Zachary Rawlins - The Academy

“What is the source, anyway?”

“Shit, Alex,” Margot said through gritted teeth, “do you really think they go around telling everyone their most closely held secret?”

“Okay, I guess,” Alex allowed, “but then why all the infighting? Couldn’t the Academy just, you know, tell everybody to stop?”

“It’s a two-way agreement. In return for almost total control of the students while they attend the Academy, the cartels have free reign over their own internal affairs. There’s only so much to go around, in terms of space, money and people. It’s usually easier to fight another cartel than the Witches, and often more rewarding. Plus,” Margot said, shrugging, “people sometimes disagree. Violently.”

“Alright, but why don’t the cartels attack the Academy and take whatever it is they need? I mean, aren’t there a lot more Operators in the cartels than employed by the Academy?”

“Sure, but look around you. How many cartels do you think would cooperate long enough to complete such an undertaking? And what do you think would happen after? They can’t trust each other, and as long as they are divided, the Academy holds the majority of the power.”

“For now,” Anastasia added brightly. “Besides, the Black Sun would never condone an attack on the Academy.”

“I don’t get it,” Alex said lazily, staring up into the sky.

Sitting cross-legged in a pool of afternoon sunlight, Margot looked over at Emily despairingly.

“I will never understand. What do you see in him, Emily?”

“Hey!” Alex objected, lying on his back in the grass. “I can hear you, you know.”

“She sees the same thing everybody else does,” Anastasia said absently from where she sat in the shade of the nearby tree, reading. “A great deal of power attached to not so much brain.”

“Hey!” Alex said again, weakly. He had been lying in the sun for a while now, and it had lulled him into a state of complacence. He wasn’t about to rise to the bait and mess up his potential afternoon nap, no matter what the girls said.

“Power,” Emily agreed, smiling, but not looking up from the notes she was bent over. “That’s part of it. But Alex does have some good qualities, once you get to know him. Besides,” Emily said cheerfully, “he’s just so pathetic, who wouldn't feel moved to help him?”

Anastasia laughed but didn’t say anything. Alex reddened, and wondered how the conversation had gone in this unfortunate direction. As if homeroom hadn’t been enough of a nightmare today, with the lecture going right over his head, then Emily’s suggestion that they go sit out on the grass in the quad and relax had turned into this. Alex wasn’t even sure how Anastasia and her cohorts had gotten invited to join them. Anastasia and Emily, despite their frequent tiffs, seemed to get along awfully well for two people destined for opposite sides in a conflict, to Alex’s eyes.

“She has a point,” Anastasia acknowledged, removing a Tupperware container from her bag, and carefully selecting a carrot stick from it. “He does have this lost puppy feel to him.”

Alex opened his eyes and turned his head, so he could glare at Anastasia. This meant she’d won their little game, as usual. But this really was unprecedented, Alex had to admit — when had Anastasia taken Emily’s side in anything?

“Why always carrots?” he demanded, a bit more testily than he intended to. “Are you a vegetarian or something?”

Anastasia looked back at him with cold eyes, taking a bite from her carrot and then chewing it slowly, deliberately, before answering him.

“My lunch did not work out. Neither did my last cook, for that matter. Or, maybe I just like carrots,” she said finally, her expression blank and ominous. “What is it to you, exactly?”

Vivik looked up at the two of them, and smiled tiredly, and then looked back down at his book.

“She’s a vegan, Alex,” Vivik said. “A vegan who is going to have serious trouble on the test this week if she keeps skipping study session to focus on her evil plots and schemes.”

“My plots aren’t evil,” Anastasia corrected, “Mostly. They are mostly not evil plots. And I’ve got that test under control, thank you very much, Vivik. It’s not like you’re working on it either,” she added accusatorially. “That’s Alex’s textbook you’re annotating, right?”

Vivik sighed and put down the highlighter.

“It’s not really the time I’d pick to do this,” Vivik allowed. “But whenever I come by his dorm room he’s asleep, or so he says. He won’t answer his door, anyway.”

“Very suspicious,” Emily said gleefully. “What is that you get up to in the evenings, anyway?”

Alex wasn’t entirely sure how to answer her question. He had been falling asleep early most nights, ever since he’d come to the Academy, often waking in the morning without have changed out of his clothes, without any memory of going to bed in the first place. Alex had always been a light sleeper, and he found this change worrisome, more so since the strange conversation with Eerie that he couldn’t fully remember.

“I wish it was something cool,” Alex said, sitting up reluctantly. “But there’s nothing to it. I keep crashing out early, that’s all. It’s not like a deliberate thing, it just kind of happens.”

Emily look at him pityingly, her golden hair curled into tight, perfect ringlets. She wore a plain grey sweater with a maroon skirt, her legs folded beneath her, effortlessly beautiful. Alex remembered their ‘arrangement’, and then tried to find something else to pay attention to.

“That’s sad, Alex,” Emily teased. “You should find better things to do with your evenings.”

Anastasia’s expression was poisonous.

“I think I’m going to pass on commenting on that,” she said, gathering her books and shoving them into her backpack. “I have class soon, and I have some things I need to take care of before that.”

Renton and Edward began gathering their things, Renton grumbling all the while, Edward silent and efficient. Alex wondered how Edward could look so neat in his uniform after sitting in the grass for an hour, and how it was that the exact same uniform could look so bad on Renton. Vivik sighed and handed Alex the text he’d been highlighting.

“That means I’ve got to get going too,” Vivik said, standing and stretching, “which is too bad. Since I stayed up and studied last night,” and here he shot Alex a significant glance, “I could really use a nap out here in the sun.”

“That’s what you get for being smart,” Alex said sleepily.

Margot stood up with Vivik, startling him with her proximity.

“Actually, I came here to talk with you, Vivik,” she said, collecting her bag. “Do you mind if I walk with you to the Science building?”

Alex gave Vivik a questioning glance, but if Vivik had any idea what was going on, he didn’t show it. He agreed readily enough, but the confusion was obvious enough on his face. Anastasia nodded at Alex, opened her black parasol, and walked purposefully off in the direction of the Science building, flanked by Renton and Edward, Vivik and Margot lagging behind.

“Empath-girl. Make yourself useful. Explain what just happened for me,” Alex commanded, looking at Emily expectantly.

“You are so bossy,” Emily complained, still engrossed in her notes. “Remember, they’re all pretty decent at hiding stuff like that because they’ve already been through the training. You’re getting better at it yourself, by the way.”

“Rebecca’s been teaching me.”

Alex was secretly pleased with the praise. He had been practicing shielding his thoughts and emotions, but so far no one had commented on it, except for Rebecca gently making fun of his efforts, during the lessons.