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  His eyebrows shot up. “The headmaster?”

  Quickly, before he could get the wrong idea, I filled him in on everything I had seen and heard while waiting in the headmaster’s office. When I was finished, North sat back and gave a long, low whistle.

  “And Broward caught you watching him get paddled? No wonder he’s after you, Jameson. He wants everyone to think he’s invincible because his father is on the Board of Trustees. If word got around that he actually got punished, and that he chose the paddle over the cane, his reputation would be shot all to hell.”

  “I wasn’t going to tell anyone,” I protested. “And what does it matter which he chose?”

  “The paddle’s for cowards.” North waved a hand dismissively. “Doesn’t even break the skin. The cane hurts a lot worse and it can leave permanent scars.”

  I shivered at the idea of something worse than the paddling I’d witnessed earlier that day. Though Father spoke roughly to Kristopher and myself, he had never laid a hand to either one of us or allowed anyone else to either. Would Headmaster Chauser cane me if my secret was discovered? I couldn’t let that happen.

  “Sounds like you’ll have to be on the lookout for Broward for a good long time,” North said, pulling me out of my dismal thoughts. “What’s your class schedule like? I’ll try and tell you the best way to avoid him.”

  “It’s there.” I pointed to the disposable tablet on the desk and he got off the bed to get it.

  “Hmm.” He frowned as he paged through the schedule. “Looks like you and I have a lot of the same classes. Inter-dimensional Calculus and Astro Navigation back to back. Unfortunately Broward is in the Calc class too.”

  “At least you and I are in it together,” I said, without thinking.

  North frowned. “Don’t get any ideas, shrimp. I’m your roommate, not your bodyguard. I don’t have time to come running to the rescue every time you stub your toe.”

  “Of course not,” I said stiffly. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

  North pointed at me. “You’re going to have to learn to look out for yourself. Especially in your last class of the day—mandatory physical-fitness. Broward’s in that one too and I’m not.”

  “I understand—I’m on my own.” I tried to sound calm and collected.

  “Right.” He looked satisfied, as though he’d finally made his point.

  “But how can we have the same classes if you and Broward are fourth-form and I’m third-form?” I asked, holding out my hand for the tablet.

  North handed it back to me. “In Broward’s case it’s because he flunked those courses and he’s taking them again.”

  “What about you?” I looked up at him curiously. He didn’t seem the type to fail at anything.

  “I missed most of last year.” He glanced away, a troubled look passing over his sharp features for a moment. “For…personal reasons.”

  “Personal reasons?” I said. “What—?”

  “Personal means private. Do I really have to spell that out for you?” His voice, formerly almost friendly, had turned angry and there was an unreadable look in his piercing blue eyes.

  “All right, all right. I’m sorry.” I held up my hands in a gesture of peace. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “Just keep out of my business.” North looked at me coldly. “I may have to share this room with you but that doesn’t make us friends.”

  “Fine.” I tried to make my voice as cool and distant as his. “I have no interest in your life or anything to do with you.” I lifted my chin, trying to look superior but just then, my stomach gurgled in a most unladylike manner. “Oh!” Forgetting I was supposed to be a male who didn’t care about such things, I put one hand over my stomach and another to my cheek. “Please excuse me!”

  North shook his head. “You get embarrassed really easily, don’t you? So what if you’re hungry? It’s dinner time anyway.”

  “Where do we eat around here?” I asked, getting off the bed.

  He looked at me speculatively. “All right, just this once you can come with me to the mess hall. You’ll have to sit with the third-form cadets, though—you can’t sit with me.”

  “Don’t do me any favors,” I said, not bothering to keep the anger out of my voice.

  “The forms don’t mix.” He shrugged. “That’s just the way it is at the Academy. It’s standard. Not that I’d want a shrimp like you sitting with me anyway.”

  I sighed. “Don’t call me ‘shrimp.’ And I’m beginning to think there are a lot of ‘standard’ things I’m not going to like about this place.”

  “Well, like it or not, you’re stuck here now.” He jerked his head toward the door. “Come on, shorty, let’s go.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “It’s Jameson, not shorty or shrimp or runt or pipsqueak or any other derogatory term you can come up with. Or you can just call me Kris.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “So what do I call you?”

  “Just North,” he said shortly. “I told you, Jameson, we’re roommates, not friends.”

  He headed out the door without looking to see if I was following him. For a moment I stood there fuming, then I remembered that Broward was probably lying in wait for me somewhere near and hurried to catch up. Though he made a big deal out of not being my friend or my bodyguard, I didn’t think North would stand back and allow the big bully to beat me up.

  At least, I hoped not.

  Chapter Six

  We left the Goddard building without speaking and wound our way through the maze of ivy-covered dorms, our feet whispering over the short indigo grass. I stuck close to North and kept my eyes open, expecting to see Broward again at any minute, still intent on killing me. But to my relief, he was nowhere to be seen.

  North said nothing as we walked and I got the distinct impression that my new roommate was only putting up with me because he felt obliged to—at least this once. He had a brooding look on his well cut features and appeared to be lost in thought. Though I had vowed to keep out of his personal life, I couldn’t help wonder what was going on with him. What was the ‘personal reason’ that had caused him to miss an entire year of school? And why was he so touchy about it?

  Since North didn’t fill me in on any details of the campus, I tried to keep my eyes open and memorize where the various academic buildings were. I didn’t want to get lost looking for my classes the next day but the Academy grounds were such a maze I was afraid it was a real possibility. Soon enough we found ourselves in front of a large auditorium. It had high ceilings and pale green walls which were visible through the rows of tall, rectangular plastiglass windows that ran the length of the entire building. Inside I saw cadets talking and laughing and eating.

  “This is it,” North said, breaking his silence at last. “Trays are at the front of the line. Grab one as you go in and get your food. The third-form table is third from the left. Don’t forget to clean your tray and put it in the wash-up slot before you go if you don’t want demerits.” Without another word he pushed his way through the swinging plastiglass doors, leaving me to stand alone in front of the large, crowded building.

  I felt a bubble of apprehension expanding in my chest as I looked into the teeming mess hall. Living the quiet existence that I had, I was a little shy of crowds—especially crowds where I didn’t know anyone. The few society parties that Kristopher and I had attended in Victoria had been small and intimate compared to the milling mass of cadets I saw through the plastiglass windows. Also, I had never entered a party worried that one of the other people there wanted to kill or at least, severely disfigure me. It was a touchy situation.

  Looking upward, I took a deep breath to gather myself before I went in. Prometheus was setting, turning the sky a lovely shade of deep azure-purple and Zeus was a large, dark shape looming on the horizon. The black ivy that crept along the walls rustled softly in the cool evening breeze and the Blood and Honor Blossoms swayed gently, exuding a spicy, somehow masculine fragrance into the evening air. It was almost peaceful