Tolerance?
The room felt oddly warm considering the lashing weather that November would give the Scottish Highlands. Then again, History rooms always felt warm. They were always on the top floor, where the reconstruction always seemed to slip away. Lux considered it… 20 years? since last the History department was renewed. But no one cared, they liked it that way, like method acting. The ceilings were low, the floor boards creaky and the windows small in comparison to those on the ground floor, but the views all the more enticing. Still, the heating sure worked, and since heat rises, the Historians were all the more prepared to strip off their blazers and waistcoat vests, an action rarely done outside the months starting May.
Lux sat watching the rain attack the thin arched window, rapidly tapping her pen against the notebook, her chin in her palm and fingertips being munched on. She would’ve enjoyed the ambience of the old age room and the stormy weather if her heart would give over and stop mimicking the violent patter of the rain.
The chair beside her squeaked, and her heart jolted.
“Hey.” Kai’Sa was soaking wet, so that managed to take her mind off the weighing conversation and deviate a little.
“Had a quick shower?” Lux grimaced, taking a leaf from her friend’s hair.
“Damn that man.” She scoffed, rubbing her reddened nose. “Professor Vaxter had an excellent idea to do the Biology lesson outside. Something about plants adapting in harsh conditions or… I don’t even... arch, fuck if I know, I spent the entire time plotting his assassination and freezing off my fingertips.”
“Sounds fun.”
“Uh-huh. Sure was.” Something then changed in her tone. “And you know what else was fun?” Water dripped from the bridge of her nose, falling onto her lips and spewing out as she spoke. “Ryan’s party.”
And into the fire.
There it was, what she had been dreading. Her excuses... she hadn’t planned them, seeing as she planned to go back to party after a few drinks of fresh, cool air, and something may have hindered that.
“…Lux, we were so worried.”
“Kai’Sa… I’ve already explained this to Ahri and Ren and basically everyone yesterday… the story’s old.” Her unplanned excuses became an very odd entanglement of a story.
“Nuh-uh. You’ve explained nothing to me! We thought you were kidnapped! And you could have been! You just ran off and-”
“I had a terrible time, Kai’Sa… really, I couldn’t stay.”
“Oh I know… and I’m sure it was just horrendous having all these boys be madly in love with you,” Lux rolled her eyes. “but uh, maybe TELL US when you run away? So, you know, we don’t start rampaging through the academy grounds thinking our friend has been stolen by the mafia or something. Or just a quick message a mere few minutes later… not the next morning after everyone had already been spamming your phone all night!”
“It ran out of ba-”
“There’s this thing called a charger, Luxanna. Heard of it?”
Lux opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by the Professor hobbling into the room, looking just as wet as Kai’Sa.
“Sorry folks, always takes me a while to get up those stairs, and coming from Eastern classrooms… I was almost blown off my feet. Terrible weather, huh?”
The students hummed their sympathy for their portly Professor, having a shared hatred for the many stairs they must trek up.
Both girls were silent for a good while, letting their Professor catch his breath and begin the lesson before Kai’Sa broke Lux’s tranquillity.
“Look, it was just a little off you disappearing like that. We were really bothered, and genuinely feared the worst.” She whispered through the Professor’s complaints about the rain.
“And I’m sorry, I should’ve messaged, it just slipped my mind was all. And I couldn’t go back, not for anyth-”
“Interestingly, it is said that one in 200 people… well from the Mainland’s population, can trace their lineage back to Genghis Khan considering the amount of-”
“And you should’ve seen Finlay. He was white as a sheet, kept going on about how it was ‘his fault’. No one knew what he was on about, but he sure as hell looked stressed.”
“Oh Finlay…” Lux painted her face with her hands. “That’s a whole other thing, Kai’Sa. Its why I left… its horrid, beyond horrid. I’ll tell you about it later.” She whispered, noticing how the Professor’s volume rose as they spoke.
They both broke off, sliding away from each other and actually giving the lesson some attention. Still, the reminder of Finlay, who’s name Lux had spent the whole of Sunday blocking out, just immediately plummeted her mood. She stared out at the window, watching the weather rage around, jealous of the free looking leaf blowing about.
It didn’t have to talk to Finlay.
*
“Sub 20. 17:40 to be exact.”
“Yeah, there’s no way.”
“Ye of little faith…”
“Are you sure you can count, Blondie? I understand that numbers can be very confusing for you, there’s no shame in mixin’ them up… sure it wasn’t an hour and 7 minutes?”
“Oh ha, ha. Just because you’re slower than my deceased, legless grandmother, doesn’t mean that everyone else is.”
“Nah, I’m just not as gullible as the rest of ‘em. Don’t worry, you can drop the act with me.”
“Oh aren’t you just so cocky.”
“Aren’t you just such a liar?”
“Well, you know what Jinx? Your shock is all the more satisfying. Please, continue to feed this ego of mine you talk so much about.”
“Blondie, lying is surefire way hurt your reputation, ‘cause who’s gonna believe another thing from your mouth, and then… poof, your ego with it.”
“Is it that unbelievable? Really?”
“Uhhh yeah… You’re you. Everything you say is unbelievable ‘cause you’re so dumb. Plus Caityln runs every morning, without fail, and not once has she ran a 5k faster than 20 minutes.”
