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Aiden was no stranger to fire escapes. In their apartment in Lower East Side, he used to climb out the window and sit on the railing for hours, watching the lights go by below him. He’d spent many an hour out there, just taking in the scent of the pizza place down the street, a welcome change from the alcohol and fried food he swore his father bathed in.
He didn’t hate the man. He hated that his dad never called him his name, and absolutely refused to have anything to do with his “occult bullshit”, but he could never hate his father. Sure, he sometimes wished that things had turned out differently. That he’d been a nonmagical. That he’d been a real boy, or better yet, a real girl. Maybe then, his dad wouldn’t have told him to never come back when he sent him off to St. Tatiana’s after his fourteenth birthday.
But it wasn’t any use brooding about it now. Not now, when he found two friends who he felt reasonably sure he could count on. Sure, they were roommates, (and he wasn’t happy about that. The dorms, after all, were separated according to gender, except for a rumored third dorm that nobody’s ever seen before) but they were friends now, too. It started as a “you keep my secret, I’ll keep yours” deal, in all honesty.
[“So, you’re the new girl?” He winced, scowling and shoving his hands in his hoodie pockets, uncomfortably aware of the tight sports bras around his chest.
“Officially.” The pretty Asian girl studied him for a moment, eyes narrowed. In concentration? Suspicion?
“No you’re not,” she said finally, shoulders relaxing slightly. But only slightly. He glanced nervously at the door to the room, as if afraid a faceless faculty member would swoop in and expel him.
“So what? It’s not like I had a choice. My stupid dad enrolled me,” he grumbled, his own tension growing.
“Hey, easy buddy. Relax. I think we all got off on the wrong foot here.” Aiden stifled a yelp as a new, slightly deeper voice spoke from behind him. “My name’s Grace Matthews. This is Heather Yee—”
“Babe it’s pronounced Lee—”
“Lee? But it’s spelled with a Y.”
“Hey, I didn’t choose how to read the Hangul.”
He watched the banter for a minute, struck speechless by their already easy camaraderie. The kind you get after knowing someone for years, or at least being very, very close to them.
“I’m Aiden McCain. Um, sorry if this is rude, but are you two dating?”]
From there, it had only got better. Sure, it was a bit rocky, but nobody finds a diamond in a day. He’d learned that yes, they were dating, and he’d do well to keep his mouth shut, as Heather had a shovel, three alibis, and a convenient graveyard just off the school grounds. He wouldn’t trade them for the world though, not even after he and Heather simultaneously learned they had opposing magicks (Grace didn’t have magic, but that didn’t really matter, as she could still kick his ass).
Maybe there was some truth to that saying after all. You know, the one about the blood of the covenant being stronger than the water of the womb. Everyone knew blood was powerful, after all.
That’s just how it was at St. Tatiana’s.