Nixie

Chapter 6

I looked at the guy standing in the kitchen. No no no no. Why did the universe hate me? Then he turned around and saw me. I turned around and I went back into my room and closed the door. Then I let out a mumbled scream. Out of all the houses I could have placed in, they chose to put me in a house with HIM!

I picked up all my courage and went back to the living room. He still was in the kitchen, with his back to me. I quickly moved to the couch and sat down without a sound. I didn't think he noticed. Of course, faith decided against me and he had to sit down on the couch opposite of me with a plate filled with sandwiches and a glass of juice. He raised his eyebrows and me, but didn't say a thing. I decided to escape and went to get some lunch, but instead of going back to the couch, I opened the door and with a plate and a glass full of water balancing in my hands, I walked out to the small creek. I sat down, took off my shoes and put my feet in the chill water.

It felt so good. I finally relaxed and started eating my sandwiches. The sun was high and warm and soon my skin was super hot. The sleeves were sticking to my skin and I made a mental note to myself to change dresses as soon as I went back inside. I looked at myself through the water and noticed how pale I was in comparison to most kids here. Like always, you could see the blue veins in my wrist and the small whiter dots across my skin. God, it looked horrible.

"Nix! Nixie! Damn it, girl!" I heard in the distance. A low mumble came out of my mouth. "Geez, Nix!" I felt a cold touch around my eyes and suddenly a lot of light entered my sight. "Goddammit, Dylan!" I jumped up hit my head against him. "Did you have to do that?" I asked him rubbing my forehead. "Well, you were asleep and we have to be at the so-called 'fortress' in less than ten minutes. Yes, I did," he said. I groaned and stood up. "I'll be back in a sec," I said and raced inside, put my plate and glass on the kitchen counter, ran to my room to change my dress and put my shoes back on before I went back out to Dylan. "I'm ready. By the way, why did you come to me instead of going directly to that place?" I asked him. He was already walking slowly and I jogged to catch up with him. "I live close to you, just two paths away and since I know you would forget the time, I decided to get you," he said. "Smartass," I said.

Apparently, the fortress was a big room, one that could easily be used for a huge part, to give you a perspective, inside the walls around the academy. It was the first time I entered something and I wasn't surprised by something different from my expectations. It was just like the outside, the walls were made of big stones, the roof had low chandeliers and the floor was uneven. Small wooden tables lined the walls and above each was a portrait of somebody, I, of course, didn't know.

At the far end of the huge room, I saw Luna, Kiana and Matthew joined by a few others. We quickly walked up to them and Matthew sighed, "Finally, a minute later and you would've missed it." "Missed what?" I asked. "The most important tour in your life," he said with the most serious face. I smirked and crossed my arms over my chest. He started talking about the room we were in. It was the memory hall and, apparently, the academy's vaults were hidden around here, which explained the name of this place. After that, he took us out of the hall and back outside. He pointed to the two gates and said, "The border gate can only be accessed with permission and the city gate is always open for students. It leads to the center of our city." I looked at it. You could bet I was going through that gate often. Matthew then led us across the biggest path and pointed to different buildings and places. Along the south and east side were all the homes, the big building I got lost in was the Pertina headquarters, in the north were different sport fields and indoor buildings, the center was filled with four broad towers. Each tower had three stories and the roofs were lined in a different color for each tower. Around the towers were two semicircular one-story buildings. One was covered in gold and the other in silver. "This is where your crew will be decided and to which formation you'll belong. Remember, each Formation is like your family. You keep them close and you work together. Your crew will be the ones you will share the tides with. It will decide when the power is in your favor. The ceremony will take place in three days. After that, your classes start and you will participate in almost all the activities." With those words, he turned around and continued the tour. He showed us some other sites that didn't seem important to me. Finally, we were at our last destination: the box. It literally was a box at the border gate. He told us every delivery was brought here and distributed from here all over the campus. We went in and each got a package. Dylan and I received our huge trunks and finally we were allowed to go back to our homes.