I awoke the next morning, plagued by questions about how James might act or what he meant by "I like you" or if I'd just imagined the whole thing. But when I met James by my locker, he erased all of my questions with a simple kiss.
"So, I didn't get a chance to tell you about my match the other day," he said, turning to his locker to switch out his books.
I was still stunned by the impromptu kiss, so I let him describe in vivid detail every moment of his match. And as he went on and on, I was fairly sure embellishing the number of times he got the better of Gavon (and leaving out a few instances of the opposite), I supposed that's how it would be. Our regular joking with the added bonus of making out every so often.
Of course, there was one big question that had to be asked.
"So…you aren't going to tell Gavon, right?"
"Are you kidding me?" James snorted. "The only way this works is if I forget you're in any way related to him."
Ugh, why do I like him again? I pursed my lips. "The only way it works for me is if I forget you belong to an evil gang."
Something like admiration crossed his face, and my pulse skipped a beat. "Anyway, he's not the one I'm really worried about. Cyrus didn't look too happy when I declined his request to challenge Gavon."
I closed my locker. "Let him come."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, you said I could kick his ass, right?"
"I mean, sure, but you shouldn't go looking for a fight. He'd still do some serious damage. And, of course, there's that pact. You can't go causing trouble, either."
"I know, I know."
"What's all this newfound confidence from?" he asked. "I thought Cyrus made you piss your pants."
"Crude," I said. But it was true. Over the past few weeks, I'd began feeling more in control over my life. Marie was speaking with me again, Nicole and I were on rocky, but decent terms. James and I were…well, the kiss had said a lot. And magically, I'd finally gained a baseline understanding that I'd been missing.
"I guess spending time with me rubbed off on you," he said.
"Everything isn't always about you," I replied, elbowing him.
So he kissed me.
I still wasn't used to that.
Nor was I used to the death glare I received from Callista, who muttered something about me being a liar.
During first period, I let my mind wander back to James, and this time, I didn't fight it. So this was what it was like to be on the other side of things. To be the girl that James doted on.
But there would be more than just hand-holding and stolen kisses. I was most looking forward to our next bout in the sparring ring, and what that might result in.
Slow down, Lexie, you've barely started dating the guy.
Besides not wanting to rush with someone so unpredictable, there was the other, larger problem. Despite what I'd said about Cyrus, I was a little worried about what he might do if he found out James and I had moved beyond friends.
James, on the other hand, seemed confident enough that neither Gavon nor Cyrus made a habit of spending a lot of time spying on us, because he kissed me three times before lunch.
Then again, he might've just been drunk on newfound freedom. Occasionally, I spotted him using magic while taking notes, and when I admonished him about it at the end of the day, he just threw an arm around me and pointed to the glazed looks of our classmates who were just trying to get through the last few weeks of high school.
"They aren't even on this planet," he said. "Speaking of…you and I are due for another adventure."
"Oh, are we?"
"I promise I won't get you arrested this time," he said with that dazzling smile of his.
"So Gavon has no control over you anymore?" I asked while pondering what kind of adventures we could get into. A moonlight stroll in Paris came to mind. "That's it, huh?"
"That's it. It's in case I decided I wanted to overthrow him. It would be hard for me to beat him if he could ground me."
"True…" I chewed my lip. "But then why does Gavon have control over me? I'm not in the Clan or a Guild."
"Parents always retain some control, especially if they're powerful like Gavon is. That's why it's always been tradition for Warriors to go with a different master. That way, once the apprenticeship ends, so does the control."
"Hm." I wasn't sure I liked that. "So are you still living at his mansion or what?"
"At the moment, yes," he said. "It won't surprise you that there aren't a lot of available properties in New Salem. Gavon could evict a lesser magical, but he won't do that."
"He could evict Cyrus," I suggested. "I'd bring the papers for him.
"Look at you," James said. "All confident. I like it."
I flushed at his compliment. I supposed that wouldn't change overnight. "So do you think you'll just live with Gavon for a while?"
"That sounds awful," he said with a blanch. "Besides, if I'm going to college with you…"
"Don't say that," I snapped. "I worked really hard to get into Georgetown, and that you could just magic your way into it—"
"Lexie," he said, stopping me. "I'm just kidding."
"Still though," I said, furrowing my brow. "I don't know what I'll do if I don't get in."
"You will," he said with almost infuriating certainty. His faith did nothing to dissolve the worry in the pit of my stomach. "C'mon, let's go to your place and check."
