Kattie had just gotten out of the shower and was finishing putting on her uniform so Lana took her turn in the bathroom to do the same.
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Dobin returned toward his room after leaving Lana's room. His watch still displayed the number "1" and he knew what that meant, not just for himself but for his sister as well. He was tired of her having to risk everything every day to keep him safe. While the military didn't condone bullying, the ideals outside the military were hard to fight. The dorms had no cameras. The Families didn't want proprietary information on abilities to be documented which meant inside the dorms, bullying was a real possibility.
While Dobin didn't believe in the military and agreed with Lana's stance, he had an ability book now. Just as he thought that thought, out of nowhere he was slammed into the wall. Also, out of nowhere, a tall bond slammed his assailant into the wall even harder. Grateful, he nodded and rushed off to his room as the taller boy nodded back.
Safely in his room, Dobin opened his level-1 earth ability book and began to study. One day soon, his sister would be able to count on him to protect her instead of the other way around.
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Fresh from the shower, there was a knock at Lana's door. Pulling her shirt down, she opened it to discover three boys. In the middle was Dobin.
"Heya, sis!" he smiled. She smiled back and gave him a hug. "Our first night apart. Did you survive?"
Lana let out an uncomfortable laugh, "yeah. You heading to breakfast?"
"Yeah, we were all hungry so we thought we'd head down together. Want to join us?"
Lana nodded, "Of course but first I wanted you to help me see if we could put an automatic transfer of your funds to me so I won't need to transfer them every day."
Alto looked confused, "Why transfer his credits to you? They are his, are they not?"
Lana looked at him quizzically, "One of the things the bullies do here is steal those credits. If I have them instead of him, it's less likely he will be robbed."
Alto looked shocked while the other newcomers seemed less surprised. Even Kattie seemed to have less of a reaction, even though she seemed sheltered.
The boys entered the room and Dobin checked things over on her tablet then clicked submit.
"All done sis. My card will empty out every day at 1 am."
Lana smiled. "Now we need to get you leveled up so people will not mess with you…Are you going to explain that bruise on your forehead or do I need to force it out of you?"
Looking defeated, "I was slammed into the wall on my way to my room last night. I never even saw the guy."
"How is that? He wanted to beat you up, didn't he? Why didn't I feel the connection?"
"Probably because as soon as I hit the wall, another person hit the person who hit me. All I saw was blond hair as I ran to my room," Dobin threw the words out as quickly as he could knowing what his sister was like. He often wondered how she ended up with the anger issues while he was always so calm. Yet he was the one that was always beaten.
She sighed then relented. "Okay. At least you didn't get too badly hurt," she turned to Kattie, "do you want to join us? What does Sven eat? How does that work?"
Kattie smiled at the invite and desire to learn more about her, "I'd love to join you guys. I have options with Sven, actually. The kitchen will provide what I need."
"I can feed him when we eat but also get food after hours. It was explained to me that while the kitchen does have hours, with food in vending machines after hours, when it comes to our beasts, there is a separate area in the kitchen which remains open in case our friends get hungry while the kitchen is closed. If the beast requires something which is not available, I simply need to tell the staff. They will make sure what I need is stocked."
"What's it like?" Lana asked a little dreamy.
Kattie smiled brightly, "not only is he helpful in a fight, protects me but he's my friend. He's the only friend I have but he takes the best care of me."
It was then that Lana realized. Kattie may come from a small but influential family but the trade off she had to suffer has been isolation. "Kattie, did you go to school or did you learn at home?"
Kattie's response was simple, "home."
"So… you've never experienced the bullying."
Kattie shook her head, "no. My parents are hoping that with me having a beast, it will be obvious I'm from a family and that will not happen. But they told me it was a possibility and… I'm nervous."
"Do you know how to fight?" Alto asked.
"I know a bit. I already signed up for the beast weapons class. I learn my ability through my family so I figured that would be the best place for expansion for me."
"I was told I would be contacted and a representative would come to the school periodically to give me lessons. A teacher travels to all the schools and demonstrates things then moves on while we focus on mastery. The lessons will take place outside of normal club times so we will still learn from our clubs. My understanding is most families do this."
As they all left the girls' room and entered the D-FAC a few seconds later, the conversation on clubs continued with Almin and Kattie agreeing the beast weapons class would best suit them while Alto and Dobin were getting excited about the elemental ability club. This meant, for the first month, they would need to attend elemental class as well as beast weapons class.
Lana was happy these people around her were getting excited about the opportunities to grow. While she enjoyed their conversation and stood in line to get her meal served, she glanced around the room. There was mister hunk whose name she felt she really needed to learn. The boy she had seen for mere moments twice before. He was with two boys and figured they were his roommates.
"Bacon?" huh? She was broken from her observations as the server asked what she'd like on her plate. She nodded then pointed to a few other things, not really caring about what hit her plate as long as it wasn't fish.
She turned quickly, trying to figure out who the bullies were so she'd know who to look out for. Their survival would depend on it. With their teachers not present, this would be the first day to see what life at this school was really going to be like.
The difference between this school and others was the teachers would step in and punish the aggressors. The military required a cohesive team. Bullying disrupted that. The military didn't allow that behavior. But there were areas that had no cameras. Areas where students needed to be ready to defend themselves in.
Observation was seriously required and Lana was the girl for the job. In the middle of the room were sets of long tables that fit about 10 students on each side. There was more seating than required which made her wonder why extra seating was needed.
Between these and the walls were several tables for five which made her think they were in case the groups wanted to sit together for meals and plan strategy for portal outings. She noticed another table on the other side of the room laughing in a not-so-friendly way. She grabbed her prepared plate and followed Dobin to a table at the back of the room that was not yet occupied.
"Hey, Rainbow!" Lana heard from the laughing table. She set her tray down beside her brother and he put his head down, knowing what was coming next. She looked over at the table and laughed.
"Rainbows are beautiful so I'll take the compliment. Thank you!"
Lana sat down and picked up a piece of bacon and looked at the faces of the others around her. She had the highest number of them all and she was already in protect mode even over these strangers who had the misfortune of being roomed with her and her brother. Whatever happened, they would not be hurt just because they drew the short straw on roommates.
With a smirk, "Well beautiful, you are a level 5. You belong at this table with those that have talent. Hanging out with those that are nothing will get you … hurt."
She shoved another bacon in her mouth then stood up. A vine appeared in her hand, "then bring the pain!"