FenceStriking Distance - Sarah Rees Brennan Page 0,37
if you’re hating the midnight feast, dude,” said Eugene. “Your face went all grumpy cat when we broke out the marshmallows.”
Seiji opened his mouth to protest that Nicholas never cared when Seiji made faces, and never told him to go away, but Eugene continued.
“I think there’s something else going on.”
Seiji gave Eugene his full attention. “What?”
Eugene turned his protein shake in his hands for another moment. “We went to town Saturday, and some Kings Row guys there were awful to him. It’s been bothering me all weekend, actually. They acted like they were so far above Nicholas. They made it seem like he was going to shoplift! Which he wasn’t!” Eugene added hastily, as though Seiji might imagine Nicholas would.
The burner’s blue flame hissed. Harvard was talking about how delicious the pasta sauce smelled. Their captain was very good at making conversation.
Seiji frowned. “Why would people from our school represent Nicholas as a common thief?”
“Right? It sucks!” said Eugene. “You might know them? They were the first two guys to wash out of fencing tryouts. They think they’re so much better than Nicholas.”
“They think they’re better than Nicholas?” Seiji asked sharply. “But they can’t fence at all!”
“Bro…,” said Eugene. “I realize this concept might be difficult for you to grasp, but this is not about fencing. They were just being jerks.”
Seiji raised an eyebrow. “I’m familiar with the concept of people being jerks. Certain people on the fencing circuit used to refer to me as a samurai.”
Eugene’s open, friendly face was taken over by a confused scowl.
“Because I’m Japanese, and I’m excellent with a sword,” Seiji explained. He rolled his eyes. “Extremely droll.”
“Yeah, I’m familiar with those kinds of jerks, too. You should hear the stuff they say about me,” Eugene said, and buffeted Seiji with his shoulder. Seiji almost dropped his protein shake. “They think they’re better than Nicholas because he doesn’t have a lot of money.”
“Oh, Nicholas is on scholarship, isn’t he?” Seiji recalled. “Does his family have less money than most people at Kings Row?”
Another hissing burner silence ensued.
“Uh…,” said Eugene. “You hadn’t noticed that Nicholas is a bit different from everyone else?”
“Well, yes, obviously I have noticed that! What’s that got to do with money?”
Eugene wasn’t being very helpful.
Seiji considered this matter on his own. He supposed Nicholas spoke differently from other people, even though Nicholas didn’t come from very far away. He’d believed it must be a personal idiosyncrasy.
“Have you realized that Nicholas doesn’t have a lot of stuff?”
Seiji had noticed that Nicholas didn’t wear pajamas, like a normal person. He basically wore underwear to bed.
Was Nicholas too poor for pajamas? That was so sad.
“So, because Nicholas doesn’t have any money, these students mocked him by pretending he would steal?” Seiji clarified. On Eugene’s nod, Seiji scowled. “And now he’s upset. That’s wrong.”
To Seiji’s horror, Eugene slung an arm around his shoulders. Seiji had no idea why he was doing that. Eugene couldn’t possibly think bears would attack in Bobby and Dante’s room.
“Bro, we are in total agreement. I wish there was something we could do to get those guys back. But I guess the world sucks sometimes. Anyway, don’t worry about Nicholas. He’s tough.”
Why would Eugene have told Seiji all this information, unless he wanted Seiji to worry? Preventing Nicholas from being hurt seemed like basic friend behavior. Even Seiji could grasp that much.
Seiji squinted over at Nicholas. He didn’t appear distraught. He was laughing while Bobby dared him to stuff more marshmallows in his mouth. There was already an alarming number of marshmallows in Nicholas’s mouth.
“How would we get those guys back?” Seiji asked. “Like you were saying.”
Eugene blinked rapidly. “I was thinking it would be cool to play a totally excellent prank on them. Make them look as dumb as they are.”
Seiji shuddered. “I don’t think I want to… pull a prank.”
Pranks seemed undignified.
Eugene shrugged. “Yeah, I figured it wasn’t your scene, my man.”
My man was even worse than bro. Seiji endured.
He should’ve felt better now that he knew Nicholas was not angry with him, but somehow, he didn’t. He remained uncomfortable. Of course, he was still at this midnight feast.
Aiden didn’t appear to be enjoying the midnight feast, either. His face was stormy, when normally he was the kind of person who sailed through life on calm waters. Seiji sympathized with Aiden’s antifeast attitude, but he didn’t intend to bond with him. After all, in tryouts, Aiden had brought up seeing him lose against Jesse. He had known it would strike