Kezef stood up from the bed ready to explain the situation, but the dean didn't look at him. His eyes were fixed on the towel in Kezef's hand, there was still blood on it.

"Did you catch those who did it on tape, mister Cause?" The dean asked, mister Cause, the concierge, nodded.

"Yes mister Arch, and mister Coarse here has seen their faces." Mister Cause said. The gaze from the dean now landed on him. Those stern gray eyes, giving off the feeling that they didn't miss anything. Which was both a good and a creepy thing. "We really should fix the lighting in those hallways, it is simply not safe for the students at night." Mister Cause said students, so not only revering to Dina, but to others who wonder the halls at night. The dean nodded slowly.

"I want the tape on my desk in the morning. Mister Coarse, I will allow you to stay in this room until she." The dean pointed towards Dina. "Wakes up and is ready to make a statement against those who attacked her." Kezef wanted to reply, but the dean already turned around and left. Mister Cause stood up, pleased the screen in the medical bag, and left the room as well. Leaving him alone with an unconscious girl, which was in many ways strange. What was he supposed to do here, there was no room for him to sleep. The other bed in the room, which was empty because nobody wanted to share a room with her, was filled with stacks upon stacks of books. From a distance he could read some of the titles, there was no surprise that they were all car and car racing related. He himself had some of them in his collection, but there were even books about electric cars and some about very specific parts of the car. Even four books about tires and how many kinds there were. He was impressed, but not surprised by this. The boys who attacked her told him that she was taking notes of the race. Maybe she wanted to race for herself, it was not strange for a child of a racer to dream off a carrier like their father. But most of them were men, and didn't have 21 as their surname. The closet doors were still open, and the red toolbox was still visible. He went over to look at it, it was a pretty standard box with a hand scanner and voice recognition protection. Which was pretty standard for a toolbox. He closed the door, the more he saw in her room how more he recognized himself in her. The same drive, the same passion. Or maybe not. He looked at her on the bed, she was wearing shorts with a checkered flag motive on it. Her top was black without sleeves. Her rose gold hair was spread out over her blood stained pillow. He could see a small braid with a ribbon in it, the same type of ribbons that were on the race trophies. Slowly he went back to her bed, maybe it was better that he removed the blood stained pillow. Only with what? He hadn't seen any other pillow or other covers inside the closet. Not that he looked hard for one, and he didn't want to source her closet for one. Instead, he sat down on the ground, which was covered with a boring gray carpet just like in his own dorm room. On her nightstand lay a notebook, open. He glanced over it, not being sure if it was her journal or something similar. And he was somewhat glad that this wasn't the case. Luckily those were the notes those bullies talked about. Against his better judgement he picked it up and started to read it.

'Kezef's car is slower than normal, I wonder if it has something to do with (notes). It also can be the selection of tires.' He nodded, she was smart. But everybody on the track had used the same type of tires, or something very similar. So it could be that it could be the (notes), but why didn't his mechanics notice it. They were trained to spot problems like this. 'Jerk won again today, and after looking up the spec's of his car this is not at all surprising. But not all racers could afford this, maybe I need to look in alternatives.' He frowned, jerk? Did she mean Abamil Grave? Well if that was the case she was right about him. That man always acts all high and mighty. But everybody on the track knows that he is nothing without his over expensive car. He was surprised however about the fact that she knew the car's specific's, usually nobody outside the team had access to it. Maybe she found something similar inside one of her many books and figured the rest out on her own. She was overall a smart girl, he lay down the notebook. Maybe he should bring her to the tracks, he then looked at the many posters on her wall. Or maybe not, she was the daughter of Joaol 21. He stood up and grabbed one of her books, why not read while he was waiting? He opened it while sitting back down. But lost track of the words, pretty quickly. He had no idea that he was this tired, it was an eventful day. Maybe he should rest his eyes for a minute or two.

