Chapter 14
I walk into the cafeteria and straight toward the cheesy omelette calling my name.
I had trained for the entire weekend, even waking up on Sunday for a six am run, and covering fifteen miles with ease. My senses had grown to new heights too, my hearing reaching much further distances and my sight giving even a shifter a run for their money.
I trained both days from dawn till dusk, and again later until the owls stopped hunting and went to sleep.
There wasn’t really much else to do here on the weekends, anyway.
Even the cafeteria was closed, so all my meals were either cold baguettes or a quick cup of noodles from the kitchen in the girls dormitory.
My mouth waters, a hum leaving my lips as I take my omelette from Finn and grab some water to go.
I head straight for my favourite breakfast spot, but just before I sit down, I notice something on my seat. There are letters that weren’t there before.
The writing is messy and hard to see, but I make out; A-N-N-E-X.
Annex , what's that?
I grab my napkin and try to rub out whatever this was, from whichever moron wrote it, but soon stop.
I brush my fingers over the letters.
They weren’t written, they were carved into the seat.
My seat.
I glance around the room. Which asshole was trying to start crap with me now?
What was this anyway, some kind of curse word or hex?
The writing looked horrendous, almost as if some creature had written it rather than an actual intelligent life form.
Who scribbled crap like this, and so openly in the cafeteria? Who would defy school regulation and deface academy property just to bother me?
Not that I can’t see any of them doing it– since they’ve done worse– but the academy took that stuff seriously, probably one of the only things they did.
Oh, you could torment each other, teachers could discriminate against students, but Gods forbid anyone touches their property.
I narrow my eyes at the messy scratches before sitting on top of it.
Some child's writing wasn’t going to stop me from sitting here and enjoying my meal.
I place my omelette on the table and start to dig in.
After a few moments and a few large bites, I’m picking my plate up, handing it to a server and heading toward Mr. Finch’s class.
After the little stand off we had a while back, he hasn’t tried to mess with me again. Not that I would take it sitting down anyway . He just gives me a narrowed look and pinched lip most days, or a raised brow like today.
Giving him a small grin, I look at the clock above him; ‘09:29’ , and with even a minute to spare.
I make my way to an empty seat in the middle section as most of the seats in the back were already taken.
I settle in as the class starts, but only a few minutes into the lesson and my eyelids begin to droop. A yawn stretches my lips as Mr. Finch drones on in his monotonous voice, when suddenly the door flings open.
Mr. Finch turns around, a scowl on his face as his mouth opens before he quickly freezes. His eyes widen and slightly tremble as the tall dark figure makes his way into the room and up the stairs.
“...F-find a seat Mr. Portor.” Mr. Finch nods his head shakily, before quickly turning back to the board. There's a slight tremble in his hand as he picks his marker back up and continues the lesson.
The tall boy–I now recognise as the stabby guy from before–starts to make his way up the stairs.
The group in the seats at the back begin to scurry like mice, grabbing their bags and fleeing across the room. One of the boys even takes the seat next to me in his rush to get away.
The boy is almost a third of the way up the stairs when our eyes meet. But I quickly turn back toward Mr. Finch, my brows furrowing as I question why I turned away in the first place.
A moment later, a large shadow falls over me.
“Move.” The familiar deep voice is more dark and cutting and I feel a chill roll down my spine with his cold tone.
Lifting my head, my eyes quickly trail up his large frame and toward his ruffled hair. It’s falling onto his face and covering a part of his eyes. But even then, I could still feel the murderous glare he was wearing.
Was he going to do this with every seat I sat on? I was even in the middle section today, so why would he want it?
Just as I open my mouth to tell him to ‘ get his own’ , the boy beside me pulls my attention away as he falls over his own feet trying to get up. He stumbles, grabbing his bag and rushing toward an empty seat across the room.
What–
A tired sigh pours from the lips of the tall moody boy as he lazily flops in the newly vacated seat beside me. He places his arms down on the desk, before leaning his head on them like a pillow.
I glance toward the top of the class and all the empty seats up there, and then back toward the boy sitting beside me.
His dark brown hair falls onto his arms and hands, which are encased by black swirls of ink, all the way down to his fingertips.
