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It was the first weekend since school started, and they'd agreed to visit home and either complain at or reassure their mom and make sure she hadn't been swindled by some city jag-off while they weren't looking. Also, to raid the house for anything they regretted not bringing to their dorms. Sitting on Luke's bed, watching his brother fuss and mutter, Jason asked, "So how is your roommate?"

Normally, this kind of question would've been asked and answered several days ago, but they didn't have many classes together, and the ones they did have were pretty strict. The teachers seemed to be keeping them apart on purpose. His own roommate had mentioned something about not encouraging familial codependence. Which was some bulltonky in Jason's opinion. The teachers having to deal with Luke all on their own deserved whatever they got. But also, the situation bothered him. Not knowing how his brother was being treated by either teachers or classmates was lowkey driving him crazy.

Relief filled Jason. As much as he doubted his brother's sense of self preservation, Luke had a good sense of when someone well...sucked. And it was good to hear his roommate might be the more cautious sort. "If you get in trouble for it, then keep that in mind and listen to him next time," he advised, voice dry.

"My roommate is a total delinquent, but he's useful. And a weasel, the sort that won't try anything with me right out but will probably try to sell me up river if he gets the chance." The advice given to him was probably a 50/50 mix of solid bad kid wisdom and trollish pitfalls waiting for the country bumpkin. There hadn't been any pranks yet, though, which was bad. It meant the weasel was patient.

Opening his backpack he pulled out a series of flyer signups.

"Pick one."

Football, soccer, field hockey, wrestling, track.

His brother was going to spend a lot of time in detention, Jason could already feel it. Which made getting him into a sport all the more important. "Lisse gets stronger if Luke gets stronger. And if you don't join some kind of sport for physical training that'll mean you training independently, on your own. And I know you," he added grimly.

"You don't want get up early and you don't want to do anything but the things you like after classes. So I'll have to ask your roommate to help me make sure you're doing the things that will save your life against whatever monsters are out there, Luke. So at least save him the trouble and pick one."

"No!" Jason raised his voice, for a moment he was about to leap up and loom over his brother and then he just, stopped, and sagged back down. Hands covering his face, he repeated weakly, "No, Luke. Worst comes to worst, one of us dies."

His brother wasn't taking this seriously in the least. He was more worried about curtains than literal monsters, and thinking it would all just magically work out. And maybe it would! Maybe the monsters were just small nothing creatures! Maybe the city's missing persons epidemic was completely unrelated. Maybe all these changes really only meant some trips to abandoned space places and sending notes with a ring!

But could they count on that? Could they stake their lives on that sort of...of whimsical optimism?

"If you don't train I'm going to beat you up every time you're Lisse," Jason decided dully. I'll join wrestling, he thought, there wasn't a wrestling team back in Bailey.

"Good," Jason took a deep breath and stood up. "Don't you dare go back on your word." He didn't bother to look back at Luke as he left the room.