Rooming with the Wicked

2 | not my friends

"Ten minutes left," Professor Flamel announced. "Anyone who isn't done better take that F with whatever dignity you have left or have a damn good excuse for why ninety minutes isn't enough time to finish a simple Wakewalking Elixir."

Defeated murmurs filled the room. One could argue that there was nothing simple about brewing a Wakewalking Elixir, but what was the point? Flamel was a hardass, but also the best alchemy professor I'd ever had by far.

The surface of the deep purple liquid in the kettle in front of me was dull, almost hazy. Tendrils of lavender steam rose steadily, despite the potion's cool temperature. I closed my eyes and inhaled. Chocolate and old pages. A single drop would send me headfirst into a ten-minute nap, and boy was that tempting.

I could still feel my ex-roomies, also known as Richelle, Eloise, and Jasmine, staring daggers into my side. Judging by the desperate whispers from my left, they weren't having the best time with this particular potion. Ri's ambassador daddy wouldn't be too proud if she failed alchemy a third time—and judging by the way she'd diced her bluestring root instead of peeling it and crushing the inside, failing was exactly what she'd do today.

Good riddance.

Bet she regretted kicking me out right about now. Who else would carry her ass through the rest of the year? Her two sidekicks were even less skilled with anything that wasn't in some way related to gossip and stalking. Considering how quickly they'd managed to uncover the majority of my family history, you'd think they'd do fine with a simple set of alchemy instructions, but no.

Okay, maybe I was a teeny tiny bit bitter.

That didn't mean I was going to go cry to student services though. Hell, no. There was no point anyway since Ri practically owned them, and giving her the satisfaction of knowing her stupid little ploy unnerved me wasn't an option. Nope. I was done being her...anything.

"Ariel?"

My eyes flew open and found a pair of yellow ones.

I blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"Same thing as you?" Jaydis said, a small smile playing on his lips.

"You take alchemy?"

His grin widened. "For someone who finished that damn elixir in the first twenty-five minutes, you're kind of slow. Yes, I've been in this class since the start of the semester."

Whoops.

"Sorry..." I ran a hand through the end of my braid. "I'm, uh, not the most perceptive person—actually, that's a lie." I smiled. "I literally walk in here with blinders. On purpose."

He laughed, earning him a stern look from Professor Flamel. Mouthing a half-hearted sorry, he turned back to me. "Weren't you sitting with your friends before?"

"They're not my friends."

His yellow eyes drifted to Ri as she stabbed a particularly large ardu leaf with her cutting knife. "I see. No loss there." His gaze briefly zeroed in on the flawless potion in front of me before settling on my face again. "Look, I kind of can't fail this test—"

Here we go.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Strict parents, you know?"

"I get it." I did. Dad might not have been around much, but that didn't mean he hadn't structured my entire life for me. Friends and hobbies included. Maybe that was the reason any real friends I had disappeared whenever I stopped being useful to them. Not that I'd put in much effort to change that.

But for this roommate thing to work out, maybe helping Jaydis wouldn't be such a bad idea.

"How did you get it to be so..." He leaned forward to get a better look at the elixir. "Purple? Mine is just...blue at best."