Alchemist Academy: Book 1 (9 page)

“Come on, let me show you to your place.”

We walked next to each red door and I wondered which one would be ours, or mine. Did they keep the boys and girls apart?

I looked across the fence and saw a few Blues walking at the same pace as us. They studied me with hate in their eyes. It felt no different than when I would walk past the gym bleachers and the Dolls stopped whatever it was they were doing to give me a stare. I’d been foolish in thinking I could get away from such people. I guessed they existed everywhere you went in life.

Jackie opened one of the red doors and walked in. I looked to Mark for a second before following her. A few doors were scattered around the entrance on the first floor. A wood staircase wrapped in a circle to the floors above.

Jackie stood next to the staircase, her hand resting on the railing. She smiled and seemed to be waiting for something.

“Hey, Jackie,” Mark said. “Where are we?”

“You’re in the Red house.” She raised an eyebrow as if she was wondering how smart Mark was.

I sighed and glanced out the window, across the street to the Blues. It was sinking in that they’d always be there, hating me because of the house Priscilla had put me in. What kind of place pitted two sides against each other like this?

“No. I mean, where are we in the
world
?”

Jackie laughed. “As far as I know, somewhere in Russia. But we did have a shift recently, so we could be anywhere.”

“What, are you telling me this whole place moves?” he asked.

“Of course. How else do you think we keep safe?”

“I don’t care about where we are,” I interjected. “I want to know what the deal is with this Red and Blue crap.”

Jackie huffed and crossed her arms. “Who snatched you two up?”

“We were thrown in here by the recruiter,” I said.

“Darius?” Jackie said.

“Yes.”

“Why did you agree to come here?”

“I really want to learn about stones.”

“Well, you definitely came to the right place. They’ll give you your fill of creating stones, that’s for sure,” Jackie said with wide eyes. “How about we get you to your rooms first?” She took a few steps up.

“Okay, thanks.”

Jackie led us to the third floor, where the underclass lived. I didn’t mind that, because my room looked out over the street, and I liked being up higher. I could see the Blue houses across the way. They gave Mark a room next to mine. I asked about the coed thing, and Jackie shrugged. It felt weird sharing living quarters so close with Mark. He seemed amused by it and kept giving me a mischievous look.

“We do have a house uniform of sorts. I present you with your Red band.” She handed me a piece of red cloth. “Keep it on at all times. Wearing that means you belong with us but it also means the blues will do what they can to get to you.”

“Thank you.” I pulled it around my wrist.

Jackie tossed one to Mark, who rolled his eyes and put it on.

“Your first class will be in a few minutes. Priscilla has you scheduled to be in her class.”

I’d barely had a chance to touch the rough sheets when my attention swept back to Jackie. “Oh, like, now? Great. How do we get there?”

“Follow the spoke. Sorry, that’s what we call this hall. Anyway, follow the spoke all the way to the hub and you’ll find a class to the left, marked thirty-two. That’s Priscilla’s.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Jackie turned to Mark. “It’s a good starter for new people, especially those who are weak in the gift.” Her face crunched up like she was delivering hurtful news.

Mark shook his head and stared at Jackie. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll try to keep up.”

“It’s good you have spunk. We can use your type in certain battles against the Blues.”

“I can whip up some mean macaroni art with deep political satire that will surely rile up those vile Blues.”

Jackie laughed and looked at me. “I see why you’re around him. He’s funny.”

“Yeah, well, he has his good points,” I told her.

Jackie led us down to the front door and pointed us in the direction of the hub and our first class.

A few Reds nodded to me as we passed them. Mark nudged me farther away from the Red house and closer to the fence in the middle of the spoke.

He leaned close to me and whispered, “This place is nuts.”

“It might be a bit premature to be saying that, don’t you think? Besides, I like that Jackie girl.”

She was actually one of the few girls near my age that I did like. She was bubbly and had given a double bird to a hateful group. Jackie seemed like my kind of people.