“Hm. Well clearly Piltover doesn’t train their youth as thoroughly as Demacia…”
Jinx glowered at her. It was weird to be patriotic towards a city she herself hated.
“Well maybe that’s because Piltover cares about not raising idiots… unlike some.”
Lux just laughed.
“Alright, Jinxie. I’ll tell you what. Rhayn have a track, around a lake, a bit of a trek through the mountains, you should just about manage. There, I am more than pleased to enlighten you to what exactly you doubt. And after we can sprint again. Properly. And I’ll beat you at that too.”
“I’ll need to see hard proof of the distance.”
“Of course.”
“And if you’re a millisecond over 17:40 I’ll-”
“Oh well hang on. I never said that every time I run 5k I get 17:40. That’s my PB. You can’t run your PB on the occasion. Plus that was back home, with a proper track, not in the middle of the mountains on loose gravel.”
“Excuses, excuses.” Jinx tutted.
“I’ll run a sub 20, easily. Maybe around the 18 mark, but that’s what you’ll test.”
“That’s not what you ‘pledged’.”
“That’s exactly what I pledged, misses! Gracious, your memory is utterly horrible. But ah, look at you now, already doubting your doubt. Scared I am going to run a sub 20… oh and who’ll look so stupid.”
Jinx glowered again, displeased by the ever widening smile of Luxanna Crownguard.
“So what? I’ll just watch you run around in circles for 20 minutes? Probably longer. Sounds great fun.”
“Hey, I’m offering proof. If you can’t be bothered to take it then you have to take me at my word.”
“Ummmmm, no.”
“Ever heard of the term, stubborn, Jinx. Or maybe, close-minded.”
“Just go back to getting the calculations wrong.”
“I’ve got the last 5 right!”
“Uh-huh, and how would you know.”
“Uh… maybe because the tests are positive with that thing you brought… or are you now starting to doubt your handiwork too.”
“No, I doubt your ability to read.”
Lux scoffed.
“Right you go back to your little parts. Somehow they looks more raggedy than they did in the Conil.”
“That’s what supposed to happen!”
“If you say so. We’ve been here two hours now… thought we’d have some progress… but…”
“Maybe if you got the calculations right…” Jinx said quietly but loud enough for her to hear.
“I am getting them-”
“And spent more time on them instead of bragging and lying about how fast you are.”
“YOU WERE THE ONE-”
“Just go back to your calculations.” Jinx interrupted, biting away an overpowering smirk upon seeing her infuriated face.
The next few hours endured with the quiet and peaceful sounds of pen scuffling on paper, little clinks of metal and apparatus, and the occasional swear slipping from Jinx’s mouth. It had reached 7pm and both girls remained engorged in their work. It was no shock that Lux was diligent in her task, taking few breaks and cursing away the tedium of her job, what did surprise her, though, was Jinx. She hardly broke off, keeping with her work which Lux assumed would last an hour before she got bored and ran away. But she assumed, upon watching her, that the practical element of their project stimulated her, and entertained her in a way that caused time to dissolve thoughtlessly.
Lux looked up to watch her quite often. More often than she realised. Obviously just because she was bored and it was the only distraction her conscientious, academic self would permit her to. Watching Jinx’s hands move so deftly, doing oddly complex fiddly things without any sort of awkwardness or reluctance. A tiny screw needed its head fed through a red tube, then twisted into a gear of some type, she did it quickly, and perfectly, her slender and well-nicked hands moving as if that’s all they had done their entire life. And it only became more hypnotising when she picked up her pen and fiddled it through her hands. The thing swept around her fingers as if it had the grace of water, and Jinx seemed completely oblivious to the clearly talented activity that could not be easy. Lux just stared, until she realised she was staring, then looked back down, cheeks reddened.
Their area in the library was long emptied, and the sun was long behind the rocky tops of the hills that watched down on them, and it had hit 8pm. Only when Lux glanced up at the clock did those facts fully register.
“Dinner!” She cried out, being the first word they shared since 6 o’clock. Jinx snapped her head up as if Lux had just punched her. “I forgot about dinner. Didn’t realise the time…” Jinx broke from her work, turning back towards the clock and yawning.
“Damn. Four hours. That’s the longest I’ve done anything ever.”
“And I’m starved. Meal ends at 9, we should go before everything’s gone.”
Jinx gave her a dirty look.
“Yeah. Not with you though.”
Lux rolled her eyes.
“Suit yourself.”
Jinx then looked down at the mess that were all the scraps and pieces of her practical device for the project, then of course the actual thing that looked… well, somewhat decent.
“We’ll come back for it.” Lux said, packing up her things and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, her face a little flushed by being in a warm room for so long. Jinx shot her a look.
“Curfew’s not till 12, this place isn’t locked up till then… no one’s going to take it. Well, not in the hour window. I mean, look around, this isn’t the most traffic busy place in the school, huh.”
But Jinx was more confused over her repeated term ‘we’. She’d have to go back for it, it was her scraps, and evidently Lux intended to go back with her? She didn’t like this whole chummy thing. She hated Lux. Lux hated her. They were opposites. So why did this girl want to eat dinner with her and then go back for her stuff?
Anyhow, she was pulled away from her thoughts, not really knowing why, just something brought her back to the current reality. Lux stood by the door waiting on her.
