Part 8

I felt that I had never been in more trouble in my life.

As I walked through the doors, I could feel a brooding sense in the air, like I was walking into a courtroom, where I was the guilty party. Nevertheless, I took a spot that was closer to the entrance to the room, which was one spot over from Alex. Before either of us could say anything, the girl sat in the empty seat between us. I almost heaved a huge sigh of relief, but I held most of it back, not catching all of it, but came out as more of a heavy sigh than a sigh of relief. I looked down at the food that was placed before I sat down. The lasagna was steaming, and the squash was in cubes. I haven't had it that way in years. But as I told the girl earlier, I wasn't hungry. So I just picked at it, not knowing what else to do. "You really should try to eat", said a soft voice. I looked around and saw that its owner was the person sitting to my right. He had darker skin, close-cropped hair, and a slight build. He was wearing light-blue-colored jeans and a dark-grey sweatshirt. I really hope that he was wearing a shirt because his sweatshirt was unzipped, but I couldn't see past it. Overall, he seemed nice enough.

"I'm not hungry", I told him, which wasn't the whole truth. My appetite was growing, but I didn't want to show everyone that I was getting comfortable by eating whatever was set before me. My trust isn't earned that fast.

"Suit yourself. But we're going to be doing a lot of exercises tomorrow, and you're going to need all the strength you can get. Besides, the cook would never harm anybody. Especially you." The last words were said underneath his breath, but I caught them. I had too much practice hearing words that others didn't want people to hear.

"Why me?" I asked in genuine confusion.

"You mean you're really that blind? Look around: everyone here fears you; the most respected teacher went to bring you here, and she just looked at you like you were a princess a few moments ago."

"She looked at me like I was in trouble."

He shook his head. "That's what her expression said. Her eyes said something completely different." As he said that, I hung my head. Of course, her eyes spoke the truth. I've just never had the courage to look her in the eyes. "Wait, you didn't notice?"

Now, it was my turn to shake my head. "I'll explain it later. It's not something that I share with someone who hasn't told me his name." At this, his cheeks flushed with color. He tried to hide it, but he wasn't fast enough. After a couple of beats, he turned around and said, "Sorry about that. My name's Eric. And you are?"

"Marie."

"Marie. Nice to meet you. Now, I have a very important question."

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Are you going to eat your squash or not?"

At this, I had to laugh. It was the most random thing, but it fit him so well. But my laugh, like my singing voice, had a melodic tone to it. All conversation stopped as everyone turned to look at me. "Could you be so kind as to explain why you have caused such an outburst?" said the teacher.

As sarcasm was my only defense, I casually said, "you would've had to been listening to the conversation to get it, but if you were doing that, you wouldn't have asked", I said with a smirk. To my utter shock, she returned the smirk and went back to eating.

"Eric, maybe you can help her with her appetite. She needs to build up her strength."

"You know that I don't like to use my powers on my peers-"

"It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order. And I expect to be obeyed."

Eric looked down in pure anger. I could tell that whatever he was being asked to do was outside of his comfort zone. I didn't want to put him in that position, so I took a bite of my squash and said, "guess I will be eating it."

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As soon as we were excused, I was the first one out the door. I wanted to get back to my room, where I didn't have to talk to anyone. But as I was walking down the steps, I heard someone behind me. I looked back and saw Eric talking to the girl from before. I really needed to know who she is. But before I could say a word, they looked at me, then at each other again. Before things could get any more awkward, I asked, "Who are you? Like, what's your name?"

She looked at me with a slight smile, and just said, "Your best friend."