Blythe was so sick of this guy.

  “I already apologized to Daisy yesterday,” she said, staring straight into Magnus’ eyes. “You can ask her if you don’t believe me.”

  He openly goggled at her this time.

  “You apologized?”

  She resisted the urge to snap at him. “Yes. I truly don’t mean her any harm, and I wanted her to know that.”

  “I … I see.” He cleared his throat, regaining his composure. “I think I will ask Daisy to confirm this.”

  For some reason, he seemed to watching her closely.

  Nodding, she said, “Great.”

  His frown was uncertain. Did he think she was bluffing? It would be an incredibly short-sighted move, considering how easy it would be to uncover the truth.

  The blue bird in the cuckoo clock sang, and Professor Cartwright called for everyone to settle down. To Blythe’s surprise, he asked for Giovanni’s help. The brown-haired boy readily walked up to the row of identical potted plants on a raised wooden shelf at the side and began helping Professor Cartwright to distribute one to each workbench. While he distributed them to the workbenches on the left side, their professor handled the workbenches on the right.

  As he placed each potted plant down on a workbench, Giovanni scowled at anyone who dared to meet his eyes. His defensive and easily embarrassed nature made it hard for him to befriend people. Blythe had a soft spot for his character in the game—she knew what it was like to have a hard time making friends.

  “Thank you,” she said automatically when he set down the potted plant on her workbench with Magnus.

  Instantly, he drew back and stared at Blythe as though she was an alien. His usual scowl was displaced by his bewilderment.

  Right. She’d forgotten that the original Blythe had probably never thanked another student as a form of courtesy. It was why Jessica and Sophie had been so taken aback and commented on her politeness as well.

  At the sudden attention, she shifted uncomfortably in her seat and lowered her gaze to the plant. The diameter of the pot was about six inches, a very portable size. Its small blue leaves were star-shaped, and there were a few small white buds popping up from among the leaves.

  “Thank you, Giovanni,” Magnus said.

  After muttering a quick ‘you’re welcome’, Giovanni hurried back to the shelf to grab more of the plants.

  Once every workbench had a potted plant, and Giovanni was back in his seat, Professor Cartwright asked, “Does anyone know what this plant is and what it’s commonly used for?”

  Several students’ hands shot up.

  “Mr. Verity,“ Professor Cartwright said, causing the faces of the other volunteers to fall.

  Blythe was caught off-guard by the students’ enthusiasm.

  “It’s a lyovent,” the black-haired boy said. “The leaf extractions are used to help with insomnia.”

  “Excellent.” He smiled at Verity and offered a large glass jar of colorful foil-wrapped candy to him. “That’s correct.”

  Verity eagerly reached into it and pulled out a gold foil wrapped candy. Professor Cartwright returned the jar to his workbench next to the cuckoo clock. As it made contact with the wooden surface, it thunked.

  Blythe raised her eyebrows. What was so special about the candy that a bunch of students would fight to answer a question? Maybe a couple of her classmates in her original world would get excited at the prospect of free candy, but by and large they all had easy access to candy. On the other hand, these students were the children of nobility and wealthy merchants—she didn’t think they needed participation candy.

  He instructed everyone to open their botany textbook to page twenty. The following few pages of the textbook detailed the characteristics of the lyovent herb that was on everyone’s workbench, as well as its growth cycle, medicinal uses, and required environmental conditions for growth.

  “It’s all well and good to know the characteristics of a plant and its functions or uses,” Professor Cartwright said, sweeping his gaze over the students. “We have been focusing on that for the past three years. However, if we’re unable to identify the plant in real life, our theoretical knowledge is as good as useless. Pictures give us a general idea of what it looks like, but many plants have lookalikes, and examining the real thing is essential to honing your ability to identify and distinguish one plant from another.”

  They were instructed to closely study the herb’s appearance and to compare it with the textbook’s description of its distinctive features. Afterward, they were to go to the section of the greenhouse with the lyovent lookalikes to familiarize themselves with the differences.