Mark looked at the ceiling. “This isn’t anything like what my mother described. Either stuff’s really changed here, or my mom is a massive liar.” Mark looked behind us before looking back at me. “This place freaks me out, and it isn’t just the sick games they’re playing.” Mark pointed to the Blues.

Some Blues took notice of him and walked to the fence line.

Mark ignored their stares and kept his eyes on me. “Something doesn’t feel right. I don’t think my mom would be this wrong.”

“Dude, your mom didn’t exactly seem like the most honest person.”

“You don’t know her. She just let this stuff get the best of her. But I can tell you this: I won’t let them get to you the way they did my mom. This stuff messes with your head, the whole power of it. It just doesn’t seem natural to me,” Mark said.

I raised an eyebrow. “Unnatural?”

“We had some fun with the stones, but doesn’t it feel off to you? Like, should we really be able to do this stuff?”

I stepped back from Mark, shaking my head. I sucked at music class, I couldn’t climb the rope in gym class, or dodge a ball. I couldn’t draw worth a damn in art but this stone thing I got.

I hadn’t noticed how close I’d gotten to the fence line until a Blue grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me against the slats. Then pain and panic hit me. I pulled hard, but more hands reached over the fence, tugging my shirt tight against my neck. They squeezed so hard, I couldn’t breathe.

In the midst of chaos, I found a breath and began to scream. A quick burst of whistles sounded, and I thought one of the teachers would be coming to break it up.

“Get your hands off her.” Mark grabbed at their fists, but there were too many.

They pulled at me and my head was pressed against the fence. I saw many faces on the other side, but one guy with blond hair had his hand near my neck. He looked manic and filled with hate. More Blues rushed to the fence line and grabbed at Mark as well. He fought off their clutching hands and hit the ones holding me. I screamed again.

They shook my body back and forth, slamming it against the fence. Mark yelled and pulled a hand from my shoulder. Another arm grabbed me and Mark opened his mouth and bit down on it. The Blue cried out in pain and pulled their hand back.

Another person whistled, but this one was on our side. In a moment, I felt a wave of bodies on the Red side grabbing at me. They screamed profanity at the Blues as they freed me from the fence line. I fell backward and landed on my butt. Mark freed himself in the chaos and rushed to my side.

I couldn’t catch my breath and my hair hung over my face in sweaty clumps. Pain radiated out from the side of my head and body. A few scratches marked my arm, but I didn’t feel any serious damage.

The Reds pushed against the fence and both sides yelled at each other in an incoherent rant.

Mark wrapped me in a hug. “You okay?”

I winced a bit from his grip around my bruised shoulder.

“Yeah.” He helped me to my feet and I brushed some of the dirt off of me. “What the hell is wrong with those people?”

Jackie pushed through the crowd, breathing hard. With a red face she said, “Oh my god, are you okay?” She snarled as she glanced back at the Blues.

“I’m fine, just a bit banged up.”

“What the hell is going on here? Why would they do that to us?” Mark asked. He kept glancing back at the mob of Blues on the other side of the fence.

“You got too close to the fence line. It’s a neutral zone of sorts, and anyone who goes within arm’s length is fair game.”

“Those people were crazy. They wanted to kill us.” Mark pointed to the Blues.

“Yeah,” Jackie said, as if it was obvious. “Look what Priscilla just gave us.” She gestured to me and I shook my head in confusion. “She gave us two people and one is a mother-loving nine.”

“There’ll be a retirement soon, I bet,” a guy in a white T-shirt said.

Jackie nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. The lifers will want to adjust things so they’re numerically even again.”

I watched Mark fuming next to me. He rubbed his mouth and eyed the Blues. I knew he wanted to go over there, jump the fence, and beat them to death. But I wouldn’t let him commit suicide. The spectacle had gathered large crowds on both sides of the fence.

All of this, just to make better stones? I didn’t want to hate the Blues, but I did. And what’s worse, I didn’t know a single one of them.

