“I’m so sorry!” Amara could feel her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
“No worries, I don’t know what they were doing when they renovated this building anyway.” The short haired girl shrugged. “Are you here for an orientation?”
Amara nodded.
“Alright, give me a moment to see…” The girl stood on her tiptoes and looked around the vicinity. “Just got out of the exams, didn’t you? The orientations usually happen in the mornings, so it’s a little late for getting volunteers to start you on a full tour…hey you! Can you come over?”
The girl began to wave her arms frantically at someone behind Amara, who spun around and saw that the target was a teen who had been walking towards the doorway nearby.
There were no words, nor a single coherent thought, inside Amara’s mind as she practically goggled at the boy who approached her and the short-haired girl beside her. Even the deities remained silent as he walked closer and closer, letting Amara have a full moment of wide-eyed wonder, even though she was certainly beyond the point of politeness in her unblinking stare.
The teen had neatly trimmed hair, which was in such a shade of light blonde that it appeared almost white where the afternoon sun shone on the strands. His eyes were his most striking feature, being a dazzling shade of unusual aqua blue, easily capable of captivating the attention of anyone who took a glance at him. He looked around fourteen years old, and puberty was very much working in his favor; his jawline was already quite defined, his physique was that of someone who was gaining height but without much of the awkwardness often associated with growth spurts, his features seemed to settle in just the right shapes and places on his face, and—perhaps the unfairest trait of all—he had perfectly clear skin.
Besides being the one of the best, if not the best looking person Amara has ever seen, the teen also had impeccable taste in clothing. He wore a simple long-sleeved white shirt that both broadened his shoulders and complimented his hair color, alongside brown dress pants that accentuated his body proportions while emphasizing on his long legs. He held a jacket that matched the color of his pants, tidily folded over his arm, which was held steadily at a textbook-worthy right angle. Even though he physically looked like he’s already gone through a long day, his clothing remained wrinkle-free, hinting that he wore either humble-yet-expensive items, or had his clothes custom tailored for his body, or maybe even both.
“Hello. Do you need something from me?” The teen politely asked the two girls with a small smile when he approached. His voice was the ultimate blend between youthfulness and maturity, surprisingly smooth and pleasant to hear for someone that should have been stuck in an unfortunate phase of voice changing. There was not a sliver of doubt that he was the popular boy in the school, not just in his own grade.
Amara blinked frantically in a mixture of embarrassment, shyness, and extremely dry eyeballs. Her state of being star-struck did not escape the notice of her ‘tenants’, as her subconscious thought exposed her true feelings: ‘Is this what being blessed by the gods looks like?’
Destruction was the first to deny his involvement: Look at me, I’m the Deity of literal DESTRUCTION. Me blessing things almost always ends with the things going boom crumble splat.
I have not interacted with him either. Life was quick to follow with her own denial. Pay attention to reality now, Amara.
‘Right, right.’ Amara refocused her attention. Luckily, she didn’t zone out for anything important, as the short haired girl was simply filling the boy in on information. In fact, Amara had caught on in time to the last half of the very last sentence: “...and I hope you’re okay with taking one last tour for the day.”
“Of course, I don’t mind.” The teen boy replied with a practiced smile, lips curling upwards enough to convey politeness, but not so much to be considered truly joyful. He turned toward Amara, tilting his head slightly to not appear like he was directly looking down at her, then introduced himself using a soft, gentle tone: “Pleased to meet you. My name is Caspian Delmar, and I’ll be a third-year student in the upcoming semester.”
“I-I’m—” Amara flushed crimson from the direct eye contact. “My name’s Amara!”
Right after she spoke, Amara’s face burned even more red. She felt like there was nothing she could say that would make her appear as composed as Caspian, and this made her highly self-conscious of her appearance. Now standing side-by-side, he looked like a prince on a white horse, and she was a dirty gremlin some castle servant dug out of a mud pond.
Either through top-notch expression control or a genuine disinterest in external appearance, Caspian’s smile didn’t waver a single bit, contrary to the many shades of scarlet that Amara’s face was flashing through. He looked briefly at the short haired girl and asked: “If you don’t have anything else to ask of me, I’ll be heading out. Amara, would you follow me?”
“Y-yes.” Amara replied in almost a whimper. The short haired girl wordlessly waved them goodbye before leaning against the wall again for supported rest.
Caspian led the way before Amara as she waddled after him, keeping several steps of distance away to not accidentally smear dirt on him. By the time they passed the proper entrances to the building, Caspian seemed to notice something off of the glass doors’ reflection, and stopped walking to look behind him.
