Cursed Academy (Year One) Page 4

  No. I could not piss off an immortal. Bad idea of the year. I wrung out my hands. "Sorry. Long day." Mentally I pushed down the icy blackness. What was I thinking? I could never fight a titan.

  The titan smiled and waved me towards the doors. The hungry look remained in his eyes, but the stress lines had gone. I wondered what happened between him and Zeus back in the temple, but I wouldn't dare ask. Prometheus pulled open the door with the werewolf face, revealing a dark marble entryway. Torches on the walls spit green fire. Carmen would love it.

  But Carmen wasn't here. I was alone.

  Gulping, I stepped into Cursed Academy for the first time.

  “Welcome,” the titan said as he closed the door behind me. He seemed to rehearse the rest. “Cursed Academy is the safest place for you. You'll learn how to reign in your powers and use them for the good of human society. Being descended from those cursed by the gods does not have to mean a lifetime of misery. You can control your changing nature and coexist with both humans and immortals. Most students go on to find good jobs in the military, in law enforcement, or working for the gods.”

  Translation: we'll teach you how to deal with becoming a monster, how not to kill people, and how to deal with your limited career choices. “Thank you,” I blurted, grinding my teeth.

  Olympian would have offered more.

  Leaders were made there. But of course, I would never be that.

  “Have a seat out here," the titan said, obviously relieved. "I'll let Wendy know you're here. She'll show you around."

  All traces of that electric darkness had fled, leaving to plop down on a wooden bench. The torches gave off no heat as I found my place and listened to Prometheus walking down a corridor. I closed my eyes and let out a breath, glad he was gone. Maybe this was a nightmare and I would wake up soon. My stomach threatened Armageddon.

  "Up. Ta ta."

  I jumped and let out a squeak which I was sure would fit right in at Cursed Academy. A dark-haired girl in a dark purple uniform, something between a dress and a toga, stood there clapping her hands. Instantly another shudder of dread raced down my spine. This girl looked completely human, but she had a mean streak in her eyes and as she smiled, her eyes seemed to darken.

  She had golden flecks in them. A god descendant.

  "Sorry," I said.

  The girl sighed as if I'd stepped on her toes. "I'll show you to your dorm, newbie. I'm Wendy, top of the first year class."

  "Nice to meet you," I blurted. Only a snob would introduce herself as top of the class. Great. My stomach rolled again.

  Wendy waved me down the dark corridor and turned her back on me. I followed like a sheep on a lead, because what else could I do?

  "So, where is my dorm?" I asked just to break the silence. Was everyone here unpleasant?

  "Upstairs. For some reason, Prometheus wants to give you the secured dorm." Jealousy dripped off her words. "I don't get it. You're no god descendant." Wendy looked back at me with a sneer. "I'm a descendant of Hades, by the way."

  Translation: don't mess with me.

  "Oh. That's cool," I blurted. A shudder ran up my spine. Hades was the only Olympian—one of the top twelve gods—whose descendants went to Cursed for obvious reasons.

  "I'm already in Advanced Magic," she explained. "That's rare for a first year, too. I'm the only one there. The teachers say I'll likely graduate top of the class, too."

  Did she feel threatened by me? That made as much sense as everything else. But it wasn't as if I could ask.

  We left the green, cold torches behind and entered a walkway with a glass ceiling. So other buildings connected to this one. A sign told us we'd reached the Girls Dormitories, and we crossed over onto a linoleum floor. White walls and doors surrounded us as we passed a security office. Unlike the main building, this felt...normal. Music played somewhere. Cursed people still listened to music?

  Wendy continued to stalk through the hall as if she were the security. "So, where do I sleep?" I ask, unable to hold back anymore. "And trust me, I'm not here to push anyone out of the way. The last thing I want is trouble."

  Wendy stopped in the hallway and whirled on me. The gold flecks in her eyes shone. What was her problem?

  "We'll see."

  Yeah. Descendants of Hades had anger problems. Grudges.

  I took a step back.

