"Would you like an entire cow to go with that?" A snobby voice questioned from above me.

"I would, actually," I replied, wiping my face delicately with the napkin laid across my lap and looking up at Theo's piercing glare. "I like my meat medium rare. Thanks." I turned back to my burger, picking it up and stuffing a huge bite into my mouth. His death glare pierced through me, but I just allowed it to phase by.

I finished my burger a few minutes later and when I looked up, Theo was still staring daggers at me. "Can I help you?"

"Where does all the food go?" he asked. He gave me a once-over.

"You know, you shouldn't ask a lady that." I dabbed my napkin at the sides of my lips and rose to my feet.

"Good thing you're not a lady."

I laid down on the line of cushioned chairs behind me and placed my hands on my stuffed stomach. "Rude," I stated.

He pushed me off with his foot and I fell to the ground with a thump. I kicked the chairs away and stormed out from under the table. "Double rude."

He turned and walked off. I was going to yell something after him, but just then the lunch rush began and people started swarming in like wasps. I quickly scooted back under the table and used it as a path to make it to the door without getting trampled.

When I made it back to the dorms, I noticed the door was fixed. Luckily, my id let me back in and I headed straight to my dorm. I let myself in and immediately noticed Wren's empty bed. I looked over and saw her writing vigorously on her desk.

"That was a quick nap," I said, closing the door behind me and walking over to her.

"It was a power nap," Wren explained. She didn't look up from her work. "They are a way for you to rest without allowing you to fall into the whole sleep cycle and wake up drowsy. They are perfect for gaining lost energy. Like perhaps from waking up at three in the morning to finish plans for a mission to make a point to a bunch of adults who do not care."

"That's pretty smart," I said. "Maybe I'll take one too."

"If you can sleep with the light on."

"I can just wear an eye mask or something."

Wren swirled around in her wheelie chair to face me. "I got confirmation that they are increasing security. To prevent a rise of panic, they have decided to not tell anyone."

"Pfft. Like that's going to work."

"They enjoy making their attempts," she replied, pushing off the floor and lining herself back up with her desk.

I yawned and walked over to my bed, flopping backward and staring up at the ceiling. "I can't believe my dad's fallen for their charade. I can't believe anyone fell for it. Let alone the entire city."

"You do not know that."

"You're right. They're probably just a bunch of cowards." I threw myself onto my side and sighed. "At least there's one smart person on my team."

Wren cocked her head. "Who?"

"You, of course. You're number one in your class. Theo's been trying to catch up to you for years."

"All I do is choose to accept the knowledge instead of denying it. It is simple enough for anyone."

"Yeah...so simple..."

There was too much on my mind for sleep. I swung my leg up and then brought it down on a hidden button on the smooth wood making up my bed, activating a drawer and sliding it open. I got up to fetch the folded paper inside and laid it down on the comforter in front of me. "So what should we do next?" I asked Wren, finally looking over to her on her desk.

"Study. A big test is coming up and I want to do better than last year."

"But last year you had the highest score."

"Only for that year. A few years back, a sixteen-year-old named Alistair Anderson was one point away from a perfect score. He is truly a genius."

"One point? That sounds painful."

"Legend has it that he was so depressed he missed that one point that he left Prodigious Prep and went to work at a gas station."

My head snapped to the now open door. My eyes locked on Theo, leaning against the door with a barely noticeable grin tugging at the sides of his lips.

I rolled my eyes. "If he almost got a perfect score, then he's obviously smart enough to not give up everything he's worked so hard for."

"He was a sensitive guy," Theo replied with a shrug as he stepped into our room.

Theo's eyes trailed to Wren, who was still scratching away at her paper. "Wren. Always a pleasure," he said dryly, his stormy eyes saying something very different from his words.

She simply nodded in return.

Theo remained still, only his eye twitched. "She always acts as if she's better than everyone else," he gritted out, barely moving his lips.

I turned to Wren. She finally lifted her head up and tilted it to the side. "It is not an act," she said before going back to her writing.

"How did you get in here anyway?" I questioned Theo.

"Through the door," he deadpanned. He was still staring at Wren with irritation burning in his eyes.

