I lie there for a minute, letting it wash over me. They sound like a family down there. They’ve had years to become this, to learn each other’s rhythms and jokes and silences. And now I’m here, dropped into the middle of something that was already whole.
I shove that thought down and move.
I pull on the same gray joggers from yesterday and a clean shirt from the dresser, run my fingers through my hair. Good enough.
The kitchen is warm and smells like coffee and eggs.
“—can swap with Rane for third period, that covers Resonance Studies.”
“And fourth?”
“Vaelor’s got House History.”
“That leaves Mark Theory.”
Silence falls over the room.
“None of us have Mark Theory.”
I stop in the doorway. Kyron’s got his phone out, frowning at it while Rane leans over his shoulder. They’re both staring at something on the screen like it personally offended them.
“We could talk to the registrar,” Rane says. “Switch something around.”
“They’re not going to let us rearrange our schedules because we don’t like hers.”
“We could ask.”
“We could also not look like obsessive psychopaths.”
Locke clears his throat. Loud. Pointed. “Too late for that.”
Kyron looks up. Sees me in the doorway. His expression flickers for just a second, and then the phone disappears behind his back like a kid caught with something he shouldn’t have.
“Morning,” he says. Too bright. Not at all suspicious.
Rane spins around so fast he almost knocks over his coffee. “Hey! You’re up. That’s great. We were just—” He looks at Kyron. Kyron looks at the ceiling. “—talking about the weather.”
“The weather,” I repeat.
“It’s supposed to rain.”
“It’s not,” Vaelor says from the stove without turning around.
“It might.”
“There’s not a cloud in the sky.”
“Weather changes, Vaelor.”
I lean against the doorframe. “Were you talking about my schedule?”
Silence. And suddenly everyone finds something else to look at.
“Because it sounded like you were talking about my schedule.”
Rane opens his mouth. Closes it. Opens it again. “Okay, yes. But in a totally normal, not-at-all-creepy way.”
“You literally just said you were being obsessive psychopaths.”
