Do As I Say

Chapter Seven

After a quick peck on the forehead, Cree sprinted out the door. She ran for a while, but then slowed to a jog when a stitch became knitted in her side. By the time that she was feeling faint from not having any food, she had reached the school. Luckily, a trio of pixies were leaving and Cree managed to slip into the school as the door shut. The halls were barren except for a few ghosts that were walking through. A coupled of wild-eyed seers looked her over suspiciously but moved on. Cree realized that perhaps she should've set up a barrier before she returned to a school with mind-reading students, especially now with incriminating memories locked in Cree's mind.

She cut swiftly through the school, hoping to spot Thimble or Nix. They were nowhere to be seen and Cree was quite sure she would starve to death before she got directions to the cafeteria. Working up her nerve, Cree approached a lone shifter. He eyed her dangerously as he slammed the locker before him shut. It was too late by the time Cree realized there was a squealing pixie trapped inside the locker.

"What do you want?" He snapped.

"Ah...I was wondering if you knew where the cafeteria is. I'm lost, you see and..." She trailed off uncomfortably and flicked a glance at the rattling locker.

The bulky male leaned against it and tilted his head up, as if he could get any taller. "You don't go here, do you?"

"I'm new and -"

"No, you're not."

There was silence.

The shifter jerked his head to one of the corridors. "Head down there and then take a right. Don't talk to anyone, you hear me? Just get your food and get out. No one will question you that way."

Cree paused, confused. She thanked him, although it was barely audible, and started down the hallway.

"Girl,"

Cree stopped and looked over her shoulder. The school seemed to be even emptier.

"What are you, really?"

She clenched her jaw but an exhausted sigh slipped out. "I don't know." She answered. The boy just nodded, as if he understood. Cree turned and kept walking.

Name's Jules. Just so you know.

Cree smiled.

Cree Mournjay.

She heard a soft chuckle from down the hall. I knew you weren't mortal. He thought back. Cree covered her mouth as she grinned.

Cree hadn't eaten so much in all her lifetime. The Ghoul school had much more food available than Mortal school, and its students seemed to have bigger appetites as well. Or the lunch ladies didn't pay much attention to how much food people took. As she sat eating the last of her garlic bread, she thought about Jules, and how he could tell that she wasn't mortal. It was only a few days ago when everyone she ran into here recognized her as a mortal. What could have changed in her to make her seem like one of them?

Cree stuffed her leftovers into her jacket pockets and leaned back against the wall. She had followed Jules's directions and split the moment she got her lunch together. Now she was sitting on the floor, above the stairs where she and Nix used to hang out. Where was Nix anyways? She had seen Thimble briefly as she made her way over here and he promised to tell Nix she was looking for him. But even he did not know where the ghost was. In fact, Thimble hadn't seen him since Cree had visited last time.

A bell rang and Cree could hear the shuffling and slamming of doors as students escaped their classes. Ghouls traveled past Cree's spot without noticing her. She spotted a few familiar faces, one of the two pixies that had tormented her, Jules (who smiled and nodded in acknowledgement), and the trio of vampires that had stolen her knife.