"Any other issues?" the tall boy asked. "Beyond the obvious."
"The obvious is a rather large point," the second boy said. He had a fabulous voice, deep to the point of mesmerising, despite a dust-dry tone. "But add that the scores should be kept secret until after completion. Knowing how we’ve been rated might change our behaviour. Not that I see any way to stop the girl from marking the one of us she likes most the highest, no matter who has the better technique."
"Will you claim bias if you’re rated last?" the tall boy asked. "Any additions to the challenges?"
"Too many and we’ll end up distracted in the exam period. We need to factor in delays, weeks when we’re busy. And we have more than enough to keep us occupied the last half-term."
"Tuesday and Friday have free study or club activity directly after lunch, so those will be the challenge days. Are you fine with Thursday morning being the second-place decider?"
"What do you want to do for days we can’t row?"
"Rock Paper Scissors?" The tall boy laughed, a soft, throaty sound. "It needs to be something where we’re relatively evenly matched."
"That will do for now. We can alter it later if necessary. The first-place decider we’ll map out week to week—so long as we keep away from our particular areas of strength, there should always be something coming up."
"Which brings us back to the obvious question. If you’re still confident someone suitable will agree."
The boy with the beautiful voice let out a derisive snort. "Rin. It’s us. Every second girl in the school would say yes, so long as we treat her with common courtesy, and it’s kept secret."
"I’m not arguing that point," the tall boy—Rin—replied. "Just whether we can find an every second girl who isn’t chatty."
"True. I can’t think of many who wouldn’t hint heavily to at least one friend. Not to mention one who lacks a boyfriend and a strong opinion about our relative merits. Every second girl is rapidly becoming one in a thousand."
"No opinion of us could only be found among the freshmen," Rin replied. "Where we will not tangle. Among Seniors, there are only a handful who are reasonably likely to judge us equally, yet aren’t a sure recipe for drama and recrimination."
"Hanni, Anika or Shan," the second boy said. "All of them have a detachment that I suspect is necessary."
"Not Anika," Rin said, firmly.
"Hanni’s in love with you, Kyou," added the third boy. "Has been since first year." His voice was terrible, a smoker’s croak out of place with the beauty of his features, but he spoke with utter certainty.
"Well, that leaves Shan. Shall we decide on our approach?"
"I vote for the kitten up the tree," said the third boy. "Nice legs."
Silence, then the others sprang into sight, backing so they could follow the third’s gaze. I didn’t move, except to say: "I’m more Cheshire than kitten," and bit the inside of my cheek to add to my nerve.
The one called Kyou eyed me coldly, while the third boy remained sprawled on his bench. It was left to the tallest, Rin, to laugh gently and say: "Please, give me a moment to be at a loss for words while I think back on all the Completely Innocuous Things we were talking about."
"Would it help to mention that I flipped through that book you’re holding while I was trying to figure out what this place was? What is this place, by the way?"
"The Student Council President’s private garden," Kyou said, voice travelling briefly to Siberia, but then returning to a more pragmatic zone. "And you have the advantage of us. Shall we make polite introductions, then discuss terms?"
"Terms?" I moved from the branch to sit on top of the wall. "Are you thinking of surrendering something?"
"Smallish breasts though," offered sleeping beauty, seemingly unconcerned by any prospect of scandalous gossip.
I helpfully arranged my legs to show them to their best advantage and said: "Before we head down the path of cross-purposes, I’ll mention that I came to this school to cram for my preferred course at Helios U. I’ve no interest in starting my year embroiled in a pointless furore about a…sporting challenge."
Rin’s smile relaxed a little, but Kyou remained on guard. Then he paused, and the edged expression he produced made me shiver.
"But are you interested in challenges?" he asked.
"Really, Kyou?" Rin asked, but he looked up at me in a different way.
"You have to admit a certain serendipity. And Bran’s right about her legs." Kyou smiled up at me. "You’re a transfer into the senior year, yes? Someone who doesn’t know us, with no pre-existing ideas. It’s the best chance we’ll have at anything resembling objectivity, especially if we have nothing to do with each other outside this garden. It would be ideal if we could stay almost strangers, and focus all interaction on the challenges. If you’ve read the book, you know the concept—every Tuesday and Friday over and after lunch until you can make all the ratings. What do you say?"
The twist of his lips and direct gaze were an outright dare, one I refused to blink before, though I had to take a slow breath. My answer should be an automatic no. This was a year where I would have little time to spare, and that conversation had been arrogant to the brink of insufferability. And yet, if I were to look at this pragmatically, this might even be a solution to one of my biggest problems.
"You’d need to give me the results of some amazingly thorough STD screenings before I could even begin to answer that," I said briskly. "I’ll get one too," I added, before they could respond. "After all, you don’t know where I’ve been."
Kyou laughed, somewhere between surprise and appreciation, and said: "Reasonable," but then paused in response to the nearly-inaudible summons of his phone. He looked at the screen, then said: "Winston’s hunting for those uniforms, Bran. Rin, make arrangements for where to put the test results."
Kyou nodded to me as if matters were entirely settled, and headed for the gate. The third boy, with the face of an angel and the voice of a crow, said: "Goodbye, Cheshire," and followed him, leaving me to the one called Rin, who was shaking his head.
Sliding forward off the wall, I landed neatly on the grass, a little closer to him than I expected. I wasn’t used to feeling towered over. His body, all long limbs, could look gangling, but he turned it into articulated grace.
"I only read the list part of the book," I said. "What are the rules?"
Rin looked down at me. "Are you truly thinking of doing this?"
"Thinking being the operative term. A lot will depend on what I hear about you three over the next few days—and the results of the tests. I take it you’re the student council?"
"Part of it. I’m your President, Rin Laurent. The Vice-President decorated the table: Bran Ashten. Kyou is our Treasurer. Kyou Westhaven."
"I’m Mika Niles. This is my first day. I find your school unexpectedly entertaining."
"I, too, am entertained," he said. But then added very steadily: "It will be something to remember, if we go through with it, but absolutely nothing any of us can repeat. I say that as both assurance and threat."
"Give me credit for some measure of intelligence. So, the rules?"
His eyes were tilted, long-lashed, the irises a very pale gold. They were like Champagne-coloured glass when his face was solemn. He surveyed me a moment longer, then nodded.
"Simple enough. Comparative merits for each challenge, with a side-contest of whoever completes all the challenges first winning an individual bonus game worth a single point. Each week we’ll compete among ourselves, and the two who win will present themselves up here on Tuesday and Friday, and try to impress."