“Is everything okay?” He asked, tilting his head the exact same way as before out of courtesy, considering Amara was only as tall as his shoulders.
“No! Yes! I mean I ain’t…I—” Amara stuttered harder than she had ever stuttered in her entire life.
“Are you perhaps exhausted from the exams?” Caspian asked again, looking concerned for Amara.
“...Sorry!” Amara’s brain puddle could only conjure up this response.
Caspian glanced at her face and seemed to realize something. “I can turn and look away if you need a breather.”
“Please.”
Amara shut her eyes tight, forcing herself into taking deep breaths through clenched teeth. She tried to clear her thoughts, maintaining an empty mind for around a full minute before feeling herself beginning to calm down.
Caspian’s entire existence reminded Amara of her originating from a small town. She’d not seen anyone like him before, someone who felt was better than her in almost every aspect. The way he kept his posture made Amara instinctively want to straighten her back; the way he dressed made Amara obsessively think of how many patches she had sewn into her clothes; even the way he articulated his words made her self-conscious of the way she spoke.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Amara knew she had an accent, mostly from hearing her grandparents talk, but it hadn’t troubled her much until this moment—Caspian’s way of speaking sounded pleasant, both in the words he chose to use and in the timbre of his voice. In comparison, she thought she talked like a squeaky duck that had a terrible lisp. Being in proximity to him was a trial to her own confidence with every passing second.
Being older and going through puberty does wonders to a human. Life had overheard the flood of negative thoughts and tried to intervene.
Look on the bright side. Destruction joined in. He definitely doesn’t know how to grow carrots like you do.
What is it between you and carrots?!
Amara finally broke into a small grin with the deities’ distraction. Her face now gradually returning to a normal color, she finally felt she could talk in full sentences again. Opening her eyes to see Caspian respectfully gazing at the wall, Amara balled one hand into a fist behind her back before speaking: “I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to behave that way.”
“Oh, no need to worry.” Caspian turned to face her properly before answering, angling his head as to not seem like he was looking down at Amara: “Back when I passed my entrance exams, actually, I had my eyebrows ripped off and my shirt torn to shreds in front of everyone that applied to the Academy with me.”
“Really?” Amara opened her eyes wide in shock. Caspian’s expression didn''t waver for even a fraction of a second as he revealed this information, making her question if it was the actual truth, or just something he made up in order to comfort her.
“I’m telling the truth.” Caspian used his polite smile again, identical to how he did so just a few minutes earlier. “I also had most of my luggage stolen from me as a prank. That reminded me…I presume you’re not a local student?”
Amara first felt a slight shock as she wondered if her own expressions gave any clues away to her earlier doubt, then shook her head no as an answer, finally peeking down at her own dusty and unflattering outfit, as she felt conscious of her appearance once more. She eventually decided that he was just trying his best at comforting her, after all.
“Do you have a place to stay overnight then?” Caspian’s smile disappeared as he asked, now showing signs of concern rather than casual politeness. “You don’t seem to carry many things on your person, and it’s getting late in the day.”
“I forgot about that!” Amara gasped. With everything that she had gone through in the span of one day, the last thing she had been thinking about was where she’d go for a good night’s sleep.
Caspian frowned. “Is there anyone that accompanied you here for your entrance exams?”
Amara’s eyes felt like they’d be popping out of their sockets at any moment. She had also completely forgotten about Pauley after they separated at the Academy’s front gates.
“There’s someone I left by the gates!” Amara practically was bouncing on the spot from panic and guilt over her forgetfulness. “Can we go there? Please?”
“This way.” Caspian headed in the complete opposite direction from the doors they’d been standing near. He had sensed Amara’s anxiousness and picked up his pace as well, traveling at a speed that Amara needed to jog to keep up.
Time seemed to flow extra slowly for Amara as she hurried to the front gates. Ignoring everything else that she passed, it still seemed too late by the time she could see the gates: the massive lineup of applying families had mostly dissipated, a few last-minute applicant stragglers were led into the campus, but the majority of remaining staff were busy wiping down tables and folding up chairs.
Amara sprinted at full speed to the nearest adult, barely skidding to a halt by their side and without even taking a breath in, she started spewing words to the adult figure’s ribs: “Excuse me have you seen a boy with glasses and sandy hair anywhere he looks about thirteen or fourteen and had three suitcases all by himself?!”
“Hm?” The person had to look behind their back twice to find who was talking to them. “No, I haven’t seen him.”
“Thank you and sorry to bother you!” Amara immediately dashed over to the next person.
