Page 71 of Group Studies

I nodded, knowing I would never do that, and pulled him toward the cafeteria.

Chapter 12

It was weird to be in the cafeteria when students started filing back in from GS. I usually avoided peak hours. The noise and energy overwhelmed me. My focus became my pot roast and mashed potatoes. A break from PB&J, courtesy of Ashe’s new MA rations.

Roisin walked up to my table, giving Ashe a wide berth. “They moved you!”

I smiled at my friend and gestured for her to sit. Sandy gave me a wave, joining us as well.

“They did,” I said, a smile pulling at the corners of my mouth. “The room’s huge and I have my own alchemy lab! I’m still a little dubious. It comes with some big strings, but I might as well celebrate while I can.”

I raised my glass of water, and the two women gave me a cheers.

Sandy let herself get an eye full of Ashe and smirked. “Pretty big strings.”

I willed myself not to blush. Sandy had no idea, and I hadn’t decided if that was happening again or not.

“So, when do we see your new room?” Roisin asked.

“We can go when you're done eating,” I said, bouncing slightly.

Ashe shook his head. “Nope, you’ve got tutoring in twenty minutes.”

I blinked, trying to remember if I’d lost track of my schedule. “I do?”

“You have tutoring every day,” Ashe said. “You’ll get a break from it on weekends.”

“Oh, wow, weekends,” Sandy said. “I forgot those exist.”

My eye twitched. “I have a standing study session with Derek today. I need to be in Abe’s office at nine.”

Ashe frowned and pulled out his phone. “Your tutoring of Derek wasn’t approved. He’s not on your list. Abe isn’t on your schedule either. Curfew’s ten. I’d be surprised if she requested something that fucking late.”

“Curfew?” I asked. “What list?”

He turned his phone to me, displaying a document with a few names on it and my new schedule. Before I could get a good look at it, he flipped it back around.

Roisin sighed. “You’re at the same Institute as us, and you still live under a rock. I texted you about the curfew announcement like an hour ago.”

“I’ve been avoiding my phone and, ah, Mêler.” I waved around the room vaguely. My two friends didn’t need me to finish the thought. I wanted to press Ashe about the list, but the conversation flowed away from it.

“The library will be closed at night,” Sandy added darkly. “For the first time in the Institute's history.” She glanced around to see if anyone was watching us. “Any student found in the halls after ten and before eight in the morning will be assigned extra labor. It’s a chain-gang!”

“Extra labor? What’s a chain-gang?” I asked, peeking at Ashe.

The Gentle Giant didn’t look at me.

“Oh, right, you still live under a rock,” Sandy popped her lips. “Well, once you had good control of your magic, you would’ve gotten basically unpaid work. Either powering the shield, random runes, cleaning, or food prep duty like a lot of the Internal Mages. Anyway.” She straightened, her voice once again indigent. “The MA wants to clean up the outside of the Institute now too. And they're forcing students who ‘misbehave,’ to do it. Manual labor with no extra rations or anything!”

I thought about the piles of rubble and left-over building supplies littering the dirt around the gothic castle. The outside did look like the prison the Institute really was.

“As a reasonable woman,” Sandy put her hand over her heart, “I know it’s not a big deal. But, it also could be the tip of the iceberg. Who’s making these decisions?”

Roisin rolled her eyes. “To be fair, Sandy, we didn’t know who was making decisions before. I mean, the Director, but the Aptitudes were created back in the seventies, I think, and updated as times changed.”

“I’m just saying,” Sandy said. She splayed her fingers in front of her before squeaking. “Ghalen walked in, alone. He’s looking for an addition to his harem!”

Roisin huffed. “You think that’s what it means?”

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