Souta wasn’t kidding when he said most of our classes were the same. He managed to drag me to lunch, which turned out as subpar as expected. I tried to keep some distance and didn’t bother to give more than grunted responses to their attempts at conversation. They didn’t give up. Some nagging sense made me believe they wouldn’t stop trying to befriend me
PE last period thrilled me. It meant I could go straight back to the dorm to shower. I usually needed one afterwards. PE at Illustratio wasn’t like other places. It tended to be more powers training than anything else. At the end of class, I usually needed a shower to clean off the soot or ash. Fortunately, the instructors took pity on us and decided on a “Human Week”. They opened the track and soccer fields, the weight barn, and the gym. Not being at all athletic I held back a cheer when they said first day participation would be optional.
Instead, I made myself comfortable against the wall in the gym and decided to enjoy the eye candy on display. It gave me the perfect chance to observe the boys trying to worm their way into my life. It didn’t hurt the handful of guys in the class who opted for a pickup game of basketball decided to go shirtless. Okay, in a couple cases it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Some of them needed to take bush trimmers to their chest. The real surprise came when Souta stripped off his shirt.
Ho-lee shit.
Souta couldn’t be more than two or three inches taller than me with a leaner frame than most guys, but the boy packed some serious muscle. Not the body builder type of muscle, but the muscles in his arms and legs were well defined, and he sported a six-pack. I ran a hand over my chin to check for drool and watched as he practically danced around the other team. Power coiled in his muscles as he played, his movements containing grace and elegance. It reminded me of the male gymnasts I watched on TV during the Olympics. When he passed the ball to Brooks, I tore my gaze away from Souta to observe his beau.
Brooks’ blue-tipped blond curls kept falling into his face, obscuring his vision until he tried to flip them out of his eyes. The move made me smile. One of the guys from the other team ran at Brooks, hand reaching out in an attempt to steal the ball. Brooks’ evaded him easily, flowing around the guy like he didn’t exist. I watched him jog down the court. He lacked the grace and elegance of Souta but his movements flowed, each motion blending seamlessly with the last. Throughout the day, I noticed Brooks rarely talked. In fact, he seemed to prefer to let Souta take the spotlight while he stayed in the background. Brooks shot, but the ball clanged off the rim.
JJ caught the rebound and sent the ball right back up. Not as well defined as Souta’s, his lean muscles glistened with sweat as they moved. My mouth watered as I watched him. This time the ball swooshed through the hoop to the cheers of his teammates. He glanced over his shoulder, dark bangs swinging across his molten gold gaze as he caught my own and winked. JJ exuded an aura of sensitivity combined with pure guy that I found hot as fuck. Butterflies erupted in my stomach.
I found them all attractive physically, but as I watched them, and the other girls hanging around, I realized JJ seemed to be the one the other girls fawned over. He didn’t garner all the attention. Some blond, blue-eyed charmer who seemed a little too loose with his winks and grins received more attention and a ton of sighs. Stupid girls. JJ seemed to get his fair share of attention, although I’m not sure he noticed.
A snicker next me drew my gaze from the guys to a gaggle of giggling girls. I assumed they focused on the guys playing ball, and then one of them shot me a glare, and I caught another snicker.
Shit. They caught me staring!
Quickly, I lowered my gaze and dug around in my backpack for a distraction. My fingers closed over my cell, reminding me I still needed to call May about Aguirre. I couldn’t do it in class, even lame-o PE, but I could shoot off an email.
My fingers flew over the keyboard as I retold the morning’s events, but I hesitated over the send button. I already bugged May once this week about Aguirre. Yeah, the shit this morning blew the lid off last night, but it still seemed a little like whining to report her again.
If I ignored the morning’s events what had she really done? Laid down a bunch of restrictions on someone she believed to be trouble. Instead of sucking it up, I went and complained. She’d been angry, and my record and reputation tended to speak for me. Everyone lost control on occasion.
