Neil slipped a finger into the spine of his binder and pulled out the two thin needles that remained of his mother's set of lock picks. He held them between his lips so he wouldn't lose them and set the lock on his safe. He stuffed his binder inside, slammed it closed, and hooked a second lock through the safe's handle. He gave the handle a couple fierce yanks to make sure the locks caught and shoved the safe under his pile of clothes. He spit the picks into his palm and stormed out of his room, slowing just long enough to lock the door behind him.

Neil checked Andrew's door and was unsurprised to find it locked. Neil crouched and got to work, but it didn't take long. It was a cheap lock and easier to handle than the one at his old locker room. Whoever built the dormitory hadn't counted on people like Neil and Andrew, it seemed. Neil rose to his feet, stuffed his picks in his pocket, and shoved the bedroom door open.

Andrew's group was scattered around the living room. Aaron and Nicky were half-sunk into matching beanbag chairs as they played a video game, Kevin was reading a magazine at one of the desks, and Andrew was sitting on the desk closest to the window so he could smoke. They all went still when the door opened and stared at Neil.

Andrew was the first to react. He flicked his cigarette out the window and smiled. "Try again, Neil. You're in the wrong room!"

Aaron paused the game with a stab of his finger and looked at Nicky. "We locked that," he said in German, not quite a question.

"Last I checked," Nicky answered. He switched to English to offer Neil a friendly, "Hey, sounds like Matt's back. You meet Dan and Renee yet?"

The double deceit in their words and Nicky's smile just further infuriated Neil. If the cousins were going to keep using German thinking they could go behind everyone's backs with it, Neil would keep his fluency a secret until the last possible moment. That didn't mean Neil couldn't hit back, so he switched to French and focused his anger on Kevin.

"Stay out of my things," he snapped. He wished he could take some satisfaction in the shell-shocked looks the language and his furious tone earned, but he felt nothing. "The next time one of you goes where you don't belong I swear I'll make you regret it."

It was an age before anyone responded. Nicky was too busy gaping at Neil to say anything, and Aaron was staring at Kevin as he waited for a translation. Andrew's surprise gave way to what a fool might mistake for delight, and he leaned forward on the desk.

"Wow, another one of Neil's many talents. How many can one man have?"

Neil ignored him in favor of Kevin. "Tell me you understand."

"I understand," Kevin said in French, "but I don't care."