People on my side waved toward the Blues and said things like, “Bring it,” while the Blues marched closer to the fence with a large number of guys near the front line. The flimsy wood fence seemed like an arbitrary barrier, and I looked for a quick exit just in case. A guy with blond hair stood in front and stopped near the fence, eyeing Jackie before turning around. The Blues took a few steps back.

“How do we keep them from getting to us? I mean, they’re right there,” I asked.

Some of the people around me laughed and Jackie smiled. “You’re a Red now. We’ve got your back and you never have to worry about them hurting you. If they do, they’ll have the entire house of Red falling on them.” Jackie shook with rage and I saw some of the double-middle-finger attitude in her again. “You hear that, Blues? You touch her again and the
whole
House of Red will come crashing down on you.”

The Reds around me closed ranks, filling the space between me and the Blues. I’d had a few moments before where a person might have said, “Leave her alone,” or “Be nice,” but having a small army standing beside me was something I had never imagined would happen in my life.

Jackie leaned close to me. “But don’t ever go to the neutral zone again. You got that, Mark?” She looked up at him. “Can you make sure she gets to class safely this time?”

“Yeah,” he replied with his jaw muscles bulging in and out.

I breathed deeply and felt a bit of the tension lessen. The Reds and Blues began to disperse. Once the crowd had thinned and Jackie had said her goodbyes, Mark and I continued our walk. We made sure to stay toward the Red side this time, far away from the fence. A few Blues kept pace with us, but I didn’t look at them.

I listened to Mark’s heavy breathing as we walked. The adrenaline was still feeding my beating heart and chills were running through my hands and arms. I’d never been in a real fight before. When Mark wasn’t looking, I felt the bruises.

“Thanks for helping me back there,” I said.

“Don’t thank me. I wanted to kill them, you know?”

“Well, you can use that hate to make stones.” I looked at his shaking hand.

“I can, but that doesn’t make it right.”

The end of the fence approached and the Blues, who had been following us, stopped and trailed back to their houses.

As we approached the hub, I saw a huge, circular room. The ceiling towered high above with tile work lining everything. Large lights lit up the space. The area felt like being outdoors with its great expanse. The floor sloped slightly toward the middle, where a large statue stood. The woman, taller than a house, held what looked like the earth on her shoulder.

“Who knew Atlas had a woman counterpart?” Mark said.

“What are you talking about?”

“The statue.” He pointed. “You’ve never seen the male version?”

I stared at it and thought hard. I’d seen one, a man with a grizzly beard, holding the earth, but I’d never known its name. A few people were lingering around the statue and even Blues and Reds were mingling nearby. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to be thinking someone might kill me wherever I went. This hub must be a safe zone.

We walked to the left of the entrance of the huge room. The wall wrapping around the expanse held a door every hundred feet or so. I didn’t see any other halls connecting to the hub. The spoke must be the only one.

“You notice there are no windows, like, anywhere?” Mark asked.

“Yeah, what’s up with that?”

“They don’t like us looking outside,” a voice said from behind us.

I jumped and turned to see a petite girl standing behind us. She cowered away from my gaze, but after a second, she glanced up.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Carly,” she said and smiled. She squeezed her shoulders together and kept looking at Mark. Finally, someone was looking at him. I thought it was the strangest thing ever that none of the girls had shown the slightest interest in him yet. I mean, the guy was hot.

“Nice to meet you, Carly.” I was intrigued by her openness. “What do you mean, they don’t want us looking out?”

“They don’t want us knowing where this is,” she whispered, and looked around. No one was near us, yet she moved closer and whispered even quieter. “They think they’ll find us if we do.”

“Who? Who will find us?” I asked.

She looked around and I wondered if she had heard me.

“This isn’t good,” Carly said. “The two of you. We’ll have a retirement for sure.”

“Retirement?”

“When we retire, we get sent home. Some people believe it, but I don’t think they’re going home at all.” She mostly talked to Mark, and for the first time I started to feel like I was back in Summerford High, being a shadow on the wall.

