Chapter 7 #2
Her long blonde hair falls on the desk as she turns toward Knox, fluttering her lashes as she runs a hand down his arm and pulls him to sit beside her.
Nobody else from the second year class would sit in the seats allocated for the third year’s in the centre of the room. But rules were meant to be bent for her, right?
The music teacher, Ms. Fleur was quite relaxed about seating anyway, so I guess that would also work in my favour too.
I make my way into the room and toward the fourth year seats.
They were on the opposite side, and near the windows.
The laughter in the class stops, a colder atmosphere filling the room along with a heavy silence as I find an empty seat at the back and sit down.
I get a few narrowed glances and some pointed glares, before a few giggles and chuckles ring out on the opposite side of the room and by the second year seats.
I sigh, glancing toward the echoing laughs, and whispers.
Ivy Harris sits with two other girls, and five boys, all blatantly staring my way while smiling and chuckling.
“Seems like she's scared.” The petite blonde to the right of Ivy sneers.
Scared of catching fleas maybe.
Ivy smiles, an expression across her face as if knowing something that everyone else doesn’t.
She brushes a hand through her ginger hair, her gaze focused fully on me as she opens her mouth.
“That little outburst on Friday was a little out of character for you Micai…has something been bothering you lately?” Her brows scrunch together as a few stifled chuckles fall from behind her.
“Have you been having friend troubles?” Her eyes widen mockingly as she bites back her grin.
“Sorry for a second I forgot, you don't have any friends.”She shakes her head before tapping a manicured finger on her lips. “I meant any boy troubles?”
“ Boys ? What boys would want to be near her ?” Laughs a girl with a black bob to Ivy's otherside. “What sane person would want to be around someone so pathetic and weak?”
I roll my eyes. Is this the best they could do?
Just as I’m about to ignore it and turn away, Ivy opens her mouth again.
“Or is it your daddy issues? Having problems at home, are we Micai?”
“Hey–” Shouts a voice from the front row before it quickly cuts off.
“Ivy.” Seria stands up, her lips pinched as she gazes toward the students around Ivy. “Don’t mention my father.” Her gaze narrows as she meets Ivy. “Remember who you're dealing with. The Bane clan is not one you want to mess with.”
The room falls into a pin-drop silence as Seria speaks, their gazes flickering between Seria and Ivy as they look at one another.
Ivy’s complexion turns ashen. “I didn’t mean any disrespect Seria. I–I would never–”
“Don’t use my fathers name in the future, Ivy.” Warns Seria again, her expression calm but tone cutting. “I won’t allow it.”
Ivy nods repeatedly, “Of course. The Bane clan is one of the founding nine families, I would never disrespect you or your father, ever .” At this Seria’s eyes seem to curve with pride at the praise.
A bitter grin stretches my lips at her words. Because I, unlike Seria, don’t have my father or family's backing. So that made me fair game, right?
Seria gives her a small smile and nod as Ivy breathes a sigh of relief.
She takes her seat again as Xander stands beside her. He looks down at her, his hand brushing against her cheek gently as she smiles and calls his name sweetly.
A long time ago, something like this would have bothered me.
It would have pulled painfully at a part of me that still had hope for the love and friendships we used to have.
The younger me would have turned away, too hurt by the picture perfect image in front of her, watching the boys she used to love give their hearts wholly to her younger sister.
But thankfully none of that affected me now. The love I once had for them had withered quickly with each day I spent in captivity.
I realised I had been holding onto something that was never really there to begin with.
If they loved me like they told me when we were younger, then they never would have left me so easily for Seria.
They never would have turned away and grown cold. To allow the torment and abuse I suffered at the hands of students in the academy to go on and just watch or walk away with ease from me, as if all the years we had spent together never existed.
Even with Seria’s schemes and sweet words, loyalty and love came hand in hand. If they believed her over me, who they knew for years, then I couldn’t have meant much to them to begin with.
With years imprisoned to think, I learnt that love can't be extinguished so easily if it's true.
If it's real, then nobody can take it away, not even time or death itself. You’ll cling to it with everything you have, because to lose it, would be to lose a part of yourself.
“We'll talk again another time, Micai.” Calls Ivy, pulling me from my thoughts as she goes to take her seat.
Another day?
I sigh, glancing toward Ivy. “You clearly have more issues to worry about than I do, so maybe you should focus on your own shit instead of mine.”
Ivy freezes, silence falling around her, with only the fourth year's nearest me murmuring and whispering.
“What was that–” Ivy begins to stand up straight again before quickly being cut off.
“Your voice is grating on everyone's ears, Ivy.” A girl to the back of the second year area calls. Her tone is sharp and cutting as she flips her long silky black hair over her shoulder, while the two large boys beside her narrow their eyes at Ivy's group.
“Why don't you keep the drama for another day, and not give the rest of us a headache?” She raises a brow, giving Ivy and her entourage a pointed look.
Ivy scoffs, opening her mouth before flitting her eyes around the room, with most of the class turning away from her gaze. Her face slightly scrunches up, her mouth closing quickly as her lips pinch together.
She turns away, not even glancing back at the raven haired girl as she quickly takes her seat. Then she begins chatting to the boys and two girls beside her as if nothing happened. The only indication of her annoyance being the red tinge tinting her cheeks and the slight tick to her jaw.
I turn back toward the front of the class, a few more chuckles ringing out on the other side of the room, before a grunt follows, cutting it off.
My brows raise in surprise as I meet the two sets of eyes whose laughs are being suppressed. Knox rubs his side while Anders rubs his head, as Xanders and Kane stand next to them scowling.
“It was funny though.” Mutters Anders before he turns away.
