Page 43 of Oar Than Friends

My top lip curled in a snarl. This washisfault. He was president of the Oxford team; therefore he along withWill Norris should take full responsibility for this catastrophe which affected nearly 120 students. Even more so as he clearly had all the time in the world to do it; this punishment of cleaning the river in the freezing cold would most likely be a welcome break from lying on his bed. Whereas Imogen, Hannah and I now had to figure out how to possibly stretch out the day more than we already did.

The entire situation was unfair. Totally and utterly unfair.

‘Both the mascots have been held for safekeeping and will be returned after this year’s race. The Tideway cleaning will commence this coming weekend, your respective coaches will share the details you need, and your Saturday training time will be completed on Sundays instead. Speak to them if you have any questions.’

The chairman stood up, followed by all four coaches, and they left through the same door they’d entered. The room immediately erupted.

‘What the actual fuck?’

‘This is such bullshit!’

‘Fucking hell.’

Or the one which was easily the most valid point made so far, ‘Why are we being punished because of the stupid boys?’

I glanced over to where the Oxford and Cambridge Blue Boat teams were standing, their faces making it clear they hadn’t known this punishment was coming. It didn’t help to quell my anger at Oz, however. Just like almost everyone in this room, I would have happily given up an afternoon to help with a little community clean-up, butnot a heavily mandated appearance for the final weeks of the semester when we also had exams to study for and papers to write.

‘Come on, let’s get out of here. I need to come up with a topic for my essay on applied maths,’ huffed Hannah.

‘Lead the way,’ I grumbled. I had my own coursework, but at least it didn’t involve applied math.

Due to the very small doorframe and somewhat narrow hallway and the hundred students all wanting to get out at the same time, the going was slower than expected. And with every extra minute it took to leave the building, the more the tension around us built. Tempers were short, and the blame was being placed firmly on whichever team you didn’t belong to, but no one was as loud as Mary Heston, who was making her feelings very clear to Will Norris at the back of the room.

‘Jeez,’ muttered Hannah, voicing what everyone else was thinking. No one wanted to be on the end of Mary’s wrath.

‘I’ll meet you by the bikes,’ I called to Hannah and Imogen who’d now become stuck in a conversation with their assistant coach, no doubt about tonight’s news.

It was as I unlocked my bike that a deep voice shouted my name, and I spun on instinct a split second before I wished I hadn’t. Oz was walking toward me, though striding would be a better description. I narrowed my eyes, hoping it would give him the ‘warning: do not approach’ signal, and went back to my padlock code to add the final number.

It didn’t stop him, though I’d long ago come to the conclusion that maybe nothing did.

‘Kate?’

I ignored him, pulling my bike free, and slipped my leg over the frame. I was just about to add my helmet when it was stolen from the handle-bars.

‘Give that back,’ I snarled, holding my hands out.

‘Not until you speak to me,’ he replied, ‘I really want to talk to you. Please.’

‘I have nothing to say.’

He snatched his hand away as I reached for my helmet once more. ‘Bullshit.’

‘Give me my helmet! Thanks to you, I’ve lost a significant chunk of my remaining study time this semester, and I need to get back so I can catch up.’

His neck jerked, and he frowned, ‘Thanks to me?’

In the past fifteen minutes I’d finally found a legitimate reason to be angry at Oz, and the angrier I was the less likely I’d crumble in my resolve to text him back. Yes, someone was to blame for this entire predicament, and it may as well be him.

‘Yes! You! This stupid heist. You’re the president, you shouldn’t have let your team get us to this point. I have enough to do without cleaning the river,’ I hissed quietly as a couple of my crewmates retrieved their bikes. The last thing I needed was for anyone to be asking me why I was shouting at the O.U.B.C. president.

‘Kate, we’re not here because of me. We’re here because Brett Rogers is a cretin and can’t even steal a crown properly. Your Cambridge boys were the ones who got themselves caught, yet we’re all having to clean the river. I’m losing out on study time, just like you. It’s only until Christmas,’ he reasoned with a sigh.

‘It’s not the same thing! I’m studying medicine, you’re studying a language no one has spoken for two thousand years!’

I couldn’t decide whether the smirk he tried very hard not to show me made things worse. I was already at a level of rage and frustration which was making it increasingly impossible to hold my tongue, and from the way my knuckles had whitened on the bike handles, he could tell.

The tipping point came when his smile broke wide, making his eyes sparkle in amusement exactly as they had the first night I met him. ‘At least this means we get to spend some more time together, so you can like me again.’

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