Academy for the Strange

Chapter 13: Sunset

        Walking out the main building into the red-orange glow of sunset, Fiona’s mind drifted. Not back to her meeting with Mr. Bishara, which had gone well enough though she was surprised he’d asked her how she was adjusting a little over a week after she’d already talked to Mr. Rana. No, her thoughts, as they often seemed to do these days, drifted to Chay.

            She’d done her best to analyze him during these last few days, trying to find anything he was hiding beneath the surface. She hadn’t really seen anything. He was the same, nice guy he generally was to her. Though she couldn’t forget how he’d been like to Meredith in the beginning. She often wondered if that’s how he was normally or what. She’d known people who took a while to warm up to others before, so it wasn’t like she didn’t understand that, but he’d seemed worse than that. She wondered which was the real him, or if they both were.

            Fiona sighed. She was no closer to an answer than she’d been since Meredith first mentioned his hatred of humans to her. She wanted to believe his initial attitude was just a misunderstanding, that maybe he just didn’t know any better, but she wasn’t really sure that was better. She trusted Meredith’s word on it and wouldn’t really deny that way he’d first acted. It’d be so much easier if those first two days with him hadn’t happened.

            Walking out from under Fire dorm, Fiona turned at the sound of her name. Like her thoughts had summoned him, Chay hurried forward, coming from the direction of Earth dorm. “Hey,” he said, smiling at her. “You’re out late.”

            She shrugged. “I had a meeting with the principal.”

            He frowned. “You’re not in trouble are you?”

            “Nah. He just wanted to make sure I’m settling in alright. He’s a pretty nice guy.”

            Chay nodded. “Yeah, he’s a good guy. I’ve never heard anyone complain about him, even when he gives out detentions. Which is rare. Mostly he just laughs and Mr. Rana’s the one telling people off.”

            “I can see that,” she replied, smiling.

            He mirrored her expression before saying, “Can I walk you back to your dorm?”

            Fiona thought about refusing, but she really didn’t have a good reason too. Besides, she really did enjoy his company. “Sure,” she said, leading the way slowly towards her dorm.

            Chay fell into step beside her as they headed across the courtyard, mostly empty at this time as most people turned to their neglected homework or beds as the sun went down. They did pass a few diehards. Some were enjoying the brilliant colours of the sunset, four were clearly finishing up their card game, and another two were still hurling a football back and forth.

            Fiona found that the dying light of the sun seemed to tinge Chay a scarlet colour, making it almost seem like he’d been dyed red with blood. She chased that thought away. What someone looked like was no reason to judge them, even if she couldn’t deny that she had her own misgivings about him.

            Unaware of the direction of her thoughts, Chay nodded at her. “You ever go to school before this?”

            She fought down a frown, wondering what had prompted that question. Her stomach gave a little twitch as she thought that maybe he suspected her. Her mouth moved before her brain could stop it. “Why do you want to know?”

            He rubbed an arm. “I want to get to know you better. You’re an interesting person.”

            Her eyebrows rose. “What do you mean by interesting?”