Good vs. Evil High (12 page)

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.”

Chapter
Fifteen

~ Knight ~

When Nadine was finished eating, Roman took
my hand and we all headed for the entrance doors. “We sleep on the
next floor up,” he said.

“The boys
and
the girls?”

“Mm-hm.” I hated the smile he gave me.

“A staff member’s always in between them to
keep watch and make sure they don’t get into each others’ quarters,
though,” Nadine said.

In the dark hallway, we turned left and saw a
group of boys in dark wife-beaters and loose-fitting jeans walking
towards us. With the light from the torches dancing all over their
bodies and the cold eyes they each possessed, they looked
threatening. A part of me wanted to turn around and run. But I did
what the people around me were doing and stared silently ahead,
trying to pretend they weren’t even there. I still felt anxiety
build as they came closer...and closer...and closer. And then they
were walking past us, and it was over.

“Kristine?” a voice that seemed familiar said
from behind us.

My shoulders tensed as I turned around. That
voice...it was the voice of a Cinder, but even as I searched the
faces, I felt happiness tug at my heart and a rush of memories
working as hard as they could to open themselves.

“It is you,” the voice said again. The boy
with black hair spiked all over his head moved toward me.

And when I saw his heavy eyes and those long
black eyelashes, the memories broke through. Years of joy and
laughter and playing and pretending flooded through me. “Luke!” I
pulled my hand away from Roman to reach both arms up and wrap them
around my old friend’s neck.

I felt his arms wrap around my back and my
feet come right off the ground. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “I
didn’t think I’d ever see you again, and finding you here is
crazy.”

“I know.”

“Well, look who it is, Roman Armstrong,” one
Cinder said, staring past me to my friends. “I’d like you to meet
our school’s newest Snow Rider captain, Knight.” He put a hand on
Luke’s shoulder. It took me a second to remember that Knight was
Luke’s last name.

Roman was already glaring at him, but now he
took a step closer to us. “He’s it?” He snorted as he gave a
sarcastic laugh. “I could beat this moron in my sleep.”

Luke went to stand right in front of him. “Is
that a challenge?”

“Maybe, it depends on whether you agree to
stay away from Kristine or not.”

“Roman
,” I said.

Luke pushed Roman, who swung his arms around
as he caught himself. Then he ran at Luke with his shoulder aimed
at his chest, letting out an angry cry that echoed through the
hallway. Luke moved to the side and pushed Roman over as he came at
him.

Roman fell at my feet and jumped up, but I
grabbed his arm when he reached back to punch Luke. “Come on,
Roman. We’re supposed to save the fighting for the competition,
remember?”

His eyes remained locked on Luke’s. “He
started it.”

“Who cares, let’s just go.” I tried to pull
him toward Harmony and the others, but he didn’t budge until he
wanted to. It hurt to walk away from Luke like that. I wanted to
stay and talk to him, because being with him was a little like
being with my mom again. I couldn’t even look back because half of
what was driving Roman away was me pulling his arm, and looking
back wouldn’t have helped.
I have three months to find Luke and
talk to him again
, I told myself.

“Hey, Kristine,” Luke called.

I couldn’t decide if I was happier or more
frustrated as I stopped and turned around. “Yeah?”

“How about you meet me here tomorrow when
you’re done with physical fitness?”

“Okay.” I smiled excitedly.

“Kristine,” Roman hissed.

“What?”

He yanked his arm away from my hand to grab
mine and start pulling me away the same way I’d been pulling him.
“Why did you say yes?”

“Because I wanna catch up. Luke used to be my
best friend. We practically grew up together and I haven’t seen him
since I was sent to that orphanage.”

“Well I’m your boyfriend and I say you
can’t.”

I stopped short. My poor roommates kept
having to stop and start and keep quiet as they watched all the
stupid drama.

But if Roman was going to be like this, it
had to end. “You can’t tell me who I can and can’t talk to. Luke’s
probably the closest thing I have to family in this world. We have
more memories together than we have with anyone else. No matter
what’s happened in the years since I last saw him, I know him
inside and out and he’s the same way with me. We couldn’t say that
about anyone else. So for you to tell me I can’t talk to him is
cruel and ridiculous—I am done talking to you about this.” With
that, I jerked my arm away and walked off, not caring if anyone
followed or if I got lost. I just knew I wanted to get as far away
from Roman as I could. Our little fictional relationship was done.
I wasn’t playing along or keeping my mouth shut anymore.

Harmony jogged to catch up and hugged my arm.
“Good for you,” she whispered.

