Straight-Up Not Having A Good Time At Night Raven College: Chapter 2

Chapter 23: A Strategic Stampede

Despite her nervousness, Kat was still impressed with how much the campus had changed since yesterday.
"Woooow," she said, looking around with her eyebrows raised. "This is wild..."

It was like an entire festival or county fair had moved in overnight.

The campus around the Coliseum had sprouted lines of stalls with peaked canvas roofs. They were packed tightly together, festooned with all kinds of decorations.
Strings of pennants hung between them, and round glass lanterns hovered in the air. They were glowing a pale yellow-green, like huge fireflies.

And there were SO. MANY. PEOPLE.

She wasn't sure how many students there actually were. It had to be multiple hundreds, at least...
But now, it felt more like multiple THOUSANDS.

There were people frickin' everywhere-- milling back and forth, browsing booths, talking, laughing...

It was actually a little weird-- Kat had gotten so used to being surrounded by teenagers that she'd almost forgotten other age groups existed.
But now, there were actual adults all over the place...
Oh, and kids. Lots and lots of kids.

As if on cue, a group of kids-- maybe 9 or 10-year-olds-- ran past, laughing.
One of them staggered sideways, bumping lightly into her.
"Oops- careful," she laughed, stepping back as the child regained his balance.

"Sorry, nee-san!" He apologized, giving her a crooked grin, then ran on, eager to catch up with his fellows.

That was another thing-- nobody was giving her a second glance.

At this point, she felt like the whole student body knew there was an actual girl on campus... A magicless girl, too.
It had gotten better, now that she'd been here a little while... Especially once word got around that she and Riddle were close.
But she still got her fair share of sideways looks and whispers...
And not even because of how she looked or anything like that.
It wasn't like she was the prettiest person on campus-- not by a long shot. And it seemed like Twisted Wonderland-- or at least NRC-- was way chiller about gender in general than the 'mainstream' back home.

The attitude seemed to be 'if you're an NRC student, you're a guy'...
Even if it's the same way an animal you see across the street is automatically a 'guy' or a 'he'.

But since she wasn't-- and went around SAYING she wasn't-- she was... Out-of-place. An oddity. Didn't belong...
And being the only non-magical student didn't exactly help with that.

But right now, in her t-shirt and jeans, she was just-- another part of the crowd.
The only glances she was getting were all focused on Grim, who was sitting on her shoulder, slack-jawed.

"Fuah... Hey, hey-- check it out!" He enthused.
"Lookit' all those shops that are sellin' FOOD!"
Ears pricking, he craned his neck, trying to look in every direction at once.
"Churros, funnel cakes... OOH! No way-- they've even got smoked chicken!"

Ace and Deuce, wandering along a few steps behind her in their dorm uniforms, didn't seem all that excited.

"Chehhh..."
Giving a disappointed scoff, Ace shook his head despondently.
"An' to think after all that, I didn't even make the stupid team..."

"Same here," Deuce muttered.

"Oh, for god's sake," Kat snapped, turning around and glaring at them with her fists on her hips.
"Will you two get over yourselves already? We've got slightly more PRESSING matters to think about than the damn team, remember?"

The two boys stopped in their tracks, looking startled.

Closing her eyes for a second, Kat took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
"Look-- sorry," she sighed, pushing her bangs back with one hand.
"I'm just... Kinda stressed, okay? Didn't mean to-- y'know, be mean."