First Day

KAI'S POV

The bus ride took fourteen hours.

Fourteen hours of staring out the window at scenery that went from urban sprawl to farmland to mountains to forest so thick it looked like the trees were trying to eat the road. Fourteen hours of Mrs. Chen's advice playing on repeat in my head.

Easy for her to say. She wasn't the one with split knuckles and an assault charge that may or may not be waiting for her back home. She wasn't the one going to some fancy boarding school where everyone would take one look and know exactly what I was: poor, displaced, didn't belong.

The acceptance letter said the scholarship covered everything. Tuition, room, board, even a monthly stipend for "incidentals."

I didn't know what incidentals were but I'd been sending half of it to my old foster siblings anyway. The ones still stuck in the system. The ones who didn't get lucky.

Luck, that's what everyone kept calling it.

"You're so lucky, Kai." "What a lucky break." "You must have a guardian angel."

I didn't feel lucky, I felt suspicious.

Nobody gave kids like me full rides to elite schools. Nobody paid for everything and asked for nothing in return. There had to be a catch. I just hadn't figured out what it was yet.

The bus pulled into a town so small it barely counted as a town. One main street, a diner, a gas station and a sign that said "Silvercrest Academy - 5 miles" with an arrow pointing into the forest.

Great, the school was in the middle of nowhere. Perfect place to murder scholarship kids and bury the bodies where no one would find them.

I grabbed my two duffel bags and got off the bus. There was supposed to be a shuttle. The acceptance packet said so.

My phone buzzed. It was a text from a number I didn't recognize: Shuttle delayed. Walk up the main road. Someone will meet you.

Fantastic, So I was walking in the mist up a creepy forest road.

I started walking and twenty minutes later the trees opened up and I saw it: Silvercrest Academy.

It looked like someone had taken a gothic cathedral and a modern tech campus and smashed them together. Old stone buildings with stained glass windows next to sleek glass and steel structures.

I stood at the edge of campus with my discount duffel bags and my split knuckles and my hair that I still hadn't dyed, and thought: I don't belong here.

But I was here anyway. So fuck it.

I walked onto campus, got about ten steps before I ran straight into someone. My bags went flying and I stumbled back.

"What the hell—" I started.

Hands grabbed the front of my jacket, lifted me off my feet then slammed me against the nearest wall.

I was staring into the face of someone who looked like violence was his first language and conversation was a distant second. Scars on his jaw, green eyes that looked feral with copper hair that was too messy to be accidental. He was maybe an inch taller than me but built like he spent his free time fighting bears.

"Are you blind or what?" His voice was rough."Watch where you're going."

The smart thing would've been to apologize but I'd never been good at smart.

"Get your hands off me." My voice came out steady even though my heart was trying to punch through my ribs.

His eyes narrowed. "What did you just say?"

"I said get your fucking hands off me before I make you regret touching me."

For a second I thought he was going to hit me. Instead his grip tightened then something weird happened. His pupils dilated just for a second like he'd seen something that shocked him.

“What the hell,” He dropped me. I landed on my feet, stumbled slightly. He took a step back. Stared at me like I'd just spoken in a language he didn't know he understood.

"What—" he started then shook his head. "Stay out of my way."

I stood there trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Why did he look at me like that? Why did he let me go?

Whatever. It didn't matter. I grabbed my bags and kept walking.

I found the administration building after asking three students who looked at me like I was something they'd scraped off their shoes. The receptionist directed me to the third floor. Headmaster's office.

HEADMASTER VOSS was exactly what I expected.

"Kai Morrison." He smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Welcome to Silvercrest. I trust your journey was uneventful?"

"Define uneventful."

"No major incidents? Injuries? Unexpected encounters?"

I thought about Marcus's broken nose, the weird guy on the bus then about the psycho who'd just slammed me into a wall. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Good. That's what I like to hear." He pulled out a folder. "You'll be in Northcrest Hall. Fourth floor. Your roommate has already moved in—Riven Nyx. He's been briefed on your arrival." He pressed a button on his desk. "I'm assigning you a guide for your first week. Someone to show you around, explain our... unique culture here."

The door opened. A tall girl with dark hair walked in. She looked at me, then at Voss, then back at me.

"Camille Osei, meet Kai Morrison. Kai, this is Camille. She's pre-med, top of her class, and she's volunteered to make sure you don't get completely lost."

"I didn't volunteer," Camille said flatly. "You volun-told me."

Voss smiled. "Semantics. Show him around. Dormitory, dining hall, academic buildings. The usual orientation."

Camille sighed. "Fine. Come on, scholarship kid. Try to keep up."

I grabbed my bags and followed her out.

She walked fast, didn't slow down to see if I was behind her then she started talking without looking at me. "Silvercrest has three main rules. One: don't go into the forest after dark. Ever. I don't care if you drop your phone, your wallet, or your dignity. You don't go into the forest."

"Why not?"

"Because people who go into the forest after dark don't come back the same. If they come back at all."

"That's not ominous at all."

She ignored me. "Two: if you hear howling at night, stay in your room. Lock your doors, don't investigate, don't look out the windows. Just pretend you didn't hear anything."

"Howling. Like wolves?"

"Like wolves or other things. It depends on the night." She stopped at a building—old stone, stained glass, looked like it belonged in a different century. "Northcrest Hall. Your dorm is on the fourth floor. The elevator's broken, it has been for months so enjoy the stairs."

"Great. What's rule three?"

She finally looked at me. "Rule three: mind your business. Don't ask questions about things that seem weird. Don't comment on students who move too fast or have eyes that reflect light wrong or seem to disappear between classes. JUST MIND YOUR BUSINESS."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you'll learn why most scholarship students don't make it past their first semester." She started walking again. "Dining hall is that way. Classes start Monday. Your schedule is in your room. Any questions?"

"Yeah. What the hell kind of school is this?"

"The kind that doesn't give full rides to random kids unless there's a reason." She looked at me sideways. "What's your reason, Kai Morrison? Why are you really here?"

"I don't know. I thought it was because I'm smart."

"Everyone here is smart, that's not special. There has to be something else." She stopped. "Figure out what that is before someone else does. Because trust me—people notice when you're different here and different doesn't always mean safe."