Elementals: Entwined

Chapter 9: Tiffany

Unfortunately, I wasn't being kidded around.

The room we stepped into put my apartment at home to shame. The space almost seemed endless- There was a bed, a large desk, a sofa and an entire ensuite bathroom, and the room was still large enough to hold a party. It was done in a tastefully stylish cream colour, though still with the concentric circle design that featured in the hallways. Considering I'd grown up in an apartment with a doorman downstairs, and had gone to the kind of school where some of the students were millionaires, you'd think I could totally fit in at a place like this. Maybe it was the fact that my mother was never really around to make home warm and comfortable, but luxurious places had never made me feel relaxed. The whole building, and especially this room, was making me uncomfortable.

"Um...," I looked around the room again, trying to ignore the new things I was noticing -like the clearly expensive imported rugs. "Is this the smallest room?" I squeaked.

"The rooms on each floor are pretty identical to one another," Amy said nonchalantly. She gave me a look that told me to calm down; my best friend knew me too well.

 "So every room on this floor is like this?"

 West rolled his eyes, flopping down onto my sofa like it was nothing. "Well, yeah. My room's next door. The layout is pretty much the same."

I frowned at him. He looked a little too comfortable on that seat... "Wait. This is something you're used to, isn't it?"

West frowned back at me. "What?"

"Maybe you don't know this place, but you're used to luxury like this. That's why it seems like nothing to you."

I knew I was right when a shutter seemed to come down behind his eyes. West had already been distant, but now he was suddenly cold as ice. "Not your business." he snapped. "Don't you have some party to get to?"

Helena raised an eyebrow. "You accidentally stick a stake up your ass?" She flopped down on the other sofa. "On second thoughts, I'm starting to wonder if the party should be had in here."

"Not happening," me and Amy seemed to say at the same time. I laughed, relieved from the change of subject. No matter how interested I was in finding out West's past, it seemed a bad idea to piss off a guy carrying around a crossbow. I was still wondering how the thing hadn't been confiscated. Besides, the list of questions I had was still about a mile long. "Where even is the party?" I asked, hoping to not sound like an ignorant fool.

"Outside, in cabin four." At my confusion, Uri elaborated. "You'll find that this place isn't like the boarding schools you've read about in fiction. The teachers don't care about what time we're up and about, as long as we get to classes, and we can do whatever we like in the cabins outside -including hold parties. But if you let your powers get out of control, they'll be on you like a ton of bricks."

"So let me get this straight. The teachers don't care about giving me a curfew, making sure I'm not illegally drinking, and having sex -all of which things I don't do. But if I lose control over the powers I don't even know how to use, then they'll give me detention?"

   Diana nodded, her tone wry. "Sounds about right."

    I sighed. Great.

                                                                      ****

When we got outside, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Somehow, being inside all that time had felt incredibly stifling, and I was glad to be free and able to breathe in some fresh air. Tom and Helena led the way towards cabin four whilst Diana, Amy and Uri pointed out parts of the school to us.