CHAPTER 21

In Which Lauren Receives a Piece of Mind or Two

ANGIE. BETWEEN SECOND AND THIRD.

“I’ll catch up,” Ryan said, pausing in the hallway after they exited Common.

Angie frowned at him.

“Why?” Tammy said.

“Gots to talk to somebodyyyyyyyyyyy.” Ryan grinned.

Tammy gave him a look. “Still let your freak flag fly in public, huh Ryan?”

“You know it! Now scram, I need to focus.” Ryan started loitering in the hall.

“I don’t approve,” Angie said.

“Well, sometimes I’m a scamp,” Ryan said with a wink. She sighed. He’d do as he would, even if that meant talking to Katier. He’d probably even talk to Lauren, the dip.

“Well, let’s go, Tams,” Angie said.

“Sounds good,” Tammy replied, and she and Angie headed to their next class—Tammy had Physical Science, while Angie, Ryan, and Evan all had Algebra. “So please, please fill me in.”

“Okay. I’m going to do so, but you have to keep what I tell you under your hat,” Angie replied. “Promise.”

“Oh, uh, okay. I promise,” Tammy said.

Angie did so, keeping it as brief as possible, going over the auguries, the mystical connection when Megan and Chris met, lunch, Evan getting mad in the afternoon and storming off, and Evan going out after sunset like someone with godsdamned brain damage (keeping her voice low as she did so). She left out Dyrnwyn, however.

“That’s all so wild!” Tammy said when she finished. “I can’t believe you summoned a storm spirit!”

“She’s an owl spirit and then a storm spirit, in that order,” Angie said. “I’m pretty sure an owl spirit ate a storm spirit that was way too big for it, and the resulting amalgam was Mst. Rainflipper.”

“Oh,” Tammy said. “What are you going to do now? Like, about Megan and Chris.”

Angie shrugged. “Start hanging out with them. What else can I do?”

Tammy frowned. “Are you really—gods, Angie, Megan’s so lucky she came and apologized to you before you and I reconnected. She would not have enjoyed the experience if I’d had to go confront her. I’m so mad at her!”

Angie smiled. “Thanks Tammy. I really appreciate that. I… I’m optimistic, though. In between the auguries for ‘joy’ and our mystic connection, I think things will work out? I hope?”

“I hope so too. Here, this is my class. I’ll catch you later,” Tammy said. They hugged, and then Tammy went into her class. Angie looked around and found Ryan approaching.

RYAN. BETWEEN SECOND AND THIRD.

With excellent timing, Katier Ryuyama sort of peeked out of the Common classroom’s doorway mere moments after Angie and Tammy disappeared around the corner. Ryan gave her a quick sharp-toothed grin. She emerged hesitantly, one of the last people out of the classroom.

“Um, hi?” she said, approaching meekly. “You… did you say we’d talk? I thought that’s what you mouthed at me.”

“You are correct, Katier,” Ryan said. “May I call you Katier? You can call me Ryan. We share such a close friend, I figure we’re on a first name basis here.”

“Sure, if you want. Do we actually share a friend? Anymore? After this?” Katier said. No hiding her misery.

“Oh, come now, you must know Megan will forgive you eventually,” Ryan said. “I’d bet good money on it. I’d bet less on her forgiving Lauren and Nisha, but I’d still bet on that too.”

Katier was silent for a second. “I don’t think I can break with Lauren and Nisha,” Katier said. “I love them. Will Megan forgive me if I’m still friends with them and she doesn’t forgive them?”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Have you met Megan? She put up with Kay’s bullshit for nearly a decade.”

Katier looked relieved. “I guess that’s a good point. Lauren liked Kay. I… accepted her. At least I got to be the Katier of the two of us.” She actually smiled, rather smugly, for a moment, before her face grew determined. “Soooo, um. I want to….” And she trailed off, presumably to give him an opportunity to interrupt. She took a deep breath, straightened up, took a step forward, looked at him square in the face. “I want to apologize.”

It was novel to be dealing with someone shorter than himself. Like, it wasn’t really that much different than looking at Megan or Angie, they weren’t that different in height, a few centimeters, but somehow it was different that Katier was shorter than him. He enjoyed the change. The poor girl must never get to feel like this.

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“If you’ll let me,” she finished.

“Haven’t stopped you yet, have I?” he said dryly.

“Oh. Right. Okay.” Deep breath. “Well, I regret that I didn’t do more. I knew it was wrong, I knew that. I shouldn’t have ever let up on Lauren and Nisha. Or, or, I should have just defied them and told Megan, or talked to you three, or something. I wish I hadn’t been such a coward. I’m sorry.”

Ryan nodded. “Probably you should have, yes. Or shouldn’t have, as appropriate for the context. One of those would have been good. I accept your apology, Mst. Ryuyama. It was a pretty good one. I don’t forgive you for three years of social isolation, and I’ll never forget it, but I do accept the good apology. Good start.”

Katier nodded. “Then what can I do to make it up to you?”

“Nice,” Ryan said. “Good continuation.” He smiled. “You owe me favors, Katier. That’s what you can do. Favors for me, forever. Big ones, if I need them. To start with, invitations for me and my friends to any parties you throw, plus any others you can swing if we’re not invited for some reason.”

