The Book of Firsts

Twenty-Five

Lania had been asleep when I returned, and was up well before me. Eyes half open, I watched her try on three different outfit combinations, and then start on a fourth.

"Aren’t you just going for the hike up Mount Reparo?"

"Sorry, did I wake you? Yes, the hike’s still on. Have you changed your mind about coming?"

"Too lazy."

"Where did you go last night? I looked for you, but you weren’t in the movie room."

"Night swimming," I said. "Don’t tell any teachers."

"Mika! So dangerous."

"And tiring," I said. "But far less sunburn. Make sure you wear a hat."

I went back to sleep, and woke near lunchtime. There were three texts waiting on my phone. The first was a cartoon of Bran, dressed in a princess gown and clinging to a flower-decked pagoda while a cat girl hauled on a leash attached to a dog collar around his neck. The cat girl wasn’t recognisable as me, but the next image…

A highly detailed pencil portrait of a dovecote in the rain, and two figures beneath an umbrella. The faces were covered, so you could only see throat and chin, but it was clear the taller figure had bent for a kiss. Even with the shielding spokes of umbrella, it was more than recognisably Kyou and me, and I marvelled at how he’d managed to convey that this was a kiss that was exciting because it was hidden. Had I touched his arm in half-protest like that? The long fingers and short nails matched my hand almost exactly.

The third text simply said: Clearing logs now. It had been sent at 3 am.

Uploading the two images into my personal cloud, I committed Kyou’s phone number to memory, and then deleted the texts and logs, opening the Cheshire app instead.

Scoring missionary was reasonably straightforward. Bran, despite the spectacular setting and rapid improvement, had been new and inexpert, and so was last. Rin has been pleasant, cautious, and second. Kyou had turned bad conditions into something intensely memorable.

Scores done, I put a half-hearted effort into yoga before heading off to lunch. The sandcastle competition didn’t start until four in the afternoon, but it was easy enough to fritter my time away in the games room until the competition drew closer. I visited the beach to have a look at the preparations, and around three went back to my room to meet up with Lania and change clothes.

Lania had been crying. She tried to avoid letting me see it, being very busy reorganising her suitcase, but a freshly-washed face couldn’t hide the red eyes.

"How was the hike?" I asked, pretending not to see anything.

"Great!" Lania said. "The views were spectacular. Though it was a little hot—I might lie down for the rest of the afternoon."

I didn’t comment on that. "Who else went?"

"Oh, a ton of people. Everyone from Art Club, and a lot of others."

"Anyone from the Rose Court?"

The faint stiffening was enough to give me my answer.

"Do they bully you often?"

"No-one’s bullying me," Lania said, quickly.

"That kind of thing can get pretty subtle. Just a slow glance and shared smile is sometimes all it takes to make a person feel rotten all day."

"I’m not so feeble."

"Okay." I lay down on my bed. "The day really was hot. Let’s stay in."

"But, Mika, you can’t! The team will be two down."

"You’re way more artistic than I am," I said. "If the Club can get on without you, then I’m not going to make much difference."

"Mika!"

"So, what did they do?"

"They didn’t do anything. I—I just was really slow going up the mountain. They’d stop and wait for me, and start off once I caught up. I was completely red and puffing by the time I got to the top. No-one was impatient, but they started calling me the little engine that could and…" Lania sighed. "I just don’t want to be here right now."

" Was everyone doing this?" I asked. "All the Art Club? If so, we’re seceding and forming the Gaming Club."

"There already is a Gaming Club."

"Joining it then. What assholes. You’re short so you have a smaller stride, and then you don’t get to have a chance to rest going up a whole mountain? You’re telling me Sean and Anika and Carr and everyone just laughed along with this?"

"No. We ended up broken up into a long line. The only one from Club near me was Sue, and she’d never dare make a fuss around Katerina or Sirocco, or any of the Rose Court."

"I think I’ve noticed a theme here. What does this Sirocco have against you? Why did she pretend to invite you to the Rose Court in the first place?"

"Oh, because of Rin. It’s so stupid."

"Rin? Mr Student Council President?"

"He was just Rin in first year at Corascur. And, well, I would blush whenever I saw him, even though he’s not really my type, but I’d never seen anyone so sophisticated before. That slight French accent, and that grace. After he was nice to me a couple of times, just casually pleasant the way he is, Sirocco started encouraging me to apply for the Rose Court. I can’t say she’s ever done anything that would be called bullying, but anyone who starts chasing Rin always seems to encounter some reminder that Rin and Sirocco are from a different world from most people, and it’s pointless to forget your place."