Knox flickers his gaze to the floor before turning his eyes back toward Seria. Her gaze is slightly darker, her smile tight as she stares toward me.
I feel another cold gaze on me from beside her, and am soon met by Xanders blue eyes glaring me down.
A small hand tugs at his side, pulling his attention back to her. A look of pure adoration and love fills them again quickly as he gazes at her.
Something pulls at me, an ache building in my chest. But not from watching them, not from any want of affection of theirs.
I had a taste of true love once. And even behind a cement walk, with a gravelly voice, I knew it was real.
It blew everything I ever felt before away, completing me in ways I never thought possible.
It wrapped itself around the lonely child within me and warmed the parts of my soul that had become cold and stiff.
It pushed me to survive and fight on days when all I wanted was to give up.
It gave me hope when there was none, and comfort when all I could feel was pain.
A small shaky smile stretches my lips, an ache beginning to build larger in my chest before I shake my head and will it away. Now was not the time.
I feel a cold chill on my neck, turning to meet Kanes narrowed gaze.
What was wrong with him now, did I breathe too much and suck up some of Seria’s private oxygen?
He was always the stubborn, grumpy one, and stupidly I used to think that was cute. His now permanently scowling face just looked like he had swallowed a bag of bitter dicks.
Was that a wolf shifter thing, or did he reserve that expression just for me?
I raise my hand in a wave, his eyes further narrowing on it before I swiftly twist it around, giving him the middle finger and my best smile.
His eyes widen, but before he can properly react, Mrs. Fleur scurries into the classroom.
She's wearing a floral pastel dress, her long blond hair is tangled messily into a bun on her head, with her small hands clutching a large bundle of papers.
She makes it to the desk, just as the bundle topples.
She grabs the papers trying to slide off her table in one quick move, a large smile stretching her lips with the swift save.
“Hello students,” she smiles, nodding to standing students to take their seats.
“Apologies for my tardiness, I was making some print-outs for everyone for the lesson.” She takes a large pile of sheets and begins handing them out to each student.
“As you all know from our last lesson. You all will have regular assessments throughout the year in Music class, but your solo singing assessments will be held in this group class on Mondays.” She gives me a small nod as she hands me a sheet, then heads to the front of the class.
“We’ll be starting these solo assessments next week at the end of each class, and will do two at a time.
” Her following smile is bright and enthusiastic as she continues.
“We’ll go in alphabetical order to make it fair, and you can even choose your own song. ”
She gives everyone a large smile as if she's holding in a squeal and bounces enthusiastically to her seat.
My frustration grew as the rest of the class began to whisper excitedly.
She hushes them and begins the lesson, as my irritation reaches its peak.
I had forgotten about this part of it.
‘Music of the Arts’. It's in the name, so how could I have forgotten?
I have to sing.
I never enjoyed this class, but it was one of the few available that didn’t require magic or any physical activity, so it was an easy choice to make.
My previous lifes music lessons and assessments involved me shakily singing, too low and nervous for anyone to properly hear, but then with all the snickering and whispers, it would have been hard for even a stronger singer.
It didn’t help that Seria had the voice of some opera house angel. Her voice was so soft and soothing, it made everyone fall silent in awe when she stood up and sang.
My voice, on the other hand, was too weak and would crack from nerves, but Seria would persuade me to continue. And back then I thought it was her showing her support and affection.
I grip the worksheet in my hand, scrunching its paper.
Back then I hated singing, and had hated the sound of my own voice as it left my lips.
I used to hate it…until he taught me how freeing it could be. Of how something as small as humming and singing in that cold cell could pull me from the pain and to a different place away from it all…to somewhere that the two of us only existed.
He's also the reason why I’ll never sing to another person again.
I rub the centre of my chest, a familiar ache building again with the thought of him. He was my only warmth and comfort there, the balm to my cold soul, and the only shred of hope I had in that hell… Zrael .
His rough gravelly voice calls to me, my name on his lips the last word I hear when I close my eyes every night, and his husky soulful voice singing to me to wake up each morning.
Whatever they had done to him in the Facility had damaged his vocal cords, his voice had a rough sound like gravel scraping down his throat.
It sounded as if he was in pain with each syllable.
It was only when he sang that his voice was legible, the magic laced in his melodies allowing him a freedom his broken voice wouldn't anymore.
And his voice… Gods could he sing.
If Seria was an angel, then Zrael was the devil himself, seducing me to join him in Hell. And with his husky timber and smooth-like-silk tones, I’d willingly give my soul over for a few minutes more of basking in his voice.
He showed me the true beauty of singing, and together we created our own small freedom away from the Facility, away from our cells and the hell we faced each day.
He was my strength, my safe haven, my home…but he too was taken from me.
The class bell rings just in time and pulls me from my darkening thoughts.
I look around the room, as the other students begin to pack up and slowly leave.
They make their way out of the classroom in their small groups, talking and laughing together as if nothing else mattered, even time.
Time.
Right, I am here now. I had time. I could do something before the wheels begin to move.
I pull myself up, making my way down past the empty seats.
I watch on as Knox turns and glances back at me.
He opens his mouth before quickly closing it again.
His brows slightly pinch together with an unreadable look in his eyes.
He meets my gaze once more, slowly opening his lips before his name is called from outside.
He gives me one last strange look before turning toward the voice and quickly leaving the classroom.
What could he have possibly wanted to say? Was he going to tell me to stay away and not cause trouble?
I shake my head. I wouldn’t cause any trouble or come for Seria… yet.
I pulled out my class schedule; there was an hour for lunch and then Physical Defence class.
Just what I needed; something to eat and somewhere to blow off some steam.