Yasmine’s cat scratched my bag with its paw and stuck its nose inside.
“Thanks.” She picked up her cat. “Baron, don’t be so impolite!”
“Oh, he probably smelled Grandma’s pastries.” I reached into my bag and showed Yasmine a full bag of cookies. “Would you like one? She told me to give one to all the kind people I meet.”
She selected a cookie from the bag and bit into it before grimacing. “You didn’t meet many kind people on your way here, did you?”
“Do you want one?” I offered the chauffeur while Yasmine rolled down the window to toss it out.
“I’ll have to decline, judging by your friend’s reaction.”
My eyes widened, feeling as though I had just poisoned my first friend.
“I think your grandma intended those cookies for people you dislike,” Yasmine said, still coughing. “They taste awful.”
That sounded more like Grandma. “I’m so sorry, Yasmine. I feel terrible.”
We burst into laughter while Baron lunged forward to devour the crumbs.
The chauffeur cleared his throat. “We’re arriving.”
We both leaned out of my window to see the university’s spikes rising into the sky, emerging from the fog. The vibrant green grass looked as if it had soaked up the rain for months. My heart raced with impatience. The last time I’d come here, it was with Mom. The stone buildings, covered in ivy, stretched out just as vast and imposing as I remembered. From where I stood, I could pick out the rusty blue of the opera house’s dome.
“It’s like living in an Emily Brontë book,” Yasmine commented.
“Or hearing the ‘Toccata and Fugue in D minor,’” I whispered.
We crossed the ironwork arch, embracing the institution’s name and motto:Prestige. Mastery. Valor.
“Come, Baron.” Yasmine put her cat back in his crate, then turned to me. “You know, I have a feeling we’re going to end up in the same house. We were already assigned a cab together, and Pantheon never does things without a plan.”
The car halted, and the driver opened the back door. I retrieved my backpack and carefully stowed my violin inside.
“Well, I wish you a successful academic year,” the chauffeur said to both of us with a thin smile. “I’ll take one of those atrocious treats, actually. I have a colleague I dislike.”
“Oh.” I offered him the bag. “Please take everything.”
He took it reluctantly, and I adjusted the strap of my leather satchel.
“We should go inside,” Yasmine urged, already slipping into the crowd of formally dressed students. “The ceremony is about to start!”
I didn’t have time to question my outfit—a top adorned with lace and white hearts, a pink skirt, and knee-high socks—as I trailed her into the main quad.
The high vaulted ceilings of the foyer soared overhead, and a shiver ran down my spine. The air within the dark corridors carried a chilly touch even in summer. Portraits of successful alumni lined the walls, with emblems proudly representing the four university houses. Today’s opening ceremony would reveal the results of the admission test—known to be one of the most efficient psychological tests out there—and assign us to our respective houses.
Paths connected the many colleges—some more modern and some from the medieval Gothic period with gargoyles leering from their perches. It felt like the bustling center of a dark fairy-tale town.
My heart quickened, pulsating at anallegro vivacetempo as we neared the opera house. It had been under construction for the past nine years since the attack Yasmine spoke of. When I’d heard the opera house might be fully renovated this year and that the Winter Orchestra could happen again, I’d gone ahead and secretly applied to Pantheon. I’d clung to every bit of hope I could find.
The opera house looked like a Pantheon of gods with its Grecian columns. Next to them was a sculpture of a plaque in the form of an open book with the victims’ names. My gaze swept over all twenty-seven of them, my stomach churning.I had to text Dad.
I stopped in my tracks. I still didn’t have a signal, but I spotted a network named Pantheon_Wifi without a password.Seems promising.
Yasmine halted abruptly, noticing I wasn’t behind her. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to connect to the Wi-Fi. I need to text my dad back before he sends the research troupes on me.”
“If you value your privacy even slightly, do not connect to that Wi-Fi,” she warned in a matter-of-fact tone. “For an okay 5G signal, you should head by the dorms or library.”
