Marci Moreno and the Knight of Knowledge: Chapter 1

Chapter One

Elf-Struck

A strawberry-haired elf collided with me, just as I stepped out of the hover taxi. She slammed into me so hard I would have thought she was a cyborg, if it wasn’t for the clearly exposed areas of dark skin in all the usual cyborg modification spots. There was a tattoo though, down the side of her shoulder that looked something like a fox, but the artist took some liberties with it.

She wiped her exotic colored bangs out of her face, and showed off her pointed ears as her lips curved into a knowing but interested smile. She picked herself up off the floor before offering a hand to me. “Sorry. Sorry. It’s like I’m a dolphin on land or something, sometimes.”

Her bright blue eyes shifted to my arm, and I followed them to see a long scrape around my elbow. She groaned, “Oh crud! That was me wasn’t it?”

She grabbed my arm to examine it before I even responded; pulling me up from the ground like it was nothing. “It doesn’t look too bad, but you might still want to go to the school infirmary.”

Her eyes slid right back up to look into mine, with a big smile on her face, as she added, “You do go here, right?”

I let my hand fall away from her grip, and nodded softly. “New.”

“Oooh…” she started, elongating the vowel. “Fresh meat for the trials, then. Well, I’m—“

“—Tori Tomika, you know better than to run on school grounds.” A woman with a single streak of grey in her black hair stepped down the stairs just in front of us, leading up to the school doors.

“Tori…” The Elf finished with a sigh before turning to the older woman. “Headmistress, I’m running around the school grounds, not on them. It’s a sidewalk.”

“What have I told you about your technicalities, Miss Tomikia? Anywhere you run where I can see you is the same to me. You are lucky you didn’t cause more damage to you or your friend.” The headmistress continued, glancing from her to me.

“Yes, Headmistress.” Tori lowered her head and I saw her roll her eyes.

“Now, who is this other young woman, Miss Tomika?”

Both of them looked to me, and I swallowed. I could feel my face getting red. I did not want to be put on the spot like this.

“M-Marci, Marci Moreno.” I said.

Apparently it was too soft though since the headmistress leaned in closer. “Once more without the mumbling, please.”

I opened my mouth, but Tori spoke for me, far louder than I could ever be. “She said Marci Moreno, Headmistress.”

The headmistress leaned back and upright, straightening her dark blouse. “Ah, yes, Miss Moreno. We were expecting you a few days ago.”

She was staring down at me like I had just killed someone. Or maybe she always looked disapproving like that. I could barely even look up at her.

“I…uh… my train was delayed. A…um…”

The headmistress winged an eyebrow up while looking over me. “Yes, Miss Moreno?”

“A-An Apatosaurus was on the mag tracks. He wouldn’t leave!” I finished, and Tori instantly burst into laughter.

The headmistress stared me down with an intensity of a laser. “Miss Moreno. I do not enjoy being lied to. Nor does it put you with a good first impression at this school.”

“But… I’m…”

“No buts, Miss Moreno.” The headmistress silenced me, and Tori snickered, which caused the older woman to turn to the elf. “Something to add, Miss Tomika?”

“No. Headmistress.”

“Good. I think it will serve you both to join me for the first detention of the semester. Until then, Miss Tomika, why don’t you show Miss Moreno around the school and get her settled into the room, since you seem to already be so anxious to make friends.” The Headmistress turned as she finished, but then glanced back. “And Miss Moreno, I suggest you think before lying to me again. You don’t want to end up like Miss Tomika, who has been here hardly a week and already has many weekends to spend with me in detention.”

Her eyes shifted to Tori, then she turned completely and her heels clicked up the steps.

Tori rolled her eyes and adjusted her body toward me. “Don’t worry, she’s always that intense. I think she was gene-pressed that way.”

“Like you were?” My voice left my mouth before I thought. I shouldn’t have said that.

But Tori just chortled. “You mean my ears? Or hair? Cause my hair is just from a bottle. My ears on the other hand… well I’m second generation. So no one messed with my genes.”

“Oh.” I nodded and looked down. “Sorry.”

Tori shook her head and her smile spread across her face. “Don’t be sorry. Most people think I did it to myself. Not many second generations survive with an altered gene trait, like me. But that’s the cool thing about the school, so many people here are second generations.”

