STAR ACADEMY

CHAPTERS TEN

Carter left his room with Sebastian's message burning in his mind. The Protocol kicked in immediately and projected a glowing blue arrow across his vision, pointing down the hallway with text that read: ROOM 304 - 47 METERS.

His head still throbbed from the cafeteria incident. Every step felt like walking through water, slow and heavy. The hallway stretched ahead of him and seemed longer than it should be. Students passed him and their whispers followed like static.

"Is that really him?"

"He looks different."

"I heard he had a breakdown."

Some of them pulled out their phones. Carter could see himself in their screens, disheveled and tired, walking like a ghost through his own life. The Protocol tagged each face but Carter ignored the data. He just wanted to get to Sebastian and figure out what the hell he was supposed to do about this impossible evaluation.

The hallways were nice enough. Clean white walls, decent lighting, doors spaced evenly apart. Nothing spectacular but comfortable. Carter noticed small details he'd missed before. Bulletin boards with flyers for study groups and events. A vending machine humming in an alcove. Someone's door was cracked open and he could hear music playing, something with a heavy beat that made his headache worse.

He passed a common area where a few students sat on couches. They looked up when he walked by and their conversations stopped. One girl elbowed her friend and pointed. Carter kept walking and tried to ignore the feeling of their eyes on his back.

The arrow pointed him down another hallway. This one was quieter. Most of the doors were closed and Carter could hear the muffled sounds of people talking, gaming, creating content behind them. This was a school but it was also a factory. Everyone was always working, always producing, always trying to stay relevant.

Carter's phone buzzed. Another notification from Inogram. His post had climbed to six hundred likes now. The comments were still coming in and most of them weren't friendly. He pocketed the phone without reading them.

The arrow led him around a corner and down a shorter hallway. This section of the dorm felt older somehow. The paint on the walls was slightly faded and one of the overhead lights flickered. Carter counted door numbers as he passed. 298, 299, 300.

He stopped at a water fountain and took a long drink. The water was cold and helped clear his head a little. When he straightened up he caught his reflection in a window across the hall. He looked terrible. Dark circles under his eyes, hair a mess, posture slumped. This was Owen Grace, heir to a media empire. This was what people were seeing.

Carter ran a hand through his hair and tried to fix it. It didn't help much.

He kept walking. 301, 302, 303.

Finally, he reached 304. The door looked exactly like all the others. Plain wood, brass numbers, no decorations or nameplate. Carter stood there for a moment and tried to calm his racing heart. Sebastian was his only ally here. If anyone could help him survive this nightmare, it was Sebastian.

Carter knocked twice and waited.

Nothing.

He knocked again, harder this time. His knuckles hurt from the impact but he needed Sebastian to hear him. Inside he could hear movement, something falling, a muffled curse.

The door cracked open just enough for Carter to see inside.

What he saw made him freeze.

A guy around his age stood in the doorway wearing some kind of animal suit. Orange and white fur, elaborate tail swishing behind him, pointed ears with pink insides. The craftsmanship was actually impressive. The fur looked soft and the proportions were perfect. But the costume stopped at the waist and below that was a pleated skirt, fishnet stockings, and pink sneakers with white laces.

Behind him Carter could see a ring light on a stand, glowing bright and casting sharp shadows. A camera sat on a tripod angled toward a bed covered in pastel blankets. And on the bed there was something that made Carter's brain short circuit. Some kind of object he couldn't quite process.

"Oh my God, what are you doing with that?" Carter shrieked and pointed at the thing on the bed.

The fox guy didn't miss a beat. His head tilted slightly and the mesh eyes of the suit stared at Carter with an irritated look. "Working. What does it look like?"

"I don't, I can't, why are you dressed like a fox in a skirt?!" Carter yelled.

The guy's posture changed and became defensive. Even through the costume Carter could sense the hostility. "It's called a partial fursuit and the skirt is part of the aesthetic my client requested. Not that it's any of your business."

Carter's brain was melting. The Protocol was lagging again and overwhelmed by the sheer absurdity of the situation. Numbers and data flickered across his vision but none of it made sense. "But that thing on the bed..."

"Is a prop for a commission. A paid commission." The fox guy crossed his arms and the tail swished again. "You got a problem with how I make my content?"

"I, no, I mean..." Carter stammered and tried to find words that made sense. His face felt like it was on fire. "I'm just looking for Sebastian Holt. I thought this was his room."

"Sebastian Holt?" The fox guy laughed and the sound was sharp and bitter. It echoed strangely inside the fursuit head. "You're in the Silver dorm, genius. Sebastian's in Gold. Room 304 of the Gold dorm. Completely different building."

Carter felt his stomach drop. "What?"

