Chapter Text
The toast was burnt.
Again.
A long, frustrated groan escaped Pomni as she stood in the middle of the kitchen, staring at the blackened slice sitting helplessly inside the toaster oven. She dragged both hands down her face before shoving one into her hair, gripping at the roots hard enough to hurt. The smell of smoke lingered heavily in the air now, mixing unpleasantly with the bitter scent of overbrewed coffee and making the entire apartment feel stuffy.
This had to be the third piece she had ruined that morning.
At this point, she was beginning to think the toaster itself had something against her. “Seriously?” she muttered under her breath, glaring at the toast as though it had personally offended her.
With a defeated sigh, she reached forward and tried pulling it out with her fingers, only to immediately yelp when the heat burned against her skin.
“Ow—!” She dropped it back onto the counter with a sharp clatter before quickly shaking her hand in irritation. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
The toast looked beyond saving anyway. One side had been burned so badly it was nearly charcoal, while the edges curled inward like dead leaves. Pomni stared at it for another moment before finally giving up and shoving the plate away from herself.
Coffee would have to do.
Not that she really had the appetite for food in the first place.
It was the first day of school.
Pomni hated first days more than anything. Something always went wrong. Every single year without fail, the universe seemed determined to humiliate her before noon.
Once she had spilled an entire bottle of juice down the front of her uniform before even leaving the house. Another year she had gotten lost trying to find her classroom and accidentally walked into the wrong lesson while thirty students stared at her like she was an idiot. In middle school she had tripped halfway down a staircase in front of almost an entire hallway full of people and spent the rest of the day pretending she hadn’t nearly died from embarrassment.
So no, she and first days had never exactly gotten along.
She wrapped both hands around her coffee mug and took a cautious sip, only to flinch when the hot liquid nearly burned her tongue too.
Fantastic.
The day was already going wonderfully.
Trying to distract herself, Pomni walked over to the kitchen table where her school bag rested against one of the chairs. She unzipped it and checked through everything again, despite already doing so at least five times that morning.
She paused.
Then checked everything a second time anyway.
It was not as though she even had much to prepare for school. Most of her supplies had been thrown together lazily the night before while she sat awake at two in the morning trying not to think about today too much. The only thing she had properly prepared was ironing her uniform and washing her hair before bed.
The apartment around her remained quiet except for the soft hum of traffic outside and the faint ticking of the kitchen clock mounted above the stove. Pale morning light filtered weakly through the windows, casting soft shadows across the counters and making everything feel colder than it really was.
“Good morning, sweety.”
Pomni looked up immediately.
Her mother shuffled into the kitchen still wearing oversized pajamas, yawning as she stretched her arms above her head. Her hair was messy from sleep and one side of her shirt hung halfway off her shoulder. She looked far too relaxed for someone who also had work that morning.
Lucky.
“I see you burned the toast again,” her mom commented casually, eyeing the nearly carbonized slice sitting on the counter.
Pomni narrowed her eyes at her instantly.
“And here you thought your daughter was kind enough to achieve making a delicious breakfast for your first day of work,” Pomni sighed before taking another sip of coffee.
Her mother only laughed softly before walking toward the stove.
“Well, unlike you, I’ve survived more than one first day already,” she replied while flicking the stove on. She grabbed a nearby frying pan and dropped it dramatically onto the burner before glancing back at Pomni with an amused smile. “Besides, making breakfast is my job in this household. If you start doing that too, then what purpose do I even serve around here?”
Pomni rolled her eyes immediately.
“You are so dramatic.”
Still, she moved toward the fridge anyway after her mother gestured for the eggs.
The refrigerator was depressingly empty. A few abandoned takeout containers sat pushed toward the back beside expired juice cartons and a nearly empty bottle of mustard. Pomni shuffled several containers around before finally spotting two eggs hidden behind the condiments. She grabbed them and placed them onto the counter beside the stove with a bit more force than necessary.
“God, somebody’s in a horrible mood this morning,” her mother teased.
Pomni responded with a quiet grumble under her breath, though before walking away she leaned down slightly and gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek.
Her mom smiled immediately.
“Love you too.”
Pomni ignored the comment and headed toward the living room instead.
The place looked like a disaster from the night before. Couch cushions had been shoved out of place, blankets were tangled across the floor, and an empty popcorn bowl sat abandoned near the television from the movie she had barely paid attention to while unsuccessfully trying to tire herself out.
She pushed a few pillows aside until she finally found her missing hair tie buried underneath one of the blankets.
Walking toward the hallway mirror, Pomni paused once she stood in front of it. Dark circles rested beneath her eyes, and there was a constant tension in her expression. Somehow, the makeup she had applied this morning failed fully at hiding that.
She lifted both arms and began tying her hair back carefully, smoothing down every bump with practiced precision.
Her hair had grown longer over the summer, now falling just past her shoulders. The color had lightened slightly from spending more time outside, warm brown strands catching hints of gold beneath the morning light.
Mixed among them were a few dark blue highlights woven carefully through certain strands. They were subtle enough to stay mostly hidden indoors, only becoming visible whenever sunlight hit them properly. A stupid impulsive decision made during summer break with friends.
“Don’t tie up your hair!”
Her mother’s voice rang out from the kitchen loudly enough to make Pomni wince. Somewhere in the background, the radio had been switched on, filling the apartment with the muffled sound of some overly cheerful pop song that had probably been replayed a thousand times already that summer.
Pomni glanced toward the hallway mirror with mild annoyance, one hand still holding her hair back while the other stretched the hair tie between her fingers.
“Why?” she called back tiredly. “It looks bad either way.”
Her voice cracked slightly from exhaustion, rough with the kind of dryness that came from barely sleeping. She looked at her reflection again, tilting her head slightly as she examined the loose strands framing her face.
Honestly, she thought tying it up looked better.
At least then it stayed out of the way.
A moment later, her mother appeared in the hallway doorway holding a spatula like some kind of weapon. Somehow, in the short amount of time since waking up, she already looked significantly more awake than Pomni felt.
“Because,” her mom began dramatically, pointing the spatula toward her, “do you want a boyfriend or not? You’re not going to attract any boys if you look uptight from the very first day.”
Pomni blinked slowly. She barely even had time to process the sentence before her mother suddenly stepped forward and snatched the hair tie straight out of her hand.
“Confiscated,” her mother declared proudly.
Pomni stared at her in disbelief.
“I don’t think I’m going to be caught making out with boys in the hallway anytime soon,” she muttered, though her voice sounded noticeably less confident with her mother still brandishing a greasy spatula inches away from her face.
“Just listen to your mother once in a while,” her mom replied smugly before turning and heading back toward the kitchen.
A few seconds later she returned carrying a plate with a perfectly cooked egg resting on top of toast that, unlike Pomni’s attempt, actually looked edible.
Pomni accepted it carefully, still mildly offended over the hair tie incident.
As she took a bite, trying desperately not to spill anything onto her uniform, her mother suddenly glanced toward the clock mounted above the kitchen entrance.
Her expression changed instantly.
“At what time do you need to leave again?”
Pomni swallowed quickly. “Seven. Why?”
Her mother looked back at her with poorly hidden concern.
“It’s seven twenty.”
Silence.
Pomni froze mid-bite.
Terrific.
Before her mother could even react, Pomni shot up from her chair so quickly it nearly tipped backward. She grabbed her coffee mug, chugged the remaining mouthful in one painful gulp, and immediately regretted it as the heat nearly burned her throat alive.
She shoved the plate onto the counter and hurriedly swung her backpack over one shoulder while scrambling through the living room. Blankets and pillows still covered half the floor, forcing her to awkwardly jump over them in a panic before she nearly tripped on the edge of one.
At the doorway, she snatched her black leather jacket from the coat rack and grabbed her keys from the bowl beside the entrance without even properly looking.
“Love you, good luck!” her mother called after her.
Pomni was already halfway into her shoes.
“You’ll be fine, don’t wor—”
The apartment door slammed shut before she could finish the sentence.
Normally, Pomni would have felt guilty for cutting her off like that.
