EIGHTY-ONE: O Cruzamento

81

“How?” Alden asked Victor, picking him up and squinting at his tubby belly. “How are you getting bigger on the diet kitty chow?”

Mrrraoow.

“It’s because there are no vermin here, isn’t it? You need mice to chase. Maybe the dorms will be infested.”

He doubted it. Anesidora didn’t have much of a pest problem. There weren’t even mosquitoes.

He set Victor back on the sofa because the cat bed wasn’t good enough for his orange majesty, then he grabbed his lunch from the fridge. He sent a group text to the girls across the hall, letting them know they could hang out in his apartment while he was gone if they wanted and use his coffee machine.

Natalie responded a second later. [Wait! I’ll go with you! I just need five minutes.]

[Ok.]

He used the time to let his fingers flick through his non-auriad spells. He magically sanitized his hands, blew a puff of air at his cat, and then played a little tune.

Victor yawned.

“Such a critic.” Alden tickled the cat’s whiskers with his ring fingers while chimes sounded. “You know this is majorly impressive stuff, right? For a human.”

Maybe Victor would respect him more when he started smacking, crushing, and freezing things. He was sure he could do the spell that hit things with a square of force now. I wonder how much free authority I would need to cast that spell Jel-nor did.

A lot, he assumed. And there had been a chant with that one. But the mince-it-into-diamonds spell, or another like it, could be a longterm goal.

When Natalie was ready, he met her in the hall. She was wearing pink overalls and a backpack so crammed full of stuff it looked like it was on the verge of bursting.

“Are you going to school today after all?” Alden asked.

She’d gotten her acceptance from the CNH Arts program a few days before Alden, but instead of starting classes right away, like him, she was waiting until the last possible minute to leave intake. Of her roommates, only Hadiza would be going to school with her, and she was upset about leaving the friends she’d made here behind.

“Apartment hunting,” she said in a determined voice. “Again.”

She wouldn’t be staying in the school dorms because they didn’t have full private kitchens. She wanted all of her new equipment to go with her.

“Emilija finally said that if I could find an apartment she can afford to contribute rent for on her stipend, she’d come stay in Apex with me and Hadiza! She thinks I can’t do it, but I have twenty pounds of cake and brownies in here.” She slapped one of her backpack straps. “I’ll bribe my way through every landlord in the city if I have to!”

They hit the lobby then headed out the doors into the dark morning.

“Do you know if bus or train is faster this time of day?” Alden asked.

“I don’t usually leave this early either. I think it’s train through F, then bus in Apex?”

It was windy again, and strands of blonde hair that hadn’t been caught by her ponytail were whipping around her face.

“Want me to carry your backpack?” He kept looking for excuses to experiment with his new magical weight-lifting discovery.

“I’ve got it. Thanks, though. Are any of the hero track people starting with you today?”

“I only asked Maricel. She’s going, but I think she’s a last possible minute person. She didn’t want to leave early.”

“I want to meet her!”

“We’ll all be on campus together, so I’m sure you’ll run into each other.”

They dashed through a crosswalk just before the signal changed, and then headed in the direction of the nearest station. As they passed by the yoga studio Alden had noticed on his first ever trip through the neighborhood, Natalie suddenly said, “I tried to take a class at this place.”

“Yeah?”

The orange light from a shuttered restaurant’s sign made one of the silver buttons on her overalls glitter.

“I think they didn’t want me there. They were nice at first. They said they were used to people from intake visiting, and they didn’t mind that I’d never done a class before. But then it got weird after somebody asked my rank. You wouldn’t think it would matter, would you? For yoga.”

“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Alden agreed. “But I’m still getting used to Anesidora, too. Sometimes things catch me by surprise.”

“Maybe I’m being sensitive for no reason. This place is going to feel smaller if being an S means some people think I’m supposed to stay on the north island. On top of everything else.”

“I’m sure it’s not like that,” he said. He hoped not anyway. “I think this is a D and F-heavy neighborhood except for intake. Hardly any powers on display. Once you go a couple more blocks, you’ve got people throwing spells around in the streets.”

Natalie perked up. “That’s true. I am excited about living in Apex! It’ll be perfect if I can keep Emilija with us. And you’re going to have roommates finally. I can’t believe they left you alone all that time.”

“I’ve liked having the giant apartment to myself.”

He didn’t tell her that he’d asked for it a few weeks ago. Gustavo had made it easy for him. During one of Alden’s nocturnal rambles through the dorm hallways, the night counselor had casually suggested that there wasn’t much point in putting new people in with him when he’d be leaving in a month. Alden had just as casually agreed.

He’d needed it. It was cool of Gus not to make it into a big deal.

Just a little more of a buffer between him and everyone else. Just a little more time before he forced himself into trying for 24/7 normal. No roommates to whom he’d feel obligated to explain the insomnia, or any of the rest of it.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

If I was placing bets on my ability to be a great living companion right now, I don’t know if I’d choose me. It’s probably good I’m in a suite that Lexi is actively trying to make the quiet, studious one.

Another block and then an escalator down, and they were inside the station. It was glossy, immaculately clean, and a little over the top—qualities it shared with most of the other public transport spaces Alden had seen on the island. Starburst-shaped chandeliers the size of cars hung from a high, arched white ceiling, and every now and then when you stepped on a floor tile, it would twinkle with embedded lights.

A train had just arrived. They hurried for the nearest car and slipped inside just as the doors were closing.