Blackthorn - Top Secret Villain School-Chapter 35: Tears Down The Cheek

The elevator ride up to the tenth floor was filled with the group’s raucous merriment and conversations overlapping each other. The door opened and they all stepped into the hall as D asked Val "So when will we get the results of the test again?"

"It depends, it could be today but it could be a few days from now. You should all get a message on your student portal when the results are in." She said matter of factly.

"Oooo someone’s worried he failed the test isn’t he?" Scarlett said in a teasing tone as the group walked down the hall towards D’s room.

"I’m not worried about anything, I just want to know as soon as possible so we can plan our next move." D said as he rolled his eyes at Scarlett.

The group arrived at the door of their room and D fumbled for his key for a moment before Roxanne stepped forward and opened the door as she shook her head lightly at D.

The group stepped into the black walled room and each took a spot in different areas of the room.

D took up a spot on his bed, while Max and Roxanne took spots on theirs. Val sat in Max’s desk chair, Nashoba opted to stand with his back to the door, and Scarlett surprisingly sat next to D on his bed. D tried not to seem embarrassed or shocked at her choice, and decided to let her stay.

"So the first part of the trial is done, what do we do now?" Max asked, looking towards Val and Nashoba, since they seemed to be the trial experts.

"Next? We go through the R&D department to get fitted for the next trial, which will most likely be a trial by combat. This school loves its one on one duels." Nashoba said

"Is this where Clea and her little group come in?" Roxanne asked, a tone of disgust on her tongue.

"Most likely yeah, the SSC deal with combat trials usually. I’m certain she won’t make it easy for us." Val said as she played with her dark hair between her fingers.

"What do you mean go through the R&D department?" D asked looking towards the door at Nashoba.

Nashoba shot him a mischievous grin, as if he’d been waiting for someone to ask what he’d meant.

"The Research and Development center of the school outfits all students going into the trials with appropriate gear and outfits, basically meaning..."

"Meaning we get a bunch of free shit?" D interjected.

"Yeah, basically they’ll scan your biometrics and look at your combat experience and you’ll come up with a piece of equipment to augment your abilities to the fullest."

D felt as if his eyes were going to pop out of his head from excitement. The prospect of getting free stuff always excited him. Whether it was free food, free clothes, or free equipment didn’t really make much of a difference.

"Though if you fail the trials you don’t get to keep the equipment, but if you pass two out of the three trials and in turn pass you get to keep it."

"Awww, looks like Scarlett wont get to keep hers." D said with a mock frown as he lightly knocked his elbow into Scarlett. She scoffed and elbowed him back.

The rest of the group seemed to be too into their current conversation to notice the light flirting as Max sat up from his slouched posture on his bed.

"So when do we go to this R&D department?" He asked no one in particular.

"The sooner we go the better, the next trial isn’t for a week so we should probably go tomorrow if that’s ok with everyone else?"

No one protested the decision and D even nodded.

"Ok good, then we’ll stop by the department tomorrow, They’ve got a buddy of mine working in the department this year. She’s super talented and she’ll be able to whip us up some cool as hell gear-"

Just then a beep went off from each of the five’s V-Bands as they all got a message. All of them instantly knew what it was from, the results had been delivered.

All of them brought up their holo-screens to their faces and saw a message notification from their student portal. D tapped the notification and a holographic envelope appeared from his wrist. He tapped it and it opened to reveal a letter.

The letter read.

’Dear Mr.Cross, we are pleased to inform you that you have passed the first stage of the Thorn Trials. You scored 92% on the examination stage. Please report to the Research and Development lab as soon as possible for outfitting.’

D looked up from the letter and to his friends, who were all also reading their own messages.

"Hell yeah! I just barely passed." Shouted Max as he jumped to his feet out of pure elation.

"I also passed," Nashoba said, obviously not wanting to say what his score was out of fear they would become suspicious..

D shot up from his bed and began dancing in the center of the room with Max. Scarlett and Val laughed at their display of excitement. All of them had passed except one...

Roxanne sat on her bed, frozen in place as if she were a cold stone statue. Her held up arm began to shake as she felt tears begin to well in her eyes. She sniffled as she read the message in front of her over and over again.

She had failed.

Everyone in the room was looking at her now, she could feel their eyes on her like a steel trap. She had to get out of the room, she had to run away from this.

In an instant she began bawling as tears streamed down her face and she ran out of the room.

"Roxanne wait-" Val tried to call out to her but she was already out the door and down the hall. They heard the door of the communal bathroom slam behind her.

"What just happened? Did I do something?" D asked, a confused look on his face. Val shook her head and let out a light sigh.

"I don’t think she...passed." Val said in an almost whisper-like tone.

"What? That’s impossible, she studies like her life depends on it. How could she not pass?" D asked.

Val gave a shrug as she walked over to the open doorway, placing a hand on the door frame and looking out into the hallway.

"All I know is as this floor’s RA it’s my job to make sure she’s okay, I’ll be right back guys." Was all she said before striding out the door towards the bathroom.

Val had been in the communal bathrooms plenty of times before, she did live on this floor after all. She hadn’t exactly been in the bathroom for this particular reason though.

When she entered she noticed one of the showers was running loudly, so she tried to call out for Roxanne since she didn’t see her.

"Roxanne? Are you still in here?" She called out towards the showers.

No response came back but she swore she could hear faint sniffles coming from the shower. She stepped closer to it and knocked on the shower stall door.

"GO AWAY!" Roxanne shouted out from inside the stall between her cries.

"We’re all worried about you Roxanne, we just want to know what happened and if you’re okay."

"Okay? Does it fucking sound like I’m okay?" Roxanne said through sniffles and tears. Val took a step forward and rested a hand on top of the shower stall.

"You can talk to me, I’m your RA remember? Anything you want to talk about is fair game with me Roxanne."

"I don’t want to talk about anything! Especially not this, I can’t believe I failed when those two idiots passed!"

Val winced at the venom in Roxanne’s words, especially at the word idiots to describe her friends.

Against her better judgement Val didn’t leave, but instead stayed by the stall door and just stood silently as Roxanne cried inside the shower.

After a few moments The water finally turned off and Roxanne stepped out of the door with a long white towel wrapped around her.

Her usually long red and black voluminous hair laid flat down the back of her head. She just stood there eyeing Val with a look of begrudging acceptance, tears still in her eyes.

"You’re not going to drop this are you?" Roxanne asked her with a sniffle.

"Nope, I’ve been told I can be rather persistent when it comes down to it."

Roxanne let out a small laugh. She held her towel close as Val suddenly walked forward and gave her a hug, not caring that she was wet and also nearly naked. Against her better judgement Roxanne, for some reason hugged her back.

The two stood there in a wet embrace for a long couple of moments before Roxanne finally pried herself out of Val’s arms.

"You really won’t tell anyone what I tell you?" Roxanne asked

"Cross my heart and hope to die!" Val said, which Roxanne somehow knew meant yes.

"Fine I’ll tell you what’s really wrong..."