I stared at the email. Suddenly what seemed like a concise report moments ago glared at me in one big, whiny, ranty, take-care-of-me, poor-me complaint. Did I need May to deal with this? I turned eighteen soon, practically an adult! On my own my whole life, I have been handling my own issues since I hit my first Illustratio at five, when some towheaded boy decided to knock me into a mud puddle. Ten minutes later, he sported a black eye and wore only underwear, while I sported clean clothes a little big for me.
Aguirre held authority over me, and I needed to acknowledge it.
I deleted the email as the bell rang and took off for the dorms. The boys would try to come over and talk or something, but I didn’t want to talk or make friends. I liked being on my own. Besides, I didn’t need anyone else.
I slammed through the door of the Ignis dorm and down the hall to my room. First I needed to begin my homework and then figure out what to make for dinner to share with the demons-in-training I dormed with.
I never managed either.
Aguirre must have a sixth sense, or an alarm or something, because she stormed into my room seconds behind me. Her hand flew out, snatching up the phone I put on my desk.
“Fucking brats. I give up my life to watch you ungrateful creatures, and does anyone care? No, they saddle me with some little bitch who thinks she’s hot shit. Stupid brat.” She spat her words at me, and I cringed at the stench of onions on her breath. I hate onions.
My fists curled at my sides as she slid my phone into her pocket. I didn’t deserve the way she treated me. I might be labeled a troublemaker, but this seemed over the top for keeping me in line. When I reported her to May I knew I challenged her authority but this seemed to be more. I refused let some self-important bitch take her issues out on me.
“You’re the bitch!” I screamed at her.
The crack of her hand across my cheek made my head spin, and my temper rise. I lunged, fist flying, only to be caught by her large hand. Her other hand grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked hard. I bit my tongue to keep from crying out and fought against her hold, but she bent me backward until I thought I might either fall to my knees or snap in half. The hand holding my fist twisted my arm down and to the side. My body screamed from the position she forced me into but I refused to give it a voice. She sneered at me, and the next thing I knew, her knee connected to my crotch.
A knee to the pubic bone fucking hurts, even without actual balls.
My legs gave out, and I hit my knees, Aguirre’s hold releasing as she sneered. “That’s exactly where you belong, on your knees in the dirt. Scholae Jones and Sage Maybelle think they know better than me. I’ll bring you in line or break you, but I’ll show them who’s right.”
A plastic bucket hit my head, and I winced, sponges and rags flying around me. A plastic bin with a couple spray bottles and other cleaning tools dropped in front of me, and I finally glanced up, gulping as I did.
“Today you’re going to clean the entire dorm, top to bottom.” A grin stole over her face. I shuddered at the sheer malice on it and the nasty gleam in her eyes. “And you’d better hurry, you have to be done by lights out.” She turned and strutted out the door, stopping only long enough to kick a vacuum I failed to notice in my direction. “And don’t forget the vacuuming. That ought to keep you busy.” Her maniacal laugh echoed as she walked out the door.
Fuck this shit! I refused to be her slave. I gritted my teeth through the pain still shooting through my crotch, rose and stormed out of the room, righteous fury burning my gut. From the corner of my eye, I saw some of the midgets scrambling back from the corner of the hall, a brave soul or two watching from the corner with wide, frightened gazes.
“I’m not your fucking slave! I won’t do all the cleaning, you bitch!” I screamed at her. She couldn’t force me to do it. She flew back down the hall, shoving me against the wall, an arm across my throat, cutting off my air completely. I clawed at her hand, fighting and kicking, desperate for air.
“Fine, then we spend the rest of today in the same way we began. How far can I push you before you break? I’d love to find out.” Her harsh words in my ear frightened me more than her bullying. I wanted to believe them to be empty threats, nothing more than her spouting off bullshit to scare me, but she proved she wasn’t afraid to get physical. I nodded as best I could, praying she took it as an okay to the cleaning I meant it as.
I fell to the floor as she released me, muttering as she started back down the hall. I knew she meant it. Evil glittered in her eyes. Hauling myself to my feet, I went back to my room to gather the cleaning supplies. I wouldn’t fight her tonight. There were worse things than spending an evening cleaning.
A part of me regretted not emailing May earlier, but at the same time I knew I needed to get myself out of this. I needed to be strong. I needed to be able to stand on my own.