Chapter 5: Vanilla Trivia

~Trivia POV~

The novelty of living away at Lady Browning's Academy wore off in less than twenty-four hours when I came here for the last few weeks... I never expected to actually miss my parents and the bedroom that had been my so called prison for so long, but hey at least it gave me privacy.

Here though not so much.

I hadn't so much as slept a wink in this lumpy single bed in a room with nineteen other teenage girls, snoring and muttering in their sleep. Someone had been crying for an hour, and I had been about to find them and smother them with a pillow when they finally shut up and dozed off.

You know one would think that being here instead of my burning home would be good… sadly that notion was not good in the slightest. And I mean the living conditions are terrible here as well.

The same twenty girls had to share a bathroom that seemed to have been designed to cause daily arguments. There was only one large mirror over the sinks, which everyone crowded around in the morning.

There were only three stalls. And in the row of six showers, apparently only one provided hot water at any given time, four offered lukewarm water, and one unlucky girl had a cold shower…

AHH!!!

COLD WATER!

COLD WATER!!!

Today, that girl was unluckily me.

…

…

Later on the day to the breakfast was served the usual bland eggs and dry toast in a bland cafeteria with dozens of boring students. Despite Lady Beat's glorification of girls being seen but not heard, the students at the school were anything but quiet.

I had never heard so much noise in my entire life that it would be this annoying.

At first I stood uncertainly with my food tray, looking around the room for a welcoming group or a friendly face who might gesture for her to join them, but no one did. Each time I moved to take an empty seat, it was the usual, "Oh, we're saving that."

Excuses really and the other girls also ignored me like I wasn't even there—until when I found an empty table and sat by myself. Then I suddenly became the center of attention, as people snuck looks at me, their expressions an array of amusement, malice, and pity.

Seriously though is this how people act in their ages?

Really how do I always ended up alone while I'm in a crowd? That is somehow impossible but possible like what the hell.

Granted, I wasn't much of a conversationalist, but I am a great listener. So, I listened to their problems as I force the 'food' down my throat. Oum the tasteless food really is bland no salt or flavor at all but then again the girls are really feasting on gossip about their schoolmates lives.

Listening to their problems is the highlight of my day really as there isn't much I can do here and leaving this place is looking for expulsion since my 'mother' wanted me to come here to become in her words 'normal' lady.

What's even wrong with me anyway it was all Neo fault but once she broke… a part of me broke along with that shattering…

Of course the other girls also talked about me, some of them loudly enough that she couldn't help but hear them. They all wondered who I was and what she had done. One girl somehow did recognize me as a Vanille, and said she'd heard their mansion had burned down the night before and her parents were dead.

Oh, trust me if I had the chance to do it again I would do it in a heartbeat and that was when they began setting off another flurry of wild speculation. Someone said I never spoke, and the girls at her table wondered why that was with increasingly outlandish theories.

Hey its not exactly my fault that I have Aphasia it's been a very painful thing to have.

The injury or malformation to the communications lobe of the brain that renders me literally unable to speak or understand spoken communication of any kind. I'm still able to read or understand gesture or body language but audible communication is no-go.

Because of that I was abused for it but you don't hear me complain about it… not like I could with my father influence anyway.

Fucking bitches.

Another girl claimed that I had lived in my parents' attic, and was only sent to the school when the police found out—which admittedly had some truth to it. Others criticized every aspect of my appearance, especially my height and my mismatched eyes.

I even made a mental note of everyone who said something meant to hurt me. But when you grew up listening to your parents say cruel things about you, even to your face, comments from strangers lost their sting. They can't break something that was long broken to begin with.

Sure I don't know most of these people yet, and certainly didn't care about what any of them thought of me, but some of what I overheard might be useful one day. As the saying goes revenge is a bitch.

Mostly, it was interesting for me to study other people. Since the fire, when my friend Neopolitan had disappeared and I began asserting myself more directly, and as Trivia had become more observant of people's motivations.

What people decided to say aloud often said more about us—who they were and what they wanted—than anything else. And most people talk way too much and reveal more than they should.

Keep talking, as I was, chewing my food. Tell me all your secrets-

*Beep*

Huh?

The fuck?

Glancing at my scroll I see a random number on it as I was positive that my parents made sure to practically hide my existence.

This has to be some kind of joke right? Observing the area a bit I began to look around to see if anyone was looking at this with some choices to make here.

Then again though this place has been nothing but boredom ever since I came here at the age of few weeks ago at the age 17 it really has been boring except for a few things here that make it bearable to be in this All Girls Academy to become proper ladies of society.

The physical lessons—learning to study movement to really control yourself and your facial expressions—were some of the few bright spots about living at Lady Browning's Preparatory Academy for Girls. I practically enjoyed acrobatics classes, ribbon, fencing, even ballet.

It was everything else that bored me out of my mind for the last few weeks.

The social etiquette. Cooking. Cleaning. Sewing…. On second though, sewing wasn't that bad.

But the girls at the school were forced to make clothes they would never wear, high-fashion items that would be sold at boutiques throughout Vale like the ones Trivia used to shoplift from. Meanwhile, they all had to wear the same drab uniforms, since "distraction was a neighbor to destruction," as Lady Beat liked to say.

Oum I missed some destruction. In fact, I was actually missing home even despite how shitty it actually was. A little bit perhaps.

The real problem at Lady Browning's Preparatory Academy for Girls was the girls as they each have their own kind of problems.

Hell even remembering the thought as the Malachite twins shot angry looks at me for the terrible crime of beating them across the ropes they practically made the whole students of girls isolate me for it.

Melanie and Miltia were the worst of the lot. The popular, pretty girls had singled me out and turned the others against her. So much for having a fresh start and making real friends for the first few weeks I had.

But here though was a completely different feeling here since it couldn't be any of the girls here at this academy since the use of Semblances is practically forbidden here. But I know for a fact it can't be these sissies here so… my only answer is that it comes from the outside world…

Real question is who would know about me though?

…

Fuck it.

Not like I have much to lose really since I have been trapped here hell maybe this person can help me out if not anything else at least some form of entertainment for me to enjoy seeing I'm trapped like a bird here.

I could use the distraction of life right about now.

Clicking the yes icon I began to see a window screen into something like texting to members. It was like those games that these girls mentioned before using a gaming app or something like that.

Seeing a choice on the window it says for me to use a name… thinking for a bit Neo would be more bold in this right?

With that I hesitantly thought the name Neo in the name in the window as it entered in then showing me a log of sorts for me put or think of my words. Convenient.

---

Techno: Hello? Is this thing working?

Neo: Who are you?

Techno: Me I'm called Techno I guess what my Semblance says it is. Didn't think it would work though.

Neo: Really? What does you're semblance make you a video game character or something?

Techno: Nope. Just control some stuff.

Neo: No wait real question here why pick me?

Techno: At random honestly trying to figure out how my powers work really. Just got them to work after finding out the kinks. What about you though?

Neo: Honestly pretty shitty. That's how it feels to be in a All Girls Academy?

Techno: Really? No friends or something or do you need someone to talk to?

Neo: Not much going here exactly. Honestly, I only clicked to see if it was something important since I have no friends here… more like annoying bitches.

Techno: Really. Damn must suck. I don't have much going in that prison of yours but I can give you somethings to help pass the time or something. Like talk or such.

---

Trust me… Techno you are probably the best person close to a friend than these strangers so far since freedom is limited. And this is coming from an actual stranger I'm talking about but can't be worse than here right?

Fuck it maybe I can call him when I do a boring class and talk to him or send funny videos at least its better than being bored and alone.