❝It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.❞
— Socrates
I didn't sleep at all last night.
It's a part of the reason why I'm half dead right now. Yesterday was tiring enough for me and since I couldn't sleep, I passed my time by finishing the assignments that were given to us. We had to submit them by Monday, but it looked like I was almost with everything. By the time I completed them, it was already four in the morning. I could hear Jude's light snores as I lay on the bed, debating whether to sort out Cammy's situation by risking everything or just letting it be.
I ended up deciding it by a simple coin toss - the result was ridiculous.
"Fuck it," I had said before texting an old friend of mine at five. I knew she wouldn't reply to me right away and even if she would, it would take me even more time to come up with a reply for her. I can't face her after what I did but she had said that I can call her anytime if I needed a favour.
In the morning, I leave before the others do. I make my way to the dance studio slowly. It's open when I reach there and I hear someone humming inside the room. Recognising the voice, I open the door and the sound stops. Valeria turns to face me and her blank expression is instantly taken by a smile. My eyes go to a box-like thing wrapped in red wrapping paper. She follows my eyes and reaches for the gift, grabbing it and walking behind the table to put it back on the desk.
"It was from a student," she says without looking up. Her voice is calm right now and she seems like a different, more relaxed person like this. "She got expelled last year. She'd have been in the third year if she was still here but I was fond of her. She gave me this before she left."
I nod, wondering why she even bothered with the explanation even when I'd said nothing to her. "Why did she get expelled?" I ask her.
She smiles, shaking her head. "She simply didn't live up to the expectations of this school." She looks up at me. "Anyways, why are you here? Most students wouldn't even bother to come here at six in the morning. Did you even sleep? Because you look dead right now."
I flash a small smile. "I had trouble sleeping last night. I was here to take my mind off some stuff but you're here so..."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I won't disturb you at all. I was just going to go to my personal office right now."
"No, actually," I say, walking towards her desk. "It's better that you're here. There's something I'd like to talk to you about."
"With me? Right now?" she questions, a confused expression on her face. "Go ahead, Harley."
I brief her about the situation and my speculations about it. She looks at me calmly as she listens to me, not interrupting me even once as I speak about the incident with the group last night and how both the groups were not prepared at all about it. When I'm done, she just flashes a small smile to me, asking me to sit down.
"I'm afraid I'm not allowed to tell you any more than I already told you about the evaluation right now. You'll have to wait till the evening for it. However," she pauses, "please don't mind my lack of reaction right now. But the school does take action against a student who inflicts violence against the other students. I received a similar complaint from two students of the other group via text last night as well. It isn't something new, though. During their first group activities, the conflicts between the students tend to grow."
"Thank you," I say with a small smile. "Are you going to deny everything else I said to you?"
She shakes her head. "I'm not going to deny or agree with you. As per the rules, we can't be biased towards any of the students. It wouldn't be fair to the others if I tell you things that you're not supposed to know. However," she leans on her elbows, resting her face on her palms, "I do know that you're faster than the others and that you're not the kind of person to memorise things. You're actually smart, Harley, aren't you?"
I don't reply to that. I didn't know that the teachers are allowed to talk to their students like this.
"Pretty far from the current topic but tell me one thing." She looks right into my eyes. "Where did you really learn to dance like that? I honestly have trouble believing you're self taught. I can believe that you have no stage experience but to have taught yourself like that? I can't imagine it."
I scoff, reaching for my bag. "I watched the people around me and learnt it myself. I'll not get anything in return if I lie about it, will I?"
She nods. She doesn't drag the conversation on after that. Instead, she looks at her watch and sighs. "It's time for breakfast. You should leave. And sleep early from next time, yeah?"
I don't want to leave but I grab my bag and leave the room. It feels colder now. I'm wearing one of my red shirts with black tights and almost shivering, thinking about why I didn't feel cold back when I was walking here.
I walk up to my room and grab my uniform, walking to the bathroom. I take a spare stall and change into it. When I'm out, I get my bag from my room and move to the common room, where many of the students are sitting there and talking loudly. Some of them have just walked in whatever they were wearing last night. Aarav and Aaron are sitting on the couch together, bickering. When they see me, they smile or say, "Hey, Harley," or just wave.
I sit at the small couch near the table where Elliot's sitting, doing his work. I scroll through the rankings of yesterday's quiz and the results are a little surprising to me. No, a specific name on the list is a bit surprising to me.
FIRST ASSESSMENT QUIZ: TOP TEN RANKERS
1. Harley Kingsley | Calliope
2. Rhett Carter | Melpomene
3. Yua Matsumi | Clio
4. Anaya Srivastava | Euterpe
5. Hayette Fetcher | Calliope
6. Julian Hayes | Calliope
7. Atlas Elias | Euterpe
8. Remi Lorenzo | Euterpe
9. Lian Zhao | Melpomene
10. Ana Vorklov | Clio
Hayette's name on the list is what catches me off guard before I realise that she was the twenty fourth rank - she is the kind of person to be academically smart but still a bully. I'm scrolling through the rankings of the other years when I hear someone say something to me.
"Hey," I hear Leo say and turn to face him. I smile a little. "How was it with Sam yesterday?"
I sigh, closing my phone. "He'll be fine. I think. What happened after we left?"
Leo rolls his eyes and takes a seat right next to me. "He freaked out and yelled at Line and called us all whores for defending you and Sam. He's crazy. How did he even make it into this school? I think they should do a personality test before admitting people in this school. If Remi pulls a stunt like that during a performance, he'll be expelled."
