Chapter 13
First floor of the dormitory is the lobby. The whole dormitory is half hotel and half mansion for me. I haven’t been to any of those structures but I’ve seen them on magazines, and I can’t believe that I’m standing on both at the same time. The dormitory consists of ten floors. Students have the designated floors, for us first years it is in the third floor right after the dining hall and the kitchen on the second floor. Second years sleep at the fourth floor and so on and so forth. The eighth floor is the library followed by the professors’ rooms on the ninth and the tenth floor is the attic, where most of the old stuffs of the students are stored. I don’t know where the other staffs sleep. I don’t bother anyway.
The front desk staff gives me a glass key card that has a number stamped on it, 348. I’m pretty sure that’s my room. I walk to the right side, where the girls’ room are; the boys stay at the left side of the floor. I pass through rooms 335, 336, 340 and so on until I reach my assigned room. The door is locked, so I use my key to open the door. To my surprise, I find other girls already sitting in huge beds. The bed is twice larger than mine. Two girls are familiar with me, the green and blonde haired girls who are friends with Amber - the girl I punched earlier. But the other girl, I’ve never seen her before, she’s tan, like a shimmering bronze in daylight, and her legs are long, making her taller than me. Her hair is like a corn - blonde to orange.
There are only two beds left, one is near the door and the other one is in front of the first vacant bed I laid eyes on. I toss my things down without saying ‘Hi’ to anyone, not even looking at them. I’m not a friendly girl; I actually don’t know how to make friends. I think that’s the first thing I need to learn here since they’ll be my roommates for the entire school year.
The bed is velvet, like I’m lying on clouds. There are two white pillows properly lied on the bed with a soft comforter as our blanket. There are only three colours of the room – white, for the mattresses and pillow cases, lilac for the walls, and brown for the door and windows.
“Hi! I am Nympha Black, from Erda, these are Sophia and Chandrice from Unda and you are?” asks the tan girl. She suddenly stretches her hand to my direction, waiting for a handshake I guess. Maybe, that’s how they greet in her district.
“I’m Keesha Valtimore,” I answer “from Sapius." I add awkwardly and then shakes her long, thin hand.
She grins at me and sits beside me, like a little girl who wants to listen to some fairy tales before sleeping. She narrows her eyes at me, examining my physical appearance. She acts like a weirdo, but I don’t act irritably. I need to control my temper and my actions now, I know that the two girls of Unda don’t like me because of what I did to Amber, so I need to be nice to this one to lessen the people I need to watch out for before drifting to sleep.
The door opens and Lucia enters the room. She smiles shyly to everyone, and I see two pairs of insecure eyes. Lucia is pretty, and Mermaids don’t want pretty girls who are not from their district. I call out for her name and she sits to the only left vacant bed. “Hi! I’m Lucia Varguez from Sapius. Nice to meet you all.” she says in a very friendly way. Sometimes, I don’t get her kindness; she’s too good to be true.
“Oh, you’re from the Sapius too, two Sages, two Mermaids and only one Erda?” Nmypha wails. “I’m Nypha Black, by the way. Don’t be harsh on me.”
“Of course we won’t Madame Nympha.” says Lucia.
Madame Nympha is the younger sister of Sire Crane Black of Erda. “Just call me Nympha when no Erdas are around. I really don’t want to be respected that much.” She says which I find so humble. If she keeps that kind of attitude, maybe there will be no problem between us. “Tomorrow will be the school tour and orientation, right? And the day after tomorrow will be the Scholarship exam, will you apply?” she asks.
