“I’ve never been accustomed to getting more than a few hours of sleep,” he answered with an elusive shrug. “You don’t have to stand, you know. I’m not a vampire.” He motioned toward the empty space at the end of his bed, and Eliana cautiously approached it.
“Adara thinks you are,” she said as she hopped up on the bed and adopted his position of leaning against the wall with her feet hanging off the side. There was enough space between them that they didn’t touch, but his mental presence seemed closer than usual. “She asked me yesterday if you have fangs.”
The curve of his lips displayed his amusement. “She’s desperate.”
“To know your Affinity—I know. She…talks about it all the time. She’s convinced…that I know what it is.”
“You wouldn’t want to know,” he said darkly. After a tense pause, he added with a lighter tone, “I’m surprised her Affinity isn’t mind reading. She’s so curious about everyone.”
“Yeah, I do wonder what her Affinity is…” Eliana pondered as she stared at Seth’s unkempt bed. “I don’t know that there’s anything Natural about her. She’s very…odd. She filled our room with cacti for some kind of…prank on Nero.”
“He’s going to kill her.” His inflection was more brooding than concerned. “I’ve seen others suffer his wrath; it’s not pleasant.”
“Did he…hurt anyone in juvie?”
“More than…I did,” he responded in a strained voice. “He’d do it purposely, too. He thrives on the pain of others. How he hasn’t landed himself in this town’s jail is a mystery to me.”
Eliana bit her lip but couldn’t think of anything to say. She was just as desperate to know what Hastings’s Affinity was as Adara, but she was far less vocal. He didn’t want anyone to know, and she had to respect that. Maybe he was right, even, that it was better she didn’t know.
The silence that ensued was comfortable to both of them, and without intent, Eliana dozed off. Perhaps it was the time of night or the soft quiet of Hastings’s brain, lulling her, but she slept unusually well—until Seth’s dramatic entrance startled her.
“Knew you two were hooking up in here!” he exclaimed after closing the door. “We were all having bets about it, but—wait, were you…sleeping?”
Eliana blinked as she tried to focus on his face. “Oh, um, yeah…sorry,” she added to Hastings as she shot him a sheepish wince. He seemed not to have moved since she drifted off.
“Damn. Well, don’t tell Adara or I’ll have to pay her, somehow…” Seth said as he walked to his bed. “She’s convinced both of you are too shy to make a move, and maybe she’s right… Anyway, you two missed some intensity at JAMZ. Lavisa beat up that acid kid, Nero threw Lavisa across the room, and then Nero almost punched Adara, but Tray stopped him with his super strength. Freakin’ super strength! Can you imagine my twin with super strength? Bizarre, right? But that must mean I have super strength, too, don’t you think? I mean, how could Tray have super strength and not me? It’s insane.”
Eliana forced a pathetic smile at him before hopping off of Hastings’s bed and heading for the door. “I’ll, um, see you two tomorrow.”
Her eyes remained on Hastings for an extra second. Blankness masked his face, just as it masked his emotions, but he watched her unwaveringly until she exited the room. It wasn’t until she was alone in the corridor that a feeling of his opened up to her—an unintended feeling of hollowness. She was fairly certain he’d resumed biting his nails.
“What the flip flop!” Kiki exclaimed as she slammed her palms down on the blue cafeteria table Adara and Seth were seated at.
It was Saturday morning, only a few hours after the catastrophic JAMZ session had ended. Anyone who hadn’t opted to sleep in groggily munched on breakfast, but Adara shoved food into her mouth fervently, undeterred by lethargy or thoughts of what had unfolded the night before. Seth, clearly, couldn’t evade such thoughts, for he hadn’t touched his plate of bacon, and that was unheard of.
“What the flip flop?” Adara repeated as she gnawed on a piece of toast. “That’s really what you’re gonna go with?”
As expected, Kiki ignored her, plopping down in the empty seat beside her boyfriend with a demeanor of outrage. “Why are there pretty girls—and some ugly girls, too—but why are there any girls at all fawning over the ugly Stark twin?”
