Bishop to Knight One (Diviner’s Game #1)

Matt

I’m used to being alone. People don’t gravitate toward the ugly guy who’s big enough to crush them unless they want something from him. I haven’t made any friends in the last few weeks of school, but that doesn't particularly bother me. The teachers are fine, talking heads that relay sometimes-interesting information, but I even intimidate them a little. I have noticed a few things since I learned of non-humans and have come to an intriguing conclusion. My school doesn’t have a lot of them, but a few non-humans attend here, and I’ve noticed them because they have the same kind of aura that Deejay has, that my dad’s girlfriend had, that all the non-humans I’ve met have. Even my brother has it, which makes sense why he fits in so well with the Aquino’s. At some point in the next few months, he’s going to be an Aquino himself. I haven’t talked to Deejay about it yet, but I’ve noticed there are a lot more of those kinds of auras here than back home.

I think that the sparkle of the aura indicates non-human versus human. It makes a lot more sense than the bullshit my dad fed me about the sparklers being easy targets for sexual conquest. Not that he was wrong about that, he was simply wrong about why they sparkled. In my experience, non-humans, the people with sparkly auras, are actually pretty easy to get naked, but I didn’t know they were non-humans until recently; I just thought the old man had it right.

As I categorize my classmates in the cafeteria during lunch, to my surprise, I discover that the kid who tried to get in a fight with me is back in school. I thought the principal suspended him for two weeks, but he’s here, staring hard at me, and it’s only been seven days. Normally I wouldn’t be bothered about it, but I don’t want to get sucker punched again, so I keep him in my line of sight. His name is Darius and he’s a prick. I don’t know why that girl decided to date him, but she changed her mind after getting pushed. At this point, the guy is persona non grata among our peers because the kids in this school do not put up with shit. They’re all wealthy and worldly, but the student’s overall attitude toward inequality and violence is pretty negative. They don’t really get it because they haven’t ever suffered from real-world abuse, but I can still appreciate their sympathy for those who have.