Chapter 7 Thou Shalt Not Make Eye Contact （before coffee）
Thou Shalt Not Make Eye Contact (before coffee)
Arwen
Everyone knows my secret. It’s clear as soon as I step into the dining hall.
“That’s the sinless one,” a girl whispers to her friend on my left. It’s all too familiar. People are staring.
I hold my head high, grab my tray, and head over to the bagel selection, which smells delicious. The faculty isn’t as tight-lipped as Dean Bellows thought.
However, when I turn and see Atticus Willshire sitting at a table full of Pride students, another thought occurs to me.
That makes more sense… of course, he spread the word about my sinless status. What a Dick.
He looks away as soon as our eyes meet.
The Wrath inside me encourages me to go right up to him and kick him in the balls, but I remember I’m in a skirt, already on thin ice, and he is, technically, the son of a faction leader.
My attention is snapped away from the surrounding drama as I explore the food selection. I swear I’m drooling. I haven’t seen this much food in my entire life. Even during bond celebrations and weddings, we’ve never had this quality of food.
Selecting a variety of items that smell delicious and make my stomach rumble, I make my way through the tables, looking for a vacant place where I can sit alone and eat my bagel in peace.
“Arwen! Over here!” Holly shouts from a nearby table. She’s got a smile on her face and is waving me over.
I head to her table and note that she’s sitting with Brixton James, of all people. Mr. 80% power level himself has deigned Holly with his presence. I notice three others sitting at the table, looking at me with curious expressions.
“Hey, Holly,” I sigh. “I guess you haven’t heard that I’m enemy #1 at this academy yet?”
“Don’t be dramatic,” she rolls her eyes. “Yes, I’ve heard. Sit down. Explain.”
I take a seat next to Holly, start buttering my bagel and sigh. “What’s there to explain? I’m sinless. I thought I was going to be exiled. My power level came back high for some weird reason, so they sent me to the academy.”
I leave out the bit about my impending doom after freshman year.
“High power level?” She scoffs. “The rumors are saying you tested at 100% power level. Infinite power well. People would kill for that.”
I look around the dining hall and see all the eyes on me.
“It looks like most of the academy would kill for that. Kill me specifically. I’m not jumping for joy here. Are you sure you want to be seen talking to me, Holly? Your friends?”
“Don’t be silly. Killing is strictly against academy rules, and I don’t think anyone at this table cares about the rumor mill in SinVail. Does anyone at this table have a problem with my roomie?” She asks, looking around at the others.
“Nope.”
“Not at all.”
“Negative.”
Brixton is the last to answer. “Of course not,” he says with a wink. “It’s good to have someone from Furycliff here in our little troop.”
“You’re from Furycliff too?” Holly asks me. “You guys didn’t even act like you knew each other. Didn’t you go to the same school?”
“Oh, we did,” I say, staring at my hands. “We just ran in different friend groups. We were in the same test group, though. Brixton was…”
Just at the mention of it, Brixton shakes his head minutely, side to side.
Interesting. He doesn’t want them to know he has a high-power level too.
“Brixton was thrilled when he made it into the academy,” I say instead.
He nods in agreement. “We didn’t run in different groups. You just never separated from that one mousy girl and her brother. You never wanted to hang out with anyone else.”
“Okay, Brixton James, first, Sadie is not mousy, and second, you know everyone avoided me like a leper when my sin never manifested.”
He looks a little sheepish after that remark. “Well, we should run in the same group now. This is my roommate, Sly.”
“And he also might happen to be my super hot boyfriend,” Holly interjects with a devious grin at Sly. “We’re both from Scarhold.”
“Sup, Sinless.” Sly nods at me. He’s tall and lean with shaggy blond hair and a ring through his lip.
“Wow, both you and your boyfriend got into the academy. That’s really lucky,” I reply, nodding my hello back at Sly.
“Yeah, I mean, we both developed our sin powers young, so we expected it, but you just never know,” Holly says.
“And this is Tabby and Cleo. They’re roommates from Gluttony. We met them the day before yesterday. Tabby gets around. She keeps us entertained.” My roomie blurts out like she hasn’t just insulted poor Tabby in front of us all.
I dart my gaze to see Tabby’s reaction. She has long, glossy black hair and thick lips. She’s gorgeous.
I’d hate to have to mess up her pretty face if we start throwing punches.
Thankfully, Tabby doesn’t look too worried. She just shrugs. “Have you seen the boys from Lust? What’s the point in having only four years to mingle amongst the factions if you’re not going to use them to indulge in the best sex of your life?”
“You’re incorrigible,” Cleo mutters, covering her face with her hand.
