Academy

Anna.

I nearly killed a kid today.
Let me tell you the story.
I wake up at 9 am, my room is small and doesn't face the sun in the morning so it's dark in here, like a false twilight, dancing about my curtains.
I want to lie here.
And be still, and sink and sink till I am gone and everything is "we".
Fucking pseudo earth mage bullshit.
I brush my teeth and hair, staring at myself in the mirror as I do so.
I'm cute.
A button nose.
My hair a ugly brown I don't like.
Eyes, sad brown eyes.
I don't mind how I look.
I look ugly as I smoke this cigarette though. I look like a kid I know, she's pretty and popular and smokes a pack a day.
You see what I don't like is the aesthetic of smoking.
Trivialising death, pawning it off as luxury and satisfaction.
I look ugly as I smoke this cigarette.
I finish the cigarette.
A knock on my door pulls me away from the bathroom.
"Who's fucking knocking?" I scream, my hands on a bottle of brandy I left at the doorstep last night.
I'd fallen asleep there, content with sinking, sinking.

"Open up, Anna. "

I smile, between a gulp of brandy.

I reach towards the handle and runes, like molten valleys on the door, glow red.

Bindings; many to ward off evil, some to strengthen the fibres of the wood itself, others act as locks to keep things out, or in.
I open the door to a beautiful, lanky, ginger haired goddess of a girl.
She's like a phantom around here.
Carmen, resident shade.
I'm surprised I've seen her at all in the past week, nobody ever does.
I nod, and leave the door askew, turning to find the top I know I left somewhere behind the bed.
"Your rooms a mess," she observes.
I find my top.
It's shorter then I remember, but it'll do.
"Did you just come to talk about my room or do I have to speak to you for a perticular reason?" I ask as I lace up my boots.
She twirls a book in her hand, picks at it with her red nails
"Forsee wants to see you." She says, avoiding eye contact.
I laugh.
"So thats your thing now? From Elena's bitch to Forsee's messenger girl?"
She raises an eyebrow.
"Shut up," She puts the book down, and leans against my study table, "listen, I don't want to be here. I saw you last week-"
"You saw me on Monday-"
She waves her hand.
"Point is, I've seen you enough.
Regardless, I need your help. I mean Forsee needs your help, and I need a room with view of Elena's place."
I see.
So I'm the pawn.
"And what does your room have to do with me?"
She smiles, a fox's smile.
"That's what you go to Forsee to find out."
I laugh again, and grab my phone from underneath my dresser.
Carmen follows me on my way out.
"Carmen, you're a joke if you think that I don't have shit to do."
I say, as we walk down the corridor.
A kid I know greets me as he leaves his room.
What's his name?
Hector, or Hank or something.
"And you're a dumbass if you think there isn't something in this for you."
Now we're talking.
I'm not a prefect, I don't have to help anybody for free around here.
I light a cigarette and open the door, to leave the compound.
We step into a hot, humid morning.
Carmen steps out, she's visibly uncomfortable.
She pulls me before I step into the sun and I roll my eyes.
When I look at her, her big green eyes are staring through me.
I roll my eyes again.
"Fine, and what's in it for me?"
She smirks. That evil smile. Coming up again.
"A shot at Elena."
Psychopathy, she's gone mad!
I like it.
I pull her aside and we duck behind a tree.
"Firstly don't say shit like that so loudly around me." I take a pull of my cig, "Second of all, are you fucking crazy?!"
Carmen laughs, and pinches my arm.
"Listen, this term's going to be different. Now that Elena's going to be gone, we're looking at a power vaccum the size of Saturn." Carmen steals the cigarette from my hand, and shakes her head as she walks away.
"It's gonna get shakey. Watch yourself." she screams.
I look down to light another cigarette and when I look up, she's gone.
Fucking phantom.
I'm in the Robindale courtyard.
It's ugly, and loud and crowded.
But it's on the way to the mess hall.
It fits the name, an absolute mess.
I walk into a large room with no lights, save a huge dimly lit chandelier.
It reminds me of Cassidy's place. Hard to hate the place when it's got a sort of chaotic character.
The rush hour starts at 11, when the hall's so full you can't even get a seat.
It gets so hot, so cluttered that it's best to eat outside.
Before that though the food's gone so quick you figure it's best not to eat at all.
Arrive at 9.
Arrive at 9 and the chick with the lisp serves you.
She supposedly has a green touch, and's a whizz in the kitchen.
All I know is, Lispy's a generous woman. One of 2 reasons I'm not starving to death around here.
I smile at her as she gives me a heaping of Mac and Cheese, for breakfast, so large that it I wish I had fridge to keep it all.
I sit where I usually eat, outside, watching people as they stroll past.
A girl with big blonde hair passes by.
She greets me by name, and I nod at her in return.
Should I feel guilty, for not knowing her name? Or is a head nod enough?
Another chick, her boyfriend sells prescription drugs for 2 minute noodles.
I like him, he's resourceful.
