by Amy Sumida
A girl dressed to the nines, preppy as fuck, flipped her brown hair over her shoulder and smiled at Souta.
“Souta, don’t you let Ben hear you hitting on his girl, you big flirt!” another, deeper voice called.
I couldn’t figure who said it, but I finally succeeded in removing my arm from Souta’s death grip. He turned his face to me, and I groaned at the question on it.
“I’m not real big on friendly touching,” I said with a smile to soften the blow, knowing I would be delivering a bigger one. He seemed nice, and I already figured him for one of those friendly, outgoing types everyone loved. I didn’t do friends, though. Why bother when I never stuck around for longer than a school year? Besides, he seemed sweet and innocent, and I refused to be the one to burst his happy little bubble with my troublemaker ways. “I know the powers-that-be meant well, but I don’t really need a buddy to help me learn the ropes. One Illustratio is the same as another.”
His tinkling, musical laugh echoed in the hall, “You think they meant well? Oh, babe, you don’t know Scholae Jones. He’s a total asshole. I’m not here to show you the ropes, I’m here to keep you out of trouble.”
“We have most of the same classes, which gives us plenty of time to get to know each other, and for me to tell you all about the wonders of Illustratio Marysville.”
Oh, Elements, he meant it. He snatched my hand and dragged me down the hallway toward history.
Five minutes later found me sitting with my buddy at my back, glaring at Mrs. Kalan sitting calmly at her desk. When I walked in, she glanced at me, informed me she wanted no shit in her class, and told me to sit in front of her desk where she could watch me. I glanced over my schedule to figure out my next class and sighed. History, Math, Genus Studies, Lunch, Science, Practicum, English, PE.
A thud next to me drew my attention. One hell of a fucking hot guy dropping his bag made my breath catch before I mentally slapped myself. Nope. Not happening. If I didn’t do friends, boyfriends sure didn’t fall in my universe. Sliding into the seat next to mine, he glanced at me and smiled, then his eyes found my buddy.
“Hey, Sou. Gossips claim you got stuck watching some troublemaker.”
Okay, with his black hair and molten gold eyes, he might be hot, but labeling me a troublemaker made me hate him a little. A rustle behind him catches my attention, and I notice Brooks took a seat next to Souta.
Souta’s face lit up, “Hey, babe.”
Brooks smiled at him, grabbed his hand and kissed it. The girly bit I buried deep, deep inside, melted.
“Brooks, JJ, meet Seraphina.” Souta’s hand landed on my shoulder, a smirk playing across his lips. “The troublemaker.” A rather charming blush spread across JJ’s cheeks. “Seraphina, this is JJ, my best friend and Brooks, my boyfriend. Oh, and I need your cell number.”
“Sera,” I corrected him, ignoring the request for my number. Why did he want my number anyway?
“Huh?”
“I prefer Sera,” I repeated. “Look, I know you're supposed to keep an eye on me, but I don’t do friends, okay? We don’t need to go that far.”
A loud rap quieted the room, and I fixed my gaze back on Mrs. Kalan as class started. I knew what Souta wanted to do, include me in his little group of friends, or Genus, he never said which. I appreciated his kindness, but I knew it to be pointless.
Once the school year ended, and I moved on, I wouldn’t be able to keep contact. I learned the hard way it hurt to try to maintain those friendships. At first there would be lots of texting, messaging over social media, and daily phone calls. Then, the calls and texts would slowly die down. Before long the calls happened only once a week and the texts every couple of days, if I got lucky. The next thing I knew, a month went by without any contact, and I realized our friendship was officially over. Not something I wanted to go through again.
These days I kept to myself. Lonely? Sure, but not many people wanted to be friends with me anyway. I was the weird girl, the orphan, the troublemaker, and the only ward of the Councilum. My sole purpose seemed to be to fuel the imaginations of my fellow students.
A whisper broke through my internal dialogue, and my ears perked at my name.
“...Hot. And those tats!”
It sounded like JJ spoke.
“Huh?”
“Her wrists. You didn’t notice them?”
“Figures you’d notice the artwork.”
