Eudora
The next morning, thoughts of Aren are still spinning through my head. I will always protect you. I shiver and touch my cheek where the feeling of his lips linger. I think back to my brother's suite. Along with my brother and Aren's familiar scents, there were four others that were incredible. I wanted to wrap myself up in all the scents and take a nap. Or maybe I wanted to do a different bedroom activity. I shake my head to dispel these new thoughts and focus on the day ahead. Today is the first day of placement testing.
"Wake up sleepy head." I say as I throw a pillow at Gia, who is still curled up in her bed. "We have to leave now, if we want to eat breakfast before orientation."
Gia groans and rolls over. She rubs her eyes and finally opens them to look at me. "Give me five minutes and I'll be ready."
Gia was not ready in five minutes. We miss breakfast completely and just barely make it to orientation. The room is already full by the time we arrive, so we aren't able to find seats next to each other. I notice two white haired guys with a seat open next to them. I think I remember them being in my brother's suite the night before. I smile at the twins, and I take the open seat.
"Hi I'm Eudora. I think we met briefly last night." I quietly introduce myself.
The twin directly next to me just frowns. He smiles way too nice for him to be so cold. His brother on the other side of him perks up immediately, and smiles broadly at me. "Yes, I remember you! How could I forget that hair? Is that natural? Of course it is. I don't think dye could create that color. It's lovely by the way." He stops to inhale and then continues, "I'm Koda and this is Kaden." Kaden just grunts when his brother says his name. The contrast in their personalities makes me giggle. Kaden frowns even deeper, if that's possible. Koda reminds me of Gia and I make a mental note to introduce them. They will either be fast friends or talk over each other too much to hear what the other is saying.
A quiet spreads across the room, and I look towards the front of the class, and notice a tall attractive blonde man has entered the room.
"I am Professor Hastings." He starts, "Welcome to Tremont Academy. Congratulations on getting here. Getting accepted here means that you all have something that makes you special, whether you are a strong shifter, extremely intelligent, or have magical potential. You are all the best of the best, which means here you are average. Prove yourself during your time here and you will go on to become one of the greats.
I am sure you are all anxious to start your placement testing, but there are some rules we need to go over first. You are all adults so I'm sure you don't need rules, but we have to go over them anyway.
1) Do not speak of magic placements outside of this campus. All of you will go through magic aptitude testing. Any one who is seen to have potential will have to take a magic class. These students' identities will not leave this school. Leaking information about magic users is a crime punishable with death.
2) Respect your fellow classmates. We are all here to learn and we are all adults. There will be no petty high school drama in these halls.
3) No fighting non-shifters. With pheromones, heats, and full moons, it is impossible to keep shifters from fighting each other, so just make sure to leave the non-shifters out of it." Professor Hastings pauses and looks around the room. "Anyone who breaks one of these rules could face expulsion or worse."
He pauses again, and then claps his hands together making me jump. "Now, over the next two days, you will go through four different placement tests, in order for us to make sure you are put into the right track for you. As first years, you will have mostly core curriculum classes your first semester. Congrats. This will be your classroom for History, Health, and General Education. Look around you because the seats you are sitting in now will be your seats for the rest of the semester. These placement tests will only affect two of your classes for this semester. You will all go through a magic aptitude test, a physical prowess test, a general aptitude test, and an interview with a panel of professors." Professor Hastings walks over to his desk and picks up a pile of papers. "When I call your name please come forward and take your placement test schedule. Once you have your schedule, you can proceed to the location of your first test."
I wait patiently for my name to be called. Having a last name that starts with a M means I am one of the last students remaining in the classroom when my name is called.
"Eudora Manon." Professor Hastings calls. I slip out of my chair, take the paper he is holding out to me, and exit the classroom. To my surprise Gia is waiting for me in the hallway.
"So what is your first placement test?" She asks excitedly, holding her test schedule next to mine.
"It looks like I have the general aptitude test first." I respond, quickly reading down my schedule.
"Me too!" she squeals. Glancing between our two schedules she states, "It looks like we both have the physical test today as well, but tomorrow we don't have any tests together." Her smile slips a little bit with disappointment.
