

  ???

  After their little argument at the gazebo, Magnus once again became huffy around her, staring at her like a prison guard in charge of an inmate notorious for breaking out of jail. She’d lost another twenty points over the course of the last two days just for existing in his vicinity. Her favorability with him now sat at negative 424 points.

  Despite obviously not wanting to be anywhere near her, he still chose to sit beside her whenever the opportunity arose in the past few days. The only exceptions were during lunch, when she would eat with Jessica and Sophie. He didn’t insist on joining them for those—although it might have been because they sat at a table in the dining hall instead of going to the garden, so it was easy to keep an eye on them if he wanted.

  It was just self-inflicted misery at this point. It wasn’t as if she would stand up in the middle of the lesson and go out to execute a nefarious plot against Daisy, so watching her that hard during classes didn’t make sense. If anything, she would’ve expected him to pay attention to her outside of them.

  She hated that they had so many classes together, making it impossible to avoid him entirely.

  Today, she decided to sit next to a random classmate at a workbench in Botany IV. Each workbench sat only two students. Magnus wouldn’t be able to sit beside her then.

  “Good morning, Penelope,” she said, smiling at the sullen-faced girl wearing her brown hair in a French braid after checking her status window. “How are you?”

  Then she plopped herself down on the adjacent chair without waiting for an answer. They didn’t have assigned seating, and people sat wherever they wanted. Of course, friends often chose to sit beside each other. She even didn’t know if Penelope usually sat with a friend in this class. She figured she’d deal with it if it came up.

  The gloom left Penelope’s face, replaced with deep confusion for a second before it got smoothed out. “Good morning, Blythe. I’m well, thank you. How are you?”

  “I’m well.” An awkward silence settled between them for a second as Blythe cast her mind around for a conversation starter. She was terrible at initiating small talk. “Your keychain is adorable! I love that the frog is sitting on a lily pad.”

  She could’ve left it at the awkward silence, but what if Penelope left to sit at another workbench? Penelope probably wouldn’t snub her so blatantly, though. Maybe.

  Glancing down at the frog plush keychain hanging from her bag strap, Penelope said, “Thanks. I’m quite happy with how it turned out.”

  Blythe did a double take. “Did you make it?”

  “Oh, yes. I spent two weeks crocheting it.”

  “That’s incredible!”

  The ice broke, and they chatted pleasantly about Penelope’s hobby for the next minute. Penelope seemed to grow less wary of Blythe with each passing second. Then a girl showed up at the workbench, backing away slightly when she noticed Blythe.

  “Good morning, Blythe,” she said, nervous both in voice and body language. “Morning, Nellie.”

  “Morning, Marcia,” Penelope said, her politely pleasant demeanor changing into authentic pleasure at seeing her friend.

  Blythe assumed they were best friends, what with the nicknames and the casual closeness.

  “Good morning, Marcia.”

  The three of them stared at each other, locked in a silent stalemate. Blythe considered getting up. It was clear they weren’t comfortable asking her outright to give up her seat for Marcia. All the other workbenches were either fully occupied with two students or completely vacant. Sitting at one of the vacant ones meant she risked enjoying the honour of being glowered at by Magnus for the next fifty minutes.

  Right as Blythe was about to get up and free the seat for Marcia, Penelope slipped away from the chair she was occupying. With an apologetic bow of the head to Blythe, she scuttled to an empty workbench a couple rows in front together with Marcia.

  It turned out all her effort at small talk with Penelope didn’t matter, because sitting with her friend was the important part. She should’ve just picked someone else to sit with. Trying not to let the embarrassment of being—implicitly—rejected get to her, Blythe looked at her surroundings. Everybody else was either talking with their workbench partner or distracted by the plants at the side.

  Nobody was looking at her.

  Giovanni, wearing his usual grumpy scowl, came over and dropped into the seat at the workbench behind hers. Upon noticing Blythe with her torso twisted around to peer for newcomers to the greenhouse, his eyes narrowed.

  Regardless of his attitude, she couldn’t be rude to her literal savior. She smiled, trying to appear as friendly as possible. “Good morning.”

  At the exact moment that Giovanni opened his mouth, Magnus came striding into view. Blythe stared in mounting dread as Magnus caught her eye and made for her. She was sick of him breathing down her neck, and this was her last class with him for this week.

  Without thinking, she snatched up her bag and flew to the chair next to Giovanni. She didn’t dare to turn around to see Magnus’ reaction; the confused noise that escaped Giovanni’s throat was bad enough as it was. Magnus’ footsteps got closer until he was standing in front of her new workbench.

  Blythe forced herself to meet his eyes. His questioning expression looked polite, but her vision got hit with red.

  “Good morning, Blythe,” he said, showing none of the displeasure he was feeling.

  She shifted in her seat, the solid wood under her providing little comfort. “Good morning …”

  Before either of them could say anything else, Professor Cartwright walked past Magnus to the front of the little classroom area of the greenhouse and called for everyone to be seated. As if right on cue, the blue bird burst out of its clock doors and sang its song. She was saved.

  The other boys who were standing or who had just entered scurried to settle down somewhere. Left with no choice, Magnus sat at the workbench two rows in front of Blythe’s and Giovanni’s, one side of which was also newly occupied by one of the aforementioned boys. He seemed delighted to have Magnus sitting beside him, eagerly greeting him with a smile.

  Blythe suppressed a sigh of relief. One good thing was that her current workbench was the last in the row, so Magnus wouldn’t be able to glare daggers at her from behind. If he wanted to do that from where he was sitting now, he’d have to turn around in his seat.

  She could feel Giovanni stare at her from the side. In Waiting for Fireflies, he was good friends with Jude, the knight-in-training love interest. Outside of Jude, he didn’t seem to have many friends. She was pretty sure she hadn’t just stolen a seat one of his friends would otherwise have sat in.

  When she turned to him, he asked in a voice filled with suspicion, “What are you doing?”