Chapter Text
We grow great by dreams.
--
Noelle opened her eyes.
“...”
She was on a bus. One she had gotten on several hours ago, and was beginning to arrive at its destination. Luckily, Noelle had managed to get a row to herself, although the people in the bus were rather quiet anyways, allowing her to take a nap.
That morning, she had been woken up by her Mother, who was rather hurried to get Noelle ready and out of the house. Noelle’s Mother had managed to get her enrolled in the Kisu Academy, an upper level, albeit not super prestigious, higher education institution. While normally expensive, Noelle had done fine enough in school to get state subsidies and scholarships that could make it up, and her Mother spent quite a bit of her own money, if she had any, to fund it.
It was an opportunity that Noelle herself was unsure about, because the costs and work she would have to put into it seemed a bit too much for her, but the pressure to go made it unavoidable.
If she failed, she could at least say she tried, and she hoped that would be enough for her Mother.
Noelle tapped her fingers against the window, her soft white hair falling around her tired eyes as the rain pattered outside. It was almost peaceful.
Her Mother always had a lot of trouble dealing with her children, she was a single mother with too many little ones to handle, and Noelle wondered if her going to higher education was also partly because she wanted one less person to take care of, since Noelle was old enough that she could be independent.
Frankly, Noelle didn’t see it as very fair.
It wasn’t that she hated education, she just wasn’t very good at it, something that plagued her throughout her entire life. She had managed to get by before because the topics weren’t too hard, but the amount of studying she had to do wasn’t something she wanted to repeat, and she knew these classes would almost certainly be more difficult.
“...”
She could see her soft blue eyes in the reflection of the window, the way her blue freckles illuminated off her pale skin, or at least that’s how she saw it.
Noelle’s introspection was cut short as the bus came to a stop. While her window was a bit blurry from the rain, she could see the buildings of the campus, the dark wood that lined the towers and clean stone walls which ran around the corners.
She grabbed her bag as everyone else in the bus got up and began to file out. Noelle didn’t bring too much, only what she needed, although it’s not like she had anything of worth in the first place. The most important thing she valued in it was a notebook she kept of her life, which helped her pass the time.
(God, I don’t know about this..)
Swallowing her fears, Noelle stood up, following behind the others as she exited the bus, looking up to see what she had seen in the window, just a lot more real, and a lot more mesmerizing.
The campus was huge, a large bell sitting alone in a tower above it all, flags representing the Academy strewn on the sides, grass that was neatly kept, beautiful materials, marble buildings, and soft bustling as students explored the halls.
(..Beautiful.)
Noelle broke her gaze, realizing that she had forgotten where she was supposed to be.
“...”
She took out her phone, quickly scrolling through it to find her first day schedule, which was supposed to help her get accustomed to the campus and her classes.
(...Orientation.. in an hour.)
To be completely honest to herself, Noelle felt as if she were a fish out of water. It didn’t help that there was a strange feeling entering her mind, as if she was being watched, or gazed upon, yet everyone around her was clearly dealing with their own business.
Back home, she didn’t know many people, in fact she only knew of one other person who was going to this same Academy, but Noelle didn’t exactly see them very positively, so she wasn’t rushing to find them.
Her Mother had reminded Noelle that when she got here, she should try to meet as many people as possible in order to make actual friendships.. which was easier said than done, because it’s not like Noelle was great at breaking the ice, or having the courage to talk to someone new in the first place.
She wasn’t antisocial, just.. shy, unable to ask someone to be her friend. Noelle was open to new things, and she was sure that she’d find someone if she just spent some time around campus.
Putting her fears aside, she put her phone back in her pocket, fixing her collar before looking around.
(..I should probably just explore.)
Noelle entered the campus, enjoying the atmosphere and the beautiful agriculture around her.
Although, she couldn’t shake that strange feeling.
Going indoors, Noelle was greeted with the largest hallways she had seen in her life, students and faculty rushing by as everyone was getting prepared for the coming semester. Paintings, photos, boards, littered the walls.
She had known that the Academy had been around for a long time, but with how old some of these photos on the wall were, it was like the school had been around since civilization itself.
One of the photos showed a happy couple, their irises two distinct bright colors, a strange looking accessory on one of them, a young woman with chartreuse eyes. The photo didn’t seem very old, but it wasn’t very recent either.
There was something weird about it.