Adara glanced over her shoulder and saw that, at the buffet, Tray stood with a plate full of food and a group of giggling girls surrounding him. He appeared to be thoroughly perturbed by their attention, which she grunted a laugh at. Apparently, his heroic performance at JAMZ the night before had won him some unwanted affection.
“Not sure how there can be an ugly Stark twin—I thought we were identical,” Seth said as he picked at his bacon.
“You are much more muscular,” Kiki said, squeezing his arm. “Your brother is a nerd and he is not cool. I am cool! Where are the boys in love with me?”
Adara hummed as she scanned the crowd. Her smirk broadened when she noticed a boy wearing a gray beanie staring in their direction. “That kid seems interested in you,” she told Kiki, pointing toward him.
Kiki barely even glanced at him before scoffing, “He is a loser and he is weird. I mean hot guys. Like, um, Nero—the strongest flipping guy in this school!”
“Tray demolished him last night,” Adara reminded her, “or at least demolished his pride. Maybe you should be one of those girls in Tray’s new fan club.”
“I am with Sethy-methy, okay?” Kiki sneered as she clung to Seth’s arm. He only noticed because it now inhibited him from fidgeting dejectedly with his bacon.
“Sethy-methy?” Adara questioned through uncontrollable snickers. “You are as dumb as you look.”
“Shut up, okay? I can’t think clearly when people aren’t treating me like their queen.” Kiki tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and then scowled around the room. “This school is wack.”
“Hm. I think ‘wack’ might be an offensive term around here,” Adara said, stroking her chin. “More than ‘flip flop.’”
“I turned ‘what the flip flop’ into a popular phrase at our old school, I’ll have you know—”
“Hey, guys,” Ackerly breathed as he slipped into the empty chair next to Adara. “Can you believe how much attention Tray’s getting? They still can’t get over what happened at JAMZ last night.”
“You mean how Tray stopped Nero from unlocking my Affinity?” Adara questioned blandly. “Neither can I.”
In truth, she hadn’t necessarily wanted her Affinity to surface, nor had she really wanted another broken nose. Part of her had hoped the violence would invoke an entirely new Affinity—one that wasn’t what she presumed. Perhaps it was uncharacteristically optimistic to think her wishes could be granted, but in the heat of the moment, she had been a dreamer.
Now, she regretted the entire outburst because it had resulted in Nerdworm discovering his Affinity instead. Spitefully, Adara reveled in the fact that he hadn’t gotten the Affinity he wanted, but Tray now had the one thing Seth had always wanted, and it was going to destroy her best friend.
“At least he, um, stuck up for you,” Ackerly offered, readjusting his glasses. “I was surprised. If he didn’t have super strength, Nero would have broken his hand—or punched it off his wrist.”
Adara had considered this, of course, but she couldn’t acknowledge that Tray had actually saved her. It didn’t matter that he had, really. She’d saved him right back—they were even. Besides, it had always been that way between them, silently looking out for each other without sentimental displays of gratitude.
“Yeah, well, one thing did break: Nero’s pride,” she said with a jump of her eyebrows. “Notice how he and his cronies haven’t shown up this morning? We’ve defeated him.”
“You mean Tray’s defeated him,” Seth said almost sullenly.
“I kicked Pixie Prince in the balls,” Adara bragged. “He probably won’t be able to have children now. I’ve done a service
to this wretched world.”
“Yeah, we don’t want any more people who can so easily drown everyone else,” Ackerly agreed. He opened his mouth to take a bite of his breakfast sandwich, but before he could chomp down, the doors of the cafeteria burst open to make way for Nero and his posse.
Delicately placing her half-eaten piece of bacon on her plate, Adara watched as the group stalked among the tables. Acid Attack and another tall, skinny boy with rose pink hair walked on either side of Nero. The Pixie Twins lingered behind, inconspicuous but intimidating. While Adara was displeased to see Nero had actually shown up, a smirk slid onto her lips at the fact that Calder was waddling like a penguin.
“Where is that little plant freak?” Nero exploded as he barreled through the cafeteria. His harsh gray eyes scanned the room, and when they caught Ackerly, his muscles tightened. “You! You invaded my room with—with cactuses!”
