Royal Academy (A Zodiac Tale)

Chapter 1 - "Dang it. Roommates."

Aries POV

Reveltry was known for breeding dragons, so I was known for riding them. As I stood in the Great Hall, looking around at all the students in their slim dresses and suits, I kind of regretted wearing my dragon riding boots to the school. I was twisting the schedule between my fingers, flipping it onto the back and onto the front in an effort to do something as I wandered the hall. It didn't work.

"Excuse me," I called to a girl who looked around my age. She'd just entered the giant room, and she had long pink hair and a slim build. She looked over to me and widened her eyes.

"Gosh, you're pretty," she said, falling into my step. "What do you need? I'm Sagittarius."

"Aries," I said with a smile. "Um -- do you know where the room Maia is? I've been trying to find it and I keep ending up here." Stupid map.

"Oh, you betcha," Sagittarius said brightly. "My brother Capricorn abandoned me as soon as we got into the school, so --" she looked back "-- five minutes ago. He said he needed to go meet his roommate Leo and completely left me alone."

"That's what Leo did to me too!" I exclaimed. "He's my brother. He's been going here for a year before me, but doesn't even bother to show me around. That's just like him, and I've been going around the entire school trying to find my room while he doesn't even provide a bit of information."

Sagittarius patted my arm. "Don't worry. My mom got us a tour before the year started. I'm in Maia too!"

I sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness. Can you please show me?"

"Of course," she said with a smile. Sagittarius led me out of the bustling Great hall into one of the slightly less busy hallways, up a few staircases, down a few more hallways, until we reached the dorm wing.

"You have to stay with me. I cannot remember that," I said, a lost expression on my face. 

Sagittarius laughed. "Don't worry, I have a great memory. Your hair is really pretty. I have a feeling a lot of guys are going to ask you out this year."

I went pink and followed an oblivious Sagittarius into the dorm wing. It had one giant common room that a lot of people were lounging in, and a lot of hallways that branched off from that. 

"In the RA, we're sorted into groups of twelve. You know that, right?" she asked, leading me into one of the hallways.

I nodded. "Of course. It doesn't matter about your age, you can stay a whole year here before you get put into your group, which is what happened to my brother."

"Mine too," Sagittarius laughed, leading me up some more stairs. "The dorms have absolutely no coordination, by the way. There's boys on one side of the hallway, girls on the other. Floors by your year. We're on the first dorm floor after the common one, so . . ." She checked her schedule. "The eleventh."

I whistled as we reached the floor. "Dang."

Sagittarius nodded and checked the schedule again. "Okay, this should be our floor." She looked to the side of the staircase and narrowed her eyes. "No way."

I stood beside her and noticed that she was panting slightly. Meanwhile I wasn't even breaking a sweat! I silently praised myself on my athletic skills as Sagittarius started towards the elevator -- wait. 

An elevator?

"Are you kidding me?" she said angrily, just as it opened and a bunch of giggling freshman girls bounced out. She crossed her arms with a scowl and took my arm. "Come on. First hallway."

I followed her down the first hallway, and turns out she was right. Boys' rooms were on one side, and girls' were on the other.

"How many people in each room?" I asked Sagittarius as we passed the Gs. She shrugged.