After learning about Gavin’s kleptomaniac tendencies, Blythe subsequently gleaned from everyone else’s remarks at the table that bonded beasts typically had one issue or another to be trained out of—explaining Jessica’s and Sophie’s comments about Gemma’s squirrel defecating in places it shouldn’t the other day.

  Cole took up most of Magnus’ attention for the rest of lunch, trying to convince him to become a boarder, even if it was only for a year. He succeeded in his goal—by the end of lunch, Magnus had agreed to go along with his suggestion. Blythe tried not to think too hard about it.

  From the looks of it, Cole would likely try to drag Magnus to hang out with the rest of the guys here during his spare time anyway. Magnus probably wouldn’t have much time to bother with her.

  When her classes ended for the day, Blythe met up with Jessica outside the classroom block. She was looking forward to a little bonding session with her friend.

  First, they stopped by the dining hall to pick up the ingredients they’d ordered. Blythe had brought some ingredients from home, such as a few chocolate bars and chopped pecan nuts, but the rest of the ingredients needed were either too bulky or too infeasible to take to school. Things like heavy cream, butter, vanilla extract, and other necessary ingredients were better obtained directly from the school’s stores. After grabbing the green basket their order came in, they left for the student kitchens floor.

  “Our reservation is for SK5,” Jessica said, striding down the hallway without bothering to check the door plaques.

  Since she took both the Culinary Arts and Patisserie Arts electives, she likely spent enough time on this floor to know her way around.

  She stopped at one of the glass doors that led into their respective kitchens, and placed something that looked like a small stone slab over the black door access control on the wall. A blue glow came from it, then there was a click by the glass door.

  They pushed the door open and went in. As with everything else in this school, it looked more high-end than Blythe’s kitchen at home back in her original world. This sleek, spacious kitchen was all glossy white and shiny metal. Pots and pans either hung from or rested atop a large metal pot rack mounted to the wall. Drawers were clearly labeled with the type of kitchen utensils they contained, ranging from knives to baking tools. The only thing that looked out of place was a colorful poster on the wall reminding students of the correct way to hold a knife and other safety measures.

  After they placed the ingredients from the green basket on the glossy white kitchen countertop, Jessica added the green basket to the small stack of other green baskets already in a metal holder beside the kitchen door.

  When Jessica got out her recipe book from her bag, Blythe took out her own as well.

  “I think we can try making both our recipes concurrently,” Jessica suggested, putting her hair up into a bun. “I can keep an eye on your progress.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Blythe used her own scrunchie to tie up her hair.

  As they got to work preparing the ingredients, Jessica started talking to Blythe about her plans for Valentine’s Day. Apparently, her plans weren’t merely to give Clyde handmade chocolate. She was also plotting to somehow to keep Leah, his old crush, away from him on that day.

  “I mean, what if she tries to give him chocolate too, and he starts liking her again? The only reason he gave up the idea of courting her was because she started entertaining Frederick’s attention. And now she’s back to flirting with Clyde because things between her and Frederick fizzled out. It’s so frustrating to think about. She doesn’t deserve him.” Letting out a tiny gasp, Jessica looked up from the stainless steel measuring cup she was scooping out cocoa powder into. “Oh, I’m sorry, if there’s anything you don’t remember about what I’m saying, please tell me.”

  “No, it’s alright.”

  Truthfully, Blythe enjoyed listening to Jessica’s ramblings about her love life—it was the sort of thing she never really got to hear much about back in her original life, if only because neither she nor Riley ever had the chance to be plagued by any kind of romantic trouble.

  "How are you going to keep Leah away from him, though?"

  “Cynthia still owes me an enormous favor for getting her an invitation to Veronica’s viewing party. Since Leah used to like Cyrus, she’ll probably say yes if he asks her out on Valentine’s.”

  That matter-of-fact statement raised multiple questions in Blythe’s head, but one was a little more pressing than the others.

  “Wait, who’s Cyrus again?” She didn’t see the connection between Jessica’s two sentences.

  Without missing a beat, Jessica provided the information. “He’s Cynthia’s younger brother, a third year student.”

  Blythe frowned in confusion, chopping up her second dark chocolate bar on the wooden cutting board. “And why would he ask her out simply because Cynthia owes you a favor?”

  “Cynthia has something on him.” Jessica combined the butter with the coconut oil into a steel saucepan before putting it on a burner. “He’ll do what she says.”

  Blythe stared.

