Gesai was waiting for me.
I had a feeling that she’d woken up when I got up, since she was already dressed and wide awake.
“Are they up?” I nodded past her into the room.
The redhead reached her hand through the doorway and flicked on the light. “Wake up!” She smiled, “They are now.” There was mischief in her eyes, “How many water marbles did Trent give you?!”
I heard feet hitting the floor as most of my teammates hurried to get ready. Ether was the first one to the door, with her boots in her hands. The icy glare she gave me as she searched for the offending material confirmed my belief that if I had been holding one of those marbles, I’d be having a lot more of an unpleasant conversation than I was about to be subjected to.
“You…”
I held up both hands so she could see my palms. “Gesai was joking! I specifically told Trent that I wasn’t going to wake anyone up like that again!”
She glared at me for a little bit longer, before the storm behind her eyes began to fade. The white-haired woman turned to Gesai. “That was NOT funny.”
Gesai just smiled and pointed at the exit. “Trent’s waiting at the RVs.”
Ether moved over to my side. “RVs?”
“Yep. We’ve got enough students now, both classes get their own.” The teacher had to move as Aelin shot out of the building.
“There are TWO RVs!?!” The blonde smiled broadly. “I’m going to drive the whole way!” She looked at me, “Are we splitting by class?”
“Trent said that we get to decide who goes on which one.” I winced as she started yelling.
“Justia! Jen! Let’s go! We get our own RV!” She turned to run back inside.
Gesai put her arm across the door. “You’re out here already. No going back in to slow down everyone else.”
“But..!” Aelin bounced back and forth on each foot.
“Besides.” I moved away from the energetic woman, pulling Ether with me. “Trent said that we have to split evenly.”
Aelin paused and I saw her doing the mental math that I’d already figured out. “Justia, Jen, Oz, and Ren are with me and you get everyone else.”
Ether laughed, “So I’m an ‘everyone else’?”
Aelin shrugged. “Easier to say that than Ether, Rix, Fray, and Shelly.”
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“Shelly?” I raised an eyebrow, “How did you come up with that?”
“He’s a Tank?” She smiled wide, “And he’s so quiet, it’s like he’s in a shell?”
“And he knows you call him that?” I found it hard to believe that the large man would find the nickname endearing, but I also didn’t know him that well.
“SHELLY!” Aelin peeked into the building again, “Hurry up! You’re riding with Atlas and…” She looked at Gesai, then at me, “Ether in Trent’s bus!”
“Why..?” I shook my head. I had a feeling that she would want to ride with Gesai, but considering that Trent had known Oz and Justia since they were little and there had been a lot of bad blood between the Alard and her younger cousins, I wasn’t sure if they’d want to share an RV with her. If there was still any apprehension there, it seemed like Aelin was blowing right by it.
The dark man walked out of the building next and just nodded at me, before moving towards the exit. Shelly paused halfway through the courtyard. The blonde man turned around with confusion in his brown eyes.
“We’re going to the garage.” I realized that this was probably the first time that he’d been to the Cathedral, so he didn’t know where to go. I didn’t blame him, the place was basically a city itself. It’d been over a month since I’d gotten here and there were still lots of places I’d never been. “Once Fray gets out…”
The shy brunette walked out the door. “Nevermind. Fray you’re with me.” I started walking towards the exit, “I’ll show you where we’re going.”
Fray walked behind me on my right, while Ether stayed on my left. Shelly fell in behind us. I knew that Aelin wasn’t going to let the others lag behind too long, so I felt confident that they’d be along soon.
“You’re not going to say bye to Vena?” Fray looked up at me with her big brown eyes.
I looked back at the building. If I went back, then Gesai would have to let Aelin follow me in. I didn’t want to countermand her order. I turned my CB over and started typing out a message. Not as good as one in person, but it would suffice.
“What are you saying?” Ether looked over my shoulder.
I shifted so that she could see the display hovering above the crystal, “Just telling her that we’ll see her when we get back and that I sent a message to Wrye last night and he promised to look after her and that he’d make sure that Savyn wouldn’t mess with her.” I switched over to the message that I’d received last night after she’d fallen asleep. Then I remembered the last thing that he’d added.
“Do you want me to look after your blonde tank too or is she fair game?” Ether narrowed her eyes as she read it out loud.
“I’ve not even seen Bridget since we’ve been back.” I held up my hands, “So I really have no idea what he’s talking about.”
I saw a look between Ether and Fray.
“What did I miss?” I looked between the two women.
“While you were…” Fray looked at her green hands, “Away. Bridget started telling everyone that she was with Trent’s son. Ether got into it with her.”
“‘Ah.” I pulled the ivory tank close to me and kissed her forehead before looking into her bright red eyes, “And you set her straight?”
Ether sighed. “Every guy here has heard the story of how the two of you hooked up on the first day.”
I started to protest, but she silenced me with a finger.
“Doesn’t matter that it didn’t happen.” Ether shrugged, “She got called into the ArchBishop’s office, which gave her story credence. Add in that she’d turned down any advances before then and now no guy here will touch her.” She removed her finger from my lips.
“Well…” I couldn’t keep the smirk off my face as I looked towards the dorm. “I’m a guy here, so…” I turned back to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, “It’s a good thing Justia likes blondes.”
Fray started fumbling for words. “B-b-but, Aelin would kill her if she tried to take Justia!”
I laughed, “Problem solved.”