Today, however, she was far too busy being late for the first day of school.
She rushed down the apartment stairwell two steps at a time, her footsteps echoing loudly through the building as she practically flew between floors. At one point she nearly missed the final step entirely and had to slam a hand against the railing to stop herself from face-planting onto the ground floor. Still, somehow, she managed not to crash into any neighbors on the way down. Which honestly felt like the first miracle of the morning.
In record time, Pomni managed to sprint through the entire apartment building and burst out onto the street.
Cold morning air hit her immediately, sharp against her lungs after the warmth of the apartment. Normally, she would have been mortified to be seen running after buses or trains like some desperate maniac running late for work.This time, the embarrassment did not even cross her mind.
She was so late.
The second her shoes hit the pavement, she took off running again. Her purse bounced painfully against her shoulders as she cut through the small neighborhood park, weaving around benches and nearly colliding with a group of toddlers waddling beside a daycare worker. One of the children stared at her in open confusion as she rushed past like her life depended on it.
“Sorry—!”
Usually, she would have felt terrible about almost knocking over a child before seven thirty in the morning. Today, though?
Honestly, she just did not have the emotional energy for guilt.
If she was being realistic, publicly humiliating herself this early probably counted as fulfilling her daily embarrassment quota already. Maybe the universe would spare her for the rest of the day afterward.
Wishful thinking, but still.
Her lungs burned by the time she crossed half the neighborhood, and she could already feel sweat gathering uncomfortably at the back of her neck despite the cool weather. Just as she was beginning to think she might actually die before reaching school, she spotted the familiar underground entrance to the train station ahead.
Thank God.
Pomni practically stumbled down the stairs two at a time before digging frantically through her bag for her transit pass. Her fingers brushed past tangled headphones, loose pens, old receipts, and somehow an empty candy wrapper before finally finding it.
She scanned the pass so quickly the machine barely had time to beep before she bolted through the gates.
The train was already there.
The doors stood open almost mockingly, as though waiting specifically for her to embarrass herself in front of everyone.
Pomni immediately panicked.
With the last desperate burst of energy left in her body, she sprinted forward and threw herself through the train doors just as the warning chime began sounding.
For one horrifying second, she genuinely thought the doors were going to close directly on her and publicly crown her the biggest idiot alive.
But they didn’t.
The doors slid shut safely behind her instead.
Thank. God.
Pomni bent forward slightly, hands braced against her knees as she struggled to breathe. Her chest heaved violently, and she was fairly certain she sounded less like a person and more like a dying animal.
A few passengers glanced toward her briefly before politely looking away again.
Wonderful.
After what felt simultaneously like forever and not nearly enough time, she forced herself upright and tried pretending none of that had just happened. She pushed a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and casually adjusted her jacket as though she had not nearly collapsed onto the train floor thirty seconds earlier.
Completely normal behavior.
She walked briskly through the carriage until she found an empty seat near the window and practically dropped into it with relief. Immediately, she pulled out her headphones and plugged them into her phone before selecting the first random song she saw.
Soul Kitchen — The Doors.
The slow, hazy sound filled her ears as she finally leaned back against the seat, allowing herself to breathe properly for the first time all morning. Outside the train windows, the city blurred past in muted shades of gray and gold beneath the early sunlight.
Her gaze drifted toward her reflection in the glass.
At least the jacket looked good.
The black leather fit perfectly over her uniform, making the otherwise boring outfit feel slightly more wearable. She still remembered finding it buried in the back corner of a thrift store during summer break and nearly losing her mind when she saw the discounted price tag.
Best purchase of her life.
The uniform underneath, however, was another story entirely.
It was bland in the most aggressively expensive way possible. A black skirt paired with a black v-neck sweater. A plain white button-up underneath
Of course, her mother had also decided the skirt needed “adjustments.” Which, apparently, meant hemming it so short that it barely reached the upper part of her thighs.
Pomni glanced down at herself with mild annoyance before noticing one of her knee-high socks slowly sliding down her leg.
Of course
Leaning forward with a sigh, she pulled it back into place before finally realizing one of her shoes was still half untied from earlier. She quickly fixed that too, muttering quietly under her breath. Only she could nearly miss a train while also running around with her shoe halfway off.
Still, she supposed she could not complain too much.
This uniform had cost her mother several hundred dollars.
The thought alone made Pomni sour immediately.
The guilt settled unpleasantly in her stomach as she leaned back into the seat again, eyes drifting toward the passing tunnel walls outside the window while the music continued humming quietly through her headphones.
Blackwell Academy.
One of the best high schools in the country.
Even thinking about it still felt slightly unreal to Pomni.
The school’s reputation was ridiculous—elite exam scores, impossible acceptance rates, students who somehow managed to be both terrifyingly smart and suspiciously well-dressed at all times. It was the kind of place parents bragged about getting their children into for the next twenty years.
And somehow, she had actually made it in.
Barely.
A large part of her acceptance had come from a government scholarship program, though earning that scholarship had practically consumed her entire life. Ever since she was little, Pomni had buried herself in math olympiads, science competitions, advanced programs, and academic camps while other kids spent weekends doing normal things.
God, the sleepless nights alone from the past year nearly made her sick just remembering them.
The entrance exams had been absolute hell.
By the end of exam season, she was fairly certain she had lost half her hair from stress and developed wrinkles at the age of sixteen. There had been weeks where she survived entirely off coffee, instant noodles, and pure academic panic.
And her mother—
That part made the guilt worse.
Her mom had practically worked herself to death over the last year just to make sure Pomni would not have to worry about any extra expenses. Uniform costs. Transportation. School supplies. Registration fees. Every time Pomni tried not to think about the amount of money Blackwell required just to exist there, she felt physically ill.—
“Ah—!”
Pomni barely had time to react before something—or rather someone—suddenly crashed into her. Instinctively, she threw her hands upward in an attempt to catch the incoming person before they hit the floor.
She immediately realized two things.
First, she really needed to start exercising more.
Second, she absolutely was not strong enough to catch an entire human being.
The impact knocked the breath from her lungs as the stranger fell directly into her lap. Pomni let out a deeply embarrassing half-gasp, half-squeak sound before freezing entirely.
For a moment, she could only blink downward in complete confusion. A girl stared back at her looking equally startled.
And stunning.
That was the very first thing Pomni noticed.
The girl had pale white hair streaked with vivid blue highlights that framed her face in messy waves, contrasting sharply against her darker skin. Her eyes were impossibly bright—an icy shade of blue that almost looked unnatural beneath the fluorescent train lights.
She was really pretty. Like, distractingly pretty. The kind of pretty that made Pomni suddenly become painfully aware of her own existence.
God, she was such a weirdo.
“Ah, sorry,” the girl said quickly, clearly embarrassed as she pushed herself upright with one hand gripping the seat beside Pomni. “I lost my balance.”
“It’s alright,” Pomni answered immediately, voice slightly too fast. “Don’t worry about it.”
She awkwardly pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, suddenly hyperaware of literally everything about herself. Her wrinkled uniform. The fact she had almost died running for the train fifteen minutes earlier. The sweat probably still clinging to the back of her neck.
Fantastic first impression. Truly incredible.
The girl steadied herself properly before glancing down at Pomni again. Up close, she somehow looked even prettier. Pomni wanted the train doors to open and swallow her whole.
Now, Pomni was not a lesbian. She was actually very certain about that fact. There had been exactly two girls in her life she thought she might have had crushes on, and both situations had ended in awkward kisses followed by the deeply disappointing realization that she had felt absolutely nothing afterward. No sparks, no butterflies, no dramatic revelation about her identity. Just confusion and mild embarrassment.
So yes, she had considered herself completely straight.
At least, she had considered herself straight until this random girl nearly fell directly into her lap five minutes ago.
Because now Pomni was beginning to question several things about herself very quickly.
Trying not to stare too obviously, she looked at the girl more carefully. She wore a black puffer jacket zipped halfway up, the material hugging her figure neatly, and a sleek black school purse hung from her shoulder. A silver emblem stitched into the side of the bag immediately caught Pomni’s attention.
Blackwell Academy.
