Chapter 4
It's finally lunchtime at Academy of Evil and Nadia is still not use to the time shift where she has to have a normal day at night time so having lunch at 1am. She can feel the exhaustion overtaking when she finally reached to the canteen as she take the tray and see what options of food they have, although to her it feels like there are no options as the signs says 'Mysterious Meat' on a smelling look meat and 'Vegetables...I guess?' on a moldy looking green slob, making Nadia going green herself from nausea. Before she can recollect herself she has been pushed by the student behind her.
"Move it." she has no choice but to move on without choosing any food and just got to the drinking area where she just got a glass of water. She turns around to see the canteen absolutely packed with different students filling the tables, all of them unapproachable to go towards. She's starting to panic, wondering if she should just have her water in the toilets when she sees a waving hand from a familiar figure. She squints her eyes to see it's Ginny asking her to come join them. Nadia's happy to see a familiar face and runs towards them knowing she is in safety. She got to the table to see Ginny is not alone.
"Hey Nadie! Do join us and I can introduce you to my friends." Nadia looks at the table and recognize one of them, a tall slender blue-skinned man with a smug look on his face, making Nadia shiver and not in a good way.
"No need, I've already met this radiant beauty." Nadia has no idea what to say and Ginny just looks confused,
"You two already met?" N. Tropy just nods his head,
"When Madame Amberly was showing her around, now I would love to stay here and chat with you my dear and not leave you with these simpletons but I need to continue with my project. No time like the present." he gave a wink to Nadia and walk out the canteen with all the girls looking at him with hearts in their eyes. Ginny being no exception.
"Incredible, isn't he?" they said as Nadia chose to stay silent, frankly she doesn't see it and find his smug look to be very nauseating. Ginny snaps out of it,
"Oh yeah, and this is Nitrus Brio, he loves chemistry, and makes great cocktails if you want a drink and Brio, this is Nadia, an old childhood friend of mine." Ginny said,
"V-v-v-v-very nice to meet you. Aren't you e-e-e-eating anything?" While Nitrus looks a little weird based on his hunchback and strange looking bolts on the side of his head, but he seems pleasant enough.
"Um, no. I'm not hungry." Ginny shakes their head,
"Absolutely not, you've got to eat something." they got one of they're sandwiches and gives it to Nadia.
"Rule number one, never trust canteen food. You can get food out on the campus whether it's from a small shop, sandwich shops and even restaurants, anywhere is better than here. We can go together tomorrow, Brio would you like to join us?" he just shakes his head.
"S-s-s-s-sorry, I can't. Me and my team needs to work on our p-p-p-project." Ginny nods their head,
"No worries, the invite is still open if you change your mind and we can ask my other friend Cortex. The guy who you sat next to strangely enough." Nadia knows who they're talking about, the funny looking, quite handsome man with drawings of animals.
"You mean Cry Baby Cortex?" Nadia asked softly as Ginny and Brio can't help but laugh. Nadia looks confused,
"That's Madame Amberley's nickname for him after she gave him an 'F' for one of his projects where he said he sent his parrots to the other dimension and she didn't believe him and made him cry." Nadia was a little shook to hear that, send parrots to another dimension!?
"D-d-did you believe that?" Nitrus asks, Ginny just shakes their head,
"No way, especially from an eight year old." 'Eight!? What kind of school is this!?' Nadia thought.
"His real name is Neo Cortex, he...er...specializes in animals." Nadia eyes sparkle at the mention of animals, then she thought of what Ginny said,
"Oh, so if he's named after a part of a brain, that must mean he's very intelligent, right?" she said with a slight smile, but both of them stay silent, not making eye contact with her, making Nadia wonder if she had said the wrong thing. Ginny claps their hands,
"Anyway, so we're going out for lunch tomorrow. There's a new burger place I have yet to try out" they decided to change the subject. Nadia decides to listen while having a sandwich while thinking about the Cortex fellow. He must be intelligent based on the thought process of his plans, even if she doesn't know what half of them mean but if they involve animals then they must be good.
"I'm also going to meet him at 3 in the courtyard. Any advice?" Nadia asks, but Ginny's eyes glinting, hinting something.
"Oho! I didn't know you're so forward Nadia." Ginny laughs while Nadia goes bright red.
"No! I just met him, I just want to talk to him!" Nadia is getting embarrassed making Ginny laugh.
"Don't worry, I'm just teasing you. But any advice? He can be full of himself, his ego is bigger than his head." Nadia is starting to regret this,
"But he does have rare moments where he can be nice, sometimes I think he's not truly evil no matter how many times he tries to appear, maybe that's why he's constantly been made fun of." Brio nods his head,
"I-I-I-I agree with that. When he thought no one was watching, I saw him bought a tin of tuna for a stray kitten. N-n-n-n-no evil person would do that." Again Nadia's eyes sparkle at the mention of someone helping a stray kitten. Ginny sighs,
"But he's got to be careful, if it was another person that caught him, he could get into a lot of trouble, expelled or probably worst. This is an evil school after all." Ginny looks at Nadia who's still waiting for any advice,
"Honestly just be yourself and you'll be fine, cuz I have notice you have been stealing hearts already." they point behind her where she turns to see lots of guys giving her creepy, predatory smiles making Nadia shiver in fear. Brio gives Nadia a look of pity while Ginny put their arm around her shoulders.
"Don't fret, just stick with us and you'll be fine."