His fingers curl around mine.
—Fine, but I will make their lives unpleasant from now on—
Ludo lets me drag him away from the bitchy girls. “Don’t do anything that will get you in trouble,” I tell him as we enter Electis. “I need you here, not unemployed and banned from the grounds.”
—I won’t be fired just because there is no hot water in their apartment, or their toilet gets clogged—
“Ha, I don’t hate that for them at all.” I squeeze his hand.
At the door to the penthouse, he turns to leave, but I stop him. “Can you come in? Alexis and I found out some more about the Conclave today. He’s going to be here soon, and we want to discuss it with you all.”
Ludo nods and stands just behind me as I knock on the door.
Donovan swings it open, a massive grin on his face, which doesn’t falter when he sees Ludo. “Tee! Mino-man! Come on in, guys. You both want beer?”
Ludo frowns for a moment, looks at me, then back to Donovan and nods. Max is grabbing a six-pack of bottles from the fridge and passing them out. When Ludo has one in his hand, he stares at it for a moment before taking a cautious sip.
“Is that your first beer, man?” Max asks, not in a judgmental way, but just interested.
My janitor nods.
“Well, if you don’t like it, we’ve soda or coffee, too.”
Donovan takes my elbow and leads me to the sofa, placing me in the middle seat. He slides into my left side, then indicates Ludo should take the right.
I think that must be a step too far for Ludo’s comfort level, as he shakes his head then goes to take up his usual position of leaning against the wall near the door.
“I’m ordering pizza,” Max yells. “If you don’t tell me what you want, y’all will have anchovies on everything.”
Ilovetuna and sweetcorn on pizzas, but apparently the pizzerias in Havengard City haven’t got the memo that this is an excellent combo. “I’m happy with anything, but not too spicy.”
A second later, Cosmo’s door opens. “If we must have pizza, I want arugula, truffle oil, and chanterelles.”
Max sniggers. “OK, one posh-shit pizza, and five pepperoni.”
Before Cosmo retreats back into his room, he catches my eye “Er, hello, Theodora,” he says awkwardly, then instantly closes his door.
Weird.
Thirty minutes later, Alexis and the food arrive at the same time.
“FOOD’S HERE!” Max yells, vaulting over the recliner and sending a lamp flying.
“For fucks sake.” Cosmo’s door slams open again.
Donovan goes to get Wes, and finally, all seven of us, even Ludo, are seated around the large dining table.
By silent agreement, we don’t talk about anything ‘other realmy’ in front of Wes.
“There was a staff and faculty-wide email sent out today, regarding your returns,” Alexis announces, offering me a plate. “Dean Crankshawe told staff that Donovan and Wes would be starting sophomore year again, and Max would be repeating Junior. You are all expected in classes on Monday.”
He points a slice of pizza at Max. “The school board convened an emergency meeting; you are the one they are most concerned about. It was a split vote on whether you’d be allowed back at school. Crankshawe, surprisingly, broke the tie in your favor. But you are on probation. One transgression and you’ll be out, so Max, please, please try to rein it in.”
“Keep any dodgy dealings on the DL? Check.” He gives Alexis a wink.
“And we’re just fine to be here?” Donovan says.
“Why wouldn’t we be?” Wes asks. “You said we had permission to take a gap year.”