Souta couldn’t notice them with my leather jacket on, but I took it off when we sat down. JJ referred to the flames circling my wrists and snaked up my arms. I got them last summer, with May’s permission, from an Elementum artist she trusted.
“She’s Ignis. We need an Ignis. We ought to find out when she turns eighteen.”
“No one can choose an Iunctura, JJ.”
The deep, rumbling voice sounded unfamiliar, and I figured it must be Brooks.
“I know, but I can hope, right? Come on, tell me you don’t think so, too.”
Only silence followed, and I wondered about the part of their conversation I missed. Obviously it was something to do with me, and a Genus, but didn’t they already label me a troublemaker? I didn’t think I wanted a Genus, anyway.
Chapter Three
Souta wasn’t kidding when he said most of our classes were the same. He managed to drag me to lunch, which turned out as subpar as expected. I tried to keep some distance and didn’t bother to give more than grunted responses to their attempts at conversation. They didn’t give up. Some nagging sense made me believe they wouldn’t stop trying to befriend me
PE last period thrilled me. It meant I could go straight back to the dorm to shower. I usually needed one afterwards. PE at Illustratio wasn’t like other places. It tended to be more powers training than anything else. At the end of class, I usually needed a shower to clean off the soot or ash. Fortunately, the instructors took pity on us and decided on a “Human Week”. They opened the track and soccer fields, the weight barn, and the gym. Not being at all athletic I held back a cheer when they said first day participation would be optional.
Instead, I made myself comfortable against the wall in the gym and decided to enjoy the eye candy on display. It gave me the perfect chance to observe the boys trying to worm their way into my life. It didn’t hurt the handful of guys in the class who opted for a pickup game of basketball decided to go shirtless. Okay, in a couple cases it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Some of them needed to take bush trimmers to their chest. The real surprise came when Souta stripped off his shirt.
Ho-lee shit.
Souta couldn’t be more than two or three inches taller than me with a leaner frame than most guys, but the boy packed some serious muscle. Not the body builder type of muscle, but the muscles in his arms and legs were well defined, and he sported a six-pack. I ran a hand over my chin to check for drool and watched as he practically danced around the other team. Power coiled in his muscles as he played, his movements containing grace and elegance. It reminded me of the male gymnasts I watched on TV during the Olympics. When he passed the ball to Brooks, I tore my gaze away from Souta to observe his beau.
Brooks’ blue-tipped blond curls kept falling into his face, obscuring his vision until he tried to flip them out of his eyes. The move made me smile. One of the guys from the other team ran at Brooks, hand reaching out in an attempt to steal the ball. Brooks’ evaded him easily, flowing around the guy like he didn’t exist. I watched him jog down the court. He lacked the grace and elegance of Souta but his movements flowed, each motion blending seamlessly with the last. Throughout the day, I noticed Brooks rarely talked. In fact, he seemed to prefer to let Souta take the spotlight while he stayed in the background. Brooks shot, but the ball clanged off the rim.
JJ caught the rebound and sent the ball right back up. Not as well defined as Souta’s, his lean muscles glistened with sweat as they moved. My mouth watered as I watched him. This time the ball swooshed through the hoop to the cheers of his teammates. He glanced over his should
er, dark bangs swinging across his molten gold gaze as he caught my own and winked. JJ exuded an aura of sensitivity combined with pure guy that I found hot as fuck. Butterflies erupted in my stomach.
I found them all attractive physically, but as I watched them, and the other girls hanging around, I realized JJ seemed to be the one the other girls fawned over. He didn’t garner all the attention. Some blond, blue-eyed charmer who seemed a little too loose with his winks and grins received more attention and a ton of sighs. Stupid girls. JJ seemed to get his fair share of attention, although I’m not sure he noticed.
A snicker next me drew my gaze from the guys to a gaggle of giggling girls. I assumed they focused on the guys playing ball, and then one of them shot me a glare, and I caught another snicker.
Shit. They caught me staring!
Quickly, I lowered my gaze and dug around in my backpack for a distraction. My fingers closed over my cell, reminding me I still needed to call May about Aguirre. I couldn’t do it in class, even lame-o PE, but I could shoot off an email.
