RYAN. STILL WALKIN’ TO MEGAN’S PLACE.

Evan continued where he left off. “So we didn’t avoid her and she didn’t avoid us. Did Lauren and them really manage to lead her around so she never saw us, like we’ve assumed?”

“Or?” Ryan asked.

“Fucking ‘or’ what?” Evan said, frowning at him. “Or does this ‘she left so we can be three’ thing have something to do with it?”

“Could be,” Angie said. “I mean, we’ve all… let’s say made a lot of progress in our vocations the past three years.”

After they all considered that, Chris said, “Okay, so everyone gossiped about you. Lauren probably didn’t know this. And everyone still successfully kept it from Megan. That’s wild. Why did they do that?”

Angie said, “Because it was all to ‘protect’ her. People knew that.”

“That’s why the gossip, too,” Ryan added, “Because she needed to be protected from us, and people wanted to know why.”

“And people really agreed…” Chris said. “Because they thought it would… no, that makes a lot of sense, actually. Evan said she was a popular girl when we first met, and now that I’ve met her I can only imagine that’s as true as it could possibly be.”

“Yup,” Ryan said. “People wanted to protect Megan and not cross Lauren. Which added up to three Exiles.”

“Okay,” Chris said. “So did you guys ever confront, well, anyone?”

“What were we gonna do, man?” Evan said, sounding a touch aggrieved. “Strap people down and make them talk to us? We weren’t going to confront Lauren Bakili, if that’s what you mean. She’s only from one of the top three most influential Light Bearing houses in the city. We were three skinny nerds. Making a fuss seemed like a great way to get them to escalate to outright bullying. And remember that we never knew what was really going on with Megan, and...”

“And we were too scared to find out,” Angie said. “If she was countenancing it.”

“Countenancing?” Chris asked.

“Permitting,” Ryan said, grinning. “Lookit Angie with the full finch[1] words here.”

[1] Used much like the term “five dollar words.”

“It’s your godsdamn fault,” Angie retorted. “You referred to it that way constantly.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Evan said, at the same time that Ryan said, “Touche.”

Chris, stifling chortles, said, “Sure, okay. I assume this was all kept from adults, as well? Magically?”

“We never went to them and they never noticed,” Ryan said, then breathed a tiny sigh.

“I get it,” Chris said. “Adults don’t notice things.”

“Oh, no, I’m just getting annoyed over the whole thing again,” Ryan said. “I would have been more than happy to kick up some shit if these two had let me. The whole melodrama was beyond belief and everyone involved, including me, was a godsforsaken coward. Except the few who were monsters, and two who were both.” Angie and Evan glared at Ryan. He stared back at Angie defiantly.

“Only two?” Chris asked. “I count Lauren, Nisha, and Katier who must all be both monsters and cowards.”

Ryan replied, “Katier claims she was against the whole thing from the start, and continued to object the whole time. She’s just a coward, maybe the biggest coward. She was Megan’s closest friend who objected to exiling us, and she still didn’t tell Megan about it. Not that anyone at all told Megan, and she’s not the only friend of Megan’s who didn’t approve. Hell, Mercy didn’t even tell her, and Mercy even confronted Lauren about it.”

“Really?” Angie said. “She never told us that.”

“Me either, but Katier mentioned it yesterday,” Ryan said. “I meant to bring it up but it slipped my mind in all the excitement with auguries and legendary swords and all. Remember when she got into a fight with her unnamed friend about something important to her? I’m pretty sure it was Lauren, and she was bummed both about the fight and that it didn’t accomplish anything.”

“We’re in public, even if no one is close by,” Chris said. “Take it easy.”

“Sorry,” Ryan said.

“I’ve not met Mercy,” Chris said, “So that means little to me. Is Mercy someone who talked to you?”

“Yeah, she and two of our fellow nerds in our computer applications class were the only ones who didn’t care enough, or thought it was bullshit enough, to defy Lauren,” Ryan said, “Not that anything ever came of it. I don’t think anyone from the computer classes reported them, at least. Probably because none of them but Mercy were in any way popular, and no one likes a narc.”

Chris chuckled at that, but after seemed a little bemused. “Melodrama seems like the right word, alright. Okay, so final question. You keep referring to yourselves as nerds and dorks—”

“Not me,” Angie said. “I’m a fucking enchanter and birds talk to me and spirits dig my energy. I summoned a storm owl last night. I’m cool as fuck, it’s these two who are the nerds.” She grinned at Evan and Ryan, who stuck their tongues out in return.