  And then Wendy smiled. She grabbed her jet black hair and tucked it behind her ear. As if satisfied she'd initiated me under her rule, she turned her back on me and snapped her fingers. "Up these stairs."

  My knees trembled. I felt like a week-old balloon around this girl. I'd dealt with Randy earlier, but this was something else. I was in dangerous territory here.

  We walked to the stairwell at the end of the hall. Behind one door, a couple of girls carried on a low conversation. Behind another, food cooked in a microwave. Popcorn. Cursed people still ate that, too, at least until they changed completely. After following Wendy up four levels of stairs, she stopped at a closed door and stood aside, holding out her hand like she was a game show hostess pointing at a prize. If they sneered.

  "Here you go, Princess Giselle," she said in that fake posh tone. "The secured dormitory."

  "Huh?" My mouth fell open as I looked at the door.

  Unlike the plain wooden doors we'd passed in the previous three levels, this door was carved with an intricate spiral pattern that was hypnotic to look at. I swayed on my feet just staring at it, and a bronze plaque on the door read Secured.

  "Why is mine different from the others?" I asked, regretting it right away. "Are all the other rooms taken?" After today, I felt weird enough.

  "Special ed?" Wendy asked, a grin teasing the corner of her lips. "Maybe Prometheus thinks you'll fail and doesn't want you with the regular students. Here's your key." Wendy handed me a large bronze key.

  I took it, mouth dry.

  Wendy couldn't be right. Not when Prometheus went against Zeus to bring me here.

  Or maybe he'd made a horrible mistake. I couldn't even stand up to this girl.

  Wendy backed off, leaving me there. Before descending the steps, she got in one last stab. "I'll see you in class, midget."

  Chapter Five

  My door opened with a great creak. The air inside my room smelled as if no one had aired out this space in the last century, which didn't make sense as Cursed Academy couldn't be older than twenty years. They'd all been built a year after the Awakening. I fumbled around for a light switch and found it. The bulbs sputtered to life as if waking from a long nap.

  My jaw dropped.

  I had a canopy bed. A lone canopy bed and no roommate, apparently, because it was the only bed. A microwave sat in the corner, opposite a big walk-in closet. The walls were painted dark purple, which somehow looked inviting, and lush black carpet covered the floor. There was a layer of dust on the night table and on the bed posts—a layer Grandma would have killed me for.

  I stood alone in the formerly closed-off room.

  And sneezed.

  The room was amazing, with a large window that looked out on the grounds, but no one had cleaned it in forever.

  "Why did they give me this?" I asked, turning in a circle. My gaze fell on an empty bookshelf, also dusty, and a wall panel for what looked like an indoor security system.

  I had an indoor security system?

  "What?" I leaned closer, eyeing the digital panel. A little arrow highlighted the word ARM, and DISARM was an option too. While that should have made me feel safe, the sight just every muscle in my body tense. Security systems were for big cities and crime, right?

  I activated ARM. A beep sounded through the room, making me jump.

  What was going on here? Maybe all students had security systems, carpet, and their own bathrooms...yeah, I had my own bathroom. Decorated in the purple of the school, it sported a full shower and lots of fluffy towels.

  Well, I was about to ruin it. I ran inside the bathroom as nausea, as if sensing it could unleash at last, ripped
through my insides. I dry-heaved into the toilet and flushed out of habit. In Cursed Academy for a few minutes, and I was already the stand-out and the target of the bitch girl. Ronin was convinced I wouldn't survive. Grandma's heart was broken that I'd left. Carmen was left alone. Could things get any worse?

  After the nausea calmed down, I flopped down on the bed, which didn't have too much dust thanks to the canopy, and shoved my face into the dark purple pillow. And there I lay, staring into the dark until sleep and exhaustion finally took me.

  * * * * *

  A knock woke me.

  I opened my eyes and yanked my face from the pillow, expecting to see my bedroom and getting the dusty dorm instead. A jolt ran through my gut even as my stomach roared in hunger and I pushed myself off the bed. Light poured through my closed curtains, filling the room with pale purple light.

  Another knock.

  I straightened out my shirt and tucked my hair back.

