"Sorry, we're late!" Dominic said as he and Camilla entered the study room together.

"I'm not," Camilla said.

"Camilla."

"What?" She set her school bag on the table. "I'm late on purpose. Apologizing would be a lie."

"It's rude not to apologize."

"And that's why I have you to do it for me. Thanks, babe."

Dominic smiled at her fondly. The rest of the gang stared at the pair wondering how Dominic found her so endearing for something that would've irritated the rest of them in his position.

"Anyways, now that we're all here. Let's study," Loid said.

Ludmila smiled in a way that made the others nervous. "We could. Or we could make it interesting. Who's willing to play a game?"

"Mi reina, none of us are naïve enough to consent to one of your games without more information," Frankie said.

"Fine. If you must know, I'm proposing a modified version of truth or dare…."

"That doesn't sound like studying. We do have finals tomorrow," Yor said.

"Patience, sweet Yor, I haven't gotten to the modification yet. Instead of spinning a bottle or having each person pick the next victim at the end of their turn, we determine who does the truth or dare by having a head-to-head quiz. Loser takes a turn; winner picks their punishment be that question or dare. The rest of us will take turns picking questions, and no softball questions."

Camilla giggled. "I'm in. And Dominic is too."

"Camilla, you do know I can speak for myself," Dominic said.

"Yes, but I already knew what you were going to say. Was I wrong?"

"No, but…"

"You're welcome."

Dominic kissed her hand. "I'm glad you're feeling more like yourself, babe," he said in a much quieter voice.

She blushed and looked back at the group. "So, losers, are you going to make Ludmila, Dominic, and I play alone?"

"I'll play," Yor said raising her hand like she was in class. "But please be kind with your punishments when I get questions wrong."

"You're not going to get questions wrong. You've studied really hard, and I know you're going to be amazing," Loid said.

"Ugh, get a room," Camilla said. "Are you in or what, Forger?"

"How can I say no with that tempting invitation? You're on, Bronson," Loid said.

"Well, mi querido, what do you say?" Ludmila said to Frankie.

'Damn, 'mi querido' really feels different now,' Frankie thought. "I will join provisionally."

"All right, what are your provisions?" Ludmila said with an eyeroll. 'This boy.'

"If either of us picks truth and the other is picking the question, informants, supply chains, or any other network-related questions are off limits. Embarrassing personal shit is fair game."

Ludmila blinked. "Are you sure, mi querido?"

"Why wouldn't I be? You either find it out here or later when my mom shows you my baby pictures."

"She wants to show me your baby pictures?! I thought she hated me."

Frankie laughed. "No, she was just overwhelmed by your family. You would think you make the sun rise with how much she talks about how great you are."

"Oh, que maravillosa! I'm so relieved. Gracias, mi querido."

He really wanted to kiss her excited face, but he didn't want to give their friends a chance to tease them. "De nada, mi reina. Well, are my provisions amenable?"

"They'll do." She tried to bite her smile down but was unable to do so. "Since I proposed the game, I'm happy to go first. Who wants to go against me?"

Everyone's shoes became very interesting at that moment.

Frankie sighed. "I'm going to regret this, but I'll go."

"Aw, you'd do that for me?" Ludmila said.

"Anything for you, mi reina," he said but it didn't sound as enthusiastic as it usually did.

The other four looked in their textbooks for a good question to use.

"Got it," Loid said a minute later. "The Treaty of 1732 involved which three nations over what conflict?"

Ludmila stuck the tip of her tongue out as she thought, and Frankie lost the answer when he saw how cute she looked.

"Oh! Oh! I know! Spanglia, Frain, and Eglance over the War of the Posies!" Ludmila shouted.

"That's correct and would still be correct a little less loudly," Loid said.

"Sorry."

"Well, Franklin, you lost. Truth or dare," Camilla said.

Frankie sized up how devious Ludmila was feeling today. 'You know it doesn't matter, idiot. If you pick truth, she's going to ask about something romantic, and that can't come up until the ball.' He sighed slowly and closed his eyes. "Dare."

"You're braver than I thought, Frankie," Dominic said.

"Or stupider," Camilla said.

"Camilla."

She shrugged.

"She's right: it's not the wise decision, but I have my reasons," Frankie said. He turned to Ludmila. "What will it be, mi reina? Taunt Henderson in ELS? Challenge Johnson on my last chem lab? Steal back the confiscated drawer from Hatchet?"

"Hmmm—Since you won't stop asking about my dress…" Ludmila said.

"It's a reasonable request! I need to match my tie to your dress color."

"Not any longer you don't. I dare you to wear whatever tie I pick out."

He hesitated. 'What's the worst she can do to me with a tie? What's the worst she would do to me with a tie?' He pictured her strangling him, but quickly discarded that possibility. 'She does like grabbing my tie but not like that.'