******

Dina slowly opened her eyes, the light of the main lamp was stinging in her eyes. But that was not the only thing hurting right now. Her head was buzzing like crazy, every other muscle in her body was tense and screaming to her when she tried to move.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"What the hell are you doing?" Someone in her room asked. Wait, why was there someone in her room? And it was a male voice. Didn't he know that he was not allowed inside a girls' dorm room? She wanted to turn her head to the owner of the voice. But again her muscles started to scream at her. "Keep lying still. Your body is still healing from the beating." The owner came into her line of sight, it was Kezef Coarse. The most popular guy inside the school, what was he doing in her dorm room. Didn't he know who she was, the daughter of the Joaol 21? The racer that had lost all his status after the great incident. Of course, Kezef knew that if he was in her room, which was covered with posters of her dad. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I have being in a major accident and that I am lucky to be able to tell the tale." She said, her voice was cracked. He smirked, as a racer he might know the feeling.

"Well it came pretty close." He said. "The dean is already aware what has happened. He came by last night, when mister Cause and I debated about healing your wounds." They did what, didn't they know that she was not able to afford any treatment like that? "I covered the costs. You really needed it." Her eyes grew, he covered the costs. He didn't even know her and still he covered her medical bill. She didn't question him about the fact that she might needed it, her body still hurt like hell. So they had done the bare minimum, but still it cost him credits.

"Why?" She asked and he shrugged.

"You needed it." He repeated himself, this was not an answer in her opinion. But she was willing to take it, for now. But now all she wanted to do was sleep, and hoping that the pain will disappear after she woke up. "Go back to sleep, again, your body needs to heal." She moaned. "I am staying right here." Why was he staying with her? Did something else happen when she was out? She hoped not, but she didn't have time to question him.

*****

Kezef sighed when she fell back a sleep. He had seen the pain on her face, and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't even wonder why he wanted to do something about it. She was another human being, who didn't deserve this. There was a knock on the door, he walked over and opened it. It was his roommate, what was he doing here?

"So the rumors about her are true?" That was the first thing he said. Not a great start. Kezef knew that his roommate hated the fact that Dina shared a school building with him, he knew that almost the whole student body felt this way. And why, all because of who her father is? But didn't he felt the same way when he first heard about her? He was ashamed to admit that he did hate her, but that was before he met her. And from what he had seen last night, he can say that she was a very strong woman.

"What are you doing here Virgil?" He asked, his roommate looked as he had gone crazy.

"That is a question I wanted to ask you, man. What are you doing in that woman's room." Virgil replied.

"That woman was attacked by four men." Kezef said, a bit annoyed. Why was he explaining himself.

"I was told that she gave one of them the first punch." Vigil said. Was he serious?

"Even if that was the case, which is not. There is a recording of the whole ordeal, so there is proof. But still if that was the case it was still four against one." Kezef said, and this time Vigil nodded in agreement. "And the dean has asked me to keep an eye on her." Vigil looked shocked.

"Why in the hell would he ask you?" Vigil asked.

"Because, I was the one who saved her and brought her to her room." He said, still explaining himself. "With the concierge." He quickly added. Vigil shook his head and sighed.

"Man you are too nice at times. She is the daughter of a murderer." Vigil said. "Look at the many posters of him in her room, she even idolizes him." Kezef rolled his eyes.

"You know Vigil, I have been in the racing world over a year. And do you know how many times I have being in the same position as Joaol 21?" Kezef asked, Vigil shook his head. "Too many times to even count. But luckily for me, my brakes were not tempered with." Vigil's mouth fell open. "So please cut the crap about her being a murderer's daughter. There was indeed foul play going on that day, but her father was a victim in all of this too."

"But he is still banned..." Vigil started.

"Because they didn't find the real cooperate, and they needed someone to blame for the three deaths." Kezef said, he quickly looked over his shoulder she was still fast asleep. Good she didn't need to hear all of this. "Vigil can you grab me mine homework?" Vigil nodded, and tried to peek over his shoulder. "Vigil."

"Yeah, yeah." He replied, like a punished child. "I am going. Be right back." And he left. Kezef quickly closed the door, so that no other curious students could peek inside. Not that there were any other students in the hallway at this hour, they should be all inside their classrooms. It was a monday after all, he also should be in class right now. But then again who was going to watch Dina? Nobody, nobody would watch her. Nobody had watched over her before she was being attacked, and if he was not going to watch over her after this, maybe something similiar would happen again. Or it might even be worse. But what could he do?