I won't be the villainess

Chapter 37 - a whole new beginning

Anastasia walked down the stairs, nearing the dormitory exit. Standing by the door was Jamison, waiting to get breakfast.

"Morning Jamie!"

"Morning- ready to get some food?"

"Yep!"

The pair wandered off towards the cafeteria, an hour left before their school's official start. Anastasia told him that Sarah and Buddy has finally arrived, and he told her of his own personal butler's arrival.

As they walked into the cafeteria, there were already a few students muttering and whispering.

"Look- there she is!"

"Is that really the eldest miss of House Rosenburg?"

"Agreed- their performance at the banquet was quite good. I wonder if that's truly her."

"According the rumours, she was kicked out and fled to Kou!"

Anastasia did her best to hold her head high, ignoring the voices and walking straight to get food.

'T̶h̶e̶y̶'r̶e̶ l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ a̶t̶ y̶o̶u̶-'

'No. Don't talk to me. Not right now.'

'Y̶o̶u̶ c̶a̶n̶'t̶ s̶h̶u̶t̶ m̶e̶ o̶u̶t̶ f̶o̶r̶e̶v̶e̶r̶.'

'I know..."

Unlike the other students, who had attendants by their side, Anastasia and Jamison had chosen to give their attendants a chance to rest from their early journey to the academy. The two made their way to the table, taking fruits and light breakfast. They had decided beforehand that they would try to follow Ainsworth's social conduct at first, slowly transitioning back to their old habits once they had gained a bit of respect and no-one would dare to talk about their diets.

They ate their food in peace and at a distance from others, simply bantering and talking to each other in their own mother language. The two were settled under a tree in what seemed to be a courtyard. For the first time of day, she looked up at the sky, brighter than she had expected.

"Well, a sunny day should be a good day, right?"

                           —————

The soon packed up, throwing their rubbish away and making their way to their classroom. The halls were confusing, all vaguely similar to each other apart from minor differences in paintings or displays. The school was one massive building, holding many classrooms and the separate dormitory was by the back exit. They wandered the halls, finally finding a creamy white door, purple outlines by it's window frames.

"Good luck to us."

"Yeah, good luck to us."

Jamison pushes the door open softly, walking in and immediately seeing the seating chart on the chalk board at the front of the classroom. Anastasia closed the door behind her, scouring the classroom quickly. There were maybe four students already in the class, and there were twenty in total. She didn't take in thief faces. Immediately turning her attention to the seating chart. She froze, reading the names around her own, as did Jamison. Luckily for her, her assigned desk was in the third row from the front, and to the left, by the windows. Unfortunately, the desk to her only right was Noah Ainsworth, and in front of her was Lucas Chester, both of whom were NOT in her good books right now. Surprisingly, the two greeted her normally, a blank look from Noah and a cheeky grin from Lucas. She gave her own stiffly polite  "Good morning." before taking her seat. Jamison settled himself into his own seat, to Lucas' right and Anastasia's diagonal right.