Breaking Barriers
Jinx’s first week continued without much eventfulness. She did her best to keep herself amused with her little pranks in technology, but she didn’t have much range to do that with her other classes. Apart from tripping people up in the hallway, there wasn’t much else to do. She had a good idea though, and the planning for such hilarious prank would keep her somewhat busy, which was especially needed as her Gameboy seemed to be perfectly stuck on a level she just couldn’t beat, and she was too proud to change game and admit defeat.
Concerning Blondie, she must’ve really scared her off, she hadn’t seen her since that Tuesday lunch, well, apart from Physics. But she made a great effort to avoid catching glimpses of her.
To Jinx’s surprise, things at the academy were much more laid back than she first presumed. Just go to classes and don’t blow anything up seemed the gist of the rules. One was permitted to roam around as often as you liked, just not between midnight and 5am. The outside grounds were also open during the day, meaning students could stroll around the surroundings – the mountains, lakes and what not – if they so pleased. Jinx wondered why anyone would willingly do that.
There were many things that could keep her busy. Like every sport and society under the sun. A Runeterra society and a Mainland one, were two she noted in the leaflet she couldn’t remember how she got. But what would they do? Just talk about how proud they were of their nation or something? Boring as ever. There was also an engineering society and well, a society for basically any module the academy supplied. But surely it was just the same as classes, why anyone would want to do more of that outside what they had to, Jinx didn’t know. Maybe if they had some form of invertor type thing, she could be… persuaded. Still, she doubted it wouldn’t just be a bunch of nerds solving maths problems together.
Sports did not spike her curiosity either, even the ones she had never heard before, like ‘lake-retrieving’ someone throws an object into a lake and you race to get it. Actually didn’t sound too bad. Still, the things would keep her busy but would not entertain her. What would, well, she had a good few ideas. One in particular was to mess with Blondie, but she needed to wait until Monday to get a thing or two from the tech store. Other than that, she had that broken water fountain to keep her fidgeting.
An evidently occurring aspect that she didn’t presume was something a little less… Jinx. She missed the Kirammans. Dearly.
She missed when they would let her babble about whatever her mind was swarming with and genuinely take an interest. She missed how they were funny. In their own way. Not the way Jinx was funny but all the same enjoyment nevertheless. She missed little man, too. But she was used to not seeing him. He had a certain stubbornness about avoiding topside and the Kirammans didn’t want her running off. Well, she snuck off anyway, but had to hide it. Plus, Ekko was somewhat avoiding her ever since that day. His messages were cold and the past two times she tiptoed into the undercity, she couldn’t find him, and she was very good at hide and sneak. Jinx was sure he was dodging her. But it had a been a while since she got into contact with him, ever since she agreed to go to Rhayn she had been wallowing in self-pity.
So, she decided that he had enough time to cool off since… and so texted him on her ancient flip-phone.
|Jinx: none of these peopl r cool. send help
It took a striking amount of time for her to type that. Maybe she was still a bit awkward about it too.
Never mind that, she shook her head of it. It was a Saturday, and she had a great deal of work to not do. With nothing coming to her mind about how to entertain herself for the day, she decided she would just skip ahead with her prank on Blondie and build it anyways. She’d find enough stuff without the tech store.
It was nothing brilliant or very inspired, just a simple chain and a few links that she did manage to find in the broken water dispenser. What she did have, thanks to her proactive planning, was the needed tools, such as a screw driver which she hid from the Kirammans and a pair of wire clippers. Only the screw driver did she actually need.
It didn’t take long, the only downside was that the chains she stole painted her grand oak table with splotches of grease. Still, her chain device was made and all she had to do was wait for Blondie to come back from some club she was at before she could act upon it.
In the meantime, she kept glancing between her phone and her wall. It was eating into her, the time it took Ekko to reply. Since her message she had ransacked the water dispenser, gone down for lunch, had a lengthy conversation with Ronan as she ran into him in one of the hallways and then made her entire device. That entire time there wasn’t even a peep.
She worried a little too much about it, so much so that she started reaching back to the top right of her forehead, picking at the skin. She didn’t know how long she spent just gnawing at herself as her thoughts gnawed at her, but eventually her little trance was broken by a very delicate knock on her door. Jinx was actually relieved.
