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Taryn
I FREEZE.
Everyone is laughing.
“I always thought there was something weird about her,” Freya is saying, like I’m not here. “I mean, it’s one thing to be nervous about sex for your first time. But quite another to declare that you’re different to everyone. Like you’re not even subject to basic human desires. Like you’re not even human!”
“Hey!” Teddy’s voice is sharp. “There is nothing inhuman about being asexual.”
“Well at least you know now why she was frigid, mate.” Peter slaps Teddy on the arm. “So, it wasn’t anything to do with you.”
“How’d you even know this?” Someone points at Freya.
“Victoria told me.”
“What?” Teddy shouts. “She...”
Victoria. My head spins.
“How does she know?” It takes me a second to realize I’ve said those words.
Teddy’s gone even redder.
“You told her?” I stare at him. How does he even know her?
“Well,” he says. “It wasn’t like I meant to. She just... But it’s fine. She promised not to say anything because she’s ace-spec, too.” He looks to Freya, frowning. “She told you?”
“Victoria said Taryn was like her,” Freya says with a shrug. “And then I figured out she was meaning the whole asexual thing. Wasn’t difficult.”
“Oh my God, it’s spreading,” Peter says. He raises his hands above his head, cowering in pretense. “Don’t infect me too with this!”
“Shut up!” Teddy yells, standing up. His fists are balled into fists.
“Careful. Don’t get angry, mate. You don’t want to have a heart attack.” Peter laughs even deeper, like it’s the most hilarious thing he’s ever said.
“Then shut the hell up,” says a new voice. Ivelisse. “You always go way too far, Peter. You’re not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be funny.” He points at me. “She’s the one denying she’s got basic human feelings. I mean, Taryn. You’re just frigid and now trying to cover it up to make you seem less of—”
“Being ace is valid,” I snap at him. Tears blind me, but I feel rage. Proper rage.
The door opens, and someone else slips in. Jaidev. He takes a step back as the energy in here apparently hits him.
“And I’m asexual too,” Teddy yells. He puts his arm around me. I can feel him shaking.
Peter hoots. “Oh my God. Do you all hear this? This is just ridiculous.”
“I’m getting Madame,” Sibylle says, standing.
Peter yells something else, but I can’t make out his words. They’re just a sail of fog that flies over me—and then Peter flies back.
“Yes, fight!” a first-year shouts, and a second later, everyone’s chanting it. Fight, fight, fight.
Jaidev. Jaidev’s being held back by Xavier and Advik.
Peter rises from the ground, holding his face. There’s blood streaming from his nose.
Jaidev’s punched Peter?
Oh my God.
My head pounds, and everything inside me is screaming for me to leave, to get out, to go. And yes, I need to.
Victoria. I need to find Victoria. She’s been outed by all this, too, in front of everyone. I need to tell her, warn her. Oh God. She’s going to hate me even more. But I can’t not tell her. I’d want to know if it was me.
“Taryn! It’s okay!” Sibylle’s voice.
Sibylle who hates me is trying to help, but I can’t stop. I need to let Victoria know what’s happened as soon as I can. Even though she hates me, because I know now she can’t be the person after me. The petit rat said the person who tampered with my food was a guy. Sibylle said everyone in our year knows about my sister. Possibly the first-year diploma students do, too. But there’s no way the company dancers can. And anyone from the academy could’ve slipped into the company studios to write those notes.
But only academy students can get into the academy dorms with keycards. I think of my photo board and the pushpins in my shoes and Helena’s stolen shoes. It’s someone in the diploma. A guy. It has to be. But I can concentrate on that later, on working out who it is. I haven’t got time now.
I run to the company buildings and let myself in.
My shoes slap on the linoleum, like a countdown. But where will Victoria be now? I falter. I don’t know where she hangs out. Her accommodation block? I won’t be able to go in there.
“Right, we’ll finish up now then,” a voice says. Mr. Vikas. “Good work.”
The studio to my left. I race to the door. He’ll know where Victoria is, won’t he? I’m clutching at straws, I know. But I can’t, and—
And there she is. In the studio with Mr. Vikas and Harry and Marion. They’re just finishing a session, by the sounds of it, and—
I go cold as I see them.
Helena’s shoes. That burnt orange color. On Victoria’s feet.