After asking another half dozen people in a similar fashion with no results, Amara finally had to slow down to breathe in a corner, physically recovering from the strain caused by running around while mentally trying to calm down her panic, and to a certain extent, fear of being lost or forgotten.
Caspian silently caught up to her, hovering behind Amara until she stopped gasping, saying nothing as he patiently watched over her. After she could straighten herself again, he then reminded her: “Do you have a way to message or call the person you’re looking for?”
“Oh!” Amara frantically clawed at her wrist, fumbling around until she got her infoportal to project a screen in front of her eyes. Despite his current absence, Pauley’s choice of device was excellent and heavily reliable; even after all the rough physical activities Amara herself went through, the infoportal was still fully functional without a single scratch or dent, and remained firmly attached to Amara.
Her sentiments only lasted momentarily as strange symbols and colors began to appear on the infoportal screen. Mumbling things that she herself doesn’t even quite know the meaning of, Amara tried to recall as much of Pauley’s speedy technology guide as she could, but her poor brain was well past its prime operative time and she wasn’t even able to remember how to keep her screen encrypted from others.
Caspian initially had backed away to give Amara some privacy, but as she struggled more and more, he decided to step in at last: “Is there any way I can be of assistance?”
Amara whipped her head around with tears on the verge of spilling out and cheeks burning red in awkwardness: “I…just got this thing today…I don’t know how to use it.”
“May I?” Caspian glanced at Amara’s wrist instead of directly at the screen, but the meaning of his gesture was clear.
Amara willingly raised her arm so the screen could be at Caspian’s eye level. The latter made a few quick taps on the projected screen, different hues of lighting shining on his face, flashing with a frequency that Amara could only assume was him trying not to linger on any private information. He frowned deeper and deeper with each tap of his finger, before coming to a sudden stop with his hand held up in midair, then inquiring hesitantly: “There seems to only be one contact here. Are you trying to reach… this [BuildeyPauley] individual?”
“Yes.” No amount of deep breaths could save Amara from her own embarrassment now. “Can you please call him?”
Caspian nodded as he tapped once more on the screen. A loud ringtone beeped out several times from the infoportal wrapped around Amara’s wrist, before returning to complete silence.
“It didn’t go through?” Amara stated it like a question, though deep down she already was certain of the answer.
“No. Would you like to try again, or send a message?” Caspian removed his gaze from the screen as he asked Amara on what to do next. He seemingly attempted to help Amara put her arm down so she could look at her own screen, but decided against making physical contact, as his hand made a near miniscule grasping movement over her forearm.
“Can you please send a message sayin’...saying that I passed the entrance exams?” Amara pleaded, not forgetting to make a tiny effort to ‘correct’ her own accent as she spoke.
Caspian ‘s finger swiped twice over the screen, then he began to tap rapidly for a few seconds. After one final, extra forceful tap, he put both hands down by his side and told Amara: “It’s done.”
“Thank you so much.” Amara’s legs almost gave out from the stress as she lowered her arm with a swinging motion.
“Would you like me to take you to the dormitories, then?” Caspian gracefully sidestepped away from Amara’s screen. “I’m certain they can provide you with a room for tonight, at the very least.”
Amara nodded, speechless now on what kind of words to say in order to fully express her appreciation.
Caspian then led her back into campus, this time mostly staying on the right side of buildings. Amara could only hope to remember her way around by the patterns on different paths and the occasional road sign, as every structure she’d seen so far appeared identical in shape, size and color in her eyes.
Five right turns, one middle option and one left turn later, Caspian stopped just within sight of a wide unit with multiple balconies on the exterior. Although just as gray and plain looking as every other building, this particular structure was almost twice the height of other buildings, which helped Amara identify it in its uniqueness.
“If you continue straight ahead, you should be able to see a cubicle on the first floor, on the left side of the main stairs leading inside.” Caspian told Amara as he did not take another step towards the direction he referred to. “There should be staff on shift there to help you confirm your identity and arrange a dorm room.”
“Thank you.” Even Amara herself felt the words to be too bland to convey her true gratitude. “But, why aren’t you goin’...I mean going forward?”
Caspian smiled in a way that bordered on an ungentlemanly grimace. “It’s designed to only house first-year students, but it is the girls’ dormitory after all.”
Amara clamped both hands over her mouth.
“I will stay right here if you need me. No reason to rush, though; making sure you have everything properly set up and settled is more important.” Caspian managed to ‘fix’ his expression into a much friendlier smile.
Reusing a weak ‘thank you’ again, Amara made a mental note to improve her vocabulary as she sprinted to the dormitory building, determined to keep Caspian waiting for as little as possible.