Page 102 of A University of Betrayal

The Black Keys

My plan had seemed extremely ingenious. Until the moment, the redheaded co-director had appeared on campus and summoned everyone who wasn’t wearing the ridiculous uniform to her office. Professor Copeland had shown up and just shook his head, as had David, who had sworn to himself and us that he wouldn’t mess with the university administration again.

“It had already been a risk, leaking the video to that Quatura.”

I had regretted it too, because thanks to this action, we had now attracted Professor Wannabe’s attention.

If we had simply cut down the dogs’ favorite tree back then, everything would have turned out well for us.

David had even been quite taken with the uniform that everyone on campus was now wearing. Everyone exceptus.And when it came to Adrian, I’d spent hours persuading him to join in last night, and he’d actually decided to wear his designer clothes. We had gotten some looks for that.

I did my best to make sure we lived up to our reputation, as we should.We were the DeLoughreys and anyone who wanted to tell us what to do was definitely in the wrong place.

The thing I liked most about it was the fact that Larissa seemed to have the same attitude as me. She had thrown the skirt out of the window into our driveway and said that only over her dead body would she be wearing the – what did she say again? –rags for nerd chicks.

She waseasyto get into a rage, and I wondered if she had been that way before her transformation. In fact, I was becoming more and more interested in what she had been like growing up and as a child. After all, she was my... sister now.

I didn’t like the idea that that bastard had left one of his children behind. What was he thinking? That she would die because she was a girl?Disgusting.

Now she was here. InBlairville.Fate couldn’t have been worse for us both.

“Bastien won’t be pleased.”

David walked anxiously on the other side of Adrian, who looked visibly upset. He blamedme,as usual.

“Nicolaj will be evenmorepleased than Bastien,” Adrian murmured audibly.

“You’re not going to let your rivals tell you what to wear. YourNicolajwill understand that.”

I had to grin, because Larissa, who was walking to my other side, was right. How pathetic that we put up with so much at this university.

“You’re a girl. These things would have suited you a lot.”

“Fuck you, David,” she grumbled, and David and I grinned at each other.

I couldn’t imagine Larissa in a skirt that wasn’t skin-tight, like the dress from yesterday that Camille had managed to convince her into.

Adrian seemed to be ignoring Larissa, especially since the conversation in the car yesterday.

The memory of the bar visit burned a little, and I pushed it aside forcibly.

“Why again did I listen to you?” David sighed, addressing me. It had taken half an eternity to convince him, too.

“I’ve been asking myself that all morning,” Adrian grumbled, shaking his head.

I just couldn’t stop grinning. I was seething with excitement, especially now that I was preparing for a heated discussion with the strict red-haired Quatura.

The suppressed emotions thing didn’t seem to work for me the way it did for the other clan members, and I didn’t even bother to change anything about it, as I seemed to be invisible to Nicolaj anyway.

Admittedly, I had done it for themoment.The uniform wasn’t even ugly. There was something in me that wanted to annoy the new co-director. Yesterday, I’d seen how much she’d had to pull herself together in front of me. Let’s see how long that would last.

We walked through the corridor, past staring and whispering students on our way to the director’s office, in front of which we didn’t stop, but stepped straight into the already open door.

Office Talk

Christopher Tyng

The first thing I spotted was Professor Copeland sitting at his desk, rubbing his temples with his hand as if he’d been in seminars all day. The real reason for this was standing fifteen feet away, with her arms on her hips and an angry look on her face.

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