Pomni blinked in surprise. Looking closer now, she realized the girl was wearing the exact same uniform underneath the jacket. Apparently the girl noticed at the exact same moment.
Her bright blue eyes slowly swept over Pomni’s outfit before lifting back toward her face. For a second, Pomni expected her to laugh at the coincidence or at least make some comment about it.
Instead, the girl suddenly leaned closer toward her.
“Woah,” she said while staring directly into Pomni’s eyes. “You have red eyes. It’s neat.”
Pomni blinked once in confusion before a small amused smile escaped her.
“How is that the first thing you think of saying?” Pomni asked dryly, raising an eyebrow while looking at her with interest. The girl blinked several times as though only just realizing how strange that sounded. A second later she snorted softly before laughing under her breath.
Then she held her hand out toward Pomni.
The gesture felt strangely formal considering the fact she had almost body-slammed her onto the train floor moments earlier. Even the way she moved seemed elegant somehow, her posture relaxed but composed in a way Pomni immediately associated with rich private school students.
Well, Pomni supposed that was exactly what Blackwell Academy was full of.
Trying not to overthink it, she reached forward and shook her hand, awkwardly attempting to make herself seem equally graceful.
“I’m Selene,” the girl introduced herself smoothly. Selene’s gaze drifted briefly toward Pomni’s uniform again before she tilted her head slightly.
“You’re new, aren’t you?” Her tone sounded casual enough, but there was still something oddly scrutinizing underneath it that made Pomni instinctively sit straighter.
She tried very hard not to take immediate offense. “Don’t tell me it’s that obvious, Selene” Pomni muttered.
Selene smiled teasingly.
“It’s obvious.”
Pomni nearly let her head hit the train window right then and there.
She had spent the last several days trying so hard to make herself look normal. She had practiced expressions in the mirror, planned outfits in advance, tried fixing every little thing about herself that might make her stand out too much. She had genuinely convinced herself that if she acted calm enough, people would not immediately notice she was new.
“I’m just teasing,” Selene said after a moment, leaning back into her seat with a quiet sigh. “You can call me Lene, by the way. It feels weird hearing people use my full name.”
Pomni nodded automatically before suddenly realizing she had completely forgotten to introduce herself.
Smooth.
She turned quickly toward her and awkwardly offered her hand again, tilting her head slightly in silent apology.
“I’m Pomni.”
This time, Selene—well, Lene apparently—took her hand with far more energy than before, a small grin appearing on her face.
“Well, Pomni,” she said dramatically, “I sincerely hope you survive this school year.”
Pomni stared at her for a second before snorting softly.
“I’m already having a terrible enough day,” she replied while slumping further against her seat. “Could we at least preserve the illusion that I’m emotionally stable for a few more hours?”
“As you wish, Pompom.”
Pomni immediately grimaced.
“I actually hate that.”
Selene burst into laughter at that, the sound bright and effortless enough to make Pomni laugh too despite herself.
Selene suddenly pulled out her phone and typed something quickly, probably replying to a message, before switching apps and holding the screen out toward Pomni.
Instagram.
“Do you want to hang out sometime this week?” she asked casually while showing her profile.
Pomni blinked in surprise. Then she smiled so quickly she almost embarrassed herself. Maybe today was not going nearly as badly as she thought.
Trying not to seem too eager, she hurriedly pulled out her own phone and added her contact. Still, she could not stop the small grin tugging at the corners of her mouth while doing it.
As soon as Pomni slid her phone back into her pocket, the train began slowing down.
A robotic voice announced the next station overhead.
Selene immediately lifted her head at the sound before glancing toward the doors.
“This is us,” she said while standing.
Pomni blinked in confusion before finally looking up at the station name displayed outside the windows.
Oh.
They were already there.
Her stomach immediately tightened again.
Quickly, both of them stood and squeezed through the crowd of passengers gathering near the doors. Pomni nearly got shoved backward twice by people trying to leave first.
A second later, the train doors opened,letting them both out.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Selene muttered while scanning her train pass at the station exit. She stepped through the gates before glancing back at Pomni. “I was joking earlier, you know. Don’t overthink it too much.”
Pomni scanned her own pass quickly and followed after her with a tired sigh.
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a horrible year anyway.”
Selene snorted softly before slowing her pace enough for Pomni to walk beside her.
“If you keep talking like that, I’m going to hand you over to Raggy.” She said it half under her breath, almost like she was talking to herself.
Pomni frowned immediately. “Raggy?”
Selene shoved her hands into her jacket pockets while turning down a long street lined with trees. Morning light filtered through the branches overhead, painting moving shadows across the pavement as groups of students walked in the same direction around them.
“She’s the year supervisor,” Selene explained casually. “She’s in class 6-A.”
Pomni blinked.
“In what class am I even supposed to be?”
She quickly pulled out her phone and opened her emails again. The inbox refreshed slowly, but nothing new appeared.
Still nothing.
“They didn’t send me anything,” she muttered while staring at the screen in disbelief. Selene hummed thoughtfully at that, clearly about to reply—
“LENE!”
A loud voice suddenly shouted from further down the street.
Both Pomni and Selene turned at the same time.
Pomni looked toward the approaching figure before immediately glancing back at Selene in surprise. Her expression had completely changed, her face breaking into a bright grin so quickly it almost startled Pomni.
“Kinger!” Selene called back while waving him over enthusiastically. “Hurry up!”
As the boy got closer, Pomni finally got a proper look at him.
He had messy blond hair that looked permanently windblown and a strangely mature face that made him seem older than everyone else around them. Not actually old, but definitely the kind of person who could accidentally pass as twenty at first glance.
There was even the faint beginning of facial hair along his jaw.
Pomni tried not to think too hard about that.
When he finally reached them, he immediately pulled Selene into a quick hug. They patted each other on the back before separating naturally, clearly comfortable in the kind of way only longtime friends were.
“How was break?” Kinger asked while rubbing her shoulder affectionately. “I can’t believe I didn’t see you for two whole months.”
Selene grimaced instantly
“You know I was staying at my father’s place,” she replied while making a vague so-so gesture with her hand. “Thank God that jerk organized band practice for half the summer or I would’ve died from all the family dinners.”
Kinger snorted loudly at that.
Then, almost as if he had only just realized another person existed beside them, he turned toward Pomni. “Who’s that?” He tilted his head slightly while pointing toward her.
“Pomni,” she answered before awkwardly adding, “I’m new.”
“Oh,” Kinger said immediately. “Ragatha’s going to be breathing down your neck in about two seconds then.” A tiny bead of sweat rolled dramatically down the side of his forehead as he said it. “Anyway,” he continued more casually, “nice to meet you.”
Pomni tried very hard not to deadpan.
Who was this woman?
At this point Ragatha sounded less like a year supervisor and more like some kind of government surveillance program.
As they continued walking, Pomni found herself looking at Kinger more carefully. Kinger technically wore the standard uniform, but somehow he still managed to make it look stylish. His uniform pants were much looser than usual, and the sleeves of his white button-up hung casually past his elbows in a way that looked intentional instead of messy.
Combined with the sunburn scattered across his cheeks and his permanently disheveled blond hair, he looked less like an elite academy student and more like someone who spentweekends surfing at beaches and accidentally wandered into private school life afterward.
“How was your break?” Selene asked while shoving her hands deeper into the pockets of her jacket.
As she spoke, her eyes drifted past them toward the distance, where the massive buildings of Blackwell Academy were finally becoming visible through the trees. The sight immediately made her stomach twist all over again. The academy looked enormous from afar, all dark stone and towering windows that reflected the pale morning sunlight. It barely looked like a school. It looked more like the kind of place where people judged you academically before you even opened your mouth.
“I went to California,” Kinger replied casually Obviously, Pomni thought immediately. The guy looked like he spent half his life surfing. “And I mostly worked on the gardens during summer, so honestly nothing too exciting happened.”
Pomni frowned slightly at that. Gardens?
Before she could ask what exactly he meant, Kinger casually reached into the pocket of his shirt and pulled something out.
Something long.
And moving.