She faked a pout. "Mi querido doesn't trust me?"

"I trust you, but I'm nervous. I think that's justified." He shook his head in small no motions as he thought for a moment longer. 'Yes, she does plenty of mischief, but she does care about me. She's not going to make me look that bad.' "Fine, Mila. I promise I will wear whatever tie you pick for me."

She grabbed his tie, brought him close, and kissed his cheek. "Relax, mi querido. I won't make you look bad. After all what would it say about me if mi prometido looked like a clown while escorting me?"

Frankie chuckled softly. "It's okay, mi reina. You can admit that you want to show me off."

Ludmila froze, and Frankie smirked at her relishing being the giver rather than the receiver of the teasing for once.

Ludmila cleared her throat and moved out of Frankie's reach. "Yor, do you want to go next?"

"I guess, I can try," Yor said.

"You can do this, Yor," Loid said.

Ludmila smiled and gently tugged on a curl by her left ear.

Camilla opened her mouth to read a question.

"Sorry, Camilla, but I'm picking this one. Let's call it revenge," Frankie said. He read out of long word problem that would require the use of matrices to solve, one that Ludmila had picked out ahead of time and one that he knew to read when she pulled on her hair. Why did she ask this? He didn't know, but he did know there was a good reason for her cheating in the game.

Both girls put pencil to paper though only one needed to do so to solve it.

'40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45.' "I've got it!" Ludmila read out the resulting matrix and interpreted it.

"That's right," Frankie said.

Yor frowned and looked down. 'It's my turn. If I say truth, she's going to make me tell Loid how I feel, and I can't bother him like that.'

"Truth or dare, Yor," Ludmila said.

Yor fiddled with her pencil. "Dare?"

"Okay," Ludmila raised her voice in a singsong way. "We will be right back in two seconds. Just girly stuff." She yanked Yor and Camilla up and led them out the door after her.

Frankie shrugged and turned to ask Loid about something that was on the study guide from Russian Literature. Dominic was a terrible actor and knew it, but luckily for their mission, he had the good sense to use his textbook to cover his face.

Far enough away in the hall that Loid wouldn't possibly overhear, Camilla presented Yor with an envelope. "This is your dare: read this."

Yor took the envelope with wide, blinking eyes. She looked from Camilla to Ludmila and back a few times, but neither girl revealed anything. She opened the envelope and reached in. She grabbed the first thing her fingers touched which were photos of Loid watching her tell a story under the "night sky" during that photoshoot. He looked like the way she was sure she did when she looked at him. "That's not right," she muttered.

"We thought you might say that. There's more," Ludmila said.

Yor reached in again and pulled out a stack of folded lined pages. "What…?"

"Just read them already," Camilla said crossing her arms.

Yor unfolded the pages and began reading the one that had been on the inside. This journal entry was from Friday, September 15th or the day Camilla kissed Loid at ELS. There were a few moments of note in the entry including several tangents where Loid writes in exaggerated detail how beautiful and perfect Yor is, where he expresses anger at Camilla for hurting Yor without any mention of how she assaulted him, and where he admits to having his hopes up when she mentioned that Camilla knew how she felt.

But the passage that struck Yor the most was this one regarding his choice to leak Camilla's secret: No one hurts Yor like that and gets away with it. I don't regret paying Camilla back, but I do worry what Yor would think of me. I know she doesn't love me like I love her, but I like to think that everyday I'm getting a little closer to being the person she deserves: someone almost as good as her. I'm sorry that my choice moves me in the opposite direction.

At some point in reading then entry, she began crying, but it didn't come to her attention until a tear nearly fell on the pages. She wiped it away hurriedly. "What is this? Where did you get this?"

"Frankie took it from Loid's journal which we know was wrong, and we'll apologize after the ball," Ludmila said.

Yor's mouth opened and closed several times but nothing came out.

Camilla put a hand on Yor's forearm. "I know this is somehow shocking to you though the rest of us have known for years, but we need you to pull yourself together a little quicker. We can't leave the boys waiting all day."

"I can't go back there! He's there! How do I face him now?"

Camilla sighed and removed her hand. "What are you on about now? The boy loves you. You love him."

Yor shook her head and breathed more rapidly.

"Yor, you don't need to do anything about it right now. What if you wait for the ball to talk to him about it?" Ludmila suggested. "That gives you a few days to process it."

Yor nodded, and the pair of girls stayed with her until she was calmed down enough to go back in. They had redone her hair in a side braid in the interim.

"What was the dare?" Loid asked when they came back.

"I dared her to let me redo her hair. Isn't she pretty?" Ludmila responded.

"Yes," Loid said quietly. "I'm challenging you next, Ludmila."

