Page 122 of Akarnae

She sipped a mouthful of water before answering. “Uh, good?”

“Your shoulder,” he clarified. “How is it?”

“Oh,” she said. “Much better, thanks. How do you know about that?”

Bear sat down opposite them—also looking like he’d just rolled out of bed—and jumped into the conversation. “We came looking for you last night to celebrate the end of exams, but we couldn’t find you anywhere. When we finally ran into D.C., she said you were already asleep.”

“Some of the guys in your Combat class told us you’d dislocated your shoulder and were high as a kite on Fletcher’s pain meds,” Jordan said. “They thought you’d probably be out of it for the rest of the night.”

“Yeah, I was totally gone,” she said. “But it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep will do. I’m feeling so much better now.”

Her assurances were negated by the huge yawn that swallowed up the second half of her sentence.

Jordan snorted. “It looks like it did you the world of good.”

“Really, I’m heaps better,” she said, shaking her head to try and clear away the fuzziness. “I’ve just been to see Fletcher and he gave me some more medicine. I’ll be a little tired today, but so what, right? We can still celebrate. No more exams! Yay!”

Jordan and Bear exchanged amused glances but they didn’t say anything about how she’d slurred half her words.

“What are we going to do?” she pressed. “Something fun?”

“Why don’t we take it easy?” Bear offered. “Something relaxing, like a picnic? It’s been such a crazy week, it’ll be nice to just have a bit of calm, you know?”

“Subtle, Bear. Real subtle.”

“I kind of like the idea,” Jordan said, ignoring Alex’s sarcasm. “It’ll be good just to chill out.”

Alex didn’t know if they were doing it for her or if they genuinely meant it, but either way she was thankful. She certainly wasn’t up for anything energetic.

“I have to go and see Fitzy about something, but I’m free after that,” Bear said. “Why don’t we all meet back here in an hour and we’ll head down to the lake?”

“Sounds good,” Alex agreed.

It turned out that Jordan had to meet up with Jarvis for some kind of indiscretion he’d been involved in earlier in the week, so Alex returned to her dorm room, intent on cleaning it up a bit. The mess she’d brought in with her the previous night needed to be dealt with, but there was also a few weeks’ worth of cleaning that neither she nor D.C. had got around to doing during their study-induced madness. It would be good to get on top of it—and it would also help to keep her awake.

“This is really nice,” Alex said, reclining on a picnic blanket and looking out at the lake.

“Sometimes I have good ideas,” Bear said, reaching for another sandwich.

“Mmm,” Jordan agreed, his mouth too full of food to speak.

Alex and the boys had spent the last couple of hours lounging around outside, relaxing. Well, as much as they could, anyway, considering the circumstances.

“Why do they have to be soloud?” Alex murmured, not for the first time.

It turned out that she and her friends weren’t the only ones celebrating the end of exams. Every student at the academy seemed to be rejoicing. Impromptu groups had formed all across the campus with loud gatherings of people making the most out of their freedom. Even with the painkillers in her system, Alex was still developing a headache from the noise of so many excited students.

“Only one week left, that’s why,” said Connor, who had decided to join them on their picnic at the last minute. “Everyone’s excited for the summer break.”

“Where do you live, Alex?” Mel asked, having tagged along with her cousin. “Maybe we can meet up over the holidays? Hang out?”

Alex froze, not at all prepared for the question. Wherewasshe going to be over the holidays? With the stress of her exams, she hadn’t had much of a chance to worry about her complicated circumstances, but the time was quickly approaching for her parents’ return to the land of communication. They were bound to be concerned if she didn’t arrive home from her ‘boarding school’ on time—and one phone call would tell them that she’d never enrolled at the International Exchange Academy to begin with. That would be… beyond awkward.

What Alex really needed was to find a way back to her world, but she had no idea how to do that. She could only hope that the headmaster wouldfinallyreturn to the academy sometime in the next seven days before term ended. Then he would—hopefully—be able to get her back home before her parents lost their minds and contacted the FBI, Interpol and anyone else who would listen.

“Didn’t you mention that you’ll be travelling over the summer?” Jordan piped up when Alex was silent for too long.

“Yeah, that’s right,” she said, playing along. “I’m not really sure where I’ll be, to be honest.”

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