In Too Deep

Chapter 4

Thankfully the rest of my first day passed uneventfully, I noticed a lot of people staring at me but I wasn’t entirely sure which incident they knew about. I also found that a lot of people were avoiding me just in case they became my next victim, which were their words, not mine.

Have I really done anything that would strike that much fear in to someone already? I thought back on the events of the day.

I embarrassed Mr. Bentlen in front of his class. I beat up a group of about…..wait how many was it? About nine jocks I think all because they threw a ball at Lucas’ head. I used the fact that I know the chief of police to my advantage and managed to get off without punishment for fighting.

I humiliated Trina and then knocked her across the room in self-defence and then there was the weird situation with Bastien which I tried desperately not to think about. But I’m quite sure no one else knew about that one and I hoped to keep it that way. All in all I haven’t done that much for people to fear me already. Have I?

Maybe they have figured out who I am? This thought alone worried me; I would have to be more careful moving forward. I am not ashamed of who I am but I’m pretty sure that they wouldn’t take the news very well. A lot of these kids probably don’t see that much violence, never mind killing. They have lived a sheltered life compared to me.

I found out where on campus my room is and it turns out that Violet is my roommate, I’m guessing they hope she can straighten me out a bit and stop me causing trouble. Good luck with that.

I dropped my backpack on the empty bed in our room and looked around. Violet had decorated her side with pictures of her family and posters of bands she likes. I wonder how she felt about getting a roommate part way through the year.

“Is that all you brought with you?” Violet asked, gesturing to my things.

“This is just the essentials to last me until the rest of my things get here in a few days. I didn’t want to bring too much over on the plane with me.” I explained.

Not that I actually came on a plane, there was no need when I can transport myself anywhere in the world. But until I had somewhere to store my belongings, there was no point in transporting them with me when I first arrived. I couldn’t exactly tell Violet that, so I went with what I thought sounded believable.

“I guess it’s not so easy when you’re coming from a different country.” She tilted her head as she looked at me for a moment, I couldn’t help but feel a bit paranoid about her gaze.

“I love your red hair, is it natural?” I smiled as I relaxed a little, I need to stop reading in to things so quickly.

“Thanks, yeah it is.” I thought about how different Violet seemed now compared to when I met her in English earlier today. “You’re not as shy as you first seem are you?” I observed.

“I am when I’m around most people. No one really likes it if you’re smarter than them, and the level of intelligence in this place is worryingly low. I prefer to just keep to myself and everyone is more than happy to leave me to my own thoughts.” She gave a little half smile.

“I know what you mean about the whole intelligence situation, and teachers just seem so obsessed with making me sit next to jocks, which just doesn’t help matters.” I said. Violet laughed.

“I don’t think even a jock will be stupid enough to sit next to you after you beat nine of them up by yourself. Speaking of, how the hell did you do that?” She asked.

Crap, I should’ve known she was going to ask that! Quick, think, what is a good answer?

“I’ve had good training.” Was the only thing I could think of to say, my answer didn’t even sound convincing to me.

“Who on Earth could’ve trained you so you would be able to beat up nine athletes who have advanced strength and speed?” I hadn’t paid very much attention to their powers when I was beating them but I guess it makes sense that they were werewolves.

“Many different teachers and many years of hard work. The trick is to use their strength against them.” I replied. She decided to accept my answer so I jumped at the chance to steer the conversation away from me. “Could you tell me a bit more about this place? I’ve never heard of a safe space like this for super naturals, and this campus seems absolutely massive!”

“Sure. You’ve probably figured already that Fair Lake provides both traditional human education as well as development in magical studies, regardless of what type of abilities students have, the Academy cover everything. They let students in at ages as young as three, but students can stay here well in to their adult lives if they want to, at which point they have the option to go out in to society, or stay here and work in a specialised department.” She informed me.

“I’ve never known anywhere to cater to such a wide range of ages.” I said.

“Me neither, I guess as it’s the only place around for people like us, they want to be able to provide for as many ages as possible.” Violet said. We both thought about this for a moment, to me this definitely still sounded too good to be true.

“I wonder why they decided to build the Academy here.” I mentioned to Violet. “It’s very out of the way.” The campus grounds were hidden away in Crescent Vale, a small countryside town in England, there were a few small businesses nearby, but we were at least 40 miles away from the nearest city.

“Maybe it’s because no one would expect to find it here. If rogues knew where we were, who knows what they would do.” A shudder ran down Violet’s spine as she thought about that possibility.

I’m not sure if her guess is correct or not, rogue super naturals finding us would be catastrophic, but there had to be more to the decision on the location than that. Didn’t there? Maybe I’m overthinking this.

“Could you tell me the rules and how things work around here?” I asked. Violet looked at me sceptically.

“You actually want to know the rules? You don’t really seem like the type to me. I mean no offence.” She added quickly, I laughed.

