FenceStriking Distance - Sarah Rees Brennan Page 0,72
a lovely little sound, patently unconvinced. This is the last time, Aiden thought, and held on.
The others ignored Aiden and Harvard’s romantic moment in order to focus on crime.
Seiji’s eyebrows looked as though they had been drawn on with a fat black marker and a ruler. “Why should the rules not apply to some students? People shouldn’t use their privileges in order to escape punishment.”
Apparently, Seiji had been too preoccupied with fencing to notice all the rules of the society he lived in up until now.
“Wow,” Aiden remarked. “It’s almost as if this cruelly unjust world is set up in such a way to favor those who already got lucky with riches, good looks, or, not to point fingers at myself, both.”
Seiji frowned. “That’s exactly what it’s like. Well put, Aiden. In any case, it must be stopped.”
Aiden blinked. “Capitalism must be stopped?”
Seiji nodded, his face even sterner than usual. “I have an idea.”
“Oh Jesus, bro!” exclaimed Eugene, and banged his own forehead against the table. When he righted himself, there was a red mark on his brow.
Aiden sympathized to a certain extent. Seiji Katayama was a lot to deal with. However, Eugene was the one who chose to hang around Seiji, which nobody could possibly enjoy, except for Nicholas Cox, who was obviously mentally deranged. Eugene could deal with the misery thereof.
“How sad life must be for anyone who’s not rich and hot,” Aiden murmured. “Personally, I wouldn’t know. Nicholas, tell me how it feels. Not now, some time when I’m in the mood to hear a sob story.”
“What?” said Nicholas.
Aiden shrugged. “The wealthy and unkind only see the poor as entertainment.”
“No, like, what are you saying, dude?” asked Nicholas. “I have problems focusing when you talk.”
Nicholas didn’t catch Seiji’s faint smirk, but Aiden did. So did Eugene, who fixed Seiji with a betrayed stare.
Eugene was acting as if he knew who the real thief was. Actually, with the way Eugene was twitching and eyeing him, Eugene was acting as though Seiji Katayama was the true criminal. Though that would be a hilarious twist, Aiden couldn’t imagine Seiji actually doing anything illegal.
He glanced around the table to see if this behavior was exciting anyone else’s suspicions. Harvard was looking sympathetically at Eugene, because of his beautiful heart. Nicholas was staring around vacantly, because he was a simpleton.
Aiden felt he could figure out the riddle, but this was his last day with Harvard, and he refused to waste it on the freshmen. If the mystery was still ongoing tomorrow, Aiden would unravel it. He guessed after he’d finished the process of crushing his own heart to powder, he could become a cynical, world-weary, impossibly attractive detective.
Aiden brightened. Finally, an upside to this whole horrifying business.
“Here’s my idea,” proposed Seiji. “I will report the names to the authorities.”
Nicholas’s brow knitted. “Do you know the names? Why haven’t you told me?”
“Bro, don’t tell the cops!” Eugene exclaimed.
Seiji ignored Nicholas in favor of Eugene. “I meant I would report the names to the school authorities, not the legal authorities.”
“I don’t think you should report to anyone!” snapped Eugene. “Oh wow, I wish this wasn’t happening to me. But since it is, here’s the thing about gossip: The more gossip people hear about something, the more it starts to sound like fact. Once the gossip is started, bro, all you have to do is wait. Other people will do the rest. By tomorrow, someone else is gonna report seeing those guys hiding the watches. Bet on it.”
Matters were truly sad for the freshmen when they were looking to Eugene Labao for wisdom and guidance.
On the other hand, it wasn’t as if Aiden were planning to provide any.
“But they won’t have seen the guys hiding the watches,” said Seiji.
“They’ll have heard about it so much, they’ll feel like they did,” promised Eugene.
“So, eventually, someone who hasn’t seen the stash will believe they did see it, because they’ve heard about other people seeing the stash often enough?” Seiji’s nose wrinkled judgmentally. “Then they will report it? That makes no sense.”
Eugene shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you, bro. That’s how gossip works.”
Seiji seemed to accept his words. “I will leave this matter in your expert hands, Eugene. That’s what teamwork is about. I look forward to seeing results.”
Horror visibly descended on Eugene, just as the bell rang for the start of classes and everybody rose from the breakfast table. Only Aiden noticed that Eugene was in the grip of a nameless dread. Eugene looked up to