~ Southland Cinder High ~
Hours and hours of fun, boredom, and a long nap later, we heard Mr. Westhyme’s voice. “We’ve begun our descent and should be touching down within the next ten minutes. Make sure you’re all seated safely until we come to a complete stop.”
A pale girl squealed with delight. “I finally get to see it,” she said from way down the sofa.
“Is it your first time here, too?” I leaned over to ask.
“Yep. I got recruited a week before Winter Competitions ended last year.” She put her arms around the girls to her left and right. “Shauna and Tallulah left early to get me, so I only caught the end of it. It was fun watching the final competitions at North Haven, but I’ve been dying to see Southland Cinder High.”
“Me, too. I’m Kristine.”
“I’m Tracey. I remember seeing you in the morning announcements. You’re the newest newbie of us all.”
“There it is,” Harmony said.
I turned sideways in my seat and looked down into darkness. All I could make out in the night was a distant flicker of light. In my head I pictured a grey castle with soot and cinders pouring out of smoky, twisted towers. But as we got closer, all I saw was the shadow of a long mountain with flames burning all over one end.
“We’re coming in,” Mr. Westhyme said over the speakers. “Brace yourselves. Those idiots are using fire for the runway again. It’s dangerous, stupid, irresponsible—I’d think they were trying to kill us if they didn’t use it themselves. How do they expect—”
Harmony and I laughed. I could just see him going on and on to himself about it in the cockpit. And anyway, the landing went fine. We felt the light bump as the wheels hit the ground and the jet began slowing down.
We followed the fire-lit lanes slowly toward the dark mountainous thing I could only assume was Southland Cinder High. As we turned, I got my first good look at it. Made entirely of dark stone, two house-sized wooden plank doors were in the front, lined with blazing torches. Gold, pointed letters hung over them, spelling out SOUTHLAND CINDERS.
And just as we stopped, I watched the ground rise around us. “What’s happening?” I asked Harmony as a door opened and shut at the front of the room.
Mr. Westhyme began to descend the stairs. “Nobody panic, we’re being lowered to their underground hangar. We’re early, so we can stay on board and wait for the rest of our school to get here, or we can go in and start eating.”
“I’m starving,” Nadine said, putting a hand over her stomach. “I say we go now.”
“Me too,” Sassy said, pulling a brush out of her bag and running it through her hair.
“I’d rather wait and go in with everybody else,” Tracy said. “We’re way outnumbered right now.”
“Numbers don’t matter,” Mr. Westhyme said. “We have an understanding with them. During Winter Competitions, no fighting, so it’s safe.”
“I can stay here with those that wish to wait,” Miss McCree said as she entered the room. “You go ahead, now, and we’ll be meetin’ yah’ inside.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mr. Westhyme said. “I’m just gonna go park this baby and we’ll be out of here.” He went back up the stairs and we waited until the ground stopped moving under us. We were inside a wide-open room with ceilings lower than the ones in North Haven’s hangar and much dimmer lighting. The jet pulled forward slowly and parked against a damp-looking wall. Mr. Westhyme came back down the stairs almost immediately. “My group, let’s go. I’ve hardly eaten all day.”
My roommates and I and three other girls followed him to the exit. Outside, a snarly man was rolling stairs to meet the door. His lip curled in obvious dislike when he looked up and saw us. Then he simply walked away.
“Is everyone going to be mean here?” I whispered to Harmony.
“Not everyone, but don’t expect sunshine and roses either. Cinders don’t work like that.”
We walked through a door nearby and into a cavernous hallway with stone walls, lit only by the torches hanging on them. The stairs we climbed were made from stone as well.
And when we entered the dinner hall and found blazing fires in every corner of the also stony room, torches hung along the walls, and candles lining the center of each long table, I decided the southlanders were obsessed with fire. Maybe that was why they called themselves Cinders.
Everyone stopped eating and fell silent so they could cast nasty looks our way as we moved to the table in the back of the room. I felt my face burn as the intimidating figures taking up the front half of the room continued to stare. I doubted they would notice, though, since the lighting was so poor.
Once we took our seats, voices began picking up and the Cinders seemed to forget about us.
“Shouldn’t you be sitting with the adults?” Harmony asked Mr. Westhyme, who was sitting across the table from us beside Nadine.
He looked back at the first table, full of scary looking grownups. “I think I’ll wait for the rest of our adults to join them. I know what I said about our understanding, but going in alone doesn’t sit right.” He turned back to us. “Maybe we shoulda stayed on board anyway, though. It looks like we’re not getting served until we’re all here, even though they’ve obviously been fed. Now we gotta sit here and smell their food while our mouths water and our stomachs complain.”
“No, look. Here they come.” Nadine pointed her finger at something behind me.
Several women in dark dresses with tattered edges came through a door and brought platters of food to us. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, white and dark gravy, corn on the cob, and an assortment of pies were laid before us.
“Thanks,” Nadine said before ripping a leg right off the turkey and shoving it against her mouth.
The woman who’d set it down gave her an odd look and turned her nose up before she left.
“You can’t thank a Cinder,” Harmony whispered to her. “It’s rude.”
“Right, I forgot,” Nadine said through a mouthful. “Their idea of rude is so backwards, though. It’s hard to remember.”