  Blythe bent down to scrutinize the lyovent, gingerly lifting a leaf with her fingers.

  According to the picture and description provided in the textbook, the leaf tips were ever-so-slightly rounded, and the vibrant blue of the leaf faded into the deep green at the edges. This matched with the leaves she could see on this plant. She checked the stem, noting its flexible, green stem and the small wooden stake tied to the stem as support.

  She underlined the key phrases under the physical description in the textbook, smiling in delight as green ink flowed out of the nib of the bamboo fountain pen. The original Blythe had so many nice things. She wanted to test out the other pens when she got home.

  Gradually, she became conscious of Magnus’ stare burning holes through her head. She really did not want to look up and meet his gaze.

  Annoyed, she capped the pen and used it to meander through the words on the page, pretending to be taking in the details. When several seconds had passed and he was still looking at her, she braced herself before raising her head.

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  “Yes?”

  With the way that he was staring at her, one would think that she was the lyovent.

  Fidgeting with the page in between her thumb and index finger, she broke eye contact to focus her attention on the plant instead.

  “Since when are you …” He turned away his head away. “Never mind.”

  Too annoyed to be curious about whatever he was thinking, Blythe decided to ignore him and continued studying the plant. Eventually, Magnus snapped out of whatever thoughts that were keeping him from focusing on the task at hand and did the same.

  A few of the students, who were quick to finish with their examination of the herb, stood up and walked a few feet away to the rows of potted plants with the lyovent lookalikes. Now that she felt relatively confident of her knowledge of the lyovent’s features, Blythe rose to her feet.

  Magnus stood up as well.

  Anxiety seized her torso, making her whole body stiffen as she cast a sidelong glance at him.

  Why did he stand up at the same time as her? Was he already done looking at the plant even though he’d spent a lot of that time gazing at her instead? Had he just been waiting for her to be done? But this was a class. If he was already done, he should’ve just gone by himself to check out the lookalikes.

  It was like having a personal jailer observe her every move.

  Sure enough, he trailed behind her as she walked up to the plants the other students were crowding around.

  Of course, Giovanni was already there, looking uninterested as he glanced over the various potted plants with his arms crossed. Blythe hadn’t witnessed it, but he was probably the first to make his way there. As the green thumb love interest, he spent most of his spare time in the school garden and greenhouse tending to the plants and his personal projects.

  He likely already knew all there was to know about the lyovent herb and its lookalikes. As Blythe approached the wooden shelf the potted lookalike plants were on, Giovanni turned on his heel and left for his workbench. One of the students to Blythe’s right noticed her presence and shuffled slightly to the side so as to make room for her.

  She offered him a grateful smile. Once again, she was doused with a cold dose of reality when he looked shocked and scuttled to the other side entirely. In the short term, people would likely assume something was wrong when she tried to be friendly. She had to try to remember that and set her sights on her long-term goal: getting everyone accustomed to her ‘new’ personality.

  Magnus stepped into the space that classmate had vacated and began studying one of the plants.

  Blythe was checking out the second lookalike when a cheerful jingle abruptly pierced the relatively quiet air in the greenhouse. A clear, feminine voice that was loud enough to be carried throughout the room soon followed. She whipped her head around, but just like with the music in school bathrooms, there were no speakers in sight.

  “Will Blythe Ridge please report to the principal’s office immediately? I repeat, will Blythe Ridge please report to the principal’s office immediately.”

  A deafening silence fell over the greenhouse. Even Professor Cartwright turned to look at her.

  “Well, Miss Ridge, you had best be off.”

  Well aware of everyone’s eyes on her, Blythe slowly got to her feet.

  She walked up to the professor and said hesitantly, “Professor, the hall pass …”

  Nonplussed, he stared back at her. “It’s a school-wide announcement. You won’t need a hall pass.”

  As if stung, she drew back sharply. “Oh, right. Of course.”

  She was an idiot. Now everyone knew how clueless she was.

  Ignoring the stares, she whirled around and strode out of the greenhouse, willing her legs not to break into a sprint.

