Turns out Raiden and Aaron didn't have to travel far to reach the Gardien house.
The Gardien House was actually a part of the Schatten Academy probably built as an offshoot. Built in the same gothic stereotype, the Gardien house was much smaller but somehow carried a homely feeling. As if it was the only ray of hope in the entire shadowy campus.
Now, Aaron and Raiden were standing inside the living room (which Aaron seemed to call it but otherwise too large in Raiden's view) in front of another lady, who much unlike Cassandra, seemed rather ordinary to Raiden with her white T-shirt and sweatpants. She just drawled on lazily in front of the fireplace, busy reading her book and not bothering to look up.
Wow. So lazy.
'Sarah.' Aaron called.
No response from the woman.
'Sarah?' Aaron asked again.
Still no response came from the woman. Aaron sighed and turned to Raiden.
'Guess I have no other choice. You may want to cover your ears though.'
Huh? Raiden seemed confused but did as told. Better safe than sorry. Aaron heaved in a huge breath before bellowing out.
'YO SARAH GALLAGHER, GET YOUR LAZY ARSE OUT OF THE CHAIR AND COME AND GREET US BITCH!! WE HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY, SO MOVE IT!'
The girl on the sofa showed no signs of shock or being affected. Instead she just sat there, engrossed in the book in her hand. Aaron heaved out a huge sigh. 'Looks like we're gonna stand here all day. This woman-' he muttered without caring to finish the sentence.
After what seemed like hours, the lady finally kept the book aside and stood up and turned to them. She placed her hands on her hips as she turned to Aaron with an annoyed expression. 'Next time you shout like that while I'm reading, Stevenson, you will not get a single word from me for two whole days.' She then turned to Raiden.
'Hi, I'm Sarah Gallagher,' she said, her voice deliberately and sickeningly sweet, 'senior student at the Schatten Academy. I know the dorm master's supposed to actually welcome you but our dorm master is away for some work and won't be here for a while, so I'm the one doing these things instead. Welcome to Schatten Academy'
'Thank you.' Raiden replied curtly.
Sarah craned her neck towards the now closed door before turning to Aaron again.
'Are you two the only people who have been assigned to the Gardien House?'
Aaron just shrugged in a nonchalant manner.
'Don't know, mate. And if you ask me, I really don't give a fuck.'
'That's odd. Cassie said that there are three students assigned to Gardien House. Was there something wrong with the arrangement this year? Well, never mind, to err is human. Alejandro had your entire luggage brought upstairs and your room number is mentioned on your ID card. Cassandra doesn't trust the-'
There door opened with a loud bang and someone spoke.
'I'M HERE! SORRY I'M LATE.'
Three heads swivelled towards the source of the voice. Aaron's face broke into a huge grin.
'Hi Jennie, it's nice to see you again.'
Raiden looked at the small figure that now rested her hands on her knees, panting for breath. She had raven coloured hair and dark brown eyes and wore a lavender bell sleeved dress shirt and black leggings which highlighted her features. A girl, finally.
Sarah let out a disapproving snort. Clearly, she wasn't pleased on seeing the girl.
'You still don't have any sense of time, do you, Jennifer?' she asked bitterly.
'Nope.' She replied, still panting and with a smirk on her face. 'Unlike you, Sarah, we are not elites. We don't have a private jet. Some of us actually had to wait for the public means of transport. And moreover, unlike I was promised there was no one waiting for me at the airport and after waiting for almost an hour I had to take a cab to come here.'
Sarah's face turned a slight shade of red in embarrassment. She huffed slightly and continued,
'As I was saying, Cassandra doesn't trust the ID card lock system, especially of the Gardien House since it is the oldest building in the entire system. So she has arranged for the keys as well. Alejandro has kept the keys in with the luggage. You're lucky to be here cuz it's the best and the most luxurious house in the campus. There are a total of six residents in the Gardien House- the dorm master Ms. Renata; me; Jayden, who is a second year student and you three. I seriously don't know on which floor the rooms are and I seriously couldn't care less. Each room has its own attached bathroom, so you wouldn't seem to have a problem. There's a map of the house on the inner side of each door so you do not get lost. The rest, I think has been told by Cassie, I expect. And I think that's all. Ooh, and one more thing, I'm going back to reading and if you three have any doubts, do not ask me.'
And then she sat down again in front of the fire.
'Okay,' Aaron spoke after a few moments of awkward silence, 'Well, that was some good pep talk. Thanks Sarah. Come on, Raiden. Shit, I almost forgot. Raiden meet Jennifer and Jennifer, meet Raiden. Since you're the only two girls in our year, I think you two will hit it off pretty well.'
Jennifer beamed in delight as she extended her hand.
'Hi, Raiden. You can call me Jennie.'
'Hi, Jennifer.' Raiden replied.
'I'm so happy there's another girl here.' Jennifer said as they were going up the stairs, 'During the middle school program, they had about five girls in total. And to be honest, they were all those elite bitches like "Little-Miss-Show-Off-Elite" over there. Thankfully, Gardien House does not provide residence to elites. I sometimes really wonder how she came here. You don't seem to talk much. Are you getting bored?'
'Nope.' Raiden replied smiling.
