Gryffynhall (the Danu Cycle: Fiann Trilogy Book 1)

Chapter Ten

Suffice to say, Niamh's second day of classes went better than the first. Sunday was considered Gryffynhall's day off. What that meant in reality was that Byrne oversaw them through self-guided Fightclub in the morning and, apparently, they actually had the afternoon to do whatever they liked...which was often more training.

Lochlan came by Niamh's room on the way to breakfast. She could tell it was him because, instead of just knocking on the door like a normal person, he knocked and yelled something about food. She smiled to herself, thinking how funny it was that you could get to know some people so well in such as short amount of time. And, then, others are total enigmas forever.

Niamh was in the bathroom, pulling her hair into a ponytail.

"Come in then," she yelled.

"Morning," he said brightly, popping his head around the bathroom door. "Praise Danu, you're not doing anything funny in here."

"I'm not likely to let strange boys into my room while I'm doing...'funny things' in the bathroom," Niamh replied, washing her hands and meeting Lochlan in her bedroom.

"I'm not strange," he said. He was sitting on the couch, with his feet on the coffee table. "That is a much more sensible outfit."

She stopped in front of the mirror. Today, she had chosen a pair of the silver leather pants that stopped at the knee, black almost knee-high boots and a black tight-fitting singlet.

"What do you mean more sensible?" she asked. Although, she thought she knew the answer.

"You didn't exactly pick the best outfit for yesterday's defeat, did you?" he laughed.

She sat next to him and punched him playfully on the arm. He was right though, her tracksuit bottoms, sneakers and shirt did not, in hindsight, look as good a choice as today's outfit.

"Well, at least you learnt from you mistakes," he said, leaning his cheek on her head briefly, then stood up and held his hands out to her. "Come on, I'm starving, and you'll need all the energy you can get for today!'

Niamh groaned, but smiled inwardly, taking his hands and letting him pull her up. She wasn't sure, but she wondered if this was what having on older, annoying brother would have been like.

Niamh traipsed after him to the dining hall. It was packed for a Sunday morning. She tried to reconcile this image with that time her class had had to go to school camp over the weekend. The teachers were still trying to pull students out of bed at eleven am on that camp – needless to say, they never tried weekend camp again. In contrast, it looked like all twenty-seven occupants of Gryffynhall were up and merrily eating. She saw a few yawns here and there, but everyone was animated and looked happy.

Lochlan took Niamh through the food line and piled her plate up high with eggs, bacon, toast, sausages, hash browns – faeries have hash browns? – and beans. He got her a cup of coffee and some orange juice, then steered her to a table.

On the way, she saw Myrna sitting by herself with a book at the table Niamh sat at on Friday. Niamh smiled as she was ushered past and Myrna gave her a small wave in return.

Lochlan finally stopped at a table with three other students, one of which was Killian. He nodded to Niamh, but there was none of the friendliness he had shown the day before.

"Niamh, this is Owen and Molly," Lochlan introduced the two others at the table.

Owen had unremarkable brown hair and eyes, but a kind face and he seemed genuinely happy to meet her. He smiled and nodded in greeting.

Molly had black hair and light brown eyes, she looked long and slim, and had great pouty lips. She sat next to Killian. She'd been saying something to him but now looked directly at Niamh.