Trembling, Ackerly abandoned his sandwich and spun on Adara, his green eyes wide. Nero’s pace was swift, each step vibrating through the ground, and she imagined Ackerly’s head would be smashed to vegetable pulp under one of those stomps. So, before Nero could reach Greenie’s chair, Adara jumped out of hers to block his path
“I put the cactuses in your room, Big Boy,” she said smugly. “You don’t like the new décor?”
Nero’s fists clenched, causing both of his arms to bulge.
“Mm, those are some nice muscles,” Kiki cooed as she reached out to touch him; Nero’s girlfriend held up her finger and squirted the blonde’s face with water before she could.
“You don’t have a plant Affinity,” the massive boy barked at Adara, disregarding Kiki’s whimpers. “You couldn’t have done that.”
“Well, I am a Natural, aren’t I?” Adara mused, indicating her green cargo pants. “I certainly could have a plant Affinity, couldn’t I? How would you really know?”
He growled but refrained from physical aggression. “You’re just like your brother, Stromer, hanging out with these freaks and thinking you’re tougher than everyone else. You Stromers don’t run this place, though. I decide fates around here, because if I wanted to, I could beat every single one of your brains out. Prank me one more time, Stromer, and I’ll do what I should have done to you the first time I laid eyes on you.” With a nod, he beckoned for his friends—no, allies, Adara remembered him calling them—to follow him across the cafeteria.
The Pixie Prince was the last to follow. His eyes remained on Adara for a few extra moments, not necessarily with venom but with the mysteriousness of two bottomless oceans. Lips curling deviously, Adara wiggled her eyebrows and motioned toward his groin. His expression soured, but he said nothing before stalking off after the rest.
Triumphantly, Adara resumed her seat between Seth and Ackerly.
“Nero is so sexy,” Kiki was muttering, nearly drooling as she ogled him from afar. “He has this presence—this authority…”
“He’s got a bunch of muscle but no brains,” Adara corrected. “He’s perfect for someone as shallow as you, actually.”
“Thanks for, um, saving me…again,” Ackerly said quietly before finally taking a shaky bite of his sandwich.
“I didn’t save you.” Retrieving her half-eaten bacon, she brought it to her lips and said, “That went exactly how I hoped it would go.”
Ackerly’s brow furrowed as she chomped on the bacon. “You wanted him to threaten us?”
“I wanted him to accuse us, so I could convince him my Affinity is plants. Gotta keep the enemy guessing, don’t we?”
He eyed her skeptically, and she got the distinct impression that he could see right through her—that he’d already guessed exactly what her Affinity was. Somehow, the thought of Ackerly knowing her true Affinity made her feel…guilty. It convinced her that maybe she should heed Nero’s words to not mess with him again—because if Tray wasn’t around to stop his punch and Nero awoke her Affinity, there would be real reasons for remorse.
16
Stark Romance
During the past week and a half of living in Periculand, Seth had grown accustomed to spending his free time in Kiki’s dormitory. Her bed just seemed…cozier than his, and she didn’t have a creepy roommate who nibbled his nails and stared mindlessly at walls. Plus, her bathroom was connected to Adara’s room, and it was always fun to harass Adara while she was in the bathroom. Kiki’s room had also proven to be the prime spot to have fun. Her yellow-haired roommate was often out at the gymnasium, allowing Seth and Kiki some much desired alone time.
On this particular afternoon, the roommate was present, sitting on her bed, sharpening a stick with a butter knife she’d probably stolen from the cafeteria. Since Kiki was agitatedly organizing her closet, Seth watched the girl from across the room, entranced. Between the comfort of Kiki’s bed and the girl’s mesmerizing movements, he was on the verge of dozing off, so he cleared his throat and decided to spark a conversation.
“So, Lavisca,” he prompted, drawing the girl’s yellow eyes upward.
“Lavisa,” she corrected tonelessly.
Mutely, he tried forming the word with his mouth, but in the end, he shook his head and again said, “So, Lavisca.” She stopped sharpening her stick. “How’d you discover your Affinity? Is there some secret trick I should try?”