  “So … she’s going to coerce him into asking out a girl he doesn’t like in order for you to keep Clyde away from her?” For the first time since she’d woken up as Blythe, she could practically see the villainous aura rolling off of Jessica in waves.

  Jessica sighed. “I know; it’s a little convoluted. I was considering having her locked up in one of the janitor closets for a few hours after classes, but someone could pass by and let her out. It’s less risky to have someone distract her for the day.”

  This was why Jessica was one of Blythe’s lackeys.

  Even though Daisy was the only one she showed open disdain to, she evidently had no qualms about eliminating anyone who got in her way. Maybe that was why it was so hard for her to listen whenever Blythe asked her to leave Daisy alone.

  Conflicted between her feelings of goodwill towards her friend—who’d been nothing but helpful and sweet to her so far—and her sheer horror at Jessica’s flippant attitude towards harassment and coercion, Blythe bit her lip as she transferred her chopped-up chocolate bar to a bowl with butter already in it. Then she lifted her head. Noticing her gaze, Jessica looked over and shot her a pleasant smile as though they’d been discussing the weather.

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  Forcing herself to smile back, Blythe said, “Aren’t those methods going too far? I feel like you should let Clyde have the chance to choose you without Leah being out of the picture.”

  Jessica blinked. “Oh. Do you think so? You never thought any of these were too much before.”

  Blythe poured the heavy cream into an empty saucepan and began heating it up on a burner. She was standing right next to Jessica now.

  The more she learned about the original Blythe, the more fatigued she felt.

  “I mean … if Cyrus asks Leah out just to distract her, what’s going to happen after Valentine’s Day? Is he going to say, ‘whoops, I’ve changed my mind’?”

  Jessica did a dainty half-shrug before pouring in the rest of her chocolate ingredients. “What can she do even if he does say that, anyway? She’s just the daughter of a merchant who somehow scraped enough together to afford the school fees here. Cyrus is at least the son of a legendary merchant. Everyone knows about Trevor the Treasure-Trawler in Beryllia. I doubt she can do anything to him.”

  Sensing that Jessica had basically convinced herself the effectiveness of that particular method, Blythe tried to make Clyde the focal point. “You know, Clyde should prove himself to you by not making you compete for his attention. Otherwise, does he really deserve you?”

  At least, that was the love advice she’d seen in romance stories. It coincided with how she felt when the protagonist would have to win her love interest over her love rival.

  Jessica lowered her head, stirring her mixture with a wooden spatula.

  “But I really like him.” Her voice suddenly became tiny. “What if he doesn’t choose me?”

  “Then you deserve someone who would. Do you really want someone who didn’t actively choose you?”

  Admittedly, Blythe wasn’t qualified to give love advice. Her crushes faded just as swiftly as they sparked into existence. Of course, she’d also never spoken to any of her crushes except for that one disastrous attempt in fifth grade.

  The whole reason she was saying all this in the first place was because Jessica’s other potential methods to get Leah out of the picture were alarming.

  “But I only want Clyde. I don’t want anyone else.”

  Blythe didn’t know what to say to that. Did Jessica want comfort? Reassurance? In her original world, she’d overheard a few classmates hype each other up with delusional affirmations about their crushes.

  “I think he likes you too,” she offered, pouring the heavy cream into the bowl of chocolate and butter. “He got so distracted talking to you at lunch that he didn’t notice Gavin stealing his milk right under his nose, didn’t he?”

  Jessica giggled, her tense shoulders going slack. “That was kind of funny.”

  “Trust me,” Blythe insisted. “It’d feel so much better if Leah tries to talk to him again and he turns her down for you.”

  “If you really think he won’t go back to liking her, I’ll listen to you.”

  Jessica poured in some chopped nuts she’d prepared earlier into the mixture. Once everything was mixed nicely, she poured it out into a chocolate bar mold.

  Affecting an air of confidence, Blythe nodded. “Yeah, I do. You should listen to me.”

  She honestly knew nothing about Clyde, but he seemed to enjoy Jessica’s company from the looks of it. Although Blythe felt guilty, she couldn’t let Jessica carry out her other plans without saying anything.

  Jessica’s expression finally brightened up a little as she laughed. “Alright. Let’s see what happens then.”

  When she glanced over at Blythe’s handiwork, her jaw dropped. “Wow, I just realized you …”

  “What is it?” Blythe checked her own bowl, trying to shove down the rising panic in her stomach.

  It looked normal.

