a sun that never sets

CHAPTER SIXTEEN | BEJEWELLED

THE REST OF the dinner passed fairly quickly and simply. Throughout the meal I continued bickering with Theo and Logan, but it grew more tolerable as time passed. My tolerance against them was starting to build up, and I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

Near the end of the meal most people had left their seats. All three courses had been served, and only the desert had been slightly enjoyable or edible. Yunji found me at my seat, and after a curious glance at Theo beside me, dragged me off so that we could take pictures. It ended with around fifty new photos on my phone's camera roll, which I painstakingly filtered through as the teachers rushed us back to our seats for a final speech from one of our teachers, who was retiring next year.

As we were all about to leave, though, Nicole Yeung walked over, grinning. "Hey guys," she said, addressing me and Theo, "I think we're going to do a little after party for us Upper Fifths in the Sorren House common room, the teachers already said yes to it. Want to come? It's like a treat, for how hard we've been working."

I blinked, glancing at Theo, who seemed equally perplexed. With a smile, I replied, "I'll ask the other girls about it, but thanks."

"Alright, hope I'll see you there!" Nicole grinned before running off, probably to the next Upper Fifth she'd spotted around the room.

Theo turned to me. "Are you going?"

"I need to ask the girls. I don't know. It seems weird if none of us go, though."

"This after party isn't teacher organised. They did it."

"Which only makes this even more awkward if we don't go. We can't really tell them any good excuses for not going, can we?"

"Studying?" Theo suggested.

"This party is for relaxation," I pointed out. "Wait, I'll go ask the girls."

So I went to Yunji's table, and she nodded. "Yeah, we should probably stop by. Like, half an hour or something, and then just run back to house. I need to shower anyway, but it just seems rude if we don't show up at all."

"Agreed," I said. Then, with the excuse that I needed to run back and clean up my stuff, I walked back to my table and told Theo that I was going.

"Yeah, I'll probably go too," he murmured. "Like, Damian and Kwanfong are definitely going. Seb probably is. Leonid too. I don't want to be the only one who doesn't show up."

That seemed to be the reason we did a lot of things. Peer pressure, quick and simple. Usually it did no harm, but sometimes it could lead to bad, bad consequences.

For example, the vape ring that had been discovered at Bridewater College around a month or two prior. That most definitely was brought upon due to peer pressure.

But because we were all such good schoolmates, almost every upper fifth full boarder showed up to the Sorren party. One glance at the snacks and drinks prepared showed that this had most definitely been planned in response rather than being some random, spontaneous thing. Which was kind of weird. And didn't make much sense to me. Why would they put so much effort into arranging something like this?

But I wasn't about to let some perfectly good food go to waste. So I grabbed a pack of gummy bears and started eating away, trying to fill up my still empty stomach. I had not eaten much at the formal dinner, that was for sure. It hadn't been anything particularly tasty, that dinner. I felt as if I hadn't even eaten a proper meal.

So, yeah, that's one good advantage of coming here. Actually being able to eat. Having instant noodles after a formal dinner didn't seem like a particularly sophisticated way of ending the night.