“Oi, the man of the hour!”

Milo Furnman gave Chris a pat on the back. “You know,” he added, piling sausages onto his plate, “you’ll be the school’s main topic for a while?”

Only now Chris did notice stares and murmurs around him. He reached for a jug of juice and poured some with one hand while moving a toast to his plate with the other.

“What are you talking about?”

“Everyone’ll be discussing this for days!”

Milo, a student of Finance and Trade at the school’s university department, a boy of a mixed descent, part of which probably Arkiyan, had been his and Daniel’s roommate since their first day at Bluestone. In spite of that, Chris had never grown particularly close to him, and Milo’s tendency to never get to the point irritated him.

Chris sighed and turned to his other pool of information – the sitting in front of him, looking around for the bet winners with a nervous expression, Daniel.

“What's he talking about, Daniel?”

“Ah, well, it’s that detective. Apparently now everyone thinks you’re either a murderer or a fugitive. I forgot you weren’t at dinner last night, so you don’t know.”

“Oh.” Chris tried to keep his expression sealed, taking a long sip from his juice. He really didn’t fancy being the school’s hot news.

“Don’t worry, we know you’re neither.” The smile Daniel gave him did not make Chris feel any better about it.

“Or at least we hope you’re not!” Milo exclaimed. Chris wanted to kick Milo’s smile all the way to the Capital of Northland, but instead he said:

“Daniel, if the boy with the funky hair and the braces is Tommy Scholar, he’s coming right this way. And if my memory regarding faces hasn’t gone already, I think that’s his sister dragging him by the ear.”

Daniel very calmly looked up from his plate. Then, still with the calmest possible expression, said, “Oh, look, Julia’s waiting for me right over there! Chris, cover for me, yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

A second later Daniel was gone.

Milo snickered and went back to talking with an attractive senior who looked like he was about to throw his drink in Milo's face, while Chris tried to stall Melody Scholar and her temper.