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  North stopped, so I did too. Slowly my roommate turned to face Broward. I dared to look up and saw that the bully’s face had gone ever so slightly pale. For some reason he really feared North. I wondered why.

  “You know damn good and well it’s not like that.” North pointed a finger at Broward’s meaty chest. “Jameson’s nothing but an annoyance to me but since you’ve made it your mission in life to kill him, I have to keep him close.” He leaned close to Broward and stared at him, blue eyes narrowed with irritation. “He’s just a clueless little kid, Broward. Get yourself a life and leave him alone.”

  “I don’t think so.” Broward stared back, his mud-colored, piggy little eyes slitted with rage. “I think I’m gonna catch him sometime when you’re not around and pound his skinny little ass into the dirt. What do you think about that?”

  “I think you’d better be careful.” North raised an eyebrow. “Or you’re going to be making a tough decision—between the cane and the paddle. And we all know which one you’ll choose.”

  Broward drew back abruptly, his face turning an ugly shade of purple. “The hell are you talking about, North?”

  “I'm sure you know.” North jerked his head at me. “Come on, shorty, we’re going to be late for breakfast.”

  “Do you think that was a good idea?” I asked, as we walked across campus in the early morning sunshine. “Letting him know that you know what I saw?”

  “He has to know someone who’s not afraid to stand up to him has that information.” North gave me a quick sideways glance. “Someone who could beat him in a fight.”

  “I could beat him—in a fair fight,” I protested. “I challenged him to a fencing duel yesterday before you, uh, rescued me. But he refused.”

  “A duel?” North gave me an incredulous look and burst out laughing. “Are you serious?”

  “Of course I’m serious,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster. “How else do gentlemen settle conflicts?”

  North frowned at me as he walked, his long strides eating up the ground so that I had to trop to keep up. “First of all, Broward is no gentleman—he’s a thug. So don’t expect any kind of honorable conduct from him. Second of all, people don’t fight duels anymore, so don’t challenge anyone else to one.”

  “All right, fine,” I said stiffly. “I’m sorry I’m such an annoyance to you.”

  He sighed. “Don’t expect me to apologize—it’s true. Having a shrimp like you tag along after me is a pain.”

  “Why bother then?” I demanded, recklessly. “Why not just ignore me and go your own way?”

  “I don’t know why I bother.” He frowned at me. “Maybe…maybe because you remind me of someone.”

  I wanted to ask who I reminded him of but just then we reached the mess hall. Without waiting for me, North went in and took a tray. I was about to follow him when I heard a voice in my ear.

  “Well, well…abandoned again? Then again, I suppose the course of true love never did run true.”

  I turned to see Wilkenson standing there, a superior little smile twitching around the corners of his thin lips.

  “Oh, uh, hello.” I wasn’t quite sure what to say to him after our awkward encounter the night before. But Wilkenson didn’t wait for me to continue. Without another word, he swept into the mess hall and took a tray from the stack nearest him.

  I looked at him for a moment, filled with irritation…then I remembered the look of hurt in his eyes the night before. It was true he had stolen my first kiss—an act I found hard to forgive. But he was witty and funny and charming and also the only third-form student who’d been willing to talk to me in the first place. Making a decision, I pushed my way into the mess hall and took a place in line behind him.

  “Wilkenson,” I said. He pretended not to hear me but I saw his slim back stiffen and knew he had. “Wilkenson,” I continued. “I’m…sorry about last night.”

  “Shhh!” He turned to face me, a frown on his face. “Keep your voice down! You want to get us both beaten to a pulp?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said as we both presented our trays and got some gloppy breakfast food from the sullen cafeteria workers. “I’m just trying to explain myself.”

  “Well, wait until we sit down.” He led me silently to the end of the third-form table and then sat down and pushed his tray away. “All right, talk.”

  I put my tray down as well. “I never thought…I’m from Victoria,” I said haltingly. “We don’t…there are a lot of things we don’t do there. I didn’t understand what you…what you wanted from me.”

  Wilkenson sighed. “Obviously not. Although it’s hard to believe anyone could be so clueless. I was practically throwing myself at you.”

  “That’s what North said too,” I said. “I mean about me being naïve, uh, clueless.”

  His eyes narrowed. “And the rumor I keep hearing? About you and Hinks?”

  I winced. “That’s a lie from start to finish. I would never—”

  “No, of course you wouldn’t.” Wilkenson patted his perfectly coiffed hair. “If you wouldn’t with me, then you certainly wouldn’t with Hinks. Honestly, the way he acts is so desperate and sad. Disgusting.”

  “I agree.” I shivered. “Anyway, I thought you were just being friendly last night. And honestly, I could use a friend around here. So could we start again? Please?”

  “Well…” Wilkenson hesitated and then threw up his hands dramatically. “What the hell, all right. Friends.”

  “Thank you.” I held out my hand. “Shake on it?”

  Wilkenson’s pale green eyes danced. “My, my—aren’t we manly today. All right, why not?”

  I took his hand, pumped it twice, and let go. He gave me a strange look and then smiled. “You don’t know what the hell you’re doing around here, do you, Jameson?”

  “It’s my first time at school,” I said uncomfortably. Had my handshake come across as less than masculine?

  “Talking to you, anyone would think it was your first time anywhere.” He sighed. “Come on, I’m running low on protein bars so we’d better eat while this is still hot. If there’s anything worse than hot mush, it’s cold mush.”

  Feeling relieved that I had at least one friend, I dug my spoon into the steaming pile on my tray and wondered if I would ever taste real food again.

  Chapter Ten

  I made it to Inter-dimensional Calculus with no problem and seated myself on the far side of the class. North, I noticed, was sitting near the front and Broward and his group occupied the back. When he saw me looking at him, the bully gave me a nasty sneer. I held his eyes for a moment and then deliberately turned around. When I looked up, I saw that North had been watching our exchange. He frowned at me, shaking his head. Then the teacher called the class to order and there was nothing to do but take notes as fast as I could on my tablet.

  As the lesson progressed, I was relieved to find it both easy and familiar—everything the teacher, Mr. Blinski, was saying had already been covered at length by Kristopher’s mathematics tutor. However not everyone seemed to be grasping the concepts the short, balding Mr. Blinski was spouting out in rapid-fire succession. Broward was dozing at the back of the room—which I thought was odd since he had already failed the class once. But his relaxed attitude was definitely not the norm—I saw quite a few confused looks as the teacher spoke. North, in particular, had a worried frown on his face. Finally, he raised his hand.

  “Now it is obvious that M is isomorphic to the real line, so we have an isomorphism from the subset of 2D to 1D.” Mr. Blinski pointed at the whiteboard where the equation in question was written in blue. “It then follows that M x M is a hollow torus in R>4 or C
  “But sir, I just need to clarify a concept—”

  “You’d understand if you’d done the homework last night