Page 5 of Kings of Desire
‘Annelids as in worms?’ I asked again, knowing too well from biology what the term represented. A phylum that consisted of different kinds of worms!
‘Exactly, newbie, Echo City is separated into two categories -Annelids and The Elite,’ Thomas didn’t seem happy with the nickname either. But it was just that. A label set by a snob group of people. In the end, we could call them whatever we wanted, couldn’t we?
Things like this stopped affecting me a long time ago, and I had much more serious burdens to bear.
‘I have to run, I have Calculus.’ The first class on my planner was about to begin.
‘We’ll be joining you in that one,’ Jenn snuck her hand around my arm and began leading me back towards the back door. ‘We’re geeks in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘Don’t rush, it’s only introduction day.’ Darell babbled, trying to catch up with us.
The reality was I didn’t want to make a bad impression on day one. I needed to have my teacher’s support because with the extra jobs I planned on taking on, missing classes will be a normality in my case.
We pushed the glass door to reach the main lobby, and if things seemed weird before, it was a freak show by now. The hallway murmured with endless voices, whispering- some in horror while others in admiration.
I raised on my toes, trying to see what was happening, but Jenna’s quick hand came down on my shoulder and pushed my feet back on the ground ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
Was that fear glinting in her eyes?
‘Let’s go, quickly’’ she scolded me, dragging me into a corner, but not before I caught a glimpse at what was happening. There was a demon- because there is no other way I could call him. A blue-eyed demon, packed with a Herculean body of well-defined muscles and the most devious grin I’ve ever met.
He wasevil, and I could feel it!
He wasdanger, and I could feel it from miles away!
A few strands of jet-black hair were falling over his eyes as he was lifting a poor guy by the shirt, in a pure display of force and superiority. The ultimate bully, followed by a pack of jackals to corner his victims. Who knows what that guy that was now hanging in the air did? It couldn’t have been more than an innocent word or a flashing look in their direction.
I knew the stereotype all too well.
I loathed the stereotype all too well.
‘Who is that guy?’ I asked while Jenna was already dragging me along a secondary hallway, far away from the show.
‘Fucking trouble,’ Thomas answered with the annoyance of a man recognizing it from a personal experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t been on the demon’s list along the way, and in complete honesty, I was asking because I knew I was going to be on that list as well.
Freckles must have sensed I was going to ask again and decided to save me the trouble ‘Cole Clyborne. He’s a kind of king around here. The king of idiots if you ask me, but don’t let anyone hear you say it. Here even the walls have ears and you wouldn’t want to end up on the death row over a few misplaced words.’
‘That bad?’ I asked.
‘That bad,’ she answered, stopping in front of a classroom. ‘We’re here. Say hello to the first day of EMA.’ Her enthusiasm faded, almost ironic as if underlining what coming to this town really meant. I was officially an Annelid.
Chapter 2
Two weeks later, and I was nowhere closer to finding a second job. I that I had searched everywhere, from the sweatshop factories to the top luxury restaurants up in the Hills. Absolutely nothing.
A rotten sensation of constant worry began gradually infiltrating my system. A fear that I didn’t need within me. Not yet. I needed more time before desolation would take hold and make my struggle be in vain. My sister and brother were still so far away, and failing them wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination an option.
I continued attending my classes, might as well take advantage as I paid for them, and I wasn’t going to let a single cent go to waste. I never skipped a course, and since for the first time in a long time I’d actually found a friend, I took the opportunity and even squandered a few hours on girl time. It felt so good, almost normal - and I haven’t felt normal in so long that sometimes I think I forgot that I was even human.
Jenna and the two guys, Darell and Thomas, tried to help me with finding some kind of work, but there was nothing much they could do. None of them came from money, and none of them knew anyone in a position that could provide me with a job. I even suspected that Jenna and Thomas had an even more delicate situation back home than my own, but I never asked, out of politeness - and they never told.
This morning I woke up feeling a little dizzy and with a slight headache. Must have been from the hours I put in at night combined with the time spent attending classes. Or maybe since I managed to skip a few meals, mostly because the few coins that were shining on the bottom of my wallet were supposed to be used for transportation. It didn’t matter. Tonight, I was about to get my first paycheck, not that it would be enough for foodandrent, but at least it would buy me a couple of extra days for finally finding a job.
Searching mywastewardrobe, I put on one of the two shirts I owned, then pulled the fabulous pair of authentically worn-out jeans, and I was on my way… Though the bus didn’t seem to agree with my plans, since the driver could (was) only advance to cross the unmarked border between the Pit and the Hills after having waited for over twenty minutes for a protest meeting to disperse. And as you must have guessed, I was late for class.
I think that I spent around ten minutes in the Academy’s Garden. It was too tardy for me to go to my first course and too early for my second, so I decided to go over a few class notes outside before it started to rain.