(..Huh.)
“...”
“...”
“...”
She spotted something.. someone?
At the far end of the hallway, there was a tall figure in the shaded darkness, staring at her.
She blinked.
It was gone.
“...”
“..What?”
Noelle couldn’t help but feel the air becoming cold, which only served to unsettle her further.
At the place where she got on the bus, they had handed her a dorm key, and she only felt the desire to go there and get out of whatever this is.
Her steps hurried across the hallways, she obviously didn’t go in the direction of that strange figure, but her bout of worry only confused Noelle even more than she already was as she rapidly walked. Spotting the odd faculty or student(s) made her feel a bit more safe, but she couldn’t get the image of what she saw out of her head, which only encouraged her to walk quicker.
The dorms in the Academy were officially co-ed, but in practice were mostly segregated by gender, it was seen as embarrassing to live with someone of the opposite sex for various reasons, and most students didn’t want to take that risk. Noelle had managed to get a dorm to herself, and it was clustered somewhere in the middle, though mostly in the female side rather than the male side.
Reaching her dorm, Noelle practically stabbed the key into the lock, twisting it like a wrench as she pulled the door open and stepped inside, slamming it shut and closing all the locks she could find.
“...”
She turned on the lights.
Luckily, Noelle didn’t find a figure waiting to jump her, but rather a normal dorm.
It had most of the basic necessities, her bed, chairs, tables, nightstands, a lamp, a door to the bathroom (which was surprisingly of medium size rather than small), and various other amenities.
Most of it, it was quiet.
There was no nagging mother, noisy siblings, desperate problems, vehicles outside, the sound of movement in her house, nothing. It was idyllic.
Perhaps it was her mind feeling it, or it was just the insulation of the walls.
Looking back at the door, the concept of exploring the campus suddenly vanished, replaced by a desire to rest.
(Maybe.. just a few minutes..)
Noelle collapsed onto her bed, nuzzling her pillow with her exhausted cheek, the softness of her bed washing away her worries into a crystallization of peace.
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“----.”
“----.”
“An--.”
“Andy!”
Andrew’s eyes flew open.
Leaning over him was his sister, Ashley, her pink eyes staring down at him with a strange expression.
“Andy! Wake up!”
“God.. what is it?”
“You need to get up Andy, it’s time to get ready.”
“For what?”
“Our classes? What else?”
“..They haven't even started yet.”
Ashley pursed her lips, her dark locks tied back as she crossed her arms, seeming a bit annoyed with his apprehensive attitude towards going with her.
The two siblings had attended Kisu Academy for two, three on Andrew’s part, years, and he was starting to get sick of education. He had majored in English, mostly because it was the easiest thing he thought of and he wasn’t that bad of a writer, but the work was monotonous at this point.
He had gone mostly to escape home, high school, and the stress of taking care of Ashley. Although the moment she graduated, she immediately enrolled into his Academy to go with him, leading to the situation at home being transported into his education once again.
The only thing that made the situation bearable was his sister being there with him, but she brought her own slew of problems that he had to deal with, mostly her hatred for his ex-girlfriend, Julia, which had gotten so bad to the point that they separated.
But he could deal with it, he always had.
“Come on.. get up..”
“..Fine.”
Andrew carried himself up, he was laying on a couch in their dorm, having spent most of his time in break simply sleeping, because he didn’t want to face the world and its difficulties.
After putting on his short sleeve jacket, Andrew looked in the mirror, his green eyes staring back at him as he ran a hand through his dark hair.
(I look like a mess.)
Despite his observation, he didn’t care to fix himself, simply turning back to look down at Ashley, who had the same amused expression on her face that she always did.
“Okay, so what did you want to do, exactly?”
“Well, I thought that we should go out, you know they made some renovations over the break, so we could go check it out.”
“If you wanted to just see the renovations, we could probably find something on the website about it.”
“It’s not about the destination, Andy, it’s about the journey.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it is, Ashley.”
Their relationship had been rather strange from the start, their parents weren’t very caring, oftentimes leaving them alone to their own devices even at young ages. He had practically taken over the role of caretaker for her as the older brother, and it created a permanently exhausted mindset for him.
Although for her, it obviously created a deep sense of attachment, and their high school experiences only served to reinforce this, especially the rumors the other students kept throwing at him about him and Ashley.