Katier laughed. “Yeah, I would have invited you all anyway, if you’re friends with Megan and Evan is hunting. That’s easy!”

Ryan said, “I know you would have invited us anyway, I just thought it was a nice way to suggest something I resent missing out on, as an Exile.”

“Oh.” Katier’s mouth just stayed an O shape for a moment. “I wouldn’t have realized that. I’m not that smart.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow, really cranked it. Calling oneself not that… “Come now, give yourself credit. You at least must be able to read people okay, as popular as you are.”

“Well, I put my foot in my mouth a lot, and I give a lot of real generic presents, and I’m not very funny despite my best efforts, so I don’t know about that,” Katier shrugged glumly.

“You must know how to flirt, at least,” Ryan said, exasperated. He and Angie weren’t much at flirting. Or they were very obvious about it, at least. “That’s about reading people and picking up hints they’re dropping.”

“Well…” Katier said, looking more pensive. “I am good at flirting. Or okay at least. I’m pretty overt when I flirt. No point in the other person missing the whole thing, I figure, that’s no fun, but some people think I’m too forward and out there to be good at flirting.” She paused. “Why are we talking about this? I’m trying to apologize.”

“You did it already,” Ryan said. “And we’ll talk about whatever I want. You’re making things up to me, remember? Also, I need to go. Where are you going?”

“Physical science,” Katier said. “Sure. That makes sense I guess.”

“Same building. Walk and talk.” Ryan took off, and Katier followed a half step behind.

“Well, you were certainly obvious this morning,” Ryan said.

Katier got pink in the cheeks. “Ummmmm…” she said, rubbing at the back of her head, not seeming to know what to say.

“I hope you’re not just flirting with Evan to make him more likely to forgive you,” Ryan said, a dangerous note creeping into his friendly tone of voice.

Katier got red in the ears. “No,” she said, her voice small, “I’m not.”

A lightbulb turned on.

“Ah,” Ryan said. “See that you don’t. Did you have anything else to say to me right now?”

Katier swallowed. “Can you… Would you tell me, do you think Evan or Angie will ever forgive me?”

“Let’s shoot for ‘accept your apology and deign to spend time around you,’ Mst. Ryuyama,” Ryan said, twice as dry as before. “Forgiveness will require familiarity and fondness first, and take functionally forever, so don’t focus on the far future.” He smirked, pleased with how much alliteration he managed.

“Oh. Uh. Suuure,” Katier said. “That. I meant that. Accept my apology. If Megan does, is there any chance they will?”

“There’s a chance of almost anything!” Ryan said. “And it really depends on how you intend to make things up to them.”

Katier brightened up, then frowned, and spent several moments looking stumped. “Um. Yeah. Any hints? Ideas? I have no clue what any of you might like. Parties for you, I guess?”

“Sure! Here’s a hint for starters: Megan and I will probably have to drag them to a lot of those parties. We probably won’t make like half of them, actually, at least the three of us Exiles, because there’s only so much they’ll put up with that.”

“Oh. Huh,” Katier said. “Okay. That’s not… a lot. They like parties less than you.”

“Well, I won’t speak as to what Angie might want—I don’t want to risk getting her mad at me, I’m afraid—but Evan has often been resentful over not being able to go to nice places and do, drink, or eat nicer things. A Thrushbeard’s, for example, is a special treat.”

“That’s not… I mean, Thrushbeards is okay, but not that nice,” Katier said. “Haven’t I seen you guys there?”

“Perhaps occasionally,” Ryan said, a little sharply. “That’s my point. It’s not that nice, and we still don’t get to go often. We’re more of a Food Court crowd.” Katier wrinkled her nose for a moment. “Evan would like nice things and nice experiences, is all I’m saying, and would only have a vague idea of how to do that even with funds,” Ryan said. “I’m being generously straightforward here, I usually like to be obliquer, so take the damn-ed hint.”

“Sorry,” Katier said, ducking her head. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I just find that place hard to be in, at least the ground floor.”

“That’s fair,” Ryan said. “You are a Divine Princess, after all, you must have very refined senses.”

“Oh, hardly. I’m way too far down the family tree for that,” Katier said. “But yeah, I’m pretty sensitive. Anyway, I can think of something.” She blinked. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you! I really appreciate the help. And the acceptance.”

“You were in a tough spot,” Ryan said quietly. “And you did try.” They reached the Science building and went inside.

“I did,” Katier said, drooping. “Not enough, but I tried.”

On that somber note, they split and headed to their respective classrooms. He spotted Angie waiting next to the Algebra classroom door, and Tammy going into the PhysSci classroom. Katier followed Tammy in a moment later.

“Hey,” he said to Angie. “Any Evan yet?”

“Not unless he’s in the classroom. Oh, no, there he is.” Angie pointed.

Evan was walking toward them, his features a strange combination of satisfied and pissed.

“Evan, what’s the what, my man?” Ryan said as Evan reached them.

“Talked to Lauren for a bit,” Evan said, his tone of voice an unusual mixture of grim and pleased.

“Oh shit,” both Angie and Ryan said. “What happened?”