2.21 – Agitate

2.21 – Agitate

Showing up to class a half-hour later and seeing Camille there, Natalie almost couldn’t resist the urge to storm up and confront her. Except, she really couldn’t tell whether she’d been reading into it. And if Camille had been the one who caught her, then, by the simple fact she hadn’t tried to blackmail her yet, Natalie supposed she ought to be happy about things.

Though, ‘yet’ might be the operative word there.

The best case scenario was Camille simply liked seeing Natalie squirm. Which wasn’t a great thing for her state of mind, but for her reputation at Tenet? Again, a rumor spreading that Natalie liked to summon illusions of her magic tutors and jerk off, loudly, in the public bathroom—that wouldn’t paint her in the greatest light. To say the least.

Had she seriously done that? If she could go back in time and strangle herself, she would.

“What is it?” Jordan asked.

Natalie jumped. She realized she’d been staring. “Uh. Nothing.”

By Jordan’s quirked eyebrow, she’d made a few assumptions about why Natalie had been staring at Camille. Not wholly unfair ones. If the dark-haired woman wasn’t the subject of Natalie’s anxiety, then she’d happily admit just how much her classmate had going on.

Was it better or worse that such an attractive girl had been the one to catch her?Reaad the latest stories on novelbin(.)com

Had she liked what she’d seen?

Okay. That was the problem in the first place. Keep it in your pants, Nat.

“Gather around,” Instructor Robin’s voice rang through the sparring room. “Some quick announcements before we get started, today.”

The sixteen students formed up in a semi-organized half circle. Like usual, Instructor Robin had arrived exactly on the dot, just as the bell rang.

She hadn’t meant to start something, wandering over to Sofia’s side, and when she instinctively had started something, it was supposed to be insulting. The question she’d asked, she realized a second too late, fell a few steps short of that.

“No,” Sofia said dryly. “It comes naturally.”

Natalie crossed her arms, making her lack of amusement clear. On anyone else, she would’ve figured the response stemmed from a sense of humor, but here, that wasn’t possible. Sofia didn’t have a sense of humor.

Which was good. It wouldn’t have been fair if she’d been both able to trounce Natalie in a fight, and be likable. It was necessary for Natalie’s world view for this girl to be annoying. To have some flaw. However much she seemed like it, she wasn’t perfect. She refused to believe it.

“How’s it work, anyway?” Natalie asked, finding, like always, her mind going on the fritz just by holding conversation with the girl. It was an unparalleled talent of Sofia’s. Supernaturally gifted, maybe.

“Pardon?”

‘Pardon’. And with that stupid little raise to her eyebrow? This girl was so aggravating. But Natalie was supposed to be playing nice with her, since she was her teammate for the short term, maybe even long term, so she cut off a retort.

“The ranking system for delving. How do they handle it? Specifically, I mean.”

“Perhaps if you didn’t sleep through all of class, yesterday,” she said, rolling her eyes, “you’d know. They covered it. Then again, I guess you wouldn’t be you if you had managed more than sixty consecutive minutes of focus.”

Natalie sneered in response.

Another roll of her eyes. Why was Sofia always so unaffected? She never rose up to Natalie’s goading. Like she didn’t think Natalie meant her taunts and snips. Like she saw through her, or something. As if there was anything to see through.

“Let’s see,” Sofia said, answering the question. “Dungeon rankings. It’s not that complicated.”