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Clementine let out a long yawn as he followed Elliot out of magick studies. Out of all the classes he was taking, it was probably the one he hated the most. Magick circles and the study of ethos didn't interest him. He wasn't a witch or a wizard. He already knew everything he needed to know and staying awake in that room was probably the hardest thing he'd had to do since arriving—other than surviving his three near-death encounters.

          He followed Elliot down the hall and towards Mavis' art class. He wasn't looking forward to hearing her squeaky, enthusiastic voice, nor did he want to listen to her rhyme every time she spoke. Why did she even do that? Was it a fae thing? Did she just do it because she thought it made her sound quirky?

          "Elliot!" came her cheery voice.

          Rolling his eyes, Clementine sighed deeply and tried his best to keep a vacant stare.

          "Hey Mavis," Elliot called as she hurried over to them.

          "Hi Clementiney!" she greeted, taking hold of his hand, which she then shook furiously.

          He grinned awkwardly. "Yeah...hi again."

          "We're going to go and meet Mathew, just like we planned," Elliot said, already leading the way back down the hall. "We can get out through the lounge up ahead."

          As they walked, Clementine kept checking every corner. He didn't know when Ian was going to strike, and he couldn't afford to be careless. And every time he saw something shift in the corner of his eye, he frantically turned to see who or what it was.

          "Have you done much swimming?" Elliot asked him.

          He glanced over at him. "What?"

          "Swimming—did you do much before?"

          "Here and there," he mumbled. He wasn't about to tell him he and Anette swum in the murky swamps in search of the only meat they could get out in Itamore. "When are you going to send your letter to Carmichael?" he asked, changing the subject—he didn't want to let Elliot ask him about where he'd come from again.

          Elliot shrugged as they walked through the lounge. "I'm going to do it tomorrow morning before we head to Professor Quincy's office."

          "Why do you have to go there on the weekend? Did you two do something I wouldn't recommend?" Mavis asked curiously.

          "We were talking in class," Elliot mumbled.

          "And Quincy gave us detention."

          Mavis giggled.

          "I honestly think it's super unfair, but whatever," Elliot complained, pushing the door open.

          As they made their way across the grass, Clementine looked around again. He could feel the forest to his left seething. The creature inside was watching—he just knew it. The wind whistled, the trees shivered, and the academy creaked and croaked. The silence out here was more haunting than that inside...so much that he grew tenser by the second. Or maybe it was the fact he had just heard a door open.

          He looked over his shoulder, and the moment he set his sights on Ian, his eyes widened, his heart skipped a beat, and utter horror filled him.

          "Shit," he breathed.

          "What?" Elliot asked, looking over at him.

          Ian's muffled voice could be heard through the wind, "Get him!"

          "Run!" Clementine panicked. He gripped Elliot's arm and bolted for the conservatory up ahead—they needed to get inside.

          "Why are we running!?" Elliot exclaimed, but when he looked over his shoulder and saw Ian and three of his goons giving chase, he whimpered and picked up his pace.

          Mavis started panicking, too, panting furiously as they fled.

          "Get back here!" one of Ian's goons yelled.

          "Why is Ian chasing us?!" Elliot cried.

          He wasn't going to tell him. "I don't know!"

          They ran and ran, getting closer to the conservatory, but the yells of Ian's group were closing in.

          However, just moments later, the glass doors to the conservatory opened, and Mathew, the tall, lanky kid they'd befriended earlier stepped outside. Clementine didn't think twice—as he reached him, he darted behind Mathew, as did Mavis and Elliot. And Mathew...he just stood there. He glowered down at Ian and his three friends as they slowed down, stopping thirty or so yards away. Ian adorned the same look he had when Sebastien had interrupted—he was wary. Clearly, Mathew was the perfect defence.

          "Who the hell are you?!" Ian called.

          Mathew crossed his arms and scowled. He didn't speak a word.

          "What do they want?!" Elliot squealed, gripping Mathew's shirt.

          "Go away!" Mavis screamed.

          Ian took a step forward—

          Mathew puffed up like a cat, letting his arms fall at his sides as he clenched his fists.

          With cautious frowns, Ian and his goons took a few steps back.

          Grunting, Mathew then cracked his knuckles, eying each of the boys in front of them.

          Clementine couldn't help but smirk. This was perfect. With Mathew at his side, Ian wasn't going to come close.

          Ian scoffed, backing off. "Come on," he grumbled. "We don't have time for this."

          As they turned around and stormed off, Clementine relaxed.

          "What the heck did they want?" Elliot uttered, looking over at him. "That was Ian Carter!"

          "Beats me," he lied. "Probably just looking to pick us off."

          Mavis shook her head. "We're lucky we all grouped up, or we might have just been cut!"

          "If Ian's targeting us, then...then...this is bad!" Elliot panicked.

          "We'll be fine," Clementine said with a sigh. "We've got Mathew and Mavis now. Stop worrying."

          Mathew nodded. "We will stick together."

          Elliot sighed, shaking his head as they all watched Ian and his goons head back into the academy. "I wish Carmichael was still here—and Stanley and Bernard. Then, there'd be seven of us."

          "You knew...the boys that were expelled?" Mathew asked curiously as he turned around and led them into the conservatory.

          "We were a group, but...well, you saw what happened."

          Mavis sighed sadly. "They got caught—never get caught," she said, wagging her finger from side to side.

          "That courtroom was intense," Elliot muttered.