She turned toward the steps and offered a hand toward me. “So should we get going?”

I nodded and gently reached my hand out so she could take it, before heading up the marble steps to the massive doors leading to the school. There was silence between us as the doors opened into a sparkling sapphire entrance hall.

“Shiny, huh?” Tori asked and I just nodded.

The halls were gorgeous, like shining faeries were hiding everywhere, but their sparkle still gave them away.

“Welcome to Gloriana’s Academy.” She stepped in front and then turned around to face me, as she added, “Where all your dreams come true.”

Her face scrunched up in thought, which was kind of cute. “At least I think that’s the tagline now. But don’t quote me on it.”

I smiled and she grabbed me and pulled me to the blue marble grand staircase. Her head leaned in close to my ear and she grasped my arm like she was a hawk perching on it. “So I have to know. Did you really see a Apatosaurus on the track?”

My face felt like it was burning up as I nodded, then realized she might not be able to see which way my head shook, since I was next to her. “Yes. It was Jacob. He’s lazy.”

She pushed my arm so I turned to face her, her eyes bright and wide. Her voice was hushed but still loud. “You know the dinosaur’s name?”

I lowered my head and looked around at a few people in the hall, passing us. I swallowed as I glanced back to Tori. I didn’t know if it was a bad thing to know dinosaurs or not. Everyone in my home town grew up with them, but not everyone did. I knew that. Most of them got bad raps for causing trouble.

“Um…yeah. My whole town is one of those dinosaur reserves. We have hundreds, and we live in peace with most of them.” I explained without ever keeping my eyes on Tori. It was just kind of embarrassing.

“And they don’t like terrorize you or cause trouble or break things or something?” Tori asked with just as much intensity in her eyes as she always seemed.

That’s what most people had come to expect from dinosaurs since we had brought them back. Many people thought it was a mistake, or that we were going against god. But if they just spent even one day with them, they’d know there was so much good in them too.

My sadness at the situation must have shown on my face because Tori looked worried. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say something rude. I just…” She let out a soft breath, “I talk too much sometimes.”

I shook my head and smiled. “I don’t talk enough.”

Her bright smile grew again and she nodded. “We’re the perfect pair then, right?”

I nodded with her and she took my arm as we kept heading down the hall.

“Still, it is pretty cool that you got to live with dinosaurs. I bet people will be jealous, here. I mean, I’m jealous.” She bumped her hip into me and I glanced to her with a soft smile. This was probably one of the better receptions I had at a new school.

There was silence between us for a minute as she led me down the hallway and pointed at the obvious kitchen and cafeteria. “You can use the kitchen at night, but it is off-limits during the day, since they have a staff that handles regular meal times and snacks then.”

As we kept going Tori showed me the four different studies, the nine bathrooms between the three floors of the school, some of the classrooms which were mostly on the second floor, and then the dorm rooms on the third floor. We paused at one of the hallways with three paths in front of us.

“All that is left is the garden and sports areas out back, which I can take you to look at some time. For now we should get you settled into your room. She pointed to our left, “Boys dorms.” Then to our right, “Girls dorms.” And then in front of us, “And that’s for the other people. Anyone who isn’t one or the other.”

Then she hit her forehead and glanced to me with those brilliant eyes. “I completely forgot to ask you if you were a girl or what you wanted to go by.”

My face was bright red now. Did she already know? What if everyone knew? What if they put me in the wrong section? Did they give me a room in the boy’s dorm? I stuttered to try to form a word.

I was pretty sure I saw pity on Tori’s face at that moment. “Well, I only ask because we had someone here that they assigned as my roommate, and they requested to be moved to the non-binary section. So since you’re my roommate, I just wanted to check that you’re a girl?”

I was. I am. I nodded pretty fiercely and her smile returned quickly.

“Good. Then we are down here.” She pointed down the girl’s hallway, to a room a couple of doors down. Her eyes were not facing me but her voice was higher, which suggested she was surprised when she said, “To think we ran into each other when you were to be my new roommate.”

It was unusual. My mother would have said it was fate. But I was curious about something else. “Um…how do you know I’m your roommate?”

She glanced back to me with her bright grin. “Because your stuff was moved in the day after Sue, that’s the person who moved to the non-binary section, moved out.”

