Chapter 10 #2
I hold back my sigh at the recurring question. “I’m new to the school, but I’m in the grad program.”
“Oh, awesome!” Then, her expression lights up with a thought. “There’s a party on Saturday. You have to come!”
I chuckle nervously. “Oh, I’m not sure if—”
She cuts me off. “Will you be on campus?”
“Yes…”
“Do you have anything better to do?”
I shrug. “I should probably get ahead on studying…”
“Nope!” She declares. “You’re coming to the party. I’ll write down the details for you and give them to you in class on Friday.”
I don’t have time to protest before she glances down at her dainty wristwatch and stands suddenly. “Whoops, I’ve got class in five minutes. Gotta go! See you Friday and Saturday.”
She winks, and with that, she’s off, gliding away with the grace of a dancer and the chaotic appeal of a woman who isn’t afraid to advocate for what she wants.
My immediate reaction to the thought of going to a party is stomach-turning anxiety, but I work through it in my head. I need to force myself out of my comfort zone, and if I have a friend—or at least someone who likes me enough to invite me to a party—there with me, maybe it won’t be so bad.
With another hour to kill before my next class, I wander in the general direction of the Natural Sciences building and stumble upon an event with rows of tables, banners, and tents. The extracurriculars fair.
Despite the fact that I’m not at all interested in adding anything else to my plate this semester, I decide to wander and see what the academy has to offer.
I walk slowly, reading the banners and signage while simultaneously trying to avoid eye contact with the people manning the tables.
The lineup is pretty typical for a college campus—chess club, specific exercise groups, theater, culture and languages, etc.
However, there are occasional tables that pique my interest for no other reason than their magical implications.
Runes and occult symbols. Crystal collectors and practitioners. Magical infusions for cooking.
I’m about halfway through when I spot a familiar face. AJ is standing at a table and adjusting his hat with his back toward me, and I grin as I make my way up behind him.
“Hey, you.” I nudge him, and he looks down at me with furrowed brows and a serious expression. His posture is much more rigid than normal, and I take a small step back.
“You must be a friend of AJ’s,” he says with barely concealed annoyance. “I’m Mitchell, his twin brother.”
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” My cheeks warm with embarrassment. “He told me he had a brother, but not that he had a twin.”
He thins his lips in a pretense of a smile and says, “It’s fine,” before turning away from me again. It’s a clear dismissal, and I quickly concede, humiliation surging inside me.
When I see yet another familiar face and the name “Meridian House” in elegant script above the entrance of the tent, I duck in to get away from the crowd. Clarissa, the TA of my Intro to Magic class, is standing behind the table, but her expression is scathing.
“Any particular reason why you’re cozying up to my boyfriend out there?”
“What? Oh, no, I um—” I stutter, realizing my mortifying encounter isn’t quite over. “I thought he was AJ, his twin, who I’m friends with.”
The only change in her expression is a slightly quirked brow. “They have very different hairstyles and general demeanors.”
“Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, your boyfriend is wearing a hat, so forgive me if I didn’t think to check underneath for different hair. I was also unaware that AJ’s brother was his twin,” I add.
“Can’t be very good friends if he didn’t tell you one of the only interesting facts about him,” she mutters, and I’m about to snap at her when an older woman steps into the tent beside Clarissa.
“Hi, are you applying for Meridian House?” she asks brightly.
I feign a smile. “Clarissa was just about to tell me more about it. I’m new here, so I don’t even know what it is.”
“You’ve never heard of it?” Clarissa questions, as if she doesn’t believe me.
“Uh, no? Not besides you mentioning it in class. I only found out that magic and this academy existed, like, a month ago.”
“How exactly did you manage to get accepted if you only found out about this place a month ago?”
I shrug. “They contacted me and offered me a scholarship after my magic went wild, and here I am.”
Clarissa taps her long, manicured nails against the table and flashes me a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
“Ah, a scholarship student,” she says with a combination of disgust and amusement.
“Well, I’ll just say that Meridian House is a very selective club that consists of the highest-achieving students on campus.
Only fifty students are allowed in at a time, and we have a lot of special perks for being part of the group. ”
“What kind of perks?” I ask sweetly. There’s no way in hell I’d get into a club like that, and I don’t plan on trying, but the least I can do is waste her time. She had seemed haughty in class, but her arrogant attitude is even more atrocious than I had previously thought.
“We have our own dorm building with single-person rooms away from the rest of the students, so it’s much quieter, for starters.
Everyone there is dedicated to the pursuit of learning, so we often have instructors present specialized lectures in our common room on the weekends.
In addition to all of that, we gain access to a network of prominent magicians who have been a part of Meridian House in their time here, which allows for significant career opportunities that the normal students wouldn’t receive. ”
Her emphasis on the word normal doesn’t go unnoticed, but I can’t care enough to be offended. If I can even manage to be average in a place like this, I’ll be happy, because normal here is miles greater than anything I’d previously envisioned for my life.
I pretend to think about the opportunity, nodding along as she speaks, and am about to walk away when an arm is thrown over my shoulders.
“Hey, Viv!” AJ’s infectious smile lights up his face when I turn to face him.
“Hi. I just had a rather unfortunate run-in with your twin brother you so kindly failed to mention.”
AJ laughs. “Oops. And it seems you’ve already met his formidable girlfriend as well,” he adds, gesturing to Clarissa with his free hand.
She sighs and pins him with an exasperated glare. “Hello, AJ. Would you mind taking your little friend somewhere else? We need to attract students to the tent who actually belong here.”
“Ouch.” He places his hand on his chest, feigning offense, but drags me out of the tent a moment later.
I don’t realize how tense I am until he removes his arm from my shoulders.
“Can I walk you to class?” he asks.
“Considering we have the same class, it would be silly if you didn’t.”
AJ chuckles, running a hand through his blonde hair. “Good point.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me your brother was your twin. That was so awkward.”
He asks what happened, and after I relay to him the uncomfortable series of events, he snorts. “They both take themselves way too seriously. They’ll forget about it in a couple days when something else ruffles their prim and proper feathers.”
“Yeah, they both seem pretty… severe.”
AJ and I make our way to our seats in the Naturalist Spellwork classroom, which is redolent of herbs and smoke, and he casually sprawls in his seat.
“That’s one word for it. They’re both super focused on being successful and are competing for the top spot in the class.
It’s a whole academic rivals situation. She beat him out by a tiny bit over the last four years for the undergrad program, but there are extra perks for being top of the class when you graduate with a master’s degree, so they’re kind of starting on equal footing this semester.
I swear they spend most of their time just studying together. ”
“Sounds like an interesting dynamic.”
He shrugs. “I guess it works for them. Personally, I’d rather make the most of my time here by having as much fun as possible.” He winks, and I’m grateful that the professor chooses that moment to walk in.