The Domus Paranormal Academy

The List

It was enough for me to see his concealed smile of haughtiness to catch the rest of his objectives.

Write an article about it. In front of everyone. Beyond giving me a chance to present the proof, what Lucian was doing was giving me a chance to make amends for my mistake during the poker game. And it was, in fact, a cruelly clever idea, because, knowing that my image to most of the students was that of "the human girl who had come out of nowhere to challenge him thinking she was superior," my only option at that point was to write something nice about him, which would stomp on calling him a jerk and be taken as a, "I'm sorry I insulted him."

The worst part was that he thought I was going to do that. His dumb face conveyed a, "Come on, I'm letting you redeem yourself."

Seriously, Lucian, underestimating me was always your worst mistake. You don't know who you're messing with.

I accepted the challenge.

I left my backpack on the seat, went to the board, and picked up the digital pencil. Since the board was rotating, I flipped it over, so no one could see anything while I was writing. Nor could they stop me.

All the while, I felt the heavy, judging stares at me, waiting. There was some whispering. My hand kept moving, inspired. As soon as I finished writing, I hit publish, then flipped the board over, walked to my chair, grabbed my backpack, and, as a final act, left the classroom without saying anything and without allowing anything to be said to me because something like this was ending with an epic exit.

What everyone should have seen said:

The Domus student council may be difficult to understand at first, but it is nothing more than a group dedicated to defending the rights of students. Its president, Lucian Lycan, assures it. Confident and multifaceted, his last name precedes him. His attitude may be intimidating, but it serves him to lead with responsibility and firmness and to hide his main flaw very well: that he is a real jerk who believes in prehistoric customs and whom, they say, you should not dare to challenge. In your first year, you have two options then: love him or get under a rock so he doesn't step on you with his designer shoes.

Maybe I could have written it better, but I was very satisfied.

Of course, that wasn't the worst thing that was going to happen to me that day. It wasn't what I talked about at the beginning of the chapter, because that was just the trigger.

Yes, with that article I had sent Lucian a message: "Don't provoke me because you might get a surprise".

He would send me a worse one: "I will always respond to your attacks".

I began to notice something was going on as I walked down the hallway to the second floor. Some girls didn't pay the slightest attention to me, which was normal, but others gave me gossipy looks. Others walked past me, looked at their cell phones, looked at me dismissively, and whispered things to each other. What about their manners? They probably reserved them for important meals.

I assumed they would have been sent the article, so I ignored them and went downstairs to the main floor. There, another group of girls did the same. This time they didn't whisper, but let out derisive giggles. A couple of guys even looked at me giving me a cheeky, curious once” over, as if they needed to see what I had to offer. It all struck me as very odd, very suspicious. There was more to it than just my article, but I continued with my head held high and my best "I don't care what they're thinking" face.

As I walked through the door and out of the building, some girls near the entrance railing saw me and made a face. I intentionally approached the big board next to them where they used to post announcements of upcoming events and pretended to read the dates of the Art faculty activities. I could hear one of them say, "He didn't mean it; it's obvious she's drooling over him."

Okay, something was up. Something that I had a sudden, bitter feeling I wasn't going to like. Something that, unfortunately, had to come from or had to do with Lucian, and that wasn't exactly related to my article.

I went straight to my building. To get there quickly, I took a bicycle from the stations available for students. All along the way I tried to describe the looks and whispers, but everything made me suspect that it was something new.

And it was.

As soon as I walked through the front door of the apartment, I felt a little relieved. There were no stares, no comments, no rejection. It was a small but safe place. White walls, a small living room, and, at the back, three doors, one of them the bathroom. In addition, a large window offered us a view of the street. Valery had put a potted plant on the central table because he said that plants gave good energy to the environment. I hadn't put anything on because I didn't even believe in myself.

Well, Valery came out of his room as soon as he heard me close the door. She was wearing pajama shorts, her face was covered with a green face mask, her dark hair was pulled back in two buns on the sides, and she was wearing speckled slippers. Her green eyes looked worried. In her hands, against her chest, she held her cell phone.

“What's going on? “I finally asked, getting straight to the point.

“You don't know? “she replied instantly, a little surprised, "You haven't seen it?

Oh, God. There was something to see.

“No, what is it? “I wanted to know after taking a breath.

“Well, it turns out that someone had done an interview with Lucian for the entertainment section of Domus magazine and one of the things they asked him was if he could name ten girls he would want to date...

She handed me her cell phone. Quietly and with my heart racing with a little fear of I didn't know what, I saw the digital article of the interview, very much in the style of that teen magazine You. First, it said the same thing Valery had told me and then added that, from his perspective, those were the girls Lucian would choose to date.

Ten issues.

Ten names.

Ten options to choose from.

And there I was:

Marise Shadow.

Candidate for dating a Lycan.

I couldn't believe it.

Well, yes, I could believe Lucian would do something like that, but I was shocked all the same. The logical thing would have been that, after showing him my derogatory article, he would have ignored me forever, but nope. That had just been one more mistake to add to the list of mistakes Marise had made with the Lycans, and also a message from him, "I have not and will not forget what you did."

I knew what that list meant. I knew what it all meant. It was a clever counterpunch because it showed people that my insult hadn't intimidated him and, at the same time, I could even make them think that privately I had recanted or that I was okay with it. That had been his goal: to make it clear that "that new girl, Marise," who had dared to insult him, was no threat to him and that his reputation as a desirable guy was still intact.

Such was the ridiculous wars of the elite boys, and I was already engaged in one.

“Marise... “Valery said to my silence. “What? “I answered automatically.

“Say something," she asked me uneasily. If you are quiet and serious, you scare me.

When I looked at her, I realized that she was watching me with great concern.

What could I say to her? Those days of sharing an apartment with her had allowed me to realize that she was not like other girls, although she tried very hard to be. She was a very good student, had an exaggerated preference for vests, and did not judge people at first glance. Maybe the bad thing was that she feared the power of others too much, especially the Lycans, and that made her avoid being harmed by them, but as a companion, she was better than she had expected.

The problem was that Marise, at that time, didn't know how to trust people. She wasn't the type to tell her little secrets just to fraternize. I went through life very distrustful of everyone, even those who looked trustworthy, so there were things about me that at the time I preferred to keep to myself, such as what I was feeling about the fact that Lucian was focusing his attention on me. It was something akin to awe but also fear.

Of course, no one was supposed to see that fear.