Mark bent over to the diminutive Carly. “What exactly are they teaching here?”

Carly looked past us. I turned to see what she was looking at. A Red walked by, eyeing me. She nodded to me as she walked by. I responded with the same motion and went back to talk to Carly, but she was already thirty feet away and walking fast.

Mark’s brow crunched up and I was starting to pick up his emotions. His look was more of a thinking face than angry. If I could crack open his head, I knew I’d find a million wheels turning, trying to process this place. His mom must have fed him some kind of Utopian bull crap, and now he had to tear it down layer by layer until he solved the mystery. I wasn’t as skeptical. Sure, it was freaking strange to pit two sides of the Academy against each other, but at least it was for a purpose.

“Come on, Mark.” I touched his arm.

“I keep saying this, but I don’t like this place. Nothing feels right.”

“Our class is the first door on the left. Let’s check it out. What do we have to lose?”

“We have a lot to lose.” He paused, looking at me with those eyes.

I felt my heart beating faster. He didn’t look away. “Maybe, but let’s check it out,” I said, thinking about how I needed to show my skills. I wanted to be so impressive that the president of the Academy would want to see me and I could get the life stone for Mark.

He nodded and we walked farther into the hub, hugging the curved wall to the door with the number thirty-two inscribed across it.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight,” Mark said.

“You need to chill.”

I opened the door and the class went silent. Priscilla was standing near the door, in front of a chalkboard. She motioned for us to come in.

“Take a seat. Reds on the left.”

Like I needed a reminder. The students on one side of the room had red accessories while those on the right side were adorned in blue gear. I looked at the red scarf wrapped around my wrist and scanned for an open desk on the Red side. I spotted two in the far back and walked toward the large divide in the middle of the room separating the two sections. I walked down the middle but hugged the Red side, keeping an arm’s distance from the Blues. Mark walked right down the middle, staring at each Blue.

Mark and I sat next to each other in the back and I strained to see what Priscilla had written on the board. I didn’t mind. I wanted to sit in the back. Having people behind me bothered me. I always felt their eyes on the back of my head, like they were judging me, and I couldn’t even see them. The anonymity of the back seat had great appeal.

The metal chair creaked under my weight and I ran my hands over the wooden desk. Pulling at the edges, I realized it was one of those flip-top desks. I lifted the top and saw an assortment of vials, one bowl, and a wooden mixing spoon. When I closed the top, Priscilla was standing directly in front of me.

“Did I instruct you to open your desk?”

“No.” I looked to Mark. I was going to get in trouble before my butt had warmed my chair.

“This is your one warning, Allie.”

“Sorry,” I muttered.

Priscilla turned and walked back to the front of the class. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to open the desk back up and get into the kits. I wanted to make more of those stones and find out what they did.

“We’re all alchemists, but we’re not equals. Some of us are born with a greater ability than others. I know that isn’t fair, but that’s the way of it. Allie, can you please come up here?”

I froze in shock. Not only had I been scolded in the first minute of being here, but now she wanted me to be at the front of the class? I glanced at Mark and he shrugged. I rose from my seat.

“Today, please.”

I moved quicker and got to the front of the class. Priscilla clanked a bowl on her desk and pulled out a yellow liquid, placing it on the desk before going to retrieve another item from her drawer. Next, she had a handful of what looked like oak leaves. She crushed the leaves in her hand and dropped them into the metal bowl. Then she grabbed a spoon from the drawer and slapped it against the desk.

“Show us.”

I waited for more instructions, or some kind of clue as to what she wanted, but all she gave me was a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.

I took the yellow vial and pulled the lid off. It reeked of sulfur. I winced and moved it away from my face.

Some of the Blues snickered, but they all had their attention on me. I glanced over the class and they were leaning forward in anticipation. I’d never seen a group of teenagers more engaged. Back in high school, half the class would be on their cellphones, or thumbing through books. Here, the whole class was staring at me. I sucked in a breath and picked up the spoon next to the bowl.