26 Uncivilized Barbarians.
Nicki slept gently like a newborn baby with no worries about what transpired between her and Nadia yesterday, till a knock on the door without warning woke her. She got off the bed and with sleepy eyes went to get it and was surprised to see Ariana.
In a hurry, her eyes quickly searched for the clock, and discovering it was only a few minutes past six, Nicki came to be bewildered wondering why Ariana came knocking on her door at this early time of the day when the sun hadn't even set yet.
"Ariana…why are you?...." She was left short of words while Ariana found her way into the room.
"I knew you were still going to be asleep by now, that's why I came on time to get you ready" Ariana moved towards the bed to arrange it neatly.
"Ready?, Ready for what?" Nicki slowly shut the door, still confused and trying to find out why Ariana was here and watched her in silence arrange the bed she planned to go back to and continue sleeping.
It was still very dark outside, there wasn't a slight glimpse of the sun yet.
"For breakfast, have you forgotten already I told you everyone would be gathering at the diner hall to eat together today?" Ariana reminded Nicki about what they talked about yesterday, how could she forget so soon?
"Wait, is it now? I thought it would be in the evening, you know, something like dinner?" Nicki's eyes widened, realizing it was even this early in the morning that every student gathering to eat together in the diner hall would be happening.
"It is now, sorry I forgot to tell you it would be happening in the morning. Now chop-chop, I need to get you dressed so we can leave on time, you don't want to be late to avoid punishments as usual" Ariana was done with the bed and grabbed Nicki to quickly go get her prepared.
"Wait Ari, I don't understand, back at my house. I've never been woken up by this time so early in the morning to eat breakfast or even any kind of meal. I only ate whenever I wanted to" Nicki said to Ariana and kind of forgot she wasn't with her parents anymore.
"There's nothing not to understand, Nicki, sorry but you aren't in your house anymore, you aren't staying with your family so get your butt moving now. The clock is ticking, time waits for nobody" Ariana dragged her softly towards the bathroom while she protested in mumbles with annoyance.
In a matter of time, they were done in the bathroom and Ariana helped Nicki get dressed into the right uniform for the meal about to be eaten in the diner hall.
"You know your guides are supposed to be the ones here, helping you out but I kind of enjoy doing this. Going to the diner hall to eat every Saturday without a friend was no fun at all" Ariana correctly arranged the collar of the uniform she was helping Nicki put on and smiled at how perfect it looked on her.
"You are the only one that seems super excited to go eat in this diner hall or whatever place you call it, I never even wanted to go in the first place. Right now, all I just want to do is go back to sleep" Nicki groaned with a frown, making her mind known to Ariana.
"Look, don't get me mistaken, I'm only excited I'll be going to the dining hall with someone today. I'm not that happy another Saturday has come where I have to sit and eat in the presence of people I don't associate with, but it's mandatory, so we don't have a choice" Ariana pointed out with the hope Nicki understands, so they could stop with this conversation and just be on their way to the diner hall right away.
"Fine then, let's just be on our way to this damn hall where we are supposed to eat some kind of stupid meal, I don't even know what it would be about" Nicki rolled her eyes and was the first person to move towards the door. Ariana instantly followed behind and rubbed her shoulders playfully.
"Putting a smile on your face won't do you any harm, Nicki. It's okay to put on a forced one so no one would think your day is already ruined when you are not even there yet" Ariana gave Nicki a little piece of advice and she stopped in her tracks to give her a side-eye.
"Stop playing with me, Ariana"
****
The walk to the hall wasn't a long one as Nicki and Ariana got there within a few seconds, without having to go through the different types of cut shorts that were required for one to go through before they could get to the certain place they wanted in this big and confusing academy.
"Here we go" Ariana pushed the door open and luckily she was fast enough to dodge the incoming food that came flying in her direction.
"Woah, that was so close. What was that?" Nicki asked after she watched the food fly past them in slow motion.
"That was a deathtrap that we happened to escape, come on, let's get in" Ariana shut the door after Nicki found her way into the hall.
"Jeez, what the hell is going on here?" Nicki's jaws dropped at the sight of what looked like a thousand uncivilized barbarians lacking good table manners and eating so loudly like they were in a busy marketplace.
"That is what is happening here, come, let's go find somewhere safe where another food won't come flying past our faces," Ariana took Nicki and guided her to the usual place she stays to eat separately from the others each time every student gathers to dine together.
Nicki sat opposite Ariana, her eyes swiftly went down to the food that was covered on the table. She gently uncovered it and glanced at the food before she moved her attention back to Ariana and asked.
"How do we know this isn't poisoned?"
"You are being silly again, Nicki. It's not poisoned. And even if it was, you are gonna need more than just an ordinary food poison to kill a werewolf. We are not rats" Ariana uncovered the food and smelt it, she let out a pretty smile at its sweet aroma.
The cooks they have here are one of a kind.
"Right, but I will wait for you to eat first before I eat mine, hmm?" Nicki returned Ariana's smile with a prettier one.
"Okay, since you insist" Ariana grabbed the fork next to the plate and started digging into the food, while Nicki watched in awe at how courageously she was eating the food.
Even though she was a werewolf now, the fear of eating something she has no idea how or what it was made of or who even made it scared Nicki. Back when she was still human, she had never for once in her life eaten anything except for what her family prepared for her.
"Are you seriously not going to eat? It's going to get cold soon if you just keep staring at it. " Ariana paused to let Nicki know it was time to eat the food now. "As I said earlier, it's not poisoned. If you are still scared it is, then you should know there are cameras installed in here so we are being watched right now. There has never been any story of food poisoning happening here"
The moment Nicki heard Ariana mention cameras, she instantly diverted her attention to the walls searching for the so-called cameras to know if they were being watched for real or not.
"They are tiny and well hidden, even if you were to use your wolf eyes to search for them. You won't find it"
"Gosh," Nicki muttered under her breath, throwing her hands up in annoyance. There wasn't a single part of this place that wouldn't find a way to irritate her which Ariana found funny. If Nicki was going to find the academy really faulty, Then, she would have to try harder.
"Fine, I give up" Nicki gave up as she grabbed a fork to eat the food. What could go wrong with eating with a group of plenty of strange barbarians? They were lucky they happened to be the ones at the end of the particular long table they were seated in and the chair and even the one next to it was empty. The ones that were to occupy them seem not to be present here yet.
Nicki was about to take the fourth spoonful of the meal when it was forcefully grabbed away from her. Puzzled with what happened, she turned to face the presence of the person she suddenly felt standing next to her.
"Oh hi, Landon. Care to share your meal?"
"Nadia"
