Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 21

“I meant since most of the student population would fit into that category, why use it at all,” she tried to explain, feeling bad for embarrassing the girl who’d been nothing but kind all morning.

Miriam shrugged her shoulders a little, picking at the salad she’d chosen. “Cause it’s a big deal here.”

“Oh,” the raven-haired girl said, pausing mid-bite. Pulling her sandwich away, Vivian continued, “that’s stupid.”

“Is it though?”

“Unless they made the money themselves, then yes it is.”

Miriam gave Vivian a confused look, who only shrugged in response before taking another bite of her sandwich. Only once she finished chewing and swallowing did she continue to speak.

“The fact they were born into a rich family is mere luck and nothing more.”

“Aren’t… you rich?”

Vivian shook her head with a small laugh. “Hardly.”

“Then how can you afford to go here?”

The answer to that question could cause problems if Vivian was completely honest about it, so she took a moment to figure out how to respond by eating the last bit of her sandwich. “I’m a foster kid who got lucky.”

The look on Miriam’s face was entertaining, as she opened and closed her mouth a few times while digesting this information. “You’re…”

“A foster kid.”

“… but… wow. You did get lucky if your parents can afford to send you here.”

Vivian shrugged her shoulders again, dusting the crumbs from her hands. “I guess. The price of the food here is stupid though. If I had to pay myself I’d be bringing my own lunch.”

This brought a laugh out of Miriam. “I know, right? My scholarship gives me a specific amount of money to spend on food; so long as I don’t go overboard with it I can make it last the entire year.”

“That’s pretty smart,” Vivian nodded, liking this girl now that they were taking the time to talk about things not related to being a guide. “Are there others with scholarships? Or that struggle to cover the fees?”

“Not that I know of,” she sighed, shaking her head with a sad look in her eyes even though the smile she wore was warm. “The Devreaux scholarship is pretty hard to get, and it only covers a single student per grade. Even if it were easier to get, there’d only be, at most, four of us, but I’ve been the only one since the last one graduated at the end of my freshman year.”

It came as a shock that her family was funding Miriam’s schooling. It was kind of nice to know they were helping someone who seemed so kind to get the best education, even though she was saying the scholarship itself was difficult to get.

Was Vivian’s family aware of that fact? Shouldn’t there be a student in every year taking advantage of said scholarship? What were the requirements needed for consideration?

“So what do you need to get the scholarship?”

“Thinking about going for it yourself?”

Vivian let out a small laugh. “Hardly. Just curious.”

“Basically near perfect grades from whatever school you’re at, with extracurriculars, followed by an exam and an interview; Mom said they also did a financial check to make sure we weren’t hiding money and actually needed the help.”

“Sounds tough.”

“It was brutal,” Miriam groaned. “Luckily, once you get it, so long as you keep your grades up and participate in at least one extracurricular activity, it’s super hard to lose.”

It sounded rather easy to lose if that was the case, Vivian thought to herself as her eyes shifted to watch Laurent again. There was another student he seemed to be staying close to, a boy a few inches shorter with red hair that was kept short but somehow looked stylish. Was that his closest friend? They seemed closer than the others, and she remembered there being mentioned of someone named Reagan more than once. Was that Reagan?

Seeing where Vivian was staring, Miriam let out a bit of a sigh. “I’m guessing you’re looking at Laurent?”

“Hmmm?” Vivian hummed as her mind snapped back to reality.

“Laurent Devreaux. The one with the blue hair,” she explained, waving a hand in his direction.

“Actually I was wondering about the redhead.”

“Reagan?” She snorted this time. “He’s okay, I guess, but he’s always with Laurent, and Laurent isn’t that great a person.”

This caught Vivian’s attention and she focussed on the girl sitting next to her again. “How so? Isn’t his family the one with the scholarship?”

“Oh, they are, but they don’t actually deal with it themselves. Laurent is… I don’t know how to put it in words, but he doesn’t really like people outside his circle of friends.”

That I can believe, Vivian agreed with a mental nod. From the two weeks she’d spent in the same house as him, the few times they’d interacted had been… tense. Should she worry this would cause an issue at school? Or would he pretend not to know her?

As if their conversation were a magnet, a couple of the girls from said group broke off and ventured to where Vivian and Miriam were seated, smiles plastered on their face as they took the empty seats opposite the two already sitting.