After lunch we had the rest of the day free and I wanted to check out the dorms. 

The girls dormitory and the boys dormitory were on opposite sides of the campus so we waved goodbye to Asiel, promising to meet up for dinner and made our ways to towards the large brown building that Sarin had pointed out during the tour.

Lyra looked up at the tall building, her eyes gobbling up the sleek structure with an awestruck expression. 

“I hope we’re roommates,” she said before we stepped through the front doors and into the lobby. 

“Hello, welcome to the Ladies Dormitory.” A small girl sat behind the front desk, her eyes not budging from the book she sat reading. Her heeled boots lounged on top of the desk, crossed as the ankles. “Find, your names on the list and next to it are your room numbers. Your luggage should already be there,” she sounded like a recording.

A clipboard with what must have been the room list was the only thing on top of her desk and we gingerly looked at it.

“You can look first.” I pushed the list towards Lyra.

She took it without hesitation, flipping the pages towards W.

“Whitehorn, whitehorn,” she repeated, her fingers moving down the list in time with her eyes.

“Oh, room 2811. Okay your turn," Lyra handed the list over to me and I gripped the hard board, flipping-

I couldn’t find my name.

I looked again. Maybe I’d missed it, the print was small. I took my time the second time around. 

Nope, nothing there. My name wasn’t on the list.

I looked to the girl who was still engrossed in her book. 

“Hi," I interrupted,  "but uh, I can’t seem to find my name on the list." 

The girl lifted her gaze up from the book to give us a pointed glare.

“What’s your name,” she asked. Not an inch of friendliness could be found in her voice. 

“Sunny Lorithen.”

She gave a small sigh. “Hold on.”

She set her feet down from the table to the floor, sitting straight back in her chair, her body going completely still. Her dark pupils slowly bled into the surrounding whites of her eyes until only the darkness remained, black as the moonless midnight sky.

What was happening?

She froze like that for a few heartbeats looking like a demon, her black eyes unblinking. Lyra and I exchanged nervous glances, we seemed to freeze with her, our shallow breathing filling the lobby.

Then the girl seemed to unfreeze from whatever trance had held her, the whites of her eyes returning to normal.

“Hm, seems like you’re not in this dorm,” she chewed on her bottom lip as she talked, “the system’s telling me that you’re housed in The Cottage.” Her dark eyes focused on me once more, peering at me with interest. “I wonder why you’re housed there. That place was built-“ but she didn’t finish her thought “-Nevermind," she said instead. 

Before I could even ask, the girl spoke again. “The Cottage is down the road. Just follow it into the forest and when you come to the split, take a left. You can't miss it.” She looked back at her book signaling the end of the conversation. 

I looked to Lyra and we both exchanged confused glances.

"I guess we're not roommates then?" she offered with a shrug. 

"I guess not."