School?

10 years later.

Amilia

I grab a pebble off the ground and look at the fountain in the center of our courtyard. The courtyard is filled to the brim with flowers of varying sizes, colors, and shapes. It almost makes my head spin when I remember I planted most of them. I roll the pebble in my hand, feeling the perfectly curved edge around its flat bottom. When I'm done with it I skip it across the surface of the water watching as it skips completely across the fountain and hits a cat. The ripples of the water make it shimmer, messing up my reflection on its surface. I look at myself, my dark red eyes and my white hair make me feel special. Red Eyes from my dad. White hair from my mom. I enjoy the thought before it reminds me that my dad is no longer here. I stand up and walk towards the door leading out of the courtyard. I hear the meow of the cat and turn around. I walk around the fountain and find the cat laying on the ground. I pick it up and bring it with me to my room. I walk up the stairs and walk into my room. I grab a t-shirt and some skinny jeans out of my dresser and walk over to the window. There is a faint pink on the horizon that seamlessly blends into the almost endless darkness of the sky.

I run down the stairs and into the kitchen. Where I'm greeted by my little brother Oakley.

"You want to try the breakfast I made you?" He asks. He's smiling while waiting for my answer. I don't want to say yes and find that It's another one of his abominable recipes. But, I also don't want him to be sad.

"What is it?" I ask him. His face lights up as he pulls a bowl out of the fridge. It's a bowl of yogurt with oatmeal and bananas in it. But on top of it all is his trademark spicy sauce. Made of Ghost Pepper, Jalapeno, and Lemon Juice. He calls it the Ghost Maker. I call it Oakley's Spicy Mush because it looks like a brownish-green mush on top of the perfectly good bowl of yogurt and oatmeal. I look at Oakley and he is smiling so brightly I think I might go blind.

"Fine, but you have to go get ready for school," I tell him. He heads off and goes to his room. I sit down and take my spoon. Scooping all of the mush of my breakfast and put it in a paper towel to throw away so he doesn't see it. I eat as much as I can, without touching the parts the mush was touching. I leave a little of it in the center and Oakley comes out of his room all ready for school.

"Did you like it?" He asks.

"Yes I did," I reply showing him the bowl before putting it in the sink and filling it with water. I run up the stairs to my room and grab all my stuff. Today is my last year at school and my room shows it. I lay in my bed and above me is a poster of me on the competitive cheer team.

I grab my phone off of the nightstand and scroll through my text. The one that catches my eye is from one of my friends and reads. "I heard we were getting a new student today,". I stood up and immediately texted back. "Where do you think they're from,". It took about a minute for them to respond. But it was an entire paragraph about what they had heard the teachers talking about.

I hear the bus coming and grab my bookbag and jump from the balcony of my room. I land and run to the stop. The sound of the gravel under my feet satisfies me as I run to the bus.

*******

When I climb off the bus. I see the brand new school building I get to be educated in. The building is 7 stories tall. The walls are gray brick walls that have magi seeping out of them. While the windows have a bluish tint to them that makes them seem as though they're a part of the sky. The path we're walking on is made of glass so we can see under us.

The glass has intentional cracks in it, separating them almost like a stone path. In between the cracks is a blue resin that is mixed with a faint green. Under us are magic stones of different colors. Each one glowing with mana that most people wouldn't be able to feel.

We barely even made it to the front entrance of the courtyard when I see a floating tree that's surrounded by tree fairies and a tiny wisp made of ash. One flies down to me and lands on my hand. It's about the size of my palm and leaves little cinders resting in my hand as it flies above it. The cinders tickle and they end up putting a smile on my face. Which only makes the-wisp happier as it begins to stop flying to dance on the palm of my hand. I condensed a tiny sphere of mana. So small that the wisp could hold it in its hands. When the wisp grabbed the orb I walked over to the tree and raised it up as high as I could. It flew up to the tree and gave it to the tree. When the tree absorbed the mana the wisp turned to look at me and waved goodbye before it flew into the leaves and out of sight. I walk through the doors and pull my schedule out of my pocket. The paper is a crumpled mess and has some sort of juice stain on it. Probably because of Oakley. I walk to the mess hall and see that it has rows of lunch tables and a set of stairs to another lunch area. It's a lot smaller and is only the edges of the room. The edges are blocked off by a pony wall. The room is filled with people and near the front, is a slab of purplish magic crystal so big it could be a wall, and standing under it is Dante Oryez. The entire reason I'm here and the most hated person in all of Tetharia. He has a smile plastered on his face and a necklace that's carrying a red amber. Since there isn't anyone up there but him. I decide I'll confront him.

"Hello, how are you today?" I asked him. He looked me up and down before looking around.

"I'm doing great," He responded. He seemed extremely annoyed.

"Well, why are you at this school? I asked. Which only seemed to make him more annoyed.

"What's your name?" He asked. His annoyance was now in his words as his posture became more comfortable.

"Amilia," I reply. Reaching out my hand which he refuses to take. He looked me up and down as if he was studying some sort of animal.

"Amilia," He scoffed. "I built this school,". The amount of pride in his voice told me he wasn't lying but, why would he do something good for the kingdom when he's the reason it's in such a bad state, to begin with.

A bell sounded and I rushed down to a seat. I sat down just in time to not be stuck on the ground as the tables all began to float. A group of teachers walked into the room and made their way to the front where a podium appeared. One of the teachers made their way to the podium. After reaching it they took their hood off and under it was a woman. She had silver hair and blue eyes and looked to be in her mid to late '20s.

"My name is Seralyn, and I will be this school's principal" She announced. She waved all of the teachers over to the podium before continuing.

"I am proud to be able to kickstart this school's first year with a test of magic power," She continued as one of the teachers placed their hand on the slab and it glowed a bright green that filled it in its entirety.

"The slab will show your amount of mana and give it a color based on its nature."She advised. Before the desk slowly began to make their way to the ground. Resting as one by one, students were called to place their hands on the slab until it was my turn.

I made my way to the slab and walked past Dante who for the first time since this had started was actually interested. When I place my hand on the slab I could feel mana flowing out and into it. I filled up half of the crystal more than almost every student so far. And my mana was a pure white, as white as winter snow. I made my way towards my seat with pride and sat down.

The last one was Dante. He set his hand on the slab and It was completely filled with black. A black that was so dark that it felt like it would bring destruction. The slab had begun to crack so he pulled his hand away and the black began to dissipate. But the slab was full of cracks. So many that it looked like it would fall apart. Seralyn placed her hand on the slab and the cracks had begun to repair themselves until the slab shined again.

"It's the first day and It looks like I get to teach a class," Seralyn joked before waving everyone out of the cafeteria. I looked back as I left and on her face showed only worry for the days that would soon come.