The red-haired girl had spoken of Damien so nonchalantly. There’d been no malice or fear in her voice. Was she for real? She didn’t look psychotic. How could she be with that monster?
“You’re his girlfriend?” I asked incredulously.
“For almost a year. Our first anniversary is in October,” she replied with a delicate smile.
I still couldn’t believe this. “For real?”
The girl finished changing and turned to look at me in consternation. “I know Damien can be rather surly, but he’s not all bad.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” I replied without thinking.
The girls around me tittered.
The redhead raised an imperious eyebrow. “My name is Angela Blackthorne. And you are?”
“Sarah Smith.”
Her brow scrunched together as she tried to place my family. I decided to save her the trouble. “I’m not rich. My parents work for Noble. I’m here as a charity case.” Might as well lay it all out there.
Angela’s face cleared. “Oh, I didn’t think they really did that.”
“Oh, they do. Staff just don’t take the Academy up on it. Until now.” It was true. Children of faculty or staff had always enrolled at other schools. Noble might be the best, but if one wasn’t rich and powerful, there wasn’t much point in attending. But again, my parents couldn’t afford to send me off so they’d exercised this little used perk. I wondered if the administration were reconsidering this benefit now? There was no way I would ever fit in with these heirs of empires.
“Ladies, please finish changing and go into the gym,” Ms. Mueller, the female coach announced.
Chatter died away as we all hurried to finish putting on our gym clothes. I exited with everyone else and went to sit in the bleachers to wait for instruction. On the other side of the gym, the boys were doing the same. Gym was a segregated class. I was grateful for this. I’d never been very athletic or into sports, but gym could become my new favorite class for the simple fact that I didn’t have to deal with Damien.
I couldn’t believe he had a girlfriend. First of all, I couldn’t believe any girl would put up with him, but judging by Angela’s demeanor, I couldn’t see how they worked. I highly doubted she would have stayed with him if he’d licked her face, brandished a knife, grabbed her thigh, or snapped her bra. As I reviewed the litany of wrongs, I bowed my head. This was only the first day of school. He’d done all of that to me in one day. What hell would he put me through tomorrow? Maybe he wouldn’t be in my classes tomorrow. Angela had said he was still picking his schedule. Maybe he’d glom onto some other poor soul tomorrow and follow them around. Again, I didn’t wish this fate on anyone, but I had to admit that it would be a relief to not have to deal with him.
“Ladies, pair up.”
I looked around for someone to pair with, but I’d barely met anyone. I knew a grand total of two girls’ names. Jenna had paired up with the short-haired girl that had spoken to her in the locker room, and there was no way I was pairing with Angela. I just might be the odd girl out. It was to be expected, but my shoulders slumped a little at the realization.
“Would you be my partner?”
I turned in surprise to Angela.
“Really?” I asked in disbelief.
She nodded with a shy smile. I was surprised that she asked me, and I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of pairing with her, but considering I had no other options, I couldn’t decline her offer.
We got on the floor and spread our legs. We reached across and grabbed each other’s hands. As I strained and felt my legs stretch due to Angela’s pull, I tried to not look directly at her. She was an enigma that I didn’t have any real desire to understand. If she was happy with Damien, I didn’t want to hear about it.
There was an angry shout on the boys’ side of the gym. Angela dropped my hands as we both turned to see what was the commotion. A boy had his hand up to his face and was being held back by a couple of other boys. His hand overflowed and blood dripped onto his shirt.
“You goddamn psycho!” he shouted.
I wasn’t surprised to see that he was shouting at Damien, who was standing in a relaxed pose, smirking.
“Oh no,” Angela breathed.
“Seriously, you date him?” I asked.
“He’s not that bad, I swear. Something must have upset him.”
I shook my head. It had to be true love. There was no other excuse for it. Damien appeared to look in our direction. Angela gave him a tentative wave in greeting. I rolled my eyes and turned away.
“Everyone settle down. Joshua, go to the medical office,” Mr. Higgons, the boy’s coach said.
“What about him?” Joshua asked, pointing at Damien.
“I didn’t see what happened.” Coach Higgons said.
“It was an accident,” Damien lied, holding his hands up innocently. The two guys helping Joshua had to restrain him to keep him from lunging at the smirking boy. I sympathized entirely with Joshua. The boys escorted Joshua out of the gym. The coach said something to Damien, and he headed to the boys’ locker room.
“Ladies, get back to your stretches,” Coach Mueller said.
I turned back to Angela, but I froze with my hands outstretched when I saw the tears running down her cheeks.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“He wants so badly to fit in,” she said, the tears continuing to flow.
I didn’t think that was true at all, but I couldn’t voice the protest in the face of her tears. “He’ll figure it out. It’s just the first day,” I muttered.
Angela shook her head and stood up. She went to Coach Mueller and said something softly to her. Coach Mueller nodded and Angela ran to the girls’ locker room. I watched her retreating back in disbelief. Coach Mueller came over to me.
“All right, Smith. Let’s see if you have any muscles under those sweats.”
I rolled my eyes and did the rest of gym class paired with the coach. It wasn’t bad. Coach Mueller had a dry sense of humor that I could appreciate, and she wasn’t a hard ass. I changed with everyone else in the locker room, but this was the end of my day with them. They would be heading to their dorm rooms or to club meetings. I was headed back to my family’s apartment. When I left the gym, I went through a side door to cut across the courtyard.
“Damien, please talk to me.”
I froze and looked around. I didn’t see Angela, but that had definitely been her voice.
“There’s nothing to talk about, Ang. Go do whatever you’re supposed to be doing.” And the Demon was with her.
Their voices were coming through a hedge. I tiptoed up to it and pushed a few branches out of the way to look through. In a small clearing among the trees, Damien sat on a stone bench with his elbows propped on his knees. Angela stood before him.
“I was thinking of going to the club fair. Come with me.”
Damien snorted. “I’m not joining any clubs.”
“You don’t have to. You could just come to keep me company.”
Damien leaned back to look up at her. “You’re really pretty today. The school uniform suits you.”
Angela delicately blushed and unconsciously preened due to the compliment. Why was she wasting her time with this guy? Couldn’t she see he was bad news through and through?
“Have you made any friends?” she asked.
Damien rolled his eyes. “It’s the first day.”
“Right. Well, have you met anyone interesting?” she asked.
“No. Everyone’s boring.”
I was mildly offended by that because we had definitely met.
“Well, I met a servant’s daughter. I can’t believe she’s enrolled.” My ears perked at this.
“Oh and why not?” he asked. A smirk had crept onto his face.
“Because she’ll never fit in. I mean she seems pleasant enough, but you know how some of the others are. She’ll be miserable.”
And your boyfriend is my primary cause of misery, I silently added. But in general, I knew Angela was right. I would never fit in, but if I could just go unnoticed that would be fine with me.
“I don’t know. Maybe she can hold her own.” Damien’s reply surprised me.
A group of students came out through the side door that I’d used. I jumped back from the hedge in alarm. Damien and Angela had looked up at the noise. I hoped they hadn’t seen me peeking through. I ran to the other door and went through, making my way home with a pounding heart. My first day at Noble Academy was finally over.
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