Sometimes he wished things were different, that he had parents who didn’t leave him like this, but Andrew hated being sentimental and vulnerable, so he shoved those thoughts away.
“So.. please? For me?”
“Ugh.. I guess.”
Ashley had the biggest smile on her face as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the dorm, leading him down the halls.
“It’s not good to keep yourself locked in a room all day, you’ll grow even stupider than you already are.”
“Then I guess that makes you just as stupid as me.”
Ashley shot him a glare for a second before continuing, completely moving on from the conversation.
“The point is, you need to get out more. With me.”
“And can I go out with anyone else?”
“Well, you could.. but only if they aren’t trying to take you away from me.”
“What a broad descriptor.”
“It seems good enough to me.”
“Anything seems good enough to you.”
“...”
“...”
She dragged him to the cafeteria, pulling him down to a table as she sat next to him.
He was the first one to speak, because Ashley was just looking at him, as if she was observing all of the molecules on his face. It creeped Andrew out quite a bit.
“This doesn’t seem like much of an improvement from the old cafeteria.”
“Well.. they changed some of the lighting, and fixed a couple things.”
“What a big fucking change.”
“This place is never good enough for you..”
Andrew tilted his head down at her slightly, a bit confused by what she meant.
“What?”
“You always complain about everything, can’t you enjoy things for once?”
“Can’t you get off my ass for once?”
“Aww, but I like your ass!”
“Oh, fuck off.”
Ashley giggled at his apparent irritation. He didn’t really feel any anger towards her, mostly because she had been dealing with her for a very long time that it didn’t hit as hard anymore.
Their banter was interrupted as several students began to fill the cafeteria. It was already a bit busy, but it was obvious that some sort of break had begun.
Most of the students seemed to be freshmen, who were likely being guided around the school by volunteers. They asked him to help guide new students around, but Andrew hated teaching people things, and he had this perception that freshmen were intellectually inferior to upperclassmen. He wouldn’t be surprised if some of the freshmen were left wandering around without a clue.
His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice approaching them.
“Hey, Andrew!”
He and Ashley both turned their heads to the sound to see someone they both knew.
Thiu.
To explain Thiu would be a very long conversation, he was definitely one of the stranger and more interesting people Andrew met at the Academy. His blue hair and teal eyes stood out, as well as having a frame so skinny Andrew would think that he was malnourished, and he probably was, but that was a story for another time.
But he didn’t hate him. Thiu was kind and well-meaning, which Andrew usually read naive and annoying, but he wasn’t very loud about it, which made it bearable, and he could be endearing at points.
Ashley didn’t like him, but she never liked anyone anyways, so it wasn’t really something Andrew cared about. He always found it strange how Ashley saw anyone who talked regularly to Andrew as some sort of rival for her.
He tried to ignore the practically burning irritation from the girl next to him as he spoke in reply.
“Hey Thiu, what’s up?”
“Ah, nothing much, just.. saying hi. It’s nice to see you guys again.”
Thiu had a slight smile on his face as he gestured towards Ashley. She didn’t return it.
“Well, that’s good, I hope you aren’t having too much trouble.”
“I’m not that new anymore, I mean.. most of the people from last year stayed, so that’s good. I talked with Vivian for a bit, she wanted me to tell you hi if I saw you.”
“Tell her I said hi back.”
“Y-Yeah, I will.”
“It was nice seeing you again.”
“Thanks, uhm.. I’ll see you guys later, bye Andrew, bye.. Ashley.”
“See you later.”
It was here that Ashley spoke for the first time. Although it was just a rather quiet murmur.
“Bye.. Thiu.”
He waved goodbye before walking off, and Ashley’s expression seemed to finally relax instead of looking guarded.
“God, I hate him.”
“I don’t think he did anything to you.”
“It’s just something about him. I have very good intuition, you know.”
“Maybe your intuition should relax for once.”
“Are you saying I’m wrong?”
“Something of the sort, yes.”
Ashley narrowed her eyes at him before looking away in faux-annoyance.
“.Hmpf.”
Andrew didn’t play into the game, just looking at her with a slightly annoyed expression as Ashley continued speaking.
“I think I’m done exploring.”
“Me too.”
She grabbed his arm, pulling him up.
Andrew didn’t resist as his sister dragged him back to their dorm, the pair mostly silent the entire way there.
He didn’t understand her.
And maybe never would.