Her roommate Cleo looks like a similar, nerdier version of Tabby with cropped shoulder length hair and glasses.
“Who says you’re going to get four years to mingle amongst the factions?
You might find the love of your life at the bond ceremony. ”
“And be stuck with one dick for the rest of my life?” Tabby scoffs in response. “No, thank you.”
That’s right; the bond ceremony is this afternoon.
I glance at Holly, and she has a wrinkle on her brow.
Sly does too as he looks away from the table.
Bond ceremonies are very stressful for couples that aren’t bonded.
It wouldn’t be the first time a relationship was ruined when one individual from the couple found their bond.
Since they grew up in the same city, someone likely already tested them for each other.
“Where did you two grow up in Gluttony?” I ask, changing the subject.
“I grew up in Feastwell,” Tabby responds. “Cleo is from Plethora.”
“Wow, Plethora is like the entertainment center of Vail,” I reply, looking at Cleo. “You must’ve had the funnest childhood ever.”
“Not really. The entertainment isn’t exactly child-friendly, and the Mafia completely runs the town. Your level of comfort is determined by how well your connections are to the mob and its inner circle.”
“But you’re at the academy, so your family must have some mafia ties?” I point out.
“Maybe,” she says, pushing her glasses up her nose, “but they’re not high level or anything. I did well in school, and I loved computers and coding. So, I taught myself to hack. It got the attention of my teachers, and I guess some higher-ups liked my work, so here I am.”
“Wow, so you’re here to train to join the mafia?” I ask her, intrigued. I do not see this little nerdy girl in the mafia. She is short, like really short. Her glasses are too big for her face, and she keeps having to push them up her nose. She is pale, with not a tattoo or bruise in sight.
“Aren’t mafia people supposed to be big and scary?” My very direct, no-filter roomie asks…I guess I was also wondering.
We’re interrupted before she can respond.
“Well, well… what do we have here?” I hear a woman’s voice behind me.
I turn to find a tall, thin blonde with long straight hair down to her waist. Her makeup is contoured to perfection, her nails manicured, and she’s wearing red-bottomed navy heels I know must cost a fortune from the old magazines Sadie and I would use to make paper dolls.
She’s surrounded by a group of similar manicured girls. A brunette with bouncy curls, brown eyes, and a lot of cleavage on show answers her. “It looks like a perfectly good seat for an academy student that was wasted on powerless trash.”
Holly laughs behind me, raising an eyebrow. “Powerless trash? Is that the best you could come up with? Her power level is probably higher than your whole posse combined.”
“Don’t start with her, Holly. I’ve dealt with this for four years, and it’s never worth it,” I whisper to her.
Turning around and throwing the snobby bitch a sneer, I stand up for myself as I always have. “If you want the seat so badly, take it. I’m sure it’s the only throne you’ll ever sit on.”
Brixton and Sly crack up, earning an icy stare from the bully in front of me.
I hear a sharp whistle from the front of the dining hall and turn to see Atticus Willshire leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking like this whole place is beneath him.
“Daphne, Camille, let’s go,” he snaps.
“Coming, babe,” the blonde responds to him from across the room. “Remember your place, sinless.” She turns and walks away, ducking under one of Atticus’s arms, with the brunette who called me trash taking his other arm.
It makes sense they’re Pride faction and with Atticus. Something sharp pulls at my chest.
He’s an asshole. I need to get myself together.
“The blonde is Daphne; her dad sits on Pride’s small council. The brunette is Camille; her father is the famous painter Vagar Dramir. Both rich and powerful. Clearly.” Tabby says like she has the inside scoop.
“How do you know all that?” Cleo asks her.
“I stayed at Pride Tower last night. This guy wouldn’t shut up about academy king prodigal son, Atticus Willshire. He said he sleeps with them both… like together.” She says with a scandalous look.
My chest feels like it is ripping open even more.
What is going on with me today? It must be all the traveling. Or the bagel? Are bagels weird here?
After the gasping and chatter about Atticus and his threesomes dies down, we all agree we should head to class and start grabbing our things.
“Hey, can you hang back for a minute?” Brixton says to me as the others wander toward the exit.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Thanks for not saying anything to them… you know, about my level.”
“Oh, no worries. I get it. Look at how the entire school is treating me. I don’t blame you for wanting to keep it to yourself,” I say.
“It’s not that. I just… I have a lot riding on me here. I need every advantage I can get. You know my sin power is common, and I’d like people to underestimate me for as long as possible.”
“Oh… okay. Well, your secret’s safe with me. I don’t have many friends to gab to, anyway. Don’t worry, Brixton.”
“Thanks. And… Brix. My friends call me Brix.”