Chapter Eight
Audrey
W hen the cart comes to a stop in front of the dining hall, I immediately tense back up. There are so many people milling around outside, worrying me about how busy it’ll be inside. There has to be a more efficient way to do this than cramming us in like sardines.
Dread runs through me as I watch more and more people pile into the building, staying in my seat until everyone else has exited the cart before pushing to my feet. My suitemates hurry forward, eager to feed their hungry bellies while I drag my feet behind them.
Diana has almost reached the doors when she seems to realize I’m no longer beside her. She spins around with a frown on her face. “Audrey?”
My stomach turns, nausea rushing through me at the thought of pushing through the crowd again. I can’t do this. I think I’d rather starve.
“Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to eat, after all.”
“What do you mean?” Her voice is filled with concern as she takes a step toward me, and I start inching backward. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head, my heart pounding in my chest as I gasp for breath. “I can’t do the crowd thing again. You go ahead. I’ll just have a look around and meet you somewhere before orientation.”
Diana glances over her shoulder to the dining hall where Grace is waiting for us. “Are you sure? I can come with you...”
“No. I’m good. At least one of us shouldn’t go hungry. I’ll meet you at that tree over there when you’re done, yeah?” I point across the courtyard area to a large tree with a table underneath it. “Just don’t take too long or you might not be able to find me in the crowd.”
She nods. “If you’re sure?”
I wave her off. “One hundred percent. Grab me a banana or something if they have it?”
With another nod, she turns back to the dining hall, and I let out a relieved sigh. I guess I’m not one for crowds. Good to know.
Each step I take away from the dining hall, the calmer I feel until my heart no longer feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest. Until I feel like I can take in an entire lungful of air without a problem. Until my stomach calms, leaving me feeling hungry and exhausted. This was certainly not how I intended to spend my morning.
Lowering myself onto the bench underneath the tree, I pull out my tablet. If I’m not going to eat breakfast, I can at least get a head start on orientation. There aren’t many apps on the tablet —a video call app, the usual word processor, email, and a few others that look semi familiar. The three that stand out to me are the ones called Scythe Academy, The Reaper Beat, and Bank of Death.
When I click on The Reaper Beat app, a message pops up to inform me that I don’t have access to it just yet. With a shrug, I click on the academy app.
The first thing that comes up is the letter I read last night, but it seems to be an announcement on a discussion board of sorts. Since I’ve already read it, I look over the other options available. There’s a section for student conduct, Scythe Academy handbook, schedule, and map. I click on schedule and a new pop-up appears.
Audrey Maddox
Day 164 Reaper Candidate# 061224994
First date of classes: July 14, 2024
Expected graduation date: January 14, 2025
Day One Schedule
9:00 am - 1:00 pm | Orientation | The Four Horsemen Auditorium
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm| Lunch | The Inferno Dining Hall
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Class Tours | Brenden Sarafin
Monday-Friday Class Schedule (Months 1-2)
9:00 am - 10:30 am | Relearning Your Magic and Abilities as a Reaper | The Abyss Magic Building, Room 140 | Professor Novak
11:00 am - 12:30 pm | Combat Training | The Hellfire Combat Building, Room 302 | Professor Redding
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm | Lunch | The Inferno Dining Hall
2:00 - 3:30 pm | Becoming a Reaper | The Purgatory Reaper Building, Room 212 | Professor Hall
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm | The Supernatural World | The Shade Supernatural Building, Room 422 | Professor Gregory
Damn, that’s a lot of time in classes, and I really hope there are other options for lunch because I’m going to be avoiding the dining hall at all costs. I also want to know what the hell they expect us to do for four hours of orientation. That’s such a long time, but then again, maybe it’s because there is a thousand of us. That’s definitely going to take a while.
Clicking on the map, I realize I’m sitting just in front of the auditorium. At least I won’t have to go far. Maybe Diana and the others will finish early so we can be one of the first ones in the building. That’s probably wishful thinking, though.
“Are you okay?”
Head jerking up at the unfamiliar voice, I find myself staring at a delicious specimen of a man. His platinum blond hair is cut close on the sides, the top longer and flopping across his forehead. He’s tall, although I can’t tell just how tall since I’m sitting, and he’s massive. This is one of the guys who you think of when you hear someone say someone has muscles on top of their muscles. A smirk paints across his lips, his ice-blue eyes crinkling as he waits for me to respond.
