The Raven's Vision

Chapter Five

                "I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch everything go wrong."

                                                                                                         -Lemony Snicket

I couldn't stop replaying the whole sequence in my head as the day went by. That thing, with the red eyes -- it's unnatural. Does that happen to anyone who falls into that... emotion? Can anger change the color of one's eyes?

No, of course not. Although, when Jenna gets angry or nervous, I notice her eyes are more red than usual. But that could be the lighting of the room, or my imagination. Besides, Jenna has a unique tinge of brown in her eyes.

I felt guilty for not paying attention to Annie. I haven't seen her around since class, and she didn't show up for lunch.

Thus, the courses finally came to an end, and the first thing I did was head straight to the library. Not to read, but to look for Annie. Part of me doubted she'd be there.

Yet I was lucky -- I caught her just as she was packing her binders at a nearby table.

"Hey!" I called out.

Annie looked up and smiled. "Hey, Gray."

"So... where were you at lunch today? I didn't see you around."

"Oh... I was, uh, preoccupied with things..." She replied.

"Um, alright. By the way, sorry about what happened back in philosophy."

Confusion crossed her face. "How come?"

"The whole thing with Trevor... I wasn't quite focusing on our discussions." I explained, a little surprised with Annie's reaction.

"Don't be! Trevor was... a little off today." She spoke. "Besides, we have plenty of time to discuss our project! This was merely our first class."

I nodded, still a bit in shock. If it were Jenna, she'd be lecturing me 'til dusk fell. And maybe even mention it here and there whenever I messed up, or something.

We took off to the auditorium (or chapel). There was going to be an announcement tonight, and every student (including those in the Juve) had to partake.

They just began advising students to come down through the loudspeakers. You're not allowed to skip it -- teachers and watchers spread out everywhere, searching for people that might be dipping it. They even check every dorm room.

After being stopped by a teacher for our names, we took a seat at the nearest pew, at the very last row. "I wonder what this will be about..." Annie mumbled to herself.

The seats were already full, meaning only a few people hadn't arrived yet. It took about twenty minutes before a teacher stormed in with two students; Trevor and Jenna. "That's all of 'em, Headmaster."

"Good -- now, let's get on with this."

I peered over to Jenna, and noticed that as she took a seat at a nearby pew, she was mouthing something to me. Unable to understand, I shrugged it off, and focused my attention to the Headmaster, whom stood at the stone altar.

It didn't take me long to lose interest. These assemblies are usually about how the school's doing, behavior of students, reviewing rules, and so forth...

But then he started to talk about the ballroom, which then sparked my curiosity.

"As you may or may not know, this building was constructed back in 1885, and only became Riverfall Boarding School in 1900. That was one hundred and thirty years ago, or at least will be on March 15th." The Headmaster explained. "So, as a celebration, we will have a dance that night in the ballroom! But not just any dance... a ball!"