My fingers flew over the keyboard as I retold the morning’s events, but I hesitated over the send button. I already bugged May once this week about Aguirre. Yeah, the shit this morning blew the lid off last night, but it still seemed a little like whining to report her again.
If I ignored the morning’s events what had she really done? Laid down a bunch of restrictions on someone she believed to be trouble. Instead of sucking it up, I went and complained. She’d been angry, and my record and reputation tended to speak for me. Everyone lost control on occasion.
I stared at the email. Suddenly what seemed like a concise report moments ago glared at me in one big, whiny, ranty, take-care-of-me, poor-me complaint. Did I need May to deal with this? I turned eighteen soon, practically an adult! On my own my whole life, I have been handling my own issues since I hit my first Illustratio at five, when some towheaded boy decided to knock me into a mud puddle. Ten minutes later, he sported a black eye and wore only underwear, while I sported clean clothes a little big for me.
Aguirre held authority over me, and I needed to acknowledge it.
I deleted the email as the bell rang and took off for the dorms. The boys would try to come over and talk or something, but I didn’t want to talk or make friends. I liked being on my own. Besides, I didn’t need anyone else.
I slammed through the door of the Ignis dorm and down the hall to my room. First I needed to begin my homework and then figure out what to make for dinner to share with the demons-in-training I dormed with.
I never managed either.
Aguirre must have a sixth sense, or an alarm or something, because she stormed into my room seconds behind me. Her hand flew out, snatching up the phone I put on my desk.
“Fucking brats. I give up my life to watch you ungrateful creatures, and does anyone care? No, they saddle me with some little bitch who thinks she’s hot shit. Stupid brat.” She spat her words at me, and I cringed at the stench of onions on her breath. I hate onions.
My fists curled at my sides as she slid my phone into her pocket. I didn’t deserve the way she treated me. I might be labeled a troublemaker, but this seemed over the top for keeping me in line. When I reported her to May I knew I challenged her authority but this seemed to be more. I refused let some self-important bitch take her issues out on me.
“You’re the bitch!” I screamed at her.
The crack of her hand across my cheek made my head spin, and my temper rise. I lunged, fist flying, only to be caught by her large hand. Her other hand grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked hard. I bit my tongue to keep from crying out and fought against her hold, but she bent me backward until I thought I might either fall to my knees or snap in half. The hand holding my fist twisted my arm down and to the side. My body screamed from the position she forced me into but I refused to give it a voice. She sneered at me, and the next thing I knew, her knee connected to my crotch.
A knee to the pubic bone fucking hurts, even without actual balls.
My legs gave out, and I hit my knees, Aguirre’s hold releasing as she sneered. “That’s exactly where you belong, on your knees in the dirt. Scholae Jones and Sage Maybelle think they know better than me. I’ll bring you in line or break you, but I’ll show them who’s right.”
A plastic bucket hit my head, and I winced, sponges and rags flying around me. A plastic bin with a couple spray bottles and other cleaning tools dropped in front of me, and I finally glanced up, gulping as I did.
“Today you’re going to clean the entire dorm, top to bottom.” A grin stole over her face. I shuddered at the sheer malice on it and the nasty gleam in her eyes. “And you’d better hurry, you have to be done by lights out.” She turned and strutted out the door, stopping only long enough to kick a vacuum I failed to notice in my direction. “And don’t forget the vacuuming. That ought to keep you busy.” Her maniacal laugh echoed as she walked out the door.
Fuck this shit! I refused to be her slave. I gritted my teeth through the pain still shooting through my crotch, rose and stormed out of the room, righteous fury burning my gut. From the corner of my eye, I saw some of the midgets scrambling back from the corner of the hall, a brave soul or two watching from the corner with wide, frightened gazes.
“I’m not your fucking slave! I won’t do all the cleaning, you bitch!” I screamed at her. She couldn’t force me to do it. She flew back down the hall, shoving me against the wall, an arm across my throat, cutting off my air completely. I clawed at her hand, fighting and kicking, desperate for air.
