by Bob Dattolo
The inside of the room is larger than I expected it to be. The paperwork makes the rooms look big, just not this big. Not that they’re large enough to hold a dragon. The ceilings look like they’re 10 or 11 feet high, which is huge, but even the smallest dragons on average, an earth dragon, is about 35 feet long. Granted, some are smaller, but that’s just about the average length. They just don’t vary a ton. There’s no way one could shift in here unless they got lucky and were coiled up. Then…maybe then I could see a small one doing it. It’s 35 feet from nose to the tip of the tail, so that’d be like 10 feet of neck, 15 feet of body, and another 10 feet of tail. Loosely.
I’m not sure why they’d want to do it in here, though. I’m pretty sure you’d break furniture. And never be able to get through the door.
The beds are pretty big and are on opposite sides of the space, putting them on each side of the door. One’s made up, which is obviously hers. It’s not made, but it has sheets and all on it. I smell a dragon, so that’s probably her. There are shoes on the floor. Some clothes. Nothing too bad that way. There are two couches, one on each side of the door. Each side has its own little sitting space, which is kinda weird. Although that might make sense if the roommates don’t like each other. Given the school so far, I’m thinking that might be more common than not?
Each side comes with two huge dressers. A desk. A comfy looking chair. And then a closet. The closet is larger than I would have guessed. Protected, too, based on the spells I’m picking up on it.
Is that needed?
I’m thinking yes.
The bed looks comfortable, at least at my guess. I can’t really remember seeing beds many times in my life. I know I did when I was younger, they just didn’t stand out to me much. I don’t think those memories were stripped. That’d be kinda weird.
“Welcome home, Maddie. This should be fun. You get tossed here to the wolves. Let’s see how far we make it.”
My smile didn’t start, although it wanted to. I spoke a little louder than I would have normally. Why? I did it on the off chance anyone is listening to me. I don’t know that anyone would be, but it’s a possibility. Dragons have way better than human hearing, so it might have been possible for someone in the next room on either side and maybe across the hall to hear me. Not that I hear anyone in those rooms.
Another point to me possibly being a dragon.
The headmaster let me know that food is served all night long, but it won’t be a full meal like breakfast, lunch, or dinner would be. You can still get a meal; it’ll just be sandwiches and wraps and salads and some other things like that. That’s something to keep in mind. I have a feeling I’m going to be spending every waking minute trying to learn spells, so I doubt I’ll be mixing with people all that much. Not given the shortened timeframe that I have here before the trial.
Unless it’ll help stop people from coming after me? That’s something to watch for. I don’t want to be so separate that it drives people to attack me. That’d be stupid. It’d be like demanding they attack me.
My bags get set out on my bed and the dressers, making it time to unpack. My debate about using the dressers or the closet fizzles as I realize the protections on the closet are probably the best way to go. That means everything starts getting put away in there. The space comes with hangers, which is good. It also comes with a number of cubbies for various things. That means it all starts getting used as my stuff starts being put away.
The school has a dress code, which seems weird to me. I was advised to get all the normal clothes I’d normally have plus toiletries and towels and things like that. Which I did. Then I was told about the uniform. My initial fear that they dressed you based on if you were a mage or a dragon never came true, and it looks like we’re supposed to wear skirts and dress shirts. There’s a jacket that goes with it, but it’s not required. Garrison was pretty clear that most kids change out of the uniform as soon as the last class is done. People don’t typically go to dinner in them. Or to breakfast. Or wear them on the weekends.
Those that do? Yeah, they’re labelled suck-ups and things like that, which makes them a target.
So, Maddie? Don’t wear the uniform if you don’t have to.
Those all get hung towards the front of the closet. Girls are allowed to wear pants with the uniform as well, but I didn’t get any. Why? According to Garrison, girls wearing them become targets. T-shirts and shorts fill a bunch of the cubbies. Bras in the cubbies. Some underwear…although not all of it fits there.
