The school boys had made it a game — seeing who could gawk the most. They whistled whenever Neva passed, stretched their necks in ridiculous, exaggerated poses, and a few brave ones approached her to strike pointless conversations as some kind of courage contest.
Being a year younger than Ashey, the two sat in different classrooms. Ashey couldn’t wait for break to shield her little cousin, but she was completely ignored by the wave of friends she had already made. All the girls from Neva’s class orbited around her, leading the way to the cafeteria.
Ashey would have sat alone if not for Illah, who joined her at the bitter table for her own reasons.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Ashey said. “It’s disgusting.”
With Neva seated, they cut across the cafeteria where Dan straightened his collar and smoothed his hair, heading toward Neva’s table. Ashey rose to follow but was held back by Illah, who put a finger to her lips. “Let’s see where this goes,” she whispered.
It went exactly where they hated. “I don’t like your cousin very much,” Illah declared, her eyes blazing like laser beams. The demon child inside Ashey pushed her to grin at this sweet moment, but it wouldn’t be fair to Illah, who had been so helpful over the past few days.
Dan had asked Neva for her phone number. They exchanged devices and keyed in their contacts. Illah maintained her act, sipping her juice with an air of judgment, as though watching a poor rehearsal.
“He deserves whatever you do to him,” Ashey said. “But please, leave my cousin out of it.”
“Ashey, how do you see me?” Illah asked, a hint of hurt in her voice. “The last thing I’d do is fight over a man. He doesn’t respect me enough not to humiliate me publicly. I’ll keep the little dignity I have left, thank you.”
“Wow, what happened to you on holiday?”
“Spiritual alignment,” said Illah. “My mum took us to this guru up north. He does cosmic alignment for your body. You should’ve come with us.”
Now that Illah had said it out loud, it made perfect sense. Her skin glowed, the air around her was scented with roses, and she hardly ever yelled anymore. She’d just shrug off any annoying boy in class. Ashey needed her cosmics aligned too.
“How quickly can you get me there—crap, I’ve got to go. See you later.”
Ashey ran for the nearest exit, ignoring Illah’s call. She dashed to the bathroom, burst into a stall and shut it, keeping her breath steady.
It didn’t take long before she heard a whisper, “Ashey, are you in here?” The voice sounded like Neva’s.
She pried the stall door open and let out a sigh of relief. It was Neva, holding her school bag. “I brought everything you need,” she said, pushing the bag towards her. “I’m right here in case I missed something.”
What was going on? Neva’s expectant face looked like she was waiting for something else.
“Thanks,” said Ashey flatly. “This was very thoughtful, but no, I’m fine. I was just avoiding a friend of mine.”
Neva checked behind her. “Is it the weird one with the glasses?” she asked, leaning in. “I heard she’s been searching everywhere for you.”
“That’s the one.”
Ashey turned on the tap to freshen up. Running around to avoid Noreen had taken a toll. Neva took her schoolbag back and hopped onto the counter, leaning against the mirror.
“I think I remember her from the movies,” said Neva. “We met her at a place like this, remember?”
“You’re really good with faces.”
“What does she want from you?”
Ashey stared at her reflection and sighed. “There are some things she wants me to do that I’m not ready for.”
“Oh,” Neva said.
“Not like that.”
“Oh,” this time flatter.
Ashey changed the subject. “What did that hybrid of a donkey want from you?”
“His name’s Dan, thank you. And isn’t he cute?”
“He’s classless enough to go after girls with his girlfriend right there watching.”
“Oh, daring,” Neva teased. “I like that.”
“Until he does it to you,” said Ashey. “It’s better if you stay away from him.”
“Whatever,” Neva said with a shrug. She was on her phone now, probably deleting Dan’s number.
“I’ll do what you want if you give me your blessing to go for the prince.”
“No. Ew. Why would you even say that?”
“What? What’s so wrong with the prince?”
