Until it happened, Luke had never wondered how the first trip to his dorm room outside of West Artena would go. He didn't expect to have to take a break from walking every minute, thanks to the still-healing injuries from Jerry. He wasn't expecting that his dorm room was on the top floor—five flights of stairs up, since the elevator door sensors had been damaged by a drunk bodybuilder the day before.
But the last thing he was expecting was to be slapped by a group of girls that thought he was following them—even though it wasn't his fault they couldn't walk faster.
So now he found himself stranded on a landing between floors two and three, his course materials on the floor. Agents gave him a weird look as he struggled to bend over (apparently some of his ribs had been bruised in the spar too).
Finally, the world took pity on him, and a boy around his age stopped to help. "Rough day, huh?" he said sympathetically.
Luke realized that his bandages looked like he'd been beat up by a gang of bullies, but he wasn't about to correct the boy. "Uh . . . thanks," he said, trying to hide his suspicion.
The boy stepped back as Luke tried to take his stuff back. He brushed his ashy white hair out of his eyes. "You're not in a condition to carry these nightmares." He shuddered, as if the textbooks brought back bad memories. "How about I take these to your dorm? Where do you live?"
"They said . . . uh . . ." Luke checked his schedule. "The Cactus Dorm." He felt ridiculous as he said it. He looked at his schedule again, cursing with whoever had messed with it. It'd probably been one of Jerry's friends . . .
But then the boy's blue eyes lit up in recognition. "Hey, I live there too! You must be our new dorm mate! I'm also a first-year. The name's Arcadia. Agent Arcadia."
Luke hoped the introduction was just a coincidence. But as he found playfulness staring back at him, he found that hard to believe. Still, he smiled gratefully, then followed behind the boy.
"My name's Luke," he said, trying to break the silence when Arcadia kindly let him rest on the next landing. "I just arrived—"
"I know everything about you." Arcadia smiled.
"Like what?" Luke tried to act calm, but his mind was racing. Just how many people knew about his job as the mole-catcher?
"You're the one who beat Jerry to his knees two days ago, right?" Acadia gushed. "You beat him to a pulp until he was a moment away from death . . ."
"Well, that's not exactly what happened . . ." They reached the fourth floor.
". . . When he woke up, he tried storming into the infirmary to get to you, but the senior agents stopped him. I heard he's been planning his revenge for the past few days. Everyone's super excited."
It's great that they don't know my real identity, Luke thought, but I don't know if this is better.
"The EAUD doesn't get that much action, does it?" Luke asked.
"There's the occasional troublemaker here and there, but not much," Arcadia admitted. "Everything's pretty calm until graduation. Then you get your post in Central Artena, and . . . well, you probably know."
"Yeah." And Luke really did. Maybe even better than Arcadia had guessed.
The rest of the journey was a blur. Arcadia was kind, funny, and trustful. If he was the mole, then he was a really good one. He introduced Luke to his friends that passed them in the hallway—and every single one of them only needed one good look to know who he was. He pointed out of the windows at the other buildings on campus. Then he inserted his own key and held the dorm door open for Luke to limp in.
"What do you think?" Arcadia said expectantly.
"It's . . . better than I was expecting," Luke admitted.
And it really was. The green carpet spread everywhere in the room that ten people could easily live in, while paintings of various cacti hung on the walls. Four bunk beds with white, crisp sheets flanked the each side wall. Towards the front of the room, the drywall gave way to taupe draperies. They were drawn to the side, and Luke found himself staring at the lush green lawn of the quadrangle through the windows.
Luke and Arcadia weren't the only ones there—which made sense, since it was late afternoon. The last classes for the week had been let out over an hour ago. Three of his new roommates were busy studying on their beds. When Luke and Arcadia entered, they barely gave them a second glance.
Meanwhile, the rest didn't even seem as though they noticed Luke. They were gathered around the pool table in the middle of the dorm, discussing something in a hushed tone. One tall blond kid shifted, and Luke let his eyes lazily drift across each of the boys. His gaze finally landed on the leader.
His blood ran cold.
His new roommate was Jerry. His face was a bit disfigured from his black eye and nose brace, but Luke would recognize that smirk from a mile away.
Suddenly, it all made sense—how Jocelyn seemed to know as much about Jerry as she did about Luke, and her strange request for him to watch over the third-year at night. But that wasn't important right now.
