For the rest of PE, they divided the training hall into a few smaller sections and played volleyball in groups. Much to Blythe’s relief, Daisy was in a completely different section, so she didn’t have to interact with her at all.

  Blythe made an honest effort to participate in the game, moving around to hit the ball back whenever she could. At first, her teammates running around to cover the entire area of their side, as though expecting her to slack off and not contribute. After some time, they seemed to noticed her efforts and took her position on the court into consideration as they played against the opposing team.

  One of them was Gemma, whose brown squirrel clung onto her shoulder for dear life as she ran about on the court to hit the ball. Gemma eyed Blythe with some concern when she tottered across the floor, already worn out from the ‘warm up’ earlier.

  “Are you alright?” she asked.

  Blythe waved her off, bending slightly to rest her hands on her knees. “I’m … fine! Thank … you.”

  Her body was so weak it was shameful. She needed to do something about it.

  The ragged breaths she had to take in between words probably made her come across as unconvincing, but the volleyball was being swatted back onto their side of the court. Gemma was forced to turn her attention back onto the game. The game closed with a win on the other side, likely because Blythe was deadweight for all that she tried to participate. Reactions from both teams were mild, small smiles surfacing on the faces of the girls on the opposing team, and nonchalant expressions on Blythe’s teammates.

  As they gathered together at the end, the sense of camaraderie brewed up from the team effort displayed in the volleyball game today settled over the group of girls. Blythe pulled up all their profile information windows to check on their names.

  “You did a great job today,” Natalie said to Gemma. “Thanks for covering me, Gemma.”

  Gemma ducked her head, a pleased smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Blythe felt guilty for having listened to Jessica and Sophie gossip about her ineptitude regarding her squirrel. She seemed like a perfectly nice girl.

  Yvette, a girl with bright orange hair that reached down to her shoulders in wavy curls, turned to Blythe. “It was a welcome surprise to have you on our team today.”

  Blythe smiled back.

  Another girl, Margaret, said, “I enjoyed playing with you, Blythe.”

  “I enjoyed teaming up with everyone,” she replied.

  “I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen you participate in PE over the years,” Jacqueline said, doing some calf stretches. “Glad you joined us, though. What changed your mind?”

  Jacqueline was also the daughter of a duke, which explained why she was so comfortable being blunt. She’d scored most of the points their team had earned, showing off her athletic prowess. Her shoulder-length, dark green hair was in a French braid, keeping her hair out of her face as she worked on her cool-down exercises.

  “I’ve set a new personal goal of becoming healthier,” she said, trying to ignore how jelly-like her legs had become. “That requires regular exercise, so I’ll be participating in PE classes from now on.”

  That earned her looks of surprise from the girls around her.

  “That’s a mature goal to aspire to,” Yvette said, smiling.

  Despite her scoff, Jacqueline was smiling. “You sound like my mother.”

  “Jacqueline!” Yvette turned to her with a scandalized look and hands on her hips.

  “Relax, Yvette,” Jacqueline drawled, straightening up and stretching her arms this time. “It’s not an insult. My mother’s in great shape. She’s fitter than I am. You will be too, if you’re determined enough.”

  Blythe nodded, liking how comfortable Jacqueline was with addressing her. While nice, the other girls spoke to her delicately, as if she might bite their heads off without warning.

  “I am,” she said resolutely.

  For a couple of seconds, they all smiled at each other. Then Instructor Grandville called them back to do some cool-down exercises together, drawing their attention away from Blythe.

  Most of the girls took a shower in the separate shower cubicles in the locker room, with just a few choosing not to shower. Since Jessica and Sophie hadn’t participated, they didn’t need one. They insisted on waiting for her in the locker room, however.

  As the warm water washed away the fatigue in her muscles, Blythe sighed happily. If the showers had been separated by cubicles at her old high school, she’d have actually used them. She’d always hated walking around all sticky with sweat after working out.

  She was a little disappointed that neither her stamina or strength stat had changed after the class, but she tried to temper her expectations. It had been only one workout, after all. Building muscle or endurance required time.

  Refreshed and rejuvenated, Blythe stepped out of the shower cubicle and met her friends by the bench they were seated on. They left the activities block together.

  “We heard this amazing piece of information from Veronica earlier,” Jessica whispered conspiratorially, leaning closer to Blythe as she did so. “Her uncle is on the school board, and he told her that Novalbus will be establishing a new annual event starting from this year.”

  Blythe stared. “Can … can she just divulge it like that?”

  Pouting, Sophie said, “We’ll keep it a secret. It’s more fun to be in the know while everyone else gets surprised with the news during the school-wide assembly next week.”

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  “Her standing invitation to your garden tea parties is the reason she told us,” Jessica said. “She made us promise to share this with you. Not that we’d ever have kept it from you even if she didn’t, of course.”

  Blythe’s entire body stiffened. She’d nearly forgotten about the garden tea parties mentioned in the original Blythe’s diary. She could feign losing interest in throwing them as part of her new persona, right? That would work, wouldn’t it? But from what Jessica had said, it seemed to grant Blythe a lot of privileges and benefits as well.

  She shelved the idea for now. She had no clue what even went into planning something like a tea party. The only time she’d gathered with one person back in her original world was during school group projects or family events.

  “So what’s this new annual event?” she asked, pushing aside the uneasiness stirring up in her gut.

  “It’s a winter dance,” Sophie said, her voice escalating into a squeal at the end. “And here’s the twist—the girls have to ask the boys!”

  Her stomach dropped.

  Wait a second. These dances are optional, right? Right?

