For the next several days, the trio adhered to their new yet fragile strategy: performative normalcy. They attended classes, took notes, and avoided gathering as a trio in public. The tension was a low hum beneath the surface, a secret frequency only they could hear.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTuEllJcSN
Their chosen stage for the deliberate performance was the library's main study room. It was a place where their proximity could be explained by academic necessity, and not conspiracy. They sat in front of a large table in the open, well-lit section, textbooks and notepads spread out in a convincing display of studiousness.
It was here, amidst the safe pretence of a trigonometry review, that Niles discovered a chink in Leon’s formidable armour.
Leon was staring at a page of equations as if the equations were a legal document written in a maliciously forgotten language. His brow was furrowed, his pen tapping in a frustrated rhythm. He had meticulously structured the problem, but his calculations were a chaotic mess of misguided logic.
“You’ve inverted the sine and cosine functions,” Niles stated the mistake, his voice low so as not to carry. He pointed with the tip of his pencil. “And your application of the distributive property is… creatively catastrophic.”
Leon flinched, then scowled, a faint blush of uncharacteristic embarrassment colouring his neck when he saw Niles' smirk. “Quiet, I’m aware that it’s incorrect,” he muttered, the words tight.
“Here,” Niles said, pulling a fresh sheet of paper. His hand moved with swift, sure strokes. “Look. The angle is given, so you start with this identity. It’s a just simple logical substitution.”
He explained the steps with a clarity that was second nature to him. Leon listened, his initial defensiveness giving way to grudging, then genuine, concentration. The tangled mess of numbers and symbols resolved under Niles's guidance into a single and elegant number.
Leon let out a long, slow breath. He didn’t look at Niles, his gaze fixed on the solved problem as if seeing the underlying logic for the first time. 31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzwlZTSKHIb
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “The logic is… slippery. I can parse legal precedent and deconstruct a rhetorical argument for hours, but numbers rearranging themselves on the page when I’m not looking. It’s a blind spot. My marks in mathematics are... let's just say they are below average.”
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHy3V0pFirr
The admission hung in the air. For Leon, whose entire identity was built on competence, control, and a mastery of systems, this was a profound vulnerability. To confess it to Niles, of all people, was a surrender that spoke volumes about the fragile trust being forged between them.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUemYKjmDUr
Niles was silent for a moment, processing. He had assumed Leon’s excellence was universal. This very human limitation made him seem more real, more solid. 31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4gKjDUppOc
“Everyone has a subject,” Niles said finally, with a shrug that was meant to be casual but held a note of understanding. “For me, it’s anything requiring aesthetic intuition. I can easily understand the physics of a sound wave or the geometry of perspective, but I can’t translate that into anything… beautiful. My hands don’t work that way. My art and my music assignment were described by the Ms. Ellery as ‘a triumph of mechanical reproduction, devoid of soul.’. She had given me a C- for my last assignment.”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDi5MFPCzEu
From across the table, Alice looked up from her economics textbook, a wry, sympathetic smile touching her lips. “I can balance on a strip three inches wide and predict an opponent’s lunge a full second in advance, but supply and demand curves are all greek to me. I have to be tutored for hours just to get a B in my economic test.” She gestured to the dense paragraphs and confounding graphs in her textbook. “It’s all just chaotic guesswork to me.”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlCdPWqDdw
“You should have said it earlier, Alice,” Leon chucked, his expression softened. “I could have taught you before your test, making sure you got an A on that paper.”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkCiUY2IhwP
“Objection! I believe I could take this position much better than you, Mr. Collingwood. Your math concepts are surprisingly terrible!” Niles stopped him, his expression playful, much to the two's surprise. “Economics is just math and a piece of cake to me!”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pPFwGZrz1
“Shut up, math genius! You should be worrying about your very unique aestheticism!”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQOj7wL5yi3
“We'll see about that, Mr. Lawyer!”31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGG0F2aKN4z
“Ha, ha, ha, thanks guys.” Alice laughed softly, her expression relaxed.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2FOVLdNBe
A mutual and profound understanding settled over the table. In this academy that sought to define and exploit their singular, overwhelming gifts, they were discovering a deeper connection in their shared, mundane flaws. 31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8oiLI5054F
Leon, the unflappable logician, was defeated by algebra. Niles, the consummate problem-solver, was artistically hopeless. Alice, whose body and perception were a finely tuned instrument, was baffled by the flow of capital.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3QHxr7swuX
It was a beautiful paradox. Blackwood Academy had gathered them for the parts that didn’t fit in the outside world. But here, in the quiet sanctuary of the library, they were building a foundation not on their brilliant peaks, but in their ordinary valleys. Their weaknesses weren't liabilities; they were the points of contact, the spaces where they could legitimately lean on one another.
Leon gave a curt nod, the shame fading from his expression, replaced by a look of pure, determined focus, and a genuine smile. 31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmQYZGbAr7H
“Show me that identity again, Niles,” he said, pulling the paper back toward him.
“Of course, Leon. Here, let me show you...” Niles smiled and continued calculation.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtOB7Jk1Zg
And for the next three hours, they studied. Not as the fencer, the prefect, and the hacker, but as three ordinary students. They traded knowledge, each strong where the others were weak, quietly reinforcing a bond that had nothing to do with the academy’s ominous agenda and everything to do with the simple and powerful thing named as friendship.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9wMu6URDKy
and then Add to home screen.