Creatures of Snow (8 page)

As Professor Tennant droned on, Sara huffed
out a breath of boredom and laid her head down on her desk,
adjusting her arms until she had created a comfortable cradle.

“…
those of you that excel
in the trivium will be sent to the west campus and those more
proficient in the natural and formal science will be on east
campus….”

She readjusted her head
and let her eyes lazily scan the room to fight the urge to sleep. A
young man with fierce red hair listening intently caught her
attention. There was nothing of particular interest about him,
except maybe the way he sat with military-like precision. She
wondered briefly if he could possibly be the other first-year
member of Axis. He looked strong and confident, exactly what you
would expect from the Arche Academy.

Her stomach lurched at the
thought of it. Axis. How unfair. She had finally found a way off
this rock and they found a way to make her stay.

Orientation finally ended
and the students emptied out of the classroom. Sara pushed past all
the chatter and crossed the hallway, heading straight for the
closest bathroom. She stood momentarily in front of the door,
waiting for it to open, but to her surprise she found herself
needing to push it. She grumbled her way in, hoping no one saw her
being an idiot and made her way over to one of sinks along the long
counter.

She just needed a moment
of silence away from the hustle and bustle of the hallway. Leaning
over the sink she successfully avoided her reflection and with a
flick of her hand she brought ice cold water streaming from the
faucet to which she applied generously to her face.

“What are you doing here?”
She mumbled aloud to herself and regretted it immediately as it
reverberated off the surrounding walls. She didn’t belong at REALM.
It was too big and full of people way smarter than she was. The
classes were bound to bore her and be way over her head. Her only
hope was finding the other members of Axis and hoping to the
highest Haven that they were as lost as she was.

The bathroom door swung open behind her, but
she didn’t bother to look up.

“…
and then I was like,
‘you’ve got to be kidding’ even though I knew he was totally
serious.” The unmistakable voice of Kat scratched its way to her
ears.

“Good one, Kat! Oh, that’s
so funny!” The ever faithful Renna responded as she opened one of
the stall doors. Kat made her way to the mirror and started fussing
with her mass of hair.

Sara found herself frozen in place. Neither
girl had yet to acknowledge her presence. It would have been the
ideal time to quickly sneak out the door and avoid an unnecessary
confrontation in such a small arena. But she couldn’t move.

“
Aren’t you even going to
say hi?” Kat asked while she leaned over to wipe away an imaginary
smudge from under her lips and tried to catch Sara’s eyes in the
mirror.

Sara trained her sights on the door. “No, I
wasn’t.” She mumbled out and slung her bag back over her
shoulder.

“
I see manners are as high
up on the Pitter’s to-do list as an honest living. I don’t know why
I expected any better from someone like you.”

Sara could feel her anger rising, but she
couldn’t let this small, arrogant girl get to her. She was above
that. Sara headed straight for the door, not daring to look
anywhere but at her destination.

“
It’s a shame, really,
that REALM has lowered itself to letting traitor spawn through
their doors”

Sara’s vision went red. The one button she
had…“If you say one more word to me, I will beat that smirk off
your face.” She couldn’t help it as her hands clenched into
fists.

“Who did your mommy and
daddy have to sell to get you in here?” Kat’s eyes narrowed to
hateful slits. “Oh, that’s right, your parents were arrested
weren’t they.”

Renna emerged from her
stall smoothing her jacket down around her hips. “Hi, Sara.” She
chirped merrily, crossing between them to get to the
sinks.

“Ohh, that got you fired
up.” Kat stood hands on hips. “Too bad you can’t do anything about
it.” Kat laughed and motioned for Renna to do the same, “Poor,
worthless traitor spawn.”

Sara didn’t care anymore.
Scholarship, future plans, none of it mattered in that moment and
against better judgment, she chose pride over sense.

Chapter Seven

“
I feel like my head is
going to explode.” Sky shook his head. “One lecture down, thousands
more to go.”

“
Well, if you would have
read the prep work I left for you last night, most of these first
few classes would just be a recap.” Al wasn’t patronizing him, he
was just stating the unfortunate facts.

“
We both know I don’t read
unless held at gunpoint.” He sighed, feeling the weight of his
backpack increase.

“Which has happened on
occasion.” Al nodded. “Don’t worry, man. That’s -”

Al wasn’t able to finish
his sentence as Sara and the girl with the colossal amount of hair
came roaring out from the restroom in midst of a serious looking
brawl. Colossal-hair’s nose flowed a steady stream of blood while
Sara had suffered a long scratch below her left eye.

“Hey!” Al shouted and
tried to pull Sky out of the way, but he was too late. Sky was
taken down to the ground in a frenzy of fists and nails.

The two girls thankfully
scrambled apart, standing with heaving breaths, once they noticed a
stranger in their midst.

“I’m not familiar with the
culture that uses full-body tackles as introductions.” Sky joked,
as he climbed to his feet between them.

“
Pit rat!” Colossal-hair
screamed, wiping furiously at the blood still pouring from her
face.

Sky held up his hands
slowly and tried to back away, but stopped when he noticed the
commotion had caught the attention of a passing
professor.

Sara lunged at the other girl with a look in
her eye that he knew all to well. Sky stepped forward and took a
solid punch that sent him into the opposite wall.

“
What is going on here?
Stop it this instant.” It was Professor Blanks from the lecture at
REALM.

Sara and Kat both turned in the direction of
the voice, and their reaction clearly stated that they were just
noticing the audience around them.

“Come with me.” Professor
Blanks said in a steady voice. “The lot of you.” He gestured to
someone just out of view and two official looking adults rushed to
his side. “Take them to the Director’s office.”