“I was thinking, right.” Jinx started as she reached the tiny, arched door where the blonde stood watching, just accepting the ‘we’. “People were drinking on the Ping-Pong night thing.”
“Ooooo Ping-Pong! Good idea. Just reminded me. The Cairn’s normally empty Mondays, want to seek out your vengeance?” Lux said as they started down the hallway, she herself forgetting her Monday evening commitments. Poor Cal was just waiting outside the girls dormitory wing as they spoke.
“Geez, keep your panties on, Blondie. One mention of the thing and you’ve flown out the window.” Lux pulled a face. “I gotta call someone tonight, so play one of the other really bad people here.”
Lux just scowled.
“Anyways. At your crazy party that you also flew out of… you said you were drinking. So, where the hell d’they get alcohol, like we’re in the middle of the ass-end of nowhere, some mule climb the mountains or something? Or is that your job on Saturday mornings.”
“You know Jinx, I have no clue either.”
“You don’t? So some drunk boy hands you a drink and you fling into his arms screeching ‘thank-you!’. Hm, you really get dumber every time I talk to you.”
“Yes that’s exactly what I do, Jinx.” Lux rolled her eyes. “I don’t know who they had to sell their soul to, but it’s always the same people, bringing in crates of closed bottles. And no one questions it, and why would they? Free drinks. But what made you so curious, huh? Want some for yourself?” Lux flashed her eyebrows.
“No.” Jinx scoffed, the memory of the taste making her throat fill with acid. “Was just curious.” She remembered the many bottles of wine knocked back upon the Kloge Club’s dinner and assumed that such a stash was not what the students dipped into.
“Well, this is a very bright academy. Somehow you got in, but even so, you’d expect the students to have a bit of a crafty nature, especially over something they have a drive to achieve. And said drive just happens to be alcohol. You know, I wouldn’t put it past them to have dug a tunnel from the village to here, all just to bootleg bottles of Vodka.”
Jinx just hummed.
“You haven’t visited the villages yet, have you?”
“Uhhh-”
“So no. They have a trip once a month, October’s was cancelled though, for the storm.”
“Must’ve really missed out.” Jinx said dryly.
“It’s maybe not the most exciting of experiences. Still, its time out. You can stay over too. They have this tavern type thing in one of the towns, like straight out of a fiction book. It’s actually really fun.”
Jinx shot her a look.
“Yeah, maybe to some people.” She mocked.
“Oh of course, I forgot you’re a recluse.”
A good few moments later and many insults passed between the girls, they came to the dining hall only to find all the benches stacked on the long tables and the room darkened by desolateness.
“Oh hey, sorry kiddos.” One of the kitchen staff said, holding a mop as he snuck by. “There was a bit of an emergency over across the wings. A massive window crashed down, there was glass everywhere and three students injured. Had to racket half the staff across to help. We were told to close up early, hope you girls didn’t go without dinner…” His stout face was stretched with pity.
“I’m afraid so. We are awfully tardy, Mr Glenoe. It is only our fault, of course.” Lux smiled that stupid smile Jinx saw allllll the time.
“Awk, what a shame, Miss Crownguard.” He whined like an injured animal. Jinx rolled her eyes. “Now I can’t be letting two young girls go without their dinner. I’ll plate you up some leftovers right now, just leave the plates when your done and I’ll come back for them.” He abandoned his mop, heaved down two stools either side of one of the long tables and rushed back to an annexed door where Jinx presumed the cooking was ordered. There went Jinx’s plan.
*
“Right. Don’t say anything snarky. Please.” Luxanna Crownguard said, swallowing the last mouthful of food, tiding her knife and fork before pushing it to her left, as she watched the blue-haired girl opposite eat in a… less dignified way, then shove the plate to her right, throwing the knives and forks down past it.
“Snarky?” Her voice echoed around the empty hall. “When have I ever said anything snarky?”
“Jinx.”
“Ya-huh.” Her smile swallowed her face.
“Okay, right… I have a question. A Physics question.”
“Oh finally!” Jinx yelled. “’Cause watching you do those calculations actually hurt my brain. Right goldilocks, so-”
“Goldilocks?” Lux’s smile was hard to push away. “Your nicknames are evolving.”
“Yeah, yeah. ’K listen up, to start where you need. Basic mathematics. Let’s see if you can crack this one! I have 10 cookies, someone takes half away. What do they have now?”
“Jinx…”
“Wrong! They have a broken hand.”
Lux planted her face into her palms.
“That’s not what I was asking…”
“Y’sure? ‘Cause, eh, it was looking like ya didn’t know what was the difference between a digit and a subtraction sign on for at least an hour there and I’d call that quite basic Physics.”
Lux squinted, watching Jinx with her giant bright blue eyes, Jinx shifted her gaze a little, it was hard to keep it where it was, then ran her hand through the loose lock of hair.
“You know you talk all this rubbish about how idiotic I am and how much of a genius you are-”
“Well I’ve never really said-”
“-but of course you’ll be smart at what you know. Anyone would expect that. Just because I’ve been doing physics for what… two months? And am a tiny bit clueless, proves nothing. The things I could ask you Jinx that would have your mind swimming.”
“Lux, we’ve had this conversation before.”
“Exactly. And I haven’t given up on it. And I remembered why we deviated. Politics is one module. I do more. I could ask you all these questions about Economics and History and you’d be as lost as a blind bat.”
