A/N: Despite the facts that I don't think I have any readers for this fic currently, I'm still updating because it is my absolute baby and I have no intentions of abandoning it. We get our last important character here and a bit of drama foreshadowing and then next chapter... ploooot! Which I say literally every chapter but hEY.
As impossible as it seemed at first glance, somehow every newby adjusted to the situation at DREAMAcademy quickly. A little too quickly maybe. One moment the school was a mess, the next everyone went about their business as usual. It was almost worrisome how by now Odin hardly even noticed anymore. He, too, had been sucked in by the unspecified system their daily lives functioned in.
Only mere days after the incident, Sting went back to classes, where nobody seemed particularly interested in him. Generally, interest in anything relating to the so-called 'massacre' had decreased in the blink of an eye - nobody could deny it happened, but the sense of terror seemed to have been operated out of the student body. The injured boys from Sting's former gang were never seen on campus again and even though the Dominators never found out when or how, Sting had been accepted into their ranks.
"Hey, hey, what did you put for exercise 3, Gigante?" Jake leaned over the table, in the process depriving everyone else of their visual access to the school books. End of term winter finals were approaching at the speed of light and for the first time, the Judgement Club room was used for determined studying. Lucy had made very clear to them that if they failed those tests and got kicked out of the elite school, they could absolutely forget ever changing fate. It had been a good boost of motivation for sure.
"Jake, we're not even working on the same sheet right now and I'm a year under you, I don't-"
"It's the stages of mitosis." It was a surprise each time Sting actually spoke and a bigger surprise that he had a talent for biology, but nobody could complain. They could use whatever brainpower there was among them to somehow get through these exams. Odin was a decent enough student when he put his mind to it, but he never did put his mind to anything much. David was good at studying, but only helped out Gigante. Gigante in turn would have liked to help out the others, but was bad at explaining. Sting only scarcely spoke and illustrated all lections with creepy examples. And Jake - Jake was just being a nuisance to everyone.
Whenever Lucy entered the club room she found the Dominators positioned quite interestingly all over the floor and couch, hoarsely whispering chemical formulas at each other. The impulse to just turn around and pretend she didn't even know them was almost to strong to resist, but she bravely conquered the mountains of worksheets on the floor to step in and clear her throat. Announcements as everyday. Schedules for training, warnings and rule adjustments - it was all the same and even though these kinds of things were labelled 'updates' nobody felt like it told them anything new. It was this exact feeling they had to bear with everyday that each of them despised for their very own reasons.
Out in the city, time had seemed like an enemy that would not allow Odin to progress a single step - days were the same in and out but they dragged on eternally. It was the only thing that had changed considerably at DREAMAcademy. The days flew by with a speed that made it hard to keep even a fluttering memory.
"There's not really any use in it, is there?" It was surprising to hear Gigante be the one to put the uncertain feeling into words. They were staring at notice board, test results looking back on them in clear letters, black on white. "I mean.. Don't you ever feel like that? We're trying to change our fate and yet we're just following the same life as everyone... Those..." He nodded at the ranking list. "Those are not gonna matter in a new world, when we succeed, are they? So why are we bothering with this...?"
'Is it because none of us believes we'll ever succeed at all?'
The force of his own thought seemed to throw Gigante off-guard, but even though he swallowed it back down as fast as it came there was no preventing it - the group heard it as loudly and easily as if it had been spoken in their own heads. Jake's laughter had scarcely sounded more hollow. "You're so quiet when it's not about something you're told to, Gigante. Is that because you always go on about such nonsense when nobody tells you to speak? Man, you should better keep that mouth of yours shut tight, weirdo."
David turned his back to the results he had barely read. "Someone who keeps doubting won't be strong enough to even carry his own weight. What are you even dreaming about, when you're still like this?" He was in the middle of snapping back at Jake, but Gigante suddenly dropped his arms anyway and turned around himself. It was as if all tension had been dragged from his body. "A strange dynamic... They're both completely caught up, aren't they?" There was no compassion in Sting's words. He looked pleased.
The same afternoon the students of DREAMAcademy saw the first snow of the year. Soft flakes spread over the otherwise sharp edges of the academy and its dorms. The school had seemed cold all along, but now there was a certain fluffiness added up to it. It was more welcoming in a way, but the increased monochrome look also made the areal feel much more draining.
Odin didn't bother to go out to greet winter. Wintery streets were a memory he did not care to respark by recreating the physical sensation. Looking out from his dull window, he could see Sho and his friends laugh. Were they the same as them? Were there people able to find meaning in every single day? The icy window tingled against his barely warmer fingertips. With a creak the door opened.
Opposed to the white and blue outside, the boy who had so rudely entered without knocking seemed like he was burning. A dark tone of skin and bright red hair together with a grin that could easily provoke aggression. He was considerably smaller than Odin, but certainly muscular. As if he owned the place, he threw his dark leather suitcase onto one of the beds. "Yo. You're Odin, right? Name's Glen, I'm your new roommate it seems. Let's get along and all of that."
It took Odin a moment to speak. It should be noted that he didn't look particularly surprised - his usually fairly blank face did not do anything exceptional except stare ahead. Still, he couldn't deny being startled. Even if often it seemed too uneventful to endure, his dorm room had also been his resort up until now - a place completely within his own control, reserved entirely for his own thoughts. An interruption like this, without any previous warning, seemed almost like a defiance of natural order. In short, he'd taken for granted what had never been granted.
"Roommate," he repeated hollowly while his brows came together in an irritated frown. "Nobody informed me of that."
"Well, that pink-haired secretary girl said she was busy with more important stuff and just send me over here. Look's like you're not a priority." Even though the words were respectless, the eyes Glen examined Odin with were not yet condescending. It was an interesting mixture, but it seemed Odin still had time to make an impression on his new living companion. He huffed. "What do they take me for? It was them who asked me to come to this school, they should show some basic respect."
Glen tilted his head. "You too, huh? Isn't it weird how they pick us? My letter reached me... Well, let's say you wouldn't expect a post delivery next to a burned down warehouse, wouldya?"
Odin nodded slowly. He wasn't sure if he was disappointed that it was not just him who'd been called here in strange ways, but he was certainly not surprised. He was getting a feeling that the reaches of the Academy surpassed anything they had originally assumed. He felt electrified - if the city was a web, DREAM was in the centre of it all. Dreams were what it came down to.
If Glen knew the same thing, then he didn't let it show. He'd taken to taken a mass of clothes out of his suitcase - it was strange how he had so many, all in red, when the school had obligatory uniforms. He only looked up once again. "By the way, have you guys turned those Wheels some already? Or do I have to do all the work?" Odin tensed up.
There was a crash. A lively bird outside had lost its way in the snow and collided with their freezing window. The noise shot through the room like a gun-shot, but neither boy moved.
Down in the yard, Ryan carefully observed the last twitching of wings. "No way in... or out, hmh?"