"He's the school president so he has access to everywhere. Including everyone's dorm rooms," Wren said.

I didn't realize my mouth had fallen open until I heard a fly buzzing by my ear. I swatted it away and turned to look at Theo. "Is that true?" I asked in horror.

"As true as how smart I am."

"And just when I thought this place couldn't get any creepier," I mumbled. "Now get out and never come back before I kick you so hard everyone will be able to hear your girl scream."

"You're not the only one who can throw a few punches, Tempest," he said, his eyes finally leaving Wren to focus on me.

"Where were those punches when you were thrown by a girl? Out of vacation?"

"I would never hit a girl."

"Well luckily I don't have the same moral with boys," I replied. I was across the room in a second, my arm extended to my side and aimed at Theo's neck.

Right before contact though, he grabbed my arm and twisted me around, pinning my hands behind my back. "I don't mind doing this though," he said into my ear.

I ignored his warm breath sending unfamiliar chills down my neck and used my shoulders to push him back against the wall. Then I stomped on his foot and used his painful distraction as an opening to slip my wrists away from his hold and flip the tables. I used his forward force to bring him to the ground and knock his nose against the hard floor. I stared at the back of his head and used a hand to ruffle up his perfectly styled hair.

"I'll be right back, Wren! Just got to take out the trash."

"Okay," she replied.

I rose to my feet and grabbed Theo's arm, dragging him to the door and pulling him outside into the hall. A moving trashcan was passing by so I hauled him onto it. I brushed my hands against each other and then set them on my hips. "That should do."

I turned back to walk to the dorm when suddenly something wrapped around my neck. I let out a small yelp as an elbow dragged me back. On instinct, I grabbed the arm keeping me captive and held it away from my neck so I wouldn't choke. In a swift motion, I grabbed my attacker's wrist and swung it around my head, using my other arm to force the figure to the floor. As expected, it was Theo. I was about to open my mouth to speak when he suddenly used his legs to push me over his head. I went flying and landed into a wall, all air escaping me and pain flooding in to replace it. I looked up and saw Theo using the force from his kick to flip himself onto his feet.

"I told you I could fight," he said, settling his hands in his pockets and walking over to me. "And boys are usually better fighters than girls."

His eyes laughed at my attempt to get up and face him. My arms struggled to support pushing me up on my feet; they felt sore where they had hit the wall. "You're such a jerk," I whispered.

"It's not like I'm the one who started it," he replied with a cold glare. Then he turned and walked down the hall toward the exit.

The adrenaline that had been overflowing from every part of my body was gone now, whisked away by the feeling of defeat. It settled uncomfortably in my stomach and weighed me down. I couldn't get up even if I wanted to.

I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep until I felt something poking me through the darkness. I tried to ignore it, but it was persistent.

"Go away, I'm sleeping," I mumbled. That's when I noticed a numb pain throbbing in the back of my head, shoulders, and back. It grew in intensity the more I allowed the poking to lure me out of my sleep.

"What are you doing here?" a soft voice asked. "If you really could not sleep with the lights on, I could have moved into the bathroom. I would not have minded."

I could recognize that formal speech anywhere.

"Wren? What are you doing in my dream?" I turned over and my head smacked into a wall. I rubbed it subconsciously. "I don't even know what this dream is about. What kind of dream—" I yawned. "—is shrouded in darkness like this?"

"The dream of reality," she replied. "The space between being awake and asleep. I know one of the best cures for this."

Suddenly I was soaked in the coldest water I had ever felt. I screamed and jumped to my feet, water dripping down my face and arms. I looked down and saw Wren holding an empty water bottle in one of her small hands.

"It's insulated so the water is as cold as when I put it in," she explained.

I hugged my arms and shivered, forgetting all about the pain from slamming into the wall. I started walking back toward our dorm for a sweater, and Wren followed in tow.

She didn't ask why I was sleeping in the dorm hallway. She didn't even ask about the multiple bruises beginning to appear on the visible parts of my arms. We just walked in silence. When we reached the dorm, I pulled on a jacket and sat on the edge of my bed.

Without the body numbing cold, the pain returned in full and made any position of sitting or laying difficult. I settled for a standing position, although my feet were starting to join the pain club.