  Crap. I was still in Cursed Academy. It was a weekday, right? That meant classes. And classes meant meeting the other students.

  "Hello?" I squeaked, dreading Wendy.

  "Hey. Get up. I'll help you navigate your first day," a girl said on the other side of the door.

  Her voice was friendly. Peppy. And she wasn't Wendy. Maybe, just maybe, not everyone here was threatening. I pulled out my wrinkled jeans and eyed the empty closet. Yeah, I could march downstairs dressed in a T-shirt that had a smiling cat playing a guitar on it. That would go over well.

  "I'm getting up. Can I catch a shower?" I asked. "I'm not late, am I?"

  "Sure," the girl said. "I have your uniform when you're ready. A few trainee messengers also grabbed some stuff from your house I need to bring in. Take your time. Classes don't start for another couple of hours."

  She was patient. Awesome. The girl provided enough relief for me to pull myself out of bed and into the bathroom to take a shower. Turned out there was plenty of soap and lots of bottles of scented stuff. All Grandma ever bought was cheap dollar store stuff. Not that she had the cash for anything better. I poured a bottle of sweet-smelling clear stuff over my hair, which had traces of spicy herbs that somehow went well with it, and rinsed it through my hair. By the time I was done, I decided I smelled good enough to face other people. I dressed back in the clothes I'd come in and answered the door. "Sorry I took so long."

  A short girl with olive skin and thick black hair stood on the other side of the door, wearing a dark purple uniform that matched Wendy's. A bunch of canvas bags and suitcases sat around her. She offered me a warm smile, a smile that looked completely human, and her eyes had no golden flecks. She wasn't a god descendant, which meant she must be one of the cursed. I had trouble computing the thought.

  "Hi. I'm Maria," she said, extending her hand. "Maria Vasquez. I've been here since the start of the school year."

  I shook it. "Giselle Bowman." Her flesh felt completely human, too.

  "Hey, I know what it's like to end up here in the middle of the night not knowing what's going on. When I heard Wendy talking about how you got the special dorm, I had to come here before she did. She's horrible, I swear. Lets everyone know she's the best."

  "We agree on something. That's a good start, right?" I asked.

  Maria grinned. "Very good start. I can tell you won't be a part of the Special Ed. That's the name we have for Wendy's clique."

  "I like it."

  Maria eyed my door. "Why'd Prometheus give you the special dorm?" She sounded legit curious.

  Maria seemed friendly enough but I didn't want to extend myself too far until I knew her better. I didn't have the heart to tell her Zeus might have wanted me to go to Olympian. It was something Wendy would do. "No idea. All that appeared in the fountain at my sorting was this swirling darkness. Then Ronin the Jerk drove me here really fast." Would Maria even know who he was?

  "Ronin the Jerk? Yeah, he's full of himself," Maria said, rolling her eyes. "A lot of god descendants are. Not all of them are horrible, though."

  "Which god did he come from? The god of pride?" I asked.

  "Well, since he's a messenger, probably Hermes," Maria said. "Don't waste your time chasing him."

  "I'm not chasing him."

  "You have this look on your face like you are. He's good to look at, but that's about it. Put on your uniform and unpack because classes start in an hour. I have your schedule, too."

  Schedule. Classes. My mind spun as I whirled in a circle. "You're going to be with me the whole day, right? If I didn't have a neck, my head would fall off my shoulders."

  "If you want, I could get a rope and tie you to me," Maria said.

  "Ha, ha." At least she had a sense of humor. I couldn't imagine this girl turning into a monster in a few years. I'd seen news footage of monsters guarding the entrance to Zeus's company lots of times. And until now, I never pictured them growing up as normal people.

  I took the uniform from Maria, which hung in my grasp. The fabric felt silky. Comfortable. There would be that, at least. "Thanks."

  "I'll help you bring this stuff in." Maria poked her head into my room and looked until she found the digital panel. "You have an alarm system?"

  "Is it to keep Wendy out?" I asked, mouth dry. There must be a reason for this, something Prometheus wasn't telling me.