"He won't pull something like that in an official performance," I tell him, "He's not dumb enough to do it."
"True," he agrees with me. Probably hearing our conversation, Elliot turns to face us both with curious eyes. Up till now, he was buried in a notebook, probably doing his assignments.
"It's true, then?" Elliot asks us, "That guy, Remi, and Sam got into a fight last night?" Leo and I exchange looks and nod, an understanding that people don't need to know everything that was said yesterday between us. I really want to know how the news has managed to reach Elliot. If he knows it, then most people must have gotten a gist of the situation as well.
Leo leans back, closing his eyes. "I feel so bad for the Sam guy, though. He got beaten up pretty bad last night. Do you think he'll be there for the evaluation today?"
I shrug. "I don't know. He should be. It's compulsory for everyone to attend that session. Need to do something to keep them both apart."
"And you too," Leo points out, "From Remi. He seems to talk a lot when either of you are around. If you don't do it, I'll break his face."
"You guys really seem to hate this guy. Probably the first time I've heard you talk like that about someone, Leo."
Thinking about it now, I've never heard Leo speak shit about anyone or even curse much. He's the type of person to stay calm and the one who steps in to calm two people when they're bickering or fighting. Making these kinds of people mad is a huge and dangerous feat, you could even say it's an achievement.
"Are you done with your assignment?" Leo then asks Elliot, who just shrugs and shakes his head.
"I don't know how to solve the last few questions. Did you both do it?"
"Nope," Leo says and the two of them look at me, expecting an answer.
When I realise that I have to answer, I sigh and nod. "I'm done with all of them."
Leo jumps forward to get a better look at my face, probably to make sure whether I'm kidding or not. "You're joking, right?" Elliot asks me in disbelief. "You can't be done with all of the seven assignments this soon."
"But I am," I say and I'm not lying. "I couldn't sleep last night and didn't have anything to do so I just finished them."
"You finished them because you had nothing else to do? What kind of a person does that?"
"Hey, I told you I had nothing else to do." Leo shakes his head, muttering something under his breath. "You can't expect me to scroll through my phone all night, can you?"
Elliot turns to face us completely after closing his notebooks. "Harley," he says, "can I copy your work? I'll change some answers, of course, but please-"
"Yes! Me too. Please," Leo exclaims, holding my arm and tugging at my shirt as I close my eyes, leaning back with a ghost of a smile on my lips. "In fact, just let me copy yours and I'll try to understand everything on my own. If I don't, then you can explain them to me."
"Yes, exactly," Elliot chimes in.
I let out a small laugh. "What am I, your personal tutors?"
"Yes," the two of them say in unison and I sigh again because tutoring someone is not my forte.
"No, just copy it for this once. I'm not going to tutor you or anything. That's a pain in the ass."
Elliot and Leo exchange looks. "I mean," Leo mutters, scratching the back of his neck, "Fair enough. I'll do it tomorrow. Just give your work to me."
"Yeah, same," Elliot says.
"Good luck identifying my handwriting."
That's when Elliot's face drops. I'm not surprised that it does, though, since he sits right next to me during classes and sees me writing some stuff. My handwriting was average before the accident but ever since I've injured my right hand, I've lost a great amount of control. I don't let it show in my dance somehow but my handwriting now is like a doctor writing a prescription for a patient.
Speaking of my arm, after the sport evaluation and the amount of matches we had, my hand has begun to feel numb randomly. I know I need to give it enough rest but there's nothing I can do about it right now with the dance classes going on everyday. Valeria would sure give me a break if she learns what my arm feels like but I don't want that for now.
"I completely forgot your handwriting," Elliot mutters under his breath, sitting back. "Trying to understand it would take me like, two days."
"You're exaggerating. It's not that bad."
"Wait, what? Harley's handwriting is bad? Even worse than mine? Finally, I met a match for me. Thank you for being my competition in something I can actually beat you in."
Elliot rolls his eyes. "I haven't seen your handwriting, idiot. But I'm pretty sure it can't be as worse as hers"
"Why are we even discussing this?" I snap in annoyance. "Don't you guys have anything better to do?"
"You were the one who brought your own handwriting in the conversation," Leo deadpans and I don't reply because technically, it was true. At the same time, the topic wouldn't have been brought up if they hadn't asked to copy my homework. Just then, my phone vibrates against my thighs and I immediately open it, checking whether it's the person I texted this morning or not.
"Ah, rare sight," Leo comments. "Harley being excited for someone's text."
"I'm not excited," I mutter under my breath but I don't think either of them heard me. My heart literally leaps out of my mouth when I see that the girl has replied to me. I didn't think she would but she did.
Hey Lee, how've you been? You literally cut all contact from me didn't you? I was shocked when I saw your text and you don't know how bad I'm smiling right now. Do you want to maybe like, call sometime? So tell me, how can I help you, my lady?
I bite my lip so hard that I can taste the blood in my mouth.
I begin to type in my reply, knowing that it had the capability to change the flow of the conversation in a minute.
I know I can't force her to do anything at this point.
I can only hope she understands without me explaining anything to her.
Author's Note:
IM SO SORRY FOR THE BORING CHAPTER I PROMISE ITS GOING TO GET BETTER yes it's one of those days i'm doubting amber eyes jfhksdjfh ok thanks for reading besties have a nice dayyy dont forget to vote or comment tysm
- evy