Page 155 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

“Oh, it’ll only take a second, young man.”

I grind my teeth, but detour to the circulation desk to see what she wants. It’s my turn to track Nim. So far she’s done nothing interesting but with my luck, the moment I take my eyes off her she’ll get up to the kind of mischief I could get her expelled for.

“I have a young lady who needs an accounting tutor. May I add your name to the list of students she can contact?”

I frown at Ms. Carling. “Accounting?” I glance around, looking for Nim. “Who needs tutoring?”

“She’s a freshman.”

Is Ms. Carling being purposefully vague? “Is it Nim Winters?”

Carling blinks owlishly at me. “Why...yes. How did you?—?”

“I’m not available.” I step away, and then swing back to her. “But you can add Silas Miller and Mason Bennett to the list.”

“Miller?” Ms. Carling looks past me for a moment. “Isn’t he the boy who’s taking a double major? Would he have the time to?—?”

“I know for a fact he’d love the opportunity to school Miss Winters,” I say, giving Ms. Carling a grim smile.

Carling adjusts her spectacles and then peers through the thick glass as she carefully pens Mason and Silas’s names onto the paper. I read the other names on there and reach over to tap the paper. “You can lose these other names.”

“But—” Ms. Carling begins, cutting off when I brush my finger over each of the other names in turn.

“He doesn’t havethepatience to deal with a freshman. She doesn’t tutor students during the fall semester. He—” I tut “—sad story, but he was transferred to Lavender Valley last semester.”

“Really?” Ms. Carling breathes, sounding scandalized.

“Miller and Bennett are your best candidates. If they’re not available then...” I sigh, muss up my hair like I’m thinking. “Well, at a push, I could do an hour a week. But I’m not sure how much thisWintersgirl could soak up in such a short time.”

“She strikes me as bright,” Ms. Carling says. “She just needs a little help catching up.”

“Whatever you say.” With that I turn and start ambling through the library like I’m looking for a good book for the weekend.

I find Winters right at the back of the library when I hear the quiet murmur of someone talking on a cell phone in a place they know they shouldn’t be. I step behind a stack so I’m out of view of Ms. Carling, and then zero in on Nim. I can’t peer through the stacks, so I just browse the section directly behind where her voice is coming from. Which, from the angle, I’m assuming is the floor.

If I strain, I can almost hear the sound of the person on the other line. Fuck knows what they’re saying, though.

“No, Uncle, it’s...it’s not as bad as it sounds. I was out of uniform.”

Uncle? I don’t recall any mention of an uncle when we looked up her family.

“I’m fighting it in my own way, don’t worry.”

I crack a smile at that. Poor little Nim. It’s cute that she thinks she actually stands a chance against us.

“Mm?” I frown. Something’s changed. She sounds...uneasy. “Why?”

I walk to the end of the stack and peek around the corner, making sure she can’t see me if she happens to look my way. She has her knees up, a hand curled against her mouth. Whatever the person is telling her, it isn’t good news.

“So what, they’re not going to pay?” she snaps, that hand covering her mouth as if she didn’t realize she was going to speak.

I watch her silently, my frown deepening.

“So I’m still broke? Even if I wanted to leave the Academy, I couldn’t afford to?”

Interesting. Did her parents beggar themselves paying for the first year’s tuition? To what end? A year’s worth of college isn’t worth much, especially if Nim has to drop out because she can’t afford to continue studying. Or were they hoping to get a student loan for the remainder of her term here?

None of this makes sense.

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