Pomni stared at it for one full second before her brain finally processed what she was looking at.
A centipede.
A horrifyingly large centipede.
Pomni immediately shrieked and stumbled backward in disgust. “What the hell?!”
Kinger only snickered quietly while the centipede crawled lazily across his fingers as though this was a completely normal thing to be carrying around before school.
Even worse, Selene looked entirely unbothered. In fact, she leaned slightly closer with visible curiosity. “What’s this one’s name?” she asked calmly. Pomni looked between the two of them in complete disbelief.
What was wrong with rich people?
“Oh, this one isn’t mine,” Kinger explained casually while letting the insect crawl farther up his wrist. “Jax asked me to pick one up from the road earlier. It’s pretty cute though.”
And somehow that was what finally made Selene stop walking.
“You actually took it for Jax?” she asked slowly. The color visibly drained from her face.
Pomni blinked in confusion.
Kinger blinked too.
The fact that even he looked confused somehow made the entire situation feel worse.
“…Yes?” he answered uncertainly.
Selene groaned loudly and dragged both hands over her face in complete defeat. “Kinger, it’s going to take me weeks to calm down their next fight,” she complained dramatically. “Jax genuinely wants to make my life miserable.”
Kinger only looked mildly guilty while carefully putting the centipede back into his pocket.
Pomni, meanwhile, was still trying to recover from the fact there had just been an insect inside someone’s shirt. Selene rolled her eyes before continuing down the pathway toward the academy again with noticeably faster steps.
“Who’s Jax?” Pomni asked while quickly catching up beside her. At this point she was equal parts curious and deeply concerned.
Both Selene and Kinger answered at the exact same time.
“A jerk.”
“Rabbit boy.”
Pomni looked between them immediately. That somehow explained absolutely nothing.
Neither of them elaborated any further either. Instead, they smoothly drifted back into conversation while continuing down the road together. Pomni listened for a little while before eventually zoning most of it out. Kinger had apparently started talking about his garden again, something involving insects and certain fertilizers attracting different species. It honestly sounded like extremely dedicated hippie behavior.
As the two of them continued talking beside her, Pomni found herself focusing more on the surroundings around them instead. Tall trees lined both sides of the pathway, their branches stretching overhead and filtering the sunlight into dim patches across the pavement. The further they walked, the quieter everything became. The sounds of the city had practically vanished behind them, replaced only by distant conversation, rustling leaves, and footsteps against stone.
She hated that with an incredible amount of passion.
“You know, Pomni,” Kinger suddenly said while turning toward her with oddly genuine curiosity in his expression, “if you’re feeling stressed, you can always hold Jacky. He’s actually very calming.” As he spoke, he lightly patted the pocket over his chest to emphasize the fact that there was still a living centipede moving around inside of it.
Her eye twitched so hard she was fairly certain it counted as a genuine medical concern.
“Get away from me,” she said immediately, her face completely blank. Instead of looking offended, Kinger somehow looked delighted by her reaction. Which honestly made the situation significantly worse.
“Oh come on, he’s friendly,” Kinger insisted while casually pulling the centipede back out into his palm again.
The thing crawled lazily across his fingers with far too many legs moving at once for Pomni’s comfort. Every instinct inside her body screamed at her to create as much distance as physically possible.
Unfortunately, Kinger apparently interpreted her visible discomfort as encouragement, because he took another step closer toward her while still holding the insect carefully in both hands. Pomni used every remaining ounce of self-control in her body not to grab the creature and launch it directly into the surrounding forest.
“Lene,” Kinger called dramatically over his shoulder, “reassure the new girl. She looks like she just survived a war.”
Selene, who had wandered slightly ahead of them to take pictures of one of the flowering trees lining the pathway, barely even looked up from her phone. “Pomni,” she muttered while adjusting the angle of the picture she was taking, “you’re so tense you’re starting to make me stressed.”
Pomni let out a disbelieving snort at that before looking back toward the insect again. Unfortunately, now that Kinger had shoved it into her face, she found herself actually observing it. It was still horrifying.
Obviously.
But if she squinted a little, ignored every natural survival instinct she possessed, and mentally disconnected herself from reality for a few seconds, she could almost understand why Kinger thought it looked kind of cute.
Almost.
Very cautiously, and with the careful hesitation of someone approaching an active landmine, Pomni slowly reached her hand forward and poked the centipede lightly with one finger. The creature shifted beneath her touch and curled slightly around Kinger’s hand, but otherwise stayed completely calm.
Pomni immediately pulled her hand back afterward and shoved it into her jacket pocket again.
“I somehow feel worse now,” she deadpanned.
Kinger looked personally offended for approximately two seconds before his expression softened into understanding. Then he carefully tucked the centipede back into the breast pocket of his shirt and gently patted the fabric several times afterward. Pomni genuinely could not tell whether he was comforting the insect or saying goodbye to it temporarily.
“Okay,” Kinger suddenly announced with the confidence of someone about to reveal life-changing wisdom, “it’s time for official Kinger advice.”
He pointed upward dramatically while grinning so brightly that Pomni half expected sparkles to appear around him. Pomni instinctively braced herself.
“All you have to do,” he began while speaking with complete certainty, “is take a deep breath and then you’ll manage.”
Pomni stared at him in silence.
Then she slowly turned toward Selene.
Selene finally lowered her phone and shrugged casually. “He says that to literally everyone.”
“That’s because it works,” Kinger defended immediately.
Kinger had been completely wrong.
Now that she was sitting awkwardly in a random seat during her very first class,she was beginning to suspect the entire school had been specifically designed to psychologically torture new students for entertainment purposes.
The last twenty minutes alone had already felt like an absolute nightmare.
First, she had somehow managed to get lost around six separate times while trying to find the history classroom because every single hallway inside the academy looked exactly the same. The buildings were enormous, the corridors stretched endlessly in every direction, and every room had the same polished floors, towering windows, and expensive-looking decorations hanging on the walls.
Then, after finally finding the correct building while completely out of breath and emotionally exhausted, she had immediately been stopped by the year supervisor senior. It wasn’t the oh so sweet girl she had e hard about, ‘Ragatha’, but an woman who had wrinkled face and that shot daggers towars pomni .
The interaction itself had lasted less than two minutes, but somehow that woman had mastered the horrifying ability to smile politely while simultaneously making Pomni feel like she had committed a serious crime by arriving late. The woman had spoken calmly the entire time, yet Pomni still walked away feeling like she had personally disappointed the academy, the education system, and several generations of historical scholars all at once.
What made the situation even worse was the fact nobody had actually given her a schedule.
That woman had essentially shoved a curriculum sheet into her hands before telling her to “go quickly to history” and abandoning her inside what was basically an educational labyrinth.
And somewhere during all of that chaos, she had completely lost sight of both Selene and Kinger. Honestly, she should have asked what classes they were in before separating earlier. At the very least she assumed they were in the same year as her, but considering this school seemed large enough to contain several hundred students per grade, that information was not exactly comforting.
Now Pomni sat slightly slumped in her chair near the middle of the classroom while staring down at the curriculum paper resting on her desk with growing disinterest.
She genuinely knew none of this material.
The semester overview alone looked terrifying enough to qualify as psychological warfare. There were sections involving advanced historical conflict studies, political source analysis, independent archival research, and several assigned readings that looked longer than actual novels.
What kind of high school even taught things like this?
A strong urge to simply lower her head onto the desk and remain there until graduation slowly became more tempting by the second
At the front of the classroom, the history teacher continued speaking in the tired voice of a man who looked like he had been trapped inside a midlife crisis for the last decade.
He was blond in a very worn-out sort of way, with rolled-up sleeves and permanent exhaustion written across his face. More importantly, he seemed far more interested in staring at the classroom door than actually teaching. Every few seconds his eyes flicked toward the hallway outside as though he were waiting for another student to arrive late.
Pomni slowly raised an eyebrow before glancing around the room. Only one seat remained empty.
Ah. So this teacher clearly had a personal grudge against one specific student.
