Universe Wars (on hold for a bit)

Chapter 3 - Battle Royal

 My small new group of friends and I entered the dining hall together.  Mimi held onto Mistie’s hand and Fluffy walked in her wolf form.  From what I could guess, she probably did that a lot because no one else thought twice about seeing a wolf walking around and they all said “hi” to her when we passed as she greeted every single one of them.

Walking into the dining hall kind of reminded me of walking into the cafeteria at my old school.  There were lots of tables lined with different people sitting on each side.  Each table had their own little group of friends.  I couldn’t get a feel for the social groups as all of the people were so different from one another.  I was blown away by the colorful assortment of people and their abilities.

There was one girl who had her own little snow flurries falling down around her and disappearing as they hit the ground.  I saw another girl stretch her arm the length of the table to grab a bottle of water sitting on the opposite end as her.  A boy who looked like he’d been shocked by a lightning bolt and had tiny sparks flying off of him.  There was another boy who kept twitching.  I couldn’t tell if it was part of his ability or if he really just couldn’t help the twitching.  One boy sat by himself way off in the corner of the room.  He sat with his legs kicked out across the whole bench and stared at his fingers intently as little flames shot up out of his hands.  And there were what looked to be regular people.  I didn’t know if they really were just an average person like me, or if they had some skill that wasn’t visible unless they needed it.

Seated at one table was Captain and Drako with a few other people.  Captain sat on one side and Drako beside him.  Beside Drako was a gorgeous girl with blonde waves.  The kind of girl so pretty that you instantly felt self-conscious about your own looks, wishing you only looked half as beautiful as she did.  On the other side of the table was another boy whose face I couldn’t see since he was staring down at his food in front of him while the rest of the people at the table conversed.  And across from the blonde was another girl with bright red hair.  The look on her face made her seem very standoffish.  Like if I spoke to her I might get my head taken off.

After getting my meal from a girl, who looked only a little older than Mimi, in the kitchen, I walked by Captain and Drako’s table with my cabin mates and heard someone call out.

“Almond!”

I continued walking with my food in my hands until I heard someone say, “Xera!”

I stopped and looked over to Captain and Drako’s table and saw that Drako was motioning me over.  I’d completely forgotten about my new nick name.  That was going to take some getting used to.  Though the girls had even helped me spell out “Almond” on my door back in our room not even an hour ago, I’d already let it slip my mind.

I looked back to my friends to make sure they didn’t mind me leaving them.

“Go ahead,” Mistie said to me.  “I’m sure they just want to introduce you to everyone.”

“Yea.  We will see you back in the cabin later,” Fluffy smiled at me.

They continued walking on as I turned back to go over to Drako’s table.

“Hey.  Sit down with us,” Drako said and extended his hand to the only empty seat at the table, between the red head and the boy with his head down.

I did as he said and carefully scooted between the two into my seat, cautious not to bump either of them.  The red head glanced over at me, her face expressionless, and the boy didn’t even acknowledge my presence.  The blonde looked me up and down with a very cocky smirk playing on her lips.  Captain seemed oblivious to the rest of the table, looking at some sort of tablet in front of him very intently.