*Click!*
The key turned in the lock and a faint metallic creak indicated that the thin metal door had opened.
"It always amazes me how many letters fit in there."
Xavier said as he picked up one of the dozens of letters, postcards and photos that had fallen to the floor when William opened his locker in the fencing hall changing rooms.
"It's not just letters; the number of snacks has been increasing too."
Ajax also picked up a chocolate bar that had fallen to the floor, a vanilla biscuit filled with chocolate and peanut butter, vanilla-flavoured Peanut Mummies.
"Ever since they found out Will likes these chocolate bars, they've started cramming his locker full of them."
Xavier took off his shirt and remarked.
"Yeah, that's a lot of chocolate. Can I have some, Will?"
Kent had already finished changing his shoes for his fencing shoes, special flat, reinforced trainers designed for quick movements.
"As many as you like, I won't be eating any of them anyway!!"
All eight buttons on William's white shirt had come undone, revealing his well-defined abdominal muscles; his forearms and wrists also looked well-developed from his constant practice with the lance and sword.
"Why? Free snacks, delivered right to your door—what's so bad about that?"
Kent asked, as he stuffed several mini chocolate bars into his rucksack, making sure not to pick up the letters.
"I don't know what they've done to those sweets; teenage girls can be quite scary when they get obsessed with something," replied William as he undid the two buttons on his cuffs. "…and Enid doesn't like me accepting things from other girls."
"Doing something to the snacks, like what?"
Asked Ajax, confused.
"Last year, a girl left some cupcakes outside our room door. I took a bite and found a hair in the chocolate."
Xavier replied, staring at the floor, his hair obscuring his expression.
"Hahaha!!! You never told me that!!"
William burst out laughing as he sat down to change his shoes; Ajax chuckled softly too.
"I didn't? But you'd only just arrived that day and you threw all the cupcakes in the bin."
"Of course I did. They smelled weird, and I wasn't going to accept cakes from a stranger."
"It's just a hair. It could have fallen into the mixture by accident."
Kent said uncertainly, glancing at the chocolates in his rucksack; William and Xavier's words had made him wonder if it was a good idea to eat them.
"These are sealed; I don't think there's anything wrong with them."
"Sure, enjoy them!!"
William patted Kent on the shoulder, whilst adjusting his white fencing jacket, made of a special fabric resistant to stabs and tears. Unlike the others', his had an engraving of a silver owl spreading its wings on the right breast.
Nevermore was quite lax in its dress code; students were free to modify their uniforms within certain limits. One girl would be wearing an all-black uniform this term.
It had been tailor-made and customised by a specialist tailor whom her mother had hired during the summer holidays, when she learnt that her son was interested enough in fencing to represent Nevermore Academy in a tournament.
- Fencing hall -
Sunlight streamed in through the long, floor-to-ceiling amber-coloured windows with a diamond pattern.
Professor Vlad, with his neatly combed brown hair, stood in front of the students with his hands behind his back and his chin raised.
"This year, the academy's fencing team will be actively participating in the Silver Sword Winter Tournament. We'll be competing against 20 different schools, fifteen of which are private academies with national-level teams."
"Don't pull that face—that last bit was a joke. That day, Dany found me as I was finishing up a rehearsal in the music room."
William spoke in a low voice, taking advantage of the fact that he and Xavier were standing behind the crowd listening to Coach Vlad's speech.
Xavier had a strange look on his face; apparently, he wasn't feeling quite himself when he found out he might have eaten the hair of an unknown girl—and that it wasn't exactly hair from her head.
"I was told that her roommate's cat had stuck one of its paws into the bowl where she'd mixed the cupcakes. She didn't want me to eat them and said it was fine if I threw them away."
With his fencing mask under his arm, William said the words that greatly reassured Xavier.
"Did you say they smelled weird?"
"Dany can't cook; all the cupcakes stank of burning."
"What about the sweets?"
Kent, standing behind them, joined the whispered conversation.
"If I start accepting anything they give me or leave outside my room, the situation will get worse. I've got enough on my plate with the letters, drawings and notes I find under my door every day."
"What a problem, isn't it."
Rowan plucked up his courage and decided to join the conversation taking place right next to him. After hesitating for a long time, this was his chance to get closer to the group he considered the most popular; he had been listening to their entire conversation from the sidelines in the boys' changing rooms.
"What?"
Rowan began to sweat as the whole group turned their heads in his direction; their looks and expressions made him feel uncomfortable, as did the silence caused by his interruption.
"Who will be the team captain?"
Bianca raised her hand impatiently and interrupted Professor Vlad's speech.
"I was just about to get to that, Miss Barclay. William will be the team captain and will select the rest of the starting line-up to play alongside him."
"Wait, shouldn't we all decide together, with a mini-tournament between us all or a vote, something like that?"
Bianca's smug smile vanished from her face when she heard that William would be the team captain.
"The offer was open to both of you last year; I offered the position to both you and William at the same time after seeing your performance in training."
"Yes, but we both turned down the offer."
"William called me during the summer holidays and asked to be the next captain this year."
Bianca turned hastily towards the crowd and scanned the students for William.
(That's cheating!!! That's playing dirty!!! He acted as if he already knew there'd be a tournament this year!!!)
Bianca now felt anger and rage welling up inside her; she should have been told earlier and given the chance too.
"Weems told you, didn't she? That's why you suddenly changed your mind!!"
Bianca wanted to push her way through the group of students to confront William.
"That's right, Headmistress Weems told me she had planned for the Nevermore fencing team to take part in this year's Winter Fencing Cup."
"Of course she would, giving her favourite student an advantage!!!"
"Enough, Miss Barclay. You both had the chance to be captain. I even proposed a duel last year to decide it. William even stepped aside so that you could be captain, and yet you still turned it down."
Professor Vlad's tone of voice no longer sounded as calm and friendly as it had at the start of the lesson.
''If you carry on with this and accuse Headmistress Weems again, I'll expel you from my class.''
''Headteacher Weems only managed to reach an agreement with the other academies during the summer holidays to allow us to take part this year."
William stepped out from among the students and stood in front of Bianca, who now seemed to be struggling to breathe.
The self-proclaimed queen bee felt isolated, and saw her position as the most popular and influential among the students under threat.
Larissa visited Catherine in Portland during the summer holidays so she could speak to William, who was spending the afternoon in San Francisco with Enid at the time; William's call to Coach Vlad was merely a courtesy for having turned down his offer several times.
''They should have told me too, if I was a candidate for captain.''
''We did; we tried to contact your family to offer you the position.''
''Eh?''
''No one replied, Miss Barclay. Apparently, the details the school had on your family are incorrect, or they didn't deign to reply. This will be the last we say on the matter, and if any of you wish to be captain, it will be settled by a duel."
"Does any of you want to give it a go?!!"
Vlad Dumitru's offer was directed at the rest of the students; they all shook their heads hastily, except for a blonde girl with coloured streaks in her hair.
"Miss Sinclair, very well, go ahead, Two ten-point rounds."
William put on his fencing mask and took his place on the other side of the fencing piste, directly opposite Enid.
"If I manage to defeat you, I'll be captain of the fencing team."
"You can try, but I won't make it easy for you."
Both assumed the en Garde stance, with their bodies turned in profile towards their opponent, knees bent, the arm holding the foil pointing at their opponent and the opposite arm balancing their stance.
"Enough flirting, begin!"
Vlad clapped his hands and the metal swords began to clash against one another.