  “No, it’s nothing.”

  “It’s obviously not nothing.” Her stomach twisted in ten different ways. “Tell me. Did I do something wrong?”

  “You didn’t,” Jessica reassured her. “Please don’t be offended by this, but I was only surprised you didn’t need my help at all. You’ve been doing everything by yourself!”

  “Well, I merely followed the recipe instructions.” They were straightforward enough. Blythe had followed plenty of recipes back in her original world to make dinner.

  Jessica hummed. “You do tend to struggle a lot even with a recipe to follow, though. Oh, but I don’t mean anything by that!”

  “It could be my amnesia.” Blythe was eager to blame every difference between her and the original Blythe on that.

  Jessica’s eyebrow twitched, but the rest of her face stayed composed. “Does amnesia really help with something like that?”

  “Or maybe I hit my head at the exact spot that changed my processing ability.” She was spouting whatever nonsensical idea that popped into her head at this point. “I mean, it’s possible, right?”

  “I suppose.” Jessica looked doubtful.

  “Anyway, forget that.” Blythe grabbed the first thought that swam into her mind as a new conversation topic to distract her. “Do you know who Erica is? I bumped into her at the library the other day, but I can only, um, remember vague details about her.”

  A small gasp escaped Jessica’s throat, and she clasped one hand to her mouth. “You forgot about Erica?”

  Blythe hastily waved at her. “Not entirely! I still remember that she’s Erica.”

  Not that it was saying much.

  Jessica placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “Do you remember that she’s your maternal cousin? She’s your aunt’s daughter. In fact, you can ask your parents about her. They should be able to tell you more about her than I can.”

  “Alright,” Blythe said, averting her eyes. “Maybe I will.”

  “Oh, but there probably are some things your parents wouldn’t know about Erica.” Jessica grabbed her filled chocolate mold off the counter and strode up to the tall, metallic fridge in a corner of the kitchen.

  Blythe followed her to look at it. It had two doors lined vertically, a smaller one on top reminding her of freezer compartments of regular fridges. There were no wires or power outlets. When Jessica opened the larger bottom door, Blythe could see a circular blue stone, about the size of her palm, embedded into the inner insulated metal wall. It sparkled brightly. Cool air wafted out from the insides of the fridge.

  Jessica put the mold tray onto one of the shelves and closed the door.

  “Erica’s helped you a lot, and you’ve helped her a lot too. Do you remember that?”

  “Refresh my memory?”

  They pulled up a couple of chairs and sat in front of the kitchen counter, Jessica pulling Blythe’s recipe book towards herself to look it over.

  “You’ve been alibis for each other before. When we were being suspected for locking Daisy up in the restroom last year, Erica vouched for us.”

  “Wait, so did we actually do it?”

  “Did you forget that too?” Jessica recoiled, a tinge of shock entering her voice. “Oh, Blythe, I’m so sorry …”

  “It’s fine! I’m sure it’ll come back to me eventually.”

  “We did,” Jessica said, dashing all of Blythe’s hopes in one sentence. Blythe didn’t know why she’d ever expected otherwise. “That’s the reason she had to vouch for us. You helped her too—when Isolde was found in the rose bushes at Ruth’s tea party last year.”

  “And she did it, right?”

  Jessica smirked. “Not according to you.”

  She could see why the original Blythe’s villainous nature was represented in the form of a Villainy skill. She still wondered what the skill did. Suppressing a sigh, Blythe grabbed her bowl of truffle mixture and checked the wall clock. About enough time had passed, so she began stirring it up.

  “I’m so excited for this Saturday!” Jessica squealed, clapping her hands.

  “This Saturday?” Blythe squinted for a second, then realized. “Oh, yeah, I’ll be moving in.”

  “If you’d like, Sophie and I can come to meet you and we could all spend some time together!”

  “Sure. I’ll need some time to unpack, though, so if I have time after that, I’ll let you know.” She was already thinking about what to bring from home.

  Jessica tilted her head to one side. “Aren’t your servants the ones who will be unpacking for you? And you’ll probably have at least five with you to move everything in for you, right?”

  “Um …” You idiot. Of course Blythe wouldn’t do the unpacking herself. Think! Think! “I-I want to stay to supervise, you know? Make sure they put my stuff exactly where I want it. Yeah.”

  Her friend let out a sigh. “True. It’s annoying when my servants get things wrong. I’ll wait for your VocAvis on Saturday, then.”