Hmmm, as I empty bags and put them away, I’m finding that I do have some overflow that has to go in at least one of the dressers. Half of my underwear go in. Two bras. Some socks. A pair of jeans. The rest was able to be squished into the cubbies.
There’s a specific spot for toiletries, so I left those there. I’m not sure if I can leave them in the bathroom…huh, I should go check that.
My sheets, blanket, and pillowcase go on the bed, and I head for the bathroom door. It’s in the middle of the wall to the left of the way in. It’s unlocked and slightly open, so it seems safe enough to enter.
The main part is a long, long counter with four sinks and a massive mirror. There is stuff all over the counter at three of them, making me think the last one would be mine. Towels. Make-up. Deodorant. All of that. So it seems like it’s safe enough to leave our stuff out? Maybe I’ll be able to do that too.
I expected the toilet to be out in the open in some way, but it’s not. It’s in the center of the space with its own door. There’s a shower on either side of it, both with their own door. There is a little bench inside the space plus some shelves and hooks. The one closest to our room has a towel and things already in one of the nooks. I’m thinking they try to break these out so that there’s one shower for both rooms? No idea why they’d connect like this. They’re saving one toilet? And a door? Seems a waste to me, but whatever. Maybe it’s to drive people talking to each other?
Noise back in my room pulls me out of the shower. “What the fuck is this?” The door shuts, telling me it was more than likely the opening that I heard. “Whose shit is this?”
My first sight of my roommate shows me a girl that’s a good 10 inches taller than I am. I’m only 5’2”, though, yet that’s still a good six feet tall. She’s got dark skin, although not as dark as Jean is. Was. Whatever. Silver eyes with darker gray scale-shaped pupils tells me she’s a metal dragon. Steel, to be specific. She has long braids, with her gray stripes showing up really well in them. She has gray clips at the end, too. She’s muscular, but not too bad. Most affinities don’t change as much as a water affinity does from what I’ve learned, yet they all have some similarities to the others like them.
Her eyes lock on me instantly as her nose works. “Who the fuck are you? How’d you get in here?”
My emotions take a step into the background without any prompting from me, and I swear it’s like I’m staring at her from 1,000 yards away. This is what happened when I first went to live with Reggie, but now it’s kinda me driving. “My name is Maddie. I’m your new roommate.”
She sniffed again, eyes narrowing as she took a step closer, “The school year’s pretty freaking close to being done. No one comes in this close to the end of the year!” Another sniff.
“I can show you my paperwork if you want.” Her eyes followed mine to my desk and my packets of stuff. I have more pages there to look through than I’ve ever seen in my life. Which, arguably, isn’t saying much. Yet it’s still a lot.
Her head tilted to the side a little as she focused back on me, “You don’t smell right. Why weren’t you here at the start of the year?”
I so want to tell her that I don’t answer to her, yet we live together. I’d rather not shit where I eat, if you know what I mean. If I can’t get a friend out of this, then indifference is my goal. Antagonism and aggression in my own room is a recipe for disaster.
“I was being held captive at the start of the year. The cops raided the house and saved me
less than two weeks ago.” I had talked with Garrison about that, and he recommended that I not lie about it. They will google my name at some point, which means they’ll find it.
She took a step back, “Are you fucking kidding me?” She sniffed again, “No, you’re not kidding. That’s fucked up.” Yet one more sniff, “What are you? Mage?”
“No idea.”
Her head tilted to the other side, “You…what? What do you mean you have no idea? You’re ice, but are you a dragon?”
Ugh. “Look at my eyes again. They’re not light blue.”
She stepped closer and squinted more. She’s a dragon, she can see a pin from across the room, she doesn’t need to be closer to see my eyes. “What the fuck? They’re white?”
“They’re white. I’m not ice. At least as far as they know.”
