Losing Her Wings

Chapter 14

Skylar wasn’t sure how much worse her first day on campus could get. Not only had her entire been monopolised by Niles and his whims, sending her off to chat with Pepper and Eliza only for her stupid first vision to get in the way, but she hadn’t done one worthwhile thing with her day that would mean her job would be done. Now that she knew Ryan was such a disappointment that she could never be with him, she just wanted to do her job and go back home. Everyone was nice, she had no complaints except for Ryan and Niles’s attitude towards her, she just wanted some peace and quiet and some time to herself. Even barricading herself in her room hadn’t worked. Waldo had still found her and then she’d felt an occupational duty to go and speak to Ruby about his visit. They weren’t even on her list of lives to fix or help. And those that were, were going to take days or weeks to sort out. She couldn’t just walk right up to them and say that she knew all about their lives and that she was going to help them before explaining how.

Sure it had worked on Ruby but she was in such a panic at the time that it really didn’t matter, she was just looking for some way to fix her problems and get Ryan off her back, she would have accepted anyone’s help if they had offered it. And anyway, her problems were the basis of campus gossip, no-one else’s lives were. With them, she had to be delicate and with the likes of Pepper, at lease she had the commonality of their previous abusive relationships to bring them together and find out all her secrets. Niles had nothing to do with her tasks and was simply a method of reaching people and with Eliza, there was no specific way of fixing her life without getting close to her boyfriend Joachim, who she hadn’t even met yet. Her only problem was the way he chose to live his life, scaring the living daylights out of her every single day.

Skylar realised that she couldn’t start her real task until she had met absolutely everyone on her list and knew as much about them as she could admit to, which meant she had to get close to them. Ryan was easy, he obviously liked her and wanted to kiss her and flirt with her without the hassle of having her as his girlfriend, so she could play along with that for long enough until she figured out what he really needed to put his life in perspective. Niles wasn’t her concern so he could shove his flirtations where the sun didn’t shine because she really wasn’t interested in another other than his contacts. She had admitted that cold hard fact to him and he still persisted on ‘seducing’ her as he put it, but she didn’t want to ruin his ego altogether by admitting that nothing about him was seductive to her. With Joachim and Devin, she would have to stay best friends with Pepper and Eliza to make sure no-one thought she was trying to date either of them. Pepper and Eliza were practically done deals since she could ask them anything if she used that innocent look she had to her advantage. As for those she hadn’t met yet, but knew aboutshe would have time to formulate a plan for them until they met, which she knew they would. If someone she knew didn’t know them then she would fabricate a way of meeting them in a social atmosphere where no-one could question her motives.

There were a few people who she knew she was going to meet, people who she simply had to meet through the new friends she had made because she already knew that they were acquaintances. There was Eliza’s boyfriend of course, his best friend and his ex girlfriend, his brother and the woman he was soon to know. There was another friend of Devin’s, Fraser and his girlfriend Mara, their friends and girlfriends. They all intermingled perfectly for what she needed to do. With the girls she only had to ask Pepper or Eliza to introduce them before becoming friends with them and with the boys, it was a simple matter of having one of the boys introduce her and then casually admitting that she knew someone they did, or admitting she knew their girlfriend. It seemed Link probably had something to do with how easy it would be for her to get to know everyone, but Skylar wasn’t sure quite how he had done it. Most of the people she had met already had known each other for years, if not their entire lives. Ryan and Devin’s relationship for instance could have had nothing to do with Link’s influences. Then again, he was very old. He could well have…manipulated seemed a bit harsh for how lovely Link was and how loving he was to his charges, always doing what was best for them, but she supposed there was no other fitting word for what he would have had to do to make Ryan and Devin brothers. How else could it be explained?