Tales & Time (Lost Time Academy #1)(11)

“Morning, Tots! What are they serving for breakfast today?” she asks her book. I walk over, looking over Tavvy’s shoulder at the woman’s head in the book. She is bald like Lane and has blue eyes, with a triangle symbol on her cheek. You can only really tell she is a girl by her long eyelashes and high cheek bones. What’s with them all having no hair?

“It is an English breakfast, your favourite. I believe today is the only day they are serving hot food for breakfast this week. So you might want to head over now before it is all eaten,” she says, her voice is old-fashioned like Lane’s too.

“Awesome,” Tavvy states and shuts the book before putting it into her backpack. Once her bag is done up, she looks over at me and sighs before walking to the bed. “Here you go. I noticed you don’t have one, and it’s easier to carry things around,” Tavvy explains as she leans under our beds and pulls out a black backpack.

“Thanks,” I say and accept it, closing my book and putting it in the bag.

“Come on, new friend. Let’s go before all the good food and seats are taken,” Tavvy states and links her arm in mine, leading me out of our room. I’m surprised to see it’s empty, and everywhere is very quiet when we walk out. This is meant to be a school…right?

“Where is everyone?” I ask her.

“There aren’t that many students anymore, not like there used to be anyway. Not since…well, I’m sure someone will explain all that to you at some point. Overall, there are a hundred and fifty students, well, a hundred and fifty-one now,” she says, knocking my shoulder as we walk down the very long corridor, and I frown at her.

“Explain what?” I ask her.

“About the dark fairy tale descendants and why there are so few of us left…I will explain tonight if you really want to know and not get any sleep for a while,” she says, and smiles sadly at me. I nod once at her and remind myself to ask her about it all later. As I look around, I’m happy to say the place doesn’t look as creepy in the day as it does at night. There is still a silly amount of old paintings of people, and now that I can see, there is lavender wallpaper that is horrible.

“There are only two other students that have a room down here,” she explains to me, “though they are always late to class.”

“There are ten doors,” I comment, looking around as we come into the corridor that joins all the corridors going off it. The stairs going down are in the middle of the corridor, and the stairs going up are next to them. The old and derelict feel of the mansion is the same up here too, and more strange paintings line the walls.

“Yep, each corridor has ten rooms. The floor upstairs is the boys’ rooms, which is a maze of corridors as well. We aren’t allowed up there, but that doesn’t stop some people,” she nods her head to the red-haired girl walking down the stairs, dressed in a small red dress and killer black heels. She stops when she sees us, taking her time to look us up and down before walking over, her heels clanging loudly against the floor.

“The new girl everyone is talking about,” she states when she stops in front of us, raising a black eyebrow.

“Err yeah. Hi,” I say with an awkward wave, and she wrinkles her nose as she looks me over again.

“When you want to learn how to dress, come and find me,” she states. Rude.

“No, thanks,” I reply, and she laughs, wrapping her hand around my upper arm as she leans in close.

“Lose the fake fairy, sweetheart, and come and play with the ones who have actual power and can keep you alive,” she taunts, and I pull my arm away from her.

“Fake fairy? Do you want to say that again?” Tavvy basically growls, and her skin starts glittering green. There is actual green glitter appearing all over her, and green dust falls to the floor. Holy Batman, that is cool.

“What are you going to do, sprinkle fairy dust on me?” the read head laughs, and I put my hand on Tavvy’s shoulder, making her look at me.

“Whoever this typical high school bitch is, she isn’t worth it,” I tell Tavvy, whose green sparkling eyes freak me out for a second before she sighs and nods. The sound of footsteps drift to us just before three teenage guys around my age come down the stairs, and we all look over at them. They curiously watch us, or rather me, before walking away as more people start coming out their rooms, and the corridor quickly fills up.

“Another time, fake fairy,” the redhead says before walking off, and both Tavvy and I watch her silently until she is gone down our corridor. So that must be one of our corridor roommates.

“That bitch was one of the ones I warned you about last night, her name is Ella,” Tavvy says, shaking the dust off her so it falls into a puddle at her feet.

“I know it’s rude to ask, but what fairy tale is she from?” I ask.

“You know the Little Mermaid? Well, she is her descendant. Ella is a killer in the water and with her family’s trident. She can also become a mermaid at will and heal herself and others with water,” Tavvy explains to me.

“Doesn’t sound something to be scared of,” I admit.

“No, she is useless on land with no water nearby. Though she has been trained her whole life to fight, like most of us have, and could kill you in a second,” she explains.

“You’ve been trained?” I ask as she links our arms again, and we start walking towards the stairs.