I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn’t
look back until we reached a dead end with a wide stairway going
off to the left and right. An old woman I didn’t recognize sat in a
chair between the two with her chin hanging down against her chest,
snoring. Sassy and Nadine stood behind me. No sign of Roman.

“Girls to the right, and boys to the left,”
Sassy said. We took the stairs on our right up to a door that
looked like something from a castle out of the Middle Ages, just
like every other door in the place, and walked into a giant room
with rows of bunk beds lining both sides of the room. Two black
suitcases sat against the end of each one.

“Everyone sleeps in the same room?” I asked.
It was just like the orphanage.

“Yeah, it’s the same way for the Cinders when
they visit us,” Sassy said, walking through the center of the rows
of beds. “Since it’s only temporary, we don’t really go all out for
each other. But the beds have these curtains, if you want some
privacy.” She walked to the head of one of the beds and pulled the
forest green curtain hanging on one side out to show me. Three
circular lights had been bolted into the headboards of each one,
too.

“Here we are,” Nadine said from a bed on the
right side of the room. I walked over to her and saw a wooden sign
on the end with the same pointy golden letters on it that were
hanging on the outside of the school, spelling out NADINE
RODRIGUEZ. The top bunk had Sassy’s name on it. And next to those
were Harmony’s and mine.

I wasn’t thrilled about being forced to share
a room with so many other people again, but I was grateful for the
curtains. It was still a lot better than anything I had before
North Haven. And I had to be grateful that we had real overhead
lights instead of torches in our room.

Setting my purse on my bed, I pulled the
curtains closed. They wrapped all the way around the sides and end,
so you really did have complete privacy. Then I climbed inside. It
was completely dark. “These curtains are really good, but how do
you turn the lights on?”

I heard a zipper and then Harmony’s voice.
“There’s a switch on the side.”

With both hands, I felt around the sides
until I found it on the left. When I pushed it up, the lights came
on and I was in my own little space. It was actually kind of nice.
“Can you see the lights from out there?” I asked.

“It’s not dark enough to see right now, but
at night you can see it around the edges. If it bothers anybody,
they can close their curtains to block it out. So don’t ever feel
bad about turning your lights on. No school means we can stay up as
late as we want. And if we all want to climb into one bunk and play
a game or something, we can.”

“Cool.” I pulled my curtains open and turned
off the lights.

The others were all putting things into the
tall dressers at the sides of our beds against the wall. “If anyone
has any extra space, let me know,” Sassy said.

“I will,” Nadine said.

“I’ll probably have a drawer left over you
can use,” I added.

Harmony climbed onto the bed above mine to
hang her dress for the dance on a hook in the wall. “How do you
know that Luke guy?” she asked me.

I could see Nadine and Sassy stop to look
over at me out of the corner of my eye.

“He used to live with his foster parents in
the same apartments where I lived. They weren’t the best people,
but they made sure he never went hungry and had decent clothes to
wear. He moved in when we were about eight and we started walking
to school together, since we were in the same class. Then he
started coming over to make cookies and play games with my mom and
me. And everything kind of clicked. It felt like we belonged
together, so we did everything with each other.

“He used to come over in the middle of the
night when he was having a nightmare or feeling scared and we would
fall asleep watching cartoons on the couch together. His parents—”
I stopped myself, realizing I was in danger of revealing some
pretty personal stuff that I probably shouldn’t be. His parents
were brutally murdered right in front of him, so he had a lot of
bad nights. “Anyway, his foster parents didn’t care, because they
knew my mom didn’t mind and that he was safe at our house...But
that doesn’t really matter. I could go on forever, because there
were a lot of little things like that.

“But when my mom died and I got sent to that
orphanage, I tried to talk to Ms. Wendy about seeing Luke and she
said he’d been sent to another foster family in a different part of
the state. She said we weren’t allowed to associate with boys under
any circumstance, anyway, so I was wasting my time. I spent months
crying myself to sleep at night over losing him and my mom.
Obviously, I want to see him now that we’re both here. I can’t
believe Roman told me not to.”

“He wasn’t completely out of line,” Nadine
said.

“What?”

“Catching up with him’s fine, but...”

Harmony jumped onto the floor and finished
for her. “We don’t associate with Cinders.”

“But he’s not a Cinder to me. He’s Luke. He’s
my best friend, a tie to my mother and all the fun we had together
and with her. School rivalry can’t get in between that. I thought
we all got together to have fun competing and make new
friends.”

Nadine and Harmony looked at each other. “I
know it’s hard, but it can’t work,” Harmony said. “We get together
to compete. That’s all. We always have a blast, but we do it
separately. North Haveners never mix with Cinders.”