5. A Cafeteria

5

A Cafeteria

Morgana

T he classes are as boring as I expected them to be. I'm just glad to take a break by walking into the cafeteria, even though I'm less excited to try mortal food. I am more looking forward to escaping the monotony of classes. The cafeteria itself is a large hall filled with benched tables and a counter where some middle-aged women wearing hairnets hand out the hell dogs' feces humans consume for sustenance. Many teenagers form a line, waiting for their turn to receive the aforementioned slop. As much as I miss surviving off blood and souls, I have no choice but to join the queue, as those two options are no longer viable sources of nutrients for me.

After receiving the meals, if you could call it that, we grab our trays and start walking between the tables, looking for an empty seat. Most of them are full of loud and annoying teenage mortals, and as I am less inclined to join in their obnoxious conversations, I ignore the empty spots at their tables.

Scanning the room, I see a table with no occupants except for a girl I recognize from our homeroom seated at the very back of the mess hall. The only company she has close to her are the trashcans and the almost bare white and red walls behind her with a couple of announcements and posters. It looks like the perfect place to take a seat, as there are fewer kids the closer we get to the back. I stride confidently toward her and stare directly at her as I set my tray down on the table and sit gracefully on the bench. Maintaining eye contact before looking her up and down, I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Leave, we're sitting here now," I order her firmly, expecting her to get up without a fight since she looks small and pathetic. When she just looks at me in confusion, making no move to leave, I get annoyed.

Before I can bark at her again, Alistair speaks up from behind me. "My la…" He clears his throat to cover his slip-up. It was determined he was to address me by my first name when in the presence of mortals to maintain our cover story. "Morgana, why don't we just move over to the end of the table? She was here first, so we shouldn't bother her." Alistair suggests before making eye contact with the girl and apologizing for my words. I look over my shoulder and up to meet his eyes, just so he knows how annoyed I am at him defying me in front of a human. The pleading look in his eyes makes me soften my glare. I sigh loudly, annoyed, but I relent and move to the other end of the table, farther from the girl who just stares at us in surprise before continuing to steal curious glances every once in a while. The glances turn into outright staring once I start complaining about the tasteless food and boring classes we attended this morning.

"I knew the classes would be uninteresting, but I didn't think they would be mind-numbingly boring," I whine to Alistair as I push my food around on the plate, long having given up on eating what remains after trying it. Taking in his hums of agreement and knowing Alistair is a demon of few words, I don't expect much of an answer. After swishing the slop on my plate around a little longer, I catch something moving in my periphery. I look at the girl on the other side of the table and see her still staring. Now she has abandoned her meal in favor of staring at us inquisitively.

Once our gazes meet, I expect her to turn away and pretend she isn't eavesdropping on our conversation, but she doesn't. Meeting my cold stare dead on, she agrees with my previous statements. It's odd to say the least, but I don't reply to her comments, finding her intrusion annoying.

I turn back to complaining to Alistair, "Not to mention the smell." I say offhandedly, face scrunching up in memory of all the awful odors I have been assaulted with since I stepped foot in this building.

"Oh yeah, people need to learn how to use deodorant, especially the football team." The girl added after listening to me talk about the foul odor most humans carry with them. While I was used to everyone agreeing with me on things due to my status back home, there was a sense of righteousness coming over me with every affirmation since it was coming from a mortal. Demons crave power over mortals, losing my abilities does not change that. I smile to myself as she starts complimenting me. "By the way, I love your eyes. They're so pretty, they remind me of a turquoise stone I have in my room. It's my favorite color, you know. And you look great as a brunette, I wish my hair was as straight as yours. You need to tell me what shampoo you use. Your hair is gorgeous, it looks so healthy." As she gushes about my hair, I flip it over my shoulder. Long brown locks fall behind my back as I sit straighter and hold my head up high, pride gleaming off me. Okay, so she isn't so bad. At least she wasn't a cheerleader. I like her even more when we introduce ourselves formally and she tells me her name is Sierra Hubboard, all while completely ignoring Alistair. Unlike those cheerleaders, she didn't even grant him a sliver of attention, only speaking directly to me. This pleases me greatly as I didn't have to prevent another mortal from flirting with my demon servant.

Not two minutes after that line of thought, a group of girls approach our table, being led by none other than Annabelle. Sensing my annoyance, Alistair looks at me in worry before trying to hide his emotions behind a mask of nonchalance and pretending to be interested in the meal on his tray he has barely touched.

"Hi Alistair, Morgana. How were your first classes here?" Annabelle asks while staring directly at Alistair and ignoring Sierra's presence entirely. Feeling her stare, Alistair looks up from his plate.

"They were fine." His dry response wipes the smile off her face and plants it directly on mine.

"Well, that's good to hear. Got to make sure you two are all set since I'm the student representative and all, right?" She declares as if her title means anything to either one of us. The awkward silence that follows is irritating. "So, I just came by to let you two know that there is a Halloween party this weekend and you're both invited. It's a pretty big deal and everyone important will be there." At her last remark, she made sure to look at Sierra up and down before ignoring her again, obviously excluding her on purpose. Sierra looks like she expected that and turns back to her food.

"Oh, and we are invited?" My tone is inquisitive since this is our first day, you couldn't say that I wasn't at least trying.

"Yes, you two seem cool and it's a great way to meet people." She says smiling and looking at Alistair directly as she says the last part.

"I guess we'll see you there then." I say in place of acknowledging her statements as she passes me a flier announcing the event, including the date, time, and place. Annabelle leaves soon after, not seeing any enthusiasm on Alistair's part to attend the party. I read over the flier again taking in the gaudy cartoon depictions of a pumpkin and ghost figures scattered across the paper, their figures outlined by an orange and black background. If the humans believe this to be scary, I will need to correct their notion of true fear.

"You have to be careful with them." Sierra says unprompted.

"Why?" Humans can't scare me, much less hurt me.

"They are sneaky, they always have a secret agenda for what they do." Sierra warns, indicating the general direction the girls went with a slender finger. Her words reminded me of a time long ago when I was intrigued by the Soul crystals enough to defy my father's instruction to wait until I was of age to work in the dungeons. I sneaked into a dungeon chamber where a crystal trapped a soul of a mortal teenager. I was so curious to see what all the fuss was about. And the crystal didn't disappoint, making all my ideas become a reality for its prisoner. I spent hours forcing the teenager to climb ropes in a gym similar to one in their memories from before their death. Making sure they would fall over and over, watching as they cried and their coach in their false reality, portrayed by me, made them get up and struggle to climb it again. All their peers laughed at them when they cried out with each fall, making them even more embarrassed. It was truly entertaining, and my first dose of what torture does to feed a demon. I have never felt my Chaos as strong and vibrant before as I did that day. It was part of the reason I was so insistent on working in the dungeons sooner than my father had planned.

Sierra calling my name brings me back from reminiscing, but I respond with a straight face. "I think it would be entertaining to watch them make a fool of themselves but it's a stupid and pathetic human activity. I won't waste my time going to that sort of event." I say to Alistair making up my mind. He merely nods in agreement.

I look at Sierra when I hear her laughing. "You're really funny." She said, smiling at me brightly.

For the first time all day, I feel myself smiling at a human. I switch topics and ask about her classes. I want to see what other classes we may have together and came to find out all three of us have Chemistry together right after lunch.

I've decided that Sierra is okay, for a human anyway.