Ruined Armor

Chapter 8

The next afternoon, the weather was very bad. Grey clouds covered the sky, and cold rain tapped hard against the glass windows of the locker room.

I walked into the work-study changing area after my history class. My body was still very sore from the heavy vault shift last night. Every muscle ached, and my chest felt tight. But I needed to change into my spare uniform for my next work rotation.

I stopped right in front of my metal locker.

My stomach dropped.

The locker door was bent completely open. The heavy steel lock was broken, hanging loosely from the latch. Inside, everything was completely destroyed.

My clean, spare work-study uniforms, the simple white shirts and black skirts, were ripped into thin shreds. They were covered in dark, dirty water from the campus courtyard. My extra books were torn apart, their pages soaked and ruined. Someone had even dumped smelly kitchen garbage all over my clean sneakers.

"Oh no," a soft voice said from behind me.

I turned around. Chloe was standing in the doorway, holding her backpack. Her eyes went wide when she saw the mess. She ran over to me, her face pale with worry.

"Eva, this is terrible!" Chloe whispered angrily, looking at the torn clothes. "Who did this?"

"Vivienne," I said simply. My voice was very calm. Too calm.

In my first life, if I found my locker like this, I would have cried. I would have felt so small and dirty. I would have tried to clean the clothes while sobbing in the bathroom, wondering why everyone hated me so much. I would have felt completely defeated.

But today, I did not feel like crying. I felt a cold, hard anger inside my heart.

"This is too much," Chloe said, her hands shaking as she picked up a piece of a ripped shirt. "They are trying to force you to leave the school, Eva. You can't go to your work shift looking like this. The supervisors will write you up for a uniform violation."

"That is exactly what Vivienne wants," I murmured.

Suddenly, I heard a cruel, soft laugh near the locker room entrance.

Vivienne Sterling stepped around the corner. She looked perfect. Her platinum-blonde hair was dry and smooth, and her expensive academy uniform did not have a single wrinkle. Two high-ranking Alpha girls from her clique stood right behind her, crossing their arms and smirking.

"Oh dear," Vivienne said, putting a manicured hand over her mouth. Her voice sounded fake and sweet. "Look at this awful mess. It seems someone forgot to lock their locker. Or maybe the school trash just belongs with the real trash."

Chloe stood up fast, stepping in front of me. Her hazel eyes flashed with bright anger. "You did this, Vivienne! You think you can get away with destroying school property?"

"Do you have proof, Gamma?" Vivienne asked, her eyes narrowing into cold, mean slits. She stepped closer, looking past Chloe to stare directly at me. "A scholarship girl should know her place. If you don't even have a clean uniform, you shouldn't be allowed in the clean parts of this academy. You look like a beggar, Evangeline."

The two girls behind her giggled.

Deep inside my chest, that familiar, hot spark started to burn again. My bloodline magic was waking up, reacting to Vivienne's malicious words. My throat felt very dry, and I tasted a tiny bit of copper under my tongue. But I clenched my teeth tight. I forced the hot blood down, keeping my face completely blank and still. I refused to show her any pain.

I did not look at Vivienne. Instead, I reached into the very bottom of my broken locker.

Buried beneath the garbage was a large, oversized grey jacket. It belonged to the maintenance department. It was old, thick, and had a few dark grease stains on the sleeves, but it was not ripped.

I pulled it out. I shook the dust off it, and then I calmly slid my arms into the big sleeves. I zipped it all the way up to my chin. The heavy fabric completely hid my wrinkled shirt, but I didn't care. I pulled my long hair out of the collar, letting it fall neatly over my shoulders.

I stood tall, lifting my chin high. I looked right into Vivienne's cold eyes.

"The uniform does not make me a scholarship student, Vivienne," I said, my voice ringing out clearly in the quiet locker room. My English was simple, but every word cut like a knife. "And your expensive clothes do not make you a queen. You can rip my shirts, but you cannot make me hide from you."

Vivienne’s fake smile completely disappeared. Her face turned a angry red. She stepped forward, her hands clenching into fists. "You ungrateful little…"

"I have a shift to start," I interrupted her smoothly.

I grabbed my backpack, walked right past her, and brushed my shoulder against hers. I did not look back. Chloe followed me immediately, leaving Vivienne and her friends standing alone in the cold locker room, breathing heavily with rage.

We walked out into the main corridor. The students in the hallway stopped to look at my big, stained jacket, but I kept my shoulders straight. I walked like I was wearing a royal robe.

"Eva, that was amazing," Chloe breathed, trying to keep up with my long steps. "But Vivienne is going to be so furious. She will try something worse next time."

"Let her try," I said softly.

We reached the central intersection of the school. Up ahead, near the grand staircase, I saw a familiar figure.

Cassian was standing there, talking to Marcus. He looked up and saw me walking in my oversized, stained maintenance jacket. His golden eyes went wide with confusion, and then his gaze moved to the angry Vivienne who was just walking out of the locker room area. He instantly understood what had happened.

Cassian stepped forward, his mouth opening to say something to me. He looked worried, or maybe frustrated.

But I didn't give him the chance. I looked straight past him, completely ignoring his existence, and walked right toward the tower elevator. I had a job to do. I had a family to save. And a few ruined shirts were not going to stop me.