She stumbled over to the door and behind it found a short girl with frizzy purple hair, crescent-shaped glasses and severe acne.
Upon sighting Jinx, the girl’s mouth almost fell off and her eyes shot so wide Jinx thought her glasses would fire away.
“Uh…” She sounded. Jinx furrowed her eyebrows, looking down at her and refusing to quell this girl’s confusion. The girl knocked on her door after all. “Are you Francesca?”
“Do I look like a Francesca?”
“You don’t look like my Francesa.”
“Yeah clearly. So whydya ask?”
“Just in case.”
“In case she grew blue hair overnight?”
“Wouldn’t put it past her.”
Jinx was a little confused.
“Anyways. I think I just got the room wrong. Sorry, my name’s Kell. I’m part of the Cairn committee.”
“Looking for donations or something?” Jinx said, digging dirt out of her fingernail. “I can offer you some table grease.”
Kell was now the one that looked confused.
“Wha- no. No, the committee just oversees things in the common room, not like a chari- oh! You’re that new girl. Sorry, yes. Has no none told you about the Cairn? Well, it’s the second year common room. Anyways, we hold past-times and whatnot down there, to keep you folk entertained during rainy days like these!” Jinx didn’t even realise it was raining. “Well, it’s just a few events from time to time. Fran said she wanted to sign up for this one, hence why I came alooking. Anyways, now you’re here, you might as well take a look. Any good at Pool or maybe Ping-Pong? Long story short, we’re having a tournament tonight. Winners gets prizes.”
Tournament? She should’ve said that sooner.
There was a Ping-Pong table the basement of the Last Drop, basically where Jinx grew up. They all played, all the time. Mylo and Vi were terrible though. Mylo had no aim and Vi would just hit the ball as hard as she could, not really caring where it would end up. Jinx had a real talent for it, but she would rarely beat Claggor. She promised that she would soon become far better than him, and destroy him in every match, but that was before…
Her hand moved back up to her forehead, until she realised she needed to reply. She shook her head, snapping out of it.
“Any good? I’m only good. And I doubt anyone here is actually any good.”
“Hm. You’d be surprised. Things get quite heated, we have a good few brilliant players.”
Oh I’m sure.
“So, what will it be? Ping-Pong, Pool, we even have Chess.”
“The first one.”
“Perfect. I’ll just pop your name down here…” She looked up expectingly at Jinx, who just stared back. “Er- Your name?”
“Francesca.” Jinx grinned. The girl gave her a look. “…I also go by Jinx sometimes.”
“Great, and here, take this.” She tore off a piece of paper, and handed it to her. It was a slip reading ‘Name:’ and ‘Game:’. “Fill that out. Ping-Pong’s the last game of the evening so it starts quite late, at 10pm. Looking forward for some fresh talent. Goodbye Jinx!”
And out she ran through the door.
Jinx had to admit that brightened her mood. The idea of destroying Pilties and harming their inflated egos excited her tremendously. But not as much as the sound she just heard, the door across the hall, clicking in place and closing. Blondie’s back. And her plan could be initiated.
She had to make it seem haphazard, and not a literal attack from someone, who, Jinx realised, would probably boil down to her. So she had to set the scene.
With the giant box of a water dispenser pretty empty as Jinx had gutted it, it wasn’t very heavy. So, she dragged it from the mini hallway around the corner and threw it on the floor, a meter or two away from their doors, with the mouth of its gash facing them. Then she gathered a few cogs and wheels that were already too rusted for her own use and scattered them around the device, along with a piece of broken glass she found near where it was lying. Perfect, it looked like it had just fallen. All she needed to do was the actual prank.
She took a hold of the chain and carefully, and quietly, looped it around the handle of Lux’s door and the metal part of the lamp that was strapped next to it. It was too loose to actually bar entry – or, of course, exit – so she ran for her screwdriver and tightened the links. Finally, to really give herself an alibi, she looped another one around her handle too, then deftly hung it over her lamp. Thankfully it was loose enough to do it from behind her door and not lock herself out, but it was quite fiddly. All she had to do was wait, and not giggle too much or too loudly when she would start hearing Blondie’s panic.