  “We know you’ll ask His Highness, but isn’t it so thrilling that the roles will be reversed for this new dance?”

  Blythe smiled weakly. “Absolutely.”

  As they walked, they chattered on about whom they would want to invite, Jessica obviously having her sights set on Clyde, and Sophie considering aloud the eligible boys in their year.

  They didn’t have the same Botany IV class with Blythe, so she waved sadly at them while they went up the wide steps back into the classroom building.

  Thanks to the game, she knew that the greenhouse was behind the purple dormitory building. Now that she was alone, she relaxed a little. People whom she passed by in the courtyard smiled, and she smiled back once she realized they were acknowledging her. She wasn’t used to people smiling, nodding or waving at her when she passed them in school.

  She followed the cobblestone path that led behind the purple building. The greenhouse was as large as described in the game—it was about as long and wide as the building it was behind. Even from the outside, she could see various kinds of potted plants and plants growing in the soil, the green leaves of which grew tall and reached a few good feet.

  The students who’d made it just before her pushed open the glass door of the large greenhouse building and went in. She followed them in and was hit with the humid atmosphere. The heady scent of various kinds of flowers, along with a humid and earthy smell, startled her. She hadn’t been much of a nature girl back in her original world.

  There was a section further in with several rows of tall, wooden workbenches that were already occupied with students. Professor Cartwright stood in front of them, wearing what looked like a white lab coat with black slacks. One of the cuckoo clocks Blythe was getting accustomed to seeing on the walls sat on the professor’s workbench.

  She chose a random empty workbench and sat down on the nearest utility stool. Students continued to enter the greenhouse.

  Heavy, impactful footsteps drew nearer, and she looked up from the textbook she’d been flipping through. An extremely familiar-looking guy wearing an equally familiar scowl stomped past the aisle and chose an empty workbench a couple of rows behind hers. Blythe immediately pulled up his profile.

  She knew she hadn’t been mistaken. Giovanni was the tsundere love interest with a green thumb in the game. She’d saved the game at his romantic scenarios, replaying them whenever she’d had a bad day. To think that Blythe was in the same class as Giovanni. He was such a fun character to read. She wondered if she’d get to personally witness his idiosyncrasy today.

  She nearly jumped out of her skin when his forest-green eyes met hers and one of his eyebrows twitched. He leaned forward, squinting at her as he pushed his thick brown hair back from his forehead.

  She’d been too engrossed in confirming who he was to notice she’d been staring. Heart pounding from getting caught, she shifted her attention back to the textbook on her workbench.

  To Blythe’s dismay, Magnus came striding in with his elegant gait. As he glanced around the room, he locked eyes with Blythe. Without hesitation, he went straight for her workbench and sat down on the vacant stool beside hers.

  Blythe screamed internally.

  Why would you sit next to me when you hate me so much?!

  She sat there frozen for half a second, watching him place his bag on top of the empty workbench.

  “Good morning, Blythe,” he said, turning his head in her direction.

  His smile didn’t reach his eyes.

  Lamenting inwardly once again that her friends weren’t in this class with her, Blythe pulled a fake smile to her face. “Good morning, Magnus.”

  She hovered her face over her textbook this time, trying to look fascinated by its contents. There was a diagram of a plant on the page she’d opened to, but none of the information written down entered her brain.

  Just when she thought that was the end of the interaction, Magnus spoke again.

  “Am I right in assuming that you won’t need a ride back after classes today?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Thank you for asking, but I’ll be going home in my family carriage.”

  Suddenly, his face appeared right before hers, barely a few inches away. He’d gone out of his way to bend his head down and twist his neck to get in her face.

  Her heart stopped at the jump scare.

  “What are you scheming now?” His voice was deep.

  Pulling back in one quick motion, she shrank away from him with her hands on her chest.

  “Nothing! I know you don’t believe me, but I truly want to give you a break. It can’t be easy, getting up early just to come to my place for breakfast in the morning before classes start.”

  He stayed where he was, leaning over from his own seat. At least he raised his head. With his controlled, neutral expression, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

  “And is that all this is about?”

  “Yes! That’s all. I’m not scheming anything.”

  “Very well.” Drawing back, he returned her some of her personal space. “I see that I won’t be getting any other answer from you. I’ll take your word for it … for now.”

  She just wanted to be freed of this guy already. In the game, Magnus officially broke off the engagement with Blythe after the murder attempt, which took place in their final year of Novalbus. She couldn’t hold on for that long. No, scratch that—she wouldn’t want to trigger the murder attempt event to begin with!

  Maybe she could subtly bring up the idea of breaking it off when the situation was right. There was no way Magnus wanted to stay engaged to someone he couldn’t stand being in the presence of. Even the game had made that clear.

  A thought popped up in her head. She cleared her throat, and he looked over once more.

  “I should at least mention this to you—I’ve decided to become a boarder instead of a day student. My parents have already agreed to speak with the principal and make the arrangements.”

  For once, his composure broke enough so she could see the surprise hiding underneath. His striking blue eyes widened, and his clenched jaw went slack.

  “I see. Why? You have been adamantly against this since we enrolled in the school.”

  She braced herself against the fresh wave of frustration crashing against her. She had to start getting used to the original Blythe making things difficult for her.

  “Do you remember what I said about wanting to be more mature? I want to work toward that goal and become a better person, and staying in school would help me to focus on my studies better.”

  “And this better person you’re striving to become just throws her food willy-nilly at classmates she dislikes?”

  She couldn’t help it. Her eyes hardened into a glare.

  Magnus: Why is she lying?