Breakfast was loud. Too loud.
The dining hall smelled like maple syrup and coffee, and every table buzzed with voices. Vampires clustered together, pale hands gesturing over mugs of something that definitely wasn't orange juice. Werewolves laughed too loud, already in mid-story before I even sat down. Sirens flicked their hair like they were on some eternal stage. And gorgons… well, most of them wore beanies pulled down so low they could barely see their food.
I sat alone with a plate of eggs, toast, and a single apple I probably wouldn't eat.
"Hey, roomie." Enid slid onto the bench across from me with a tray stacked high with pancakes drowning in whipped cream. "You sleep okay? Room too creepy? Haunted desk drawer?"
"Fine," I said, cutting into the toast.
"Fine, he says." She leaned her chin on her palm. "Most people freak out their first night here. You're weirdly calm."
I shrugged. "Maybe I'm just used to it."
She tilted her head like she wanted to press, but instead shoved half a pancake in her mouth and grinned at me through the syrup.
First class was Botany. The greenhouse smelled like wet dirt and mint. I sat near the back, close to the door, while Enid plopped down beside me. She kept whispering little introductions—"That's Rowan, kind of intense… That's Ajax, he's a gorgon, sweet but a little spacey…"—like she was determined to make me memorize every name before lunch.
Professor Thornhill handed out clippings of a plant that looked like it was trying to bite the air. "Careful," she warned. "It likes to test new students."
Mine snapped at my fingers, but I whistled, soft and low, without thinking. The plant stilled, almost shivering, and curled its leaves inward.
Enid blinked. "You… did you just—"
"Don't," I muttered.
Her eyes sparkled like she'd just uncovered a state secret. She mouthed music and didn't bring it up again, though she kept sneaking glances at me for the rest of class.
By the time History of Outcasts rolled around, I'd given up on sitting alone. Enid found me every time, plopping down with a smile and a notebook covered in stickers shaped like paws and moons. She doodled in the margins, asked me if I liked horror movies (I said yes), and then asked if I liked glitter (I said no).
"You're a tough nut, Eli," she sighed, tapping her pen against the desk. "But don't worry. I'm persistent."
"You don't say."
She laughed, unbothered, and passed me a wrapped cookie she'd smuggled from breakfast. Chocolate chip. Better than the coffin-shaped ones from the common room.
By the end of the day, I had a stack of assignments, a head full of names I'd already forgotten, and one person who wouldn't leave me alone.
Enid walked with me back to Ophelia Hall, still talking. "So tomorrow's fencing practice, and even if you don't sign up, you should come watch. People get really dramatic about it. It's fun."
"Fun isn't really my thing."
"It will be," she said, grinning as she skipped ahead to push the door open for me.
And maybe it was the cookie in my pocket, or maybe it was the fact that her noise drowned out the whispers of Piper and cursed boy and rat-whistler, but I didn't mind her being there.
Not yet, anyway.