I nodded, grabbing my backpack and following him to a secluded spot behind the gym where we transported to another secluded spot near my apartment complex.
"You could, you know, let me inside the barrier," James said as we crossed the parking lot.
"I could," I said, without elaborating.
"You still don't trust me, do you? After all we've been through together."
"I…" I trusted him a lot, actually. I'd even stopped wearing my charmed stone after he'd helped me find Marie. But the barrier felt like the last defense, the one thing that reminded me of who he was and why I'd been hesitant to trust him at first. If I allowed him into my house, that meant I no longer held the small nugget of fear about him. And I wasn't sure I was there yet.
Instead of answering him, I scurried into the building, making a beeline for the mailboxes. I opened the small door and my heart skipped a beat.
There was a large white envelope in there.
I swallowed and pulled it out, feeling faint at the Georgetown logo emblazoned on the top. I absentmindedly stuck the rest of the mail back in the box and stumbled back out to where James was waiting for me.
"What's wrong with you?" James asked.
"It's my college admissions decision," I said quietly.
"Oh, did you get in?"
"I don't know yet." I looked down at the potentially life-changing envelope in my hand. "Maybe?"
"You should open it."
All of my doubts came roaring back. Had I completed my application correctly? Were there typos? Had I not volunteered enough, had I—
James ripped the envelope out of my hand and before I could stop him, tore it open and began reading. The smile on his face told me everything I needed to know.
"No way!" I screamed, backing up three steps.
"You got in," he said, handing me the paper. All I got to was "Congratulations" and I nearly lost it. I buried my head in my hands, laughing and crying, and feeling like I could fly to the moon and back. I'd done it. I'd gotten into Georgetown.
"Did you really think you wouldn't?" James asked, but he looked genuinely happy for me, and my heart melted a little.
"I had my doubts, yeah," I said, reading over the paper again. "I can't believe this. I'm going to Georgetown."
And that was when I saw the second page, and my heart stopped. "Oh…yeah. That."
"What?"
I showed him the amount of the first deposit to retain my place in the graduating class.
"Ouch," James said, horrified. "That's… Why do you want to go there if it's that much money?"
"Pride," I said, unashamed and undeterred. "That's all right. I'll…figure something out. Loans and scholarships. There has to be information about scholarships in here."
But there wasn't—not even an insert about how to apply for them.
"That's…odd."
"Hey, don't let it bother you," James said, throwing an arm around my shoulder. "If worse comes to worse, you can always—"
"Not asking him."
"Fine, but he's an option."
"This makes no sense," I said. "Why wouldn't they put financial aid information in the packet?"
"Well…why don't you go ask them? I said I wanted to go on another adventure."
I chewed my lip. "Right now?"
"Yeah. Better to know than to worry, right?" James held out his hand. "Let's go."
The summer before, I'd gone to the university to take a tour and solidify my decision to apply there. Now, as then, I was entranced by the tall spires, the architecture, the beautiful campus—the bustling city, the shops and markets in the city outside the university. Everything about this neighborhood was alive and different from anything I'd known in Florida. This was the place for me, where I would truly find myself.
And as the reality of my financial situation sank in, I could feel my well-laid plans slipping away.
James was equally entranced, although he was less impressed by the university itself ("It looks like a prison"). He took in the sights and sounds as readily as I did. If, by some miracle, I resolved this little financial issue, and he magically enrolled himself into the school, I decided it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. After all, I could see myself traveling around the city, hand-in-hand with him…
I stopped myself before I got too far ahead. Before I could get to happily ever after, I needed to pay for it.
We found the admissions office after asking several people for directions, and I signed in to meet with an advisor. The office was stale and uninviting and it renewed the nervousness in the pit of my stomach. The sheer mountain of money I had to come up with was staggering, even for one semester. I had money in the bank, but it was a fraction of what Georgetown would cost.
More concerning was the lack of scholarship information in the letter itself. I was, by all accounts, a needy student. My guardian made absolutely nothing, we lived in a tiny apartment. I was exactly the kind of student that aid was meant for.
So why hadn't any been in there?
"Stop worrying," James repeated again and again. But it was easy for him to say. He didn't have his entire future riding on the line. But when I began chewing my thumb, he reached over and took it from my mouth, much the same as I had before his induction match.
Damn, but we were really similar.
"Alexis Carrigan?" A tall, willowy woman with dark skin appeared in the hallway.
I popped up so fast I almost got dizzy. "Right here."