Appraising him carefully, she lowered her knife onto her bed. “It takes time, but…it should surface when you need it most. Are you still upset about your brother’s super strength?”
“Upset?” Seth repeated, spluttering dismissively. “As if. I was just…worried at JAMZ that Tray would hurt himself…and that concern took a while to go away. No upsetness here, Lavisca.”
She didn’t look convinced, but all she said was, “Lavisa.”
An irritated noise emitted from the closet, behind the curtain of Kiki’s newly-acquired clothes. Luckily, Seth didn’t have to ask her what was wrong because Hartman was hobbling through the open doorway, an exasperated grin drooping on his lips.
“Which twin?” Hartman asked through panting breaths. As he stumbled into the room, Seth noticed his vibrating freckles were riddled with bruises and blood.
“Uh…Seth. You all right, man?”
“Yeah, just wanted to make sure you weren’t Tray. If Nero ever catches me with that guy, he’ll flatten me like a pancake—said so himself.”
“I didn’t think he was capable of producing similes, no matter how clichéd,” Lavisa said, surveying his bruises with displeasure. “He finally got you, huh?”
“Oh yeah, big time,” Hartman sighed, sinking onto Lavisa’s bed. “I’ve evaded him for ten glorious days, but he and his clan cornered me after training today and, you know, nearly killed me. He didn’t forget who his favorite punching bag used to be…but it’s fine. I just…don’t want it to happen again, which is why I came to you.” His orange eyes glanced at her pleadingly. “I want you to teach me.”
“You have a teleporting Affinity and you couldn’t get away?” she questioned dubiously.
“I get…nervous,” he admitted, his gaze darting embarrassedly in Seth’s direction. “I’m not that good at my Affinity. What if I don’t go where I tell my body to go and I end up in some alternate universe?”
“Mm. Something like that would happen to you,” she agreed. Seth couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. “If you want me to teach you how to defend yourself, I can try, but remember your brother nearly killed me on Saturday.”
“Stepbrother—and do you really think that was a fair fight? I witnessed you take down two brutes twice your size on the day we met. You could beat Nero.”
“If Tray can, anyone can,” Seth chimed in encouragingly. “You didn’t see my brother try to learn how to ride a bike. Once you’ve seen that, you know there’s hope for everyone.”
Lavisa licked her lips, unmoved. “Fights aren’t always fair, Corvis. You need to be prepared for the fair and the unfair. Do you think it was fair he and his friends cornered you and beat you up when you were ou
tnumbered?”
“Well…no,” Hartman said as he scratched the back of his head, “but at least Dave didn’t spit acid at me, and Calder wasn’t there to drown me like he did with Ackerly and Tray. That would’ve been bad…”
“If you’re Nero’s target, you’ll need to be prepared for any of that. You need to learn to teleport under pressure, and you need to learn to displace yourself farther than five feet.”
“I’ve actually upped my distance to six feet,” he bragged, as though it were impressive. Her eyes were blank as she stared at him, and he looked desperately to Seth.
Shrugging, the other boy said, “It’s better than I could do.”
“I’ll keep trying to improve,” Hartman assured her. “So, will you teach me to fight?”
Lavisa’s lips parted, but before she could voice her answer, Kiki came tumbling out of her closet, blonde hair in disarray. “Ugh!” she fumed, staggering to her feet and kicking stray pieces of clothing aside. “These closets are tiny! It should be illegal to build closets this small.”
“Good thing you don’t write the laws,” Lavisa said as she resumed sharpening her stick. Seth was curious as to whether she would agree to train Hartman, but his girlfriend was now demanding all of his attention.
“This town is an abomination! Do you know what the worst part of this place is?” Kiki questioned, scrambling to wipe stray strands of hair from her face. “My sister. God, she is the worst! Did you see what she did at that stupid fight club on Friday night?”
Seth’s eyes darted to the other two, as if they could save him from this conversation. “It was…technically Saturday morning—”
“Did you see it, Seth? She defeated that ice kid with her looks. She turned him on so much that he just stumbled off the mats!”
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