Ashey smacked Neva on the thigh, leaned in, and hissed, “They killed Kalin, Neva. What is wrong with you?”
“You’re the only one who says that,” said Neva. “Besides, how do we know Kalin wasn’t trying to kidnap you or do something worse? I don’t want to be that guy, but I don’t think I liked the way he looked at you sometimes. Especially when we were at the pool the other day.”
“Stop,” said Ashey. “That wasn’t even a tiny bit funny.”
Neva lost the glimmer in her eyes. “Sorry,” she said. “But I’m still going for the prince. If you don’t want to get out of poverty, I do.”
“What poverty? We’re fine. Our family is worth, like, a hundred million kliqs. We don’t need money.”
“Found you!” Noreen burst into the bathroom, pointing a finger straight at Ashey. “You’ve had your fun, Ashey, but we have to start taking your application seriously.” Noreen held up a sheet of white paper. “I’ve gone through the site and mapped out all the paperwork you need to file, with their respective deadlines. There is a lot of work that goes into it, so I would advise—”
“Ow, ow, ow.” Ashey grabbed her tummy and reached for Neva’s hand. “Help me, Neva. Ow.”
“What’s wrong?” gasped Neva. “I thought you were fine.”
“Take me home,” groaned Ashey. “I can’t stay in school like this.”
“Are you okay?” Noreen asked, lowering her paper.
“Where do you think I’ve been all day?” Ashey asked. “The nurse told me to take it easy, but I couldn’t help myself.”
“I’m sorry — I didn’t mean to push you too far. I didn’t know you were feeling so bad.”
They parted ways with Noreen after rejecting her offer to help. Break time was over, and the only ones left wandering the compound were Ashey and Neva. They would spend the rest of the afternoon snacking on the infirmary’s goodies.
With her plan set in motion, they met the last person Ashey could have hoped to meet in the hallway. Director Thompson stopped, his hands in his pockets. Ashey and Neva stopped too, on Ashey’s orders.
“You’re not really sick,” said Neva, realising a little too late. “Ashey, I don’t want to get into trouble.”
“Remain calm,” the director said.
“I can’t do that,” Neva said, gripping Ashey’s arm. “He’s scary.”
“Ashamel and Neva,” he said. “Where are you going at this hour? You should be in class.”
“I’m ill. Ow,” said Ashey. “Neva’s taking me to the nurse. Ow.”
“Get to class, Ms Sorel.”
“I could die.”
“Ashey, please stop — let’s just go,” hissed Neva, growing paler.
“Get to class.”
“This school doesn’t take women’s reproductive health seriously. I could sue you, you know?”
“And you’ve miraculously healed yourself,” said the Director. Ashey stood in the middle of the hall, an accusatory finger pointing at him. She dragged an undead Neva to her classroom before attending hers.
Finding her classroom empty, Ashey wandered a bit more until she found her mates in the art room. Everyone had a canvas in front of them, pouring colours and wetting their brushes. Ms Caitlyn was very fond of Ashey, so she had to keep it down, find a seat, and pretend she’d been there all along. Noreen was the only one with an empty seat beside her. She knew it too, and beckoned Ashey over.
“Take it.” Noreen pushed the note towards Ashey. “And try to read it, at least.”
Ashey made an obvious fake smile, sticking out her tongue when Noreen’s back was turned. She folded the paper in two and pocketed it.
“Why do you care so much about this anyway?” Ashey asked. “Why do you want me to get into the Galeon so badly?”
“I’m not talking to you until you read the list,” said Noreen, rubbing the bristles of her brush. Ashey stuck her tongue out again.
“I saw that.”
“I know,” said Ashey, still sticking her tongue out.
A tap on the shoulder from behind made her jump. She hated it when people did that. A lanky boy stood behind her, in a crumpled uniform, waving. She groaned—Mark-Gray was the most annoying student in the school. He made dumb, unfunny jokes whenever he saw her, pinched her, and tugged at her hair when her back was turned.