“What’s your point?”
Lux then stopped, muttered around for a bit, looking elsewhere.
“…That I’m not a massive idiot.”
“Well, with Physics and maths and anything actually challenging… you are.”
“You’re actually challenging.”
“Your mother?”
Lux rolled her eyes, took a deep breath, leaning back and running a hand through her hair.
“You are by far the most stubborn person I have met.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Jinx beamed. “That I get under your skin… and no one else does…”
“And what an exceptional feat to achieve. But no, humble yourself girl. There is a whole list of people who gall me more than you. Somehow.”
Jinx squinted.
“Hm, should I see it as a challenge?”
“If you’d like. But I doubt you’d win. The people who irk me the most are those who actually like me. So you can’t really compete.”
“Yeah, I’ll never go that far.”
And Lux just sighed.
“We should get back. I’m never going to be able to ask my question.” She said at length.
“We.”
“Yes. I need my books back, don’t forget.”
“Don’t forget. Blondie, you need to write those words on your mirror.”
“Well, I think I just dread having to interact with you so much that subconsciously I try to overlook.” Lux grinned, flashing her eyebrows.
“Obviously the most sensible reason. Or maybe you just want-”
“Now how was that, ladies?” Mr Glenoe or whatever his name was spawned from behind then, scaring them both. “It was all I could muster, seeing as most of the staff have scurried off.”
“It was splendid, sir.” Lux smiled, her eyes flashing. The man’s cheeks reddened.
“Only a pleasure, Miss Crownguard.” He quickly took up both their plates and scurried away, oddly swiftly.
“D’ya ever think its cruel.” Jinx said, watching as he had disappeared behind a door. Lux pulled a rather dramatic grimace.
“What’s cruel?”
“That you flirt with every single male. Like that poor guy is probably now going through severe self-doubt, thinking he’s a pedo for liking a student.”
Lux pulled the most disgusted expression Jinx had ever seen. Jinx found it funny.
“How in all that is good on this earth, was that flirting.”
“You jus-”
“Thanked the kind man!?” Lux’s eyes were wider than ever.
“Well your smile wasn’t very thankful.”
“My smile! I smiled at this man.... Well lock me up then! Because smiling is basically inviting him to bed!”
“You knew what you were doing.”
“Yes, I did Jinx. Smiling kindly, maybe overtly too much. Maybe it was slightly contrived. But it showed I was grateful… Oh you are just insane.” She scoffed, standing up and slinging her bag’s strap over her shoulder. “Right, get up. I need to actually get my books this time. And I don’t trust you to get the diffuser now.”
“Whatever you say. Don’t want you smiling at me…” Jinx grinned, hoping up, her braids swinging in the air as carelessly as Jinx spoke. Lux basically sneered at her.
They walked out of the dining hall in silence, Jinx was busy grinning to herself and Lux’s lips were sown into a tight pout.
The momentary silence was soon enough breached by non-other than the jump scare that was Jinx’s phone being rung. She still hadn’t figured out how to silence the notification buzzer, and both girls jumped.
“Geez! Just a phone? D’ya have shell-shock or somethin’, Blondie.” Jinx snickered.
Lux opened to her mouth to protest, perhaps to mention how Jinx sprang like a spooked cat too, until something swept the words from her mouth. Jinx pulled out of her ancient flip-phone, to reveal she was being rung… by a boy.
His picture was displayed across the very pixelated screen, as was the name ‘Little Man’. Whatever that meant. Lux stopped, eyebrows furrowed and attention completely undivided.
He was quite an attractive boy, nice face, nice hair, and pulling a bit of a whimsical expression, Jinx’s hands wrapped around his hair and being a little too playful. Lux was very, very shocked.
“Fuck me.” Jinx hissed. “Fuck.” Then she declined the call, a sudden seriousness gripping her tone and expression. A seriousness that Lux had never before seen nor ever predicted to see. Her curiosity climaxed.
“You’re… not going to answer him?” Lux was tentative.
An odd emotion wrapped around her head. A very odd one. One she couldn’t define. One she had never felt before. One she deemed rooted from curiosity and… surprise.
“No, nosey.” Jinx said, stuffing the phone back into her satchel as if she was mad at it. “Can’t have you eavesdropping. All politics y’know, can’t have Demacia knowing Zaun’s secrets.”
“Oh of course. Don’t I just know.”
“And see. I do know politics. There, another thing I’m better at you at.”
“What? The politics of romance?” Lux laughed. “Hm, yeah. Actually, you know, Jinx, you probably are.”
“Wow! Hang the fuck on. Fuck you mean romance? Eugh. No this is serious politics, like life and death, government, councils an’all. You wouldn’t understand.”
Lux rolled her eyes.
“Yes. Of course I wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh, I see. So is your degree that type of politics or whatever you called it. Makes sense now, I guess, how you got in being so dumb.”
“What are you talking about?” Lux was genuinely confused.
“What are YOU talking about?!”
“Was that not your boyfriend?”
“BOYFRIEND?!”
There was a new weird feeling engulfing Lux. This feeling was just as foreign and just as bizarre but she liked it more. Much more.
“He sure looked like a boyfriend there.” Lux pointed to the phone buried deep in her bag.
“Aren’t you a pry! And no. He is most certainly not my boyfriend!” Jinx’s tone was immersed in both anger and disgust. Lux laughed.
