Win Lose Kill Die by Cynthia Murphy

Author:Cynthia Murphy [Murphy, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

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The common room is crammed, as usual—cake, scones, and tea come out at four and by then everyone is ravenous after a day of classes. I select a scone—no raisins, thank you very much—with butter, some of Creepy Billy’s homemade jam, which is, quite frankly, amazing, and a cup of steaming hot Earl Grey tea. We join the others in what I already think of as “our” seats, and I notice that Cole’s plateful of Victoria sponge cake is rivaled only by Marcus’s. There’s a happy, crumb-filled silence and when I’ve inhaled my scone, I curl up onto the seat, satiated by the sugar. I hold a shallow white cup between my hands, and I relish the heat seeping into my bones. But I miss mugs.

“You miss what?” Kat asks between mouthfuls of lemon drizzle.

“Er, mugs.” I really do need to watch what I say aloud—how embarrassing. Mugs. I cringe inwardly.

“I get it,” Cole chimes in, delicately picking up his cup, the handle between his thumb and forefinger. “These things have, like, a thimbleful of tea in them. Give me a chipped mug with strong tea in it any day.”

“Agreed!” I laugh. I do like the Earl Grey, but he doesn’t have to know that. “So, what’s everyone doing before dinner?”

A chorus of “Prep” goes up and Cole gives me a wry smile. Looks like we’ll have company. We return our plates to the cart and wander over to the library, the five of us talking quietly as we enter. The desk by my Bernini is empty and I make a beeline to it, drop my bag as the others settle on the benches, and head straight to the circular central desk, where the computers are. I settle myself in front of one and get started.

“How does this thing work, then, if there’s no internet?” I swear I feel the whisper of a kiss on the back of my neck as Cole appears behind me and I almost full-on swoon.

“Oh, there is internet, just not on these. You need to book internet time on one of the laptops, so it can be monitored. This is easy, though—you just type in your class and there’s usually a list of recommended reading, like this.” I point to the screen, where my modern history reading list is displayed. “I have a paper due on small-town legends. So I click here.” I press the touch screen and a title is highlighted with a blue bar. I repeat the process. “Then here and here”—two more blue bars—“then hit Submit.”

The small printer whirrs and spits out a piece of paper. At the top is my name, the date and time, and the list of books I’ve requested.

“Then we take it to the librarian. She’s really good; she can usually recommend a couple of extras that aren’t on the list, if you tell her what you’re doing.” I point at the screen. “Your turn.”

When we both have our lists, we follow the curve of the desk around to the opposite side, where Ms.

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