He sat to her right. Had she known it was him, she would have skipped the class altogether.
“You’ve not started painting yet,” he said. “Should I strip nude for you to paint me? I know it’s something you’ve always wanted to do.”
“Leave me alone,” Ashey mumbled, turning to her canvas.
“Go out with me,” he said. “One date, and I’ll leave you alone forever. That is, if you can resist me after. I’ll give you a better time than that prince ever could.”
Creep.
“No, thank you,” said Ashey. “Just leave me alone.”
“Sure,” said Mark-Gray, turning to his own work. The last thing he said wasn’t meant for Ashey to hear. “You’ve been with four guys in less than a year, but I guess five is too much for you.”
Getting her cosmics aligned would get her through shit like this so easily. She envied Illah.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Alright, everyone, here’s what we’re doing for today,” said Ms Caitlyn. “I want you to paint a picture of your family as anything but people. I want to see you give them expression, capture their personality, put emotion into them. I’ll be coming round to see what you’re up to. Get creative, think outside the box, and most important of all, have some fun.”
Ashey knew exactly what she wanted to do. She would draw her family as cats. They were the best animals in the world. It was a shame that not many of them were around. Neva said they were everywhere in Yuna. All Henrikia had were border patrol dogs, guard dogs, lab dogs, and that weird cyber dog with a machine gun strapped to its back that had become a thing during her mum’s war. There were a few nice ones, like the ones some people had at the park.
Enough about dogs.
“Kasi, that’s so adorable,” Ms Kaitlyn said when she reached Ashey. In her painting, a basket sat by a window that looked out to the city street below. One black cat slept on the sill, looking outside, while an orange one sat by the basket with an intense gaze. The amber mother cat slept in the basket, while three little golden kittens curled up beside her.
Kaitlyn was actually a distant cousin of Ashey. They did not know each other well, but she was probably part of the reason Helen had allowed Ashey to attend this school in the first place. The only similarity they shared was their sharp nose. Kaitlyn was plump and not very tall, with a rounded chin and really curly brown hair.
“Ms Kaitlyn, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“I mean, I’m sure the cats and kittens feel very safe right now, but what if the old man of the house comes home, bags the kittens, and throws them down the Hessen? What can the mother cat do to stop that?”
Kaitlyn bent down, placing a hand on Ashey’s back. “Are you okay, honey?” she said. “We can talk after school if you want.”
Ashey shook her head. “It’s okay.”
Kaitlyn rested her hand on Ashey’s warm head, pressing her lips together as she waited for her to reconsider. Ashey couldn’t. Noreen, who had been drawing a family of stones on some kind of staircase, remained tense throughout. She deserved to know what she was getting herself into by helping Ashey. When the time was right, Ashey might let Noreen know.
A couple of hands rubbed her shoulders, making her jump.
“One, two, three, four, five, six,” counted Mark-Gray, clinging onto her shoulders. “This picture isn’t complete. Really scummy that you left out Neva’s dad and put yourself into your aunt’s family, Ashey.”
She hadn’t left out Marcel for any bad reason. She had simply drawn the women in her family—not that she owed him any explanation.
“Here, take a look at mine.” Mark-Gray held up his canvas. It depicted a family of yellow birds on a statue. “See, this is the papa bird, and this is the mama bird. Where’s your mum and dad, Ashey?”
Ashey picked up her canvas and headed to Ms Caitlyn’s table. It was time to go home anyway.
“You’re the way you are because you don’t have a father!” shouted Mark-Gray. His voice drew everyone’s attention. A few boys laughed to ease the tension; many ignored it. Ms Caitlyn rose to her feet, asking who had spoken.
Mark-Gray slid back to his seat, muttering the quiet part he thought she couldn’t hear. “You’re never going to find your dad in those boys. You need a man like me to plug a hole as big as yours.”