“Well I can see that.” She grinned. “Since that’s the reaction of a girl in a completely platonic relationship.”
Jinx just ignored her, but Lux persisted, trying to find her face as they walked along the dim corridor.
“Oh come on. Not going to talk about it?”
“Why do you want to know about it, Blondie.” Jinx scoffed, keeping her gaze away.
Lux herself didn’t even know why she was so eager.
“Hm, you’re a bit of a mystery, Miss Adopted Kiramman. There are some things even the most politics engorged individuals don’t know. Even some things that the Crownguards don’t know. Can’t say you’re not at least a tiny bit curious, Jinx.”
“So you want to know my secrets... okay creep.”
“I don’t think a love interest is much of a spy-bound secret, Jinx.”
“A love interest?! Eugh.” Jinx made a bit of a retching sound, and Lux smiled more.
“So a friend then?”
Jinx didn’t reply. She didn’t know how to.
“Evidently a friend is too limp of a title.”
“And why are you so obsessed about the status of my friends?”
Lux thought for a bit, thinking of a reason, both for herself and to give Jinx.
“I guess, I’m a bit bored. And hearing some drama never fails to entertain.”
“Well get it from somewhere else. I’m sure as hell telling you, of all people, jack-shit about my life.” Jinx scoffed. “Go kiss that blonde boy in front of the one that wasn’t terrible at Ping-Pong. And feed your own boredom.”
Lux mimicked Jinx’s retching sound, grinning. Jinx had to hide her face.
“Okay then, stay mysterious.” Lux smiled. She felt giddy. Didn’t really know why. Just blamed it on the slightly irregular timetable.
They turned the corner and with the new hallway sprung a new conversation.
“Fine, so if I can’t ask about your love life-”
“Eugh. Don’t call it that.”
“Then tell me about your hobbies.”
“My hobbies?”
“Yeah. What do you plug your holes of time with?”
“Why are you so obsessed with my life? And what part of me telling you jack-shit did you just idiotically ignore?”
“What so hobbies are apparently too intrusive?”
“You’re too intrusive.”
“Your mother?”
Jinx couldn’t keep the laugh in anymore. Her defensiveness just evaporated.
“Oh that really doesn’t suit you. Fine Blondie. Tell me your hobbies and if they’re somehow not too dull to put me to sleep I’ll consider telling you mine.”
“My hobbies?”
“Other than watching the mirror and brushing your hair, of course.”
“Oh well you’ve overstepped yourself there.”
“No shock.”
“Hmmm. I do a fair amount of sports. Like hillwalking and volleyball and whatnot. I’m part of the debating team here at Rhayn… I like reading, well, fiction is the hobby and news… well everyday life for a Crownguard.”
“Must be tough.”
“Sure is. And… I was forced to play an instrument. Most noble children are. I chose piano. I like it. I haven’t played for a good while though, I thought about joining the orchestra here, but piano’s best alone.”
Jinx chewed on her lip, thinking of a response.
“Not the most boring of past-times. Definitely not the most unique either. Like how many another aristocratic children share them? Probably a billion.”
“Fair, but so what? People don’t validate the uniqueness of skills. They value volume and aptness. Of which I have. Not to toot my own horn.”
“So you only do hobbies for approval?”
“No… but I’d be far less valued if all I did was gossip and socialise with people I liked. And I have to be valued.”
“Oh don’t I know.”
Lux bit down on her teeth. She knew nothing. Lux knew she knew nothing. But she couldn’t exactly highlight that, well, not as bluntly as she wanted.
“Jinx, do you think my life is full of freedom and democracy?”
“I don’t care what your life’s like, Crownguard. No matter what, you’re blind to actual problems.”
“You speak soooo fleetingly, you know. What makes you say that?”
“Crownguard Princess? Is that not enough? Noble, aristocrat, rich girl who everyone and their mother is madly in love with.”
“And yet you defend the Kiramman’s.” Lux was breathless. “As if they’re any different. You have to accept that double standard.” Jinx didn’t reply. “You’re the shallow one here. If I treated you like they do, you’d like me all the same.”
Jinx had no idea what that meant. Well, she somewhat gathered the context, didn’t really know why she’d say it either way.
“No, I wouldn’t. Not all aristocrats are the same, and you are the cream of the cream or whatever of them, Blondie. Ignorant, a fat liar, and more egotistical than all their heads combined.”
“Oh I am far from ignorant, Adopted Kiramman. Perhaps a little egotistical, but… oh never mind! But I sure as hell have to be a fat liar, Jinx. I have to be fake and artificial, pretend to like the worst type of people. I have no choice.”
“Why? Because you want to be liked? Even more reason to prove you’re arrogant!”
“Because I have a reputation to uphold. Being a massive bitch to everyone is sure going to slap me across the face when I get home. You don’t understand. Really.”
There was another long silence. Jinx thought, so did Lux.
“And I don’t mean that your problems are non-existent. I know they’re probably a whole lifetime worse than mine, but… oh well what do you care.” Lux’s tone weakened, as did the level of volume.
The silence endured. Jinx chewed on her lip, thinking. The Crownguard’s tone ate into her a little. She didn’t like the change. Didn’t like it being deflated and limp. And sure as hell didn’t know why. Maybe she didn’t hate her as dramatically as she thought she did.
