I get a coffee. I stand at the counter and drink it and let the room do what it does.
Becky stands beside me with her own. "You're not bothered by them," she says.
"Should I be."
She considers that. "Most new people are. The staring." She looks into her coffee. "You just look back."
"Yes," I say.
She looks at me sideways. The question she's been carrying is closer to the surface now, the friendliness still there but thinner.
"The cottage must be nice," she says. "I mean — the dorms are fine, I've been in them since I started and it's fine. But a whole cottage. Private. It's a pretty big deal for a new student."
There it is.
I look at her. She looks at me. The smile still in place and underneath it she's waiting.
"It is," I say. "Really nice."
She holds for a second. Waits for more.
I drink my coffee.
She laughs, short, and shakes her head. "Okay," she says. "Fair enough."
We finish the coffee and she takes me through the rest — the student health center, the academic advising office, a quick look at the class schedule I'll be taking. Real classes, real students, real coursework. She hands me a campus map, a card with her number.
"If you need anything," she says, back at the main building doors where we started. "Seriously. I know this is a weird situation. But I'm around."
"Thanks," I say.
She holds my gaze for a second. "You're going to be fine here," she says.
I don't tell her that fine isn't what I'm here for.
"Thanks, Becky," I say. She goes inside.
Dalton appears beside me.
We stand at the top of the steps and look out at the quad. The cold is doing what it does, the afternoon light already thinning, a few students crossing below us without looking up.
"You watched everyone," he says.
"Yes."
"Anyone worth noting."
I think about the trainer in the gym. The table that went quiet. "Not yet," I say.
He nods. Still in professional mode, the one that reads as unremarkable to everyone who doesn't know him. I've been feeling the bond all afternoon. I know the difference.
"Becky," I say.
"Curious," he says. "Not a threat."
I look at the treeline. The forest sitting dark and dense at the edge of the campus, and somewhere past it everything I'm not allowed to go back to yet. The bonds pulling toward Feral Academy — Leo, Gray, Jake, Jim. All of them too far.
RJ. The bruise at my wrist. Patient.