Ashey stopped, sighed, gripped her canvas, and turned. She marched to Mark-Gray’s seat, kicked her painting away, and smacked him across the face with the canvas. Surprise, confusion, and shock spread across his features. His lower and upper lips tripped over each other as he raised a hand to block her. She smacked it away and smashed the canvas into his face. It broke in half, splattering colours over his bruising skin. Ashey grabbed a broken fragment and shattered it further across his nose.
After school, she scrubbed toilets in the girls’ bathroom—a punishment she knew well. The many fights in her short school life had given her more cleaning experience than she could dream of.
Don Roy was singing at the top of his voice while scrubbing toilets on the boys’ side of the washroom. She had come to meet him but had yet to ask what he had done to deserve the punishment. Not that he could hear her anyway, since he hadn’t stopped singing despite her yelling.
“Ashey, don’t yell so much.” Noreen stood at the entrance, gripping the straps of her school bag and glancing for signs of a prefect.
“What are you doing here?” asked Ashey, pulling down her nose mask. “I thought you said I shouldn’t talk to you until I read the list.”
Noreen winced, mumbling an apology. “I came to tell you,” she started, “why I want you to get into the Galeon so badly.”
“Yeah, so?”
Almost immediately, Noreen reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She approached Ashey’s stall and showed her the screen. It was a picture of Noreen and her family, ropes tied around their waists on some kind of rock-climbing trip.
“This was last year on my parents’ anniversary,” she said. “They had so much fun out there.”
“Noreen, please get to the point. I have eleven more stalls to get through before sundown.”
“I didn’t want to go on that trip,” she said. “Ilah was having a sleepover, and all of you guys were going. I told my dad, but he said girls get drugged at sleepovers all the time. He didn’t know Illah’s parents well enough to trust them.”
“Wow, that’s dark.”
“I love my parents, I really do, but they’re scared of everything. They take me and my brothers everywhere and supervise everything we do. I can’t even dream of going somewhere as far away as the Galeon, but you can.”
Ashey laughed. “Trust me, no one in my family wants me gone. I’m going anyway.”
“That’s it—that’s exactly what I meant. You don’t care what anyone says. If you want something, you do it. Hell, if I were the one supposed to marry Schevara, I don’t think I could’ve ever said ‘no.’”
“So, you’ll take it as it is?”
Noreen nodded. “It might sound crazy, but helping you run away was the best feeling I’ve ever had. It makes me feel like a rebel in my own small way.”
“It’s not just fun and games, Noreen,” said Ashey. “I get in a lot of trouble because I do what I want.” She gestured to her kingdom of toilets. “I appreciate you trying to help, but I think you should stop.”
“No.” Noreen shook her head vigorously. “You did what we’ve all been too scared to do to Mark-Gray.” She moved Ashey aside and took her scrubbing brush. “I’ll clean a hundred toilets for you just so you do it again.”
Ashey was too dumbfounded to speak.
“You’re the coolest person I know, Ashey,” Noreen said. “Please don’t change.”
Don Roy screeched, reaching the climax of one of his obnoxious songs again. The girls seethed, waiting for the torture to end before speaking. With her chores taken over by Noreen, Ashey took the paper out of her pocket.
“Isn’t it kind of pointless to get all this done without passing the interview first?” Ashey asked, glancing through the list. “Lady Sefaney would be in Henrikia in less than two weeks. What if I get all the paperwork done and she rejects me anyway?”
“The application takes time,” said Noreen, carrying the cleaning bucket and already moving to the next stall. “We can’t start until after the interview. Besides, getting your paperwork done early shows commitment. I’m sure Lady Sefaney would appreciate the effort.”
Noreen was right again. Ashey sat on the floor and read through the list:
- Letter of motivation (1,400 words)
- Research proposal in any ascension-related study (700 words)
- Junior High Academic Transcript
- Sponsor’s Financial Statement
- Valid Passport
- Arden Student Permit
- Black Syrup Medication Receipt
- Signed Sansel Pledge
- Boarding Tickets
“Please tell me this isn’t real.” She was slowly starting to resent Verimae for letting her do this.
