Chapter 6 #2
A few days pass with the same routine; wake, shower, eat, go to my classes, eat again because –meals are important and heavenly– train until I collapse into bed, and then sleep again.
Other than a few snide jokes about my shorter hair, and a few people trying to trip me up, or kick my chair from under me, it was relatively peaceful. The majority opting to ignore me.
The classes were even longer and more boring than I remembered, especially Spells, Illusions and Curses.
Mrs. Bruswick was a teacher who believed in status and tradition like the rest of the student body, so me being a powerless witch with no proper backing left me at the bottom of her concern, with only scathing looks given throughout the lesson.
Even then, I guess that was better than the students around her, who preferred to pretend I didn’t exist at all.
I attended every class this week except for the Defence class, which I had missed when I slept in both on Monday, and then again on Wednesday.
I had a particularly gruelling training session on Tuesday night when I’d switched up my routine and added a few laps around the clearing.
I couldn’t pull myself up in time for breakfast, let alone class.
I hadn’t attended the Defence class in my previous life, having been too physically weak and opting for a less active class, but this time I was genuinely looking forward to it.
The teacher, Mr. Valor, was known to have a reputation for his serious teaching and strong fighting skills.
He had only joined the faculty this year and was a master of weaponry and battle strategy.
And apparently he treated everyone equally and disciplined everyone regardless of status or strength fairly.
Making my way through the cafeteria doors, I head straight toward the food.
I had made it my routine as much as I could, to get a delicious breakfast and dinner here. Staying on guard with my food and learning from my previous life, I had not let my meals out of my sight for even a second. And so far, so good.
The smell of cheese hits my nose. There was freshly made lasagne, vegetable risotto and beef wellington on the dinner menu tonight.
The server gives me a small smile as I almost foam at the mouth over the delicious-looking food.
“What will it be tonight, Micai?” Grinned Finn, a friendly strawberry-blonde haired server. His bright blue eyes curve into crescents as my eyes flicker back and forth between the beef wellington and lasagne.
Finn and a few of the other servers had gotten used to my presence over the past few days.
We’d even gotten into the habit of greeting and chatting from time to time.
I think we bonded over our dislike of the pompous students and their snobbery in this school.
That and they always gave me extra food.
I can’t not like people who feed me.
“The cheesy lasagne please.”
He chuckles and cuts me an extra large piece, handing me a bottle of water as he leans in a little closer.
“I’ll save you some Wellington if there's any spare.” He gives me a wink and goes to serve another student behind me.
I’d been training every night, strengthening my muscles and body, and needed all the extra calories I could get. So it definitely helped having connections in the kitchen.
I make my way over to my usual spot, the table always being empty. And just the way I liked it.
I didn’t usually like to stay too long during dinner time though. It became too crowded and too noisy, but today that cheesy lasagne was calling to me, and you can’t rush a meal like this.
Digging straight into the extra large portion of lasagne as the room became noisier, I glanced up, watching the tables fill up with students as classes finished for the day.
Taking another big bite of my meal, the soft and creamy pasta and tender meat pulls all my attention back to the plate in front of me.
I take a few more delicious bites, enjoying every morsel, the lasagne only half eaten, when suddenly a bright purple liquid is poured all over my plate, drenching my lasagne in the watery substance.
“You're finished now, right?” A familiar high-pitched voice calls. “So move.”
Ivy drops an empty can beside my plate, and raises a brow. A beat of silence passes as I stare at my tainted meal.
“What? Are you deaf, as well as ugly and stupid?” The group of boys around her laugh as they look down at me.
I look back down at my drenched plate, my meal now soggy and soiled by what smells faintly of grape juice.
My hand slightly shakes as I clench the fork in my hand, only seeming to incite more laughter from the group surrounding my table.
“Or did you want to continue your meal?” A mocking grin laces Ivy’s lips as she leans closer, her eyes flickering from me to the messy food in front of me.
“After all, we shouldn’t waste food, should we Micai?” She gives a figure now standing behind me a nod.
A rough hand pushes my shoulder forward, a brown haired boy nodding toward the tainted lasagne with a dark smirk on his lips. “Eat.”