Her eyes became sturdier and narrow as she added, “They had your things in the boy’s section for a week. Then out of nowhere it was in my room. I only knew because my cousin was going to be your roommate.”

My face was burning up, and I think she noticed because she turned her eyes away and touched the door leading to our new room. For some reason I felt bad not telling her that I was transgender. Like she knew it, like it was obvious, but that I hurt her for not saying what was obvious, just to confirm her suspicions.

I kept my head down even when she opened the door and stepped inside the room. I followed her in and had my hand on the door to close it, when she turned around and put her hand on mine; both of us holding the door. Her eyes scanned up and down me.

“Look. You don’t have to tell me anything. I know I’m pushy. But, hopefully eventually you will open up and we can be good friends?” Her eyebrows grew high on her face and that bright smile wasn’t there, she seemed so serious.

I nodded. “I want to. I’d like to.”

Her smile returned. And then grew into a brilliant and full grin; a devious one almost. “I think we will be great friends, Marci.”

I blushed, and was sure I wanted to be friends with her. She seemed exactly like the kind of person my mom always said would help me out of my shell. Maybe even help me get over my fear of explaining I was transgender.

I really was just about to tell her, explain the whole thing and that I was glad she was so accepting, when my eyes fell upon a large grey egg on one of the beds. My mouth fell open and I slipped past Tori to rush to the bed.

“I can’t believe she sent it.” I breathed, as my hands caressed the egg and pulled it to cradle against my chest.

Tori came up next to me. “Did someone send you a dinosaur egg or something?” She laughed, and I guessed she wasn’t trying to be serious.

I looked up at her and she backed up a step and put her hand to her mouth. “No way. That’s seriously a dinosaur egg?”

I nodded and she stepped forward to look more closely over the egg. I watched her face, but glanced back to the set-up the egg had been under. The lamp and everything else was here to keep the egg warm, but if my stuff had been here for a week, the egg might not have made it.

I frowned, and Tori saw it. “The lamp was plugged in at my cousin’s room. Your stuff was only moved in yesterday to my room. Will it be okay?”

I glanced down at the egg. “I hope so.”

At least Tori seemed worried about it too. I set the egg back in the box, and pulled on the wire. She snatched the plug from me and reached behind the bed to snap it in. “Give it twenty-four hours and it should be hooked up to the wireless electricity in our room.”

I glanced around the room then. “Our room…”

She turned back to me and smiled, spreading her arms out like she was showing the place off. “Yeah, our room.”

It wasn’t anything really special. There was a light blue paint on the walls, and stucco on the ceilings, which I didn’t particularly like, along with basic metal furniture. Although what I assumed was Tori’s side of the room, had significantly more. Clothes were all under her bed, and a few in the bed, with the sheets and comforter in a total mess. Her desk, unlike my shiny new one, had marks on it, and some crumpled papers and books all over.

She stepped over to her bed, and quickly stuffed a blue bra further under her rainbow-colored comforter. Her hand went up to her neck and she rubbed it. “Sorry, I didn’t think you’d be here today or I would have cleaned up.”

I shook my head. “I like it. It’s you.”

Her face brightened. “That’s why I tried to tell the Headmistress. She’s given me at least three detentions just from my room alone. She almost didn’t want me to room with anyone because she was afraid I would rub off on someone.”

She laughed and I joined her in that.

She plopped down to sit on her bed and glanced behind me at the egg, before I sat on my new bed. “I can’t believe you were allowed to bring that with you.”

I grew worried. I didn’t realize I couldn’t. But at the same time, I hadn’t brought it. My mom sent it with all my other stuff, ahead of time. “Is it…” I started sheepishly, “going to be a problem?”

She laughed again and shook her head. “With me? No way. I want to see it hatch. But I’m surprised the headmistress let you keep it. It wasn’t like she didn’t know, since it was here before you.”

I made a sound of relief, then shrugged. “Maybe my mom worked something out. It was the egg I was raising before I came here.” I grinned as I added, “And it is close to hatching.”

Tori’s eyes grew brighter at that. And I loved it. I couldn’t believe my luck that I got a roommate that was excited about dinosaur eggs. But that might have been because she was never around one, like I had been.

“I can’t wait.” She sounded so eager and it made me smile wider and wider until my cheeks hurt.

“Me either.”

Maybe this school wouldn’t be so bad. I did have the best roommate.