Luke spun around and reached for the door. His hand slipped off the doorknob, and it closed with a loud click!
He closed his eyes, cringing at his mistake. All conversation had stopped, and Luke knew that everyone must've been looking at him.
" . . . Arcadia, who's that?" Jerry demanded with his rough voice. "Is he one of your nerd friends or something?"
"He's our new roommate," Arcadia said coldly, but Luke must've been imagining it.
"I don't like him already. Look—he can't even face us without peeing his pants! I liked our other roommate better."
"Then why did you do . . . that to him? You know he's never coming back."
Old roommate? Jerry did something? Okay, now Luke was very curious. It took all of his might to not spin around and demand to know what had happened.
"The little baby deserved it," Jerry growled. "I thought I had made it clear—we do not talk about that ever again. Maybe you need a little bit of discipline to remind you what the Cactus Dorm expects. But first—the newbie needs an introductory lesson."
Luke heard footsteps near him, and then a hand clapped over his shoulder. Jerry's voice was surprisingly kind, suppressing the hatred in his tone. He sounded more like the person Luke'd met outside of the library. "Hey, newbie. My name's Jerry. I'll tell you right now—being friends with that loser,"—he jammed a finger towards Arcadia, who was watching coldly from the side—"is the worst mistake you could ever do. Since we're rooming together, why not join me as I climb up the ranks? I'll make it worth your while."
"Can . . . I think about it?" Luke asked in an octave deeper than he naturally spoke in. He stubbornly stared at the cactus plushie that hung from the entranceway.
There was a pause, as if Jerry was trying to place his voice. But then he gave up. "I get it. This is a big deal—but it's also a risk I'm taking too. I'll give you a day. Now, why don't you turn around so we can get to know each other?"
"I don't think you want to see my face. People . . . usually attack me when they see me." Mostly Jerry, but he wasn't going to say that.
"A bit of disfigurement won't affect me, I promise. An explosion melted half of Mr. Pauper's face when he was serving. He only has one functional eye—and the EAUD still lets him teach in the shooting range!"
Here goes nothing, Luke thought. He spun around, then stared deeply into Jerry's eyes. He watched them go from confused to a glimmer of recognition—and then pure fury.
"You promised you won't attack me," Luke reminded him.
"Die, Jenson!" Jerry roared, then leaped at Luke as though he really wanted to kill him. For a moment, he was right in the boy's space. The closeup of nose brace, together with spittle flying, made him resemble a deer with really bad antler hygiene. Luke wondered about this as two of Jerry's gang pulled him back from the boy, who hadn't even flinched.
"Luke!" Arcadia was there, grabbing his shoulders. "Are you okay?"
"How's the recovery going after that beating, Jerry?" Luke taunted, completely ignoring Arcadia's slack-jawed expression at his insults. "Imagine losing to a blindfolded person—I hope none of your crushes were in the crowd."
Jerry roared again. The veins on his neck threatened to explode. Two more of his friends had to step up to block him. "Let go! Luke, when I get my hands on you, I'll make sure you'll never be able to walk again!"
"Enough," Arcadia said in a steely tone, stepping forward. "Jerry—don't push it. Miss Jocelyn's already mad at you. Do you want me to tell her about you threatening the new student when she comes to check on us?"
Jerry didn't look like he'd listen. But to Luke's surprise, that seemed to calm him down. He pulled his body free from the grasp of the others, then glared at Luke. "You're lucky you have protection, boy. Stay out of my way—I won't promise I'll go easy on you if you bother me."
Sure enough, Jerry and his cronies had already taken the far side of the room. There was one empty bottom bunk tucked beneath the window on the other side where Arcadia and the boys who weren't glaring at Luke were, so Luke found it fair to agree with him. "Let's not bother each other. But that won't stop me from figuring out what you're hiding."
He couldn't resist the jab. Luke knew it wasn't really a smart idea to let an alleged mole know that he was suspecting him, but he couldn't stop himself.
Jerry only smirked. "Same to you, Jenson. I'll make sure you're out of the EAUD before exam week. You're not the first guy I've driven out."
Suddenly, Luke's feet grew numb. Was that supposed to be a warning—that Jerry wouldn't hesitate getting rid of him if it came to it?
The five thick deadbolts on the door now seemed very useless.