I don't like her very much, she doesn't share her two minute noodles.
I roll the Mac and Cheese over my tongue, contemplating whether I like it or not.
It's definitely got the Mac. Problem is, where's the rest of the cheese?
This is the problem with this place, with this fucking Academy.
Everything, from my room, to the fields, to the Mac and Cheese, sub-par.
Either its broken, or too small, uncomfortable, tacky, illogical or so fucking dangerous you wonder why it's around in the first place.
But in this case.
Not enough cheese.
I put it down on the step in front of me and focus on sightseeing.
It's important to look at the world. How else do you know your place in it?
I see huge trees, towering so high they block huge swaths of the sky, branches splayed about so long and powerful they seem to hold it up.
A winding cobblestone path cuts through the trees, it splits into 9 paths all circular and unessescary.
I know where 6 of the paths lead, most only know 3, and the various paths they divide to.
Rule 1 to staying alive in Claire Stantz, is knowing which paths to walk and which to walk with Forsee.
In front of the mess hall, the path is huge.
I've run down paths so small you loose sight of the sky through the trees and the only way to see is to look through the earth.
Those are some of the places not to be.
I know beyond the trees in front of me, there's a field where people used to play sports, but where now they only do drugs.
Funny how hobbies change once you get here.
I take the plate of Mac and cheese back, and thank Lispy for it.
She nods and winks at me.
20 bucks and she slides me a bankie.
I stuff it in my pocket and head out, closing the oak doors behind me.
My cigarette burns skew as I walk up the path to the North Dorm.
The path is smaller here, the trees thicker. I must walk for five minutes before the trees recede into the huge ugly grey building which is North Dorm.
The outside is bare, and desolate. Craters ring the single tree standing, knock dead in the middle of the sprawling courtyard.
Kids lull about, smoking, laughing and the sun's shining so bright I'm surprised to see Carmen out.
When I approach her she's speaking to Njabulo, a dude with dreads and eyes that scream murder.
He's a kindred soul though, and greets me like an old friend.
I return his hug begrudgingly, and turn to Carmen.
"So where's Forsee?"
She flicks her head towards the building.
And I nod.
I don't like North Wing.
First of all, it's the ugliest of all the dorm houses and it smells like burnt wood and blood.
Crossing the threshold I wonder why I'm here.
I feel like a pawn in a game, North Wing has never been my style.
I don't like fancy spiral wood patterns, or ridiculously long pathways.
They're tiring, and the worst in a fight.
It takes a couple minutes to get to Forsee's room because she's on the final, third, floor. The wood creaks as I inch up the stairs.
There's no fucking stealth in the place.
Kyle, a lanky, raven haired, dude in a trenchcoat passes me as I climb.
"Hey." he greets.
I nod.
"Haven't seen you in a while." he says, backtracking as if he doesn't have something important to do, the unofficial prefects of Clare Stz' always do.
"Where's my microwave, Kyle?"
He stole it, or more accurately, forced me into giving it to him and never told me what he'd be doing with it.
He smiles, shakes his head and runs down the stairs.
I roll my eyes.
"You're a dickhead." I call after him.
He shrugs, then disappears as he turns a corner.
Forsee opens the door as I knock.
I raise an eyebrow.
"So were you just standing there or..."
She cocks her head to the side and looks unimpressed.
What an amazing sense of humor she has.
Forsee, despite from being a cold-hearted nihilist, is the  being I trust most in the academy.
We're not friends, not really, but I know when push comes to shove I can rely on her knock the cricket bat out of the junkie's hand.
I respect it, the fact that she's the only person in this fucking place with a clear motive.
The only person I've seen capable of selflessness.
I've seen her risk her life for people who intended to kill her. Hid, as she faced shit that made my knees weak to think about.
She invites me in, with a flick of her eyes.
I sit on her black comforter, and kick my feet back.
Forsee opens the window as I light my ciggerette. She's dressed in baggy formal pants and a tight white polar neck, cut off at the sleeves. Her long black braids, tied in a loose bun.
She's looking at the courtyard when I tell her that her room's a mess.
She smirks.
Her room's spotless, big rows of books line the walls, all look ancient and weathered.
A queen size bed sits in the corner surrounded by small plants.
In the center of the room, a table with even more books beneath a single open spellbook hovering 2 feet above the wood.
I wouldn't be able to read a word in this room. I don't think I'd want to.
She sits at the lone chair adjacent the table and rubs her hands together gently.
I take a pull of my ciggerette, and lean forward, exhaling for so long I'm lightheaded for a second.
My words come out unwavering, however.
"So how do we kill this bitch Elena?"