"So how was your first day?" Jamie walks with me from my room to the bar where I always go to tend to the drinks before work begins. He was the first one to run up to me and look me over as if checking for my skin to be black and blue before he had walked me to my room to dress only to then wait for me to leave once I had finished.
"Everyone stared at me." The moment the words pass my lips his body relaxes and a soft hum leaves his own plump lips.
"Well you are a very beautiful girl Lil." His now blue eyes meet my own deep blue eyes as he speaks and I watch as a soft smile forms on his beautiful face.
"I had kept my face hidden." He scoffs at me and shakes his head making his curly hair move along his cheekbones as he does so.
"Love, you have the body most men would kill other men to be able to touch. Have you even heard half of the women that see you? All they talk about is how jealous they are of your looks and perfect body. Besides, if it was me seeing you for the first time I think most of my attention would be on why you would hide your face, and if that large Wolf of yours would eat me alive if I even tried to get close to you." He chuckles as he talks and I nod making my curly black hair trail along my back in soft bounces.
"That is because he would." He giggles at my words and shakes his head.
"I know, but they do not. They are just curious about you, the stares will stop once they realize you will not show them any of your attention. Of course this will also fuel rage within some other girls but that is just as easy to get through as the rest. Women can be so damn dramatic sometimes I swear." He shakes his head so I look at him in slight curiosity.
"Is that why you like men?" He looks at me from beneath his long thick lashes only for a smile to form on his beautiful face.
"Honestly I feel more attracted to men than I do women, but I never truly seem to see it, the beauty in them is easy to see but I never feel the attraction to any of them. I think it is because my mate is a man and is close enough to feel, but not close enough to see yet." He jumps on the bar as he speaks and I walk behind it as I begin to fix the bottles once more. I have heard that word before, mate. It is said to be something special but I had never been told what exactly, but then again it is not as if this mate would be able to help me fill the emptiness that I hold, if I even have one. "Are you here tonight or on the floor?"
"I will be dancing in Jazz tonight." He lets out an excited squeal and smiles at me with pure excitement shining in his falsely blue eyes.
"Good then you can be my partner." I nod in agreement only to stiffen as a large hand tangles in my long hair but the moment his scent of oranges and pine fills my nose my muscles slowly relax into their normal stiff state.
"How was school Lil?" I give him a shrug as I pull my bag out from under the bar just to set it on top of the bar and pull out each of the papers that the teacher had passed out for our parents or guardians to sign.
"The teacher wishes for these to be given to him tomorrow morning." His lips fall into a pout as he takes the papers from me and I close my bag only to drop it back onto the floor where it had been a moment before.
"So unfair." He walks around the bar to sit on one of the stools beside Jamie only to set the papers on the bar and begin to look over them all, and with each one he reads he will move to the side only for Jamie to pick up and read over with furrowed brows.
"This school is insane." Jamie frowns as he reads over the paper about our curfew before switching it out for the paper about the trips the teacher had spoken to us about. It is as if he is the one going to school instead of me. "Do you even know what happens on these trips?" He holds up the second paper as he speaks but I do not even look at it as I push a bottle of gin onto the shelf in front of me.
"They wish to test what we can do." I feel it as they both look up to take me in as if they are looking for a lie.
"What kind of tests?" Azriel frowns as he speaks and I hear him take the page away from Jamie to look it over once more.
"He said it would be to test what each of us already know, and what we can do. Then a second trip to see how much we learned over the year." Azriels blonde hair brushes over his sharp cheekbones as he slowly lifts his head to look at me and I turn around to lean on the shelves behind me as I fold my arms over my chest.
"Are you alright with this?" His blonde brows furrow as he speaks and I tilt my head making my own long dark hair trail across my back and over my shoulder.
"I would like to see what sort of tests they speak of and how it works. I am sure that I will be fine if that is what you are both so worried about. It will be the entire grade gathering for one trip, most likely the same trip twice. After I go to the first one I will know what to look for on the second." For a moment they only stare at me, then Azriel looks away with a nod and a soft sigh but Jamie only watches me as if afraid that he may lose me.
"If you are alright with it then so am I." His words make Jamie frown but he remains silent as he watches the pen slide across the page. "What about these tournaments, what are they?" He holds his middle finger to the page as he speaks and Jamie lifts a brow as he leans over to read it.
"The school wishes to teach us how to fight, how to keep ourselves and each other safe if we were to ever be under attack but they wish to make it more interesting. They will hold a class that teaches us how to fight or how to run away from the enemy and lose them. Once they think we are ready we will be split up and thrown into an arena to fight one another." They both go still as I speak, neither of them looking away from me as if they are trying to see if I am trying to joke, and after a moment of silence a soft laugh fills the tense air breaking it apart only for Sammy to walk into the room and lean on the bar beside me.
"I am going to guess that you do not mean they will make you fight to the death?" His falsely gray eyes stare into mine and I nod.
"Of course." My brows furrow as I speak and he shrugs. "The teacher said that there will be no foul play, no breaking bones, no killing, no harming anyone in any way. We are only to pin them. The teachers just wish to know what we can do and see how much we need to learn. At the end of the year we will be put through another tournament to see what all we have learned, and if we had paid enough attention during class." The second I finish explaining they all three nod as if they finally understand and Azriel lifts a brow at me once more.
