by Eric Vall
We returned to our room and both napped late into the evening. It was at this time that someone tapped my cheek lightly. My eyes cracked open and found Layla hovered over me. I jolted with surprise. Her lips were curled into a wicked smile and her eyes twinkled in the orange glow of the sunset.
I blinked at her and she blinked down at me. “Um, hello, Layla. Can I help you? How did you get in?”
Her grin grew wider. “I stole Braden’s key a few weeks back, he had to get a new one. And as for why, I thought that maybe you’d like to help me pull a prank on our dear friend Gawain. I’ve asked Braden before, but he’s too much of a goody-goody to ever do it.”
I rubbed at my eyes. Layla backed up away from my bed and leaned against the wall. I yawned while I asked, “What time is it?”
“A little past the sixth hour I think. Most everyone is at dinner … including Gawain,” She winked with mischief, her grin small but impish. “So are you in?”
“What would I need to do?” I sat up and scratched at my goatee. I was certainly intrigued. I'd helped pull off a few pranks here and there, so I wasn’t a stranger to mischief.
But Layla wouldn’t spill the beans. “Nothing really, I just thought you’d appreciate a laugh at our mutual friend’s expense.”
I shrugged. “Alright, fine. Let’s do it.”
She practically squealed as she hopped and clapped. “Great! Get dressed and come on.”
She waited patiently outside as I put on some clean clothes. Unlike Petyr, I didn’t make her wait long. When I joined her, she took my hand in hers and pulled me down the hall. Her hand was soft, smooth, and tiny in mine.
Layla dragged me down the hall, went up a stairwell to the third floor, then took another turn and finally stopped in front of one of the other dorms. She let go of my hand and knelt in front of the door. Her hands fumbled around the pockets of her trousers before they finally retrieved a lockpick. She furrowed her brow and stuck her tongue out slightly as she got to work. After a long moment, the lock clicked, and she looked at me with a satisfied grin.
“Why does it not surprise me that you’re good at lockpicking?” I asked with a smile and a shake of my head.
Layla shrugged. “It’s a useful skill to have where I’m from.” She gripped the door handle and threw it open with a dramatic flair. “Welcome to the humble abode of Gawain Maddox.”
I stepped and almost laughed at the clear sarcasm of calling his room humble. There was only one bed because, of course, Gawain would complain and buy his way into not sharing a room. The bed was gold trimmed and intricately carved beyond acceptable means. It was too fancy, with hundreds of figures and images shaped into the frame and the posters. The curtain around the bed was rich, red silk. He had two of the same plush chairs that the Headmaster had in his office, plus a massive armoire that dominated one side of the room. I didn’t see the point of that since he had to wear the same uniform as everyone else.
The most noticeable thing about his room was that is smelled like Gawain, too much like Gawain. The stench of his cologne was thick in the air and was a sheer assault on the senses. I gagged and covered my mouth with my shirt.
“That’s just awful. How does he live in this?” I asked with a muffled voice.
Layla looked less bothered by it. She simply pinched her nose shut. “Men often enjoy their own stench even when everyone else hates it.” She smirked. “It always smells like this in here.”
I gave her a look. “You’ve come here before?”
She snorted. “Oh yeah, I love fucking with little Maddox. Move things around, hide things here and there. Just small things like that.”
I couldn’t help the smile that crept upon my lips. “You are the real hero this world deserves, truly.”
“I know.” She laughed, but her smile went away quickly. “Now, time for business.” She dug into her pockets again and retrieved a small bottle of what looked like cologne, a large vial of rich golden liquid, and a small cheese square about the size of a bar of soap. Without so much as a word, she walked over to me and placed them in my hands. She read the questions in my eyes before I even asked them.
“Gawain goes to the baths every day after dinner,” she explained. “He’s very vain and values cleanliness. So, we’re gonna tamper with that.” Layla found a fine-looking leather bag on a small table by the armoire. She tossed out a bar and gestured for me to give her the cheese and the cologne vial. Her grin was wide.
“The cheese and the soap look nearly identical, and it won’t feel too different when he’s rubbing it all over him in the bath.” She sprayed the bottle of cologne on the cheese. It was lilac incense. “This will mask the smell of week-old cheese.”
I chuckled. “You’re a fiend.”
“That’s not even the best part,” she replied. I tossed her the golden vial when she gestured for it. From Gawain’s bag, she pulled out a large cloudy vial of white liquid. “Only rich pricks like Gawain can afford shampoo, so we’re gonna pour this goat piss into his shampoo and he’ll be none the wiser.”
I covered my mouth from squealing gleefully at that suggestion. “How do you know it will mix well and be unnoticed?”
The smile that followed that question was chaos incarnate. “Because I’ve done this before.”
“You are pure evil. I love it.” My smile spread from cheek to cheek.
She bowed. “Thank you, sir Gryff. Don’t worry, he won’t notice the smell while he’s wet, but once he dries off, the smells gonna stick to him like… well, like goat piss.”
“I have so many questions right now,” I said jokingly.
“And I have answers, but for later. For now, we play the waiting game.” She placed the shampoo back in Gawain’s bag and retrieved the bar of soap from where she’d thrown it and put it in her pocket, along with the cologne and the now empty bottle of piss.
