FenceStriking Distance - Sarah Rees Brennan Page 0,23

good at the social situations that had proper rules. At gatherings with sponsors, whether to do with business or fencing, he knew to stay mostly quiet, murmur in a modest way, and exhibit excellent manners. Seiji’s coaches and his father never had any complaints about how Seiji conducted himself on those occasions.

He wasn’t asocial, but he wasn’t sociable, either. Keeps a distance from his peers, a teacher had written on Seiji’s report card once. Seiji did, and felt that was sensible. Why not hold yourself apart from chaos?

Kids Seiji’s own age were chaotic. Nicholas was more chaotic than most. Seiji found him very difficult to reason with. It had been Nicholas’s suggestion that they should be friends, not Seiji’s, and it was impossible to know what Nicholas even meant by being friends. Was Seiji supposed to watch all Nicholas’s terrible fencing matches? None of this was Seiji’s idea.

Nicholas had once saved Seiji a seat on the team bus, and Nicholas took the seat beside Seiji in their classes, but Nicholas hadn’t saved Seiji the seat beside him at breakfast this morning. Of course, Seiji had to admit, Nicholas hadn’t known Seiji was coming.

Would Nicholas save Seiji a seat at breakfast tomorrow morning? There was no telling. It would be worrying if he did, since from what Seiji had observed, Nicholas stole food from other people’s plates. Seiji didn’t want anyone to steal food from his plate.

It had all been so easy with Jesse. Until it hadn’t.

Jesse had never said they were friends. He’d said they were fencing partners, and Seiji believed that was better. More important.

Seiji put away his papers and pens neatly, then checked his reflection in the mirror. There was a lock of hair out of place, so he produced a comb and made himself presentable.

Then he went out into the woods. He found Nicholas and Eugene already there—maybe they’d been socializing beforehand—at the edge of the forest, with Coach and a pile of raw steaks.

Seiji had been hoping the steaks were a joke, but apparently not. Nicholas was already wearing a steak around his neck, secured in place with twine. The uncooked meat was blue in parts, and dripped onto Nicholas’s skin. Somehow, he was managing to remain calm. Eugene looked upset, but not as upset as Seiji felt.

“Shirt off, steak on,” Coach Williams encouraged.

Seiji stared at the steak. “I cannot put this on.”

“Your teammates are already wearing them,” Coach pointed out. “What makes you different from them?”

Seiji fought the impulse to cling to Coach’s sleeve and beg. “I have dignity.”

There was a pause. Seiji had never disobeyed a direct order from his coach, but he didn’t think he could put some clammy, messy thing on himself. Nicholas and Eugene’s appearance was absurd.

“Oh, all right,” Coach said at length to Seiji’s intense private relief. “But you have to stick to the others. Don’t run away if the bears come. Stay and be eaten together. That’s what teamwork means.”

“Please stop talking about bears,” Eugene moaned.

Coach gave them a wild grin.

Seiji was certain there were no bears, but when Seiji pointed out obvious facts, other people got annoyed. Sometimes he found it best to keep quiet.

Coach clapped her hands. “Off you go!”

They began jogging through the woods. The reassuring sight of Coach, in her bright-red tracksuit, was soon lost among the trees. The evening air had a bite to it, and while Seiji had to repress the urge to shiver, Eugene and Nicholas were wearing cold steaks around their necks. This wasn’t responsible behavior on Coach’s part. Nicholas could get sick, and Seiji, as his roommate, would have to handle the situation. Seiji could already picture snuffling and complaining from behind the curtain in addition to Nicholas’s usual incessant noise. There would be tissues all over the floor.

There was a rustling in the undergrowth.

Eugene startled and threw his arms around Seiji. “Bear! I heard a bear!”

Seiji fought free with strength born of desperation. “You did not hear a bear!”

He almost tripped over a tree root getting away from Eugene. Then came another rustle, and Eugene threw his arms around Nicholas.

“Bear!”

“Where?” demanded Nicholas, clinging back. “I’m a city kid. I don’t wanna go out in a bear attack!”

Seiji lifted his eyes to heaven and saw only evergreens and the darkening sky. He kept a careful distance from his teammates to avoid any repeat of Eugene springing at him, and tried to judge how far they’d gone and in which direction. That was tricky, since the trees looked similar to one