He wears a silver skull on his thumb and a couple of black snake rings on his other fingers.
There's a heavy leather jacket draped over his shoulders, clearly a favourite of his if the wear and tear on the cuffs and hem are any indication.
The leather collar covers most of his neck with only a small part of the ink there visible.
A small dot behind his ear catches my attention with his hair parted so I can make out the small freckle or birthmark.
It’s surrounded by more dark swirls of ink, and only parted by a silver metal piercing hanging from his ear.
The small metal glistens against the classroom light, pulling me in for a closer look.
On his ear sits a small dangling metal dagger, falling from a short black chain. It's decorated with a black handle and…a ruby red droplet falling from the blade's tip.
I guess calling him ‘stabby’ was an appropriate nickname.
The small earring begins to move and I’m met with two piercing blue eyes, just inches from my face. I pull back, not realising I had gotten so close.
A grin spreads across his face as he turns his head fully around to watch me.
“Did you eat breakfast yet, Red?”
My brows furrow with his question. Why would he care if I ate?
And was this ‘Red’ nickname a permanent thing now?
I nod anyway, a larger grin stretching his lips as his eyes light up.
“And I suppose you sat in my seat?”
This again. He really had an issue with this didn’t he, like some sort of toddler who licks all his food before eating so he doesn't have to share. But I had been using that table for a fair amount of time now, and not once had he, or anyone else been around to tell me otherwise.
I sigh, “It's not yours, it’s-”
“But it's got my name on it.” His eyes curve up in a crescent shape, a mischievous gleam in them as he continues. “Didn’t you see it?”
My brows scrunch together before quickly widening. ANNEX.
It wasn’t a new curse word or hex?
A smile the joker would be proud of now stretches his cheeks as he watches me.
The psycho had actually carved his name onto the seat to claim it indefinitely as his own and make his point.
I shake my head as a small scoff leaves my lips. His name on the seat or even table wouldn’t stop me from sitting there.
I mean, what other options were there? To sit at someone else's table? And next to people that openly scowl and glare at me? I’d take my chances with this psycho, blade-happy…Annex.
“ Annex. ” The word rolls off my tongue in a small whisper, still sounding like some sort of curse or wiccan hex to me.
“Yes?” The light humourous timbre of his voice has me turning to meet his gaze again. There's a softer look in them as they trail from my lips to slowly meet my stare.
Suddenly he shifts forward, his face only a couple of inches from mine as he leans in.
“You’re really not scared, are you?” His gaze flickers back and forth, searching my eyes for something, “I can’t see even a lick of fear in you, Red. Not a drop. Why is that?”
My brows pinch together. Why would I be scared of him?
He pulls back slightly, his eyes never leaving mine as he continues his perusal of my face.
“Every pleb in this school turns tail when they see me, they know not to breathe in my direction, let alone look. Like they can almost smell the blood and death that surrounds me. But you …” His grin reappears, stretching his cheeks again, “You’re either completely stupid and blind, or you don’t care. ”
Why would I care about what everyone else thinks of him? I knew to believe only by seeing something for myself. Lies were easy to make, and spread as quickly as the air itself. And with what they say and how they treat me here, I wouldn’t have listened anyway.
But how did I not know of Annex before, in my previous life? Even his name stands out, let alone how he looks. So how did I never see him, or hear anything about him?
A slight frown tugs at my lips as I become lost in my own thoughts.
But he continues to watch me, waiting for something and when I don't react, he smiles, a genuine one this time. One that lights up his whole face, changing his dark and murderous looks into something so bright and breath-taking, it pulls the air softly from my lungs.
He chuckles, “See.” He shakes his head, his grin widening. “You’re not one of the sheep here, Red. Maybe not quite a wolf yet either…but you’re still different.”
His blue eyes twinkle as he talks, a darker shade of blue swirling in them as I gaze almost as if in a trance. They flit to my lips before meeting my eyes again, something darker growing in them as a beat of silence passes between us.
Whispering from a few feet away pulls my attention back. Two girls flicker their gaze back and forth between me and Annex. Their brows knit together and lips are pinched as they watch us.
I feel movement beside me and the two girls flinch. They turn around quickly with a slight tremor to their shoulders as they sit with their gazes now glued to the front of the class.