Inside The House

XVII

It was Sunday before noon when Rayan went to his place. It was immediately after breakfast, which he ate with me in the kitchen, which was filled as usual every morning with the staff of the Von Rostov house. On this occasion he met Ezekiel the cook, Buck the chauffeur, Pyra and Myra he had met the previous evening at dinner, but that did not stop him from having a few words with them. In general, Rayan was acting strangely upon awakening. He was in a good mood, not walking around with his face resembling indifference or constant nervousness. Saying goodbye to the boy, I came to the conclusion that he must have had a good time here. This also annoyed me a bit, because the way my family behaves, how he has a high opinion of himself for me is an everyday occurrence and for him only entertainment for one evening. The boy also told me to thank all the household members for hosting him and wish them good health. Quite culturally, I admit. He washed out of the Von Rostov mansion as quickly as possible so as not to have to meet Kevin. I already knew the Doberman well enough to know that he didn't want to talk to him, not because That he was ashamed or afraid of him. I think he just didn't want to piss me off more. Rayan couldn't let go of Kevin and Kevin's banter with each other last night at dinner, and he knew I'd probably have a conversation with my future half-brother about smoking marijuana. So he slipped away so as not to make even more trouble for me on that account. As it turned out later, it was a good decision.

Kevin was acting very strangely until noon when we saw each other. Before noon we went out to shoot at a target because Kevin was leaving for the Royal Military Academy tomorrow. The first day he showed up at his family's mansion he said he had brought a gun with him. We haven't had a chance to use it yet because somehow there just hasn't been time. Kevin acted like he was trying hard to ignore me. Sometimes he would throw in some weird "are you sure you can shoot in this state? I'm sure he was referring to my marijuana smoking yesterday, but I didn't let him provoke me. I decided that I would just pretend to act normal. This probably irritated him more, because clearly Kevin was very upset that I had spent some time with Rayan. Maybe Kevin thought my classmate was a bad influence on me? However, he didn't directly say what he meant, so I didn't pursue the topic myself or even start it. Maybe he didn't want to say directly what he meant because Aurelia was with us? She was also shooting at the target and she was doing as badly as me. But the teenager is a keen observer, so I bet she also sensed that Kevin had a problem with me. Surprisingly, she didn't ask what he meant. Maybe she wanted to be decent and not ask?

In fact, it kind of looked like Kevin was jealous. I didn't even want to get into the reasons why he might feel jealous of Rayan. In this case, my ignorance seemed far more attractive than the prospect of learning the reasons why the young man was jealous of me. Another option is that I'm adding stories to myself that don't exist. Maybe Kevin just wasn't happy with my irresponsible behavior? Smoking marijuana doesn't sound good, let alone with a boy who just a week ago treated me like the inferior sort. In that case, Kevin would have reason to be angry...but no exaggeration. After all, it's my life, so I can make the decisions I want. I guess.

In the afternoon, I decided it was high time to practice for the dance competition. I'm leaving out the competition that didn't happen or was postponed by the blizzard. I was referring to the one that the coach said was going to be held in the town that Gregory and Buck picked me and my mom up from when we arrived by plane from the United States. Supposedly it's going to be some big event, and I haven't even decided what song I'm going to dance to yet. I had a few ideas and was thinking of different moves. The problem was that with each new song I turned on my headphones, another idea popped into my head, another move and another idea. I couldn't make up my mind, so I wrote down all the ideas in my notebook, which after two hours was all crossed out. I even tried to practice the layouts I came up with. I would watch myself in front of the mirror how it looked, what I was doing with my legs, arms or hips. The question was whether the routines were wrong or if my bruise under my eye was simply disfiguring the whole show I was putting on in front of myself. I thought that if there was an opportunity I would say at the table that in about a week there should be a competition and I am preparing. Apolonia would be sure to hear this and would send Myra for me at night to practice the arrangements. It is not that I feel any sympathy for the old woman. She was simply a good teacher and knew her job.