He pushes my shoulder again, trying to edge me closer down toward the sloppy plate, while another boy with a blonde mohawk comes to the other side of me.
“Make sure she eats all of it since she’s so eager to stay.” He sneers.
Ivy laughs, the sound of it grating on my ears as the boys around her join in.
I look up into Ivy's curved green eyes. It wasn’t their taunts that bothered me, or even what they had done to me here before.
But to ruin the meal that just a moment ago I had been happily enjoying, was intolerable .
Another ‘lesson’ I learned in the Facility… every piece of food given was precious.
I grab the dripping, messy plate as they continue to chuckle, and in one swift move, drive it into the closest face to me.
Ivys.
The boys surrounding us all freeze, their eyes open wide as they watch the plate fall to the floor with a clatter. The remaining lasagne and grape juice slowly drips down Ivy's horrified face and down her newly stained uniform.
The already quiet room falls into a pin-drop silence, only a couple of whispers and stifled chuckles across the room heard as I pull myself up and slowly straighten myself. I brush some small droplets from my blazer as I glance toward Ivy.
“Since you didn’t want me to waste anything, it’s better to share, right?” I flick my gaze to the boys around me and Ivy.
“Or should I have put it with the rest of the trash .” A small grin stretches my lips as Ivy wipes her face, her cheeks almost tomato red. Or maybe that was the sauce still dripping from her skin?
Her eyes tighten into slits as her voice reaches a pitch that would make dogs whimper.
“What is wrong with you?! Did you really go insane?!” She screeches, her small freckled nose scrunching as her face twists into an ugly scowl. One of the boys beside her tries to peel a piece of pasta off her cheek, but she slaps his hand away, giving him a foul glare before turning back toward me.
“Maybe?” I look at the splattered lasagne remains on the floor as a hand tries to grab me from behind. I shirk the hand off and side step another coming toward me, quickly pushing my way past the two bodies around me until I’m standing to the side of them.
Ivy's eyes widen before quickly curving up into crescents, her lips twisting into a mocking grin as she wipes her face.
“Is ‘ any attention is better than none’ Micai? Are you that deprived of it, you’ll do whatever to get even a slither now?” She wipes more sauce from her face, her nose slowly tilting upwards as her lips stretch wider.
“Have you finally realised how pathetic your life is, and gone deranged from how hated you are by everyone here…and at home ?” Some chuckles and snickering rings out from around the room, and from the boys around Ivy.
The old me would have shrunk back and curled into a small ball with just the mention of home .
She would have walked away and never spoken back, shedding a few quiet tears while trying to clean herself up in her room alone.
But unfortunately for these assholes, I had no problem hitting back, I’d even bite if she wanted it so badly.
“If I’m so pathetic and deranged then maybe you should be a little worried Ivy,” I take a step closer, her face still dripping with red and white sauce, “Because if I really have no-one, then I have nothing to lose.”
I lift a piece of pasta from her blazer, dropping it to the floor as it makes a light splatter noise.
“Having nothing and no-one can really do something to someone's mentality.” Meeting Ivy's gaze again I give her a small smile, one that has her slightly flinching and taking a subconscious step back before I continue.
“Even someone small or weak can light a match that would burn an entire house down to ashes.”
There's a moment of silence before one of the morons around Ivy barks out laughing, and then another, until they're all clutching their stomachs and wiping their eyes.
“As if you could do anything.” Laughs the brown haired ass who had pushed me toward the spoiled lasagne. “What are you gonna do, bite us ?”
“Or curse us?” Sneers the blonde boy, wiping his eyes. “You’ve got to have talent and ability for that, or at least some sort of magic…which you don’t.”
“Of course she doesn’t.” Ivy scoffs before chanting something under her breath, and within just a moment, all the mess over her face and hair is wiped clean, her uniform pristine once again.
The only evidence of what happened between us being the plate and mess still splattered on the floor below us.
“I guess that was your attempt at payback?” She grins, a dark glint in her eyes. “But it's futile. You can’t touch us, to do that you’d have to have power or be someone. And you're nothing.”