“See you, Magnus,” Blythe said pleasantly when their art class ended.

  “Have a good day, Your Highness,” Jessica said.

  It was her last class with Magnus for the day. They’d just walked out of the classroom together, with Jessica trailing behind her. The hallway was filled with their other classmates who were either hurrying to their next destination or taking their sweet time walking.

  He nodded at her and Jessica. “See you tomorrow.”

  After he turned and left, Blythe looked at her friend. They both had a free period right now.

  “I’m going to the library,” she said. “I have to do some studying.”

  Jessica nodded. “I’ll send a message to Sophie.”

  Once that was done, they headed for the staircase.

  “You’re studying so much more than before. You used to even feign illness at home to skip classes. It really feels like you’re another person.”

  “Really? I just feel motivated to work hard now.” She didn’t have a choice—if she wanted to make decent grades, she had to keep pushing forward.

  “Did your physician say anything about the changes in your thinking?” Jessica looked worried. “Of course, you don’t have to share if it’s too personal. I’m just concerned.”

  Oops. Was this the consequence of blaming one too many behavioral differences on hitting her head?

  “Everything’s fine,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. “There’s nothing to be worried about. But thanks for your concern, Jess. You’re so sweet.”

  She got a green light for that.

  “Well, of course! We’re best friends, after all!”

  A girl in pigtails and huge glasses—Blythe recognized her as Alice, the girl who’d walked in on their serious conversation in the restroom—bowed her head and greeted them both as she passed by. Blythe took her cue from Jessica, giving her a quick smile and wave.

  She seized the opportunity to check her profile. Alice’s status simply read as ‘commoner’. Although she was slightly curious about Alice, she didn’t want to ask Jessica about every little thing. It wouldn’t do to have her think she’d basically lost all her memories.

  Jessica spoke up again, jolting her out of her thoughts. “Speaking of being different, you really are giving His Highness a lot of space. He looked like he wanted to talk to you before Art class started earlier, but you were too busy reading ahead in your textbook to notice. I know you have a good reason for giving him space like you said, but it felt so strange seeing that.”

  “Well … absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?” Blythe grinned at Jessica. “I think that would help both Magnus and me.”

  It was a tired cliche, but she just needed something to brush off Jessica’s concerns.

  “I suppose that does make sense.”

  They walked down the stairs. A bird call, just loud enough to be annoying yet not be ear-piercing, resonated through the hall. It repeated at one-second intervals, looping over and over.

  Blythe made a face. “What is that sound?”

  She heard someone from a distance yelp, “Oh no!”

  A few chuckles sounded down the hall, but they were still descending the stairs so Blythe couldn’t see what was happening.

  “Oh, did you forget about that?” Jessica glanced at her in surprise. “It’s the alarm that sounds when you don’t return a hall pass in time. I think whoever’s holding it now must be running back to class.”

  Since she’d already revealed her cluelessness about this, Blythe went ahead and asked for details. “Does anything happen if you’re late to return the hall pass?”

  “It’s the same as when you skip classes without a legitimate excuse,” Jessica said. “You get a demerit point. Seven demerit points and you lose facilities privileges for a week.”

  Blythe raised her eyebrows. That didn’t sound like the worst punishment in the world.

  Jessica seemed to read her expression, because she said, “The real consequence is the alarm sounding. People hate when their peace and quiet is disrupted by a hall pass or library book. Ophelia was teased for three months. No one will say anything if it’s you, though.”

  They met Sophie at the library café, and they all ordered a drink each before sitting down with their books and homework. All the studying made Blythe hungry, so she kept getting up to get a snack. First, she got a quiche, and then she returned for a raisin scone.

  “You must be very hungry,” Sophie said, staring at her cherry-flavored stick candy when she returned with her latest order.

  “Starving,” she agreed, plopping herself back down on her chair. “Studying always makes me hungry.”

  Jessica peeked over the top of her textbook at Sophie, her glance shifting to Blythe’s face before she returned it to her textbook.

  “Want a piece?” Blythe asked, not knowing what else to say.

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  She refused to eat less purely because the original Blythe did. That just wasn’t going to work when her stomach was growling for sustenance.

  “Um …”

  Before Sophie could manage to say anything else, Blythe broke off a piece of the stick candy and offered it to her. “Here. It’s really good.”

  Sophie looked conflicted for a total of two seconds before accepting it. “Thank you.”

  It caught Blythe by surprise, but she was pleased. She liked eating snacks with a friend. Compared to Jessica, Sophie was less strict about her diet.

  ???

  After her free period ended, Blythe went to her Accounting I class by herself.

  Although she didn’t recognize anyone in the classroom, a few of them smiled at her and greeted her. They were all girls—the boys seemed to be avoiding eye contact with her, although they nodded and acknowledged her if she happened to catch their eye.

  Judging from how spooked the random male classmate when she’d thanked him for moving aside in Botany class last week, she had an inkling why. The original Blythe probably didn’t care for socializing with the boys.

  As she usually did in the classes she didn’t have either Jessica or Sophie to sit with, she picked a seat near the back of the classroom. She pulled out her accounting textbook. She’d read a little ahead last night, so she reviewed those same pages again.

  She was so absorbed in trying to understand a concept that she jumped at the sound of a delicate voice next to her.

  “Um, good afternoon, Blythe.”

  She raised her head.

  Shock surged through her veins at the sight of Daisy’s hesitant smile.

  “May I sit here?” Daisy tucked her ash-blonde hair behind one ear while gesturing at the empty desk next to Blythe with her other hand. “If, um, that’s alright with you.”

  Blythe’s mouth fell open.

  This had never happened in the game.