"Do you wish to do this also? You are alright with being in an arena fighting to show your strength?" My eyes meet his as he speaks and for a moment I only stare at him. Unlike most of the people here, he was the one I told some of my past to, actually it was more complicated than that. If I had the choice, I would have never allowed anyone to know of my past, but at the time I could not control all of my magic, and each time I had fallen asleep somehow my memories would shove their way into his mind forcing him to watch the torture and projects I had been put through by that man and his people. It is one reason why he is so protective of me and Jamie is no different.
Slowly I nod, answering his previously asked question and his brows furrow. "I am alright with the idea. I may be able to learn things I never knew before." I shrug with a tilt of my head and he slowly nods as if he is worried about me and slightly confused on if he should allow me to do something that may bring back one of my worse memories.
"Alright. What about everything else?" I let my eyes travel to the papers resting in his large hands as I think over everything that the teacher had spoken about today, but none of it truly matters to me, and he must know this because he nods with a sigh and begins to sign each of the papers resting before him making Jamie frown in worry. Once he finishes I take the papers and push them into my bag before I lean back against the bar to see Jamies lips slowly pulling into a smile.
"So, did you find out who your roommate is?" His false blue eyes shine as they meet my own and I nod making him squeal. "Is he cute? What is he like?" His soft voice is full of the same excitement that makes him bounce up and down on the bar making a groaned chuckle leave Azriel as he watches him.
"Has he tried anything?" Sammys gray eyes grow dark as he speaks and I know that his usual purple eyes would be turning black as his anger fills him.
"No, I have not given him any time to even speak to me." Which is true, we only have a single teacher all throughout the year, we have only one class, never switching or moving to a new class as I had read about in books. So instead of allowing him to speak to me, I would focus on my work, and each time he tried to speak to me Ala would flash those sharp teeth of his in warning, or let out a low growl that would make the whole class turn to see why he sounded so angry. "He is beautiful Jamie. He has black hair with this blue hue when the sun hits it, and not gray but these bright silver eyes, and he has such a deep voice that I know you would immediately be obsessed with the sound." It is true, anytime a man walks into the club and has a deep voice like Azriels, our bouncers, or even my teacher, he will always begin to drool, as Sammy puts it. Because I have spent most of my time with him over the years I know exactly what he likes, and this man would make him fall to his knees just as his two friends would.
"Oh he sounds yummy. Maybe I can come pick you up after school sometime and take a peak for myself." He winks at me making Azriel chuckle at him just as Sammy scoffs.
"You would really use our precious baby like that?" Jamie pauses with a frown, his previously swinging legs freezing mid toss as he thinks over Sammys words. After a short moment he smiles once more as he tosses his legs back and forth just as he had been doing a second before.
"I would never use her, she is far to precious to me. But I will pick her up from school from now on." Azriel nods at his words only to plop his head in his large hands as he folds them on the bar in front of him.
"I would be more comfortable if you did that too. Even with Ala at her side I fear she will be harmed in some way." Jamie nods at him as if he agrees but says nothing more. "Now that all of that is finished, how are you doing Lil?" I look at Azriel as he speaks and tilt my head.
"I am fine."
"Hell yes you are." Jamie winks at me as he speaks and Sammy chuckles with a shake of his head.
"I wish to redecorate the club." Azriels brows lift as he takes in my words and I feel how each of them fill with curiosity as they look around the room as if taking it in for the first time.
"Do you already have an idea on what it is that you wish to do?" Sammy tilts his head making his blood red hair brush along his high cheekbones hiding his freckles from us as he does so and I nod.
"Yes, I was going to draw it out over the weekend and show you next week." Their brows lift once more at my words but I do nothing to look at them as I stare at the large stage on the other side of the room.
"Why take that long?" Sammy asks and even though I do not look at him I can see how his lips fall into a pout that has most women, and even some men, falling into a lost stupor.
"It usually only takes you a day if that." The same pout forms on Jamies face as he talks making Azriel lift one of his perfectly shaped brows.
"These classes will take up most of my time during the day, the time that I do not spend in class, will most likely be spent within the library or here working. I will have to talk to my roommate sooner rather than later since I am his Buddy and that is what is expected of me, so I will have to add studying with him to the list, and even on weekends I will be busy with classes. The teacher told us we never truly have weekends off they are all used for gym and our training. So if I had to say an exact time it will be finished, I would tell you it would be anywhere from now to next month." They stare at me as if I am insane, or had grown another limb, but once I feel the feathers shift beneath my flesh I know it is just disbelief at my words.
"When will you ever sleep?" Sammys deep voice is soft, and even though it is full of a brotherly worry his words are still able to make both Jamie and Azriel stiffen at the mere thought of me sleeping.
"I will be fine Sammy." He stares at me for a long minute before he lets out a sigh with a soft nod of his head.
"Alright, but if you need to sleep call one of us and we will figure something out." I nod at his words and he smiles. "Good, because I do not want to see our girl sick." He moves to bump his shoulder with my own and just like with Azriel and Jamie, Ala does nothing more than watch with a soft thump of his bushy white tail.
"Alright ladies, time to get to work."