"Hey, Wren," I called. She was back to writing on her desk. "Do you have anything for bruising?"

"For bruising, one should apply a cold compress to decrease swelling and mitigate. A warm compress a few days later to aid healing. One should avoid sugar, trans fats, processed foods, and white and wheat products. Applying essential oils will help heal as well."

"I guess I got the cold part down."

"It should be an ice pack wrapped in a thin towel and applied to the bruised area." She looked up at me with calming eyes. "How did you get bruised?"

"It's a long story."

She continued to stare.

"That's code for: 'I'd rather not say'," I explained.

 When she continued to stare, I sighed. "I just got into a fight with Theo the jerk, that's all."

"That sounds rather short to me." She clicked her pen once. "You should refrain from 'butting heads' with everyone. You might make an enemy out of someone you do not wish to fight."

"I can take anyone on," I replied. "Theo just caught me at a pride before fall moment, that's all."

She shook her head. "That is not what I meant." She clicked her pen again and turned back to her paper.

I walked over to our open kitchen area and grabbed a few ice packs from the freezer. "Do you have any tape?" I called over to Wren.

"In the second drawer to the right of the stove," she answered in her normal tone, making it hard to understand her from the other side of the room.

I used the tape to attach the icepacks to all of my bruising so they could begin their magic while I did my homework. It made me kinda look like an Eskimo.

I padded back into the main room, pushing my chair aside with a foot and grabbing a pencil from its spot on the edge of my desk. I stood there, staring at the thick stack of books and paper. I didn't feel inspired by its contents like Wren was. In fact, it kinda made me feel like a sick whale who forgot to swim. Make that a freezing sick whale who forgot to swim.

I grabbed my sweater from where I had thrown it across my bed a few minutes earlier and began carefully pulling it over the ice packs.

"You are going to create insulation for the cold and trap it inside," Wren said without looking up.

"Then how am I supposed to warm up?"

"Put on some socks. Maybe a few layers of socks. That will help."

My feet felt like ice as I pulled sock after sock onto them. Ten socks, eight gloves (cut to avoid the mini ice packs covering the bruises on my fingers), five leg warmers, a carefully placed scarf, and my thickest beanie later and I was ready to bear the icy plains of Antarctica.

Well, not really since I was still cold.

"These moments make me even more relieved that we don't have working cameras in our room," I mumbled, looking down at my ridiculous attire.

I used my restricted movement as an excuse to skip my homework and grabbed a pillow from my bed, taping it to the wall and leaning the back of my head against it. "Wren? Is it possible for humans to sleep standing up?"

"The legs of humans can not lock in place and the human brain produces neurotransmitters that relax your muscles. Therefore, you would fall and break your head open on the stone floor if you slept."

"Great."

She gave me a barely noticeable critical look. "I would not say so."

To prevent myself from falling asleep in my standing position, I set my mind in motion, knowing it would begin racing at the speed of light with only the slightest push.

Our headmaster was going on a faraway vacation to visit her sister. Since she had never actually gone on any of her vacations, she could probably stay there for years. Maybe she would relax so much that she would finally retire.

Wishful thinking.

Technically, the student body wasn't supposed to know about the headmaster's private affairs so far before their date. But I had overheard her talking about it with one of the board members over the phone.

She was going for exactly a week, no longer, no less. She hadn't mentioned exactly why she had decided on this somewhat impromptu decision, but she had mentioned something that had piqued my interest.

"You must understand my reason for departure. It's quite an important matter, one that must be discussed in person, don't you think?" She paused and I held my breath, pressing myself tighter against the wall. "The eagle's wing has decided to finally make an appearance."

I leaned my head slightly around the corner and saw that the headmaster's back was turned away from me. She waited quietly for the board member to say something.

"Project Desdemona will be safe in my office," she replied, unaware of the watchful eyes scouting her movements.

Eagle's wing was my father's newest discovery of the sciences. It was supposedly what would bring the world to greater heights or something like that.

But I was sure that his data and research were locked safely away where the headmaster's grabby hands couldn't reach it.

What I'm more interested in was the Desdemona she had mentioned. It sounded like something that would make a big ruckus if stolen.

That was just my cup of tea.