We left Gawain’s room, locked it behind us, then made our way to the bath house. By the time we got there, dinner had already ended, and students streamed from the main dining hall and dispersed across campus. I didn’t know how we’d get a payoff for making Gawain smell, but Layla assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. I trusted extensive pranking expertise on the subject.
There was no one in the foyer of the bathhouse, though if there was anyone in the building all together was anyone’s guess. I followed Layla down the hallway that led to the men’s baths, but instead of going all the way in, we stopped at a side door that I’d never paid much attention to before. Layla picked the lock easily and then we were inside a small broom closet. There were mops and cleaning supplies, along with a few tools. Cleaning towels sat in neatly folded stacks along the shelves. I didn’t know why we were in there until Layla pointed to a small hatch in the ceiling.
I nodded as she kicked over a bucket, stood atop it, and slid the paneling aside. Inside the hatch was darkness, but that didn’t dissuade her.
Hands on her hips and a determined grin, she turned to me. “Okay, I’ll help you up and then you help me up.”
I nodded. She moved the bucket aside and cupped her hands together over her knee. I got the gist and stepped into her palms carefully. As soon as I did, I pushed off while she lifted with all her strength. It did the trick. My arms found the edge of the hatch and got inside, forearms and all. From there, I used my upper-body strength and her pushing my legs to shimmy up into the darkness of the hatch.
It was cramped and hot, like a horizontal chimney, only slightly wider. I turned back the hole and offered Layla my hand. She took it with a jump. Thankfully, she was very light, so it was no trouble hauling her up into the dark shaft.
“Alright, now what?” I asked.
Layla moved the hatch back into place before answering, plunging us into near-complete darkness. “Now, you follow me.”
I didn’t have much of a choice. She squeezed past me on hands and knees and led on. It was hard to tell distance in the cramped darkness, but I suspected that we were well over the baths when the darkness di
ssipated. We finally came into a dark crawlspace that was at least wide enough to stand. In short order, we were both drenched in sweat from the steam of the baths.
There was a metal ladder at the end of the space going upward, and Layla made her way for it. I followed her up a long way, enough to know that we were likely well near the top of the building.
As we climbed, I asked, “How do you know about this?”
“I like to explore,” she explained with a wink down at me. “It helps combat my immense boredom and need to be on the move. Besides, you never know when you’ll need a good hiding place.”
Well, I couldn’t argue those points. Layla stopped after a moment with my head bumping into her legs, but neither of us said a word. Her hands worked furiously on some type of knob or latch above me before the darkness gave way with a creaking groan and moonlight streamed in. Cool air blasted in, the sound of the wind whistling above us. Layla climbed out and I followed.
We were on the roof. The huge open-air hole that looked down on the men’s bath was before us, surrounded by a small ledge that was topped with red tiles. Behind us was a brick wall that rose up to another room that I didn’t know the function for. The women’s bath was on the other side, I assumed.
I leaned over the opening and looked down on the baths. It was steamy, but I could see things clearly. I turned back to Layla. “So you come up here and watch us bathe?”
“A little, but I mostly just throw stuff at people or spit on them or something,” she said with a shrug. “Just be a nuisance.”
I snorted and shook my head. “You’re insane, Layla.” I smiled and turned away, but then a thought popped into my head. “Does this mean that there’s a way to the roof on the women’s side?”
Layla punched my arm. “There is, but I won’t tell you where it is.”
“No fair,” I fake-whined, a smile plastered on my face.
She gave me a cheeky smile. “Oh please. What kind of woman would I be if I told you that?”
“Fair enough.” I leaned back against the ledge. “So, if you come up here often, have you seen me naked?”
“Really? That’s what you’re worried about?” She knelt next to me and leaned over the ledge and peered down.
“I mean, I think it’s a fair question.” I shrugged.
She puffed. “First off, I don’t come here every night. Second, no, I have not seen you stark naked. If I do, I will let you know what I think.”
A boisterous laugh flew from my mouth. “Well, if you ever want to know, all you have to do is ask nicely.”
“You’re an idiot,” she proclaimed as she punched my arm again, but she was smiling ear to ear.
From there, we played the waiting game. Slowly, I began to hear chatter from below and the splashing of water. I trusted Layla to tell me when our target arrived, for I didn’t fancy watching the naked bodies of my fellow male schoolmates. It was one thing to be down there where I couldn’t help it, but deliberately looking just felt wrong. Layla didn’t have this problem. She kept snickering at a few and commenting on how impressive others were. It was a little disconcerting, but I couldn’t help but find it also a little funny.
After a while, I broke my silence. “So, why do you prank so much? Just to annoy people?”
She didn’t answer right away. Her silence hung heavy in the air before she gave up her steamy vigil and sat shoulder to shoulder with me. A light huff escaped her.
“I don’t particularly come from a good life down in the Enclave. Poor as hell, mom is on drugs, dad’s an abusive alcoholic, one brother was killed in a gang brawl, and the other has a shit ton of gambling debt.” She rattled it off like she was reading rehearsed lines, like she didn't care, but I could see the furrow of her brow and the twitch of her lips. This wasn’t easy on her. “No one paid attention to me because I was the worthless one in a family of worthless pieces of shit. So, I coped by annoying people, by pranking. That way they would notice me.”