“I like… building things.” Jinx said at length, her voice weaker and quieter than the hallway. “Like tinkering and whatnot. Now, the typa thing I’d make would probably twist your Piltie hair, but yeah, it’s more fun that way. And… I like video games.”
“Hm, I could’ve guessed those.” Lux smiled faintly. “I noticed the game thing in your room… and you clearly have a knack for… tinkering. Like that thing on my do- oh never mind it.”
There was another long silence. Neither of them liked it, and neither of them knew how to fill it.
So they didn’t. Well not really. They returned to the library, packed up what was left and as they came back to the main section of the library on the way to their dorms, someone stopped them.
“Luxanna?” Croaked a voice from behind a bookcase. Their heads whipped around in unison, to find a pale, sickly-looking boy with eyebags more sunken than the Titanic.
“Oh hey, Ivan!” Lux smiled that stupid smile again.
“Funny to run into you.” He sure didn’t make it look funny. Everything he said was watered down with a monotone more dull than the colour grey.
“Whys that?”
“Finlay was just here, and was just saying he wanted to speak with you.”
Jinx noticed a slight slip in the ‘untarnished’ persona of Luxanna Crownguard. Her lips sagged ever so slightly, as did her shoulders. It was hardly visible though, Jinx just happened to be looking at her… a little intently.
“Oh is that so?” Her tone seemed unaverred. “Funny. Anyways, Ivan, the Law degree seems to be treating you well.” She grinned.
“It isn’t.” This boy seemed long devoid of humour.
“Well. Happy studying, anyhow!” Lux said beaming, turning around snappishly, Jinx followed suit.
“That guy looks like he swallowed death.” Jinx hissed as they quickly swept from the room. Lux laughed a little too much at that, having to hold her mouth to stop the humour from taking hold of any more noise.
“He does.” She whispered back.
“Like damn. Last time I saw a guy lookin’ like that was on the streets of Zaun.” Jinx turned around, walking backwards to take another look of poor study-bound Ivan. Lux swung her back around at the shoulders.
“I know, but don’t linger. C’mon, hurry.”
“Uhhhh, why? Is it contagious?”
Lux giggled again.
“Probably, I got depressed just looking at him, but no, I want to avoid- oh it doesn’t matter, I just want back.”
“Ummmmm, I think it does matter, Blondie. Y’know, you call me all mysterious, but here you are running away from a library.”
Lux tsched, then bit her lip and began.
“Alright, fine. You see, I have this problem. And Ivan might’ve just-”
“Lux?” A similarly depressed sounding voice questioned from a water fountain they were skipping past. Lux stopped dead in her tracks, Jinx noticed a slight wince within her eyes.
“Finlay.” He wore the same expression as the Law student, his face almost as pale and eyebags prominent but not to the same extent. “Hey. How are you?”
“Eh, fine. Yeah. Look, ah… Lux, can we talk?”
Jinx couldn’t decipher the look on her face. Lux had clearly been doing this for too long.
“Finlay, I-”
“I just want to apologise. I won’t… I just want to talk.” He sounded gravely defeated. Miles different from what Jinx remembered from the Ping-Pong night, where a strapping tall boy stood confident and proud. Lux licked her lips, then spun on her heels to face Jinx.
“Wednesday then?” She said simply.
Jinx felt a pang of something. Not really knowing what, didn’t like it, though. She just nodded and consequently watched as Lux’s thick hair danced behind her as she swayed away, the tall guy who wasn’t terrible at Ping-Pong at her hip. Even in the dim lighting the girl was bright. The hallway seemed quite suddenly dark.
*
“ALRIGHT! WHO WAS IT!” The voice could be heard seven rooms away, and those unfortunate enough to be in a mere few feet radius were now having to consider hearing aids.
Jinx stared so intently at her workbench it could not have possibly looked natural. Her head was basically parallel to it.
“I will not spare silence any longer!” Spit fell from the boys mouth as he shrilly bellowed. “Whoever this culprit is will face agony… agony!”
It sounded like a speech from a medieval king. Unfortunately, the boy’s temper quickly sizzled into fear, as his threat was drastically poor-timed.
“Mr Hansen!” Scolded Professor Lund, sweeping her way into the workshop. “Onto death threats are we?”
“Professor, my circuit board was frie-”
“And somehow that is worth murder?” She leered over him.
“It was done by someone here!”
“Mr Hansen, there is a piece of literature I think would do you well if you were to indulge a few hours of your time with. Macbeth? Heard of it?”
Jonas Hansen, scarlet faced and irate from Professor Lund’s apathy to his problem, only angered more. Jinx had no idea what Macbeth? had anything to do with it, some Mainland inside joke she presumed.
“Everyone return to your efforts. Mr Hansen, another slip like that and you may have to slip my module.” And with that the Professor glided out of the room, and Jonas didn’t dare open his mouth.
Tensions in the technology workshop were heightened to, what Jinx hoped, was its climax. There was only another week until the project holding the biggest weight on the semester’s grade was due in. Jinx wasn’t worried, naturally, and so was far too entertained by the gravely blushed, frantic faces of students hurrying around the compact room. She had never seen anyone so stressed, the frenzy was wellnigh tangible. She reckoned that if an artist was to pop a visit, and paint the many expressions which unfolded in the workshop, their art would be considered hyperbole.
