Anvard hadn't noticed the color of his eyes until he did that. "Whoa!" he said with genuine shock.
"What is it?" Corinth asked as he looked up at him.
The clouds hovering outside the window above the bed had broken only moments ago, and the sun pierced the room, as much it could. The light made Corinth's eyes stand out even more to Anvard as he tilted his head and stared at Corinth. He gingerly reached forward to touch Corinth's face, just above his cheek, but Corinth was freaked out by his gaze. He pulled back quickly.
"What's going on!" Cory said with a shaky voice. "You're going all zombie on me," he tried to ease the tension in his intonation.
"I'm sorry," Anvard said, while finally retracted his hand. "It's just your eyes. They're… they aren't normal, you know?"
"Yeah," Corinth said, feeling uneasy. He hadn't even fully considered that fact. His eyes were going to make him stand out in the crowd more than a fully dressed circus performer at an 8ights Council meeting. The only difference between him and a circus clown; is that people understood a clown's performance. But usually, no one got why Corinth didn't just have blue or green eyes. They would all stare, wonder and make up stories to how he came to be the odd boy out. At least that's what happened at his school in Draconia. There weren’t nearly that many mixed kids in all the Worlds, yet alone at any one school, even though Boreal school is the most diverse institution of them all. This is the reasoning for why he wasn't usedto, or comfortable with meeting new people. "Uh ... yeah my par—" Before he could finish the sentence, Anvard happily cut him off.
"You don't need to explain yourself to me!" The buzz cut, dark haired guy exclaimed in a friendly manner. "We've all got our corks and screws, in a manner of speaking. Most of the kids at institutions like this pick on one another just to deflect attention from their own insecurities. But not many are really out to hurt anyone. You seem nice and normal. I'm sure after the general shock wears off, people will forget all about your beautiful eyes."
Anvard's encouragements made Corinth feel better. Cory was flattered that he'd bother to mention that he liked the color of his eyes. He now looked at Anvard and saw a different guy then he thought he'd be dealing with. When he first came through the door, he appeared as though he was a lug head jock. His stocky frame, chiseled jaw, bulky arms, and height set him up as a total athlete jerk. But he appeared to have some useful insights underneath his dummy attire.
"Did you go to another school before you came here?" Corinth asked politely.
"Well, of course," Anvard said while laughing and holding his side. "It’s sort of illegal not to, right? Not to go to school! If you're underage, that is."
"Yeah, I know," Corinth said with a fresh giggle, "but I'm talking about a school like this one, where you live on campus and everything."
"Oh, yeah I did." Anvard stopped laughing, because he believed he had offended Corinth. He actually thought Corinth didn't know it was against the law for anyone under seventeen years old to drop out of school. The mood changed a bit as an always oversensitive Anvard cautiously moved forward in the conversation. "Yes, my last school was like this one. Not as big or anything, but similar. In Lirio, we all go to live in schools. But I went out of state, for Levantarse."
Corinth questioned himself to what a“Levantarse” was. I decided to give him a heads up. If not to help remind him that I'm still held up here in his head, just waiting for him to open up to me. I whispered in his mind, "It's a sport. He's from Lirio ... where they don’t play it much."
Instead of helping the boy understand what his new companion was referring to, it seems I've only stunted him. He blankly stared out into the room after I finished telling him of Anvard's athletic pastime.
Anvard snapped his fingers twice in front of Corinth's face to wake him from his daydream. "You okay?" he asked with a patient tone.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm good." Corinth jerked when Anvard touched his shoulder. His eyes darted around a bit. He was stunned that I could hear him think so easily. And even talk to him whenever I willed. He didn't seem too comfortable with that knowledge. "So, how do things work in Lirio, your home World?" He tried to sound unfazed. Totally ignoring the sports reference. He remembered it in Draconia after a second. Anvard’s accent made everything sound a bit off, so he didn't recognize the word at first. His dad loved the game. Cory and his mom hated it. "I don't know much about that place," he added, spurring Anvard into conversation.
"Oh, good then!" Anvard said with that annoying accent and inflection that was starting to get to Corinth. "I can tell you all about it while we explore the school together!"
Corinth didn't want to leave the comforts of his dorm, but he figured it be better to do it with Anvard rather than alone. He couldn't help but wonder where his dad had gone overnight. Had he left without saying goodbye? Leaving Corinth to settle into this huge school all by himself would earn Criston a kick to the shin when Cory saw him again.
No matter the thought, he simply threw on the clothes he had on yesterday from behind a changing shade off to the left of the dorm. When he reemerged, Anvard looked at him strangely.
"What is it?" Corinth questioned. He didn't like the knowing look on Anvard's boyish looking face. His buzz cut hair made him seem stern, but he was anything but.
Slowly, the youthful faced young man pulled something mysterious from behind his broad back. He kept it neatly sheltered by his large frame, so that Corinth couldn't possibly make out what it was until the final reveal. From behind him, Anvard pulled an outfit attached to a hanger, covered by plastic.