She quietly leaned farther back into her chair while absentmindedly tapping the corner of the curriculum paper against the desk. At this point her entire strategy for surviving the rest of the day mostly involved following random students around and praying they eventually led her toward the correct classrooms.
At least she thought she was currently in the right place. She had selected history as one of her electives after all. Probably.
The teacher continued speaking at the front of the room while Pomni allowed her attention to drift around the classroom instead. To her surprise, nobody else looked particularly stressed. For one of the most prestigious schools in the country, the students seemed weirdly relaxed. Several students were zoned complelty out while others leaned lazily against their desks.
Maybe it was because it was still the first day.
Thankfully, nobody seemed especially judgmental toward her for being new either. A few students nearby had quietly asked her name earlier, and one girl had asked what subjects she liked, but otherwise nobody had really cared enough to interrogate why she was there.
“As for conflictual history,” the teacher continued while flipping through several papers at his desk, “we will begin with the seventeenth century before gradually progressing toward more recent events such as the First World War and—”
Pomni’s attention wandered away almost immediately. Everything but listening.
Toward the back of the classroom, a girl sat quietly drawing in her notebook instead of listening to the lecture. Relieved to finally have something more interesting to focus on, Pomni turned slightly in her chair to look at her properly.
Long, perfectly straight crimson hair spilled over her shoulders and down her back in smooth waves, tied neatly together with a large bow that somehow managed to hold everything perfectly in place. The ribbon itself matched the dark uniform almost elegantly, and somehow not a single strand of hair seemed out of place.
It looked impossibly neat.
Pomni sighed quietly to herself, already beginning to lose interest in staring toward the back of the classroom.
Looking at the red-haired girl had been a decent distraction for a little while, but she did not exactly want to seem like a complete creep on her very first day at this school. Besides, from where she sat, she could not even properly see what the girl was drawing in the first place.
More importantly, there was a guy sitting beside her who kept glancing toward Pomni suspiciously, as though simply letting her eyes linger in their direction for more than two seconds counted as some kind of criminal offense.
She shrugged faintly and turned back toward the front of the classroom instead, deciding she would rather avoid getting incinerated by some random student’s glare before lunchtime. As her attention drifted around the room again, her eyes eventually landed on a boy sitting only a few desks away from her.
He had blond hair with green-dyed ends curling slightly near the ends, and he looked completely detached from reality. His posture was slumped lazily against the chair while one arm hung over the side of his desk, and his expression carried the exhausted emptiness of someone who had spiritually checked out of the school year before it had even properly begun.
Pomni found herself staring for a second longer than intended simply because she empathized with him immediately. He looked just as painfully bored as she felt. Before she could casually look away again, the boy somehow noticed her staring.
He tilted his head slightly, clearly trying to figure out who exactly had been watching him.
Pomni almost instinctively looked away out of embarrassment, but something stubborn inside her refused to back down first. Instead, she held eye contact despite herself while trying to look significantly calmer than she actually felt. She was slightly competitive.
The boy blinked once in surprise before suddenly smiling and giving her a small wave.
Pomni frowned automatically before awkwardly returning a crooked half-smile.
Looking at him more carefully now, she realized he was weirdly handsome in a very effortless way. Not intimidatingly attractive like Selene had been, but approachable-looking. Warm. Like the kind of person who naturally got along with everyone around him without really trying.
Before Pomni could think any further about it, a loud voice suddenly exploded through the classroom.
“Good morning, Teach!”
Pomni physically jumped in her seat.
Every student in the room immediately turned toward the doorway, and several startled yelps came from the back of the classroom where apparently multiple people had been asleep moments earlier. Even Pomni instinctively straightened her posture the second the voice echoed through the room.
At the front of the classroom, Mr. Mercer’s eye visibly twitched in irritation.
She did not even need to look toward the doorway to know whoever had just entered had probably signed their own death sentence.
Who walked into a classroom like that?
Especially this classroom. At Blackwell Academy of all places.
When Pomni finally turned her head toward the entrance, the first thing she noticed was the height.
The guy standing in the doorway was absurdly tall, already clearly having reached his full height years ago because he stood nearly level with both Kinger and Mr. Mercer. He leaned casually against the doorframe with a lazy grin stretched across his face as though he had not just interrupted an entire lesson.
Unlike everyone else in the room, his uniform looked genuinely disheveled, as though he had sprinted all the way to school at the last second. His tie hung loose around his collar, his shirt was wrinkled, and his black hair stuck wildly in every possible direction like he had repeatedly run his hands through it while running there-
Purple.
This guy had purple eyes.
Her own eyes were dark red, which was already unusual enough to attract comments from strangers constantly, but from a distance they usually looked dark enough to pass unnoticed. His eyes did not. Even from across the classroom, they stood out immediately beneath the fluorescent lights. The color looked unnaturally vivid, sharp and striking in a way that made them impossible to ignore.
It was strangely unsettling.
“Ah, sorry about that,” the boy said casually while ruffling his already messy hair in an attempt to flatten it slightly. “Am I that late?”
Was this guy actively trying to die?
Slowly, very slowly, Mr. Mercer turned toward him and placed the large history textbook onto his desk with terrifying calmness. Then he crossed his arms. The expression on his face looked so controlled that it somehow became even more threatening.
“You are approximately twenty minutes late,” Mr. Mercer began while flicking his wrist to glance at his watch. “I apologize for disappointing you, but I believe you will need to sign yourself in at the attendance office and explain your chronic inability to arrive anywhere on time.”
He did not sound apologetic whatsoever. In fact, Pomni was fairly certain the man looked slightly delighted by the opportunity to publicly execute this student.
The boy only blinked once before casually walking farther into the classroom anyway. Instead of leaving, he dropped his bag onto the final empty desk directly in front of Mr. Mercer’s own desk before sitting down comfortably.
“Don’t be like that, Mr. Mercer,” he said while leaning back in his chair with complete confidence. “With the amount of traffic this morning, honestly you should be grateful I made it here at all.”
Mr. Mercer’s eye twitched again.
“Would you like detention on the first day,” he asked slowly, “during the first class of the year?”
He sounded like he was about to twist this student’s neck. Pomni narrowed her eyes slightly while watching the interaction unfold in fascination. As much as she hated admitting it, this was genuinely the most entertaining thing that had happened all morning. The guy spoke to Mr. Mercer less like a teacher and more like an unfortunate acquaintance he annoyed recreationally.
Surely he was going to back down eventually.
Right?
Instead, the boy grinned even wider while settling more comfortably into his seat. “What?” he asked innocently. “Did you miss me that much during break Sir?”
Pomni immediately decided this guy was completely and utterly insane.
“Make that two detentions,” Mr. Werner said flatly, sounding like he was operating on the very last visible thread of patience left in his body.
With a sharp exhale through his nose, he turned briskly toward his desk and snatched the history textbook back up before opening it aggressively to a random page. Then he looked back toward the still-grinning student with the exhausted expression of a man who had clearly suffered through this exact interaction far too many times already. “Please try not to be late for those at least.”
“I’ll do my best, sir,” the boy replied immediately, though the amusement in his voice made it painfully obvious he was not taking the threat seriously whatsoever.
Then, as though nothing unusual had happened, he casually opened the folder sitting on his desk and started flipping through the papers inside with apparent interest. Pomni still had a half-suppressed smile tugging at her face while she watched him suspiciously from across the room.
At this point she had completely abandoned any attempt to focus on the curriculum sheet. Instead, she rested her chin against her hand while pretending to look attentive enough not to attract Mr. Werner’s attention.
Unfortunately, Mr. Werner noticed anyway. The second Pomni crossed her arms and leaned farther back into her chair, the teacher immediately sent her a sharp glare from the front of the classroom. To his credit, though, he did not actually say anything about it.
If anything, he looked slightly more relaxed now that the late student had finally arrived. Pomni guessed he had probably spent the entire beginning of class waiting for the inevitable interruption and mentally preparing himself for whatever chaos usually followed that guy around.
Honestly, she could not even blame him. Pomni had to physically bite back a laugh when the black-haired boy casually stretched in his seat while Mr. Werner tried to continue the lecture with dignity. Unfortunately, the teacher noticed her expression immediately.