“Give me that.” A hand snatched the list from her. Don Roy stood above her, gripping the paper to his nose as he read through it. He had always had trouble reading, even though his eyes were fine. He made up excuses that the letters jumbled in front of him.
“Nory, it’s all legit?” he asked. “Everything here?”
Noreen nodded. Don Roy whistled. He tucked his toilet brush under his armpit and took out his phone.
“This is the site, right?” he asked again, showing the Galeon homepage.
“What do you think you’re doing?” asked Ashey. She tiptoed to see his phone screen, but he kept raising it higher.
“And done.” He peeled the digital paper from his phone and reached into Noreen’s schoolbag for a pen.
“No way,” said Ashey. “You’re not coming to the Galeon with me.”
“Not your school, not your call.”
Ashey blended a growl and a groan and thumped him. “Don Roy signed against his name and then against his mother’s name as well—with a fake signature.”
“You can’t do that,” said Ashey. “You’re going to get banned.”
He grinned, backing out of the girls’ bathroom with the form. When he was long gone, Ashey tapped her pockets, realising what had just happened.
“He stole the list.”
“I’ll prepare another one for you,” said Noreen.
“I can’t believe he was eavesdropping all this time,” said Noreen. “And he just walked into the girls’ bathroom like it was nothing.”
They both shivered at the thought of being in the boys’ bathroom. Ashey took over from Noreen, appreciating the gesture but hating it at the same time. She was about halfway done when Don Roy barged in again.
“Nory, come take a look at this for me, will you?” he said.
Ashey craned her neck from behind the stall, frowning. Don Roy had a folder with him. He pulled out some files, which Noreen inspected.
“That’s my old girls’ bank statement, and that’s my transcript,” he said.
“Don Roy, when have you ever scored ninety-five in anything?” asked Noreen. “Where did you get this from?”
“Friends in high places,” he said with a grin. “Will it work?”
“No way,” said Noreen.
“We can still try, though?”
“Suit yourself, but my hands are clean.”
Don Roy compiled the papers and pushed them into the phone. Noreen watched the screen closely with him, and it dinged. Her face lit up. “Wow,” she mumbled.
“It worked?” said Ashey, teleporting to their side. “That’s insane. You can totally help me—”
“No, absolutely not,” said Noreen, her tone rising. “We are not cheating. Don Roy’s going to get caught immediately, and he’ll be wishing he listened to me.”
“Whatever,” said Don Roy, chuckling as he read through the list. “Boarding tickets—that’s going to be a problem.”
“How?” Noreen and Ashey asked simultaneously.
“Ships don’t sail directly from Henrikia to Solvaria anymore,” he explained.
“Because of Sovi?” asked Ashey. She knew the eastern ports were shut down because of that.
“No, long before Sovi. The only way is to transit at Yuna.”
Ashey wasn’t any good at geography, but she was sure Yuna and Solvaria weren’t close at all. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
“We’ve got this huge Ring in Yuna. Lots of big ships make their way through it to go around the world. You didn’t actually think Valentina would sail all the way across the Moratte Sea? That’s suicide.”
She didn’t care much for the details. “Why would getting a ticket be expensive?” Noreen asked before she could.
“Oh, you know, lots of people are leaving for Yuna; lots of demand; prices go up—you get it,” he said. “I would’ve stayed in Yuna myself, but I think it’s overrated.”
Watching Don Roy cross off things on the list with a snort and a shrug put a smile on Ashey’s face. If someone like Don Roy thought he had a chance of getting into the Galeon, then she was definitely getting in.
“If anyone can get tickets, I’m sure it’s you,” said Ashey.
Both Noreen and Don Roy were stunned into silence by the sudden daylight in her voice. She saw her reflection behind them, teeth showing in a bright smile. It infected them, and they smiled back.
“On it,” Don Roy said with a wink and a salute. “I can get you a transcript if you’re interested. Just give me your name and—”
“I’ll get it from the school office,” said Ashey, smiling at Noreen.
