Carswell gathered up the cards he’d just dealt and slipped them back into his bag. “I’ll tally the winnings,” he said, shooing away a fly that was buzzing around the pile of food.
“How do we know you won’t take a little extra for yourself?” asked Chien, with unhidden distrust.
Carswell only shrugged. “You can stay and count up your own if you’d prefer, but then we’ll both be late to class.”
Chien didn’t argue again. Of course, a lost univ or two was nothing to any of them, so what did it matter if Carswell skimmed a little off the top?
By the time he’d entered the balances into his portscreen and put in a reminder to shuffle the money between their accounts when he got home, the courtyard had emptied but for him and the seagulls that were creeping in to pick at the scraps of abandoned food. Carswell slipped his portscreen back into his bag beside the deck of cards and heaved it over one shoulder.
The second announcement blared. The halls were abandoned as Carswell made his way to second-era history. He would be a couple of minutes late for the second time that day, but the teacher liked him, so he couldn’t bring himself to be worried about it.
And then, through the quiet that was laced with the padding of his own footsteps and the hushed conversations behind closed classroom doors, he heard a frustrated cry.
“Stop it! Give it back!”
Carswell paused and traced his steps back to the hallway that led off to the tech hall.
Jules Keller was holding a portscreen over his head, grinning, with Ryan Doughty and Rob Mancuso surrounding him.
And then there was Kate Fallow, her face flushed and her hands on her hips in a semblance of anger and determination, even though Carswell could tell from here that she was shaking and trying not to cry.
“What do you keep on this thing, anyway?” said Jules, peering up at the screen and scrolling through her pages with his thumbs. “Got any naughty pictures on here?”
“She sure does stare at it a lot,” said Rob with a snort.
Carswell’s shoulders sank, first with embarrassment for Kate, then with that inevitable feeling that something bad was about to happen. Bracing himself, he started down the hall. No one seemed to have noticed him yet.
Kate squeezed her shoulders against her neck and held out a hand. “It’s just a bunch of books. Now give it back. Please.”
“Yeah, sleazy books, probably,” said Jules. “Not like you could ever get a real date.”
Kate’s bottom lip began to quiver.
“Seriously, there aren’t any games on here or anything,” said Jules with apparent disgust. “It’s the most boring portscreen in L.A.”
“We should just keep it,” said Ryan. “She’s obviously not using it right.”
“No—it’s mine!”
“Hello, gentlemen,” said Carswell, at the same moment that he reached up and snatched the portscreen out of Jules’s hand. He had to get on his tiptoes to do it, which he hated, but seeing the flash of surprise and bewilderment that crossed Jules’s face made it worthwhile.
Of course, the look didn’t last long.
Carswell took a few steps back as Jules’s hand flexed into a fist. “What a coincidence,” he said. “I was just coming to look for Kate. So glad you found her for me.” He raised his eyebrows at Kate, then quirked his head back down the hallway. “Come on.”
She swiped at the first tear that started down her cheek. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she dodged around the boys to come stand beside him, but Carswell hadn’t taken two steps away before Jules grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him back around.
“What, is she your girlfriend now or something?” he said, nostrils flaring with, if Carswell hadn’t known better, a hint of jealousy.
Which just blasted figured. Mocking and bullying a girl would be the way that Jules attempted to show affection. It somehow seemed to fit with that completely messed-up head of his.
Carswell stifled a sigh. Maybe he could start an after-school Flirting 101 class. There were a lot of people in this school who could really use the help.
What could he charge for that? he wondered.
“Right now,” he said, drawing his attention back to the numbskull in front of him and placing a hand on Kate’s arm, “she’s the girl that I’m escorting back to class. Feel free to spread whatever rumors you want from that.”
“Yeah? How about the rumor that I gave you a black eye because you wouldn’t mind your own business?”
“I’m honestly not sure people are going to buy that one, given that—”
The fist collided with Carswell’s eye faster than he’d have thought possible, sending him reeling back against the row of lockers with a resounding clang.
The world tilted and blurred and he thought Kate may have screamed and something clattered on the ground—her portscreen, falling from his own hand—but all he could think was, Spades and aces and stars, that hurt.
He’d never been punched before. He’d always assumed it would be easy to bounce back from, but now he had the instinctive desire to curl up into a ball and cover his head with both arms and play dead until they all went away.
“Carswell!” yelled Kate, seconds before Rob grabbed him by the elbow and yanked him away from the lockers, and then Jules’s fist was in his stomach and he’d probably broken a rib and Carswell was on his knees and Ryan was kicking him and all his senses were made up of pain and grunts and Kate’s shrieks and he really would have thought that he’d have lasted a lot longer than this, but …
A gruff voice bulleted through the haze of fists and feet and Carswell was left blessedly alone, curled up on the school’s tiled floor. He tasted blood in his mouth. His entire body was throbbing.
As his senses began to register his surroundings again, he realized that Vice Principal Chambers had broken up the fight, but Carswell was too woozy to make sense of his angry words.
“Carswell?” said a sweet, soft, horrified voice.
His left eye was already swelling shut, but he peeled open the right to see that Kate was now crouched over him. Her fingers were hovering just off his shoulder, like she was afraid to touch him.
He tried to smile, but felt it probably looked more like a grimace. “Hey, Kate.”
Her eyes were filled with sympathy, her face still flushed, but she wasn’t crying anymore, and Carswell liked to think he’d put an end to that, at least.
“Are you all right? Can you stand?”
Bracing himself, he sat up, which was a start. Kate helped a little, although she still seemed hesitant.
“Ow,” he muttered. His entire abdomen was throbbing and bruised. He wondered if they’d broken a rib after all.
Aces, how embarrassing. He would be investing in some good martial arts simulators after this. Or maybe boxing. He’d never be on the losing side of a fistfight again if he could help it, outnumbered or not.
“Are you all right, Mr. Thorne?” said Mr. Chambers.
Squinting upward, Carswell saw that they’d been joined by two of the tech professors, who were standing with their arms folded over Jules and his friends. Everyone was scowling. Rob even looked a tiny bit guilty, or maybe he just hated that they’d been caught.
“I’m grand,” said Carswell. “Thank you for asking, Mr. Chambers.” Then he flinched and rubbed at the spot on his side where the jolt of pain had originated from.