“You were late.”
“For?”
“Watching the fresh meat roam the hallways with starry eyes and big smiles. Fools don’t know what they’re in for.”
The choice of words comparing those younger by no more than one year than them to the prey and them the predators was ironic in more ways than Jacy’s roommate, Shiro, could understand. If he did, Jacy would be forced to accept that Shiro did, in fact, have a sense of humor, even if that was irony. Good thing his choice of words was nothing but arbitrary then.
Although he thought from the very first that the two of them were an odd pair - him the practical, down-to-earth, ready-for-action kind of guy and Shiro the untouchable, quite elusive, head-in-the-clouds type of person - their first year as roommates made them aware of a kinship that neither was quite able to define yet. Nevertheless, when faced with the choice of whether to share a room again or not, both were quick to accept the other as a constant companion.
“I was walking around,” Jacy felt the need to explain, “but I did notice the newbies from afar. Some seemed quite interesting.”
There was one boy who was late and seemed to be of the same social status as he was in his year: that one scholarship student. Jacy wouldn’t call himself brilliant, at least not in academic terms - he would consider himself more street smart than book smart -, but as luck has it, he managed to get in and survive the first year. On the other hand, Shiro was as wealthy as they come. He exuded an elegance that only money could teach, although his seemed far more ethereal to be entirely owed to material things.
“Soon dinner will be served. I expect Kyle will gather all Americans at one table again.”
Jacy had to grimace at that. As a Native American and having lived in the US all his life, he has a permanent invitation there, being quite friendly with the guy despite his sometimes massive ego. But the fact that nation-based groups still existed in a school as international as this made Jacy want to search the company of others.
“Maybe this year there will be an exception,” he said with a suggestive glance that Shiro pretended not to notice.
“If you are talking about the Brit, then I assure you, the far end of our table will still be his spot. Close enough to be acquainted and change a few words with, yet far enough to remain a mystery.”
Even as Shiro said this, Jacy sensed that the third year in question, who was supposed to be the student president but surprisingly declined, would break a few habits this year.
***
For someone looking to remain in the shadows as much as possible, Hendrick unfortunately was one of the few students who always caught the eyes of the masses whenever he walked the hallways. The resident ‘ace student’ as he was called was well loved by many despite not being very sociable, usually hanging around the two most popular second years, Jacy and Shiro, and occasionally, though less willingly, conversing with his unreciprocated love interest, who he was on his way to meeting. Gwenaelle, Gwen for short, was the undeclared secretary of the student body and together with him, the equally undeclared but popularly agreed vice-president, and Kyle, they formed the student union.
“Has the new year finally brought to light how beneficial a romantic arrangement between us would be?” That was, usually, under few variations, the question that Hendrick was greeted with on initiating a conversation with her.
“I am here on official business. Kyle’s speech to be exact.”
Kyle is one of the few people he could more openly speak with. Though not generally loved, he was well liked. Quite a few people could claim to be his friend, Hendrick included, and usually those friendships meant more than social status on both sides. His social butterfly personality and easy going manner made him very likely to often joke around, but as it just so happened, the speech was ended on a darker note than would have been expected.
“Unless you are suggesting that he plans to kill someone, I see no reason to worry about that. What I could do, however, is write his next speeches…”
He left before he could hear the end of it. He knew it was stupid to voice out such paranoid concerns, but on top of his intellect, one thing he could always count on was his gut feeling. And that was not a simple joke. He thinks he knows the answer, but he’d probably need to fish it out from the man himself. Meaning, a probable interrogation session at the US table, to which he was oddly invited, but never keen to join as that would mean leaving his spot at one of the few small tables, carefully at a distance from the famous roommates. He was always looking forward to his and Shiro’s not-staring contest and to what Jacy had defined as a competition of who can look more mysterious and brooding.
He went outside to his usual hiding place for a smoke, constantly assessing in his mind the dire implications of Kyle’s speech, trying to convince himself that it was not just paranoia talking. He didn’t even notice when another figure approached his spot - a portion of a wall between two buttresses - and was even more amazed when he figured it was a girl, probably first year as he didn’t recognize her, with dark hair and sharp eyes, who instead of taking out her own pack of cigarettes, started sipping from a metallic cup whose contents he could not gage but certainly guess. She noticed him staring and sent him a wink, but neither exchanged a word as they indulged in their own necessary vices.