Chris laughed. “I was going to say that I don’t think it’s true! Maybe you have nerdy interests, but to everyone else you’re all cooler than Jack Frost. You all three of you walk around like you would turn brick walls into doors if you weren’t so polite. You’re called the Exiles. People are obsessed with you. They gossip about you and watch you in the halls. That’s cool. You can’t deny it.”

“Right,” Evan said in obvious disbelief. “Uh huh, definitely.”

“People don’t think we’re cool,” Angie said dubiously. “If anything they’re frightened of us. We’re practically urban legends.”

“Hmm. Maybe, but that’s cool in its own way. Kinda real life anti-heroes?”

“We are not anti-heroes!” Angie and Evan both said in near unison.

“Just from other people’s perspective,” Chris said apologetically, scratching at his ear. “I don’t really mean you’re bad or not hero material or whatever. I just couldn’t come up with a better term. I mean it though. I bet people think you’re cool.”

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“Ryan will take that bet,” Evan said, annoyingly.

“I will not,” Ryan said, frowning at Evan. “He’s right, near enough, about the thin difference between fear and fascination and awe. And now, well, you’re a hunter and Angie interprets auguries, and we’re all three friends with Chris and Megan.”

“Come on Ryan,” Evan said, frowning right back. “Remember when I had to go to Everett for a class project? Not because my group members lived there, because they just didn’t want to possibly risk being seen with me by anyone they knew from school, so we met at someone’s aunt’s place.” He paused and added, “Not that there’s anything wrong with Everett. It’s just a bit of a trip.”

“Well, but were they jerks to you? Did they demean you?” Ryan asked.

“They were… very polite. Maybe excessively polite,” Evan said. “Because they were terrified of me. Normally people would just ‘forget’ to tell me about meetings for group things and I’d never do any work on them and get whatever grade we got, but that time they were too scared of me to cut me out when I asked about it.”

“While they were scared of you, I agree, I also think they wanted the inside scoop, man,” Ryan said. “They couldn’t be blamed too much for talking to you if it got out that they were talking to you—it was a group project. They just didn’t want it getting back to Lauren.”

“They dragged me to Everett,” Evan said. “They were lucky I showed up and did work. I certainly wasn’t going to have a friendly chat with the bastards. We knew all three of them in grade school. They knew all the rumors were bullshit. Or they should have, at least.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Ryan said, laughing. “We’re fucking cool now. We’re friends with a ‘Light Bearer,’ and we’re friends with one of the most popular girls in the class, so we’re going to be cool whether we like it or not! Whether we accept it or not.”

Evan seemed to consider that for a long moment, glassy eyed. “I don’t think I want to be cool,” he said. “People will want to talk to me all the time if I’m cool. I just want people to be willing to talk to me. Not to actually do it.” Chris laughed.

“Well, you’ll have to get even scarier,” Angie said, “You’re friends with Chris, Megan, and me, and not even Ryan’s company will be able to stop that coolness from rubbing off on you.”

“Hey, now,” Ryan said.

Angie ignored him and kept talking to Evan. “Maybe start sticking your thumb through your gun belt near, but definitely not on, your gun while you mosey around campus,” she said, grinning.

“Don’t talk to me about firearms etiquette, Mom,” Evan said. “I know very well when and when not to put my hand on my sidearm.”

“Man,” Ryan said, grinning, “I was really hoping you would call it your gun like Angie did. I had a whole zinger lined up: ‘Which gun you talking about, your pistol or your—’”

“Hiiii—” Evan said, and pointed to Angie.

“—larious,” Angie finished, just as deadpan. “Just sooo—” and pointed back at Evan.

“Funny!” he finished. “You should take that act on the road.”

Chris cracked up.

“Would be difficult, as it was a bit related specifically to and derived from our conversation just now,” Ryan replied, unruffled by their mockery. “I don’t think it would make a good stage show.”

“You’re pretty unflappable, huh d’Maughn?” Chris asked through his laughter.

“As they come,” Ryan replied. “And here we are.” He motioned west across the lane at the O’Sadie’s towerhouse as he came to a stop next to a young elm tree, standing in its shade. “It’s the second largest on the block, with four stories and a full seven meters of frontage. Though, like most towerhouses around here, architectural flourishes make the overall resultant square footage of usable space somewhat less than you would hope.”

