"Levi," Anri loudly called out to the exiting prefect. "I'll join Cygnus under one condition."
A look of surprise quickly appeared and was erased from Levi's face. "What condition?"
____
To: The Council Members
From: Levi Liebermann; prefect/Cygnus.
Subject: Suck it.
Msg: Anri is now a proud member of camp Cygnus. Bye.
"Damn that fox. What did he offer Anri that was so good that he had chosen Cygnus without hearing the others out?" Yve ranted at the message on her comm.
She decided to make a call to Helena who was running late for a meeting with her vice prefects.
"What?" Helena barked through the communicator. The elegant lady had to be in a real mood if she was answering calls this way.
"Why hello to you too, Helena. I see you've also received the message."
"I'm getting late for something, Yve. Make it quick."
"Did Levi tell you anything about-"
"Nope. Let's catch him after dinner. He may spill if the three of us threaten to knock his teeth out."
"Count me in. I'll ask Bruce if he wants to join."
_____
"Anri, it says here that you don't have a surname?" The dorm leader of Cygnus said with a lift of his thick brows. His head was completely shaved and he looked like an egg with brows.
"I'm an orphan," Anri clarified for him. His communicator pinged right then. A message had arrived from Soren who confirmed he too would join Cygnus.
"Ah, I didn't mean to pry. I'm Taylor by the way. Follow me, I'll show you to your dorm."
Anri walked beside the dorm leader who had a lot to say about the rules and regulations in the dorm. Several students in black tracksuits passed by Anri. A few of them glanced his way and continued past him.
"-and curfew is at eight-thirty. If you're late, you'll have to do extra laps during morning conditioning."
"Taylor, is that a medevac coming this way?" Anri's nose was pressed up against the bulletproof glass that lined the hallway. From the second level of the building, he could make out the distinct colouring of the aerial vehicle that was quickly closing in towards them.
"That's indeed a medevac. Why is it at Starfield?" Taylor replied. "I guess there's some kind of medical emergency that the academy's hospital isn't equipped for. Strange."
More students stood at the glass wall and looked out as the medevac made a landing near Diamond. As soon as the vehicle hit the ground, Anri saw a team of medics rush out of the Academy hospital doors while pushing a medi-pod ahead of them.
"That's troublesome," Taylor murmured. "I've never seen that happen before."
More and more students were gathering at the glass wall, talking loudly amongst themselves.
The medics on the ground were pushing the medi-pod inside the medevac which then shut its door and hummed, beginning liftoff the moment it received clearance.
Anri sent a quick message to Nova asking if she knew what had happened. Her reply was instant.
//A second-year student has slipped into a sudden coma. She was healthy and doing fine till she began to bleed from her orifices. The girl passed out very abruptly after the bleeding began. The doctors here aren't sure what's going on.//
Anri frowned as the medevac silently disappeared into the night. He hoped that whatever the sick girl had wasn't contagious. A place like Starfield where several thousands of people were densely packed together could quickly become ground zero for an epidemic.
"Let's go, everyone. Shows over," Taylor told them. "Anri that way to your room. You're lucky you know. First-year students don't get rooms like this one."
"OUTTA THE WAY! MOVE-"
Anri twisted and pressed his back to the wall as a large spider came scurrying through the hallway. The sorcerer almost zapped the creature with his magic but managed to keep himself in check.
"WHO LET SANDY OUT?!" Taylor bellowed at the three students who were chasing the spider. It was the height of an adult man and had silky white bristles growing from its mottled black and grey body.
The hallway was chaotic as the spider ran back and forth with a train of students running behind it. Anri punched in the code that Taylor had given him. When the door slid open, he all but threw himself inside his new room.
"Fuck.." The sorcerer let out. Spiders of that size were carnivores back home in his original dimension. Human children were often their favourite snacks and Anri had almost become one while stealing spider eggs.
The teen calmed his heart and looked around his new room. It wasn't very spacious but at least he wasn't sharing it with anyone.
____
At exactly 4:30 am, Anri heard the cheerful sound of a horn that played from a speaker on his ceiling.
Five minutes later, he was dressed in a black tracksuit and running downstairs where the others were already warming up for a two-mile run.
An hour later, Anri was freshly bathed and waiting for Soren at the entrance of mess hall two.
"You're late," he told the redhead who was already eating a banana as he walked towards the mess hall. "And where did you get that banana?"
"This? Simon gave it to me. Met him on my way here. He had eight bananas in his pockets so I relieved him of one."
"Your new roommate?" Anri asked as they walked to the deliciously arrayed out breakfast buffet. The sorcerer took back his thoughts about elite schools not being a big deal.
"Yeah. What's yours like?"
With great satisfaction, Anri informed Soren, "I don't have one."
"What? No way!"
Soren didn't have to know that Anri had used the redhead as a bargaining chip for a single room. Levi was willing to let him have that much if it meant Cygnus could acquire a promising cadet like Soren who was also on the list of the other prefects.