Was I really smelling? Definitely not, I smelled fantastic, thank you!
Charlotte
Today had been an epilogue of a long, long journey.
I had said the school was huge when I arrived, and I was saying it again now, with more feeling and a deeper appreciation for just how enormous the word really was.
Nobody had been willing to help me with the tour or even give me directions. I had tried asking twice earlier in the evening and had been either completely ignored or given a look that made me wish I hadn't bothered opening my mouth in the first place. After that, I had resorted to the map, which continued to be far more of a confusion than an actual guide.
I checked the time again; it remains an hour until curfew.
"Tired" and "hungry" were understatements at this point. I had been walking for what felt like half the day, and my legs were protesting every step. Between the portal travel, the administration office, the hallway incident, the cold collision, and the general hostility of every corridor in this building, my body was running on nothing but the last scraps of adrenaline that were quickly wearing themselves out.
But I needed to get to my room before I could think about any of that. Getting a punishment on the first day was not an option I was willing to consider either.
I walked until I finally found the right dormitory wing and sighed quietly in relief when the sign confirmed it. Then I walked some more, moving slowly down the long corridor while comparing the numbers on the doors with the tiny markings on my map until I reached my assigned room.
306
Finally!
A smile found its way onto my face; my shoulders dropped slightly as the relief moved through me. I had found it myself after wandering through what felt like half the academy, and the small victory was enough to make my mood lift.
For the first time since stepping through the portal this morning, I allowed myself to believe that the worst part of the day was finally over.
I breathed out slowly, the relief of it moving through me, making my shoulders ease from being tense since the afternoon. I couldn't wait to get inside, to the warm room, shower, and hit the bed.
But as soon as I put my key in the lock, turned it, and pushed open the door, a wave of ice-cold water hit me full in the face.
I gasped, jerking backward as the freezing water soaked straight through the front of my clothes and ran down my neck. The shock of it was so sharp that it stole the air from my lungs for a moment. Water dripped from my hair and stung my eyes as I blinked rapidly, wiping my face with the back of my hand while trying to see what had just happened.
When my vision cleared, I saw three girls standing inside the room with identical expressions of mean satisfaction on their faces, arms folded, watching me drip onto the doorstep. One of them was holding a bucket of water.
And she tilted her head slightly. "Go away. You're not welcome here."
Another girl wrinkled her nose like she had just smelled something unpleasant. "You're human," she drew out with open disgust. "Dirty, disgusting animal."
For a brief second I actually wondered if I smelled bad. The thought was ridiculous, but the way she wrinkled her nose made me instinctively sniff the sleeve of my wet cloth just to be sure.
All I smelled was cold water and embarrassment.
I choked on a cough because I had actually swallowed some of the water in the initial shock of it, which added humiliation to the cold and the misery.
I sniffed, rubbed my tingled nose, and opened my mouth to tell them that this was, in fact, my assigned room and I had a key to prove it, but the door banged shut in my face before I got a single word out.
I stood there in the corridor for a moment, dripping water onto the floor while staring at the closed door in disbelief. And knocked.
Nothing.
I knocked again and tried my key, but the door didn't move, like someone was holding it from the inside. I knocked harder.
"Open the door!"
No answer.
Open the door!"
"This is my room!"
"Go away!" someone inside said through a snicker before another girl giggled.
Other doors along the corridor began to open. Girls leaned out into the hallway with irritated expressions already forming on their faces before they had even seen who was causing the noise.
"Get the fuck out of here; you're making a nuisance of yourself. You're not welcome in this block."
"What the—" Before I could finish saying that the room was actually mine, a girl stepped out from the nearest doorway. She grabbed my bag from my shoulder with such effortless ease that it made it painfully clear how little strength it took for her to do it and threw it down the corridor.
My bag hit the floor and split open, my clothes scattering across the ground, and I watched it happen with my mouth open and eyes widened. I wanted to go after her, wanted to say something, to stand my ground, but I was outnumbered and surrounded, and not one of them was human. I gritted my teeth and turned away before I did something that would make this worse.
I swallowed my irritation, crouched down, and I harshly packed everything back into the bag, grunting as my wet clothes clung to me, the evening air doing absolutely nothing helpful.
Someone from above called out, "Go to the attic; that's where you belong, with the runt!" and a few of them laughed.
The attic.
I rubbed my eyes with damp fingers and stood up slowly before walking over to the lamp fixed on the wall. I held the map beneath the yellow light and searched for the attic section until I finally found it.
Of course it was. Because why would anything tonight be simple? I zipped my bag closed, slung it back over my shoulder, and started walking again. The corridor slowly emptied behind me as doors closed and the sound of laughter faded into the distance.
I had been going for about five minutes when I rounded a corner and stopped dead. There was a shadow against the wall that hadn't been there a moment ago, and my heart jumped so violently that it felt like it nearly climbed straight out of my chest before the figure shifted slightly and spoke.
"Are you lost?"