"Have they ever dated?"

"No, but there’s something going on with their families. Not an arranged marriage or anything archaic, but definitely some parental nudging. I think the idea is Rin will become a surgeon, and Sirocco will manage the hospital he works in, or…who knows? Anyway, that was years ago, but if I happen to stumble into her field of view, Sirocco always seems to manage to say perfectly unobjectionable things that somehow make me feel awful, but she never openly sticks knives in like Katerina or Alexa. I can’t even be sure she’s trying to be mean because she really is, I don’t know, genteel." Lania sighed. "I started out admiring her a lot."

Wondering absently if this Sirocco would be happy to manage a gaming start-up, I looked at the time on my phone, then picked up my swimming costume. "You were looking forward to this competition so much. Why let her take it from you?"

I chivvied her into changing clothes without much trouble, and we headed down to the wide northern beach, where hotel staff had been prepping for the competition. They’d obviously had long practice in arranging such competitions, having prepared numerous forms and shovels, and even using a mini-dozer to create a number of sand piles and wet them down. Participants were gathering well ahead of time to watch the dozer wetting down the last of the piles. We easily spotted a clump of Art Club participants on one edge. They did not look happy.

"Lania!" Sue saw us and came over immediately. "I’m sorry, I was pathetic today. I should have just stayed with you."

"I don’t think that would have stopped anything," Lania began, then broke off as most of the rest of the Club came across and enveloped her in a massive hug. "Oh, guys, you’ll make me cry."

"Then cry," Sean said. "We all feel like it, right now."

"Why? What’s happened?"

"Carr wrote his name on the wrong group by accident," Rick explained. "And Macy filled our last slot."

"What?" Lania took a step back in shock. "How could Carr get the wrong group?"

"It was right below ours. Pure accident."

I knew this wasn’t true. I’d been the last to sign up for the Art Club group, and had written my name directly below Carlisle Carstairs. Even if I didn’t have an excellent memory, I wouldn’t forget this, because it was the first time I’d seen Carr’s full name, and I’d almost burst into laughter at the fact that the guy I kept cadging lifts off was called Carr Carr.

"Never sign in pencil," I commented. "Who’s Macy?"

"Judo Club member. Nice guy, but not in any way a substitute for Carr."

I surveyed the throng, spotted Carr walking our way, and moved to meet him for a quiet word. "We can’t just swap people around?"

He grimaced. "We can, but it could turn into a lot of unnecessary drama. I’ve already had it pointed out to me that it’s not a good look that the Art Club apparently can’t do without me, and I don’t particularly want that repeated to their faces."

"Is this Macy person someone we need to worry about in terms of sabotage?"

"Not his style."

"And what’s Lania’s strongest points in terms of composition?"

Carr looked at me, startled, then hit me with a full-wattage smile that may have weakened even my knees, just a little. "She’s a big fan of Mucha."

"Nice. Adaptable to most themes."

He nodded. "She dismisses her work as pastiche, but the fundamentals are excellent, and she only needs a little encouragement to shine. I, on the other hand, feel thoroughly uninspired."

"Oh, no, give us a little competition. If they think they’re going to win, it’ll be ever so much more satisfying when we crush them."

Carr laughed. "Something tells me they’ll regret not poaching the Civil Engineer."

He walked on to talk to the rest of the Club, but Alexa and Katerina soon arrived to bear him off in triumph.

"This sucks," Sue said. "And I don’t believe for a moment Carr signed for the wrong group."

"Even if we win, we’re competing against our own," Sean said, darkly.

"You think Carr would really mind if we won?" I asked.

"Not likely," Anika said. "He was super annoyed, as much as Carr ever gets annoyed. You can tell by the way he puts his hands in his pockets."

"Then let’s stop talking and go to the opposite beach for a little practice before the competition starts," I said. "Time is always a big factor for sand sculpture, so we’ll need to be efficient."

Lania stared at me, then said: "Mika, have you done this before?"

I surveyed the fingernails of one of my hands with an air of studied nonchalance. "I’m obsessed with building things, and I study soil mechanics. What do you think?"

A small, well-organised troop returned to the competition beach at the assembly time. I’d taken them through the basics of compaction, of designs to be avoided, and then some techniques for sculpting. After gauging general levels, I’d assigned everyone roles for each stage of the build, and was confident we’d get something done within the time limit. Macy, an inarticulate boy full of blushes, proved unexpectedly adept, and was also usefully muscular.

"I tested the sand quality earlier," I was saying, as we hung back from the edge of the crowd. "The sand toward the east edge has a better cohesiveness, so if there’s any choice over which position we have, head there."