"At least we are together today." I reassure her. "Come on, let's get going to…" I glance down at our schedules, "room 220 to take our first test."
We quietly find seats next to each other in room 220 and I look around. The room is filling up quickly with students. The only other person I recognize in the room is the tiny dark skinned girl I saw in the study room last night. She must be Charlotte. I am about to lean over to Gia to point her out when a guy with perfectly styled brown hair takes the seat to my right. He checks me out and smiles.
"Hello beautiful!" He says. Before I can come up with a retort, a short middle aged woman enters the room slamming the door behind her.
"Welcome to your general aptitude test. I am Professor Ricklin." She smiles kindly at our nervous faces. "My advice to all of you is don't overthink it. Once you finish the test, place your paper on my desk, and then you can head to lunch." With that short introduction she begins handing out the test.
The test questions range through a large variation of topics. They seem to focus mostly on math, logic, pattern recognition and reading comprehension. Some questions are laughably easy, like reading a clock, and others are extremely difficult. After two hours of answering questions, I finally finish filling out the test. I look up from my test and realize that about half of the class is gone. Gia is still sitting next to me looking extremely focused. I look over my exam one last time, then stand up to turn it in.
I make my way to the dining hall listening to my stomach growl the whole way, since we missed breakfast. I am so ready to eat. I grab a sandwich from the food counter and turn to search the room for a place to sit. The lunch room is mostly full. I spot Kaden and Koda at a table in the back of the room. I start making my way towards them, when a guy stands up and waves to get my attention.
I look over at him and he flashes me a cocky grin. "Hello beautiful. I saved you a seat." He says and I scoff.
"Do I know you?" I look at him skeptically, but then I remembered he was the guy with perfect hair, who sat next to me during the test.
"You've forgotten me already." He says in an overly dramatic hurt tone.
"Clearly you need to work on making more of an impression." I retort.
"Noted." His cocky grin is back in place. "Well I am James and it would be an honor if you would grace me with your presence during this meal." James holds his hand out to me to assist me in taking a seat.
I quickly look around to see if my brother is in the room, and when I confirm he is not around, I take James' hand and sit down. I have never been able to talk to a man who is so openly into me, and I am enjoying the feeling of being admired.
"So how do you think you did on that test?" James asks me.
"Is that the best opening line you have?" I ask. "Are you really asking me about the test?"
"Alas, small talk is an unavoidable first step in any courtship." James signs dramatically. "Would you rather I jump to the good stuff?"
"And what would the good stuff be?" I inquire. I lift my sandwich and take a large bite.
"Asking about your level of attraction to me." He smirks.
I choke on my sandwich and have to put my hand over my mouth, as I chew and hold back laughter. I have never met anyone who is so forward. "We only just met, how would I know how attracted I am to you yet." I smile.
"You don't need to know me to be attracted to me. I'm hot." He responds.
I assess him looking up and down. He is hot. He's not tall, but he's not short either. His jaw is chiseled and he is clean shaven. His hair is styled, which tells me that he puts effort into his appearance. He probably makes sure the rest of his body is groomed as well. "You're cocky aren't you?"
He leans in and says to me conspiratorially, "It's not cocky if it's well placed confidence." Just then, Aren sits down in the seat on the other side of me shaking the table with the force of his ass hitting the seat.
"Jayden is not going to like seeing you sitting so close to some random dude." Aren hisses. I don't understand his anger.
"Jayden can lay off. I am allowed to make friends."
"I don't think this guy," Aren waves a hand towards James, "is interested in being your friend."
"He's not wrong." James interjects. "I am very much interested in being more than friends." I blush at his words. Nervous, I glance back over at Aren and his yellow eyes have darkened to almost orange.
"What did you just say?" Aren growls.
I interject before James can dig himself into a deeper hole. "I am also allowed to flirt with whoever I want."
Aren's eyes flicker to me. "I don't think Jayden will agree with that."