However, unfortunately for Jinx, her masterplan was foiled by an old enemy… sleep. She was just lying on her bed, playing with her Gameboy, not even realising she was sleepy before her eyes had given up. She didn’t even notice until a loud crash outside her door stole her from sleep.
At least I can still hear some of it, if not all. She went to press her ear up to her door, only to find out that it wasn’t a crash outside her door, but something crashing on it. A very loud, very irritated knock. Opps.
Doing her best to put her innocent face on, she tentatively opened the door. There she found what she feared, a very angry looking blonde person.
“Mind explaining this?” She commanded, her teeth clenched together, holding out Jinx’s chain, only it was snapped in half.
“Huh?” Was all she was able to return. She peered out to find Lux’s doorhandle smashed through, the lamp on its hinges and the broken dispenser gone. At least she had an impact, even if she couldn’t witness it, she could imagine how it went. “Wow-ho, Blondie! What happened here? Looks like you’ve been robbed or something.” Jinx’s voice was a tad higher pitch than usual, but that didn’t matter, not like she would notice anyway.
“Yeah, It does. What happened?” She demanded, her tone vicious.
“Wha? How should I know! I was fast asleep. You’ve just woken my peaceful slumber.”
“You’ve just broken my door!”
“I think you’ve jumped to quite the conclusion.” Jinx said, smiling her smug little smile. Lux’s nostrils flared. “Have any proof?”
“Maybe that you’re a crazy psycho and for some backwards reason have a vendetta against me.”
“You do love to flatter yourself. You’re not special, least of all to me.” Jinx looked down to her own handle to find that her chain was missing. Can’t really explain my alibi then.
“Oh this is unbelievable.” She barged past Jinx, stumping into her room.
“Oi! Isn’t this illegal.”
“Do something about it then.” Lux scoffed, storming around her room. Jinx’s heart pricked up a little, seeing as her materials were not tidied away in the slightest. And her fears were met, as Lux stumbled upon the desk, where a good few cogs lay soaked in grease and her screwdriver was just lying about.
Lux picked up a gear, then turned to Jinx, creased her eyebrows and tilted her head.
Jinx just shrugged.
“Tech project.”
Lux tsched, throwing it back on the table. She took another glance at Jinx’s room, but this time it was different. She looked, not really in a searching way, but in a more judgmental sense, her hands on her hips. Jinx suddenly felt rather insecure.
Lux then marched over to her, standing oddly close. Only then did Jinx realised that Lux was taller than her, and the insecure feeling quickened. She didn’t let it show though, after all, Jinx had not only witnessed but done things that this prudish girl couldn’t even dream up.
“I don’t know what this problem of yours is, Jinxie. Be it jealousy or something, I don’t know.” Jinx opened her mouth to complain but Lux pulled her face in closer. “But you better snap out of it. That Kiramman ‘found-family’ of yours can’t protect you for long. You’re living the ignorant, childish fantasy every wealthy youth has of being untouchable. You grace money for one year and think the world owes you a favour. But trust me, you are very tangible to the right people, and you have no idea what I kno-”
Something caught Lux’s eye. And she stopped.
A slip of paper on the table beside her door. It read ‘Jinx’ and ‘Ping-Pong.’
“You play table tennis?”
“Yes.” Jinx spat as sternly as she could, her eyes narrowed. She tried to maintain her infuriated disposition, but again she was curious about why that perked Lux’s interest. Stupid blonde Crownguard was annoyingly intriguing.
“You playing tonight?”
“Yes.” Her teeth gritted more.
“Hm. Good.” Was all Lux said, then she turned and strode out the door. Slamming it behind her.
So does she play Ping-Pong? No obviously not. She’s too boring to do anything fun, and she would worry too much about her hair getting messy or something stupid.
But playing Ping-Pong didn’t matter. What Jinx was a little bothered by was the fact her brilliant disguise didn’t pass through Lux’s thick skull. Maybe Jinx was less deft than she thought.
Then it was what she said about the Kirammans. It shoved shivers down her spine, and a sudden urge to touch her forehead. Of all the people to know about her background… But Jinx knew the Crownguards to be like that. To know everything, and everyone. To be quite literally the most powerful and influential families Runeterra had. She just didn’t really grasp the extent of it, until Lux rammed it in her face, literally.
Something else ate into her too, something less dramatic. Her room.