“Fine, then we spend the rest of today in the same way we began. How far can I push you before you break? I’d love to find out.” Her harsh words in my ear frightened me more than her bullying. I wanted to believe them to be empty threats, nothing more than her spouting off bullshit to scare me, but she proved she wasn’t afraid to get physical. I nodded as best I could, praying she took it as an okay to the cleaning I meant it as.
I fell to the floor as she released me, muttering as she started back down the hall. I knew she meant it. Evil glittered in her eyes. Hauling myself to my feet, I went back to my room to gather the cleaning supplies. I wouldn’t fight her tonight. There were worse things than spending an evening cleaning.
A part of me regretted not emailing May earlier, but at the same time I knew I needed to get myself out of this. I needed to be strong. I needed to be able to stand on my own.
Chapter Four
The warden continued her little vendetta against me. She at least knew enough to make sure my bruises could be hidden. She liked my arms, and I never thought I could be grateful to be living somewhere cold. No one questioned my long sleeves, not even Souta, Brooks, and JJ.
“Sera!” JJ’s voice rang down the halls. I pretended to not notice him calling me, but JJ caught up quickly, tugging my backpack off my shoulder. I released it with only a halfhearted fight. JJ continually sought me out between classes, and I become accustomed to his need to carry my bag. “Ready for lunch?”
“I prefer to eat alone, thanks.” Only partially true. In the past, I ate alone because I lacked a social circle, by my own choice, but I also didn’t want them finding out about Aguirre. I got myself into the situation by having an attitude which meant I needed to get myself out of it by just behaving and doing what she told me to.
“No one wants to eat alone,” JJ stated like a fact.
He reached out and patted my arm. I tried not to flinch as he caught a particularly sensitive bruise.
“Come on. Oh, and give me your cell.” He placed a hand at the small of my back and guided me toward the lunchroom while I sighed quietly.
“I lost it.” I shrugged, trying to ignore his frown.
Of all the guys, JJ seemed the most determined for me to be part of their little group. I didn’t know how to deal with all the attention he gave me. At the other academies, the kids avoided me, whispering as I walked by. To suddenly be the center of anyone’s attention made me uncomfortable. I di
dn’t want the attention. I didn’t need it. I liked to be alone.
Something pressed lightly against the back of my neck as I tried to focus on taking notes in science. Pretending not to notice, I began following the strokes in an attempt to guess what JJ drew there today. It became a bit of a game, albeit one JJ didn’t know he played. Eyes glued to Mr. Bearns to ensure he didn’t glance our way, I tried to guess when he might be nearly done, then swatted at his hands.
“Sorry.” Genuine contrition laced his tone. “You’ve got such a perfect canvas back here. Can’t help myself.”
I sent a glare over my shoulder, hoping it didn’t seem as halfhearted as it felt. The bell rang, and before I could even lean down, JJ snatched up my bag and headed out the door. Knowing he would be leaning against the wall outside the class, I rolled my eyes and followed him. Normally I found JJ grinning, eyes lit in gold, as he waited for me. While he still leaned against the wall, his usual grin appeared to be on holiday.
Instead, he tucked his hands in his pockets, head hanging and eyes downcast. He never seemed to be without a pen or pencil in hand before. In the last couple days, I watched him walk down the halls, sketching things into a pad he carried everywhere and navigating around obstacles and people without ever taking his eyes from the pad.
“Sorry about your neck,” JJ muttered, picking up both our bags and heading down the hall in the direction of my fifth period class.
Silence descended over our walk. I shuffled, uncomfortable with the odd tension in the air between us. When we reached my class, he handed over my bag and turned to keep going. I wondered if I finally managed to drive him away. I wanted it, then why did the idea of never being near him again send panic skittering through me? I shrugged it away, but then my eyes found an addition to my backpack. A cluster of flowers in red and orange, petals shaped like tiny flames, quickly sketched onto the front of my bag. I melted.
“Hey JJ?” I called after him. He turned, still despondent. “It’s okay, about the drawing thing, just um, try to remember it’s kind of hard to get it off if I can’t see the back of my neck, okay?”