Flint and Jack stepped onto the ship. Jack turned to wave at their parents with a big grin on his face. Flint rolled his eyes, looked at his feet and gripped his bag. He stepped further onto the ship's deck. Passing groups of other students laughing. Old groups of friends reuniting, new students trying to work their way into groups to help them survive the year. Flint sighed and kept walking. He put his headphones on and looked for a place to sit and play his game.
Flint passed a particularly loud group of friends. He noticed a girl with red streaked hair whose smile looked a little too forced, but she was laughing with the rest of the group. Flint glanced at her and noticed her hunched shoulders, and the bandages on her arm. He noticed that the smile and joy was superficial and did not reach her eyes. It was subtle but he noticed how she leaned away from everyone else. The boy next to her had his arm around her, but it looked more like he was trying to hold her down rather than in a loving way. He quickly looked away. He knew what would happen to him if anyone noticed him looking, but his heart felt for the girl. He walked on, he probably wouldn't see her again. No use worrying about her when he had enough on his plate just surviving this school.
Flint walked on and noticed an awkward looking girl. Wide eyed looking at everything around her. She had a giant bag that was overflowing with text books. Flint recognized them as the ones for the healer course. The girl tripped and her books spilled out. Flint knelt down to help her clean up. She would have a rough year for sure.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked her.
the girl nodded. "Yeah, it is just weird being at sea for me." she said.
Flint handed her the books and smiled. That's when he noticed the armband on her uniform. She was a queen. One of the top students. His heart dropped, but he kept the smile on his face.
"Yeah it takes some getting used to." he said.
The girl's hair turned rainbow colours, her ears elongated and came to a point and her eyes became a golden colour. Flint's hands started to shake. They must have been far enough away from shore for the shield to activate. Why did the shield go up now of all times? Couldn't it have waited a little longer? Flint felt his heart rate increase. He looked down at his hands. Both were now criss crossed with scars.
The girl looked up at him and smiled. "Thank you for helping me," she said.
Flint got up, keeping a smile on his face. "don't mention it." he said, turning to leave. "Have a good year." he said walking away before she could get a closer look at his disfigured face.
Flint pulled his sleeves down as he walked off. He sighed and looked for a place to sit on a bench or a bathroom or something that wasn't crowded and chaotic. He saw a maintenance closet and pulled the door. It gave way and he sighed in relief. He entered the closet and sat down on the floor. He rocked back and forth and rubbed his hands on his pants. After a while he took a deep breath and pulled out his phone. Shit, about 2 more hours on this ship.
Flint looked at his hands and frowned. He had bought some foundation before leaving but it was for his camouflage form. He sighed. If his hands were anything to go off of this foundation was a way to light for him to use now. He pulled out his phone and opened the camera. He had only seen his true form once before, on the day of the school exams. It made it difficult to make sure Jack got top marks but in the end he figured it out.
Flint frowned as he looked into the phone. His hair became more wild and dark. there were a few stray curls that would not stay down. He tried to pet it down but it just bounced back up. His eyes had turned from a dark, almost black, brown to Green speckled with gold. His skin had gone from pale to a deep mocha like dark with red undertones and scars criss crossed across his neck and some crept up onto his face. With a particularly gnarly one going from the outside of his right eye down to his chin.
Flint sighed; he wasted all of his money on this shit and he couldn't even use it anymore. Flint looked around at this dark room, at least he was alone for now. He pulled out his ancient Play Lad system and chose a game to play.
"hmm that's the PL 2 isn't it. Very vintage." A voice said from above him.
Flint jumped, startled. He looked around to see where that voice came from.
"who's there?" he said trying to sound tough.
A girl's voice chuckled. Flint heard rustling from above him, Flint looked up and saw a girl with bright white hair. Even in the dark it was bright. She had red eyes and pale white skin. She was wearing black pants, black platform boots and a uniform shirt and jacket. The arm band indicated that she was the second year queen. Flint quickly got up and backed away.
"Oh shit, s sorry." He said. "I I'll get your hair." he said, gathering his things.
The girl rolled her eyes. "Jesus kid, calm down." she said in a deadpan kind of voice. "I'm too busy with my game. I won't be able to hide your body if you keel over from a heart attack."
Flint looked down. "I didn't know that you were in here. I'm really sorry." he said bowing.
The girl rolled her eyes. "Don't bow. It's cringe." she said "make it up to me by playing a round on my team." she said as she reached in her bag and pulled out a box and a piece of paper. She scribbled down her gamer tag and stuck it on the box. She tossed it to Flint.
Flint caught the box and looked at the paper. "Shiro?" he said
"That's my name, don't wear it out." the girl said.
Flint looked at the box and his eyes grew wide. "holy shit balls!" he looked up at Shiro "This isn't even out yet! It's not set to release until like next year!" he said looking at the PL 7 in his hands.
The girl shrugged "Yeah, and." she said.
"I have like three of those." she said waving around her golden edition PL 7. "It just sucks because I have to wait for new games." she sighed.
Flint looked at her confused "H how do you have so many of these?" he asked.
Shiro shrugged. "I'm a tester." she said. "I already gave my feedback on it." she looked at him "now are you game or not?" she asked. "I need a teammate that is not a total noob." she smiled at him.
Flint looked at the box confused. "It's brand new." he said "still in the plastic is there a profile you want me to play under?" He looked up at her, still confused.
Shiro looked at him "yeah, yours." she said and went back to her game." How else are you going to be able to use it?"
Flint looked between her and the PL 7 confused. He carefully opened it. His hand was shaking a little. Shiro rolled her eyes and threw him a screen protector and a protective case for it.
Flint looked up. "You can keep it Flin't. I have 2 more." Flint nodded and set up the gaming system. Soon they were playing a battle royale style game. Both smiling and laughing like old friends. Before Flint knew it, the ship's horn sounded twice, indicating that they were about 10 min from getting to the school.
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Feilon looked down at the dock where the ship was approaching. His wild hair made messier in the cool wind high in the bell tower. He savored the calm before the chaos of the students' arrival. The salty sea air putting a smile on his face. The only thing that could make this better would be a bonfire, and fresh baked goods. He straightened his suit's waistcoat and tightened his tie before grabbing his shillelagh and jumped down to the balcony below.
"You were up there for a while," a woman dressed in furrs said. A battle axe was strapped to her back, and a knife was strapped to her thigh. Her hair was braided back away from her tan face. Feilon smiled at her.
"Glad to see you back love." he said "How was the hunt?" He walked up to her and hugged her. The woman melted into him and hugged him back.
"It was great," she smiled, "plenty of food to take care of the tribe for two weeks." Her two tails wagged as she sniffed Feilon. Through the open balcony door came a long low horn, indicating the arrival of the ship.
Feilon looked out at the ship and sighed. A sad look came over his face as he looked out.
"This would have been their first year, Takhi." he said.
Takhi looked out as well and frowned. "I know," she said. "It would have been nice," a tear rolled down her cheek.
"STAFF PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BALLROOM FOR FIRST DAY WELCOME" a voice over the intercom stated.
Feilon sighed and rubbed Takhi's arm lovingly. "Come on, I picked up our assigned list for us." he said, turning to his messy desk. He grabbed two manila envelopes. He handed the one with Takhi's name to her.
"Looks like they approved my experiment this year," he said smiling. "A royal with a Joker" he took out the files to look at the names.
Takhi rolled her eyes and smiled. They walked out of Felon's office Takhi listened to him ramble on about his thoughts.