She looked around, trying to put herself in Lux’s perspective, trying to analyse how she would find it. Then she realised what she was doing, and snapped out of it. I couldn’t care less if she liked my room. And just then, when she needed a distraction from noticing how messy her room was, she got the typical explosive vibration her archaic phone emitted. Ekko!
Ekko was her best friend. He had always been her best friend. Well, before and after but not during him.
…Still, she truly did love Ekko… but just not the way he wanted her too.
She shook her head of that thought and dashed to her bed.
Hat Lady| Call me.
What a warm message.
Jinx had a sinking feeling, without even noticing it wasn’t Ekko that texted her. Maybe Blondie was a stuck up tout that went and ‘told’ on her or something very bratty. Then Viktor would go to Cassandra and Cassandra Cait.
If Jinx kept the same mindset of her a year ago, she wouldn’t care if she got ‘told off’, but over the year she had come to really care about what the Kirammans thought of her.
Jinx jumped from her thoughtful trance. She really needed to find out how to quiet that buzzer.
Hat Lady| Stop avoiding me. I want to know how your first week went.
Hat Lady| Vi does too but she’s too cool to seem like she’s checking up on you.
Hm, maybe Blondie wasn’t a grass.
Jinx| later im busy
She didn’t have the energy to recite her entire week. Not at that moment when so many things had just transpired in a mere five minutes after waking from deep sleep.
Her phone buzzed again but she didn’t bother with it.
Instead, to take her mind off everything she thought she’d actually do work.
*
The hesitant knock on Lux’s door was enough to push it ajar seeing as the handle had become a literal hole.
“Uh… Lux?”
“Come in.” She chuckled as Kai’Sa lingered by the door in pure shock.
“Eh, what happened.”
“Ugh. I don’t even know.” Lux said sitting up and pulling open the door to bring her in. “I have my suspicions but can’t do anything about them.”
“Are you getting someone to fix it?”
“Hector’s looked at it and should be back up soon. Anyways-”
“Anyways, you need to help me with something.”
“When don’t I?”
Kai’Sa looked insulted.
“Micha’s having afters and Ahri’s making-”
“Afters for what?” Lux asked as they both fell down on the bed.
“The tourneys. Have you not signed up? C’mon Crownguard, who’ll put Finlay on his ass again. He seriously needs it. And I think Maisie signed up too, which means Fleur will be there. Ez’ll go crazy.”
The names span across her mind as if they had no weight, it was hard to keep up sometimes. But one in particular was lodged there. One Kai’Sa didn’t mention.
“Why do we need afters for a child’s game?” Lux scoffed.
“I know, I surprised they’re not pre-ing it too. Anyways, Ren’s making everyone go, but I’ve got this essay due Tuesday and-”
“And you don’t want to see a certain person there.”
“Uh no. I was going to say that I haven’t done anything on it yet and to not fail I need the rest of the evening free.”
“Missing one evening. Sorry, one half of an evening is enough?”
“Well I’ve started it… and still have Sunday, but I need all the time I can get.”
“Oh yeah?” Lux asked, tilting her head. “What’s the essay about?”
Kai’Sa stumbled around with sounds, mumbling and looking anywhere but her. Lux just smiled.
“Oh I don’t really know. Something about History. See! I’m so behind I don’t even know what the question is.”
“History, huh?”
“Mhm.”
“I don’t remember getting set a History essay.” Lux smiled a knowing grin. Kai’Sa’s face dropped.
“Okay fine! I don’t want to see Taliyah. Not after last weekend.” She sunk into herself. “Could you please tell Ren to not go to Micha’s.”
“You know, you could just… not go.”
“I don’t want it to seem as though I’m avoiding her. If no one goes then I’m not highlighted.”
“Well I don’t know if I could stop everyone from going, but your absence won’t jump out that much, I don’t think I’ll make it either. After the fiasco with my door I don’t want to leave my room unlocked for too long. Besides, Ping-Pong doesn’t start until 10. It’ll last ages and everyone’ll be tired by the end. I doubt they’ll go regardless.”
“Yeah, I suppose.” Kai’Sa looked away, puffing out her lungs with a melancholic expression.
“Right!” Lux clapped her hands together. “Let’s get some dinner.”
