Chapter One: The Principal
First impressions last. A famous saying, but we all know it is not true.
"Cloud, be nice." mom's voice brought me back into reality.
"Yes, mom." I replied sarcastically before we entered the room.
A warm smile greeted us as we entered. The principal gestured us to come and take a seat and my heart was pounding as I sat and made eye contact with him. Silence engulfed the room. I felt like minutes had passed and our eye contact felt as though it would never end. I lowered my gaze like I found something fascinating on the legs of his desk and my shoes. I spread my fingers on my lap, secretly wiping the cold sweat from my palm. I noticed the clock on the wall and saw the second hand moving slower than it should be. I gulped down the lump in my throat and returned my gaze back at the principal.
"I have talked to your former school…" I sighed as I heard those words escape his lips. My gaze dropped again and I braced myself.
I imagined him continuing with "I'm sorry but we cannot accept your son." just like what the other schools told us.
But to my surprise, he said "Now, I want to hear your side of the story."
I told him the events that led to my expulsion and he never said a word until I finished. "So, what do you think is the reason why you were expelled?" he asked.
"I think the school was biased with their opinion." I answered, much to my mother's dismay.
The principal laughed. Mom's eyes widened and she gave me a hard, but short squeeze on my arm.
"You have a lot of guts to say that." He said wiping the tears from his eyes.
"I'm not sure how to take that…" I muttered focusing my gaze on the floor again.
"Take it as a compliment." He said with a smile.
"Junon Military High School department… Your school is famous for…"
"Disciplined students?" I suggested with an eyebrow up.
"Excellent students." he says leaning closer. His fingers locked together and he leaned against his chair again. "Do you think my opinion is biased?"
"No?"
"It is biased. I graduated high school from there. But don't worry, I think their decision was also biased."
A part of me was starting to like this guy, he's not so bad.
"Here's a copy of the academic calendar, the school map, and the enrolment procedure. See you on the 9th of May."
What just happened? I had been asking myself the same question over and over again.
"I'm really happy that a school finally accepted you." Mom said as we left the school in a taxi. I rest my chin on my palm and glanced at mom. She was smiling and her right hand was on top of her chest.
"I'm really happy I got accepted, mom, but where will I live?"
It took mom a couple of minutes before she answered, "I could ask an old friend."
She turned to the driver and said, "We'd like to go to change our destination to the Traveller's Den."
The driver nodded and we took a left from the highway. It's like every building here is competing for the world's tallest structure; one tall building after another. We took a left then a right, we took a couple more turns that I lost track of where we were. I was getting worried. There are rumours of taxi drivers kidnapping their customers especially when they know that they are not from the area. Mom is relaxed as if she knows we're on the right track. My hands were getting sweaty and I felt the air getting heavier. Did he spray something into the air? I thought I was going to hurl or lose consciousness. I imagined the worst possible outcomes. He takes us to the woods, kills us, and buries our lifeless bodies somewhere, never to be unearthed. Or, he might take us to an abandoned building and ask for ransom since we just came out from a very prestigious school. I tried to take in longer breaths to calm myself down. I clenched my fist and thought of possible ways to protect us. Okay...We're slowing down. I checked the surroundings and saw we were still in the city, not in front of an abandoned building or in the forest.
"I'm sorry for making detours, miss. I just wanted to avoid traffic." The driver said as we reach our destination.
"It's okay." mom replied.
I imagined "Traveller's Den" as a map store or something related to travelling but, it is actually the name of a condominium. My mom steered me into a cake shop beside the building. She bought a cake before we went into Traveller's Den. After a security check, we headed to the elevator and mom pushed the 7 button.
"Mom, where are we going?" I asked.
"To a friend's house."
The elevator doors opened and we took a left and another left. We walked to the end of the hall and mom rang the doorbell for the room 4A. The locks clicked open and we were greeted by a scary-looking man who seems like he's in his thirties. He has pale skin, jet-black hare- Sorry, I meant hair. He was wearing an apron which had a drawing of a big hare which caught my attention. His eyes completed the whole evil-look. They were red -so red that you could get the feeling that he's staring into your soul if you look at them. He's the perfect person for the role of a demon king or a guy who would kidnap children and sacrifice them. Urgh... just thinking about it sent shivers down my back.
"Long time no see." mom says. I just gave a polite smile masking the terror I feel inside.
We entered and I placed the cake on the counter and the scary-looking guy took out a knife from a drawer. I imagined him wearing a black cape and standing in a dungeon. I also imagined him using the knife he was holding on poor humans who stumbled upon his castle instead of the nice inn a couple of meters away.
"You remembered that Vincent likes cake." the man told mom.
"Where is he?" Mom asked.
"In the other unit. We bought unit 4B too." He answered.
"Cloud, I forgot to mention, this is Uncle Val."
"I nicknamed him Val because Grim sounds scary." Mom said.
"His real name is Grimoire Valentine." she whispered when Uncle Val turned to get something from the fridge.
My eyebrows met in the middle. Is his first name Valentine or Grimoire?
Uncle Val walked towards us whille balancing two trays on either hand. He smiled and handed me one of the trays."You should go and say hi to Vincent. It's been a long time since you guys met."
"It has been a long time, I don't even remember him. When did we meet? When we were babies!?" I thought to myself. I take the tray and went to the other unit. I rang the doorbell.
I rang it again.
A vampire opened the door and I said, "Vincent?"
"Yeah?" He answered.
Vincent, like his dad, has pale skin, black hair, and those scary red eyes. If his dad was a demon king, he was the perfect prince. He also has bloodshot eyes and has (sh- are those fangs!?) long and pointed canines which I first thought were fangs. He wore a red bandana which kept his hair from covering his face.
"Your dad told me to drop by. My name is Cloud, by the way."
"Come in."
Vincent sat on a chair and resumed playing the game on his Xbox. "This explains why his eyes were like that." I thought to myself. I handed him the cake but he ignored me so I placed it on the floor beside him. I ate my slice of cake and watched the screen as he played. When his character died, he restarted and saved the game. He turned his attention on the cake and smiled.
"Did dad buy the cake?" he asked.
I shook my head.
"What's your name again?"
"Cloud." I answered.
"Ah... Long time no see."
"Uh... I don't remember us meeting." I admitted.
"It's okay, we were really young when we first met." He said. "You're in 2nd year high school, right?"
I shook my head, "I got held back."
"That's sad."
"Yeah…"
"I-I'm transferring to Shinra's School for the Talented." I said breaking the awkward silence I caused.
His eyes widened. "You're transferring to-"
He was interrupted by a knock. "Vincent, you're getting a roommate." Uncle Val said as Vincent opened the door.
"Don't worry... It's just for a couple of months... err... until we find someplace we could rent." Mom said halfway through our cab ride home.
"You guys agreed on such short notice!?" I yelled.
"You don't have to raise your voice."
"Mom's right." I thought to myself. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Well, it took a couple more deep breaths before I felt better. We were silent for a long time. To be honest I was thinking of words that sounded politer. Thinking took a couple more minutes. I could feel the small tension in the air and the cab music was not helping at all.
I took another deep breath.
"Sorry. What did dad say?" I said in calmer tone.
"He agreed and he said he was happy for you." Mom said without looking at me, making me feel worse.
I plopped on my bed as we arrived home. School for the talented, huh? I thought to myself. I don't even have a talent.