Page 75

He rested against his locker and took a long breath.

‘That’s it. You’re safe now. The big bad girl can’t get you anymore.’

‘You... you fuck...’ He gave a weak laugh. ‘Why am I like this, Garovel...? Why is nothing ever easy...?’

‘I don’t know, Hector. But I can’t say I dislike this part of you.’

‘R-really? I thought it annoyed you...’

‘No, no. If anything, I get annoyed FOR you. Not AT you.’

‘Huh...’

‘It’s important you understand that. I can’t really be annoyed at you when I see you trying so hard all the time.’

He nodded. ‘Thanks... I guess I sorta knew that a little... but I, uh... yeah...’

‘Now you know it a lot.’

Later in the day, he paid off his equipment fine. He’d stuffed a thousand or so troa in his bag before coming to school, which was obviously more than he needed, but he wanted to be prepared. It did feel a bit odd carrying so much money around school with him. He wasn’t sure how he would explain the money if someone searched his bag, so he kept the strap around his arm or wrist at all times.

He bought a few sheets of metal from the carpentry club’s storeroom and settled at a table all to himself.

‘You’re going to make a helmet out of that? It looks pretty flimsy.

‘Thicker metal would need to be melted down and recast. Which... would be great, but... we don’t have a furnace. I need to weld multiple layers of this metal together if I want something resilient.’

‘Sounds tedious.’