Chris looked over it as Ryan talked. The house itself wasn’t particularly visible—trellis-ramps wound up in a spiral around the tower, covered with dwarf-cherry-bonsais which all but obscured the home’s facade, their branches laden with their second harvest underneath their bird nets. A scattering of birds flew from tree to tree, chirping. Ryan imagined they were bitching about not being able to get at those cherries. Chris turned then and blinked at Ryan. “You like architecture, huh?” he asked, rather bemused.

Before Ryan could reply, Evan sighed loudly as he stepped past Ryan and said, “Oh, not just architecture. He’ll get going on just about anything if you give him half a chance. Doing homework with him is like attending an extra class. It's a nightmare.”

Ryan glared at Evan. “You don’t mind my lectures when you’re acing all your tests and papers,” he said; it came out rather more petulantly than he intended. He cursed his tiny frame.

“I would ace them just fine without you,” Evan said placidly.

Chris glanced at Angie, who’d stopped next to Ryan such that they’d formed a square, with Chris and Evan on the northside and Ryan and Angie on the south. “Oh, I’d also ace them just fine without Ryan,” Angie said. “That’s not why I keep him around.” Chris laughed.

“You keep around him, more like,” Evan said. “You’re always at our place, we never go to yours anymore.”

“I don’t even have my own TV. What are we going to do at my place?” Angie asked. “Your place has all your stuff and all Ryan’s stuff and half of my stuff at this point.”

Chris took this exchange in with an almost dopey grin on his face—on someone less handsome it would have been fully dopey. “That’s a big grin, big guy,” Ryan said, looking up at the larger boy with his best inquisitive expression.

Color crept into Chris’s cheeks, nearly perfect little ovals of red that somehow seemed to emphasize his jawline and cheekbones. He shrugged and said, “Yeah, I dunno. Just happy, I guess.”

“Zat so?” Angie said. “Even on, what, four hours of sleep, after being dragged into our ridiculous drama by our ridiculous boy Evan here?” Evan made a face at her. She continued, “I mean, it’s not like you didn’t have some sort of an idea we had something going on, or you wouldn’t have bailed on us after school yesterday.”

Chris scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, I saw Evan stomp off and Megan chase after him. Looked like she was trying and failing to get him to stick around. I really had no idea what was going on, I didn’t want to accidentally, I don’t know, make things worse. I didn’t know if it had something to do with me or not.” He laughed. “Kinda, I guess.”

Evan stared at his shoes. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“No worries, guy,” Chris said, reaching over and clapping Evan on the shoulder. “I get it, more or less. And like I said earlier, I slept great afterward.” He was still grinning, and now shrugged and glanced away, almost bashful. “It was exciting, and you guys seem fun. It all worked out, so I’m happy.”

“Huh,” Ryan said, one eyebrow raised. “That got realer than I expected.”

The other three laughed. “Yeah,” Chris said, scratching at the back of his head again, not exactly looking any of them in the eye. “Sorry. I just… You’d be surprised how hard it is to get close to people when both your parents are Light Bearers and there’s every reason to believe you’ll be one too. You guys banter. I’ve never really bantered with anyone.”

“You’re going to get your fill of it, my dude,” Ryan said, grinning.

“Maybe. You’ve both turned that shit up a couple notches because you’re tired and showing off for Chris,” Angie said, tart as one of the cherries on the O’Sadie’s trellis-ramp trees. Ryan felt his cheeks and ears start to get warm.

“We’re always tired,” Evan said. He’d gotten a little red in the face too.

“You’re always tired, I’m fine,” Ryan said.

“Even you don’t stay up till two and get up at six every day,” Angie said. “You idiots need to start going to sleep at a reasonable time. We’re in high school now.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ryan said. “Evan should probably get more sleep than he did a lot of the time in middle school, though.”

“Shaddup,” Evan said without any particular heat. “That was just ninth grade. You don’t know shit about my sleeping habits before last year.”

“Hey uh,” Chris said to Ryan. “Any chance you have anything else to say about my sword?”

Ryan closed his eyes, tiredly, for just a second. “Dude, it was two in the morning. I will totally read up, but give me more than five hours. Even I need to sleep some.”

Evan shifted, standing up straighter and turning his head to look across the street. “Hey, February,” he said.

The rest of them turned to behold Megan in all her glory.