Page 19 of The Pretty Savage

I cried a river of tears over a boy that could've been great, that could've been a savior. From the first moment I met him, I knew he had good in him. He was better than any of us, and there were more kids in that orphanage than I wanted to think about. Some survived, others didn't, but he was the only one I wanted to keep in my life.

When everything else is taken from you, you cling to the things that make you feel good, no matter how silly it might seem.

And Tyler… Tyler was that one thing for me. He was the anchor that kept me grounded. He was the one who washed away the blood of that first person I killed. He was the one who gave me my very first gift on my birthday, and he was the one that scraped together pennies to buy me a T-shirt with Stitch on it that The Schatten didn’t allow.

We weren't allowed any personal artifacts, nothing that would separate us from other kids, but he went out and did it. He gave me the best gift I could have ever asked for, and it didn't matter that I couldn't wear it. It didn't matter that for years and years it had to stay hidden underneath those floorboards, or that it was far too small for me to wear when I finally got my own place.

It was the first real gift I ever got, and it still traveled with me, no matter where I went.

It felt surreal entering my room earlier, or well, it looked more like an apartment. The common room wasn't the only area that was decorated in a gothic style, but where the green in it was lighter, the one in my room reminded me of the forests I used to run through when I was a child, when life was a lot less complicated. The warm brown and golden tones covering the wooden surfaces in the room created a perfect contrast to the rest of it, and while it shouldn't have worked, it did.

It worked perfectly.

And unlike everything else in this place, that room felt like mine.

The massive king-sized bed located in the center of the room, with its headboard pressed against the wall between the two windows overlooking the front entrance, could easily fit at least three people. The soft duvet cover and the black blanket that was thrown over it almost made me fall asleep right there and then, but instead of laying down on that bed, I took a shower and washed my hair, drying it with the hairdryer they had left for me.

If I didn't know better, I would've said I was in a five-star hotel. They thought of everything—tiny chocolates on my pillows, the bathroom amenities, the minibar that was stocked with a little note saying all of it was for me, the massive wardrobe that had several different outfits with another note expressing I should use those for my day-to-day activities on campus. A map was placed on the nightstand, with a welcome letter from the asshat I had already met—the dean, Andries—and looking over it, I figured I would need some time to figure out where everything was. My schedule was printed out on thick cream paper, with my first class tomorrow being offense tactics, which meant at seven in the morning we would be introduced to our first instructor.

But I couldn’t spend too much time pondering over the room’s décor or everything they had placed inside to welcome me. Instead I unpacked as fast as I could, pulling out the files Heinrich and Alena had given me, and found just the perfect spot where I could hide it. I dropped down on my knees, checking out the floorboards right next to the bed and as one of them moved with my hands, I pulled it open, revealing a small compartment just underneath. Perfect to fit the two files in it.

I was lucky enough that the semester technically hadn't started yet, and I had managed to arrive here just in time for classes to commence. But not knowing the names of my instructors in any of my classes left a bitter taste in my mouth, because I liked knowing things. I liked being prepared, and everything about this situation threw me off my usual trajectory.

"There you are!" Yolanda's high-pitched voice echoed around me and as I turned around, I saw her standing a few feet away, just at the corner of the building, wearing what could only be described as the brightest pink outfit I had ever seen.

I went with black combat boots, black leather pants, and a thermal long-sleeved shirt, but her… Let's just say there was no way I would be able to lose her in a crowd.

"You're late," I grumbled, closing the distance between us. "We said one hour."

"I know." She frowned. "And I'm sorry. One of the girls on my floor had an accident and I realized I didn't have your number to let you know I'll be a few minutes late."

"Yo, a few minutes is maybe five minutes. I've been standing out here for close to half an hour." My ears were close to falling off, my nose was leaking, and my eyes had stopped watering up at least ten minutes ago, and had started freezing along with the rest of my body.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I really didn't do it on purpose, but she really did have a minor accident with a razor, and she needed my help. Everyone else had already left for the party." Which meant we would be the last ones to arrive.

"Is this the only dorm on campus?"

"No." She shook her head. "There's another one on the other side, with the majority of the guys living there, but this one is pretty mixed."

Why would they separate them from us and why was it guys only?

"Is there a reason why there is one mixed dorm and one where only guys reside?" I couldn't help but ask.

Yolanda started chuckling at, probably, my expression, but when she saw I wasn't exactly joking she stopped. "Wait," she hissed. "You don't know?"

"No fucking clue. Remember, I just got here."

"Yeah, but most of us know things about the Academy from our parents. At least I did."

"Well," I shrugged, "my mother is pretty much dead, and my father?" I snickered, thinking of my fake daddy who was supposedly a Russian enforcer, "Let’s just say that our bonding didn't exactly entail history lessons. He taught me how to throw knives, but not how to read history books about the Academy."

Her eyes widened just as the light came on at the front entrance, and without thinking, I pulled her into the shadows where I hid.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"What if somebody sees us?" I asked, looking over her shoulder to see if someone would pass.

"Vega," she chuckled. "The party we're going to is a public secret of sorts. I told you a bit about it, didn't I? Almost every single person at the Academy knows about it, and those that aren't going either don't have an invitation, or they already managed to screw up their chances of ever meeting The Fallen."

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