The glare he sent her afterward was sharp enough that Pomni instantly lowered her eyes back toward the curriculum sheet like a student who had just been caught committing tax fraud.
Probably the safest decision she had made all morning.
The rest of the lesson passed relatively uneventfully after that. Or at least as uneventfully as a first day at Blackwell Academy could apparently be. Pomni mostly spent the remainder of class half-listening while Mr. Werner explained the semester structure, assigned homework that was somehow already due next week, and listed several reading materials that looked unnecessarily long for the very first week of school.
Meanwhile, most of the class looked equally detached from reality.
A few students quietly talked among themselves while others doodled in notebooks or stared out the windows with empty expressions. The red-haired girl in the back continued sketching almost the entire lesson without interruption, while the purple-eyed guy somehow managed to look completely relaxed despite having just earned two detentions within ten minutes of arriving.
Honestly, Pomni almost respected the confidence. The second the bell finally rang, the classroom immediately erupted into movement.
Pomni stood quickly and pulled her jacket back on before slinging her bag over her shoulder. She slipped out of the classroom as fast as possible, already mentally preparing herself for the next challenge of the day. She still needed to find that scary woman.
Because apparently surviving Blackwell Academy required something revolutionary called “having a schedule.” Pomni sighed heavily while pulling out her phone to check the time, already dreading the upcoming conversation. At this rate she was probably going to be late to her second class too.
“Um, excuse me… are you Pomni by any chance?”
At the sound of her name, Pomni turned immediately toward the voice.
Standing a few steps away from her was a girl with curly orange hair tied neatly into a bun at the back of her head. She wore the same school uniform as everyone else, though somehow hers looked much warmer and more approachable than most of the others Pomni had seen so far.
Maybe it was the slightly tanned skin.
Or the light brown leather jacket she wore over the uniform.
Or maybe it was simply the fact she radiated the kind of energy that made people instinctively trust her. Even her bag stood out compared to everyone else’s dark neutral colors. It was bright blue, slightly worn at the edges, and covered in little pins and keychains that jingled softly when she moved.
“Yeah,” she answered cautiously while tilting her head in confusion. “That’s me.”
“Oh, thank God,” she sighed dramatically, sounding genuinely relieved she had found the right person. “I was seriously starting to panic that I wouldn’t find you, and that would’ve become a huge problem.” She smiled brightly afterward, and Pomni immediately got the impression that this girl worried about absolutely everything all the time.
“Sorry,” Pomni interrupted carefully, still confused. “Who are you exactly?” She glanced briefly toward the hallway behind her. Was she supposed to know this person already?
Because honestly, she was still technically in the middle of trying not to get lost again.
“Oh my God, right, sorry,” the girl said quickly. “I’m being incredibly rude.” She immediately pulled one hand out of her jacket pocket and offered it toward Pomni with another apologetic smile.
Pomni stared at the hand for one confused second before shaking it anyway.
“I’m Ragatha,” the girl introduced herself warmly. “I’m this year’s junior supervisor.”
Pomni blinked.
Oh.
Oh.
Selene and Kinger had talked about her earlier.
Honestly, Pomni had expected someone significantly scarier.
Someone taller. Someone with terrifying heels and a clipboard capable of emotional destruction.
Instead, Ragatha looked genuinely nice. Bright almost to an overwhelming degree, but still warm in a very natural way. Honestly, this was significantly better than whatever horrifying authority figure Pomni half mentally prepared herself for.
“I also have your schedule, by the way,” Ragatha added suddenly.
Before Pomni could even properly react, Ragatha had already started digging through her bright blue bag in search of something. A second later she pulled out a folded paper and handed it over proudly.
Pomni genuinely thought it might have been glowing for a second.
After wandering around this Academy blindly for an entire morning, finally having actual directions felt almost spiritual.
“Thank you,” Pomni breathed while immediately taking it. “Seriously, thank you so much. You have no idea how badly I was dreading having to go back to that terrifying woman at the front office just to ask where my classes were.”
She carefully folded the schedule and slipped it into her backpack between her notebook and the history curriculum sheet.
“Oh yeah, Ms. Sinclair can be really intimidating during the first few weeks,” Ragatha admitted while absentmindedly twirling a loose strand of hair around her finger. “Actually… no, she never really stops being scary.”
Pomni snorted quietly. Ragatha blinked once as though realizing she had gotten distracted before suddenly brightening all over again. “Oh! We’re in the same class, by the way. 6-A.” She smiled excitedly. “I’ve actually heard a lot about you already.”
Pomni almost choked.
“Heard what exactly?” she asked cautiously. Because absolutely nothing about her morning so far felt like information worth spreading positively. “Please tell me it wasn’t too bad Ragatha,” Pomni added quicklywhile trying unsuccessfully to hide another laugh.
“Oh, call me Raggy,” Ragatha replied immediately while waving her hand dismissively. “Everyone does.”
Pomni could instantly understand how Selene and Kinger had gotten used to the nickname. However, before Pomni could say anything else, however, Ragatha suddenly glanced down at her phone.
Then she gasped softly. “Oh no, we need to hurry,” she said while immediately grabbing the strap of her bag again. “We have chemistry next, and Mr. Miller is honestly not nice about people being late.”
As Ragatha pointed urgently toward another hallway, Pomni found herself briefly wondering whether the purple-eyed guy from history class was somehow about to earn a third detention before noon.
Honestly, that would be slightly impressive.
Trying not to laugh at the thought, Pomni quickly adjusted her backpack before following after Ragatha through the crowded hallway.
“So,” Pomni began while trying to match Ragatha’s overwhelmingly positive energy, “tell me about Blackwell.”
Pomni’s cheeks were beginning to ache.
After spending the entire morning enthusiastically nodding along to everything Ragatha said, desperately trying to mirror the girl’s endlessly positive outlook on life, her face felt sore and stiff, as though it had been squashed, reshaped, and forced back together all within the span of a second. Maintaining that kind of expression for hours was exhausting.
The moment she finally spotted an empty table in the crowded cafeteria, she let out a long, tired sigh of relief. She dropped her bag onto the seat first before practically collapsing down beside it, sinking into the chair as though she had just completed a marathon instead of half a school day. For the first time since arriving that morning, she allowed herself to properly breathe.
It wasn’t that she disliked Ragatha. Honestly, it was the complete opposite. Out of everyone she had met so far, Ragatha was the person she had spent the most time with, which technically made her the closest thing Pomni had to a friend in this strange new school. Ragatha was kind, patient, and genuinely welcoming. The problem was simply that she was positive all the time. Every situation, every conversation, every tiny inconvenience somehow became something optimistic in her eyes.
Pomni, was very much not build that way.
A few moments later, Ragatha returned to the table balancing two sandwiches in her hands. Only then did Pomni realize that the girl had apparently paid for her lunch too.
“Ah—wait, let me pay you back,” Pomni said quickly, fumbling through her bag as she pulled out her wallet. She was already dreading how expensive the sandwich probably was considering the absurd prices in the cafeteria.
“It’s fine, really,” Ragatha replied almost immediately, waving her off with a bright smile. Tiny sparkles practically seemed to radiate around her face whenever she got cheerful like that. “Think of it as a welcome gift.”
Pomni paused for a second before offering her a weak half-smile in return. A small part of her immediately hated the feeling that she now owed Ragatha something, but before she could think too deeply about it, hunger completely overtook her thoughts. She tore open the wrapper around the sandwich and took an enormous bite.
God, she was starving.
The only class she hadn’t shared with Ragatha that morning had been Physics. Thinking back on it now, she remembered seeing that same black-haired guy there too. This time he had been sitting beside another boy, someone with messy red hair that stuck out in uneven spikes like he had rolled out of bed five minutes before class started. Surprisingly, the black-haired student hadn’t arrived late that time, though that honestly hadn’t improved his behavior much. The two of them had whispered to each other for nearly the entire lesson.
Their teacher had repeatedly slammed her heavy textbook down onto his desk in warning, but he had only nodded solemnly each time as though he understood perfectly, before immediately continuing anyway.