“None taken, I don’t necessarily want to know the rules, more like I want to know them so I can pick up on any loopholes that I can use to my advantage. You would not believe how fun it is when a teacher is shouting at you for breaking one of their precious rules and then you can be like ‘actually I haven’t broken any’. It aggravates them to no end.” I said with a smile, thinking back on all the times I have done that. Violet laughed, because of what I said or because of my facial expression I wasn’t sure.

“Well you have already broken the no fighting rule, that is usually solved by the head teacher but as you actually broke someone’s leg then the police had to be called in to solve the problem. This apparently worked in your favour.” Violet said, shaking her head, she still couldn’t believe how I managed to get away with that so easily. Neither could I really, it was pretty impressive that Smithy managed to convince Mr Jackson that easily.

“Other rules well let’s see, no using your powers to gain the upper hand, no fighting with magic at all outside of class time, you must attend all classes and if you don’t then you better be dying, they hate students missing classes and come down hard on anyone who is absent.” Violet explained.

“On weekends students have the option to go home to visit family, but you can stay on the grounds if you wish, if you do leave then you have to fill in a form stating that you won’t be here and where you are going. You can go out after classes end and even stay the night at a friend’s house as long as you have said so on the form, and as long as you make sure you’re back in time for classes the next day. The Academy are quite laid back about most things; there is no lame rule about there being no boys in girl’s rooms or vice versa.” Violet told me.

“Really?” That one surprised me.

“Well there used to be but it was broken so often that Mr Jackson just got rid of it.” I had to laugh at that.

“Oh and one more rule…” She said hesitantly.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“No killing.” She stated simply, looking pointedly at me. She meant it as a joke, no doubt thinking back to my earlier fight. I just laughed.

“I shall try my very best.” I said with a wink, she just rolled her eyes at me. “Ok, enough rules, they are boring me now. Let’s talk about something else.” Violet thought for a moment.

“This might sound kind of nerdy, but there’s a performance of Macbeth on tonight at the Theatre a short walk from here that I was intending on going to. Would you like to come?” She asked hesitantly.

“Of course, sounds like fun, thanks for inviting me.” She smiled, clearly pleased that I had accepted her invitation.

We hung out in our room until it was time to head to the Theatre. Violet was right, it was only about a 15 minute walk from the campus.

“They opened the Minotaur Theatre a few years after Fair Lake was built.” Violet told me.

“No doubt trying to take advantage of the increase in students.” I said, she nodding to confirm I was correct.

“They seem to do pretty well.” Violet said.

“Interesting name considering what Fair Lake was built for.” I mentioned to Violet, not giving details in case any nearby humans were to overhear.

“I thought that too, but the police checked it out and they don’t seem to know anything, I think they’re just trying to be different, naming it after a Mythical creature.” She said.

“Mythical, yeah.” I didn’t need to elaborate, Violet knew what I meant without needing to say anything. For all we know Minotaurs could exist, considering that we do.

We headed in and I wasn’t disappointed, they continued the Minotaur theme in their decoration, really going all out. They had a Minotaur painted on every set of doors, with horns hung above the entryways, and different mazes were painted on the walls.

I’ve got to admit, the play was actually really good. I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of a live performance, I love the play so much I didn’t think it would live up to my expectations. But the actors were very talented, even believable. This was certainly no low budget production.

After the play ended Violet and I headed to a nearby ice cream shop that stayed open late. I ordered a triple chocolate surprise, let’s hope that’s a good surprise, and Violet ordered a strawberry swirl with sprinkles.

“This is definitely a place I approve of. “ I said as I dug in to my chocolate ice cream, with chocolate chunks and chocolate sauce. I may have a sugar overload, but this was definitely a good choice.

“This is probably my favourite place to go near campus, and it’s open all year round. Although I think I’d have a chocolate overload if I ordered what you’re eating.” She looked pointedly at me devouring my chocolate ice cream.

“You can never have too much chocolate.” I mumbled, she laughed.

“How was the rest of your first day?” She asked me.

“It was ok thanks, mostly uneventful compared to the morning.” I said.

“What about Economics?” Damn, she had heard about that.

“Ah yeah, that was the exception.” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Were you intentionally trying to cause trouble on your first day?” I held up my hands in surrender.

“I had to step in with those girls, they were bullies.” I told her. Understanding dawned on her face, she knew who else had that class and made the connection without me having to say anything further.

“Is Lucas ok?” She asked me, I nodded.

“I think so, hopefully that will stop them from messing with him. And if not, I think I’m going to get in to even more trouble.” She laughed and shook her head at me.

I mistakenly took too big a mouthful of my ice cream and pain shot through my skull, I held my head as an awful case of brain freeze came on. Violet laughed at me.

“Are you sure you can’t have too much chocolate?” I shot her a fake glare and she laughed at me more, almost doing a spit take with her own ice cream.