CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

For the next couple of days, I don’t see Beth.

If the students were wary of me before, now they’re downright hostile.

And it sucks.

Nobody will pair up with me during physical classes, and I’ve started eating alone in the mess. It’s one thing to have grown up alone without friends. That loneliness is an acceptable one. But to be in the midst of my own peers and still be shunned like this, despite my best efforts to be nonchalant about it all, I can’t help but feel small.

It’s easier to eat outside by myself and despite the cold, I feel calmer.

I find a spot under an old tree, near the main building where our classes are held, and I take my lunch there. It’s my third day eating lunch there when a shadow falls over me. I look up, immediately tense, only to see Quill standing there with his own tray, his expression uncomfortable.

“Hi,” he says, awkwardly, his knuckles white as he clenches the tray.

“Why are you here?” I ask, abruptly.

“I saw you weren’t eating at the mess anymore