Page 132 of Good Losers (Lochkelvin Academy)

I nod, having expected this.

“The debate isn’t turning. If anything, it’s digging in, doubling down. Me and my gold-digging family.” He glances up at me, looking disquieted. “You don’t believe that, do you? My mother — I don’t think she was ever in it for the money. At the end of the day, we weren’t even that rich. Some of the families at Lochkelvin positively eclipse mine. You should see how much Li’s dad earns — it shocked even me.”

“The power, though,” I point out, because rich people wanging off about their wealth or lack of it is of little interest to me. “The status. I mean, you can’t get much higher than being King.”

Luke says nothing but his face says everything. He glances at the camera, as though waiting to be propositioned for an artsy brooding photograph.

“All my life, being royal was the only thing that made me special,” he tells me quietly. “It was the one thing, more than wealth ever could, that elevated me beyond my peers. And now…” He sighs, a heavy breath in the peaceful air. “Now I have nothing.”

“You have us,” I murmur, though even I know that this must pale significantly to the life Luke believed he’d been owed.

He glances at me and, in a hesitant tone, tells me, “I believe we both won the bet, y’know.”

I grin at him. “One does know.”

“I propose going out tomorrow night. One last bash to celebrate the end of summer. It can be our prize. I think, afterwards… I think then I’ll have to release the video. But give me this,” he adds suddenly, as though I were about to protest his lack of action, his indecision. But it’s not a decision I can make for him, and it’s not a decision a benevolent tyrant can force, either. It has to come from Luke, and for him it’s the worst decision he’s ever had to make in his life.

“Give me this one night,” he says again. “One last night as a prince, and then…”

He shrugs, as though contemplating the wasteland that lies in wait for him, the wasteland he believes his future will be, once he announces his abdication.

“One night. And then I’ll be normal.”

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