"Well Jayden is not my keeper. I am an adult and I can decide for myself who I spend my time with." I look towards the doors and notice Jayden entering the dining hall. He looks around, but doesn't see me. "Speaking of Jayden, I am going to have a word with him right now about how he's trying to control my social life. He can't scare away every guy who wants to talk to me." I stand up and start making my way to Jayden with Aren close on my heels. When I am only a few feet from him I see who he has approached. It's Madison, who is sitting at a table with a group of cheerleaders and her underlings. I freeze as soon as Jay starts talking. I can hear their conversation easily, because my brother is not trying to be quiet at all.
"What is wrong with you Madison?" He practically shouts.
"Hi Jayden. Do you want to take this conversation out in the hall?" Madison says sweetly, batting her eyelashes. She points to the door and I look in the direction just in time to see Gia slipping into the dining hall. She, like everyone else, is watching the scene between Jay and Madison unfold.
Jay doesn't move from his spot. "What, so you can lie to everyone again about our interaction?" Jayden looks down angrily at the still seated Madison. "We don't have a string and we never will. We are not suited for each other. Even the goddess knows that we have zero suitability." Madison stands and tries to pull Jayden to the door, but he is unmovable.
"Let's talk about this somewhere else, please." Madison begs.
"There is nothing else to talk about. Stop lying to people about being with me, and stop lying to yourself that we have a future." With that Jayden turns away, noticing for the first time the entire dining hall is silent and staring at them. Madison stands there frozen. I notice tears start to stream down her face.
Jayden's eyes meet mine in the sea of people. I notice that my mouth is hanging open and I snap it shut. He walks right up to me and grabs my arm, pulling me to an empty table. Aren sits down with us and hands me my unfinished sandwich. I glance back over my shoulder at where Madison was previously standing. She is now nowhere to be seen. I feel bad for her. Yes, she lied about making out with my brother, and about having a mating string with him, but no one deserves to be so publicly rejected.
"Don't you think that was a little too harsh, Jayden?" I ask
"It needed to be done publicly, or else she would continue to lie to people and have fantasies about us being together."
"I guess so, but that was intense." I say.
"Finish your sandwich." Is all Jayden says in response.
Gia finds us at our table and I introduce her to Aren. She met him during a break from the military a few years ago. We finish our lunch in silence and then head up to our room to get changed for our physical examination. Gia looks anxious as we walk up the stairs and into our suite. Unfortunately, Madison is already there and she looks pissed.
"You little bitch." Madison shouts, as she lunges at me the second I walk through the door, tackling me to the ground. "How dare you get in between me and Jayden. What did you do to seduce him, you little slut?" Her nails have turned into claws and she rakes them down my arm. I scream from the sudden pain and use my legs to kick her off of me.
"I didn't seduce him." I shriek, climbing to my feet. "I'm not interested in him."
"Liar!" Rage fills her voice, and I try to run, but she's too fast. Before I know it, she has shifted into a lion, and has pounced on my back, forcing me back to the ground. I feel her claws rip through my shirt, and I scream again. Chaos has broken out in the room. Olivia is trying to grab Madison. Camilla is laughing, and Gia is nowhere to be seen. I twist my body trying to bat the large cat off of me and roll over. Olivia manages to lift Madison's cat form off of me slightly, but her claws still manage to catch the front of my shirt.
"What the fuck is going on in here?" A voice roars from the doorway. Before I can process what is happening, Jayden and Aren are there, with Gia entering right behind them. She must have left to grab them as soon as she sensed Madison's intentions. Jayden's pheromones radiate from him and Madison immediately stops fighting. She backs away, head bowed to the more powerful shifter.
"Shift." Jayden commands, directing his commanding pheromones towards her. She immediately shifts and continues to cower naked in her human form with her back to the wall. Jayden doesn't even seem to notice her nakedness.
"Jayden," She whimpers, "I did this for us. This bitch was trying to get between us."
"Are you stupid. I thought I made myself clear," Jayden growls, "You and I have never been and will never be a thing. Ora has nothing to do with that."
"Please, don't do this. Please." Madison continues to whimper, but I am no longer listening. My brain is foggy with pain and blood loss. I feel darkness closing around me. I feel liquid all around me, and I vaguely wonder how I ended up laying in a puddle. In my dream I feel warm lips press against mine. The pain begins to fade and I wonder if this is the end.