Enneagon
Chapter 4: Duckling
Chapter titles? Rhyme or reason? Haha. No.
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[Yecateryn, Briox]
[9.7.2065]
It was the iciest morning they'd had since February, and no one made any point of trying to hide their surprise. It was only early September, the weather had no business being that cold when the first chills of winter weren't due for at least another two months. All along the glass-walled streets, people were bundling themselves up in coats typically reserved for mid-winter, uttering muttered curses at climate change under their breath.
Echosong of the former SkyClan Academy was no different.
Admittedly, she wasn't walking out on the sidewalk. In her situation, that would have been nothing short of foolish. The whole point of closing the Academy and moving to some snotty floating school was to protect their safety, and strolling around on the open street in one of the biggest, most crime-ridden cities in Briox would have been straight up moronic.
She sat cross legged in the backseat of a plush car, sprawled out on the cushions, silently thanking the Stars that they'd thought to put in seat heaters the previous winter. She was warm and toasty; the people on the street were not.
Her driver, a potbellied little man named Harveymoon, had his gaze fixed firmly on the traffic lights. The lines at each intersection were ridiculous. No doubt the icy weather had reduced half the city to sitting in their warm cars. The result? An unbearable amount of traffic.
"We'll be late at this rate", she complained to Harveymoon, propping herself up on her forearms. "Can't you go any faster?"
"I'm very sorry miss, but I'm afraid the traffic situation is out of my control", Harveymoon explained patiently, his gaze still settled on the traffic lights.
Echosong groaned and unbuckled her seatbelt, flopping onto the warm seats. If they were going to sit at this damned traffic light for an hour anyway, there was no point in keeping her seatbelt on. In the driver's seat, Harveymoon turned around, looking alarmed.
So he'd finally stopped looking at the traffic light, had he?
"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to put your seat belt back on", he said worriedly.
Echosong ignored him.
In front of them, the traffic light switched to green.
…
They made it to the launch station with three minutes to spare. "Hurry up, hurry up!", she called back at Harveymoon, who was teetering along under the weight of a very large suitcase. "It launches in three minutes, move it!"
Harveymoon staggered, hefted the suitcase onto his back, and hesitantly broke into a stumbling run. Thankfully, the launch station was only single-story, or else they would have had to scale stairs.
Sure enough, Echosong was the last one in, with Harveymoon staggering in behind her. Leafstar, who had been conversing with the security chief in a hushed, anxious voice, turned to Echosong with a look of relief.
"Ah! Nevermind. There she is."
Leafstar gave Echosong a motherly smile, then said, "Cutting it close, aren't we?"
Harveymoon gave a loud, breathless gasp, then rasped, "The traffic, ma'am. I apologize."
Leafstar waved her hand dismissively. "Nevermind then. Mr. Colt, if you would be so kind as to activate the I-M?" Colt, the Yecateryn security chief, nodded. He turned to Echosong. "Miss, please complete the identification process, you're the only one that hasn't. Then I can activate it."
…
[Hexagon Academy, Briox]
[9.7.2065]
Echosong knew that the I-M process had only lasted minutes, but damn if it didn't feel like hours. She stumbled out of the I-M and hit her knees on a white rug, feeling sick and disoriented. How did Hexagon students do it? That had been one of the worst traveling experiences she'd ever had. The feeling of being doused in ice water, and that horrible spinning…
She looked around, now thoroughly bad tempered. The room was windowless and perfectly round, with a floor made out of reinforced glass. The launchpad was drilled into the floor in the middle of the room and covered in a white shag rug, which Echosong couldn't fault them for.
The launchpads weren't exactly appealing to look at, with all their metallic tubes and blinking lights. Echosong looked down and yelped, the feeling of dizziness coming back full force. It was like staring down at a massive technicolor map, with clouds drifting lazily along underneath Hexagon's engines. Anyone else might have found it interesting, but Echosong, in her bad mood, only found it unsettling.
With the floor of glass, it was like standing on clouds with nothing supporting you. It was freaky, that's what it was.
Echosong looked up, determined not to give the horrible glass floor any more of her attention. The walls were covered in art and pictures of students and school awards and-
There was a woman, sitting patiently at a desk with her hands folded in front of her. She was very beautiful, with her hair hanging down her back in a silky, ash-blond curtain. She had an elegant, angular face and blue eyes, with fine wrinkles starting to form in the shape of crow's feet and in smile marks around her mouth.
She donned a cool smile, surveying Echosong with impassive professionalism.