"Were you seriously going to wear yesterdays clothing—today! Who would do such a thing?" Anvard laughed as he handed Corinth a casual outfit sent up for him by Sena. Hendrix. "The Grand Ministrant sent it up with me. It hung from the hook outside the dormitory door before I knocked for you. When I noticed you were changing, I figured to go and get it," Anvard formally explained.
Corinth looked up to the widely smiling guy and rolled his eyes playfully. Anvard thought his joking with the clothes may have been in poor taste, but he quickly caught onto Corinth's playful nature.
Corinth turned and said, "you must mean the Grand Man-she's-strict, right? Corinth didn't think it was any funnier than Anvard, still Anvard laughed with the hysterics of a cat being thrown into water.
"You're really, really funny," Anvard said after he calmed himself.
"I'm really not, but I appreciate you acting like I am," Corinth's honest side shined a bit too bright. Anvard didn't know what else to do, except smile widely again. Corinth went behind the room divider and changed, again. While he was back there, two long-brown-haired girls wandered into his dorm.
"Man, this room sucks!" the first girl said in a high-pitch tone.
"Yeah, you're right," the other offered. "Nothing in here really pops, ya know! The color scheme is just..." The second girl couldn't find the perfect word to top off her assault on the decor of Corinth's dorm. So, her identical friend finished it for her.
"Brutal!" she lamented. "Just plain brutal, honey." Girl number one finished her offering.
"You said it, sweetie. This color scheme is brutal. I feel like I'm in the middle of a street fight between good fashion sense and textbook psychological sadness." Number two was stretching her reach for puns, but somehow got her point across effectively.
"What are you two doing in here?" Anvard chided.
"We're looking for you, of course!" Girl number two chirped sarcastically.
"Why?" Anvard asked with a perplexed glare radiating from his pink irises.
"Because, we're bored and all the kids here seem weird," number one informed, as girl two was walking around Corinth's room like she owned the joint. She wandered over to the room divider, where Corinth was taking his sweet time changing, and trying to block out the chattering. He hoped they’d leave before he finished getting into his new outfit.
"Hey!" Anvard yelled at her, "don’t go over there!" Unfortunately, she wasn't paying him any attention. M
ostly because she didn't care.
"Well, what do we have here?" She was looking Corinth up and down like some kind of foreign specimen. "You're far too thin, short, and weak. You should look into bulking up if you’re going to compete."
"Compete in what?" Corinth asked while pulling a navy blue shirt over his head and down his scrawny chest. He spoke with an unexpected ease in his demeanor. Girls weren't nearly as intimidating to him as guys. He felt more open to the ladies.
"Levantarse, of course!" she shouted while grabbing Corinth and shaking him to the very core of his soul. "Why else would you be hanging around that big dope?" referring to Anvard, of course.
But Anvard interrupted her session with Cory by pinching her ear, and pulling her from behind the divider. He let go once they were back in the open space of the rather quant dorm room.
"What are you two doing?" he shouted, but tried to stifle the sound of his heavy, yet whiny voice. "Go find your classes, sign up for an affiliate, explore the grounds. Whatever, just get out of—"
"Oh! That sounds great," girl number one shouted out, "we should go on a mini-tour. The one they gave on orientation day was way too weak."
"What was orientation day?" Corinth asked as he emerged from behind the gray shaded room divider.
"Oh!" She used a hand to cover her mouth. She wanted to display her shock verbally and physically. "You missed orientation. That's going to suck. You won't get any choice picks for classes, dorms or roommates."
"Well, I guess that why they threw him in this shack here! I mean am I right, or am I right?" The second girl boasted with a massive laugh that echoed throughout the small room. She sounded like a wounded animal after its second close encounter with a car tire.
"I'm sorry you had to meet my younger sisters like this, Corinth." Anvard sounded truly embarrassed by their actions. Corinth was surprised to hear him say sisters, because of the difference in hair and skin colors, theirs being lighter than Anvard's. But as he looked at all three in a row, he saw that glint in their Lirian eyes. That very particular look of one's of their race, but even more likely, that very visible gleam in all three of their eyes was a family trait. They all had the same shine between them.
"Oh, please, Andy, don't sound so gloomy all the time!" the more lofty character sister yelped.
Anvard, or Andy, took a few steps over to the girls and stood between them at their backs. They were all standing in front of the dark oak door to Corinth's dorm. To the naked eye, the girls looked exactly alike. But Andy could tell them apart without question. "To my right is Emmy. And to the left is Emma."
"Uh, okay." Corinth was sure he'd forget that before the girls even opened their mouths to speak again, which didn't seem like it'd take very long. They were just as similar in detail as in overall appearance. They even had on the same outfit. But one of them had a satin scarf tied around her neck. The other had a silver necklace. If they removed those charms, there'd be no visible difference between them at all.
"I can see you're confused about their looks," Anvard said while taking a few steps away from his sisters and closer to Corinth. "They're twins you know?" he offered this as he tilted his head like he'd just solved an age old mystery.
"I don't think that's the reason he's got that confused look on his face, Mr. Obvious!" said Emma in a crass tone. "He knows we're twins, but he can't tell us apart, dummy!"
