Chapter 61: Clock

"I got you the book you wanted," Milo said from the floor. "Miss Cox’s."

"Gosh, are you okay? Every time I see you, you’re..."

"I know, I know. But I got you the book. I fought for it."

Layla crossed her arms and gazed upon the overturned desk he was folded over. "Did you fight the desk too?"

Only the tip of the nail held up the clock and his missing half hour.

He got to his feet, grunting as he straightened his spine.

"You could say that." Seeing the girl approach him, ready to lend a hand, he waved her off and gestured at the room. "As you see, the prize for that is the quiet."

"Maybe I don’t wanna know."

Shortly after Milo hauled the table upright again and dragged it back into place, the phone in Layla’s left hand seized his attention.

Considering that it was out, the girl had likely checked it on the way here.

People lost track of time when they were stressed, so a discrepancy could be explained that way. Half an hour was harder to misplace, especially with a fallen desk directly beneath the clock.

In the middle row, he eased into a chair that gave her a clear view of the hour.

"I hope you don’t plan on keeping that phone in front of us while we study."

"I know, I know..." she answered, taking a seat next to him and pulling her backpack onto the desk. "Anyway... you said you had the book."

Without much thought, Milo fished the title out by its hard cover and slid it over.

Only the stare that Layla gave it made him realize what was going on here.

"You’re not planning on replacing the phone with the book, are you?"

"No, just a quick skim! You didn’t steal it, right? Then I’ll have to give it back, and with the exams and the expeditions I don’t know when I’ll get another chance, and then..."

"I should have known!"

Still, he preferred her losing a few minutes in Miss Cox’s pages to finding them on her phone.

Of course, the girl recognized the importance of the scores and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they presented, and soon they were reading the parish’s history instead of how what you eat affects your mindset.

It was quite weird that Studies continued to include history. While he could find a use for knowing where cities were, who cared about some random Warden’s Turning decades ago?

Would Aldous end up in textbooks too?

After they traded their fifth yawn, Layla unzipped her bag.

"I almost forgot. I brought you some food."

At the sight of the first bulky sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil, Milo laid a hand on his stomach. Twenty-eight omens was no small meal.

Hoping the next thing she brought out would be a napkin, he waited for her to finish unpacking.

As Layla drew out a second sandwich, however, a flash of violet cut through the depths of the bag.

She deposited the sandwich with a rustle of foil and lowered the backpack to the floor.

"Um, what was that?" Milo leaned over to inspect the pockets.

"Hm?" The girl peeled back a corner of his foil. "Eat up! You’re not gonna deflect this."

"Are you deflecting by accusing me of deflecting? This is on another level." He pointed down at the bag. "I saw something violet in there."

"Ohh, I know what you mean." She bent over and came back up with a flower, its stem dangling between her fingers. "Petunia."

"Where did you get it from?"

"A friend gave it to me."

"Well, who? I mean, I’m just asking since it’s a beautiful flower."

"It is beautiful." Layla slipped it back into her backpack. "Eat up."

"You don’t see many of them around here."

Despite the dismissal, Milo meant to dig deeper when the door opened.

"Oh, sup." Ollie stood at the threshold. "Milo, Layla. How you doing?"

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Milo tapped at the page of the textbook. "Ollie, what brings you here?"

"Just dropping in on the other classes. Ours is doing fine, and I figured I might as well see who needs a hand. Beats watching everybody else study."

His prediction of Rosaline taking control had at least turned out accurate. Unfortunately, Ollie’s words reminded him of Eve and how soon he might be called into some office where Henry would order them to empty their bags.

The girl’s awkward expression would crumple. Knowing he was responsible, he’d have to endure her stammers and lie, firmly stating she’d never given him her phone, and that she’d taken the operation over.

Still, the punishment couldn’t be worse than detention. Thwaite wanted everyone out in the expeditions, after all.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"So you’re spending your free time helping other people study?" Milo asked.

"Sure, bro." Ollie skimmed the paragraph under his finger. "Not everyone can keep up. I don’t blame ’em."

"But you can? You seem relaxed."

"I’ve already done what I needed to do." The boy shrugged. "Have you? If you caught up, that’d be generational."

Sometimes Milo couldn’t help but forget that Ollie was the best in his class, and it was not particularly close. Though he lacked physique, the brains more than compensated for it.

"I’m working on that."

"He’s refusing to eat." Layla jabbed a thumb at him. "We’ve even got a book on how important that is and he won’t listen!"

"Ha, right. You better keep an open mind, or else I don’t know how you’re gonna do on the exams."

"It’s never too late for a transfer," Milo said. "I remember what you tell me."

"You could try actually taking his advice," Layla huffed. "Imagine how far that might get you."

"Layla gets it, I see." Ollie checked the wall clock, which now read 13:15. "All right, I’ll leave you two in peace. Gonna try the next room. If you get stuck, I’ll be on this floor."

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⋆˚࿔ Coming right up: "Making a Sound" ... ⤵︎ [!]