[The Aglionby boys are shocked - horrified - to be spoken to like that. And by someone who they don't see as their equal, on top of it. If this weren't Adam's dream, if it were more like the real world, it would be different. No Aglionby student would be that shocked or horrified by Ronan Lynch talking shit straight to their faces. Plenty have experienced it before, and others have heard stories.

But this is Adam's dream, and so Ronan isn't Ronan, but just another ungrateful scholarship students. And those students don't fight back. Oh, they can talk back a bit - Adam was known to have an cold demeanor and a certain air of disdain, even if that was in truth mainly because he isn't as good at social situations as Gansey. But that's much different from this. This is straight out hostility, and these boys don't know what to do.

Adam, however, looks - for one brief, impossible moment - delighted. As if he's wanted to hear things like that the entire time he's been walking Aglionby's halls. He may never have understood Ronan's hatred for school, but he always understood his dislike of the other students.

The delight disappears, Adam's expression shuttered before anyone else can see it. He gets cold instead, choosing a side rather than playing peacemaker. But then, he always does choose Ronan's side.]

You'd really better go. I'm sure you have places to be. Trust funds to drain.

[It seems, for a moment, like one of the boys might lash out. But Ronan and Adam, together, have always been more intimidating than either of them alone: Ronan tall and angry and sharp as a knife, Adam slim and icy and distant. Horror movie twins. He thinks better of it, but that doesn't mean any of them are ready to walk away. He sneers at them instead, and speaks:]

Yeah? Lay a hand on us and you're out of here. My lawyer would be on your ass before you could blink - not that you've got anything to take.