In a rush of hands and bodies, Sara,
Colossal-hair, Al and Sky were skirted off to the upper levels.
Once off the lifts they proceeded down a long, warmly lit corridor
that, when combined with the light yellow walls, gave the slightest
impression of walking through a stick of butter.

Blanks followed quietly behind them as their
escorts secured them on either side. Colossal-hair fussed and
protested the entire way and it had started to create a dull ache
in the back of Sky’s skull.

“
Stop.” One of their
escorts barked as they reached a large door with the word ‘Director
Thompson’ clearly imprinted onto its surface.

“
Thank you. I’ve got it
from here.” Blanks nodded politely to the other men who promptly
strode off without a look back.

Blanks flipped open a
hidden panel to the side of the door and jabbed at the keypad. The
door clanked and he pushed it open to reveal yet another corridor,
this one did not look so warm and delicious.

“
It’s the only room at the
end of the hall, wait there and the Director will meet
you.”

Sky could tell the weight
of the situation was beginning to bog the others down. No one said
a word as they took their first heavy steps forward.

Blanks caught Sky’s
shoulder just as he was about to follow, “You and Ms. Rekkert are
to meet me in my office after this, you got that.” He said, the
slightest hint of annoyance edging on his voice. It was the first
time he had hinted at any sort of emotion.

Before Sky could question his reasoning,
Blanks shoved a stubby finger into the pin on his jacket.

Sky nodded slightly and didn’t dare move
until Blanks had left the room – that man, upon a closer
inspection, was a raging fire beneath a veil of apathy. The door
silently shut behind him and Sky took a shuttering breath. So that
guy was in charge of the Axis program. Made sense though, since he
was the one speaking about it at that lecture thing the night
before.

Sky didn’t try to catch up
to the others, but kept his own pace just behind them. When they
got to the end of the hall a double door swung open into a large,
bright room that reminded him of the blank, sterile hallways of
REALM. The high, white walls carried only small, black and white
photos of the building itself and upon the grey carpet sat the only
furniture in the room - a row of backless chairs and a long, stone
desk.

He made his way over to the chairs where the
other three had already sat down and claimed the one on the end,
next to Al.

Al’s fingers drummed lightly on his rapidly
shaking leg, as if keeping time to the annoying tap, tap, tap of
his foot against the leg of the chair.

“
Don’t worry.” He
whispered down to his friend. Although such a situation was old
news for Sky, Al had never had the pleasure of being sent to the
office before. “I got this.” He tried to reassure him. There was no
real reason Al should have been there anyway and Sky would defend
him to the death.

“This is stupid.” Sara
muttered on the other side of him. She fidgeted almost as nervously
as Al.

“
This is what happens when
they let people like you in here, total chaos.” Colossal-hair
replied with an arrogant lift of her chin.

Sky did not like that girl. He didn’t like
her attitude, he didn’t like her voice and he certainly didn’t like
her hair.

“If I get kicked out, my
father will disown me.” Al breathed, his eyes dazed as he lived out
what was probably one of his biggest nightmares, “He really
will.”

“They’re not going to kick
you out, Al. Not over this.” Sky shook his head, “Besides,
you
didn’t do anything
wrong.”

“
She started it. It wasn’t
me.” Colossal-hair guilt was obvious through her immediate
reaction.

“
Let’s just, you know, be
quiet right now. Okay?” Al nodded to himself, most likely trying to
give himself some sort of internal pep talk. “Nice and
quiet.”

An uncomfortable amount of time went by
before a stern looking man with a face like a brick finally entered
the room and sat down heavily at the desk behind the giant
nameplate that read ‘Director Thompson’.

Thompson leaned his massive body forward
slowly and folded his hands neatly below his chin. He stared at
them in an awkward silence as if waiting for something.

“
With all due respect,
sir, I wasn’t involved …” Al began.

Thompson held up one finger without breaking
his cool and constant stare. Al’s objection faded off into the
silence and he shrunk back down in his seat.

“You boys are not in
trouble. From what I have been told, Mr. Regan is a victim and you,
Mr. Kane, are a witness. That is all.” Thompson said as he leaned
back in his overstuffed chair. “As for the young ladies, that is
another matter entirely.”

Colossal-hair’s mouth
dropped open at this statement and her eyes grew wide.
“
I’m
a
victim
! She
attacked
me
!” she
shouted in outrage.

Thompson again held up his
hand as he leaned even further towards them, a clear vision of
anger reflecting in his glassy eyes. “We here at the REALM
institute do not stand for violence against one another. We are a
tightly knit team that works together for universal peace. How do
you think it looks for you two, drawing blood on your first day
here?” Both girls looked away. “I am looking to expel you both
right now.”

“That’s a bit harsh.” Sky
couldn’t help it as the words tumbled out, causing Thompson’s glare
to shift their beady focus onto him.

“
Sir,” Al successfully
drew away the fearsome gaze and took it head on himself, “Expulsion
would seem a bit harsh,” Al’s voice wavered, but he held strong,
“given these two young women’s predisposition of prejudice towards
one another.”

Sky wanted to nudge Al,
but there was no way of stopping him now. Even though Al probably
knew full well that he should stop talking, the boy’s mouth
functioned on a completely different level than his
brain.

“By their physical
characteristics I assume that they are local to Archaios,
specifically from the nearby town of Meral and Sawyer, where
prejudice and fighting still exists between the Broken Wing and
Blue Star Clans. I mean, the Clan rivalries go back for centuries,
it’s hard to-”

“
History lessons don’t
impress me, Mr. Kane.” Thompson snapped. “The simple fact is that
we can not tolerate this type of behavior.”

“
Oh, come on. It was just
one little fight, who cares.” It did seem unfair. “Like Al said,
they’re just products of their environments.” He shrugged, “You
can’t just kick someone out without even a warning. I thought this
place was all about peace and understanding and all that
stuff.”