"Aye aye, Captain!" they said, saluting in unison, which was not something I’d drilled them to do, but which seemed to give them enormous satisfaction.

"Looks like we’re starting soon," Anika said. "There’s Rin."

"Is the Student Council judging?" I asked, spotting a microphone in Rin’s hand.

"If only it was that simple," Natascha said, with a faint sigh. "The Three Kings would at least probably only be a little biased. Instead, we have one teacher, one member of the Student Council, and one member of the Rose Court. Rin and Mr Richards should be fine, but Sirocco…"

"Seriously?" Lania murmured.

I patted her shoulder. "Complete bias would only make her look bad. Let’s start heading toward our chosen spot, so we’re close when they start talking."

Everyone headed off, but I paused to consider the two people with Rin. One was a teacher I didn’t know, and the other a pale blond. She had a delicate, timeless beauty, and a poise that equalled Rin’s elegance, and I had to admit they were perfectly matched on a visual level.

"You look considerably less stressed than I expected," murmured a familiar voice.

I looked back to find Kyou and Bran standing just behind me. Bran was shirtless, which would be distracting enough, but in the sunlight I discovered that the hickeys I’d given him more than a week ago had not faded completely. Kyou, at least, was wearing a t-shirt.

"I only have trouble with tests if I haven’t slept," I said, smiling blandly. "And I slept very well last night."

Bran snorted, but the way his stormy eyes narrowed suggested a predatory mood rather than irritation. Kyou simply looked me up and down.

"Utterly disappointing," he murmured. "And don’t tell me it’s my own fault."

"If you’re so obsessed with swimsuits, there is that fantasy costume round," I pointed out. "Do you know if the scoring is transparent on this competition?"

He quirked a corner of his mouth, then said: "It will be," and walked off, trailed after a moment by Bran.

The Art Club had noticed me lagging behind and waited for me, so I crossed to them. Sean immediately grabbed my arm.

"Tell me Bran’s chest wasn’t my imagination," he said.

"Both chest and abs were definitely there," I said mildly.

"And here we were talking about Meggan moving on, when Best Dog has obviously long found a new playmate." Sean sighed, gazing after the departing pair. "And it’s not me. I’m crushed."

"Best Dog?" I repeated, startled.

"People would say Meggan had him well trained," Anika explained, with an embarrassed laugh.

"If it weren’t for Rin and Kyou, I’d say Bran’s more Lone Wolf," Sue said.

"Okay," I said, amused. "Anyway, I asked if the scoring was transparent, and apparently it will be, so we don’t have to worry about more than a small skew from the Rose Court."

An audible hum warned us Rin had turned on his microphone, and the crowd clapped and cheered in response.

"If only it was always so easy to win applause," he said, lightly. "I’ll be brief. After we draw the theme, you’ll have two hours to produce your best interpretation. Only team members can participate—everyone else stay this side of the pathway. Any interference with the work in progress will be punished by burial up to the neck below the tideline."

He waited until the laughter died down, and went on: "Mr Richard, Sirocco and I will be ranking each sculpture for both technical execution and artistic merit, but you’ll all be given your say with a popular vote. The first three teams will be awarded School Vouchers."

"Perks for everyone, baby!" someone yelled.

"Once the time limit is up, all work will cease," Rin said, ignoring the interruption. "No-one is allowed across the path until judging and voting is over, which is a small but important hint to competitors as to which direction you should face your masterpieces. Before we draw the theme, each team should select one of the tables and wear the armbands there. Don’t begin until the competition officially starts."

"Grabbing the last table," Rick said, and wormed his way through the mill in the direction I’d recommended. With ten groups competing, the last slot was well away from the centre of the crowd.

Beside each of the piles of sand was set a table with a couple of seats, a supply of water, armbands, paper and pencil for design work, and a collection of shovels, spray bottles, various tools that could be used for sculpture, and large and small forms for shaping and compacting sand—primarily fifty-litre bins with their bottoms cut out.

I inspected all this as we donned our green armbands, nodding in approval. "The resort is very well organised." I handed Lania the paper and pencils. "Remember, give us a rough sketch for general shape first, and then work on details while we compact sand."

"You—you’re all sure you want to trust me with this?" Lania asked.

"Hell, yeah," Sue said. "I love your pictures."

"You think we should do one of my abstracts instead?" Sean asked.

"You can do it Lania," Anika said, with quiet certainty.

"Carr said you were excellent," I added, which I knew would seal the deal. It at least turned Lania a nice shade of pink.

The loudspeaker hummed again. "All teams are in position? Very well, Sirocco, can you please draw the theme?"

