Page 9

Malia

The Infirmary’s heavy doors close behind Keahi’s retreating form, and the weird feeling that crept up on me upon seeing his defeated expression intensifies.

It was just a glimpse of something other than his telltale anger, a short unguarded moment on his part, but it was enough to engrave the unfamiliar softness of his handsome features in the forefront of my mind.

I shouldn’t have noticed the slight change in his demeanor; the smallest of curls of his shoulders or the minuscule furrow of his strong brows. To the untrained eye, he might’ve seemed like the same unbothered hard-ass he usually is. Yet, to me it was obvious that Keahi dreads his upcoming talk with our trainer, that he might even be afraid or ashamed of what he did to me. I hope he is, even though the thought that Keahi might be capable of more complex emotions than rage is disconcerting.

"How are you, Honey?" the nurse gently asks me, and I finally force my gaze away from the arched wooden doors, shaking any thoughts of the boy that landed me here.

Straightening up, I try to smile at the hearty woman, but the movement hurts my cheek.

She notes my visible discomfort and interrupts my attempt.

"That’s alright, maybe don’t move your mouth too much." With a quick nod, I agree.

She applies some sort of cream to my burnt cheek and mumbles something about emotional fire handlers under her breath.

If I could move my cheek enough to speak, I’d agree or smile at her.

As it is, I stay silent until she finally instructs, "Apply this paste all four hours and the burn should be healed by this evening. You are free to go. Take care, Sweetie."

I get up and leave after another nod and a soft "Thank you".

Noting that I’m still in my training uniform, I walk to my dorm to get changed despite the hunger churning in my gut.

"Oh, you’re back! Scary stories were going around about what happened to you, and then you didn’t come back all night.

I was so worried.

Are you okay?" Baia asks as soon as I enter our room. I try my best not to smile at her apparent concern, knowing it would hurt, so I just nod and point to the still-healing burn.

"Oh no, your cheek! So, is it true? Did Keahi actually try to kill you?" she pushes wide-eyed.

I quickly shake my head, horrified at the thought.

Did he try to kill me? I don’t think so... I know he doesn’t like me, but I don’t think he would hurt me like this on purpose. He is just a lousy loser.

"Okay.

Do you want me to wait for you to get breakfast?" my roommate goes on, looking wary.

I shrug and shake my head in the hope she takes it as the "You don’t have to" it is. After living together for more than three years, we seem to have developed quite an accurate understanding of non-verbal hints, so with another wince in my direction, she heads out. Wondering if the wound really looks so painful, I head to our bathroom and check myself in the small mirror above the sink.

Oh yea, Baia wasn’t exaggerating.

It looks about as hideous as it feels, red with yellowish blisters all over it.

Thanks to the cream the nurse has put on, they look halfway dried out already, so that’s something. If it keeps healing at this pace, the soreness will probably be gone by tonight like the nurse said. I can deal with that.

My stomach growls as I change into more comfortable clothes than the tight, all-black uniform drenched in my sweat, but the thought of eating makes me sick.

I can’t even talk.

How should I chew? Then, I think of Wystan and how they might be freaking out right now, so I force myself to go to the great hall, nonetheless.

As soon as my friend sees me approach our usual table, they jump up and hurry my way.

"Hi! I am so glad you are here because these rumors are getting out of hand! Ouch, your cheek looks painful.

Is it painful?" They are awfully bouncy this morning. I place a hand on their shoulder, and they stop talking.

"I am fine.

Are you?" I speak softly.

"Good, that’s good.

Yeah, me too.

I just didn’t sleep much last night," they reply, and I raise an eyebrow for them to elaborate. That seems to be enough of a prompt on my part for them to finally burst out with it. "First, I was out here until 1 am. Dustin offered to walk me to my room, and he... HE KISSED ME GOODNIGHT!" They let out a happy squeal, and I hardly manage to bite back a smile to share their excitement.

Wystan has had a crush on Dustin for almost a year now, and it was obvious he felt the same but neither acted on it until now.

It’s been amusing to watch them go from best friends to flustered idiots that didn’t know how to act around each other.

I’ve been waiting for one of them to finally have the guts to take the next step. Now, I try to express my excitement as well as possible without moving my mouth too much.

"Anyway, he ran off without a word and I spent the rest of the night worrying about you.

I can’t believe Keahi attacked you in front of Kaz! You have to tell me about it once you’re better.

How long should it take to heal?"

A twinge of guilt hurries through me as I remember what the nurse said to Keahi this morning.

"Kaz is expecting you in his office." I’m sure he’ll get into a lot of trouble.

Not that I should care, it’s just the memory of his expression this morning that makes it a little harder than usual to wish bad things upon my mortal enemy.

I shove the thought aside and focus on my best friend.

"Tonight," I say, and Wystan nods.

We spend the rest of our day in the library together, and I keep applying the paste in a four-hour cycle.

When I finally feel better, I break the silence.

"About yesterday.

Keahi and I dueled, and I won. Everyone kind of saw and I could see him getting more furious by the second. Some other student said something about him losing, and Keahi just kind of snapped.

“I tried to block his attack, but it was too sudden for me to create a strong enough wall, so his flame shot right through it.

I turned my face in an attempt to protect myself but well...

Kaz was totally shocked, and Keahi passed out. Kaz carried him toward the infirmary while two students from my new group helped me get there since I couldn’t see past the pain.

“The nurse applied this paste and put me to sleep.

Knocked me right out, just like that.” I snap my fingers.

“Did you know we could do that?"

"That’s intense.

And to answer your question, I knew we had some abilities to affect the human mind and body, but I don’t know much about it." I nod, and we fall into a thoughtful silence.

I wake up on Monday with a fully healed cheek.

I go to my classes in the morning and to training after lunch.

Keahi isn’t there when I get into training room 3, which shouldn’t surprise me. When I ask Kaz about it, he tells me that Keahi is suspended from training for a full week, and despite myself, a part of me feels bad for him.

He takes his normal classes very seriously, and I figure he’s the same with training.

I really shouldn’t care about how he feels though.

Not after the move he pulled.

Instead of being able to relax now that Keahi isn’t here, the daggers Eteri keeps shooting my way with her gaze put me even more on edge.

She’s just as mean as Keahi, and today, she seems to be in an even worse mood than usually.

I wonder if it is because of Keahi’s absence. I have seen them together a few times and didn’t miss the way she looks at him. She’s almost as obvious with her infatuation with him as Wystan and Dustin were with each other.

She can’t exactly do anything to me in front of Kaz, but she keeps scowling at me from across the room, pretty much solidifying my guess that she blames me for Keahi’s punishment.

As if I wanted him to attack and hurt me.

I ignore her and duel Kaz.

We’re an uneven number, and it works just fine with me.

Even though he’s the trainer which means the scales are heavily tipped in his favor, I trust him a lot more not to hurt me than I would any of my classmates. Especially Eteri. I can’t say I’ve really interacted with any of the older students.

While Kaz goes easy on me, he ends each battle at one point or the other by eliminating me.

I keep my wits about myself, though, and wait for the perfect opportunity to surprise him.

Once his guard is lowered, I finally strike out with an offensive attack that’s highly unusual for me. It does the trick, and I am able to win this round.

At the end of practice, I feel pretty good about myself.

A successful training always has that effect.