“Yes, in the spare room. For safety,” I reply blankly. Stella laughs, a harsh, forced sound.
“For safety? That’s the excuse you’re going with? Cute,” she says, deliberately speaking loud enough so that the people at the surrounding tables can hear. By lunch, everyone will know where I’m staying. And, they will be assuming it’s for completely different reasons than the true one. Great.
“Yes, for safety. Rogues attacked the Academy last night if you didn’t notice,” I say sarcastically.
“And, you’re getting special treatment because?” she snaps.
“Because she’s got twelve marks and is a target, obviously. Get a fucking grip and get lost, Stella,” Enzo’s voice floats over. Stella steps to the side and reveals Enzo standing there, holding two trays. He takes a seat at the table, sliding one breakfast-filled tray across to me, and the other in front of himself.
“Hey, Enzo. I didn’t see you there,” Stella practically purrs, completely ignoring the fact he plainly just told her to take a hike.
“Stella, go crawl back into whatever cave you came out of,” Locke mutters.
“Fuck off, Logan,” she spits back.
I laugh. “That’s Locke,” I chirp.
“Does it fucking matter? They’re basically just one annoying person anyway,” Stella says, earning glares from all of us. “Fine, I’m going. The standards over at this table have clearly dropped too low for me to stick around anyway,” she says, looking pointedly at me and Kelly. Relief washes over me as she walks away. I was moments from slapping the sense into her.
“You’re staying with Mr. Daniels?” East asks again quietly, repeating his earlier question.
“Yes, for safety,” I say, repeating my previous answer. “Is there a problem with that?” He stares silently at me, considering for a while before shrugging.
“I guess not,” he says casually, but I can see the intense looks he is giving the twins. I decide to ignore it.
“Thanks for breakfast,” I mumble to Enzo.
“I was only trying to save my own. I could see you stealing Logan’s from over there, and decided you having your own would be my best chance at keeping my food to myself,” he answers coldly.
“Sure. Thanks anyway,” I say, trying to stop the smug smile creeping over my face. He’s not a complete ass then.
“What classes have you got today, Kenz?” Kelly asks, moving the conversation onto a lighter tone.
“Um, Transmutation, and the app said it’s an all-day class for the first one,” I answer. “You’ve got electives today, right?”
“Yup, marked history and literature. The history teacher is apparently a total bore though, so I am already regretting that decision,” she replies.
“You can drop it if it’s crap though, right?” I ask, taking a bite of bacon. Gods that’s good.
“Yes, only after the end of term, though,” she says sighing.
“You’ll probably die of boredom by then,” Locke says, tapping his fingers on the table, having already finished his food.
“That bad?” I ask.
“Even he falls asleep teaching that class,” Logan answers, a smirk crossing his face.
“Have fun,” I tease Kelly. A frown crosses her face.
“I think I may regret taking so many electives,” she says softly.
“Most definitely, the best part about having less powers is all the free time. I’m kind of jealous,” Locke says. She bites her lip, clearly holding something back. Instead, she just smiles and nods politely. Damn, she really is still worked up about having two marks.
“Better to be a master of two marks than a master of none,” I chime. She rolls her eyes.
“But, it’s better to be a master of all twelve,” she teases.
“I’ll be lucky if I can cover the basics in each,” I reply. “Just too much effort to become a master. I’d rather watch Netflix.”
“You’re such a bad liar,” she replies.
“You should probably do more eating and less talking, Kenz. We’ve gotta be in transmutation in fifteen minutes,” Easton says, interrupting us.
“Fine, fine,” I mutter, shovelling more food in my mouth. Far too much food at once. I can feel my cheeks are slightly puffed out. I grin at him, he just shakes his head smiling at me, before going back to finishing his own food. We finish off our food, and I walk out with East, keeping my eyes on the floor and away from everyone in the room who I know are staring.
“So, who teaches transmutation?” I ask East as we make our way outside the academy and towards the woods, where the class is apparently being held. It’s freezing out here, and I pull my coat closer around me. Why are all the classes outside when there are buildings with heating?
“Mr. Daniels,” East says, his voice dripping with annoyance. I glance at East as he moves slightly closer to me, and his arm brushes mine. We haven’t had a chance to talk since the kiss yesterday and everything that happened after. I want to talk to him about it, but know it’s not the best idea right now. I haven’t even had a chance to tell Kelly about what happened. She’s never going to believe sexy East kissed me.
“Don’t you like him?” I ask.
“I respect him, but I don’t trust him around you, Kenz,” East says just as we come into the clearing, and a group of students are standing in a circle, with Mr. Daniels in the middle. His eyes meet mine, and he waves us over. Mr. Daniels looks good today in a black coat, his soft-brown hair is brushed to one side, and he is freshly shaven. I can’t look away as we stop in the gap in the circle, and Mr. Daniels gives me a strange look, his eyes drifting to East before looking away.
“Now that everyone is here, we can start. I’m Mr. Daniels, and this is your first transmutation class. Transmutation is the ability to shift into an animal, and it’s a powerful mark to have. Now, animals are individual to each person. There’s no way to know what you will get until you try.”
“I heard that you are more likely to get the animals your parents have,” a girl says, blushing when Mr. Daniels turns to look at her. A slight bit of jealousy flitters through me when he nods and replies to her.