"Welcome to Guilder, Ms. Kerrigan." Rae awkwardly spun around to face the voice, finding that a tall, thin woman stood on the concrete steps of the building, her eyes darting left and right, pausing on Rae for barely more than a few seconds.
Rae stared, wondering where the lady had come from. She wasn't there a moment ago. Rae looked at the woman's long wool skirt. This might be England, but today is sweltering. How is she not melting in this heat?
"I am Madame Elpis, your house mistress." The lady darted down the large concrete steps, pausing on the last step and, in one fluid motion, tucked her clip board under an armpit and extended her hand.
The woman's features reminded Rae of a bird-her jet-black hair, dark eyes, and especially the jutting nose. Rae nodded and dropped a suitcase, so she could return the handshake, her fingers crushed by the woman's claw-like grip. Ow, ow, ow! So you're freakishly strong, got it.
"Come along. No time for dilly-dallying." She turned and marched up the steps, not checking to see if Rae followed or needed any help with her bags.
Huffing out a breath, Rae grabbed her things and clambered to follow, hearing the bus driver chuckle as he closed the door behind her. I'm spending the next two years here? What joy. What freakin' bliss.
Hammering and drilling noises from above greeted Rae as she came through the entrance. The clamor echoed throughout the building.
"Fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds are on the second floor," Madame Elpis shouted above the noise. "Your room is the last door on the left." She checked the chart she'd been holding under her arm.
"Molly Skye is your roommate. I assume you can find the way." The last part was more statement than question.
"Thank you," Rae replied uncertainly, not knowing what else to say.
Madame Elpis pointed to a door on her left. "The study hall's through there. The glass doors lead to the game room. The door to your right is to my living quarters. You are not permitted there." She led Rae to the winding staircase made of black and white marble. "Juniors are on the second floor, seniors on the third and fourth." She glanced at an old pocket watch hanging on a chain around her neck and, if possible, straightened even more. "Dinner is at five o'clock sharp." She turned, her skirt swirling as she darted into her room, and with a kick of her boot slammed the door.
Rae exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The banging of hammers and screeching whine of electric saws
Reverberated through the hallway. She was so nervous, the hammering could have been coming from her heart and she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
Rae took her time moving up the marble stairs and, once on the landing, headed left to the end of the hallway. Biting the inside of her cheek, she gave a light knock at the slightly open door and peered in. Empty. Rae cautiously pushed the door open and surveyed her new room.
Thick, lush brown carpet covered the floor. Two beds with matching duvets and tan suede pillows rested against the opposing walls. One of which already sat full of half-empty suitcases. Modern closets with ample space matched perfectly with the antique desks built into the wall by each oriel window. Rae inhaled deeply, taking in a mingled sense of fresh paint and the unique scent of antiques.
Finally! It'd been one helluva long day of traveling. Much of the tension ebbed from her shoulders and she cracked a smile for the first time in hours.
Rae dropped her suitcases on the uncluttered side of the room. Her roommate, Molly, must have stepped out halfway through unpacking. Her closet doors were spread open, with hangers already full of clothes and more shoes than Rae had owned in her entire life. She'd never been big on dressing up, but she still knew designer labels when she saw them, and she saw an awful lot of them in that closet. Hopefully, her roommate didn't end up being superficial. Rae stood there, wondering how she'd deal with it if she had to room with Guilder's Next Super Model. Visions of her roommate stomping up and down the room in heels practicing her "walk" distracted her. She didn't hear the footsteps walking down the hallway to the door.
"What are you doing in my room?" Rae jumped and dropped her purse. A fashionably dressed girl stood in the doorway. She had dark, mahogany red hair, the kind women paid insane amounts of money to try to copy. Oh,
Great...well, here we go.
"Molly?" Rae swallowed. "I'm your new roommate."
Molly stared Rae up and down. "Your Rae Kerrigan? I pictured someone totally different. You're not scary at all!" She laughed as if at some private joke. Scary? Me? What is she talking about?
"Name's Molly Skye. I'm from Cardiff, in Wales." She shoved one of her suitcases onto the floor and dropped into the small open space on the bed.
Rae watched, confused. Why would anyone think of her as scary? Because she lived in New York? She had a terrible premonition of being the odd one out, and school hadn't even started yet.
"You're not sixteen, eh? No ta'too?" Molly pointedly dropped her gaze down to Rae's waist, as if she expected Rae to show her something.
Tattoo? Rae squinted, trying to listen closer to Molly's accent. The way she spoke, some of the words were hard to make out. Why would she ask if I have a tattoo?
"My birthday's in three days. It's going to be so awesome!" Molly leaned back on her elbows. "When's yours?"
"My birthday? Uh...not 'til November." Straight into the personal info. Okay, I think I know what my roommate is going to be like.
"November? You do have a long wait." Molly grimaced and shook her head. "Poor you. You'll be the last one inked for sure." She jumped off the bed. Rae noted the strange comment, but Molly's motor-mouth went speeding on, so she filed it away for examination at a later time.
"What'd you think of our room? Pretty cool, eh? Aside from the construction on the floors above us." She shot the ceiling an annoyed look. "I just talked to one of the workers. He said they finish at four. They start again at like eight in the morning! Can you believe that? Who gets up at that time, anyway?"
Wow. Molly can talk without pausing for breath. Rae nodded and tried to keep up. She watched Molly roll from the balls of her feet to her heels, back and forth continually. It was a typically nervous gesture that Rae attributed to meeting new people. Everybody has their issues, but it's still surprising, considering how fast she's talking.
