Fallen University: Year One

She started to write back but I gave her a warning look. I really, really needed to pass the next exam. She scowled but stopped passing notes. I could tell she was still listening in on the students’ whispered conversation, though. I made my notes a little more detailed so I could share them with her later. It was the least I could do.

I was completely prepared to continue our conversation in the hallway between classes, but as soon as we stepped out of the room, I was confronted by a group of girls. I’d seen them around, but they had never spoken to me before. A short woman with thick curly black hair and dark brown almond eyes twisted her mouth at me.

“Why are you even here if you hate it so much? Leave us alone. Go back where you came from.”

Goddammit. I was tired of this. All of it. I had no snappy comebacks left. “I don’t hate it here. I can’t go back where I came from, it’s against the rules. Please move, I’m late for class.”

“You shouldn’t even be in class!” a girl with blue skin and green hair hissed at me with her forked tongue. “You and your pet demons should walk away while you still have legs to walk on.”

“You’re going to take my legs?”

She growled at me. I rolled my eyes.

“Look,” a strawberry-blonde girl said. “I don’t know if what they’re saying is true or not, but you have to admit that it is really suspicious.”

“What is?” I asked tiredly.

“Well, you never wanted to be here in the first place, your first friends were an underworld reject and a sneaky bastard who doesn’t talk to anybody… except you, of course… and nothing bad ever happened at this school until you showed up. Nothing. For centuries.” She was ticking things off on her fingers as she spoke, which rankled me.

“You guys all first-years?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So nothing bad happened until you showed up, either. Maybe you let the sprites out.”

The girl gasped and recoiled as if I’d hit her. “Well, excuse me, but my boyfriend didn’t spend fifty years under Gavriel’s thumb!” She turned on her heel and stormed off. Her friends glared at me and followed her.

“Twenty years.” I sighed. “Not that it matters.”

The short curly-haired girl spun around with fire in her eyes. Literal fire. I hate this school.

“What the hell did you just say?” she hissed.

I snapped. “I said, who the hell is feeding you all this pile of crap?”

She smirked. “Sonja. She would know, wouldn’t she? After all, she’s the one who brought you in.” She flipped her hair as she spun around, and sparks flew off her fingers.

“God, why is she still doing this?” Hannah clutched her head in her hands, a gesture of such over-the-top distress that I would’ve chuckled if I didn’t feel like doing the same thing.

“Clearly she has nothing better to do. She’s obsessed with us—she’s hated me ever since the day I made her look bad in front of those Custodians by using persuasion on her. Come on, we’re late.”

I grabbed Hannah’s wrist and pulled her along beside me, placing my body between her and the other glares and whispers firing off in our direction. I wanted to know what Sonja’s problem was as badly as Hannah did, but I wasn’t going to let the bullshit ruin our day if I could possibly help it.

Because of the way our schedules were set up, I was on my own as I walked to Combat later that afternoon. I’d never minded before, but with the way things were going these days, I would have felt better with at least one friendly face nearby. I felt like a leper. People gave me a wide berth, and I swore I heard somebody actually hiss at me. I couldn’t wait to take out some of this pent-up aggression with some down and dirty hand-to-hand combat.

Before I could get there, though, Sonja’s friend Olivia stepped directly in my path and crossed her arms. “All alone, Piper? Without your little minions? What a surprise.”

“I don’t have minions,” I said patiently. “You’re thinking of Sonja. Which makes you the minion, cupcake.”

I did not expect her to laugh. It actually rattled me for a second.

“Shit, at least I chose my loyalty. You’re using those four men against their will. See you in class, cupcake.”

She smirked at me as she walked away.

Mother. Fucker. I was about one snide comment away from boiling over.

I stormed into the unisex locker room and inhaled deeply. Kingston was in here. Jayce had been, but was gone now. Kai hadn’t shown up yet. Neither had Xero. That bothered me, especially after the murmurs of potential violence that’d been floating around since first period.