Mixing Drinks For Tipsy Weasels (Obscure Academy #14)

Chapter 3

Rupert

It's only after I step out of the student union building that I finally manage to breathe. I can't believe that of all the people I could possibly have run into while doing ball prep, it's the one person I don't want anything to do with.

"Why didn't you tell me Erica Stubbs was going to be there?" I ask Sami as we make our way across campus and back to our flat.

He shrugs. "I didn't realise the two of you knew each other."

"We're both..." I wave my hand to myself.

"It might surprise you to know that I don't think everyone who can shift into a weasel knows each other. I'm pretty sure that's considered gauche."

"Who uses the word gauche?"

"I do. Now what's the deal with Erica? She seems sweet to me."

"As sweet as a viper," I mutter.

"All right, well clearly the two of you have personal beef."

I sigh. "We've just avoided each other as much as possible. We were best friends as kids."

"What happened?" Sami gestures to the Magimarket entrance which I assume means he wants to pick up some snacks.

I could do with some myself after the day I've had. "Just a series of betrayals."

"Okay, are we talking betrayal as in she stole your first girlfriend, or betrayal as in she took the last blue pen when that was the one you wanted?"

"What? Why would she steal my first girlfriend?"

"How should I know? You're the one talking about betrayal."

"It wasn't that," I say. "There were just a couple of incidents at school..."

He laughs. "Right, so she really did take the last blue pen." He picks up a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and moves over to the biscuit aisle.

"That's not what I said," I counter.

"It's what you meant, though," Sami says. "A word of unsolicited advice? You're both at the academy now, and you've got to work together now, so maybe the best thing to do is just to put things in the past and move on."

I frown. "I mean, I wasn't not trying to do that," I point out. "I haven't thought of Erica in a couple of years. We went to different schools for sixth form."

"So is there a chance she's changed?" he asks. "Maybe she's different from how she used to be."

"Maybe," I mumble. Do I want that? I've spent so long being annoyed at her for one reason or another, that it's hard to imagine a world in which we get along. And it's not as if the feelings aren't completely mutual, she doesn't like me just as much as I don't like her.

"Aren't you getting anything?" Sami asks, gesturing to my empty hands.

"Oh, right." I completely blanked that I wanted to get some snacks. I head to the fridge and pick up a packet of string cheese.

"You're not seriously going to eat that are you?" Sami asks.

"How is string cheese any worse than what you've got?" I nod towards the crisps and chocolate biscuits he has in his hands. "And it could be worse, I could be turning into a weasel and munching on voles or mice or something."

"Have you done that?"

I shrug. "Most of the shifters I know have tried it at least once."

"Well, you can count me in the number of shifters who haven't tried it," he says. "And don't plan on it, that's vile."

"It's not that bad. Our animal forms are made to digest..."

"Just get your string cheese. And don't eat it in front of me or I'm going to be thinking of mouse tails hanging out of your mouth."

"I've never eaten a mouse in human form," I point out. "That would be weird."

"Yes, that's the weird part of this conversation. Not the fact that you've eaten a mouse at all, or that you're holding some dumb crap over a girl you barely know from when you were kids."

I open my mouth to protest, but I don't really know which of the things he's said I want to argue against the most. The feelings I have surrounding Erica are complicated. It's not that I don't want to forget the past, it's just that I don't really know how to. Sami isn't wrong about all of the animosity between us being for a dumb reason, but when you're a kid, everything feels much bigger than it is and those feelings have kind of grown and festered over the years without me really meaning them to.

"I'll be nice to Erica," I promise.

"Good, because Robin will rip you a new one if you disrupt ball prep. You don't want to mess with them."

"Robin doesn't seem that bad."

"Trust me, you haven't seen anything yet." He heads over to the checkout. "A couple of weeks ago, Rika suggested that we take a break from ball prep so we could all revise, and I swear, from the expression on Robin's face, it was almost as if Rika had suggested we cancelled the ball itself."

"Remind me why you put me forward for this again?" I scan my cheese through the self checkout and pull up the payment app on my phone, waving it in front of the machine until it beeps.

"Because it looks great on anyone's CV."

"Yeah, I don't believe that." I shove my phone and my cheese into my pocket. It might not be the best place for me to keep a snack, but we're heading straight back to the dorms, so I don't see the problem with it.

"Eurgh, fine. There's a cute guy who has been volunteering and I want to get to know him better but I haven't had the chance to," Sami admits, picking up his grocery bag. "I guess I was hoping that if you were there, you could be my wingman? Make it so that I end up partnered with him when we're doing the decorating tasks?"

I snort. "I should have guessed this was about a guy."

"Hey! I'm not always about the men."

"Only sometimes," I tease.

"Well, the only guys I meet are when we're out at the club, and they're only really interested in one thing."

I raise an eyebrow.

"Not that. But also, yes, definitely that," Sami says. "So, will you help me?"

"Sure."

"Thanks, man."

At least I've gotten to the bottom of why Sami was so adamant that I should help with ball prep, I had been wondering about that. But he is right that it will look good on my CV, and considering I'm going to have to find a summer job when term ends, that can only be a good thing.