***
Dinner, as everything at the Elysium High School, was a ritual. The room itself was circular, to allow for its protagonists to sit at the center, where the big tables were. All students had to fulfill their kitchen duties during the weekends, as a means to understand what it was like to ‘work’. Gaining some measly experience before going on to rule the world was just another thing Elysium had going against its competitors. The biggest table was quickly deemed the US table even though there were only four occupants: Kyle, Tyler, Hien, half American but her citizenship and her rumored romance with the student president won her a spot at the table, and Dianne, a first year who Tyler immediately took to integrating in their group. Kyle had bigger plans for their table that did not necessarily include others of his nation. His top priority was getting Hendrick to join. He made use of the chaos of first years finding their place to approach the unsuspecting table of three.
“How come my right hand man is not sitting by my right side at dinner? We ought to look united, especially for these clueless souls counting on our authority.”
“I think he cares more about his book than his political image,” replied Jacy amused, which immediately drew Kyle’s attention to him.
“Why don’t you join us then? You know you are one of us, we’re always ready to welcome you.”
“No can do. Can’t leave my table companion”, he said with a nod at Shiro.
With an exasperated sigh that he tried to mask, he finally suggested that all three join. Jacy looked for approval at Shiro who only shrugged, then both turned their attention to Hendrick, who was in his own staring contest with Kyle.
“Fine”, he finally gave in. “But only if those two also join”. He motioned to the girl from the courtyard and her blonde companion. He didn’t feel the need to get anything out of the former, but he couldn’t let Kyle win just like that. Besides, he noticed Shiro’s own gaze lingering on the girl. He was curious to see how this would play out.
“You two, what are your names?” Kyle inquired and with the same commanding tone he directed them to his table, followed by the three guys. The girls didn’t feel like they had much room to argue. By the time the group made their way to the table, the seat next to Tyler was already occupied by Nik. The more, the merrier, Kyle bitterly thought.
As introductions were being made, he noticed one more first year bolting though the door right before the dean was to give his own speech and announce the first round of students to serve. Only Jacy’s gaze snapped to the boy, but not for long.
“Well, since this has become a truly global table, let’s make it a charitable one, too”, he said with poorly disguised disappointment, and beckoned the boy, who introduced himself as Jabari while looking around hesitantly and eventually occupying the very last chair.
Dinner was a pleasant enough affair, with the first years getting to know each other and the older students filling them in. The conversation shifted to Kyle’s speech, with Hendrick insisting that it couldn’t have been just a joke.
“To be fair with all of you, it wasn’t.” His gaze waltzed from one curious face to another, letting the silence set a spark of interest in each. “I may not know all of you, but I trust that what I’ll say won’t leave the table.”
He told them about the Elysium curse. How half a century ago, during the school’s first years, the teachers were looking for nothing less than perfection from their students. Such were the expectations, that one boy, unable to perform, took his own life and left behind a letter in which he cursed the school and predicted that fifty years from his death, another student “will suffer the same fate under the pressure of achieving greatness”.
“Do you really believe that? I mean we all took a test to prove that we are capable,” argued Jacy.
Kyle ignored him and other noises of complaint from the table and focused on Hendrick, who himself was carefully regarding the fourth year student.
“Do you see now why I asked you to do this? We need to be seen as reliable, a unified force that acts as a pillar for those who aren’t able to cope.”
“And do you really think they’d come to us? They will try to hide it. No one wants to admit they’re struggling. We won’t know until it’s too late.”
At that, Kyle leaned closer, so that only Hendrick would hear him.
“We will know. After all, what screams struggling more than addiction?”
It was threat and Kyle made sure Hendrick knew that. Now the boy surely understood that this year could be deadly. And by the looks of it, the message got across to a few others at that table. Iv was trying to convince her worried roommate that it wouldn’t happen, though she herself didn’t seem too sure. Shiro and Jacy were having another silent conversation, while Nikolaus and Jabari seemed deep in thought.
One would think that students as intelligent as them would be above superstitions. But when all seven had their own secrets to guard, Kyle’s promise of death was not easy to ignore.
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