“Yeah…” Kai’sa sighed, her eyes not even in the room and her tone more drowned than a sunken ship.
“Oh cheer up, buttercup.
“You’re in a good mood today…” She carried a little look of suspicion as both girls stood to leave.
“What? I’m excited to play Ping-Pong. And destroy everyone, of course.”
“Hm…”
“Plus, when we get back I’ll have a new doorhandle.”
“The many joys of life.”
“Exactly.”
“When are you going down tonight, by the way?”
“After the Chess, for the Pool. I told Jarvan I’d watch.”
“Oh yeah?” Kai’Sa smiled walking into the hallway. “And I though you didn’t like him.”
“I don’t.” Lux rolled her eyes. “But Ez will be there the whole night. And currently he’s pissing me off more than Jarvan. Can only imagine his face if I cheer on his biggest competition.”
“Is he Ez’s biggest competitor?”
“In his deluded mind.”
“Well then who is?” Kai’Sa pried.
“Hm.” Lux was sick of this question. Everyone and their mother wanted inside that pretty head of hers. It was exhausting, but she made it fun for herself sometimes. “Dean Viktor.”
Kai’Sa scowled.
“Okay fine. Ronan Vayne’s kind of cute.”
“Well you’re in luck. He’ll be playing chess in an hour. Try to keep your pants on.” She said flatly.
They really were all clueless, and Lux liked it like that. She could laugh and join all the talk about boys and crushes and the like, with her true thoughts hidden deep down.
*
Finding the Cairn proved a difficulty for Jinx. Seeing as the second year girls dormitory was at one end of the castle, and classes the other, she didn’t really know what was between them except the dining hall. And she had long thrown away her map since learning where all her classes were. Still, she found a way, late as ever though, running in at 10:15. But rarely did student-organised things start on time.
The room was buzzing with the scent of excitement. That girl Kell or whatever was right. Things did get heated, and so did the room. It was packed with people and overly warm. The roaring fire that took up half of the wall on the left was the culprit of that, even if the ceiling that was taller than Jinx stacked up seven times.
The whole room was painted with an orange glow despite the regal blue colour of the walls
It almost seemed as though there were more people in that room than in the dining hall, maybe the Cairn was just smaller but it did shock her.
Kell then ran up to her, practically falling on top of her as she grabbed a hold of her arm and dragged her some direction.
“I’m so glad you’re here!” She cried. Jinx tried to give her a look of disgust but she wasn’t looking in her direction. “You’re late. We’ve rounded up everyone now.”
I guess Rhayn did start on time. Figures. None of the Professors did.
“Got your slip? Give it over there to Herald.”
“Okay Mom!” Jinx exclaimed, then begrudgingly trudged up to the boy she pointed at – who looked more like a middle aged man – and handed in her slip. No one seemed that gathered up, all she found were people in little conclaves of their own.
She gazed upon the table as she waited and, had to admit, it was majestic to say the least.
Slick, varnished black wood with a shiny glaze seemingly untouched with ball marks, coated in a delicate white lining that sat thickly upon it, marking the sides. The net was strung as tightly as it could be, its holes hardly noticeable, and the paddles were thick with their grip practically unmovable.
These weirdos even make table tennis fancy.
Jinx was used to a wonky table basically made of plastic and instead of a net there was just an iron bar. Their paddles were thin and definitely not up to custom, having no grip on them at all. Mylo blamed that his weakness.
Thankfully, though, the Kiramman’s had themselves a table, so Jinx was able to keep up with her skills. Vi had no interest because she was bad at it, but Tobais and Cait gave Jinx a run for her money. But even their table was much more… normal in comparison to whatever this was.
“Alrighty!” The man-boy she just gave her paper to bellowed. Jinx jumped. “The only event that people really care about has arrived! Everyone please, gather round.”
And like dogs to their masters, the people came arunning. Everyone shuffling over to the corner where the table stood, mumbling in their factions.
Kell then scurried around handing certain people more slips of paper, then reached Jinx.
“The schedule.”
It was a rather complex looking leaderboard of which only the first few sections were filled in. Jinx found her name a good few times, and a bunch she did not recognise in the slightest. But also one that screamed out at her, as if it was written in pure gold, that stupid name that held all that stupid weight. Luxanna.
So she did play Ping-Pong.