The Calculus of a King's Court
[Keifer's POV]
I closed the door to Room 411, but the click of the latch didn't silence the noise in my head. My hand stayed on the handle for a beat too long. My palms were still tingling. It was the strangest thing—I had been raised by Keizer and Serina Watson to be the most composed person in any room. A Watson didn't fumbled. A Watson didn't stare.
Yet, there I was, still feeling the phantom weight of a girl against my chest.
"He's doing the thing. The 'Keifer Stare.' Someone call a doctor, the Prince is glitching."
I snapped my head toward the living area. The "Watson Suite" was a sprawling corner unit that my father had practically renovated via a massive "donation" to the university. It was a space designed for elite focus, but right now, it looked like a high-tech war zone.
Erdix was standing on a designer chair, trying to cable-manage a triple-monitor setup that probably used more electricity than the rest of the floor combined. Rory, ever the athlete, was sprawled across the leather sofa, tossing a football into the air with rhythmic precision. C In was at the counter, meticulously unboxing a pair of limited-edition sneakers as if they were holy relics.
In the corner, David was already lost to the world, his fingers flying across a mechanical keyboard as he stared at lines of code, and Calix was leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the campus like he was scouting for his next fashion shoot.
"I'm not glitching," I said, finally letting go of the door. I walked toward the kitchenette, my boots echoing on the hardwood. "I just ran into someone."
You didn't just 'run into' someone," Calix said, turning around with a sharp, knowing smirk. "I saw you from the window, Keif. You were holding that girl like she was the last oxygen tank on a sinking ship. Who is she? She didn't look like the typical socialites your mom tries to set you up with."
"Her name is Jasper," I said. The name felt smooth, like velvet, when I said it. "Jasper Jean Mariano. But she told me to call her Jay."
The room went silent. Even David's keyboard stopped clicking.
"Jasper Jean Mariano?" Erdix jumped down from the chair, nearly knocking over a monitor. "Wait, as in the Mariano family? The shipping and textile empire? I heard their daughter was a literal genius. Like, 'published-a-research-paper- at-sixteen' genius."
"That's her," I muttered, grabbing a bottle of sparkling water. "But she's... she's different than I expected. She's moving into 412. With four other girls."
Wait, 412?" Rory sat up, his football forgotten on the floor. "The 'Five-Prodigy' room? My sister told me about that. It's a scholarship room for the top female scorers. Why is a Mariano living in a five-person dorm? Shouldn't she be in a penthouse?"
I thought about the way she had looked—the dark circles under her eyes, the way she carried that box like her life depended on it, and that one word that kept ringing in my ears. Burden.
"She called herself a burden," I said, my voice dropping.
C In paused, a sneaker in mid-air. "A burden? With that last name? Her family owns half of the East Coast's ports. If she's a burden, the rest of us are straight-up liabilities."
"It's not about the money, C," David said quietly from the corner, his eyes still on his screen. "I've seen the Mariano files. They're old school. Strict. If you aren't the best, you're nothing to them. Jasper has been the top student in every bracket for five years. She's probably under so much pressure she can barely breathe."
I leaned back against the marble countertop, staring at the door to Room 411. Somewhere across that narrow hallway, Jasper Jean Mariano was trying to fit her brilliant, complicated life into a cramped room with four other girls.
She's the only person who's ever come close to my scores in the entrance exams," I admitted, a slow smile spreading across my face. "Actually, she beat me in the Physics theory section by two points."
"The King has found a Queen," Calix laughed, leaning back. "And she's an academic rival who lives thirty feet away. Keifer, the universe is literally handing you a plotline. What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to be a good neighbor," I said, though my mind was already racing. I wasn't just 'chill' anymore. I was focused. "Erdix, do we have that spare high-speed router? Rory, didn't you say you were ordering pizza for the whole floor?"
"I am now," Rory grinned, grabbing his phone.
"We're going to bridge the gap between 411 and 412," I decided. "If she thinks she's a burden, I'm going to show her what it's like to have someone actually carry the load for once."
"He's got that look in his eyes," David whispered to his keyboard. "The 'I'm-about-to-conquer-this-variable' look. God help you, Jasper Jean Mariano."
I didn't care what they called it. I just knew that when I caught her on those stairs, I felt a spark that no textbook could explain. And as the 'Chill Prince' of the Watson family, I was used to getting exactly what I wanted.
What I wanted right now was to see Jasper Jean Mariano smile.