Surviving Year One (Grim Reaper Academy 1)

She laughed lightly and gave me a wave before going back to work. “Next time, don’t go into the dining hall at all. Just come straight to the kitchens and anyone there will fix you something.”

“Oh, wow! That’s generous… Thank you.”

I was getting suspicious now. Okay, making friends with one servant girl was not a big deal. It made sense, really. We both hated entitled pricks, so we had something to bond over. Also, after scrubbing toilets all summer, I had a deep appreciation for the working class. Supernatural or not. But she seemed like she was speaking for the entire staff when she’d said they would fix me something to eat, so I could avoid my tormentors. Did everyone here know who I was? How? Why? And why did they want to help me?

This is weird. I must be cursed. I just can’t make a friend without fearing that they’re actually planning to do something nasty to me.

I hadn’t spoken to Klaus since our first class together. I couldn’t blame him, though. With GC being all over me, and then Paz doing kind of the same, I understood why he’d want to stay away. Self-preservation. Although, he was a mage. No matter what they tried to do to him, he could defend himself. Not something I could say about myself.

I got to my room,

ate half of my dinner quickly, and left the other half for later. I had two more things to do before all the others finished dinner, left the dining hall, and poured down the corridors, out into the courtyard for games or gossip, or up in the towers. I needed to get to the library and check out some books for my Mythology assignment, then find one of the chapels to see the worth scores with my own eyes. Why would they display the points in the chapels and nowhere else? Ridiculous. It made no sense. To me, at least. Hopefully, the Holy Chapel would be the closest to the north tower.

When I told the librarian the names Nergal and Ereshkigal, she immediately knew what I needed. She was an old lady, hunched and wrinkled, but I could see it in her eyes that she’d been a beauty in her youth. I couldn’t tell what she was, though, and I felt it would’ve been rude to ask. I have to find a way to recognize the supernaturals on my own. I can’t keep going around asking what they are, as if I were asking about their favorite brand of ice cream. She assured me the four books would be more than enough for my assignment. I cringed. Honestly, I think it’s overkill, but okay. I thanked her instead, and went on my way, books in my backpack, and map in hand.

The Holy Chapel was, indeed, closer to the north tower than the Unholy Chapel. Thank God, because I don’t feel like meeting Paz’s Dad so soon. Not that I actually believed Satan dwelled in the Unholy Chapel.

The place was as big as a church, and once I walked through its doors, I realized that was only one entrance. There was another set of doors right across from the ones that made the connection with the inside of the Academy, and those seemed to lead outside. I crossed the long corridor and pushed them open. My lungs breathed in hungrily, the chilly night air and the intense smell of the ocean filling my chest pleasantly. I took a couple of steps forward and saw that I was, kind of, outside of the Academy grounds. I wonder why they have two entrances. As if the chapel is not only for those living at the Academy. A few more steps, and I was standing near the edge of a cliff, the waves crashing noisily against the sharp rocks. I wrapped my arms around myself as the cold swept under my red and black uniform. Despite the bite of the mountain air as it mixed with the rumble of the ocean, I stayed like that for a while, simply enjoying the freedom. There was no one around. The students and the professors were all in the dining hall, and the servants were busy fussing over them. Or… so I thought.

“It’s peaceful out here, isn’t it?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin. That voice. I recognized it, despite not having heard it too often. Francis Saint-Germain. I turned toward him, and saw him standing there, a few feet away from me, hands in his pockets, staring in the distance. Oh, the guy can sneak up on someone alright! The moon was waxing, growing bigger and brighter every night, and its soft, gentle light fell on his perfect features just right. In the sun, his hair was a rather plain shade of brown, but in the moonlight, I could see streaks of silver here and there, dancing and shifting in his hair as he moved ever so subtly. His gaze fell on me, and something stirred in my chest. My shoulders relaxed, and I suddenly didn’t feel as cold. While in the presence of Sariel, GC, and Paz my guard went up, in Francis’s presence, I felt like there was nothing to fear. He wasn’t going to hurt me. He couldn’t hurt a fly.

“Yes,” I finally said. “I didn’t know this place existed.”

“Now you do.” He made a long pause, his gaze moving back to the horizon. When I thought he wouldn’t speak again, he added: “Do you plan on coming here often, now that you know about it?”

“Mmm… I don’t know. Maybe. It’s kinda’ nice to be away from…” I waved in the direction of the Academy. “All that.”

“It is. I come here every night. I don’t mind if you join me. I have one condition, though. I enjoy the silence, the sound of the waves hitting the shore, and the hoots of the owls as they claim their territory. Not a man in sight. The incessant chit-chat of bipeds, supernatural or not… non-existent. I like it that way.”

I gulped. While I agreed with him, I would have probably phrased it differently.

“I’ll just… go inside and check the worth scoreboard.”

I didn’t wait for his reply. I moved quickly, feeling like an intruder. This was his special place, and I had invaded it.

The chapel looked exactly how I expected it. Religious murals covered the walls and the ceiling entirely, and statues of saints guarded every niche and cranny, candles lit at their feet. In front of the altar, there was a tall gold statue of Christ on the cross. It looked like everything was made of gold, precious wood, colored glass, and expensive marble. The chapel was large, too, almost as big as a regular church. There was a long, Persian carpet embroidered in the colors of the Academy that covered the floor between the two rows of benches. I advanced slowly and carefully, even though the place was empty. Apparently, not many students liked to spend their evenings in the Holy Chapel. I wondered whether they preferred the Unholy Chapel, seeing how evil ninety-nine percent of them were, or they just stayed away from the two chapels entirely.

On the wall to the right, between a statue of Saint Augustine and one of John the Baptist, I found the scoreboard. My eyes traveled down the list quickly, until I found some familiar names. Sariel seemed to have one of the best scores, followed suit by Pandora, Klaus, Francis, Pazuzu and GC. Well, good for them! It appears I’m at the bottom of the list. I sighed and plopped onto a bench, my eyes still glued to the numbers. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand how I had only 50 worth points, when my total after passing the test had been 100, just like everyone else’s, and then the Mythology professor took 30 points. When had I lost the other 20 points?! And why had no one told me they were taking them?! This is so unfair. And it wasn’t that it was unfair. It was stupid and demoralizing. According to the scoreboard, I was the most unworthy student at the Academy. On day one! Most of the other students had their 100 points intact, and only some had managed to gain more. Paz was one of them for having answered the PE professor’s question correctly.

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll recover.”

I jumped in surprise. How had Francis snuck on me again?! Was it like a special ability of his? The guy moved like a cat! He sat next to me, and I scooted a bit farther, still feeling like I was the intruder here.

“I don’t even know when or why I lost another 20 points,” I pouted.

“And you’ll probably never know. Some professors are transparent, others… not so much.”

“Shouldn’t there be a rule that says professors should always tell a student when they give or take away points?”

He shook his head impassively.

I looked at his name on the list. He had 140 worth points. Decent. Sariel, on the other hand, had 230. What the hell had he done in just one day of school to boost his worth score, practically, through the roof?!

“These numbers look fishy,” I said. I stood up to leave. As much as I kind of liked spending time with Francis, I had to get to my room and start on the Mythology paper. I would probably have to pull an all-nighter and try to finish it even if I didn’t have to present it the next day. Just in case some other professor got a chip on his shoulder and hit me with extra homework. Better safe than sorry. I wanted the paper about Nergal and Ereshkigal out of the way.

“Good night,” Francis said.