ACONITE ACADEMY (girlxgirlxgirl)

Chapter L; Good luck

"The end or the beginning?"
27

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It all started with rain.

It all ended, with a fire.

Wide flames licking up the sides of the building, smoke raising up into the night sky.

Sirens in the background, hot orange light coming from the sides. The building, completely on fire. The people still inside, a smile over her face.

10 days until graduation. 50 years since her neighborhood was turned into the slum that it is today.

Genevieve is crouched down over a chair. Her hair is still silver, although now it's newly dyed. Her legs are spread as she stares down at her roommates on the floor, playing some game she doesn't care much about. Seven has colored her hair again too, now it's a dark purple, she claimed it was for a play but Genevieve knows she just wanted to dye her hair now that she also did. Minnie is chewing on old cookies while staring at them, she's feeling homesick apparently. Lucky her, only ten days left and first now does she feel homesick. Genevieve has felt homesick since she first stepped on these grounds.

Azure is of course, nowhere to be seen. She was arrested for assault, kidnapping and threatening with a gun. Thanks to her sob story, nobody believed that it was Genevieve's gun, and she's walked free ever since. The gun "mysteriously" disappeared, and is still securely tied to her thigh, even now that one and a half years have passed since the incident. To think, only ten days left, ten days of her life here.

Genevieve has to admit, it's not been as bad as she first believed.

After Azure was arrested and Adeline left to take over the mafia, her uncle died almost a year after the incident, things have been pretty peaceful. Minnie, Seven, the twins and the rest of the roommates quickly apologized to Genevieve and explained their side of the story. It took a few weeks, but Genevieve forgave them and moved back to the dorm. Some nights she spent with Cori and Cosima, cozy up in the red leaders room, while other nights she spent with her roommates. They earned her trust again through various methods.

The first method was simply including her in everything. Minnie took over the leader spot after Adeline, and made sure that Genevieve was included in the meetings and the work of a leader dorm. Seven started accompanying her to school again, and Anni followed. She claimed that she didn't like it but Genevieve saw her secret smile. The twins painted with her and the two ballet dancers always wanted her with them when they practiced. At first Genevieve felt overwhelmed, but after awhile, she learned not to be so closed off anymore. Things started to look better. School didn't feel so hard anymore, not when she had so many friends at home and two "girlfriends" by her side. Yeah, they haven't made anything official yet, purely not to complicate things in the political world of Aconite Academy.

The second method was to help her. Nights when she was relapsing, going back to drinking or couldn't sleep, but Cori and Cosima were too busy to help, they would be by her side. Minnie would drink with her, make sure that she didn't drink too much, or simply rip it from her hands and watch a movie instead. Anni would gladly read a long and boring book for her until she felt so sleepy it was easy to fall into dreamland. Together, they earned her trust and friendship, after months of spending time together and fixing their mistake.

They earned not only her trust, but a lot of other things. They earned her protection. With her skills and gun, she made sure that they always felt safe, even with the loss of Adeline and Azure. When things got tense between departments, they could always trust Genevieve to help them through it and make the right decisions. They also earned her wisdom, her quick thinking, and their ears were blessed with her amazing piano skills. Maybe best of all, her relationship with the two other leaders earned them a safer, kinder and better atmosphere between the leaders. Slowly but surely, the three departments learned to coexist, at least a little bit.