Chapter 0601

I beam again at my friend, sitting back against the couch with a gratified sigh. “Good, I’m glad you won,” I say, nestling back into the pillows. “And I hope Wright is stinking mad about it.”

“Oh, I didn’t win,” Tony says, taking a big bite of his cookie. “You did. I got disqualified for friendly fire.”

“Oh,” I say, my eyes going wide as DQFF suddenly makes sense. “Really!?” I gasp, delighted. “I won!?”

A big cheer goes up in the room and I laugh, delighted as Luca bends down and opens his bookbag, pulling out not his homework – as I expected – but two bottles of whiskey and some tiny paper cups that he begins to fill and pass around.

“Luca!” I gasp as everyone cheers again at the sight of the liquor. “This is contraband -”

“Oh, no one’s checking,” he says, laughing and handing me a little cup. “Besides, we deserve to celebrate! To Ari, champion of the day!”