"How brave of you to avenge your fallen sweetheart, but I won't let you win this time."

"We'll see." Loid had also cheated a tiny bit by planting the idea in Dominic's head of asking a question about balancing equations which was the part of chemistry that Ludmila had bombed. He smiled to himself when Dominic gave one of those questions, and proceeded to figure it out before Ludmila.

Ludmila sucked her cheeks in to keep herself from yelling and clawing at him again. Frankie had wrapped his arms around her in case he needed to hold her back again.

"Truth or dare, Ludmila?" Dominic asked.

"Dare, obviously," she said.

Loid took a moment to think, holding his chin as he did so. "I dare you to kiss Frankie…"

"That's not a dare."

"…here in front of the rest of us."

"What? That's—No—I can't do that to him."

"I'm not saying no," Frankie said.

Ludmila glared at Frankie willing him to read her mind. He smiled back at her knowingly.

"Would you prefer a truth?" Loid asks.

Ludmila didn't need a second to know what question Loid would ask. "Nope!" she said, turning to Frankie, grabbing his tie, and kissing him. She thunked her forehead down on his shoulder when they broke apart. "Alguien vaya por favor," she whispered.

"Camilla, are you going to let him win? That's not very queen bee of you," Frankie deflected.

"You've got bad info, Franklin. I've not been the queen bee for a while, and I couldn't be happier," she said. "That said Forger looks entirely too smug, and I'd be delighted to be the one to crush him."

Yor picked a translation question from their ancient languages book. "Sorry, Loid," she said after she finished reading the passage they were to translate to Old Ostanian.

He smiled at her. "It's okay, darling." Loid struggled to translate it since he didn't have the years of experience studying it that the Ostanian kids did.

Camilla with no small amount of haughtiness read her perfect translation out loud.

Yor nodded before turning to Loid. "Truth or dare?"

He couldn't pick truth with Camilla as his executioner since she didn't know the deal he'd made with Frankie. "Dare, I suppose."

"I dare you to bridal carry Yor."

He smiled as he turned and saw Yor watching her balled fists in her lap like they were the next episode of Berlint General. He put an arm around her waist before snaking the other under her legs and lifting her up. She hid her face in her hands until he put her down.

"That leaves me and you, babe," Dominic said.

"You think you can handle me?" Camilla said.

"We both know I'm the only one who can."

"And the only one who wants to," Frankie said.

"Charming, Franklin. I would make a comment about how Ludmila being the only girl in the world to show interest in you says something about your desirability, but I don't fancy being grilled at her next family asado," Camilla said.

Ludmila gripped Frankie's hand tighter as she glared at Camilla all the while wishing she was brave enough to say that she wanted him as he is and that meant he was desired by the only person who counted. She read the poetry question, which she picked because it was Camilla's weakness, with one hand turning the pages because she needed Frankie to know she didn't agree with Camilla. "What is a likely interpretation of the albatross as symbolism? Use evidence to support your answer."

"It heavy-handedly symbolizes the burden that the mariner bares because he has to wear it around his neck after shooting it," Dominic said.

Ludmila flipped to the answer key, "Yes, that is the most basic answer. What a boring poem. Anyways, Camilla truth or dare?"

"Unlike you losers, I don't have anything to hide so truth," Camilla said.

"Will you marry me?" Dominic said.

"That's not a suitable truth question."

"Judges?" Dominic looked at the other four students.

"Seems fine to me," Frankie shrugged.

"I'll let it stand," Ludmila said.

Loid shrugged.

"I guess?" Yor said.

"Dominic, come on. That's not a real question, and we both know it," Camilla said.

"Do we?" Dominic said.

"I'm not answering that."

"Fine. Did you take my snack yesterday in Ancient Languages?"

"Of course not. I ate my snack."

"Um-huh. Was your snack by any chance a high-protein energy bar?"

"Yes, which was weird because Cassie usually puts fruits and nuts in my bag. Oh."

"Yeah. That was my snack."

"I'm sorry, Dominic! I didn't realize."

"I'll consider forgiving you if you cook me dinner tonight."

"Yes, of course, what do you want? Chicken parm? Stuffed peppers? Ratatouille?"

"I like everything you make, and I mostly want dinner so I can have a taste of our future domestic bliss." He kissed her hand.

Camilla became quite red. "Well—I—um—huh."

Dominic laughed. "Did I leave the great Camilla Bronson speechless?"

She pulled her hand away. "No! I was just thinking. Anyways, I'm done with this game." She left the room without gathering her things.

Dominic smiled to himself as he gathered both of their things and moved to follow after her. "She had fun. We both did, so thanks everyone," he said before he followed Camilla.

AN: que maravillosa = How marvelous/wonderful!

Alguien vaya por favor = Someone please go.

xo Lolly