She strode past him to the assistant’s desk.
“Hello, Helena. Same as usual?” the woman asked with a wry grin.
This was FAR from Helena’s first meeting with the Disciplinary Committee. She sighed with a tired smile.
“Hello, Mary. I guess they’re waiting for me?”
“Go right in.”
Helena nodded and walked down the corridor, reaching the second door. She entered a conference room, where five teachers sat behind a long table, glaring at her with judgmental eyes. Two of them were priests and another two were nuns.
“Ms. O’Connor, I’m sure you know why we called you here,” the oldest teacher grumbled.
“I have an idea.”
A female teacher cleared her throat. “Three young men are being treated at the hospital, one coughing up blood with a broken nose and the other two suffering from concussions. When speaking to the police, they described you in clear detail. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Helena straightened her posture and her eyes became steely. “I was doing God’s work, helping to cure this city of its sin. Why should I have gone easy on them when they will face far worse in Hell?”
One of the priests slammed his hand on the table. “That is not your decision to make! That is the job of the police, not a student of this school. Every time you act up like this, you give us a bad name. We cannot condone your actions, violence can never be tolerated from someone who claims to fight in the name of Jesus Christ!”
“I will repent for what I did and ask God for forgiveness,” she said defiantly, as if to tell them that she did not recognize their authority.
“You’ll do more than that. On top of fifteen Apostle’s Creeds and ten Hail Marys, you are going to go and apologize to those boys before the end of the day, understood?”
He handed her a sheet of paper with their addresses and Helena bit her tongue, working to keep her temper in check.
“Yes, Father Brian.”
“Good, and to lighten your soul with a good deed, we have something else for you to do…” The old priest pressed down on the button of a nearby intercom. “Mary, please send him in.”
The student Helena had seen before stepped into the room, letting her at last get a good look at him. He was quite tall and very handsome, with a square jaw, blue eyes, and brown hair cut very short but still kind of spiky. She actually felt her heart flutter at the sight of him but shook the sensation away with a retightening of her moral corset.
“This is Xavier Michaels, he just transferred in. Show him around and help him get settled. The two of you will be sharing several classes together. Xavier, this is Helena O’Connor. If you need anything, ask her.”
‘Great, just what I needed. Now Sister Olivia is going to beat me like a mule because I have to miss class and show this guy the ropes. No, no, it’s not his fault. I shouldn’t be mad at him.’
Forcing herself to wear a smile, she held out her hand to shake his. “Nice to meet you.”
He took her hand and looked at her with confident eyes. For a moment, she thought he was going to lean down and kiss her hand. “The pleasure is mine.”
Helena suddenly felt her face go red, but she had no idea why. “Ok, follow me and I’ll give you a tour.”
About to step into the hall, she was stopped by one of the teachers calling her name. “Helena, remember: every time you cause trouble, you make it harder for yourself to achieve your goal. You’re facing a monumental task already. Don’t ruin things for yourself.”
She nodded and departed with Xavier trailing after her. Leaving the waiting room, they started down the hall.
“I’ve never met a Catholic school girl who could fight.”
“Huh?”
“My apologies, but I could hear the conversation you and the teachers were having. You sent three people to the hospital and called it “God’s work”, meaning that you were engaged in a combative situation with them. Considering that I don’t see any scratches on you or even a mark on your uniform, you’re clearly skilled enough to not get touched. Impressive.”
People normally condemned her for fighting, but there was no judgment in his voice. She tried not to blush at the praise, never expecting him to just reveal her true self with such intuition. “As the teachers will tell you, it is not one of my best features. I’ve been training myself since I was a child in martial arts and other fighting styles. They come in handy when I find an unapologetic sinner.”
“I take it those skills are for the goal that Father Thomas mentioned?”
Helena giggled. “You catch on pretty quick.”
“I hope I’m not intruding.”
“No, it’s ok. The truth is that my goal is to join the Swiss Guard and serve His Holiness.”
“I thought the Swiss Guard didn’t allow female members.”
“They don’t, but I’m going to be the first. If I can prove myself, then I’m sure the Holy Father will allow me to serve him. What about you, do you plan to become a priest or do you have other goals?”
“As it so happens, it’s my dream to become Pope.”
They both stopped at the top of a staircase, Helena looking at him in shock. “Really? You intend to go that far?”