There was a rustle, then a clear, cool voice said: "The quiet before the storm."

"A reminder that your mid-year exams are coming up," a deeper voice said, presumably Mr Richards. "Teams, you may start."

"Remember, just the rough shape first," I told Lania, taking a shovel. "Okay, everyone, first we’re going to build up a base."

Checking the tide line, I led my troops to build a raised rim of sand, then used water and stamping feet to compact the sand piled within the rim. When they were ready to add another, slightly smaller layer, I left them to it and went to check on Lania.

"What do you think?" she asked, anxiously pushing a page at me, while working furiously on another.

A page half full of thumbnail sketches, with a single more detailed sketch below. Lania had followed my advice not to attempt anything too vertical, and given me a bust of a girl in repose, lying on her arms over a desk. Long hair swirled around her, interspersed with a collection of items apparently swept downward from a study session. Pens, a tablet, books, curling pieces of paper. The barest outline in this sketch, but more than enough for me to go on.

"As if she’d stepped from a Mucha print down for a rest," I said, approvingly. "This is just what we needed. Tighten up the design and then start doing detailed sectional diagrams from different views. We’ll block out the rough shape and get back to you. Remember that we’ll be working from the top down."

Lania nodded, and kept working. I took a look down the beach and saw that all but two other teams were still working on design, and hadn’t even started roughing out a form. A loss of precious time they’d regret. Cheerfully, I did some height estimates, then went back to direct the others where to build up sand further.

Two hours was not much time, but the design was eye-catching, and the sand kept a line nicely. With the circular shape, a large group were able to work simultaneously, with the primary figure taking up the bulk of the back of the circle, and a small pathway left for me to walk out, once the fine detail work was complete. Narrowing my focus, I tuned out everything until my main job was done and then I was able to wander around helping the others with small fixes.

By then, a large portion of the spectators had gravitated to the path right above us, which told me all I needed to know about how we were comparing with the other teams.

"Everyone go up to near the path and look for things that seem out of place," I said.

"I think we should stop touching it now in case we mess it up," Natascha said, frankly. "It’s nearly time, and it looks great."

I had to agree, so we all took a drink from the table instead, and then went down to the water’s edge to paddle and wait for the judging and voting to be over.

"Win or lose, this was fun," Rick said, after we’d tired of splashing.

"What win or lose?" Sean asked. "We’re going to cream everyone."

"Which is definitely fun," Anika said. "And we also found a hidden gem. Macy, you should think about joining the Art Club, if you get tired of judo."

Macy ducked his head and blushed, which was his response to everything addressed to him. I had yet to hear him speak, but I agreed with Anika’s assessment, and nodded my endorsement.

"We’re allowed to be in more than one club, aren’t we?" I said. "Come to the Art Side, Macy…"

Before we could learn just how red Macy could get, the speaker system gave its warning hum.

"Thank you for your patience, everyone," said the teacher, Mr Richards. "I know you’re all starting to think of your dinners, so if the leaders of each team can come to the red flag, we’ll announce the results."

"Off you go, Mika," Sean said, saluting. "You might have been quiet in club before this, but you’re officially Captain from now on."

"Drill Sergeant," I said mildly, grabbing Lania’s wrist and giving the rest of the team a conspiratorial smile.

They understood me, and followed along excitedly to join the throng around the red flag near the midpoint of the beach.

Rin had the microphone again, and once we’d all gathered announced simply: "For the popular vote, third place goes to red team Just us Schlubs, second to orange team Misplaced Presidents, and first to green team Art Club!." He waited out the applause, then said: "And to save time and duplicate speeches, this is exactly the same result as the judged award. Team captains, please come up and honour us by sharing your wisdom."

The leader of Just us Schlubs was a boy I’d never seen before, obviously a candidate for school clown, easily drawing laughter from the crowd. Katerina, leader of Misplaced Presidents, spoke graciously about the pleasure of competing. Then it was my turn.

"Thank you to the whole team for working so hard today," I said, straightforwardly. "We started with a brilliant design, and halfway lived up to it. Without that, we would be nowhere. Thank you, Lania."

I handed the microphone back to Rin, turned to Lania, and applauded. The rest of the Club, waiting in readiness, immediately joined in, shortly followed by the rest of the crowd. I smiled my satisfaction at seeing Lania covering her face, overwhelmed, before she vanished in another group hug.

"Meet you back at the room," I told her, when I could get near, and spent a little time touring the competition. I would not, I decided, ask Carr to go all out again. If he’d had a competent team, victory would not have been nearly so complete.