Astrid
"Well, well," Selene said, coming to a stop a few feet away, her three companions fanning out behind her like they’d rehearsed the formation a dozen times before. "Look who suddenly has royal protection."
The girl beside her, all quick eyes and quicker mouth, glanced between me and Ivy. "You really settled in fast, didn’t you?"
"I’m not sure what you’re talking about," I said, keeping my voice even.
"Of course you’re not," she said, smiling like she already knew better.
Another girl hung back slightly, saying nothing, her eyes tracking every flicker of my expression like she was cataloguing it for later. The fourth, taller than the rest, stood close enough to Selene’s shoulder that her presence alone felt like a threat.
"First you insult them in front of the entire academy," the talkative one continued. "Then you sit with them at lunch. Now you’re living with them."
"They’re assigned to the same apartment," Ivy cut in. "What exactly is she supposed to do?"
The girl gave her a dismissive look. "I’m sure she has plenty of ideas."
I refused to give any of them the satisfaction of seeing me rattled. "If you came here to gossip, you’re wasting your time."
Selene said nothing at all, which somehow felt worse than anything her friends had said. She didn’t need to. Her power came from watching everyone else do the work for her.
The tall one stepped closer, close enough that I could feel her presence pressing into my space, her shadow falling over me like she wanted me to notice exactly how much bigger she was.
"You’re standing too close," I said.
"Or what?" she said, smiling, and shoved her shoulder into mine hard enough to make me stumble half a step.
I didn’t apologize. "Or I’ll assume you don’t know how personal space works."
That earned me a flicker of real irritation. Ivy moved slightly in front of me. "Leave her alone."
The girl knocked the books straight out of Ivy’s arms, sending them scattering across the polished floor. I dropped immediately to help gather them, but she blocked me before I got there.
"Stay out of things that don’t concern you," she said.
"She concerns me," I said, straightening.
She shoved me again, harder this time, and I stumbled back into the wall behind me. I wasn’t strong. I knew that better than anyone, my body still aching from days of losing every single fight in combat class, bruises still yellowing along my arms from Professor Lyra’s relentless drills. But I refused to look away from her.
"Touch her again."
The voice cut through the corridor before she could push a third time.
I looked up to find Reed and Xander approaching fast, Xander’s usual easy grin nowhere in sight. Reed moved directly between me and the girl, calm and immovable, not a shred of drama in the way he did it.
"You won’t get a second warning," he said.
She backed off instantly.
Selene tried to recover some ground. "Reed, you’re misunderstanding what happened."
He looked at her, flat and unmoved. "I’m not interested."
That landed harder than anything she could have shouted back.
The talkative one tried once more. "We were only—"
"Leave," Reed said. One word.
Selene’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t argue further.
Xander turned to the girl who’d shoved me. "And if you put your hands on Astrid again, you’ll answer to me." His voice stayed quiet, which somehow made it worse.
Selene ordered the group away with a sharp look, and they retreated down the hallway, though the quiet one glanced back once, her eyes lingering on me a moment too long before she followed the others.
Once they were gone, Reed turned to me, his eyes moving quickly over me like he was checking for something worse than what had actually happened. "Are you hurt?"
"I’m fine," I said.
He clearly didn’t believe me, but he let it go. "Let’s go home."
I didn’t move.
"Astrid?" Reed said, glancing back.
I couldn’t answer. A sudden, sickening warmth had settled low against my back, and with it came the horrible, undeniable understanding of what had just happened. I’d started my period, and from the way the fabric clung uncomfortably against me, I’d bled straight through.
My face burned. I reached behind myself as subtly as I could, trying to check without drawing attention to it.
"Why aren’t you moving?" Xander asked.
"Nothing," I said, shaking my head.
Reed’s eyes tracked the movement of my hand, and something in his expression shifted. "Astrid."
I took a step back. "Don’t."
He stopped immediately. "What’s wrong?"
I wished, more than anything, that the floor would simply open up and take me somewhere far away from this hallway.
"I... started my period," I said, barely above a whisper.
Silence. Both of them went completely still, the noise of the hallway around us fading into something distant and unimportant.
I wanted to disappear entirely, to sink straight through the floor and never resurface.
Ivy’s eyes went wide. "Oh my God." She immediately dug through her bag. Nothing. "I don’t have any pads."
Of course she didn’t. I nearly groaned out loud.
Without wasting another second, Ivy pulled off her jacket and tied it firmly around my waist, covering the worst of it. "There. Nobody can see."
"Thank you," I whispered.
"We’ll figure it out," she said, squeezing my arm.
But Reed had already made up his mind. "We’ll get them."
I looked up. "What?"
"Pads," he said, like it was the simplest solution in the world.
Xander nodded immediately. "Obviously."
Ivy and I exchanged a doubtful look. "You two know what to buy?" I asked.
Xander looked personally offended by the question. "Of course I do."
Reed glanced sideways at him. Xander only doubled down. "I know exactly what to buy."
I wasn’t convinced. Neither, clearly, was Ivy.
Reed pulled out his phone, thumb already hovering over the screen like he had a plan mapped out. "How many do you need?"
"Just... some," I said, mortified beyond words.
Xander was already halfway to the door. "Come on, Reed."
Reed paused just long enough to look back at me. "We’ll be back."
I nodded, and the two of them hurried off down the corridor together, already arguing quietly about something before they’d even reached the stairs.
Ivy watched them disappear around the corner, then turned back to me, eyebrows raised so high they nearly disappeared into her hairline.
"Do you actually think they know what they’re doing?"
I let out a long breath. "Absolutely not."