“That was a very… heavy answer,” I told her.
“I know, right?” Layla replied with a mock laugh.
I nudged her arm with my elbow. “I know this may not be worth much, but I’m sorry about that. You deserve to be noticed, everyone does, and I notice you.”
The tenseness of her words evaporated as she sniggered. “Don’t get sappy on me now, Gryff.” She took my hand in hers briefly and gave it a squeeze before releasing it just as quick. “I appreciate it, though.”
I grinned broadly. “Don’t mention it.”
Layla smiled lightly at me, and then she turned back to the baths and continued her watch. Her story gave me a new appreciation for her. I’d lost my parents, but I knew they’d loved me, and then I’d been raised by Maelor, who loved me in his own way. I couldn’t imagine how it would be to grow up as she did. I could now understand why she did what she did, and I didn’t blame her for not trying too hard at the Academy. With the background that she had, it was understandable to just look out for oneself as she did.
“I see him!” she suddenly exclaimed. “He’s getting out of the bath already. I must have missed him, but hopefully, he used our toys.”
I swiveled onto my knees and peered down at the baths. Gawain’s bright hair stuck out amidst the other students. I averted my gaze as he dried himself off with his goons. From my peripherals, I saw him pull on his bathrobe. Safe to look back. As he dried his hair, one of his cronies began to cough.
“Maker, what is that stench?” he asked with disgust.
The others started to smell around and all at once, they seemed to come to the same conclusion. “It’s you, Maddox. You reek like piss and curdled cheese.”
His goons surprisingly turned on him and started to laugh at his expense. Now, normal friends did that all the time in jest, but I suspected that Gawain wouldn’t appreciate it, just as I doubted these goons were actually his friends. I could practically see his face go red from our vantage point.
“Which one of you bastards did this?” he snarled.
They all started snickering as if they’d done it. Gawain ran at them with a yell, but his goons got away. He continued to shout at the top of his lungs in frustration. It was such a beautiful sight, I could have cried. Layla did for me. She squealed, her eyes pinched shut as gleeful tears streamed down her cheeks.
Gawain heard that, or at least he thought he did. The prick started to look up at us, but I cursed and tackled Layla so that we wouldn’t be seen. That resulted in a tumble further along the roof, the two of us giggling while we were tangled together. It ended with me on my back and Layla straddling my waist, and both of us were cracking up.
“That was perfect,” Layla managed between wheezes.
“Yes, yes it was,” I replied.
Our mirth slowly died down until it was just me and her, laying tangled together. Her eyes glittered as she smiled warmly at me. She was flushed, out of breath from laughing, and she glowed with joy. At that moment, she looked absolutely angelic. I had to admit, she fit perfectly against me. She slowly leaned forward, so that her head came closer to mine, as if she was going to kiss me. My heart started to pound a furious tune.
But Layla, ever the mischievous one, grinned wickedly. She flicked my forehead and hopped off of me.
“Thanks for showing a girl a good time, farm boy.” She patted my chest and started to walk away. “We’ll need to do this more often.”
Before I could even get a word out, she scampered over the side of the building. I heard her hand slap against cold metal as she shimmied down. A drainage pipe, perhaps? Regardless, she was gone in a flash, and that was so appropriate for who she was. I stayed there, sprawled out on the roof, the cool air mixed with the steam below as I chuckled and wiped the remaining tears from my cheeks.
My first week at the Varle Academy had been a tumultuous one, to say the least. It had been such a ride, with massive peaks and deep valleys. But this moment… this was the happiest I’d been in longer than I could remember.
I
couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end the week.
Chapter 15
The next night was a holiday, a night for drinking and fun, and I for one would never turn down a good time.
There was a tavern at the edge of the hill in the space between the city and the Academy walls that catered only to Academy students and faculty. Surprisingly, it wasn’t some posh, noble establishment that only the ritziest blue bloods could attend. No, this place, The Retching Goblin, was a dingy little shed with chipped paint on the wood siding and a crumbling brick fireplace. The sign above the door, which so eloquently depicted a goblin hunched over a spittoon and vomiting into it, squeaked terribly in the wind. The windows were foggy and cracked, and the steps groaned as I walked up them.
It felt like home.
Braden shouldered open the door with a creak, and then he let Layla and me walk past before following. Despite the fact that this place was no better than the dozens of other shit-bucket drinking establishments I’d been to, it was still full of young adults looking to drink their problems away, or maybe they just wanted a good time, which was exactly what I needed.
There had to be nearly half of the Academy’s student body present. That was probably an exaggerated estimation, but to say that there were at least forty some odd students out of the hundred that attended the Academy was an accurate guess. I knew it would be packed tonight, since it was the eve of the annual Maker’s Gift festivities, when people all over celebrated when the Maker blessed the world with magic to combat the monster horde. I didn’t really bite into all the religious undertones of it.
It didn’t matter ultimately, because I sure did like to celebrate things.