Page 47 of Endless Anger
Styx becomes visible the deeper into the foliage I trudge; that’s what they call this corner, consisting of the quarry above the bottomless lake, blocked-off cave systems below, and an old abandoned house with a half-burnt gazebo, both of which supposedly belonged to the first-ever Avernia dean.
There are a couple of Range Rovers and Jaguars backed up to the eroded rock wall overlooking the water. On the other side are the mountains, under which the lake eventually disappears into. Students mill about, some with their Burberry overcoats buttoned all the way up, attempting to stave off the chill. Others are half-undressed, participating in keg stands, or doing dramatic reenactments of their favorite lesser-known Marlowe or Shaw play.
A few are tangled up in each other, their hands disappearing beneath muted layers, their passion evaporating into the air around them.
Someone shoves a red Solo cup in my hand, slurring incoherently. The liquid inside sloshes against me, and I wrinkle my nose, glancing around to see if there’s some sort of waste management the students remembered to set up.
But since this is a Curator party and not one by a more socially conscious organization, I see nothing. A couple of kids roll empty beer bottles down piles of crushed rock, leaning over to see whose shatters first.
They don’t rush to pick up the glass, and why would they? Most Avernia students grew up with someone else to clean their shit for them.
I lift one of my hands, scratching behind my ear repeatedly until it feels like my skin is starting to chafe?—
“Lucy!” a loud, melodic voice bursts from over my shoulder like an alarm, drawing the crowd’s attention to me.
Cringing, I turn toward it; across the flat pavement, Aurora wavesa vodka bottle over her head. In her other hand is her cell phone, which she shakes at me as I approach, her spray-tanned skin flushed, blond ponytail loose, and her pink lip gloss smudged.
She’s clearly been here for a minute.
“Uh-oh, the reigning bitch queen has arrived,” a male voice snickers from the sidelines. “Get ready to be ratted on for not recycling your cigarette butts.”
“Yeah,” someone else joins in. This person I recognize, but I act like I don’t hear him. “Better not look at her too long, or she might try to set another bar or refectory on fire.”
My shoulders tense up, but I refrain from taking the bait. They want the reaction, and I refuse to give it.
Besides, I didn’t start either of those fires..
I just got blamed for them.
Aurora’s blue eyes narrow, and she slings her arm around my shoulder as she approaches. “Ignore them,” she says, giving me a squeeze.
Glancing down at the beer in my hand, I slowly bring it to my lips, ignoring the warning bells in my head. I shouldn’t drink at all since I remembered to take my meds this morning, but fuck it.
The clock tower strikes again, reverberating through the trees and echoing in my chest. The noise seems to ricochet off the rocks, then get carried across the water, where it falls silent.
“I always do.”
16
LUCY
Aurora leanson the portable Ping-Pong table that a couple of guys have set up. “Dean Bauertold you to drop out?”
“Not in so many words,” I say after recounting the events of this morning. My knee trembles, bouncing lightly. It started earlier in the dean’s office and hasn’t really stopped since. “But he suggested I might feel moreat easeat a different school. Said there were ones better designed to accommodate my needs than anything in Fury Hill.”
“Yourneeds?” My roommate, Celeste, scoffs as she picks a twig from her platinum-blond bob. “Do you suddenly require rare resources or something? Expensive testing accommodations?”
“I’m pretty sure that’d be discrimination on his part if she did,” Yuri, a student who moved here from Okinawa a few years back, adds, opening a convenience store cupcake with her teeth. She glances at me, her dark brown eyes widening. “You’ve got ADHD, right? Maybe we should bring a case against the administration.”
“Like I need another reason to pit them against me.” My brain hurts at the thought alone, knowing they don’t fight with logic or justice but money and alienation. “Besides, if I try to do anything, my parents will join in for sure.”
Celeste reaches into her purse, pulling out a small bottle of lotion, which she proceeds to slather over her pale pink skin. “So? Your dad is a former governor, girl, and your mom is hot as hell. Not to mention totally terrifying. You should really be using them to your advantage more.”
I have no doubt that if my mom knew even half the things that go on at Avernia, she’d have flown in months ago and packed up my room without question. But only after spending an afternoon in the dean’s office with my father, arranging to have the school’s multibillion-dollar endowment revoked and the administrative faculty made eunuchs.
My father, who has always been totally powerless against Cora Wolfe’s chaos, would offer his full support. The accused would probably be missing before sundown if he had any say in the matter.
While on paper, that’s the kind of parenting some people would kill for, it’s always felt like more of a detriment to me. Learning to be human and interact with my peers has been enough of a struggle my whole life without adding my over-the-top parents into the mix.