“Indeed,” he said as he brought up his hand and lifted her chin. “So maybe someday, you’ll serve me.”
Helena again felt her face go red and for a moment she couldn’t move. She stared into his eyes, confident and ambitions, with her own eyes suddenly trembling and meek.
He then stepped back and moved down onto the first step. “Shall we continue on?”
She nearly jumped from the question, as if awoken from a trance. “Oh, y-yes. Of course.”
She hurried down the stairs past him, and as she walked, he watched her and licked his lips. “And that day will be soon,” he said under his breath.
Helena pushed that strange moment out of her mind as she showed Xavier around the campus. She found herself curious about this newcomer. “So where are you from? You speak English clearly as a first language but I can’t place your accent. You certainly aren’t British, but you don’t quite sound American.”
“I’m from a little bit of everywhere. I’ve been traveling since I was born, so while English is my first language, I’ve picked up accents and mixed them all together. I can certainly tell that you are Irish, from that hair and name, but I can also tell that you’ve worked to try and hide your accent. So why would a ruby beauty from the emerald isle try to hide her heritage?”
She turned around quickly, her face flushed both in annoyance and undeniable pride from the flattery. “Now you listen here, relationships among students are forbidden, both by this school and God himself. Don’t go thinking that some compliments will win me over.”
Xavier stepped back, shocked by her outburst but still maintaining that small smirk. “You misunderstand, this is how I talk to everyone. I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable, I just find honestly and politeness to be the best policy.”
Helena’s face paled and she turned away from him. ‘Why did I get so worked up right then? Something is wrong with me today…’ “A-anyway, let’s keep going. I’ll show you the cafeteria now.”
She brought him to a large brick building, the sides caked with ivy and moss that were basking in the sunlight. Through the large oak doors, they stepped into an expansive cafeteria. Long tables were set out with enough seats for hundreds of students, but now all were empty, save for the few kids who came to study during their free period.
“This is where we come for our meals at 9:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 9:00 pm. Because of how many students we have, there are three shifts for each meal. The older you are, the later you eat. The school does it to accommodate with the students’ circadian rhythms. Come on, we’ll cross over through here to the science wing.”
Marching past the empty tables, they made their way to the back of the dining coliseum. Halfway through the room, they came across a girl sitting alone, nobody on either side or across from her. She looked about fifteen but was small for her age, with brown hair cut short and her head low as if someone had just tried to tickle her neck. She didn’t have any books or even food with her. She looked very forlorn, very fragile. As they passed by her, she looked up at Helena and Xavier. He smiled and winked at her, making her tense up nervously but with sparkling eyes. She had caught his interest.
Reaching the exit, they stepped back outside. Just as the door closed behind them, Helena’s stomach let out a loud grumble. She quickly turned away, knowing that Xavier would chuckle. “I… uh… I missed breakfast this morning.”
“Why didn’t you grab something to eat in there?”
“Because I’m trying to get us to our homeroom before our next class starts. At lunch, I’ll have to go and apologize to the three punks I beat up. Hopefully I can get something in the city.”
“Would you like me to come with you?”
“Thanks, but it’s not needed. Let’s just get to class.”
“You’re late. Detention, both of you.”
Helena tried with everything she had not to curse at the sound of Sister Olivia’s voice. She and Xavier had just entered the classroom, barely a second after the bell for the next period sounded. She put on a brave face and turned to the nun. “Sister, this is Xavier Michaels, the new—”
“I know who this is, do not talk to me like I am an ignorant fool!” She then turned to him. “Being new to this class is no excuse for tardiness. You two will be here at 10:00 tonight. You’ll need to wear some short pants for what I have planned.”
The whole class watched, praying for God to have mercy on the truants’ souls. Helena watched Xavier, waiting to see his reaction, and to her shock, she thought for a moment that he was actually smirking. “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” he simply hummed, stepping away and making his way to one of the few empty seats in the classroom.
“And Helena, I still expect you to translate that verse.”
‘Damn it.’
The following classes continued on without anything out of order. As usual, multiple students got a hard smack from Sister Olivia’s meter stick for small infractions. Helena got it twice when her stomach growled. Both times, she held a defiant scowl on her face, refusing to show any pain. Several times, the teacher directed the hardest questions to Xavier, but with his usual confident smirk, he answered everything with perfect accuracy and detail. Luckily they got a reprieve when the class had to a different building for Biology Class.
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