by D. R. Perry
"That works." She nodded. "Assuming there's supervision for the students on campus while you're away."
"Several of the faculty and staff are here preparing for the start of classes. Mr. Pierce's professor is one of them. Will that do?"
"Yes." She nodded. "Once the students enter the school, we can go."
We said goodbye to Izzy, then Logan and I headed through the entrance, along with Dorian, whose mischievous gryphon was perched on his shoulder. Once the door closed behind us, the new transfer student leaned against it and laughed so hard I thought he'd fall over.
"Holy shit." Dorian grinned at Logan, wheezing in a breath between clenched teeth. "You’re not what I expected at all. This is gonna be awesome. Mentored by a student who fought the law. And won."
"Some people think that’s a bad thing." Logan blinked.
"Not me. Didn't they tell you I’m a transfer from the Academy?" Dorian waggled his eyebrows. "I'm starting on probation."
"No. They did not tell me that." Logan's voice was deadpan. He'd been caught off-guard and out of his element.
I had his back. "Yeah, we're a couple of miscreants, for sure." I elbowed Logan in the ribs. "I'm on probation too."
"Sick." Dorian nodded. "When do we get food in this place?"
"Next time's lunch, in half an hour. What room are you in? We can put your stuff away."
"I just have this bag." Dorian peered at all the luggage. "You look like you overpacked, man. You too, fellow probationary student."
"Yeah, it's a bad habit." I shook my head. Of all the times to pack more like Noah than me. "What can you do?"
"Anyway, I'm on the third floor. I guess everyone in our year is, right?"
"Yup." I pulled the suitcase behind me toward the stairs. "It's voice-activated, like an escalator except magical."
"Aliyah, what are you doing?" Logan leaned toward my ear, whispering as we walked.
"Speaking miscreant, I guess." I shrugged. "Just come up one step." I beckoned to the new guy.
"Right." Once he got on, I spoke the words “third floor,” and the staircase started moving.
On the way up, Logan gripped my elbow tightly, like a lifeline over the side of the boat in stormy seas. I'm not sure what had him so ill at ease. The headmaster had solved the police problem. But if his parents had called to report him missing when they’d actually kicked him out, things were not okay.
I couldn't miss the way my friend kept staring at the new student. Maybe he found Dorian intimidating. Or maybe he worried that his parents had been right all along, and he shouldn't have accepted the offer to be a student mentor. That he was out of his depth here.
Or it's something else. You certainly don't know everything.
I shrugged off the snark from the Evil Inside Voice. Either way, he'd need help. Too-cool-for-school Dorian Spanos was a wild card. I'd had enough trouble with one of those last year, and now one of my friends had to deal with the 2.0 version. Grace would need a heads-up. She’d texted the day before about having a plan for the year ready to go.
As it turned out, an entirely different set of difficulties loomed on the horizon for our group.
Chapter Ten
We escorted Dorian down the hall toward the room he'd share with Eston. Even though Alex remained at Hawthorn Academy, he’d room with one of the first-years. I had no idea how Eston felt about any of that. Usually, he reserved his thoughts and opinions for his girlfriend Kitty. Eston was the quiet type.
"Are you going to unpack that?" Logan pointed at the still-closed duffel bag on the floor.
"Nah. I'll save that for later." Dorian laughed as he sauntered back out the door. His gryphon tilted her head, blinking at us with a soft caw. "I'll hang with you guys while you stow your stuff, then we can get some grub."
"Okay, I guess." Logan shrugged.
"Is that cool with your girlfriend here?" Dorian waggled his eyebrows.
"Friend who happens to be a girl.”
“That's fine." I snorted, imagining Izzy and all her protestations about boys.
"Cool-cool." Dorian nodded, his smirk blossoming into a genuine smile.
"Let's drop your stuff off first, Logan." I offered. "You shouldn’t have to lug all those bags to my room and back."
"Peep!" Ember crept out from under my hair, shaking herself free. After that, she stretched her wings, yawning. I kept walking toward the room I shared with Grace.
"Oh, no way!" Dorian smiled. "You've got a dragonet?"
