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That decided me.
Lifting my chin, I stepped fully into the Dining Hall—which looked like it came straight out of a movie set at Cambridge or Oxford or one of those other elite colleges which is hundreds of years old.
There were even banners hanging from the arching stone ceiling—big enough that any one of them would have made a fine tablecloth for the long wooden tables they hung above.
Under the green banner, which said DRAKE in gold letters, Sanchez and his crew along with a couple dozen other tough-looking boys and a very few girls were sitting. They all looked to be of Hispanic heritage with brown eyes and black hair. Some of them were openly sporting tattoos—the most common one being a long green dragon, which I saw inked around the forearms of some of the bigger guys.
The purple banner said, FAE, in yellow silk letters and I saw the two girls from my English class sitting there. All of the students sitting at that table were blond, with perfect complexions and I mean perfect. Seriously, they looked like an ad for Clearasil. Their huge eyes, most of which were brilliant jewel tones like emerald green and amethyst purple, reminded me of Anime characters.
The red banner read, NOCTURNE, in black letters. The students here all seemed to be drinking smoothies rather than eating. At least, I didn’t see any trays of food in front of them, like the other groups had. They were pale and almost as perfect as the Fae crowd, if not as colorful. A few of them seemed to be eyeing me almost hungrily, though I couldn’t figure out why.
At the table under the blue banner, which said, SISTERS in silver letters, was a group of students who were entirely female. Which made sense, I supposed, since they were called the “Sisters.” A few of them seemed to be eyeing me with an interested, speculative gaze which I did my very best to ignore. All I wanted was to fit in, though I wasn’t sure how that was going to be possible since I wasn’t part of any of the four main groups
Shrugging off their eyes, I went to the very back of the vast, cavernous room and ducked into the covered lunch line. Grabbing a green plastic tray, I pushed it blindly along the dull silver metal railing.
“Well, well—what’ll it be?” a lunch lady in a hairnet asked me in a bored voice.
“I’d like some of that,” I said, pointing at what appeared to be roast beef, sitting on a carving station.
But the lunch lady shook her head.
“Sorry, hon—that’s only for Drakes.”
“What?” I frowned at her. “But…I don’t understand. Can I have some of that, then?”
I pointed at a bowl of fruit salad which appeared to contain a mix of exotic, jewel-toned fruits, many of which I didn’t recognize, though they looked delicious.
The lunch lady frowned and shook her head again.
“Sorry—only for Faes.”
“Look,” I said, dropping my voice and leaning forward, so the other students in line ahead of me wouldn’t hear. “Is this about money? Because I’m a scholarship student? Because that’s discrimination and it’s not fair.”
“Got nothing to do with what’s fair, missy,” the lunch lady said sharply. “It has to do with what your tag says you can eat. Let me see it.”
I held up my lanyard, the gray tag with its vertical red stripe of tape and the horizontal blue stripe crossing it.
“Well…” She frowned hesitantly. “I don’t think you’d want anything from the Nocturne station.” She nodded at a tub of ice filled with chilled bottles of some reddish liquid. “But I can serve you from either the Norm section or the Sisters food, if you want.”
The Norm food selection appeared to consist of a gloppy casserole with a bright orange layer on top—not appealing at all. I chose from the Sisters’ section instead—a nice fresh salad and a piece of grilled fish with lemon wedges on the side. I got a glass of iced tea to drink—one thing I will say about the South is that they make really good tea—and finally made my way back out into the Dining Hall, looking for a place to sit.
Which turned out to be a problem.
9
Which table should I sit at?
I stared in consternation at the four main tables under their colorful banners. Clearly the Drakes and Faes were out. But should I sit at the Nocturne table or with the Sisters? I didn’t see any gray banner for the Norms or Nulls or whatever it was I was supposed to be.
I looked for Griffin. He had been sitting by himself at the very end of the last Nocturne table—which happened to be empty—but he was gone now. Probably he had slipped out while I was getting my lunch.
As I stood there deliberating, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and saw a tall, willowy girl with black hair cut in a fashion-conscious bob. She had flashing black eyes and was wearing long silver earring threads with black and red pentagrams dangling at their ends and coal-black lipstick, which emphasized the whiteness of her teeth. Her mouth was too big for the rest of her face, which subtly ruined the perfection of her otherwise pretty features. Behind her were two other girls, also wearing pentagram jewelry.