          Clementine frowned—that reminded him. "Did you guys know about the jury?" he asked. "I've never seen any of those kids before. I heard a girl say they're the law students, but there wasn't anything about that explained on induction day."

          Elliot shook his head. "I don't know—it was all news to me, too."

          Mathew nodded as they headed down a hallway lined with glass windows peering out into the flower gardens. "I applied for the law classes first," he said slowly. "But my credentials were not good enough. You have to come from a line of judges and lawyers to get into that part of Aldergrove."

          "So...that's why we haven't seen any of them around the school? Do they have their own segregated part of the building?"

          "They do," Mathew said with a nod. "There are only twelve of them, though. They will rotate every hearing. The jury we saw today, we will not see next time, but the time after that."

          Mavis hummed in ponder. "Do they have to fight to the death, or do they not have to hold their breath?"

          With something of an ominous stare on his pale face, Mathew shook his head. "They have already done that."

          "What?" Elliot asked, confused.

          Pushing open the door at the end of the hallway, Mathew exhaled quietly. "That side of the academy is far more dangerous—those students have already taken out the competition. I think...maybe that is why they didn't want me over there. I could have ended up in the last twelve, and they probably didn't want to risk that with my credentials."

          They emerged into a large dome space, and in the centre was a large rectangular pool. Some students were already swimming, and the instructor was sitting over in the corner with a magazine in her hands.

          Clementine's frown thickened. Is that why he hadn't seen Sebastien in a week? Had he been busy killing off his competition? Was that why Ian had been cautious of him?

          "Maybe we should try to get one of them to join us, then we wouldn't have to fuss!" Mavis suggested.

          "They don't sound like the kind of people that would want to hang around with us," Elliot mumbled as Mathew led them towards the changing rooms. "We're just the other students."

          Mathew shook his head. "The law students are not allowed to help us in any way, and if they were allowed to, they probably wouldn't."

          "Why not?" Clementine asked.

          "They are not the same as us," Mathew said with a shrug, stopping outside the changing room doors. "Mavis will change in there, and us, in here," he said, pushing open to the door to his left. "We can all meet out here in five minutes."

          Mavis nodded and headed into the girls' changing room.

          "Why did you want to do law?" Elliot asked Mathew as they headed into the other changing room behind him.

          "I studied every day and night—I wanted to break the cycle. All of my family are henchmen, bodyguards. I didn't want that. I wanted to be more, and despite my efforts, Aldergrove didn't want me. So I guess I will just train to be like my family."

          "You shouldn't let that stop you," Clementine said as they reached the lockers.

          Mathew looked down at him and frowned.

          "They can't stop you from studying the subject more. Just...do it in private. If you make it to the New World, you can be whatever you want, right?"

          Elliot smiled. "Yeah!"

          As his crooked smile flickered across his face, Mathew pulled open his locker. "You give good advice, Clementine."

          He shrugged and watched as Mathew pulled a pair of shorts from his locker—

          "We don't even have a swimming kit!" Elliot exclaimed, taking the words right out of Clementine's mouth.

          Mathew smiled, pulling two extra pairs of blue swimming trunks out of his locker. "I have spare. You can borrow them."

          Taking the shorts, Clementine nodded. "Thanks." Then, he headed over to one of the cubicles and shut himself inside.

          What was he going to do now? He wanted to go and get the school roster, but there was a chance Ian might be waiting around for him. However, he couldn't keep letting things get in the way. He needed that roster. He also needed to find somewhere to get death caps, having already decided that was how he was going to take Ian out. He'd seen a small garden outside the hallway windows—perhaps he'd find what he was looking for out there.

          How was he going to slip away from Elliot and their new allies, though? Mathew might be sluggish, but he didn't seem like the type to miss anything. Surely Elliot was also becoming suspicious of his disappearances lately, and Mavis...well, he didn't know enough about her yet to assume anything. Should he just go tonight when everyone was asleep?

          He sighed quietly and pulled off his blazer. That might be the best option. It would be dark and there'd be no risk of the professors catching him in their lounge, either. He unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it off and chucked it over his blazer. Then, with a frustrated huff, he brushed his fingertips over the raised scar cutting across the right side of his waist. If it weren't for the bruises from Ian's beating smothering his body, he was sure the mark would stick out like a sore thumb. He couldn't go out there looking like a black and blue cow. Not only would it raise questions, he didn't want to attention—especially not from Elliot. He'd never hear the end of it.

          With a shake of his head, he pulled his shirt back on, buttoned it up, and snatched his blazer. He left the cubicle, but Elliot and Mathew seemed to still be within theirs.

          "Elliot," he called.

          "Yeah?" came Elliot's voice from across the changing room.

          "I'm just...gonna sit and watch this time," he said. "I'm pretty tired from all the running."

          "Oh...uh...okay," he called. "Well...I can sit out too—"

          "No, it's fine. I'll meet you guys out there."

          "Okay, well...if Mavis gets done before us, tell her we won't be long."

          Clementine nodded. "All right." Then, he headed over to the door. He wasn't sure how long this swim class was going to last, but he felt it was better to hang around here than go back to his dorm alone. The last thing he was going to do was risk running into Ian.

          As he stepped outside, he leaned back against the wall, stared out at the pool as people swam around, and waited for Elliot, Mathew, and Mavis to join him.

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♠ Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! ♠

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♥ How do you feel about the characters? ♥

⤠ What do you think will happen next? Will Clementine's hunt for the roster be successful? ⤟

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