"You heard me." The guy leaned against the doorframe and Carter noticed he was actually pretty short without the elevator shoes. "There are four dorms on campus. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. Each one has its own building. Each building has a Room 304."

Carter felt like an idiot as he rubbed his head. He couldn't admit that he didn't know there were four dormitories because it would look suspicious. So he just laughed awkwardly and said, "Ha,ha. It's just a prank."

The boy hissed and Carter hurried to make an apology.

"Look, I'm sorry for barging in," Carter started. "I didn't mean to interrupt your... work."

"You didn't barge in. You knocked." The guy's voice softened slightly but the edge was still there. "But now you've seen my setup and if you breathe a word about this to anyone in a mocking way, I swear I will make your life hell. I've got seventy thousand followers and most of them would love to tear apart some rich kid who thinks he can judge me."

"I won't," Carter said quickly and held up his hands. "I don't care what you do. I'm just trying to find Sebastian."

The fox guy studied him for a long moment. The fursuit head was expressionless but Carter could feel the judgment behind it. Something in the guy's posture shifted and became less hostile but not quite friendly either. "You really don't know where anything is, do you?"

"I've been gone six months," Carter said, hoping it'll be enough of a good excuse.

"Yeah, I heard," said the boy. He shifted his weight and the skirt swished around his legs. "Word travels fast when Owen Grace comes crawling back. Everyone's talking about it. Gold dorm is the building northeast of here. Big one with a fancy fountain out front. You can't miss it. It's got actual marble columns like some kind of Roman temple."

"Thanks." Carter turned to leave and then hesitated. He looked back at the guy standing in the doorway, half fox and half human, making content in whatever way paid his bills. "And for what it's worth, I wasn't judging. I was just surprised."

The fox guy snorted and the sound was muffled by the fursuit head. "Sure you weren't." But there was a hint of amusement in his voice now. "Get out of here, Grace. And next time, check which building before you go knocking on random doors. Could have been worse. You could have walked in on someone actually streaming instead of just setting up."

"Right. Yeah. Sorry again," Carter said with an awkward smile. And with that he stepped out. Behind him he could hear the door close and then the sound of the livestream starting up as the furry boy said, "Sorry about that, guys. Just some lost Silver wandering into the wrong neighborhood. You guys saw that right? Owen Grace himself at my door looking like he'd seen a ghost. Now, where were we? Oh right, the client wanted a woodland theme so I was thinking..."

The voice faded as Carter walked away. He pulled out his phone and checked the map the Protocol generated. Two buildings marked Room 304. One Silver, one Gold. The arrow had taken him to the closer one without specifying which class it belonged to.

"Stupid AI," Carter muttered under his breath.

The Protocol flickered and updated:

ERROR LOGGED

NAVIGATION DATABASE UPDATED

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: LOCATE SEBASTIAN HOLT

GOLD DORMITORY: 340 METERS NORTHEAST

ESTIMATED TRAVEL TIME: 8 MINUTES

Carter pocketed his phone and headed for the exit. He passed more students in the hallway. Some of them whispered. Others just stared. One guy was filming himself doing something with a soccer ball and nearly kicked it into Carter's face. Carter dodged and kept walking.

The exit led him back outside where the evening air hit him like a wall. The sun was setting and cast long shadows across the perfectly manicured lawns. Students were everywhere and filming everything. TikTak dances, YouTube vlogs, Inogram photoshoots. This place never stopped performing.

Carter pulled up the map again and studied it. The Gold dorm was across a large courtyard, past a cluster of academic buildings, near the eastern edge of campus. He started walking.

The path took him past the library, a massive glass structure that looked more like a spaceship than a building. Through the windows he could see students studying, filming study vlogs, setting up elaborate shots with stacks of books. Even studying was content here.

He passed the athletics complex where he could hear people training inside. Weights clanging, voices shouting encouragement, music pumping. More content. Always more content.

The Protocol kept feeding him information about every student he passed but Carter ignored most of it. Rep scores, follower counts, relationship statuses. None of it mattered right now. He just needed to get to Sebastian.

Finally, the Gold dorm appeared exactly as the fox guy described. Massive, modern, with actual marble columns flanking the entrance. A fountain out front cascaded down three tiers of polished stone while LED lights made it glow blue and purple in the evening light. The building was easily three times the size of the Silver dorm.

Carter stopped at the fountain and stared up at the building. Every window glowed with warm light. He could see silhouettes moving inside like a scene from a movie. This was where Sebastian lived. Where Owen used to visit all the time back when they were friends.

His phone buzzed. Another message from Sebastian: "Where are you?"

Carter typed back: "Outside. I'm coming."

He took a deep breath and started up the marble steps toward the entrance. Whatever was waiting for him inside, he'd have to face it. He was out of options and out of time.