  Even if she’d gone out of her way to apologize and smile at Daisy lately, this was no reason for Daisy to think she could befriend her. After all, she’d been bullied by Blythe’s lackeys for the past three years.

  Was she that desperate for friends?

  She noticed Daisy hadn’t asked if the seat was occupied—she’d probably learned her lesson with those snide girls in the dining hall the other day.

  “Sure,” she said, waving at the desk. “Go ahead.”

  A flash of green light.

  As though she’d been expecting a completely different answer, Daisy’s head jerked back.

  With an astounded stare, she said faintly, “Thank you.”

  After Daisy sat down, Blythe thought that was the end of it.

  Instead, Daisy turned to her and asked, her tone cautious, “You rarely sit in the back, do you?”

  What was going on? Was she trying to make small talk?

  Blythe released the page corner grasped between her thumb and index finger, staring speechlessly at Daisy.

  “Yeah,” she said finally. “I wanted a change of pace. You, uh, don’t normally sit here either.”

  The beautiful sparkle in Daisy’s blue eyes was constant—even as she smiled sweetly, her eyes turning into little crescents, Blythe could see it. Even Magnus’ striking blue eyes or Cole’s electric-blue eyes didn’t have that.

  “I thought,” Daisy said, looking both anxious and hopeful at once, “that I could perhaps sit beside you if you didn’t mind.”

  At this point, Blythe just felt bad. “Yeah, I don’t mind.”

  She was fairly certain there were other people Daisy could sit next to, even if they were mostly guys, but it wasn’t her place of say it.

  Daisy beamed. “Thank you. I really appreciate it. Um, if you don’t mind, could I ask why you want a change of pace?”

  She really was trying to make conversation.

  Confused, Blythe replied, “I just felt like it.”

  Of course, the main reason Blythe sat by herself was because she didn’t want to risk giving away her lack of understanding of her relationship between the people who acknowledged her. If they were barely acquaintances, it would be awkward to try to sit with them. If the original Blythe actually knew them, it would be too easy to make a mistake when talking to them.

  She’d rather come off as aloof than clueless.

  Since Daisy wanted a conversation, she’d grant her one. A question for a question was fair, wasn’t it?

  “Why did you want to sit beside me?”

  “You’re the friendliest face in the room. I wanted to see if we could, um, become better acquainted with each other, if that doesn’t offend you?”

  Blythe could only gawk.

  “I’m flattered,” she said. “You think I’m the friendliest face in this room?”

  She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head in the direction of a bunch of boys who were looking and smiling at Daisy.

  Daisy’s smile turned strained. “They don’t quite count. I’m not sure they only want to be friends.”

  Blythe winced. “That’s fair. Alright.”

  While she didn’t know what it was like to be surrounded only by admirers with no real friend in sight, Blythe could imagine that it would feel lonely.

  “Would it … offend you?” Daisy asked again.

  “I’m not offended,” she began, then realized she couldn’t continue the sentence.

  There were so many reasons this was a bad idea.

  No matter how much she tried to convince them with logic and reason, her closest friends were determined to hate Daisy’s guts. She had no idea how to handle the whole situation if she befriended Daisy and ended up being forced to bully Daisy again.

  For that same reason, she couldn’t ditch her best friends for Daisy just to stand up for her—Daisy wouldn’t want to have anything to do with her if she harassed her again, and then she would just be alone. Furthermore, she would be incurring the wrath of two gaslighters who didn’t hesitate to make the lives of their enemies miserable. She wished she were the kind of person who would stand up for the right thing regardless of how difficult the circumstances would become for her as a result, but the thought of being socially murdered swept waves of dread through her insides, leaving her cold.

  On the other hand, maybe she wouldn’t be forced to bully Daisy, and she would be able to stand up for her just fine. But there was a chance Sophie and Jessica would hate Daisy so much for ‘stealing’ Blythe’s attention that they would hatch some kind of horrible plot to devastate Daisy, or maybe even both of them. Sure, she was the daughter of a duke, so they might not be able to work against her so openly, but she just knew they would come up with something awful to make her regret it.

  Also, she would be a terrible friend if she stayed friends with the people who was bullying her friend, so befriending Daisy while knowing her other friends would break her spirit if they could would just be weird. But Jessica and Sophie had helped her so much. She didn’t want to lose their friendship.

  There were too many unknown factors, and Blythe was getting a headache thinking about it.

  Daisy was still looking at her with hopeful, sparkly eyes.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to be friends …”

  Immediately, her smile dimmed, and Daisy dropped her gaze.

  “I understand,” she said quietly.

  “You are aware that Jessica and Sophie are my best friends, aren’t you?” Daisy’s request was baffling in and of itself.

  Looking up again, Daisy said, “I am. Please be assured that I’m not seeking to replace them.”

  “So why would you still want to be my friend? I doubt you’d want to have lunch with them.”

  She couldn’t even imagine what Jessica’s and Sophie’s reactions would be like if she suggested that Daisy joined them.

  “I thought your friendship with them could be separate from mine and yours.”

  Blythe frowned. “How would that work?”

  “We could talk only when you’re not with them,” Daisy suggested.

  “And you’re fine with that?”

  Daisy nodded hastily. “I am!”

  Seeing the hope in Daisy’s eyes just made Blythe feel bad all over again. Saying yes could potentially open up a whole can of worms she wasn’t ready to handle. Saying no would make her feel like a horrible person for turning down such a humble request.

  Either way, she would feel terrible. She might as well pick the option that made her feel like she was doing something good.

  “We can try …” she said, and Daisy’s face instantly lit up with a huge smile.

  She got another green flash.

  “Thank you so much!”