“What clubs are you thinking about joining?” Ragatha asked as she sat down across from Pomni, carefully unwrapping her own sandwich with far more delicacy than Pomni had shown. “If you want, I can help sign you up after school.”
Pomni, who had already devoured nearly half of her sandwich, looked up mid-chew just in time to catch Ragatha staring at her with visible amazement before glancing back down at what remained of the food.
“Ah…” Pomni awkwardly pushed the sandwich down onto the table and quickly wiped at her mouth. “I mean, I don’t really think I’ll have time for clubs this year.”
Ragatha blinked at her, clearly confused by the explanation, so Pomni elaborated.
“I live pretty far away from here,” she explained with a shrug. “I don’t really want to waste time staying after school if I can avoid it. Besides, I’d rather focus on studying.”
She picked her sandwich back up afterward, though internally she grimaced a little.
Yeah. She was definitely going to need to focus on studying.
From what Ragatha had told her earlier, Blackwell Academy was ridiculously competitive. Apparently even though nobody acted particularly intense on the surface, everyone studied on an entirely different level compared to normal schools. Ragatha had spent nearly twenty minutes rambling about how difficult the curriculum was and how students basically couldn’t afford to fail anything or risk expulsion. At one point she had started muttering angrily about “a certain someone” who never took any of it seriously, though Pomni hadn’t bothered asking who she meant.
Honestly, Ragatha had been slightly terrifying while talking about the school.
After thoroughly frightening Pomni half to death, Ragatha had then immediately switched back into reassurance mode and tried comforting her instead.
Maybe it wasn’t actually as bad as she made it sound. Maybe Ragatha was just dramatic.
“You kind of need to join at least one club,” Ragatha said with a small sigh before pulling out a paper listing extracurricular activities. “I mean, I’m in the literature club and the chemistry lab. You could always pick something easy, like PE?”
Pomni slowly turned her head toward the large cafeteria windows directly beside them. Outside, students were running endless laps around the field while a terrifyingly intense coach screamed at them from the sidelines like a drill sergeant preparing soldiers for war. One student looked seconds away from collapsing. Another appeared to actually be crying while attempting push-ups.
Absolutely not.
“I don’t really exercise that much,” Pomni replied carefully, keeping a polite smile on her face while deliberately ignoring the suffering happening outside the window.
“Ah, well…” Ragatha leaned back in thought, tapping a finger against her chin. “There is this one club a senior started last year. It’s sort of an insect observation and gardening club? But he’s really relaxed about attendance.”
Pomni blinked at her. “So you’re saying I can sign up and then just never show up?”
A mischievous grin briefly crossed her face. “My, Ragatha. I didn’t realize you were such a delinquent.”
Ragatha’s entire face immediately turned bright red.
“N-No!” she sputtered, nearly choking on her own words before awkwardly clearing her throat. She still looked completely flustered. “I mean—I don’t support skipping activities! But if it helps you study, then maybe it’s understandable…”
“Wait,” Pomni interrupted suddenly, pointing slightly. “Is the guy running it Kinger?”
She still vividly remembered his bizarre rambling conversation about centipedes from earlier that morning, along with the permanently confused expression he seemed to wear. Oddly enough, she kind of missed it.
Ragatha blinked in surprise before breaking into another bright smile.
“You’ve already met him?” she asked excitedly. “Kinger’s such a nice guy! I’ve known him for a really long time!”
As if Kinger had somehow been summoned the exact moment his name was mentioned, he appeared beside Pomni only a few seconds later. One second she was sitting there peacefully with her sandwich, and the next he was simply there, looming awkwardly at the side of the table with his usual vaguely confused expression.
Pomni let out a startled yelp at the sudden appearance. Completely caught off guard, she nearly shoved her sandwich directly into her own face. Instead, in her panic, she accidentally swung the sandwich outward in Kinger’s direction. Thankfully she didn’t actually hit him, but somehow a tomato slice escaped from between the bread and launched itself through the air.
Right into his face.
Pomni froze immediately, grimacing at the damage she had unintentionally caused.
Kinger, however, didn’t seem remotely bothered. In fact, he reacted with surprising calmness. He simply reached up, peeled the tomato slice gently off his cheek, and popped it straight into his mouth in one smooth motion as though this kind of thing happened to him daily.
Pomni snorted loudly before she could stop herself.
“Pomni, it’s rude to throw tomatoes at people’s faces,” Selene remarked dryly as she suddenly appeared beside them and dropped into the empty seat next to Pomni.
She was balancing a salad in one hand and a sandwich in the other. Without even looking, she casually handed the sandwich over to Kinger, who accepted it immediately.
“I don’t think she meant to,” Kinger said after chewing the tomato. Pomni glanced over at Kinger just in time to watch him sit down beside Ragatha and immediately steal a piece from her sandwich too.
“Ah, Kinger,” Ragatha greeted cheerfully, entirely unbothered by the blatant theft occurring right beside her. “Pomni wants to join your club.”
Pomni nodded somewhat reluctantly while chewing.
“Of course you can join,” Kinger replied immediately, his expression brightening. “Were you convinced by my centipede presentation this morning?” His eyelashes fluttered dramatically as he spoke.
“No,” Pomni answered flatly without missing a beat.
Before he could continue talking about bugs again, she quickly turned toward Selene instead, effectively ending that conversation before it could spiral into another twenty-minute lecture on insect anatomy.
Selene grinned immediately and pointed her fork toward Pomni.
“So you’re in Class 6-A then?” she asked. Pomni nodded sheepishly.
“Ouch,” Selene said with mock sympathy. “Kinger and I are in 6-B.”
Pomni raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean I’m smarter than both of you?” she asked playfully.
Selene immediately glared at her before huffing dramatically and pointing toward Ragatha instead. “No. It just means you got stuck with Mr. Werner, who is an actual psychopath.”
Pomni snickered at that before pulling out her folded schedule from her bag and sliding it across the table toward Selene. “Well, you can check if we have any classes together at least.”
Selene perked up instantly at that. She pulled out her phone, where she apparently had her own schedule saved, and began comparing the two timetables side by side. Her eyes scanned quickly across the screen before she hummed thoughtfully and tapped one specific box.
“We both have Art together,” she announced before winking when Pomni leaned over to verify it herself.
Sure enough, they did. “That’s amazing,” Pomni said honestly. She immediately turned toward Ragatha, who was in the middle of quietly interrogating Kinger while suspiciously eyeing the pocket of his blazer. “Raggy, do you take Art too?” Pomni asked.
Ragatha looked up from whatever she was doing and nodded brightly. “I’m in Whitaker’s class,” she replied.
“Same,” both Pomni and Selene said at exactly the same time.
The two girls paused before grinning at each other at the coincidence.
“Lene!”
A loud voice suddenly called out from behind them. Before Pomni could even react properly, somebody practically launched themselves at Selene from behind.
Pomni nearly shrieked in surprise, instinctively tensing up at the sudden collision, but she stopped herself when she noticed Selene’s shoulders relax slightly instead of stiffening.
Well, relax as much as they possibly could while someone aggressively ruffled her hair into complete chaos.
“It’s been ages,” the boy declared dramatically while still messing up Selene’s hair. “I missed your sarcastic commentary.”
Pomni blinked before finally getting a proper look at him.
Then she did a double take.
Purple eyes. Black hair. That same annoyingly smug expression.
It was the same guy from earlier. Again.
How was he literally everywhere?
“It’s been since this morning,” Selene muttered dryly as she shoved his hand away from her hair and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. Despite her complaining, she still patted the empty seat beside her, and he immediately dropped down into it with a satisfied grin.
“See? Exactly this attitude,” he said proudly.
Pomni could physically see Selene’s eye twitch beside her, though she wisely chose not to comment any further.
Then she realized someone else was still standing nearby.
Turning slightly, she found herself face-to-face with the red-haired boy from Physics class. Up close, she noticed several small piercings lining his ears, and despite the confidence he carried himself with, he was actually fairly short. Especially compared to the black-haired guy beside Selene.
What really caught her attention, though, were his eyes. One was a bright electric blue while the other was a muted green.
