Chapter 53: Ally The Rogue

Aina

Aina stopped mid-kick, her shoe hovering an inch off the tore-up lawn as she stared at the girl standing by the bleachers. She blinked behind her sleek titanium lenses, trying to make sense of the wild-looking figure before her.

"So... who are you, and why are you talking to me?" Aina asked, lowering her foot back to the dirt and crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

Ally shrugged, her oversized denim jacket slipping slightly off one shoulder to reveal smudges of dark grease along her uniform shirt. "Well, because I saw you violently kicking the grass. I’m just interested in knowing why."

Aina let out a long, dramatic sigh, adjusting her glasses with the tip of her finger. Okay, that’s weird, she thought, her lips twitching in irritation. Who just walks up to a guy aggressively stomping on innocent turf?

"Because I’m having a bad day," Aina muttered out loud, letting her hands drop heavy into her trouser pockets.

Ally offered a small, crooked smirk, her dark eyes glittering with a bizarre, tired sort of humor. "Well... I’m always having a bad day."

Aina lifted her brows, staring at her in complete disbelief. Oh my gosh, who even is this girl?!

"I’m sorry, but I’m a bit confused," Aina said out loud, tilting her head as she took a cautious step closer. "Who are you?"

"I’m Ally," the girl repeated plainly, opening her big, dark eyes wide as if that singular word explained her entire lineage and soul.

Aina sighed, shaking her head. "Yeah, we already established that. But like... who are you? Are you a student at the academy? A first-year, third-year, fourth-year?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no," Ally laughed softly, waving a hand casually in the air. "I am a second-year, and I am a student."

"Oh," Aina said, softening her stance just a bit as she took in the girl’s chaotic aura. "That’s nice. You just... don’t seem as prim and proper as all the other students here." She paused, catching herself before it sounded like an insult, and quickly added, "I mean that in the absolute nicest way possible, of course."

Ally threw her head back and let out a light, genuine laugh that echoed off the empty bleachers. "No, I’m not offended! You can relax. I am definitely not as proper as the other students here. I’m a scholarship student."

Aina’s eyes lit up with instant relief behind her lenses. "Oh my gosh! I’m also a scholarship student!"

Ally paused, setting her boots onto the grass as she hopped down from the bleacher steps. She pushed her messy ponytail back, eyeing Aina up and down with genuine curiosity. "You’re a scholarship student because you’re poor?"

"Oh no," Aina blurted out, puffing out her chest to play up her boyish identity. "I’m a scholarship student because I’m smart."

Well... Travis is smart, Aina corrected herself bitterly in her head, rolling her eyes behind her glasses. I, on the other hand, just scored a literal zero on a surprise math test. Smart my ass. I’m as dumb as they can possibly get.

"Oh, that’s nice," Ally said softly. She walked past Aina, taking slow, aimless strides across the wide green field. "I’m a scholarship student because I’m poor... and a rogue."

Aina froze dead in her tracks. "Oh wow, that’s nice—"

The words lodged straight in her throat as her brain finally caught up to what the girl had just said. Aina’s eyes widened to the size of the moon.

"You’re a rogue?!" Aina gasped out, quickly turning on her heel and jogging a few steps forward to catch up with Ally’s lazy pace. Ally didn’t even flinch. "Yeah. I’m a rogue."

"I have never actually met a rogue before!" Aina confessed, her voice rising in genuine wonder as she walked beside her. "You... well, you totally don’t fit the description of what people say a rogue is!" Ally snorted, a small smile tugging at the edge of her dirt-smudged lips. "Yeah. So I’ve been told."

"Where are you from?" Aina asked, her curiosity completely overriding her boyish disguise for a second. "And how on earth did you become a rogue?"

In her head, a familiar, quiet ache stirred in Aina’s chest. I always wanted to become a rogue, she thought wistfully, remembering the suffocating weight of her pack. I always felt like being out on your own was so much better than being trapped with a pack that utterly despises you. "Well, my parents were rogues, so I’m a rogue," Ally explained simply, looking out toward the distant tree line. "And I’m originally from the Western regions."

"Oh, that’s cool," Aina nodded, her mind buzzing with a million questions. "But how did your parents become rogues? And how did you even enter this academy? I thought Moonside Academy didn’t allow rogues on campus!"

"Well... the academy is starting this whole new program," Ally sighed, shoving her hands deep into the pockets of her denim jacket. "They’re bringing in rogue students—I’m actually the very first one—to see if they can assimilate us back into proper society. They figure if they educate us, the overall number of rogues out in the wild will decrease, since our population keeps increasing every year. So... lucky me."

Aina frowned, noticing the deep, exhausted shadow lying behind Ally’s dark eyes. "Wow. You don’t seem like... I mean, you seem so mad that you have to attend this academy." Ally let out a harsh, humorless laugh. "Well, at first I was really happy about it. But then... literally every single day has been a bad day for me since I stepped foot into this academy."

Aina gasped softly, clutching her chest. "Oh my gosh... me too!" The two girls stopped, looking at each other for a long, quiet second before speaking in absolute unison.

"Twinnies."

"These rich brats—" Ally started with a bitter scowl. "—are so ridiculously annoying!" Aina finished her sentence passionately, throwing her hands up into the air.

"I know, right?!" Ally groaned, kicking a pebble across the dirt. "They just continue to make me suffer every single day purely because I’m a rogue. You think I choose to look like this?" She gestured down at her torn, dusty uniform jacket and messy hair. "Everything about me looks so messy! I wanted to be prim and proper like everybody else when I got here! But no... those rich brats literally forced me to look like this."

Aina’s heart cracked for her. "I’m also going through the most with the princes!" Ally stopped abruptly in her tracks, spinning around to stare at Aina with wide, stunned eyes. "Wait... you’re Travis Whitelock?"