  "I don't know," Maria said. "The rest of us just have regular dorms and roommates. You have a luxury suite. Lucky. What are you? Even Zeus's descendants share dorms from what I've heard."

  "Do I have gold flecks in my eyes?" I asked, heart thumping.

  "I don't see any. You would have gotten them when your powers woke," Maria said. "And your schedule. I've got that for you, too. Here you go." She handed me a printout on fancy, papyrus-style paper.

  It was actually kind of cool. My name on top looked as if it had been written with an old-fashioned quill, and yet it was perfect.

  Giselle Bowman

  First Year

  Semester One Schedule

  9AM Breakfast

  930 Combat Training

  1200 Lunch

  100 Exploratory Arts

  330 Divine History

  500 Open

  "Combat?" I asked. The least intimidating thing on here, sadly, was the Divine History, where I guessed I'd be learning more about the gods than I had in regular school.

  "It'll be fine. None of us first years are warriors yet and not everyone becomes a soldier or security guard," Maria said. "And Exploratory Arts is cool. A lot of meditation. They have you start thinking about careers and stuff."

  "That's not so bad. I hope?" I asked.

  And despite the horror, my stomach rumbled with hunger.

  "Come on," Maria said with a smile. "Let's get you some breakfast so you don't pass out during combat."

  "Yeah," I said as my head swam. "That might be a good idea. Because that's something I'd do."

  * * * * *

  Once I'd gotten changed and hauled all the bags into my room, Maria led me down to the bottom level of the dorm. Turned out this building was for girls only and the guys must lodge in another one. Other girls, some in purple, some in black, and some in dark, jealous green, shuffled in and out of doorways.

  Nobody but me had carpet and canopy beds.

  I almost couldn't pay attention as Maria rattled off information.

  "We're here for four years, usually," she was saying. "First years in purple. Second years wear green. Then third years wear dark brown and the graduating class gets black. Not that different from high school, really, except the first years don't get stuck with some crappy color during spirit week."

  Maria smiled at me, bringing me out of my trance.

  "Do we have a spirit week?" I asked.

  "Not like you think," she says, lowering her voice. "Stay away from some of the fourth years, though."

  "Why?"

  "You'll see."

  We left the dorm building. The green torches still spit in the entryway as we cut through, following a couple of thir
d years through a dark archway Wendy and I had passed last night. Turned out it led to a big dining hall with naked people statues lining the edges. Yeah, I was an art kid and I knew why the ancient Greeks crafted that stuff, but this was a school of hormonal teenagers. Great idea.

  Four long tables were set up in the room, each positioned under a skylight. We walked past a long row of black-robed people, who had the first table. My skin chilled as we did.

  One of the fourth years, a girl of maybe nineteen, picked at her tray absently. Her pointed canines teased her lips, and something swished at her feet. Then stupidity overcame me and I looked down just in time to see a reddish serpent tail vanish underneath the hem of her robe.

  I hurried along and stumbled right into Maria. She said nothing. A few people turned to face me as we almost went down.

  “Was that—” I hissed. Yeah, bad choice of word.

  “Yes." Her tone told me to hurry.

  A lamiai. Half-serpent, half human. They were descended from a woman of the same name and I knew they had to suck blood from men on occasion. At least I knew that wasn't my fate.

  No, I just almost cast my wannabe boyfriend into a void. That's way better.

  We reached the breakfast line, which turned out to have pretty normal food if you liked pancakes smothered in strawberries or blueberries. My stomach roared again as if the void had taken place inside it, and I scooped some scrambled eggs onto my tray. At least something felt normal. Maria didn't say a word, so I figured it was up to me to break the awkward silence. The lunch lady looked at me with golden-flecked eyes. The air around her felt tense and full of dread.

  Finally, Maria and I took a seat at the end of the First Years' table. “You weren't kidding," I said.

  “I told you not to look at the fourth years. Not all of them have changed yet, but it gets worse the longer the year goes on. Some of them are self-conscious. Oh, and the lunch lady? Nancy? She's descended from the Furies. They were those goddesses who tormented you if you killed someone.”