interested.”
“I’ll be there.”
Gor gives Pard a quizzical look.
Miles shrugs and flicks his head toward Pard. “Advanced mathematics question.”
Gor nods, Miles’s explanation sufficient, he turns away and descends the rest of the stairs.
Pard seizes the opportunity of Miles’s distraction to escape.
Miles realizes Pard is fleeing and his athletic legs spring forward, propelling his body up the stairs after Pard. Free from a stack of heavy textbooks, it makes it easy for Miles to catch up. He lunges up the stairs two at a time until he is right next to Pard.
Pard glances to the side. “Don’t you ever give up?”
“No.” Miles gives Pard a cocky grin. “I am a lower lord of the North, and we don’t give up so easily.”
“Okay, lower lord of the North, I’m still not tutoring you. I don’t have time, besides, I may not even be at this school much longer the way things are going.”
“The whole Yitch and the cat thing?”
“ Yeah , the cat thing.”
“Well, you didn’t do it, did you?”
Pard snaps to a stop and mockingly tilts his head to the side. “What do you think?”
Miles mimics Pard as he scans Pard’s face. “I’m still deciding, professor.”
Pard snorts and turns away.
Miles snaps forward and grips Pard’s robe at the neckline.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Pard jerks away.
“Hold still or it will rip.”
“Let go of me, Miles.”
Miles slips down the neckline exposing the black circular mark singed on Pard’s back. Miles immediately lets go of the fabric and backs away. His jaw drops and eyes widen. “No way, holy shit.”
Pard, startled, stumbles to the side and bounces off the marble bannister, almost falling over and dropping his stack of books. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Professor, you’re a seeros.”
“ A what ?”
“A seeros. Ha , you’ve got to be joking. The smartest kid in this whole school and I know something you don’t, nice .” Pleased with himself, Miles rubs his chest with his knuckles.
Pard adjusts his books and again ascends the stairs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of any seeros.”
Miles follows Pard. “Dang, so you really fried Yitch’s cat, bummer.”
Pard sneers at Miles. “If you’re so sure, then what makes you think I won’t fry you ?”
Miles stutter steps as Pard’s words hit him. “ Umm —” He shakes it off and races up the stairs.
Pard reaches the fourth floor and makes a sharp left turn down the corridor leading to his room.
“ Humph ,” Miles says, striding with head held high, “so this is what the servant’s floor looks like. I’ve never been up here.”
Pard doesn’t look or respond to Miles.
Miles jumps in front of Pard and strides backward. He tilts his head to the side in an annoying way as if a toddler wanting to play and won’t leave you alone until he gets his way. “So what do you say, tutor me?”
Pard nudges by Miles as he reaches the end of the hallway. “I can’t leave my room except for class and dining hours.”
“And who made those rules?”
Pard slides his key into the lock. “Yitch.”
“So you obey Lord Yitch’s rules and be the nob. Here I thought you were one of the cool kids that didn’t give a lick what he thinks.”
“I don’t.”
“Then tutor me?”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Pard leans in, mocking Miles. “Well we need somewhere to go in the castle if I’m going to tutor you, lower lord of the North.”
Miles chuckles. “Tutor? In the castle ? No way, I can’t let anyone know I’m getting tutored, and especially by you.”
Pard furrows his brow and opens his bedroom door. “And what’s wrong with me?”
Miles backs away. “Nothing, nothing’s wrong with you. But I still have a reputation to uphold and I can’t let people know I’m getting tutored, it’s embarrassing, I should just know this stuff. We have to leave the castle grounds—staying in Fairstone is too
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