7. Stella
7
Stella
The dining hall feels different without Clay and Ryan by my side. I didn’t realize how much having a big Cyclops and a Reaper beside me would keep people away. I’m drawing more attention than I’d like. I was hoping to fly under the radar while here, but I underestimated the novelty of my spirit. Between the shoulder checks, the stares, pointing and whispering, and the blatant flirting from some of the more aggressive spirits, I’m exhausted, and it’s only lunch.
Having the two of them near me provides a sense of comfort and safety that I should not be feeling after only knowing them for a few days, and I miss their presence sorely.
A massive female shifter bumps into me on her way to the line, causing me to stumble. I tuck my wings in as tightly as possible without pulling them back into my flesh to avoid it happening again, but I still feel like I take up way more space than I should.
The hall is massive, with a U-shaped serving area that goes around three edges of the building. Anything I’ve ever wanted to eat, they have it here. It’s a nice change of pace for me, having regular meals, and surprisingly, the food is delicious. This is better than I’ve eaten in ages. I load my plate up with a massive green salad, fried chicken, and potato salad before grabbing a couple of cookies. I find a seat on the edge of a half-empty table and sit down. Without anyone to talk to, I can hear when my phone buzzes for my attention.
Electronics are banned on campus. I’m not sure how I snuck one in undetected. A stroke of good luck must have hit me when they didn’t check my luggage at admission.
It’s not that they discourage contact with the outside world. Here at Robert Sinclair’s Reformation Academy, they prefer all communication to go through them so they can make sure it is not counterintuitive to the goal of becoming a simplynatural.
Barf.
I prefer using my computer and email to communicate, relying on my cell phone mainly as a hotspot for the internet, so I’m not sure who could be texting me. I wrap my wings around me, creating a cocoon to hide behind. I dig my phone out of my bag and open the recent messages, only to see a line of them from Yuri that I must not have noticed as they came in.
Yuri
Where are you, baby? Lou said you quit. Did you get another job?
I was hoping to see you tonight.
Stella, baby, you can’t possibly still be upset about what I said about your project. Come on, baby, don’t ice me out.
This is fucking ridiculous, Stella, answer your fucking phone.
I’m not mad, baby, but you need to let me know you’re okay.
Fine. This is how you want to be? After everything? See if I give a fuck.
You were just an easy lay anyway, and not even a good one. Fuck off and lose my number.
I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean that. Just let me know you’re okay.
And on and on they go, one every couple of hours for the past two days. I’ve been so engrossed with recording everything happening here that I left my phone in my bag and didn’t even think to check it. Now, I wish I never had.
Where does he get off talking to me like this? He doesn’t care about me. He cares about getting his dick wet. Never once has he called me baby.
I turn off my phone and store it in my bag before relaxing my wings and angrily stabbing my salad. The produce is tasteless in my frustrated mouth. I can’t afford the distraction of that asshole. I need to push him out of my mind.
The first day of classes has been completely uneventful. They’re all impossibly dull. All I’ve learned today could be boiled down to an Authentic supremacy course that pushes the narrative that supernaturals were a mistake, are a plague to Authentics, and that if we do not control and counteract our inherent abilities, then we have no place in society.
And this is being taught to us by other supernaturals!
Oh, my bad, simplynaturals.
I run my hand down my face, trying not to let the messages get to me, but I can’t help it. I can’t get them off my mind. There was a time when I thought Yuri and I could be something more, but it quickly became apparent that he was here for a good time, not a long time.
And the times weren’t even that good.
But still, he was something. Something is better than nothing when your life revolves around sneaky phone calls to your parents and a job where you hide who you are. My story to others on how I ended up here may be false, but if Yuri had found out about what I am, it would’ve played out exactly that way. And why? Because my spirit is a warrior? Because that doesn’t seem good enough to me.
I know that boiling all that a Valkyrie is down to just ‘a warrior’ does my spirit a disservice and that I can be a lethal weapon and useful tool of the Gods if I want to be, but still.
I’m Stella.
I still long to form bonds with others. I still love, hurt, and laugh. I am not some monster that needs to be caged.
A shout and crashing sound jolts me out of my mind, and I, along with everyone else in the cafeteria, turn to find the source of the commotion. A vampire lies sprawled on the ground, food all over him, his mouth twisted in a sneer. Another male hovers over him, face a mask of fury, body tight with tension as if ready for a fight.
“Say it again, fucker,” the standing male snarls. He looks about my height, with the sexy kind of build that you see on rockstars, but on anyone else, it would make it look like the male is a sickly orphan boy. His black t-shirt is tucked into baggy, ripped jeans, and his light blue hair flicks in his green eyes. For my life, I can’t figure out what kind of supernatural he is.
That’s twice today I’ve been stumped. I thought I was better at this than I am.