The rest of us began loading our plates as my con began to ring, so I had to stop and reach in my bag for it.
Once it had risen and opened up, Roman smiled at me. All his gloom from the night before was gone. “Hey, sweetie. We’re about to land, but ya’ll left early, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I was about to start eating.”
“Well, I’ll join you as soon as I can. I just wanted to tell you to save me a seat.”
“Sure.”
He winked before the screen went dark and began folding up.
I leaned my head back to stare at the dark ceiling. “Aw, man. I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with him until tomorrow.”
“Break up with him already,” Harmony said.
“How can I break up with someone I’m not even going out with?”
“Tell him that. How long are you going to put yourself through this?”
“Until he figures it out.”
“In other words, you’ll let this go on until you’re married and have kids with the guy.”
“I sure hope not.”
Harmony shook her head and turned back to her food. I tried not to think about it as I ate. Instead, I turned my thoughts to why in the world everyone had been looking forward to coming here so much. So far it seemed dark and kind of demented. Everyone here hated us. I hoped it would get better.
When the entrance doors finally opened and North Haveners began pouring in, one of the Cinder staff, clad all in black, stood and went to shake Headmaster’s hand. His snowy white hair reached halfway down his hunched back. I realized it must be his brother when he spoke with the same voice, except that it was void of all emotion. “Hello, North Haven High School. Right on time, as always.”
“So good to see you, Brother,” our Headmaster said, “but why is it so dark in here?” Both voices were magnified somehow, like they were speaking directly into a microphone.
“Because we like it that way.”
Headmaster ignored him and walked over to the wall. Light flooded the room. Gasps and protests came from the front. Cinders shielded their eyes and leaned over in an effort to escape it. Our students looked relieved as they took their seats and began eating.
“Headmaster had them installed several years ago,” Harmony whispered to me. Both headmasters went to stand under the flags from all over the world hanging on the wall in the back of the room. “Having to live by light of fire only was driving us all crazy. The Cinders still do, though.”
When I saw Roman looking for me, I slumped down, hoping he wouldn’t see me. I had officially reached the point of being sick of him, just friends or not. But when he saw Harmony, he started heading my way. “I missed you all day,” he said, kissing my cheek and wrapping both arms around me when he sat down.
“Thanks.” I really wished he would go away.
“So, we gather together to celebrate another season of competition,” the Cinders’ headmaster began. “As we are the ones playing host this year, I expect all my students to behave as such and to be courteous and respectful of our guests.” A hint of a smirk crossed his thin, wrinkled lips before he went on. “We welcome you all, North Haveners, and are grateful, as always, to share our home with you for a time. You’re welcome to whatever you may find here, but make no mistake. You’re here so we can beat you, and win we will. I promise you that.”
Half the room erupted in cheers, as students beat fists and feet against the tables and floor. A sinister smile spread over their headmaster’s face.
Our headmaster laughed softly, letting the uproar die down before he spoke. “Thank you, Tobias, for that um...warm welcome. We’re grateful to you for having us here, as well. And I expect the same behavior from my students. We must put all this rivalry aside while we coexist at Southland Cinder High School. Save it for the games.
“My students will continue with physical fitness each weekday morning, meeting in our designated gym at eight-thirty. If you’re competing, you’ll be doing whatever your coach has planned for you until your sport is finished in the competition.
“The annual dance will be held next month. We’re hoping to have it on the twenty-fifth, Christmas Day, but we’ll have to give you a definite date when it gets closer. Our activities committee will also be putting on an end-of-season party sometime in the week following the last competition.”
“What?” Harmony said, clapping her hands over her mouth after it slipped out, because everyone had heard her.
“North Haven students generally stick to the second floor when inside. You’ll find everything you need there, aside from food and training. It is complete with a game room and recreational area, similar to the ones back home. If you’re planning on going outside, the adult who looks after your hall in North Haven will be able to provide you with proper attire.
“Let’s see, was there anything else...Staff will be meeting with me every Friday night at seven p.m., and students...please, never hesitate to come to me whenever you’re in need of anything.” Headmaster reached up and touched something on his neck, a microphone I assumed, before he and his brother went to sit down.
Harmony turned to me with her hands still over her mouth, muffling her voice a little. “We have to put on the dance and a big party...for all these people?”
“It’ll be fun.”
“It’ll be a lot of work.”
“Maybe when it gets closer we can get more people on board to help out. I bet some of them’ll be looking for something fun to do. What’s more fun than throwing a party?”
She finally let her hands drop. “You’re right. We’ll just have to make it fun.”
“So, do we have to wait to be dismissed, or can we go to our rooms when we’re done eating?”
“We can go whenever, but we better wait on Nadine.”
I looked across the table at Nadine, who was leaning over her plate eating a piece of apple pie.
“Maybe we could do something tonight,” Roman said. “I’ll probably be training most of tomorrow and the next day. Winter Competitions kick off Friday, but we don’t compete for another week. Coach’ll be pushing us pretty hard until then.”
“I would, but don’t you think we should get settled in? Usually we’d have an hour until lights out, and we need to unpack and shower.”
“I know, but—can’t you give me half an hour?”
“Yeah, but I’d really rather see where I’ll be sleeping for the next three months and give you more than half an hour another time.”
His face was rigid as he said, “Fine, I’ll walk you to the girls’ quarters, then.”