I sat at one of the long wooden tables in the cafeteria, a cup of hot chocolate steaming between my hands. A few swollen marshmallows floated on top, dissolving slowly into the chocolate in a creamy swirl. A strawberry danish sat on the plate in front of me, growing cold.
I hadn't dreamed it- Kaname, the Night Class president, was there in the chapel. But what had happened after that? Had I fainted? It didn't make much sense- maybe between the cold and the shock from the nightmare...
Someone was approaching my table. I looked up and immediately my stomach dropped.
Zero.
He had a look to kill on his face, too. So not only had I been found by a dorm president, I'd been reported too. And now the prefect was coming to lecture me.
Zero pulled up a chair across the table from me, turned it around, and straddled it with the his arms folded on the back. I didn't meet his eye.
"I heard you were outside the dorms last night," he said, almost nonchalantly. I took a tiny sip of my hot chocolate. I hated getting caught.
When I didn't answer, Zero leaned a little closer. "This won't be over any quicker if you just sit there. Were you in the school last night?" He was taking on his classic murderous tone. I nodded reluctantly.
"I was," I answered in a quiet voice.
"And why were you there?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"I was reading," I said, with a sinking feeling. Of course he wouldn't believe me, he didn't know about my nightmares. He didn't know how badly I had to escape that suffocating dorm room last night...
"Reading. Really?" His voice dripped with mocking sarcasm. He cocked his head at me. "Now why were you reading outside the dorm last night?"
"I couldn't sleep." It was the truth, but I knew what he would think of it.
"You couldn't sleep." He looked away for a moment, and I saw a muscle in his clenched jaw twitch. "You couldn't bloody sleep." This he said through clenched teeth. Suddenly he stood, twirling the chair out of the way with one hand and slamming the other down in front of me. My chocolate sloshed in its mug and the plate holding my danish rattled. I couldn't help but flinch.
"You couldn't sleep, so you casually break curfew to go read. Yes, well done, Miss Hawthorne. Do you think you're above the rules? Hmm?" He asked, expecting me to answer. I turned my face away.
"No," I replied.
"Look at me!" Zero snapped. Reluctantly, I met his gaze. His pale eyes were flinty. "We have rules for a reason at this school. Did you not think there would be consequences for breaking them? Did you think you were immune?"
I closed my eyes and shook my head, looking down at my hot chocolate. Some of it had splashed on my hand, burning the skin pink. "No," I said in a defeated voice.
"Then why did you break student curfew and deliberately ignore school policy?" he asked.
I didn't answer. Zero bent down so that his face was level with mine.
"Miss Hawthorne," he began, "as soon as you finish here, you are to report to the headmaster's office. I'll be waiting right outside that door to make sure you show up. Do you understand?"
"I understand." My breakfast had lost its appeal. I'd had a bad enough night already, and now I was busted on Christmas Eve.
"Good," Zero said shortly, and then he turned heel and walked away, every step echoing in the empty cafeteria. The door clacked shut behind him.
As soon as I was alone, I stood up and took my plate and chocolate to the dish window, where I unceremoniously dumped them into the reciprocal. Going over to the soda fountain, I got myself a cup of ice water and sat down to sip it slowly. It helped a little to settle my stomach.
Right then I wished Christine was there with me. She'd been in trouble before, more often than me. I wouldn't be nearly this distressed if she were there, joking about how detentions weren't so bad, and maybe she could sneak me something later...
Zero banged the cafeteria doors, making me jump. I was almost finished with my water. Draining the last swallow, I tossed the paper cup into the trash and got my coat from the back of my seat. Zero held the door for me as I walked out, and then clapped one hand on my shoulder and led me forcefully out of the Sun dorms and down the path to the Headmaster's residence. He opened the glass doors to the office in the front of the building, half-shoved me inside, bowed shortly to the Headmaster, and left.
Not the best start to my Christmas Eve.
The Headmaster was much kinder than Zero, but I still went back to the dorms in low spirits. I wasn't suspended, but once school was back in session, I had detention to serve. I was already getting funny looks from the handful of Sun dorm students on campus over the holiday. Soon it would be the only gossip of the school- Cat Hawthorne got busted. Even Christine would rib me for it.
A snowball fight started up midmorning when I emerged from the office. I was very nearly nailed in the face, and I hurried back to the dorm, slipping and sliding on the crusted snow until I was safe back in the warm. A few gas logs were in the fireplace, but the gas wasn't on. Shivering, I stomped the snow out of my shoes and hung up my coat and scarf on the walnut stand.
I gazed out the window for a few moments, watching as one boy in jeans and a green hoodie slipped and fell face-first in the snow, sinking several inches and emerging powdered in white. He was the tallest in the class- the Swedish boy. He ruffled the snow out of his dirty blond hair and laughed, tossing an armload of snow onto another student running by. His clothes were already wet. Was he just immune to the cold?
Climbing the stairs, I went to the girl's common room and picked a DVD from the shelf. I wasn't in the mood for anything Christmas-related, so I picked a favorite fantasy and put it in, curling up on one of the plush couches with a knitted wool afghan.
About halfway through the film, a few girls came up and gathered around the Keurig coffee maker in the corner. The smell of French Vanilla wafted in the air. One black-haired girl sat down on the couch next to mine, cup in hand. I didn't speak to her, and she didn't speak to me. Either news hadn't spread yet, or she just didn't care.
That suited me just fine. I didn't feel like talking about it.
I caught a few knowing glances from the other girls as they walked out the door. One winked clumsily at me. They probably thought I was trying to spy on my Moon Dorm crush, poor girls. Everyone had theirs- even the boys.