Shifter? It’s a possibility, but it would have to be a creature of lore, not a bear or wolf. His body is too slight for one of those. Maybe a kitsune? Unicorn? Phoenix?
None of those feel quite right as I watch the male.
The vampire laughs. “It seems you’re sensitive, huh?” He stands up, meeting the snarling male toe to toe. He’s got his dark hair buzzed and is wearing a black-on-black outfit that could’ve been pulled from my closet.
“I don’t have time to continuously correct your prejudices. Check yourself and leave me the fuck alone.” The blue-haired male stomps away, heading right past where I’m sitting. My eyes track him, and he stops before me, sneering. His eyes flash as they land on me. This close, I can see that if he smiled, he’d probably be handsome, but his vibes are way off. “What are you looking at, angel?”
Oh, this guy picked the wrong fucking time to mess with me. With Yuri’s bullshit still spinning in my head, I do not have it in me to let this kind of slight roll off my back today.
I push myself to stand, extending my wings to their full width. We’re eye-to-eye, and he only has an inch or two of height on me at most, and I crowd his space. “I’m looking at someone whose dick is so small he has to try to whip it out and measure it with everyone he meets,” I spit. “And I’m not an angel. I’m a Valkyrie. Sure you wanna try to pick a fight with me?”
A momentary flash of emotion flits across his face, and his lips quirk up at the corner slightly, but he shuts it down before I can name it. “I hate this Godsdamn place,” he grumbles and then exits the dining hall.
What even was that?
I sit down and take a bite of my salad, trying to enjoy the fresh vegetables I could never afford before I came here when the vampire from the confrontation flops himself into the seat across from me. “Valkyrie, huh?” he says. His eyes are a light pink, his cheeks rosy despite the pale pallor of his skin. He’s got boyish good looks that I wasn’t expecting. “Impressive. Never seen one of your kind.”
“I guess I can expect everyone I meet to say that to me, huh?” I sigh, already tired of this conversation. I begin talking, ticking off my fingers with everything I say. “Mom’s a Valkyrie, Dad’s a Berserker, yes I know all of this is rare, yes my wings are way different than angels, yes, I could probably kick your ass, and…” I take a breath, tapping my finger on my nose, “and I hate being called angel.”
He laughs, a loud, ruddy sound that eases the tension on my shoulders. “Alright, great intro, but you forgot the most important part.”
“What?”
“Your name, princess.”
“Ew,” I say, shaking my head. “Princess may be worse than angel. Don’t do that shit. My name is Stella. Or you can call me Stella. My friends sometimes call me Stella.”
The vampire laughs again and holds his hands up placatingly. “Got it, got it. Well, Stella, I’m Tree.”
“Tree?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. I shovel another bite of salad in my mouth, not caring that this male is watching me stuff my face. Hovering a hand over my mouth, I speak around my bite. “Weird name for a vampire.”
“It’s short for Dmitri, which is..”
“The most basic ass vampire name,” I chuckle.
“Yeah, blame my parents.” He kicks his feet back, and I can see food stains on his shirt from his altercation on the floor. “First quarter?”
“That obvious?”
“Kind of. It’s my fifth, so a year ahead of you.” He shakes his head minutely, looking over my shoulder, and I turn to see three more vampires watching us from afar.
“Have somewhere to be?” I move onto my chicken, holding the drumstick and biting into it like a complete savage. I don’t even care. After years of living on the bare minimum of food, this is Valhalla. It’s crisp and warm, and grease drips down my chin as my teeth sink into it again.
Tree leans forward, placing his hands on the table, an almost predatory smile on his face. But that could just be the fangs that poke over his pouty lower lip. “No, I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
“Alright,” I say hesitantly, chewing slowly and swallowing before ripping off another bite of chicken. The hall around us is filled with raucous conversation as we sit there silently while he watches me eat before I say, “Why were you on the ground?”
“That asshole pushed me down, that’s why,” he growls. “I’ll get him back, don’t worry.”
For some reason, I don’t believe that’s the whole story. Despite the blue-haired male’s aggression, I don’t think he’d push someone down for no reason. He seems like the type to want to fly under the radar. “Why’d he push you though?”
“All I did was ask him why he is so tall, which is a valid question, by the way.”
“He’s not that tall.”
Tree chuckles condescendingly. “He is for a leprechaun.”
That male is a leprechaun? Huh. That would not have been anywhere in my top ten guesses.
It explains why I couldn’t place him. They’re ever rarer than Valkyrie. “Something tells me that may be a harmful stereotype.” I don’t mention that I doubt Tree said it kindly. I hope my tone got that point across. “Some supernaturals are very sensitive to the differences between reality and their lore, and it seems that male is one of them.”
I can relate. I have had to live under others’ assumptions about Valkyrie and angels. There are myths that Valkyrie are virgin warriors.
Only one of those things is true for me, but it remains untested.