She stared for a solid minute before walking to my desk and opening my paperwork. My debate about telling her to stop never really got past the potential phase. It’s not worth it. She flipped through page after page, then went back to the first one and stared longer. My ability to smell has been getting freaky as I’ve gotten older, and I can clearly smell her agitation. I’m proud of myself for how I’ve been controlling things so far. She’s not controlling things.
I’m not shocked to have her turn back around and stare at me. No, at my face. Specifically, my eyes and the scars. Her eyes are like pinballs as they bounce back and forth.
“Your last name is Stricken.”
“It is.”
She licked her lips, eyes looking away for the first time, then back to me, “Why would you have that last name? No one uses that last name!”
“Until two weeks ago, I was required by law to have it as my last name.”
More staring, more fidgeting, “That’s…you…you have…” I was more than shocked when she abruptly shut her mouth with a click and walked from the room. She didn’t slam the door, which was even more of a shock to me. No matter how much I listen, I can’t hear her talking to anyone in the hallway. She just walked out.
What does that mean?
Everything in me is telling me to hide. To find a place that I can disappear and then do it. Minimize every interaction with everyone. The me that I was is all for that.
Want to know what the other part of me wants to do? Even with all of the conversations I’ve had, two of them happening today, the other part of me wants to walk out of here and go to the caf to get food. Freaking hell. Voice? Are you in there? Or are we really integrated?
No response. No twinges. Nothing.
Man, no wonder she was able to handle everything with Reggie and his friends. I blubbered and cursed and cried inside, and she handled it like a champ. She drove more than 95 percent of the time, but that’s because I had way more time in the driver’s seat the last year. The first year? Uh-uh. Minutes at a time. If that. And not even every day. Not even every week. I spent way too long crying and wanting desperately to end it, all the while she played the subservient little dragon to him. Willingly taking part in everything he wanted to do.
Consequently, our time there was…was…wasn’t bad. Honestly, it wasn’t bad. There were horrific times, don’t get me wrong. Yet with him? He hit me a few times, but it wasn’t ever all that bad. Punishments. Not even brutal ones. His friends were worse during sex, although the couple was the worst of all of them. Possibly combined. Including Reggie. Frankly, many of the friends were just looking to get laid and didn’t even spank me as a kink thing.
She handled it all. She got us through.
Now I can see it. I can see why and how she could do that. This new part of me wants to walk out of here, head held high, and go about our lives. Sure, we’ll come back and start looking through the magics book for anything that I can practice on my own, but that’s something for later. For now? Let’s get ahead of her freak-out and go start our own rumors.
Stupid new part of me. I’d so rather hide away and live. Although maybe it’s better to go out in a blaze of glory?
Chapter 9
The dorms are set up with girls on one floor and guys on another. I have a list somewhere of the breakdown between guys and girls, which I should have looked at. I think it’s not quite even, being like 50 guys and 40 girls. But that’s rough numbers based on a hint of a shadow of an idea of what he might have told me. I shoulda paid more attention.
Frankly, part of me was more focused on the fact that there are only 91 current 18-year-old children of mages and dragons in the US and Canada. I swear, that sounds like a low number. Although, I guess not. Like I’ve been getting told, we’re a dangerous lot by nature, and it’s all too often to have people die. Plus, we live a long time, so if you do get married or find a mate, as a dragon, you don’t need to rush into having kids. You can wait 100 years. 1,000 years. All sorts of things become possible. Then you toss in not having a ton of kids on average, and you end up with decently low numbers.
Again, that’s not worldwide, that’s for sure. I can’t imagine that the other North American academy has as many people as we do. Smaller island nations dominate, and some of the other countries are iffy on supernaturals.
Just look at Mexico.
They were one of the countries that accepted supernaturals for the longest time. We covered that in history at one point, although I don’t remember what happened. I hit that with Jean, so I didn’t lose it. Something happened, though, and they were slaughtered. Not all that long ago, either. After World War II, that’s for sure.