"Oh, yeah. I didn't think of that." Both girls simultaneously rolled their eyes in the back of their heads. "There's an easy trick I learned as a kid to tell them apart." He walked passed both of them and turned behind them again. He set one hand on each of their shoulders. He was considerably taller than they were. In fact, he was a lot taller than everyone in the room. Corinth was about the same height as the girls. Anvard had at least eight inches of height on all three. "Okay, so here it is," he said with finality, "look -‘cause it’s not easy to pick up on at first." He took his hands, balled them into loose fist, and gently punched both of his sisters in the back of their heads.
Corinth was stunned at the sight of it. Not more than the girls themselves though. Emma turned around and slapped Anvard across the face, while Emmy just stood there. After rolling her eyes several times, that is.
You see," he exclaimed with a bold smile on his creamy-brown skin face, which was somehow reddened from the slap to its beautiful surface. He rebounded from the sting of Emma's hand seamlessly, and then boldly stated. "Very different indeed!"
"What?" was all Corinth could muster.
"Their looks are definite and they refuse to dress differently, most of the time," he threw in while shifting his eyes from girl to girl, "but their personalities aren't nearly as congruent as their appearance."
"You're even dumber than you look!" shouted Emma.
"You see!” Andy exclaimed,“Emmy wouldn't say that to someone's face. She has the courtesy to do it behind their backs, like a normal person would. But Emma thinks the world is hers for the taking, so she takes her up-and-down attitude out on anyone and everyone in her path. Really, they’re both a bit ferocious, but at least there’s a notable difference."
Corinth didn't want to admit it. But he actually thought that tidbit might be helpful in learning to tell them apart in the future. He figured a small nod would be sufficient in acknowledging Anvard's helpful experiment. Anvard nodded back with a huge grin that he couldn't even begin to try to wipe away.
"Someone's crushing pretty hard," said Emma under her breath to Emmy.
"I couldn't agree more, darling," said Emmy in an even more muffled tone.
They were all beginning to walk out the door when Corinth started to panic. "Where's my dog!?" he screamed. "Oliveto, where are you boy?!" He realized that Oliveto hadn't made his presence known in quite some time. He was in the room with him just before Anvard abruptly walked in and introduced himself.
"You have a dog?" Anvard asked precariously.
"Yeah, he was here, like, a few minutes ago!" Corinth said with a flustered, searching stare rendering his olive skin cheekbones red with rash confusion.
"Is its fur green and super ugly?" Emma interrogated with a blank expression.
Corinth didn't exactly know how to respond to that. "Well… yeah. He's sort of rough looking, but I'm going to clean him up."
"Oh, well how lovely for you and your dingy mutt," she said with a half-witted sardonic tone. "But he's with one of the teachers now. A mean looking teacher too," she informed a deflated looking Corinth. "Me and Emmy noticed that flee-trap when we were making our way down the Main hall."
"Cool it with the insults, Emma!" Anvard said with a very authoritative pitch to his voice.
She didn't like his tone, but she was happy to get a rise out of anybody. She was just that kind of girl. She smirked menacingly as she spoke on. "Well, if it will help pull your boyfriend out of his deep despair, we'll take you to where we last saw the mangy pooch." Anvard shot her a pissed look that she instantly disregarded.
"That'd be great!" Corinth shouted while running out of his dorm into the hallway.
Emmy started to walk out after him, but Anvard stopped Emma as she began to follow her twin sister's lead. He pulled her armed and gripped it hard.
"Cool it with the insults," Anvard growled, "or I'll tell your entire dorm floor about your bedtime swims!"
Her eyes widened as she attempted to free herself from her brother's tight grasp. It was no use, he was a trained athlete and an all around strong guy, nearly twice her size. "You've got to be kidding me," she said with genuine shock, "all this for a kid you just met!" Anvard just shook his head. "He doesn't even seem like he likes you as a friend, better yet something more. It doesn't work the same way in all the Worlds, Andy. With those eyes, he's either Draconian or La Envidian. Neither of those Worlds work the way Lirio does."
Anvard knew that all too well. But didn't think being cautious meant much of anything in a town as diverse as Hyperborean. The Aurora Boreal school made quotas for themselves to fulfill for each of
the eight Worlds. Solely enacted to keep diversity as its main priority. "Yeah, well let me find out the hard way then. Don't just go gang busters like you did the last—"
Corinth poked his head in the door, cutting their conversation short. "Come on you guys. Oliveto's probably scared." He whist himself away just as quickly as he appeared.
"Well, maybe his owner shouldn't have let him wander off while he chatted up my idiot brother." Emma scoffed while walking out of Corinth's dorm, fixing up her clothes. She spoke out just before Anvard pushed her to the ground, and stepped over her body like road kill.
"I'm going to get you back!" she howled from the floor in the hallway.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," he virtually sang the words as he headed down the hallway in pursuit of Corinth and Emmy. "Without wetting the bed, of course," he added to the already firm statement as he began to jog.
Original Souls (A World Apart #1) Page 18