I stayed quiet and stayed low for the rest of the day. When my movie finished, I went to my room and wrote in my journal. When I ran out of things to write, I doodled idly, just trying to pass the time. I only left to get a sandwich and a bag of chips from the cafeteria. When I finally went stir-crazy, I put my shoes back on and took my coat and scarf off the stand, going down the path to the school.
Someone had put a "No Skating" sign up on the first post of the bridge. I peered over the edge- sure enough, there was a big break in the ice. Someone had fallen through. Shaking my head with a sigh, I crossed the bridge and went into the school, paying the library a visit. I stayed there until the shadows stretched long and a red-gold light began to shine through the west-facing windows. I left my books in my private reading corner and stood, stretching my legs. I was hungry enough, but without much of an appetite. I checked my watch. It was a little past six-thirty.
Ah. There was a Christmas Eve mass in the chapel. It wouldn't hurt to attend. Gathering up my things, I went to the chapel to save my favorite spot.
Qui Regis Israel intende, qui deducis velut ovem Ioseph...
A trio of male students stood on the front row of the choir loft, singing the Latin in a beautiful unison melody. I waited at my seat as each person lit the candle of their neighbor, sending the light down each row. It hadn't yet reached the balcony.
Qui sedes super Cherubim appare, coram, Beniamin et Manasse.
Thou that sits above the angels appear- a call for the Messiah.
They finished the chant and held the last note for several long moments, letting the sound echo into silence through the small chapel. Despite most of the school being away for the holiday, every seat was filled. Both dorms had attended, too. The headmaster sat along one wall, watching over the crowd of students and teachers. Several girls from my wing of the Sun dorms fidgeted where they stood, trying to keep from touching the white-uniformed student just a few feet in front of them. Another Moon dorm student was standing next to me. I held my peace. He did too.
The trio of singers began another chant, this one wordless, and with more harmony. The candle flame at last reached my corner of the chapel, and the night class boy reached over to touch his burning wick to my unlit one. I made sure only our candles came into contact. Holding my candle before me, I watched the wax slowly melt and the flame delicately, gracefully waver and stretch long. The lights around us went dim and then went off- they turned off the lights. The trio started to sing again, this time in English, for the rest of us to understand and sing along.
O come, O come Emmanuel...
I half-whispered the lines I knew of the song. The student next to me did not sing at all. There was a rustling going down the row, and a few muffled exclamations along the way. When the first verse was finished, I glanced over to find the boy gone. In the rest of the room, the last of the white-uniformed students were filing out the door, sending a cold breeze blowing into the room that put out half the candles. In the balcony, mine was the only one to remain burning.
When the service finally concluded with the clock tower bells ringing the ninth hour, I wondered why the night class students had left so suddenly. And all at once, at that. What drove them out?
I would not find out for some time, but a small clue appeared the next night.
Christmas Day was just as quiet as Christmas Eve, save for the party in the Sun Dorm lobby. Presents had appeared under the tree, courtesy of the student council's work wrapping all our mailed-in packages in bright paper and ribbons. I had one box, a nice sizeable one, that held a gray lace-knitted beanie, new boots, and a lap desk, complete with an inkwell and a set of fountain pens and calligraphy tools. The label read, Much love, Aunt Agatha.
I didn't know I had an Aunt Agatha. When I asked around, they said the box had been addressed specifically to me. There was no mistake. Shrugging, I climbed the stairs in my slippered feet and took my gifts to my room, feeling very thankful to my aunt, whether I knew her or not.
The rest of the day, I joined in the festivities. Trouble or not, it was Christmas. I joined in packing snow for a snow fort, and helped defend it when a troop of boys from the other end of the dorms bombarded it with snow. I helped light the candles on the stairs and around the lobby. I sledded and built snowmen and sported my new beanie over my play-frizzed brown hair. When we all stumbled in to the cafeteria at last, I found my appetite had returned in force, and enjoyed the cook's special Christmas feast as much as everyone else, even getting an extra slice of the blueberry pie.
When the sun set, however, and I found myself alone in the school's courtyard, a premonition hit me. I didn't know what it was, but I had a terrible feeling.
A black car drove up to the gates.
Stumbling a little, I went back inside, out of the way, and watched as a black sedan idled while the gates opened, and drove down the long cobbled path to the courtyard in front of the school, right between the snow forts we'd built this morning. It stopped, turned off its lights, and a tall, red-haired man stepped out of the back. He wore a long black trench coat buttoned over sleek black riding boots and a clean white cravat. His face was pale and angular, with high arching brows and cheekbones and eyes so black I couldn't make out the pupils. His lips were pale, almost lavender, and very thin. His hair was long enough to brush his collar, and it looked dark under the lamps over the front door of the school. I turned away from the window before he could get a look back at me and walked very quickly down the hall, wanting to get back to the dorms. Curfew had been extended for today, but I wasn't going to take chances again.
I heard the door open as I turned the corner and a few voices speaking in a different language. Someone had emerged from the front office and greeted the newcomer first in Japanese, and then in English. An accented voice replied to the second greeting.
I kept going, stopping once I had reached the opposite end of the school. Why was I so frightened? What was with this new arrival that sent my instincts screaming?
I recalled my nightmares and shuddered.
Footsteps behind me made me whirl. There he was- standing a hand taller than me, and I wasn't a short girl. He raised a hand in apology.
"I did not mean to startle you. Merry Christmas, my lady," he said with an audible German accent before walking past me and out the door, headed for the bridge to the Moon dorms.
Ah. A new addition to the night class. He fit the beauty stereotype perfectly, too. I was sure that my entire dorm would be pining after him within a week.
As for me, I couldn't shake my gut feeling. Taking a deep breath, I left the school and went back to my dorm.