The table shakes as Ryan sits beside me. Tree leans back, staring up at the Cyclops. “Well, you’re fucking massive.”
“Yo, Tree, hasn’t anyone told you it’s not polite to talk about other’s bodies? I thought you would’ve learned your lesson a few minutes ago.” I glare at him, and he shrinks under my gaze. “You’re not going to make any friends that way. Now, Ryan, how was your first day?” I turn to face him entirely, cutting Tree out of the conversation.
He uncomfortably looks between me and the vampire, but when his eye focuses on me, his shoulders relax a bit. He dressed up for the first day, wearing a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a pair of navy slacks, and a sharp pair of brown wingtips I want for myself. With his golden monocle over his eye, he looks put together, intelligent, and really, really hot.
It’s unfair how attractive he is. If I don’t watch myself, I get lost staring at him, imagining what he could do with that big body.
I wonder if everything is proportional. I mean, his hands and feet are enormous. And he’s so tall. It’s hard not to imagine what he would look like in the shower, the steam swirling around him, his hand -
“It was fine. I wish we had some classes together.” I jolt at his words and give him a sheepish smile. I think Ryan may have caught me perusing his frame because his cheeks turn pink.
“Aw, lucky we’re roomies, huh? You’ll at least get to see me then. But let’s compare schedules tonight, yea?” His face brightens, and when he smiles, it’s contagious, a matching one stretching my face. I can’t help it. The big guy exudes safety and kindness.
“You two are roommates?” Tree inserts himself into the conversation, and I fight not to roll my eyes.
“suite mates,” Ryan says stiffly. “She snores.”
“I do not! I’d have to sound like a truck for you to hear me through the bathroom.” I shove the Cyclops’ shoulder, and he jerks back at the impact. Shock radiates from him as he gapes at me. His look of bewilderment has me laughing so hard I double over. “I’m a Valkyrie, remember? Super strong. Don’t look so surprised!”
A tray clatters onto the table next to Tree, and Clay practically jumps into the seat, immediately inhaling his plate of noodles. “Guys, this day was insane! Did you know even supernaturals don’t like Reapers? No one wanted to sit beside me in class.”
“What’s not to like?” I ask, looking at the goofy omen of death. He’s all knees and elbows, and it’s highlighted in the sleeveless tank and athletic shorts he’s wearing today. Sometimes, when he moves, I can glimpse those lines that seem to litter his torso.
I need to ask him about them one day.
“Apparently, I’m a harbinger of death or something,” he says dismissively. “But I can’t help it that I’m good at telling when someone is ready to die.”
I roll my lips inward to hold in a chuckle, but it makes my eyes water with the effort to restrain, so eventually, my giggles get the better of me.
“What?” he says through a mouth full of food.
“Clay, sweetie, baby, honey,” I begin.
“For someone that doesn’t like nicknames, that sure is a lot,” Tree drawls.
“I don’t mind nicknames,” I say, side-eyeing him. “I just don’t like princess and angel. Anyways,” I turn my attention back to Clay, “as I was saying, a lot of Authentics, and supernaturals for that matter, think Reapers can kill anyone they want to.”
He pauses, mouth full of food and confusion. “Anyone can kill anyone they want to. That’s what murder is.”
Ryan and I exchange glances and crack up, our plates forgotten as we struggle to regain composure.
“For fucks sake,” Tree says, rubbing his eyes, “no one is this stupid.”
His words sober me, and something inside me shuts down. Who does this vampire think he is to insult my friend like that? I thought maybe he had some redeeming qualities, but I’m finding that I don’t care enough to find out.
“Alright, and we’re done,” I say, standing up and crossing to Tree. “I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, even though it seemed like you deserved the ire of the leprechaun, but you’re repeatedly being a douche, and I’ve spent enough time with douchebags to last a lifetime.” I snag him by the back of his shirt and lean down, ghosting my lips over his ear. “We both know I can kick your ass. You gonna walk out of here, or am I throwing you?”
“Gods, Stella, you’re as uptight as an angel,” he spits, pushing back to knock me away and clamoring to his feet.
“Goody! Throwing it is.” I grab him around the waist and toss him towards the door. Despite my spirit, my strength and energy are not unlimited. Sure, I’m a high-speed killing machine, and I have a natural talent for war planning, and that gives me a massive upper hand most of the time, but throwing a fully grown vampire on his ass still takes effort, especially since I haven’t been able to hit the gym since I’ve been here.
Tree scatters up to his feet and throws me a glare before marching out of the dining room, the three vampires that lingered around our table earlier following him like baby ducklings. I watch him as he goes before slowly lowering myself to my seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a blue-haired leprechaun leaning in the corner, staring at me. His jaw tightens when we lock eyes, and he practically runs out of my field of vision.
Whatever.
“You sure know how to make friends, Stella,” Clay says. And somehow, his mouth is still full.