Sylvain and I had back-up: the hard proof of our project proposal, saying that we weren’t experimenting for fun.

And yet the staff were stuck on the timing.

Sylvain and I were standing in an office before a panel of three upper-level faculty members whose names and faces were all a blur. One woman, two men, tailor-made to be forgettable. Maybe they were the kind of NPCs who had their hair colours swapped out, with all the same face. Who knows. I thought this was all super silly. At least my mind was coming back to me.

“It’s unfortunate that the potions backfired,” one woman said, “but what if they hadn’t?”

“What need do I have for them?” Sylvain argued. “It’s not as if this test was gatekeeping a job or was for a prerequisite class. Of all the tests to risk my scholarship on, I certainly wouldn’t have picked that.”

Even if I wasn’t involved–and even if I liked Sylvain a little more–there’d be no denying that his reasoning made perfect sense.

I smoothed down my skirt and stood. “Thanks for your time, but–”

“Sit down, Miss Chloe,” the Generic Woman said.

I dropped back into my chair. “You’re not really… Oh, come on.”

“La Belle Lavande is strictly against any kind of cheating or attempted cheating. I believe you were both made to swear an oath regarding following our code of conduct when you were admitted. Breach of that code of conduct can result in immediate expulsion.”

Generic Man 1 said, “And both of you are on tenuous grounds, considering the circumstances of your…admissions.”

“The potions were an accident,” I said.

“Back-talking one’s superiors is also against the code of La Belle Lavande.”

“What about,” Sylvain said, “students bribing others to purposely drop their own scores? Or offering to pay them to do their work? Threats, even, once, in the case of a student who was very desperate to impress their mentor. Is there anything about that in the code of conduct?”

“We are specifically speaking of your case–”

“Those are my cases too. I could give you a list of names.”

Everyone’s faces soured.

It hit me then that maybe…maybe the faculty didn’t like Sylvain being here. For all intents and purposes, he was a total nobody, and he was outsmarting all the elite kids. It wasn’t like they could just chop him out of the rankings, so every student who desperately wanted to impress their millionaire fathers or prospective business partners was shoved down a rank. Outsmarted. Outclassed. How many students were fighting for valedictorian? Or even to win the very potion competition that outlined the game? And yet were gonna be cut off at the pass by Sylvain?

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

No wonder they were ignoring the obvious mistake we made, framing it as scheming. They wanted any chance they could to kick him out!

Damn this guy and his character arc.

I didn’t know what came over me. Delusion, probably. A fanfic-writer’s natural instinct to fix any problem put in front of them.

“Look, whatever way you look at it, this was all my fault. I shouldn’t have been within ten feet of those potions, and I really shouldn’t have dragged Sylvain into testing them with me.”

“Are you implying that you did intend to cheat?” Generic Man 2 asked.

“No. But clearly we’re not getting anywhere with trying to prove intent. Make us take the tests again, and…and…”

If Sylvain got kicked out, I’d have to deal with that plot instead of the much more important things like Marie’s psycho cousin. Plus, the psycho cousin problem involved Sylvain. I needed him close. As much as I hated him, Sylvain was staying right here.

“Put him under house arrest. Right here in the dorms. So you can drug test him or monitor him or whatever.”

Sylvain whirled on me. “I can’t leave my sister!”

“See?” I said, pointing at him. “He hates it. He’s gonna fight you on it. Proof that you should do it.”

~*~

I couldn’t believe that worked.

I had protagonist powers I hadn’t even used yet. Unfortunately, Sylvain once again proved that he was immune.

“You can bring Amelie!” I cried, chasing a storming Sylvain down the hall. “Etienne won’t take any convincing to move you in, anyways, you know he hates being all alone in that room!”

“You are such a meddler. Don’t presume what my sister would want. Or what Etienne would want, at that.”

“I didn’t meddle, I helped. Jackass. I didn’t even touch that potion. You screwed up.” I jabbed a finger at his chest. “You forgot to mention the test today. You got us into this mess. And if I wasn’t there… They were looking for excuses to kick you out.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“No, I know, just–”

He swept past me towards the doors of the faculty building. I trotted after. I wondered how often he and Antoinette just never came to any conclusions when they argued, considering how stubborn they both were.

Sylvain said, “Alright, you kept me from disaster this time. But will it really help for me to stay here? Does that not give them more opportunity to spy on me and get me in trouble?”

“You really think any of us will let that happen?”

He lifted an eyebrow at me. “I think you would.”

“Didn’t I just prove–”

I cut myself off. We were at the doors, Sylvain reaching out to pull one open, but a figure outside in the snow had caught my eye.

Marie’s stupid nameless cousin! He was speaking to a girl in a La Belle Lavande uniform, both of them braced against the wind in their jackets. He seemed friendly, cheerful, but I expected he was good at acting.

I thought of Antoinette. She was someone I wanted at my side to confront him. She was someone I needed at my side.

I could run and get her. But maybe he’d have disappeared by then. That would be kinda nice, right, if he went away…buy you another day or two to deal with all of this…

“What?” Sylvain asked.

“Nothing. Go on. I mean, clearly you don’t wanna hang out with me.”

“What are you–”

I turned away and sat on a nearby bench by the window, until Sylvain got the hint and just left, taking his stormcloud with him. I practically pressed my face to the window. Though they were pretty far apart, Marie’s cousin noticed Sylvain instantly. Sylvain glanced at him, looked away, with all the disinterest of catching a stranger inspecting your shoes, and soon he had turned the corner and vanished.

The woman in the uniform was leaving too. I squirmed. Where was Antoinette! I tried to funnel my protag powers into making her show up at exactly the wrong moment, in the spirit of all dating sim coincidences. I looked around–nothing.

I was on my own.

I stood up and pushed open the door. He had turned away, and again I had to fight through my instinct to casually walk away and pretend nothing happened.

Instead, I called, “Hey!”

He spun, so fast that I knew he instantly recognised my voice, Marie’s voice. In his face I saw all the relief that he’d penned in the letter, coming back again.

“So I guess we need to talk.”