Pomni blinked several times before realizing he was staring directly at her too.
With a huge smile.
Ah.
He was one of those people.
God she met a second Ragatha.
“Raggy, who’s this?” he asked excitedly, pointing toward Pomni with bright curiosity sparkling in his mismatched eyes.
Ragatha turned away from Kinger and smiled warmly. “This is Pomni. She’s new,” she explained.
Pomni almost had to squint from the sheer amount of metaphorical sparkles radiating off the two of them combined.
“It is truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” the red-haired boy announced seriously. To Pomni’s horror, he actually took her hand delicately between both of his and dipped his head slightly like some nobleman in an old romance novel.She nearly snorted at the absurd level of dramatics. “My name is Caine,” he declared proudly.
Before Pomni could even respond—or yank her hand back—someone abruptly slammed a hand into Caine’s side.
The black-haired boy had leaned over and bumped him with an exhausted sigh. “Oh my god, just wave like a normal person,” he groaned.
Caine only glared at him indignantly before straightening up with exaggerated dignity. Then, with almost a skip in his step, he walked over to sit beside Kinger instead. The second he sat down, he enthusiastically waved directly in Kinger’s face with the biggest smile imaginable.
Pomni heard the black-haired guy groan loudly from beside Selene.
“Like this?” Caine asked innocently, widening his eyes dramatically.
The boy stared at him with an exhausted expression, looking as though he was already regretting every life choice that had somehow led to this moment. Then, almost instantly, his entire expression shifted, as though he had suddenly solved some deeply important mystery. He nodded enthusiastically before raising both thumbs up with complete confidence.
“Yep,” he replied with a grin. “Exactly like that.”
Pomni snorted loudly at Kinger’s increasingly confused expression. It only got worse when Kinger hesitantly lifted his own hand and awkwardly waved back with one eyebrow raised in complete uncertainty.
Then, without shame, he stole another tomato slice from Ragatha’s sandwich.
Ragatha still didn’t protest.
“By the way,” Selene suddenly said with a grin, “Kinger adopted the centipede from this morning, so you can’t use it as an excuse anymore.”
She pointed toward Kinger’s blazer pocket.
Pomni stared.
Then realization clicked into place as she looked toward the black-haired boy again.
Ah.
So his name was Jax.
Honestly… that explained absolutely everything.
Now that she finally had a name to match the face, Pomni could completely understand why Selene kept calling him a jerk.
Before she could comment on it, Ragatha suddenly let out a loud shriek at the exact same time Jax released an exhausted groan.
“Why would you do that?” Jax cried dramatically, staring at Kinger in complete betrayal. “I specifically asked you to get an ugly one so you wouldn’t get attached to it!”
Kinger looked genuinely scolded. He instinctively patted the breast pocket of his blazer with a small pout forming on his face.
“I did try,” he defended weakly. “But Jax… he was just so cute…”
Pomni blinked in confusion before slowly turning her attention toward Ragatha, trying to understand why she had reacted so terrified.
Then she noticed the way Ragatha was staring at Kinger’s pocket with absolute horror in her wide eyes. Almost immediately, Ragatha scooted farther away from him across the bench as though attempting to escape an active threat.
“Raggy, are you okay?” Kinger asked innocently, completely oblivious to the terror he was causing.
To make matters worse, he scooted even closer toward her to check if she was alright.
“Kinger, get away from me—” Ragatha coughed awkwardly halfway through the sentence before quickly trying to soften her wording. “I mean, maybe move the insect away from your pocket so you don’t have to move away or anything…”
Kinger blinked several times, looking deeply confused about why everyone was reacting so strongly to the centipede situation.
Before he could say anything else, Jax suddenly leaned across the table, resting both elbows against it as he tilted his head toward Ragatha with a wicked grin.
“I think she wants you to comfort her,” he said sweetly. “Why don’t you give her a hug?”
Ragatha looked horrified.
She immediately shoved herself fully out of her seat and moved as far away from Kinger as physically possible, ending up beside Caine as though he could somehow protect her from the terrifying pocket centipede.
“JAX!” she screeched.
“What?” he replied innocently. “I thought you loved hugs—”
Before he could finish speaking, Selene abruptly grabbed his sandwich and shoved it directly into his mouth. Jax sputtered violently, nearly choking as muffled noises of protest escaped him. The sounds coming from him were somewhere between agony and laughter.
“Shut up before I ban you out of my house,” Selene muttered darkly while rubbing her temple with clear exhaustion.
“Mfhegfug?!” Jax protested through aggressive bites of sandwich.
Selene clicked her tongue as though she somehow understood exactly what he had said despite it being complete nonsense.
“Guys,” she sighed while gesturing between him and Ragatha, “we are trying to start this school year pleasantly.”
“As if I could ever be pleasant when it comes to Jax,” Ragatha muttered dramatically, turning her head away with a pout.
Jax narrowed his eyes at her before slowly turning toward Selene with the expression of someone who had just been deeply betrayed
“Hgryfnsjghefofefsg?!” he demanded indignantly through the sandwich still crammed in his mouth.
Selene’s frown deepened.
“Yes, she’s allowed to be mean to you,” she answered flatly. “She’s a girl. Where did all your gentleman lessons go?”
Jax finally managed to swallow enough sandwich to speak properly again. He immediately pointed toward Caine with a huge grin.
“Caine failed me,” he announced proudly.
Selene slowly turned toward Caine with far more intensity than the situation probably deserved. For a brief second, Pomni could have sworn she saw the faintest blush flicker across Selene’s face before it vanished again.
“Why would you do that?” Selene asked with complete exasperation.
“Well,” Caine began calmly, “when I asked Jax to pour tea for Mr. Munchkin, he accidentally poured boiling water directly onto his head instead.” He sighed deeply, sounding genuinely tired just remembering it. “It took me hours to clean him afterward.”
Pomni raised an eyebrow. “Who?”
Jax groaned dramatically before leaning back in his chair with a pout. “That teddy bear of his is possessed,” he declared. “I was trying to exorcice the demons.” He waved dismissively afterward as though that explained absolutely everything.
“I understand why you failed him,” Ragatha said immediately.
She walked back over and claimed the seat beside Pomni, still keeping a very safe distance from Kinger.
“No offense, Kinger,” she added carefully, “but I physically cannot sit beside you while you have a centipede in your pocket.”
“None taken,” Kinger replied cheerfully.
Then he patted the pocket again. Both Pomni and Ragatha visibly shuddered in unison.
Selene suddenly checked the time on her phone before nudging Jax hard in the shoulder.“We have to go,” she reminded him. “I told Zooble I’d help them with something.”
“Ugh,” Jax groaned dramatically. “They hate my guts. Can’t I just stay here and eat my sandwich in peace?”
“Nope,” Selene replied immediately while standing up and throwing away her half-finished salad. “I’m scared of them when I’m alone, so you’re coming with me.”
She pointed firmly toward the exit.
“Move it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jax sighed dramatically while grabbing the remains of his sandwich.
Before leaving, he waved enthusiastically at Kinger and Caine. Then he suddenly turned back toward Pomni with a raised eyebrow and that same irritating grin still stretched across his face.
“Later, PomPom.”
Pomni stared at him blankly.
“I hate you for that,” she deadpanned instantly.
Jax snorted loudly in response before finally walking away beside Selene, the two of them immediately falling into another animated conversation full of exaggerated hand gestures and sarcastic remarks.
For a brief moment, the table became strangely quiet.
“Ah,” Ragatha suddenly said as though remembering something important. “Now that I think about it, I still need to give you a proper tour of the school, don’t I?”
She tilted her head expectantly toward Pomni. Pomni blinked once before slowly nodding. She reached down to grab her bag and pulled her leather jacket back on over her shoulders.
Kinger stood up too, absentmindedly finishing the last piece of Ragatha’s abandoned sandwich while pushing his chair back into place.
“I’ll show you the gardens,” he offered brightly.
Caine immediately nodded beside him in agreement.
Pomni stared at the three of them for a long second.
This was going to be a very, very long day.