She was done with cheating. It was either she did it properly or not at all. Ashey went back to scrubbing toilets, making a mental map of what needed to be done. Marcel could help with the financial statement and the Sansel pledge. Getting black syrup was easy enough. She wasn’t sure if she still had a passport after her house was destroyed, though. Grandma was far too busy these days; otherwise, she would have helped Ashey after a single phone call. First things first—she’d tackle the letter of motivation and the research proposal.
“What are you doing in the girls’ bathroom?” a piercing voice confronted Don Roy at the entrance.
“Why is a boy following you into the girls’ bathroom?” Don Roy asked back.
Ashey recognised that voice. Neva. Ashey peered out of her stall for a second, then ducked back, cursing. Those leafy green boots—they belonged to the fairies that followed the prince around. What the hell was Neva thinking?
“Ashey,” Neva called. “I know you’re in here.”
“You idiot,” hissed Ashey.
“Schevara wants to see you. He’s got something important to say.”
“May I come in?” the prince asked.
“Sure,” said Don Roy. “Just keep walking to stall number fourteen.”
Schevara’s green leather boots were quite the sight. She could almost see the face of the crocodile they’d skinned to make them. His earrings sparkled like emeralds, matching his polished nails. His hair was tied in a ponytail, revealing the full length of his soft chin. Had it not been for the detergent on her hands, she might have been tempted to touch his face and tug at his buttery cheeks. He was such a doll, and she would have loved to remain friends with him. Too bad Mariel had ruined it with the marriage business.
“Dear Ashamel, I would like to borrow some time from your busy schedule to persuade you once again to marry me,” he said. “Instead of cleaning public lavatories, you could be eating cakes on the backs of elephants. We could be paragliding down the rich valleys of Margon. I implore you to reconsider your decision. Marry me.” Ashey had finally found someone dumber than her.
She went home and started work on her essay. It was quite a hassle with all the shouting going on. Mariel had learned about her fight at school and was yelling at Helen to stop defending Ashey all the time. It turned out she wasn’t the only one in the family to get into trouble that day. Tori had also been involved—apparently, he had failed to respect territory on the children’s playground and had broken a boy’s nose for trespassing.
After getting three lines down, she took a picture of herself and sent it to Noreen. Is this what you do all day? This is painful. Noreen had missed the school bus and had only just gotten home, three hours late. She texted back that her dad was lecturing her about muggers and thieves who could have nabbed her on the road.
By one in the morning, Ashey was done with her letter of motivation. For obvious reasons, she could not state that she was coming to the Galeon to escape her mother’s enemies. She wrote down the other reason she had discovered recently: she wanted to get to the Galeon because she had people who believed in her. She had to prove to them that dedication could take you places you could only dream of. It was trite, but it was the best she could come up with.
Finding it hard to sleep, she turned to her computer to work on her research proposal. Ashey wrote a total of zero words before giving up and falling asleep.
On the night before school resumed, she returned to her seat with a stack of suggestions and zero lines of content. Through the reflection of her blank laptop screen, Jenne paced in her room, firing up new ideas that made his eyes sparkle. She rested her right cheek on the desk and stared at the wall. Jenne grew very quiet, and then she tasted salt on her lips.
Her phone dinged. Ashey jolted upright and wiped the tears from her face.
Forget about the ticket prices. All the markets have closed.
They had two options remaining. She could join Schevara on Valentina as his wife, or book three to four months in advance on any other ship just for a chance to travel to Yuna. Could she wait that long?
She asked Don Roy to see if his friends in high places could find them a ticket. She felt silly for having wasted so much time avoiding Noreen.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “But if it comes out bad, we might have to postpone our Galeon trip to next year.”
“Find some,” she demanded.
Ashey had a secret third option for getting to Solvaria. She picked up her phone and tried her luck, phoning Hamis. Where was he when she needed him?