The Academy Read Online Free PDF Page B

girlish behaviors and nothing was weaker or more girly than giving in to emotion. Taking a deep breath, I stood up to start unpacking. Hinks had assigned me to this room and I would be damned if I’d let my arrogant, overgrown new roommate throw me out of it just because he didn’t want to share.
     
    I placed a few mementos of home around the room, feeling a lump in my throat as I unpacked the small sound cube that held some of Kristopher’s best practice sessions on his violin. No crying, I reminded myself again as I made up the bed with the stack of clean sheets I found in the single small closet. I hung my uniforms up beside the much larger ones already there but found no place to store my underthings or the folded clothes I’d brought from home.
     
    Shrugging my shoulders, I gave up for the moment because I needed to use the fresher. I felt sticky and tired after my long journey in the crowded shuttle that morning. Maybe I should take a quick shower now, while my new roommate was out? No, it was probably too risky—he might come back with Hinks and the headmaster to settle our rooming dispute at any time. Sighing, I decided I would have to remain unwashed until he was in bed and sound asleep. In the meantime, though, I needed to answer the call of nature.
     
    But when I opened the door which I had assumed led to the fresher, I found only a shallow space filled with shelves. A few stacks of folded clothing and a spare pair of shoes about three times as large as my own were sitting neatly on two of the shelves. Two others were empty so I took the opportunity to finish unpacking my rucksack.
     
    Though my storage problem had been solved, another was growing. To put it delicately, I really had to go. Where in the fifteen moons did they keep the stupid fresher around here? Maybe there was a communal one somewhere along the hallway which I had missed when coming up? That wouldn’t be optimal but at this point I was willing to go just about anywhere.
     
    Closing the room door behind me, I started off in search of someplace to relieve myself. I thought of knocking on one of the open doors and asking some of the other cadets but I decided that the less attention I attracted, the better. I was glad of my decision once I wandered past the staircase and found what I was looking for on my own.
     
    A wide, open archway at the end of the corridor led to a large, echoing room where the floors and walls alike were both covered in blue and white tiles. There was a row of urinals to one side and a few enclosed stalls at the end of the line. Across from the toilet facilities was a row of sinks and mirrors, apparently for shaving. I hoped I wouldn’t have to explain to anyone why I wasn’t growing whiskers. Maybe I could say I had some kind of hormonal imbalance.
     
    I used one of the stalls and was about to go back to my room when it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen any bathing facilities. Where did the cadets take their showers? A small hallway led away from the main bathroom area. My curiosity got the best of me and I followed it around a corner to see if I could find the shower stalls.
     
    The hallway led to another large tiled space but no curtained-off showers or bathtubs. I was mystified—how did they keep clean around here? Then a flash of dull silver caught my eyes. Looking up, I saw a showerhead embedded in the tiled wall. And another and another, at two foot intervals all around the square room. Beneath each showerhead was a temperature control knob and there was a single large, circular drain in the very center of the floor.
     
    My heart sank. It was a communal shower! Though I looked everywhere, there were no other smaller, enclosed stalls for private bathing. How was I ever going to be able to take a shower? Even if it was deserted in the bathing room, as it was now, there was no privacy. The minute I shed my clothing and the bandages wrapping my breasts, I was vulnerable. Anyone who entered the bathroom