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“Are you okay?”
“Is it true Mr. Brant made you fight Earwyn?”
“What’s it like to hold a trident?”
I pull away from Bash and hold each of their gazes, one by one. “It’s an amazing weapon. Once I’m ready, I’ll have a real battle with her, and everyone can come and watch.”
A blonde girl widens her eyes. “You’re going to challenge her to a rematch?”
“You’d better believe it!”
They scamper off, whispering excitedly.
“Sure you want to announce your plans?” Bash gives me a questioning look.
“I don’t care if she knows. Let her practice. It isn’t like she has a trident. Once I figure that thing—uh, I mean that weapon—out I’ll be unstoppable, right?”
“Don’t get too confident.” Halen frowns. “It didn’t help out your uncle much.”
“Whoever killed him probably struck when Tiberias didn’t have his trident.”
“Maybe. But keep in mind he might’ve had it, and he’d been using it for many years.”
“I’m not worried. I’ll keep showing that girl as many times as I need to until she backs down.”
Halen and Bash exchange a worried glance.
“It’s not a big deal. What are the rules, anyway?”
“Check the back of your textbook,” Halen says. “You’ll want to memorize them.”
“You can’t just tell me?”
“Can’t discuss them.”
I drop the subject. Valora has some weird rules.
Once we make it to the dining hall, it’s already time to eat because so many people stopped to talk about my hair, the trident, or getting my butt kicked by Earwyn.
Gossip sure travels fast. In so many ways, humans and merpeople really aren’t different.
“Who are you going to sit with?” Halen asks.
I look back and forth between her and Bash. He gives me puppy-dog eyes, which simultaneously make me want to laugh and kiss him. “I should sit where I normally do.”
He pouts, making me want to change my mind.
“I’ll be closer to Earwig, and I want her to see how well I’m doing.” Thanks to the painkillers, nearly everything has stopped hurting. “But you can join us.”
Bash looks over at where his band is sitting, and they’re all waving him over. He turns to me and frowns. “It’s not going to go over well if I don’t sit with them.”
“Are they going to kick you out? They’d be stupid to, you know. They’re nothing without your voice.”
He beams and gives me a quick kiss. “I appreciate that, but what I mean is the other students won’t take well to me moving seats. It’s all about the pecking order. Notice how Earwyn and her dogfish sit so close to the platform?”
I nod. “And Halen and our friends are near the middle.”
“Right. The troublemakers get the back, by the door.”