Jonas Hansen had been Jinx’s latest target. After a good few experiments she discovered his reactions the most satisfying. Some people, instead of lashing out in anger, would crumble into themselves, burdened with dismay upon Jinx’s pranks, others, so pent up with anxiety would just burst into tears. Despite that being funnier than the former, it was just a little awkward after a while. Anger was what Jinx wanted to see, and Jonas sure supplied that.
His latest outburst was prompted by Jinx’s third prank, when she swapped his solder with similar looking plastic, the thing just melted instantly and swallowed his circuit board hole, hardening into an immovable block.
She was conducting her own experiment to see how long it would take for him to break something, and was just in the middle of considering her next feat before someone tapped her on the shoulder.
“Jinx, right?” It was a girl, one she recognised. She had short auburn hair, terribly tousled with deep brown eyes and shared Jinx’s height.
“Uhhh, yeah.” Jinx didn’t know what to think. She knew the face… it was one of Blondie’s friends.
“I’m Ren.” She smiled.
“Okay.”
“Just thought I’d introduce myself before I asked anything of you.”
Jinx failed to hide her displeasure.
“You couldn’t, hold this for me… please?” The girl asked, gesturing to a machine near her. Jinx pulled a face, not that holding up a sliding cabinet was a problem, but was very confused as to why she asked her. “The stopper’s broken, not sure why, so if you could just… yeah, perfect thanks.”
Jinx clung onto the loose piece of wood a little awkwardly and just watched as the girl crudely sharpened a piece of metal.
“I’d have asked someone else…” She tired speaking over the booming sound of the machine, only to fail. Then upon her sharpening finishing and the zoom of the machine quenched, did she continue. “But… er, they probably would’ve said no. People are cut throat here.”
She finished dusting off her metal, blowing on it and scraping it down with something.
“And you don’t seem much bothered.”
“I’m not.”
“Too busy swapping Hansen’s metal with plastic, huh?”
Panicked, Jinx opened her mouth to quickly defend herself, or call her liar, not really sure which but the decision was soon made as Ren spoke over her.
“Don’t worry. I have no plans to snitch. I didn’t say anything after your first class when you shifted Jasper’s wrench a few inches… conveniently over the Scolder’s Plate, and scorched the thing… then obviously his hand. So I won’t start now. Your pretty obvious, Jinx, to be honest. Or maybe I’m observant. I don’t care, you do it to other people and not me so that’s all that matters, actually, I kinda like how your sabotaging everyone. Hurting people’s another thing… but then when Hansen bellows at me to move out of ‘his’ way… yeah I really don’t care anymore.”
Jinx was silent for a while, then limply spoke.
“Uh, I didn’t think the guy would actually pick up the wrench. It looked pretty fucking hot. He was just an idiot.”
Ren laughed.
“Seriously, you don’t have to defend yourself to me.”
Jinx didn’t know how to feel, of course she was anything but anxious that Ren would reveal what she had been seeing, there was no proof of anything, really, Jinx could just claim they were empty words. Still, it felt a bit like a threat, and suddenly every action Jinx did felt oddly exposed, like her skin was bare and being blown on by a weak but sharp wind.
*
“Four left, girls! Wha- Oi! Karla! Stop that now! Corners are there for a reason!”
The very flushed faced girl groaned and sagged her shoulders, returning to the corner and running around it, before looking back at the coach and giving a ‘happy now?’ look.
“What’s the point of being tall if I have to do cardio?” She panted, the last returning to the group of puffed out girls laying at the end of the track.
“You tell me. What was it that happened towards the end of the Oxford match, again?” Coach Monroe rose his eyebrows, standing tall and taut, clipboard in hand.
Karla groaned and looked away.
“Exactly.”
“That was Oxford, though, it was too long I was-”
“Uh-huh and it will be too long again… I wouldn’t care if you’re the tallest blocker the world has ever seen and was basically a massive tree. You do your cardio.”
Karla scoffed and sat beside the others, ready for the rebuke they all knew was inevitable.
“Very, very slow today, girls.” Monroe said, his eyes fixed on his board. “I really don’t know why. The only person who kept their original pace from last week was Eline. Marigold, you slowed down ridiculously. Luxanna gets a pass since hers last week was oddly fast, but the rest of you… clearly need more time spent either in the hills or in the gym. Now, up you get, I want a Pipeline passing drill set up and well underway by the time I get back.”
Monroe then sifted out the door, angrily answering a phone call in which he swore loudly at the caller, the many colourful swears echoed through the corridor before the door quietly shut.
“Fuck this, I’m never standing up again.” A short blonde girl panted, lying flat on the ground, chest heaving as if she was having a stroke.
“I swear we did more than 15…” Another replied, a little more animated as she was sat upright.
“I think I had counted 13 when he said four more.” Eline added, standing and drinking from her water. “But my mind is so fried when I run, I dunno.”
“He does this to the Thirds, Peara was saying. Tells them it’s a normal run then does more without explicitly saying, wakes them up a bit.”
“So he was just lying when he said we were slower?” Lux asked, tying her shoelaces that had become undone.
“Asshole!” Another defeated girl yelped from the ground.
“Lux, help me get this set up.” Georgie, the First’s team captain said, holding out cones. “He’s in a right mood today. You could’ve kept quiet, Karla.”
Karla, still lying on the ground, waved dismissively.