"Welcome", the woman said, her voice just as even and measured as the rest of her. Even her voice sounded posh, what the hell-
"My name is Mistystar, head of the River sector. You should have received an envelope prior to your arrival, may I see it please?"
Echosong hauled her suitcase over the rug and rifled through it, finding the envelope tucked neatly into an inner pocket. Mistystar's smile didn't move. It stayed as impersonal as ever, and Echosong's fingers tightened on the envelope.
"Why?", she asked suspiciously.
Mistystar blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Why do you need this? What's in here?"
Mistystar's smile stayed firmly put, like it had been pasted onto her face with extra-strength super glue. That was something worth admiring, Echosong supposed. Keeping an impenetrable veneer up no matter what people said to you.
"Well", Mistystar informed her, "that envelope contains a USB flash drive that holds most of your private information, such as your GPA and your academic transcripts, which we use to determine what classes to place you in. Normally there'd be correspondence from your parent or guardian which we use to pick a sector for you, but since you're already chosen for the Sky sector, that wasn't necessary this time."
Echosong was put off.
Her responses were too cool, too calm, too professional. She was like the embodiment of flawlessness, with her neatly pressed blazer, her sleek hair, and her too-shiny smile. She was too perfect, and Echosong neither trusted nor liked her.
But Mistystar had answered her rather disrespectful question in a calm, unruffled way, and Echosong didn't have a valid excuse not to do as she said. Back down in Yecateryn, Leafstar would be getting ready to step into the I-M, and the last thing Echosong needed was for her headmistress-turned-sector-head seeing her being rude to an authority figure.
So she handed the envelope over and glared at Mistystar, as if daring her to make a snide comment. Mistystar just blinked innocently at her, and Echosong felt the moderate irritation slip into strong dislike.
Mistystar's shiny, unflinching smile.
Inhuman, in Echosong's opinion.
Mistystar slit the envelope open with one manicured fingernail and pulled out the flash drive, plugging it carefully into the side of her computer. Reflected in a laminated picture frame behind Mistystar's head, Echosong could see as letters and numbers flashed across the screen in long strings.
The computer was analyzing Echosong's whole life in the span of seconds.
Next to Mistystar, a printer started spitting out paper. The manicured hand pulled a stack of papers from the printer's mouth and pushed them across the desk at Echosong. Her schedule, already decided within minutes.
"Your schedule." The perfect, rounded nails covered in spotless navy polish, tapped the paper once.
"A school map, your dorm assignments, and your locker information. The rest of your sector should be here soon."
And sure enough, Leafstar fell out of the I-M and tripped over a fold in the rug. Then she went over to Mistystar and started conversing as if they were old friends.
Echosong couldn't help but feel betrayed.
…
[Hexagon Academy, Briox]
[9.7.2065]
The noise in the Dining Hall was practically deafening. People were excitedly visiting each other at tables, trying to talk to all the people they hadn't seen since March. Ivypool forgot that many of the other students hadn't seen each other in person for over six months sometimes, because she'd been together with all her friends in Newport Beach.
A year ago, she would have grumpily put her earbuds in and tried to drown out all the noise. Now, she just smiled and shifted in her seat, tuning in to the conversation happening at her table.
Her table. The words felt strange in her mouth even after she'd spent months together with the others. Her friends. Last September, she wouldn't even have bothered considering about it, believing that it was such a distant hope that just thinking about it would do nothing but cause pain and waste time.
She'd never been more happy to be wrong in her life.
She pushed the thought out of her head.
"So the Skys got here this morning", Foxleap mused, spearing a baby carrot absentmindedly with his fork. "Yeah, I saw some of the servants carrying their stuff down the hall", Icecloud chimed in. "There was a whole trolley dedicated to one girl's shit."
"Oh Stars", Cinderheart remarked.
"That sounds familiar", Hollyleaf grumbled. "One girl's stuff took up an entire trolley?"
Icecloud, laughing, nodded.
"Has anyone actually met the Skys yet?", Lionblaze asked, settling himself onto the table on his forearms.
"No, but here's to hoping they didn't bring along another Heathertail", Jayfeather deadpanned. "I don't think I can tolerate another year of some snobby rich girl prancing around like she owns the place."
"Amen", Ivypool concurred, reaching for a gravy boat. She had just started pouring the gravy over her plate when the Firestar stood up from the staff table.
The scene was so different from what she was used to. Firestar was standing in the middle of the Dining Hall, addressing the students in person. Just a year ago, that would have been Bluestar on a screen, looking coolly indifferent as always, and seeing the change with her own eyes made the difference so stark that it was impossible to ignore.