***
On entering her room, Raiden was immediately gripped with the feeling that she had travelled back in time.
The room was just as large as the living room had been with a queen sized four post bed, a Victorian style study table at the corner, walls covered in lilac wallpaper, a rather large grandfather clock; large medieval style French windows and a walk-in closet. There was another door beside the closet, the bathroom, perhaps. The only thing that seemed modern in the entire room was her luggage.
Alejandro indeed had taken care of the entire luggage.
'Well, I guess it's time to believe I'm finally here.'
She began with the smaller boxes containing stationery supplies and textbooks. For troublemakers like Raiden, books were never much of a priority. She just needed them to get a decent grade- a bare necessity that's all. There were few this year, much to Raiden's relief. A schedule had also been provided by the academy, which, Raiden saw fit keep in her bag, along with a few books for the next day.
She then fished through the boxes of her personal things she had brought from back home. Raiden wasn't planning to, but her mother had looked so heartbroken to see that Raiden wasn't packing any of them, she suppressed that thought. She could not bear to do that to her mother who had seemed so happy the day the letter had come from Schatten Academy.
She first took out a picture of herself and her family- dressed for Halloween. Raiden's parents had dressed as Mavis and Johnny from "Hotel Transylvania" while Raiden had decided to dress up as Bellatrix Lestrange. Raiden's mother was not pleased with Raiden's choice of clothing. Highly inappropriate for a child her mother had grumbled. But Raiden's dad had convinced her otherwise.
Next she took out a picture of her and Xavier, one of her oldest best friends and partner in crime. Xavier was as much a troublemaker as Raiden, if not more or less. Xavier had been by her side as long as she could remember and both of them even got expelled together. But Xavier had contracted cancer that had been metasizing unknowingly and before middle school even went through halfway, Xavier was six feet below the ground. A small tear had been threatening to come out but she brushed it away as she kept this picture beside the second one.
If Xavier had been here, they would already be planning some mischief together.
They always planned some kind of mischief together.
Raiden had brought no posters along with her- she was a fan of many things but not to the extent that she would want to buy posters. The closet also didn't require much arrangement- the dress code required only some form of black in the clothing and wearing the school blazer and as for Raiden's clothing, there was nothing but black.
Raiden had just finished unpacking everything and had just come out of the shower when there was a loud knock on the door.
'Come in.'
The door opened and Jennifer walked in.
'Hey there.' She said leaning against the door. 'You're done with unpacking?
'Yep.' Raiden replied keeping the hair dryer aside.
Jennifer smiled.
'Come on, I bet that lazy ass of Aaron hasn't even bothered to even open one box.'
'That was harsh.'
'Well, last year he made me unpack everything while he just set up his gaming equipment. I was so pissed off. He likes to irritate the fuck out of me.'
'You seem to be close.' Raiden commented as they walked down the hallway to his room.
'Well, he's the only guy that did not dare to flirt with me. You know Travis?'
'You mean the French blonde ass kisser?'
'Yep.' Jennifer replied chucking, 'The French blonde ass-kisser. That's a good nick name. Remind me to call him that. Anyways, last year during the Christmas party, he tried to flirt with me. When he failed, he turned aggressive and started saying nasty things about me. What he did was that he burnt all of his stuff and shaved off his hair. This almost got him suspended though. But I'm really thankful he did that. Travis needed to learn a lesson.
'He seemed really pissed on seeing him today.'
'That's good. Pissed off Travis is much better than drunk and flirty Travis.'
***
As Jennifer had correctly predicted, Aaron had not even opened a single box. And most of the unpacking had been done by Raiden and Jennifer. Aaron just butt in on the ones that were the heaviest and the bulkiest. And also containing the ones containing his gaming equipment.
'Are you gonna help us, or are you too important?' Jennifer asked while she heaved up another large box.
'I'm too important' he shrugged.
'Alejandro should have kicked your ass before you came in.'
'I'm to loveable to have my ass kicked, mate.'
'You're too cocky not to have your ass kicked.' She countered.
After they were done, the three of them decided to grab something to eat.
'Man, I'm so tired.' Aaron said stretching his arms.
'You barely did anything. Unpacking sure is hard work.' Raiden pointed out.
'I arranged my computer and gaming equipment. And believe me that equipment is really, really heavy. And besides I didn't have the heart to turn two pretty ladies down who so willingly agreed to unpack all my stuff for me. I couldn't do it, you know, I'm a gentleman after all. And everyone loves me.'
'Gentleman my ass. No one gives a damn about your stupid ass, Aaron.' Jennifer gave him a shove.
'Hey, that's rude. I mean, mate, either you are gay or you are blind. I mean, look at this body- you don't find sexy pieces like me anymore. Have you seen this hair and this face and my beautiful eyes? People pray to God for these killer looks. And girls are willing to do anything for my sexy arse.'
'Cheap things attract more people.' Raiden added.
Both Jennifer and Raiden laughed as Aaron groaned. Raiden sure did feel good about having friends after such a long time.
You would have loved these people Xavier. She thought to herself.
They had just entered reached the bottom of the stairs to see Sarah and Travis wrapped around each other like animals and almost eating each other's faces off.
'What the bloody hell?' someone muttered.