Lux helped the fourth year set up the drill Monroe had asked, until she jumped from her skin as there was a yelp of temper.
“Oh this fucking thing!” Georgie cried, the cone had come apart only slightly, looking a tiny bit bent. Lux was rather confused as to why that would prompt such a reaction.
“Are you okay, Georgie?” Lux asked tentatively, coming to her aid upon the screech.
“Oh, never better!” She spat. “Girls, will you get up?!” She snapped her head from the conversation, turning to the apathetic red faces. “Firsts. Firsts, you’re all supposed to be! And you sit as if you’re paralysed from the legs down! Fuck me! What are you all going to do next year, if I don’t kill you by the end of this semester, Monroe’ll do it during the next one!”
The girls exchanged glances, rather aback by this temper from the captain. A little reprimand was casual and the norm, this extent was rather rare.
Without much deliberation, the girls stood, gravitating towards Lux, a little afraid of the other, and followed the usual set-up for the desired drill. Then, just as they were about to begin, Monroe stuck is head into the court, his face flushed, and hand so tightly clutching his phone to his ear it looked as if it would crush.
“Georgie! Need you here.” He called. Instantaneously, Georgie dropped the ball, shooting a glance at Lux then jogged to the double doors, disappearing behind them with the still swearing Monroe.
The girls then passed glances to Karla, Relley and Catya, the other fourth years on the team, hoping for some insight.
“I have no clue…” Karla dismissed. “She’s always been a bit bat shit.”
“Might be this Geography thing.” Suggested Relley. “Five hour essay at the end of this month. 40% of the grade and her recent tests haven’t been great. Still, doubt she’d take it out on Volleyball. It’s usually the other way round.”
“Maybe it’s the Brussels match?” Alyssa added. “It’s far out but still, last year you struggled, didn’t you? Don’t think she’s completely relaxed about it.”
“Probably.” Agreed the short blonde girl who was still panting.
“Either way, they’ll both eat our heads if we don’t do something.” Lux said, curving around her cone to stand behind it.
“Someone take Georgie’s spot and we’ll start.” Suggested Relley. They had formed two groups, half of them stood behind cones, holding balls, the other half stood in a line, ready to start running.
They had been going for at least 20 minutes, very diligently before the two returned. Both looking angry as ever.
Lux knew what the fuss was about, and knew that Catya was also in the know, they had locked eyes a suspicious amount of times when everyone was discussing the possibilities that riled both their coach and their captain. Still, she wasn’t in a position to reveal anything, at least not yet, but someone made that a little difficult.
“You know, don’t you?” Alyssa whispered to her during their water break. Lux never broke her poker face, only drew her eyebrows together and whispered back.
“Know what?”
“C’mon, Lux. Please, it’s just me.”
“No clue what you’re talking about…” She was a good actress.
The water break broke up as quickly as it started, Monroe instructed them to simulate a game, much to Lux’s relief. Alyssa was her closest friend in the Volleyball team, being the only other second year and a girl Lux genuinely liked. She was warm, and very talented, and was actually quite humble for her gifts, a rare occurrence in the Academy. Lux didn’t know how well she could keep the secret.
They replicated a game, the starting line on one team, the subs on the other. It was a good chance for Lux to break with Alyssa, and give Catya another concerned look as she slotted in beside her.
She hoped that would be the end of Alyssa’s interrogation, seeing as Georgie told her in confidence, as well as the fact it was an explicit ‘do not discuss’, and Alyssa always had a way for persuasion. However Lux was greatly disappointed.
After the session, they all broke apart, Lux kept herself surrounded by a group, knowing Alyssa couldn’t bring it up then, but the inevitable occurred as they had to split off together, the others’ dormitory wings were different directions. Lux tried to avoid it, but as the others turned right after the dining hall, Alyssa lingered.
“I have to go to the Lib-”
“Yeah I’m sure you do.” Alyssa rolled her eyes, pulling Lux’s hand as she tried to escape.
“C’monnnn, please, I won’t say a word to anyone.”
“First of all, I have no idea-”
“Lux, you’re terribly blatant. I know you know why they were so weird today, so just give over the act.”
“-Second of all… why do you want to know so badly?”
“Do I have to give a reason? I’m curious.”
Lux tsched, rolling her eyes.
“It’s not that serious. Georgie and Monroe are irate half the time and-”
“Alright great then, if it’s not so serious, you can tell me.”
Lux sagged her shoulders.
“Alysssssa, you know I’d love to, but I swore I wouldn’t.”
“Oh dammit!” Alyssa stared down at her watch, ignoring Lux despite her persistence to get alone with her. “I forgot, I have to go.”
Lux sighed, all that for what.
“Pleassssseeeee, Lux. Tell me. I’m busy tonight, but you have a free last period tomorrow, right? Come collect me from maths right after, please, I’ll do anything.”
“Your memory scares me.”
“Same. Don’t you forget now.” Alyssa turned to leave, but Lux became the grabber this time.
“Hold on, missy. I can’t tomorrow, I have this thing after cl-”
“Fine, fine. Go to my maths classroom at the start of fifth period then, I’ll meet you outside it. Bye now!” And Alyssa sped away down the blue-carpeted corridor before Lux could deny her.
Lux sighed, shaking her head, but couldn’t oppose that she did really want to tell.