"Yup, one of two here." I shrugged. Ember trilled playfully.
Logan nodded. "My roommate has the other one."
"Will we see him today?" Dorian picked up his pace. It wasn't always easy for my shorter friends to match my stride, and the new kid was no exception.
"I'm not sure," Logan said. "Dylan's a workaholic with two jobs, so he might not be around."
“Oh, Logan. I meant to tell you something about Dylan." I glanced at Dorian. "Maybe it's personal."
"How's something maybe personal?" Dorian blinked. "Either it is or it isn't, right?"
"Things can be totally complicated around here. You get used to it." I gave Dorian a half-smile, then headed back into the hall, closing the door behind me.
"Oh, boy." He rolled his eyes. “Drama llama ding-dong.”
"You can say that again," Logan muttered.
"Meow." Doris glared up at Dorian as though daring him to repeat himself. Sometimes, the mercat reminded me of the reference librarian at the Salem Public Library.
"I won't. Are we cool, Doris?" Dorian leaned forward, peering at the feline as he walked. His gryphon leaned forward too, head bobbing. "Mercy's sorry about the hat earlier. She didn't know she’d cause such a ruckus."
"Yeah, I think she's okay with you now." Logan shrugged. "The two of us are kind of on the serious side. And here we are."
Logan put his hand on the flat wooden panel beside the door to his room. The lock clicked and he opened it, pushing his way inside. The lights came on as Dorian and I followed Logan in. He helped, lifting the largest suitcase to the top of Logan's bed, but he winced a little while doing it, like something twinged or pinched.
"At least it's obvious which one is yours." Dorian jerked his thumb at Dylan's unmade bed. A beat-up acoustic guitar sat there, partially draped by a sheet. "For a workaholic, his housekeeping's kinda sloppy."
"Not usually." I closed the door behind me. The last thing I wanted was Dylan to walk in on us talking about him. "I hope he's okay. He had some kind of argument with Grace outside Engine House last week. He came in and sat for maybe five minutes, but I haven't seen him since."
"Really?" Logan dropped his knapsack, then headed toward Dylan's side of the room. He peered at the desk and into the trash can and looked beside the door. "Well, he's been here today. And he's wearing his work shoes now, so he must be on a shift at one job or the other."
Dorian raised his eyebrows, watching Logan intently, and said nothing. I wondered what he thought about all this. Pretty much all the students in our year erred on the side of kindness, and I wasn't sure yet whether Dorian would be on board with it. Time would tell.
"Well, I'll get Doris's stuff out, then we can go to the cafeteria." Logan opened his knapsack, producing a plethora of cat accessories.
Hawthorn Academy supplied food and water for the magical critters, but anything else had come from the students. Despite Logan's parental issues, Doris had been taken care of, at least. But I expected nothing less from Logan. For all I knew, he raided the feline accessories from his family's show.
"All set." Logan brushed his hands off, then headed toward the door to open it. "Everybody out."
"I'm just gonna drop this off in my room, no need to unpack." I stopped two doors down from Logan's.
When I opened the door, Dorian stopped to hold it open. I collapsed the handle on the suitcase, then pushed it under the bed. After that, I turned to find him staring at the wall over Grace's bed, which was adorned with the usual Hawthorn Acade
my wooden carvings but partially covered by her posters.
"Your roommate's into K-Pop?"
"Yup." Ember added a peep of her own. She liked Grace's music.
"I'm sorry."
Something about Dorian threw me off. It seemed like he was hiding something or trying too hard, or both, but Logan had to help him. Mentorship was part of everything else he'd have to deal with, and his plate was already piled high. I'd have to get along with Dorian somehow, but I also had to stand up for my friend.
"I'm not." I put my hands on my hips, planting my feet. "That's a snobby thing to say."
"Yeah, it was. I shouldn't have said it. Bad inside voice, no biscuit."
Don't get any ideas about talking to me like that, miss.
"I know a little something about unruly inside voices." I snorted. "But be careful. Our year is pretty chill. The third-years, not so much, and I've got no idea what the first-years will be like."
"That's not true." Logan sighed. "We kind of expect a bit of trouble."
