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“All right, Seb,” Kaiden interrupted, patting him on the shoulder. “Calm down, buddy.”

“Sorry, Queenie,” Sebastian said. “It was just so awesome!”

“Why?” she asked, confused by his reaction.

“We hardly ever get to see Karter fight,” Brendan explained. “We know hecan, and he’ll often demonstrate things in class, but I can’t remember the last time we actually saw him in a full-on proper duel.”

Alex snorted. “I’d hardly call what we were doing ‘fighting’. I got my butt kicked, in case you didn’t notice. What you saw was a picture of my life over the summer holidays.”

Sebastian sighed wistfully. “I’m so jealous.”

Alex shook her head in bemusement.

“You’re wrong, you know,” Kaiden said as they reached the food court. “You fought well, regardless of the outcome.”

She glanced over to find him looking at her with warm eyes.

“Uh, thanks,” she stammered, annoyed that such a simple comment could fluster her. So not cool.

His lips curled up at the corners, almost like he could read her thoughts, and she quickly turned back to the others. “I need to clean up, so I guess I’ll see you all later.”

“See ya, Queenie,” Sebastian said with a final karate-chop.

“You’re not eating?” Declan asked before she could move away. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“No, I’m fine,” Alex lied, but her traitorous stomach chose that moment to grumble loudly. All five of her classmates raised their eyebrows at her, and she added, “I’m just going to eat in the Rec Room tonight.”

She really didn’t want a repeat of her miserable lunchtime experience. Hiding out seemed like a perfect idea to her, at least until the rumour mill died down a little. She knew how these things worked—if she gave it time, people would move on to the next piece of gossip.

“Snack food isn’t very nutritious,” Brendan said. “And the Rec Room doesn’t provide anything else.”

Who did he think he was? Her dad?Yeesh.

“Why don’t you eat with us tonight?” Kaiden offered. “It might be a good idea if we all show a united front.”

Alex looked at him in confusion, but she noticed some of the others nodding their agreement.

“Um… Why?” she asked. “Not that I don’t want to eat with you guys, it’s just… I’m not sure why you think that’s a good idea?”

“Strength in numbers,” Nick said. “People think you and Karter, uh, you know… So, maybe it’ll help dissolve therumours if they see us all together. It’s pretty obvious we’ve just come from Combat. That can only help. If they see we don’t have a problem, then they might realise there’s no truth to what’s being said.”

Alex looked at their messy appearances and knew that, if nothing else, the physical evidence would show they’d just come from Karter’s class. But she wasn’t sure about the rest.

“It can’t hurt to try,” Brendan said.

“Why do you all want to help me?” Alex blurted out.

“Did you see the mood Karter was in when he entered the Arena?” Nick said. “Next time he might take that out on all of us, not just you. It’s for our benefit as much as yours.”

He had a point. And shewasstarving.

“Okay, let’s give it a go.”

Together the six of them entered the food court and were met with the rowdy noises of students fading instantly into silence.

“Awwwkward,” Sebastian muttered from the corner of his mouth as they stood in the entryway with most of the academy staring at them.

Declan leaned closer to Alex and whispered, “This happens every time I walk in here. It’s a consequence of being so devastatingly handsome.”