Licking my lips, I swallow and lift my eyes to meet his. “Ummm... I’m sorry, what?”
“I was just wondering if you were okay since you were sitting out here by yourself and not in the dining hall?” Blondie drops down across from me, surprising me.
“Uh, yeah. I’m just not a big fan of crowds, so I decided to skip breakfast this morning.” Shaking my head, I close my tablet and wonder why I told him that. I don’t know him from Adam, and giving someone that kind of information about yourself can be dangerous.
He nods slowly, reaching into the pocket of his hoodie and pulling out a banana before offering it to me. “I understand. I’m not a big fan of crowds either. You can have this if you want. I already ate this morning but brought it in case I wanted a snack later. I think you need it more than I do.”
I reach out to take it, hesitating for only a moment. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. I hate to see a pretty girl go hungry.”
Ducking my head, I ignore the flush rising up my cheeks as I take the banana from him. He just called me pretty. He has to be flirting with me, right? I can't even say I mind. "I'm fairly certain I shouldn't accept food from strangers."
“Well, that’s easily fixed,” he says, smiling as I take a bite of the banana. “I’m Donovan.”
Something about the name sounds familiar, but I ignore it, because it’s likely some half-remembered memory that won’t matter.
I shove the rest of the banana into my mouth and set the peel aside before offering him my hand. “Audrey.”
“A pretty name for a pretty girl,” he murmurs as he lifts my hand to his lips, sending a shiver down my spine as my eyes widen. He absolutely is flirting with me.
“Thanks?” It comes out as a question instead of a statement, but he’s throwing me off my game with this blatant flirting. Hell, maybe I don’t even have any game. Maybe I’m always awkward with men. Something else I’ll have to learn about myself in time. “Are you a reaper in training?”
He chuckles, shaking his head. “No. Not quite, but I’m always around campus.”
I don’t even know what to say to that.
“Audrey?” My head turns toward the dining hall as Diana calls out for me.
Donovan chuckles, lifting my hand to his lips once more, and I realize he never released my hand. That’s... weird. “It appears your friend has come to save you from starving. Until next time, pretty girl.”
He’s gone before I can think to reply. A moment later Diana joins me, setting a plate onto the table and dropping into the seat Donovan vacated just moments before. “Who was the hottie?”
“Uh... Donovan?”
She lifts an eyebrow, gesturing for me to continue. “And?”
“And he gave me a banana and called me pretty?”
Diana stares at me for another moment before bursting out laughing. “Damn, girl. With as gorgeous as you are, I thought you’d have some kind of game. Guess I was wrong.”
I shrug helplessly. “I have no idea what happened. He came out of nowhere and surprised me. He kissed my hand, and it was like I forgot how my mouth worked. Gods, I hope that’s not how I always react to men. That would be miserable.”
“Hopefully, he doesn’t mind awkward women, and he’ll seek you out again.” She shrugs, pushing a plate toward me. “If that’s what you want, anyway. I know we’re here to become reapers or whatever, but I can promise you, I still have every intention of getting laid. Just because we’re dead doesn’t mean that we don’t have needs.”
Now, it’s my turn to laugh as I take the offered plate filled with waffles and eggs. My eyes zero in on the two steaming cups of coffee. “Is one of those mine?”
“It is. Hope you like cappuccinos. I hate regular coffee, so I got you what I like.”
I laugh. “Caffeine is caffeine. I’ll do whatever it takes to get it in my body.”
“Sounds like someone has a caffeine addiction,” she sing-songs with a smile, but all I do is nod. She’s not wrong.
Lifting the cup to my lips, I sigh as the cappuccino hits my tongue. Just the right amount of sweetness, but it could do with some more caffeine. I wonder if they have coffee shops on campus. I hadn’t had a chance to check out the map overly well before Donovan joined me, so I’m not sure. I know I’m going to need to be able to have access to caffeine on the regular if there’s going to be any chance of me making it through this academy.
A glance at the time tells me we don’t have long until orientation begins, so I get to work shoveling food into my mouth. Moaning around it, I decide I’m going to have to get up early from now on because the food is amazing. At least we’ll be well fed while training to become reapers. Every job has to have its perks, right?