  Quickly, she made her way to the classroom building where the principal’s office was. She walked past the secretary’s office just next to his. When she arrived outside the wooden double doors, she knocked just once with her knuckles.

  “Principal Montague, it’s Blythe Ridge.”

  Since he played a big role in the game, she still remembered his name—Seamus Montague. She wouldn’t need to pull up his profile information window for that.

  Principal Montague’s genial voice came out from inside. “Come in, come in!”

  Turning the knob of one of the doors, she went in. It looked just as spacious as it did in the game, with a large bookshelf spanning the entire wall on the left on and a coffee table and couple of couches taking up a small area on the other side of the office. She strode past the area to stand in front of his walnut office desk.

  The school principal, seated in his black leather recliner behind the enormous desk, gave her a welcoming smile as he set down a pen he was holding. Despite being in his fifties, he was all broad shoulders and sharp angles, with a strong jaw that showed off his handsome and aristocratic facial features. His short, light blond hair was tidy, and his bright blue eyes seemed to smile along with his mouth.

  Before Blythe had learned he was Daisy’s maternal grandfather, she wondered why the game developers designed his character this way. Of course, after she was armed with that knowledge, she no longer stared at her laptop screen in confusion whenever his character sprite showed up.

  “Good morning, Miss Ridge. Please, take a seat!”

  “Good morning, Principal Montague.” The words came out almost mechanically as she smiled back at him. She sat down on the guest chair he was gesturing to in front of his desk.

  “I trust you’re enjoying your time at Novalbus so far?”

  “It’s been great.” For a second, Blythe considered if this was about what she’d done to Daisy at the dining hall yesterday, but then he spoke again.

  “That’s wonderful to hear! Now, I’ve received correspondence from your parents to begin the administrative process of changing your status from a day student to a boarder. I’m glad you’re taking this step to immerse more into your student life on campus. I asked you here for administrative purposes. Could you please fill out this form?”

  He handed her a sheet of paper.

  Blythe accepted the pen he offered along with it and quickly scanned through the form. It required her name and year to be filled out, and it consisted of several questions such as the room type she preferred. Eagerly, she ticked the option for a bay window—the asterisk beside it indicated it would cost more, but Blythe figured her parents could afford it. There were also a couple of questions like whether she would want to have her own furniture moved into the room or to use the school’s furniture.

  When she was done with it, she pushed it across the table back to the principal. Turning it around, he looked it over for a few seconds.

  “Excellent. It looks like everything is in order. We’re approaching the weekend here, so your room will be ready by the end of next week. The confirmation letter and other details about boarding life will be sent to your estate. You can prepare to move in over the weekend next week, so you’ll have time to settle in before the start of the following school week. Your parents have also been informed of this, so they can assist you with regard to the moving process.”

  Blythe nodded.

  He beamed at her again. “Well, it’s all settled now. You may go back to class. I look forward to seeing your on-campus student life flourish, Miss Ridge.”

  “Thank you, Principal Montague,” she said, her smile stiff. “Then, I’ll be going now.”

  After she left and closed the door behind her, she checked the wall clock in the hallway. Overall, it had been pretty quick. There were still fifteen minutes until the end of Botany IV. With a soft sigh, she trudged back out of the classroom building and toward the greenhouse. She’d been hoping it would be just in time for lunch period.

  Magnus was waiting for her at their workbench, his eyes never leaving her as she took her seat again. In fact, the rest of the students were back at their workbenches, and the potted plants were back on the shelf behind Professor Cartwright. It seemed the practical segment of the lesson was over.

  Professor Cartwright was quizzing the class on the side effects of overdosing on lyovent extracts.

  “Why were you called to the principal’s office?” he asked quietly, leaning closer to Blythe as he did so.

  None of your business, she wanted to snap.

  Instead, she breathed in slowly before replying, “The principal needed me to fill in some paperwork for becoming a boarder.”

  Her answer seemed to mollify him, and he stopped burning holes into the side of her face for the rest of the lesson. Not that it meant much, because there were only about ten minutes left. She scooted away from him as inconspicuously as possible.