Not to mention the other countries that have done somewhat the same thing. More than half allow supernaturals, but the others? They’re violently against them. They’ll welcome anyone that comes to them, but you’ll be drained in a heartbeat. That’s something someone mentioned during one of my tests when they thought I couldn’t hear. They thought about trying to get me a bus ticket to Mexico. If I got to the border, they’d accept me without fail. Then drain me of magic. Just without mortmagi.
That’s one way to avoid the academies. It just doesn’t seem like many people do that.
Although maybe that happens instead of people actually following through on the whole stricken thing with their kids? If they know they’ll fail at the academy, wipe them out of the family legally, but get them to Mexico to survive. Then you can always talk to your random pen pal from south of the border without any worries. Your daughter or son no longer exist, yet that doesn’t stop you from sending money to someone you just met that is conveniently the same age, has the same first name, and looks an awful lot like you.
If only my parents had done that.
Oh, wait, if they did that, then I wouldn’t have magic again. And a chance to find everyone that has hurt me in my life.
That thought warmed me as I left the floor behind. The paperwork that I saw was pretty clear that you don’t need your key all the time. Then again, if someone locks the physical lock, that means that you still can’t get in. That means that I keep this sucker on me. No wonder they gave me one of those latchkey-kid necklaces to go with it.
Not that I’m gonna use that.
I saw three others on my way out of the building. Two guys and a girl. None of them seemed to notice that I’m new. One of the guys is definitely a dragon based on his eyes. The other two smelled like mages.
Outside again, I sniffed the air. It smells so fresh compared to being locked away for so long. It’s the simple things that you miss sometimes. Fresh air. Walking on grass. Seeing grass.
The simple things.
No matter how much I wanted to slink my way to the caf, it didn’t happen. Back straight, I walked with authority that I don’t know that I have the backing to support. I can tell that my scent doesn’t reflect that uncertainty, yet I definitely have it. At least a little. Fake it til you make it, right?
The buildings are separate, but they have these huge, covered walkway things so that you can make it between buildings without getting rained on. I have to think it’s there for the snow, too. This is Mo
ntana, that happens here, right? I’m not sure I’ve ever been in snow as a normal thing, now that I think about it. No memories of it, although maybe that’s because they were stripped away? That’s always possible, I guess. I’m not sure I’ll ever really know what all I’m missing. I can see trips to go skiing, just no snow as a normal part of things.
More kids passed, with some picking up my newness. None caught the color of my eyes or the stripes in my hair. Out of all of the ones I’ve been able to overhear, the word ice comes up a lot. The second most? Mage. I don’t smell like a dragon to the dragons, so I have to be a mage. I don’t have a visible pupil, so I have to be a mage.
I guess we’ll see at some point.
The cafeteria is larger than I would have expected. There may only be 91 people in my class, but the space is set up to hold two or three times the number. I guess that’s needed at times depending on the population. You wouldn’t want to have to build a new caf due to a population spike or some crazy thing like that.
It smells amaaazing.
There are 10 different stations that I’m seeing. Assuming I can trust the pictures, we have everything from breakfast to salads to a grill to chicken to sandwiches. And then some other things mixed in. There are a good number of kids left in here, but it’s by no means everyone. Maybe half of the kids are here, all broken out to smaller tables. I don’t see any groups larger than six, and there are only two of those. Most are groups of two or three, with plenty of singles in the mix.
I’m thinking people eat with their allies. Given what I’ve been hearing, that makes sense.
Oh, would you look at that? There’s my roomie talking to a group of girls. Two of them. I can’t see their eyes, but based on the hair, one’s fire and the other is earth. I can’t tell if those two are dragons or not.
There’s a bronze dragon at a table nearby, and the only reason I can tell that is her hair has bronze stripes in it, which no mage has. Well, unless they dye it. Then they’d have those stripes plus the sign of their affinity. You can’t dye that hair. Unfortunately.