"Trouble?" Dorian cracked his knuckles. "What kind?"
Most of my friends would've blinked, stepped back, or otherwise expressed alarm. Not Dorian Spanos. He seemed more intense than chaotic, so I wondered whether he was a daredevil or had a death wish. Either could throw an enormous monkey wrench into practically every social dynamic we’d built last year.
"Mean girl stuff." I shrugged. "There's a downright awful one coming next week. Don’t worry, my K-Pop-loving roommate has a plan."
"We should probably tell him about Alex.”
"In a while." I headed toward the doorway. "Maybe off-campus, okay?"
"Oh, come on. Now I'm curious." Dorian's voice cracked on the last syllable.
"Don't worry, you'll hear about it." Logan put a hand on his shoulder to escort him away from the door. "Just not here."
"Oh, it's like that, is it?" Dorian tensed, eyes widening until Logan dropped his hand. He swallowed before continuing, "You guys are lucky you can leave campus. The Academy didn't let us do that."
What was all that about, I wonder?
I kept my lips zipped. The silence as we walked down the hallway felt like one of the enormous, wobbly bubbles Cadence had insisted on making all through grade school. They floated along almost impossibly before popping. Anyone in direct proximity got soap in their eyes. I knew better than to tamper with the social equivalent.
"First floor." I activated the staircase as soon as we reached it.
I didn't want to continue the conversation about The Academy. I'd overheard just enough about it through the door of Mom's office. Dorian must've picked up on that because he changed the subject.
"What kind of food do they have here?"
"Just about everything." Logan smiled. "Not every day, but the selection is good, and they rotate things. They're also good with allergies and special diets, that kind of thing."
"The stuff we got over at the Academy was crap." When the stairs stopped, Dorian paced ahead of us, turning around and walking backward. "Sometimes I thought it was dog food."
"Ugh." Logan wrinkled his nose.
"Exactly."
"Look, they have panini." I pointed at the board.
"I'm surprised they're even open." Logan shook his head. "I mean, almost nobody's on campus."
"The headmaster said Luciano and Nurse Smith are." I shrugged. "Those two would mutiny without a decent meal."
"Makes sense," Dorian said, laughing. "So, profs eat the same stuff we do?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't they?" Logan blinked.
"You've probably never been stuck at a crappy school, either of you."
"I've been to them." I sighed. "My mom works in extrahuman education."
"Well, you're right about me." Logan shrugged. "All the schools I went to, the food at least looked good."
"I care more about how it tastes." Dorian stepped up to the counter. "I'm starving."
I got my usual turkey on pumpernickel with avocado, while Logan got ham and Swiss. Dorian ordered two sandwiches, one Italian with provolone and the other roast beef with cheddar. The sandwiches came out so fast they might have been made in the future. Maybe they were. The cafeteria employed Penelope, whose familiar could warp time.
We took our trays to the beverage station, where I got iced tea. Logan went with his usual Sprite. Dorian got a cup and went along the line, putting a little of everything cold in his cup, and I mean everything. He added all the sodas, juice, and even the iced tea.
"What's that?" Logan blinked.
"Beverage roulette." Dorian took a sip, then wrinkled his nose. "You never know if it's going to be good or like this." He took another sip, longer this time.
"Why not dump it out and try again?" Logan asked.
"I made it, now I have to drink it." He shrugged, then headed toward the tables. "Them's the rules."
"Let's sit here." I put my tray at the booth we used last year.
We ate in silence for a few minutes. Dorian must have been hungry because he finished his entire first sandwich. I only managed a quarter of mine.
Something moved, so I turned my head to see what it was, but nothing was there. Logan did the same thing, but Dorian laughed.
"It's just my familiar." He pointed to where I'd seen the movement. "Look up at the light fixture. Mercy likes those."
I made out a shape on the light. It reminded me of how a hawk used the sun for cover, so the prey wouldn't see it before the final dive-bomb. Sure enough, a moment later, Mercy the gryphon plummeted through the air, dipping into the trash can and coming up with a sandwich crust. She fluttered over, perching on the edge of the table with her prize.