Firestar cleared his throat.
"Good afternoon, students", he began. "And welcome back to another school year. Before afternoon classes today, I'd like to make a few crucial announcements."
The few people who had been carrying on their conversations as Firestar spoke quieted.
"As I'm sure the grapevine has made quite well known by now, Hexagon will be receiving a large number of transfer students this year. They are coming from SkyClan Academy, which was forced to close at the end of last year, and will be occupying the former Dark sector. The Sky sector will be firmly off limits to all Hexagon students until the Sky students have settled in, so I don't want to hear about any attempts at snooping."
No one missed the way Firestar's eyes seemed to linger on Foxleap.
A few people laughed.
"I'd also like to welcome two new teachers to Hexagon's ranks. Students, please welcome Silverhawk and Rushtooth." There was a smattering of polite, if not bored, applause. Then, a single person by the edge of the room raised his hand.
It was a Shadow senior with a pug-like face. Firestar called on him, looking wary. "Yes, Barkwhisker?"
"Why the hell are you Headmaster? What happened to Bluestar?", Barkwhisker asked. The sheer rudeness seemed to take the entire hall by surprise, because the whole hall sat in stunned silence, staring at Barkwhisker. Blackstar, being Shadow head, rose to his feet next to Firestar and snapped, "Barkwhisker. My office. Now."
Barkwhisker slouched out of the room with Blackstar in tow, and the room erupted into hushed muttering. Even if Barkwhisker had done it in an extremely unstrategic way, he had voiced what the entire school had been wondering since March. And worst of all? The eyes of the entire Dining Hall were now pinned very firmly on Ivypool and everyone else at the table.
Lionblaze ducked his head, trying to avoid the stares. Ivypool couldn't help but think that was rather uncharacteristic of him, recalling how Lionblaze had thrived in attention for as long as she'd known him.
Bramblestar, the newly appointed Thunder head, rose to his feet and started trying to regain the students attention with very little success. Ivypool's neck prickled, and she found herself sorely tempted to pull up her hood and hide from the scrutinizing stares. She was starting to wish that the heads could just explain to everyone what had happened. Maybe if the student body knew just how close they had come to being killed, they might lay off on the intrusive curiosity a bit.
With everything going on, the opening of the double doors felt almost like fate.
The doors opened with an audible creaking, and the muttering and staring of the room stopped in an instant.
There were people walking into the room. It looked to be a group of about fifty, walking in neat rows behind a woman I had never seen before. She had pin straight auburn hair and a stressed, ageing face. She was dressed almost as crisply and professionally as Mistystar, in a stark white blazer not unlike Rain's. Her blazer had pointy, padded shoulders and gave the woman an almost angular appearance.
Her students, who were filing in behind her, didn't look much different than their Head. They were dressed in the seldom-worn Hexagon school uniforms, the white dress shirts, black trousers, and gray blazers embroidered with the Hexagon coat-of-arms.
Ivypool hadn't so much as seen the uniform since Honeyfern's funeral service back in March. She actually didn't mind the uniforms, the trousers were warm and wonderfully comfortable. But this was on a whole new level of out of place, wearing Hexagon's formal wear into a casual event like lunch.
She could hear the clicking of the Sky students' heels in the silence. Ivypool hadn't bothered to look longer than a few seconds and had already returned to her food when Icecloud gave her a sharp jab in the shoulder.
"Don't look now", she muttered.
Ivypool looked. And immediately knew who Icecloud was referring to. A girl right behind Leafstar, leading the pack.
A beautiful girl.
Where Heathertail's beauty had been in the way she looked flawless and delicate to the point of being ethereal, this girl was beautiful in the way she was present. She was small, only about five foot three, but with a well-trained, muscular body. Her hair was coal black and tied back in a waist length French braid, the wisps of black framing a high-cheekboned face with mint rock green eyes.
Ivypool couldn't help but notice the way her classmates fell into step behind her, like ducklings following a mother. This girl. It took a certain kind of person to inspire fear and admiration in a whole group of people like that.
"Oh for Star's sake", Icecloud sneered. "Another one. Great."
Icecloud was too distracted to see it, but damn if Ivypool didn't. The way the mint-rock eyes settled on Icecloud with a dangerous flash.
End Chapter 4
Before anyone starts complaining that Echosong's a Heathertail knockoff, read the rest of the damn fic. Kay? Kay.
::cough:: Well that was aggressive.
Azra out!