"Can you believe we got invited to Guilder? We're two of sixteen females within a landmass of rich, supposedly unattainable, handsome boys." When Rae didn't respond, Molly squinted at her. "You do know why you're here, right?"
Rae shrugged. Jet lag seemed to be eating her brain cells. "To be honest, I don't really know what you mean. I haven't been in England since I was six, and I know nothing about Guilder." Despite numerous Google searches at home and having my nose buried in the brochure for an hour on the ride here.
"You're not slow or something, are you?" Rae shook her head slowly, wondering her talkative
New roomier had just insulted her. Molly stared, scratching her head. "You really don't know, do you?" She looked up and to the left, obviously recalling something important. She straightened, as if quoting some bit of brochure from memory. "Guilder's a highly sought-after educational institution, but it is primarily a school for the gifted. People who get to go to Guilder know why. The rest of the world has no idea!"
Rae curled her fingers tight, her nails digging into her palms. She felt stupid and also irritated at herself for feeling stupid. It wasn't something she wanted to deal with, especially after such a long day of travel. "What makes us...gifted?"
Molly's eyes grew huge. She paced the room. "Oh, my... My dad's never going to believe this. You seriously don't know ANYTHING?!"
Rae felt her blood pressure rising. She knew she was tired, confused, and nervous. None of that it was helping her temper, but she was determined not to lose it on what amounted to a total stranger. She pressed her lips tight to stop any snappish comment that might escape. Can't the ditz just answer a simple question with a straight answer?
Molly swung around in front of Rae, dramatically squared her shoulders, and put on a serious face. "When we turn sixteen, we receive our ink blot."
"What?"
"A ta'too." She leaned forward and whispered, "It gives us special powers."
Pause...say what? "P-Powers?" Rae tried not to laugh. Had her uncle sent her to an institution for the insane? "You're kidding, right?" Uncle Argyle had told her the experience would change her life, but hadn't said how. Rae figured he meant she'd do some growing up like a maturity thing. And, of course, there was that silly proverb. But perhaps he'd mistakenly sent her off to a giant rubber room.
Molly waved a hand. "I'm serious. The gift is passed down from generation to generation." She blew out an exaggerated breath. "Any guy around here who's sixteen has a ta'too on the inside of his forearm." She dragged Rae toward the window and pointed to the building across from them. "That's the boys' dorm. Let's go outside and walk around. I'll get one of them to show you what I mean."
Her eyes dropped down to Rae's clothes, her lips pursed tight. "Do you fancy a quick change before we go?"
Rae laughed, despite her roommate's serious expression. Molly definitely was crazy, but she had a point. She'd dressed comfortably for travel, and even though she wasn't big on fashion even she drew the line at meeting her new classmates looking like a worked-over hag. She could use some freshening-up. "Yeah, give me a moment."
"I'm off downstairs to try and find some cute boys. Meet me outside when you're ready." Molly left, still chattering nonstop with no one in the hall to listen.
Rae opened the closest suitcase and grabbed the first pair of jeans and top within reach. She hesitated and dug a little deeper into her suitcase. The jeans were fine, they were new, but a white t-shirt seemed too plain. She found a pink Converse tank top with ONE STAR written in sparkles. She pulled out her hair tie, wishing her unruly black curls were straight like Molly's perfect hair. She never bothered with makeup because she had crazy-long eyelashes that mascara seemed to only want to clomp up against, and almost everything else just made her look kinda like a sloppy hooker. Keep it simple, that's what her aunt had always told her. She settled for lip gloss and deodorant, and then grabbed a pair of sandals before tossing her purse under her pillow. Now, time to find out what Molly's been babbling on about, or at least maybe meet some cute guys. She might be invisible most of the time, but eye candy was eye-candy no matter which side of the Atlantic it was seen on.
Once outside, she shaded her eyes against the bright sunlight with her hand and searched for her new roommate.
Molly stood further down the sidewalk, talking to a very hot guy with chestnut-brown hair, dark eyes, and a dimple on his right cheek. It disappeared when he stopped smiling and began talking again, making Rae a little sad. She wanted to see that dimple again. Rae bounded down the steps and then slowed down, trying not to appear too excited. She flinched and covered her head when a loud crashing noise sounded from above, and a large piece of debris flew down from the fourth floor and landed in the blue bin beside her. Face burning, she pretended it hadn't bothered her and continued walking. Molly and the boy turned to stare in her direction.
Rae heard someone holler from above, but couldn't make out what the guy said. Embarrassed by her reaction a moment before, she ignored the shout and kept walking. Molly's eyes grew big, her hands flew to her cheeks, and her mouth dropped open. She screamed. Rae stared as Molly frantically pointed above her head. Rae tipped her head up. She froze in horror when she saw a huge, severed piece of wood paneling balanced like a seesaw on the window ledge several floors above.
The wood scraped against the windowsill, and teetered as if undecided which way it should fall. Oh, crap! A gust of hot, dry wind blew by, knocking the severed beam into final descent. It spun as it fell, and all sound was just gone.
Fight or flight. Rae dropped her gaze, her eyes darting about. The guy beside Molly moved toward her frozen frame. Everything moved in slow motion except for the guy running like a freight train. He was greased lightning, moving faster than anything Rae had ever seen. It didn't seem possible for a person to move so fast. And why am I focused on him when I'm about to be squashed like a bug?
...----------------...
(just ignore some details)
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