She waved me over, and I followed her into her office, leaving James behind to read through some old magazines about the school. I sat down in the chair across from her, fidgeting as I replayed every grade, every note on my application. There had to be a misunderstanding. There was no way they wouldn't give me aid.
I exhaled and forced my worries down to a dull roar.
"Well, we're excited to have you this year as a Hoya," the admissions officer said, folding her hands over her desk. "What can we do for you?"
"I just got my acceptance letter and I noticed it didn't have any financial aid offers," I replied. "Just wondering why that was."
"Oh, well, let's take a look." She entered my information into the computer and we exchanged polite small talk on where I was from and why I chose Georgetown.
"You're from Florida?" she asked, pausing.
"Uh. Yeah. Was visiting on a school trip.
She squinted at her computer and shook her head. "Well, it looks like we've declined to offer you any aid."
My chest seized. "W-what? Why not?"
"Says your guardian doesn't meet the minimum requirements for need-based scholarships."
I laughed, nervously. "That's…impossible. My sister works at a pharmacy."
"It says here she makes in excess of a hundred thousand a year."
"That has to be a mistake," I said, swallowing hard. "I mean, there's no way that…"
Something thudded in the back of my mind and I saw Marie's extravagant apartment. I saw the way my stone lit up when Nicole talked about taking extra shifts at the pharmacy. A conversation with Gavon two years ago about how he'd been left a sizable fortune and was meeting with an investment banker to manage it.
"I can resubmit your application and see if we can find something somewhere," she said with a frown. "But—"
"No need," I squeaked out, caught between pure fury and wanting to bawl my eyes out. "Thank you."
I stormed out of the admissions office, and felt James take his place beside me. "What's the deal?"
Balling my fists, I seethed. "I think my sister has been getting money from Gavon and not telling me about it."
I sat at the dining room table, my phone in front of me with a group text to my sisters asking them to meet me at home. I'd been so angry I couldn't even speak to James, and he'd simply cautioned me to take a deep breath and calm down before I threw him a death glare so cold he actually shivered. I was grateful he couldn't follow me into the apartment, because I needed to have private words with my sisters, and I didn't want him here with his logic and reason about why I shouldn't scream at them.
Marie arrived first, helping herself to some food in the fridge while I stewed at the kitchen table. She was smart enough not to speak to me once she saw my face, and made herself scarce while we waited for Nicole to arrive home.
When she finally did, she glanced at me and Marie nervously. "Lexie, what's going on? Marie, what are you—"
"Have a seat," I said quietly.
Nicole sat and shared a glance at Marie, who shrugged as she joined her. Neither said a word as I gathered my thoughts.
"So as you know," I started evenly, "I applied to Georgetown University."
"You've only mentioned it fifteen thousand times," Marie said with a smirk.
I glared at her and she shrank back in her seat. "I received my admissions decision today," I said, summoning the paper and sliding it toward them.
"Oh my God, you got in," Nicole said with a gasp. "Lexie, that's…that's incredible! Congratulations!"
"Why don't you look happy?" Marie said, eyeing me.
"I'm not happy," I said, staring at the table and willing myself not to set it on fire. "Although I got accepted, paying for it is an entirely different story."
Nicole's smile faded. "Lexie, we talked about this. You knew how much money it would be. This can't be a surprise to you."
I snorted. "No, the surprise wasn't the cost. The surprise was what I found out when I went to the financial aid office to ask why they hadn't given me any assistance. Turns out, my guardian doesn't meet the minimum requirement for need-based financial aid. Turns out, she's been getting a lot of money every month."
The faded smile on Nicole's face disappeared entirely. "Lexie, I can explain."
"Oh? Please enlighten me." I summoned the other paper I'd rustled up—Nicole's tax return. At the time, I hadn't questioned why she had been so evasive about letting me see it. Now it was clear. "Enlighten me how eight thousand dollars just appears in your account every month?"
Nicole swallowed. "I didn't ask for it. He just put it there. I haven't touched it."
"Bullshit," Marie said with a snort.
"Don't you start with your fancy apartment in Las Vegas," I snarled at her. "You didn't tell me either—"
"Why do you think she kicked me out?" Marie said with a death glare to Nicole. "Dad gave me money, too. Only I'm not too proud to use it."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "So all this time, all the conversations about how I needed to work through college and save my money and…and you could've just paid for it?"
"Do you really want Gavon's money paying for your education?" Nicole said. "There's no telling what he'll ask for in return."
"Oh yeah? What did you get in exchange for this money?"
"A promise that he would leave us alone."