Lovely. A trash gryphon. What will young Headmaster Hawkins allow on campus next? Ah, yes. The extrahuman riffraff, including your town friends.
"I'd better read up on gryphons." I stared down my sandwich, nostrils flaring as I resisted snapping back at the Evil Inside Voice. "It's one of the few critters I know little about. They rarely partner with magi."
"Oh, yeah, nobody expected it,” Dorian said. "I'm already the odd magus in the family. My familiar was just the latest straw. Hopefully, the fact that Mercy's unconventional won't be the last."
"Are you in trouble with them?" Logan asked flatly.
"Nah, my folks are good people. They just don't know what to do with me. They're psychic. I'd think I was adopted, but I look just like them. Except for this." He indicated the white streak in his hair. "It came in with my magic."
"I know how you feel. I'm the lone introvert in a showbiz family. They love getting in front of people and making spectacles out of themselves. I'd rather sit in a corner and draw."
"Right on." Dorian nodded. "And yet here you are at the school they sent you to."
"They're not happy about me being in Salem now." Logan closed his eyes. "But the tuition's non-refundable at this point."
"Yeah, about that." Dorian leaned on his hand, reminding me of Cadence. "Did they really call the police on you?"
"I guess." Logan shrugged. "News to me. Unpleasant, but that's not exactly new. Tell him, Aliyah."
Dorian blinked and said nothing. He glanced at me, eyes widening.
"He was staying with my grandma because they kicked him out of the house last week." I made a fist against the table. "She offered him a place last year because they didn't want him bonding with Doris. She's apparently not fancy enough for them."
Doris chose that moment to turn on the charm, leaping up on the back of the booth behind Logan and pacing back and forth like the world's glossiest feline tightrope walker. She stared at Dorian the entire time as if daring him to share in the Pierce Family consensus.
"No way." Dorian watched her. "Totally gorgeous."
"Thanks." Logan's face was almost as red as the tomato garnish beside his sandwich.
"So, someone expected their shenanigans." Dorian glanced at my curled hand and then back up again, but at Logan, not me. "What kind of parents call the cops when they gave you the boot?
"
Go on and tell the boy his parents are toxic. Evil, even. Make him cry right here in front of his mentee, who already makes him feel awkward.
I closed my eyes and swallowed the fiery diatribe against the entire Pierce family, excluding Logan. This was his story to tell.
"They always treated my sister better than me." Logan cut the crust from his sandwich and tossed it to Mercy, who gobbled it down in moments. "But is that normal? I’ve got no idea."
"It's not." Dorian and I startled each other by speaking at the same time.
"Jinx, you owe me beverage roulette." Dorian laughed and slapped the table.
"After I finish my sandwich, okay?" I grinned.
"Thanks, guys." Logan stared down at his ham and Swiss, then picked it up and finally took a bite.
Sometimes a well-placed laugh is just as important as a shoulder and an open ear.
A moment later, Lee headed toward us, sauntering over from the food line. He had tomato soup and a side of sweet potato fries on his tray.
"Is this seat taken?" he asked.
"There's always room for another friend." Logan waved his hand, and Dorian scooted over. "Dorian, this is Lee. He's in our year, too."
"Hey." Dorian bobbed his head. "What's up besides the crazy solar light fixtures?"
"The ceiling." Lee grinned. "Anyway, good to meet you."
We went about the business of lunch, the conversation turning academic. Since Dorian was in Professor Luciano's section with Logan and me, we answered most of his questions. If that bothered Lee, he didn't show it. He barely spoke until after we finished our food.
"So, I've been wandering the halls, helping Scratch exercise. And I heard something."
"Couldn't have been ghosts, right?" Dorian glanced around.
"No. Campus is between worlds, so ghosts can't come here." Lee shook his head. "It's music. Apparently, Dylan has a new hobby."
"You mean my roommate?" Logan blinked. "Okay."
"After the umpteenth time I walked past his room, he came out and asked if I'd go see him at the open mic night."
"Oh, yeah." I nodded. "The Witch's Brew has one every Sunday. It's at seven."