Superior

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Aisa

The blaring sound of the alarm clock sliced through my room, jerking me awake and out of my dreams. I sat up hastily, my eyes wildly darting around the room; and finally realized that I was still sitting at my desk, my Receiver right in front of me, glowing with the indication of a new message. Rubbing my tired eyes, I opened it up, and my breath caught when I realized who the message was from. Raiker. At exactly 1:27 AM. Scanning the message, I felt my cheeks heat up. How quickly we had gone from being complete strangers to casual friends. Just a day ago, I was using all the proper formal tones and language when I spoke to him. Should I let myself trust him this much? What if he was just taking advantage of me?

But he didn't seem like the kind of person who would do that.

I rubbed my temples, opening up the message. "Hey. You must've been tired; you fell asleep while we were saying goodbye. Just wanted to remind you that the Opening Gala is coming up. You might want to prepare for that. Sweet dreams, Aisa."

I ran a hand through my tangled, morning hair subconsciously, as if he could see me right now. I fell asleep? In front of Raiker?

You've really made a fool of yourself this time, Aisa.

I sat up straight and massaged my stiff limbs. This was not the time to worry about what Raiker thought of me. I had finally came to my senses yesterday, and decided to stop avoiding him. There honestly wasn't a point to it, and I wasn't going to start again. Besides, he's Raiker Denlow. He lied to me about his own family. I shouldn't be feeling this way about him.

Pushing all thoughts of Raiker from my mind, I got up and walked to the bathroom to get ready. I couldn't afford to do badly today.

***

After french-braiding my hair neatly, even taking care to put on some lipstick, I emerged from my dorm room, already dreading the day ahead. My first lesson was beauty, followed by etiquette. Intelligence was last. I just hoped I didn't run into Zander today. After the way he talked about Inferiors yesterday, and especially after the way I had decided to agree with him, I wasn't ready to face him again. I could still remember him yesterday, lounging against the wall in his bedroom, eyes glinting with pride as he stated, "Aisa, Fatima- she's lesser than us. It's a good thing you've found a friend, but still, do you want to willingly tarnish your reputation by befriending her?" In a way, what he said was true. But Fatima was so open and outgoing, I couldn't help but talk to her. I knew I should stop, but I didn't want to.

Finally, I arrived at beauty. Opening the door reluctantly, I headed for my usual seat; in the back, where I was almost unnoticed, but spotted a girl with a head full of dark brown hair sitting in the seat right next to mine. Fatima. I approached her, wondering if she knew how horrible I was at beauty. Surely she wouldn't want to partner with me after this class. And I shouldn't be partnering up with her either...

"Hello Fatima," I said, plopping down into the seat next to her. She looked up from studiously studying her nails, and flashed a smile.

"Hello Aisa!" She said, almost like she was overjoyed to see me. We had been sitting at lunch together every day since the intelligence class a couple of days ago, but I didn't think she liked me that much. We always sat as a group; her, Zander, Raiker, and me. But I'd never seen her in beauty before.

"I apologize if this sounds rude, but I'm afraid I've never noticed you in this beauty class before."

"Ah, about that, there were some mistakes in my old schedule. I have beauty with you now too!" She tossed her silky brown hair over her shoulder, grinning at me. I smiled back. Maybe we wouldn't have to work in pairs today. I could still try and avoid her. I opened my mouth to respond, but was immediately cut off by Professor Sienna, who had started to explain what we were practicing today.