Walls of LaNova

Everyone rallied around as I was formally exiled from the school, looking upon the faces of my deceived classmates. Kayhari protested as I was forced out, humiliated beyond anything I had ever been through. "Wait! Stop, this isn't right!"

"Hey, I'm sure there's an explanation!" Lance was right behind her to back me up.

Kai pleaded, "It's not her fault! Don't send Lily away!" Tears welled up in the corner of his eyes.

It had all happened so fast that I didn't know what was going on anymore. After Suki and Laura reported Aqua and me, it was all downhill. I was sent to the headmaster, surrounded by the teachers and made into a fool. Ms. Silvenda claimed to know nothing, which made me feel as if I was stabbed in the heart.

The wrath of the headmasters words had little bounds of what I was in this world; an embarrassment to the academy for trying to make it without magic. They weren't wrong though. It was time for me to accept my fate and go back to my reality.

Ms. Silvenda watched in horror as I testified to coming from the other world and admitting my lies. I didn't through her under the bus, however much I may have wanted to. She had given me a life at the academy and that was more than I could ever ask for. For the first time in my life, I had the rare opportunity to live in a fantasy world, and bond with its inhabitance. It was over and I was ready to go back to my old life. It was time to leave the Academy for Magical Rejects.

But what would the class do without it's main character?

For the rest of the day, I sat outside of the walls of LaNova, the city the school was located by. Aqua was sleeping next to me, seeming deep in rest. I couldn't go back when my mom was at home. She took a day off from work to be sick. Thinking about how angry she would be when she found out I wasn't registered for my normal school scared me. The sun was starting to set over the horizon as I heard footsteps from behind me.

"Are you lost?" a voice came from over me. I looked up to see a lady in a wide brimmed hat.

"Ms. Lune?" my face lit up. I wanted to cry so badly and tell her all the awful things that had happened. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just busy being somewhere I shouldn't; outside of my niece's home," she giggled. "What are you doing outside of the school grounds?"

"I was planning on going home, but I don't have the courage," breathing out, I pulled my legs against my chest.

She crouched down to my level. "I know a way to get plenty of courage."

"What?" I looked her in the eye.

"Come with me! I'll show you all the mysteries of the mushroom woods," she smiled. And before I knew it, the sleeping Aqua and I were whisked away to the small cottage of Ms. Silvenda where Lune was staying. It was a long walk, but it was worth seeing all the magical creatures and plants. Maybe being expelled wasn't the end of the fantasy I had been living for the past three weeks.

The cottage door creaked as the eccentric witch held it open for me. The floorboards, however, were much sturdier. The walls were covered in picture frames and shelves displaying Ms. Silvenda's findings. "Make yourself cozy! Hot chocolate is coming right up-"

That's when Ms. Silvenda burst through the door. "Aunt Lune, something... Lily?"

She was shocked to see me. "I found her curled up against the outer wall of the city. Do you want some hot chocolate?"

"No, but thank you," she replied briskly. "There is something I would like to do since you managed to find Lily by some miracle."

"Oh, what are you on about now?" the witch rolled her eyes as she placed her hat on the coatrack near the door. "Is Lily dying; no! She is perfectly fine and there is no need to worry."

"Yes, but she was banned from school! They figured out that she doesn't have powers and if from the other world!" Lune shuttered at the news.

"And you were going to tell your aunt none of this?" She tapped her foot as she lit a fire to boil water for the hot chocolate.

"Well, I need you to help me get her back into school," Ms. Silvenda pleaded. "I need you!"

"Don't ask what I think you are going to ask me," Lune cut her off, but Ms. Silvenda persisted.

The blue-haired witch stood in silence for a moment, likely thinking of a way to get her aunt to comply. I spoke up, "Ms. Silvenda, I can just sign in to my normal school again. I don't have to go to this one."

"Yes, yes you do," Ms. Silvenda protested, a little out of character. Then she walked over to her aunt. "It's for the good of the witch lineage. You don't want us to all be exiled, do you? A memory wipe spell is the only way."

My ears perked up as I stocked Aqua's back. She was still asleep. Witch lineage, what did that mean? Lune continued, "Yes, but a memory wipe spell for an entire school is out of the question!"

"What if I did it with you!" Ms. Silvenda offered. "I'm not a child anymore. I can do more advanced spells."

Lune stirred the pot, sprinkling in coco powder and other sweet things. After a moment she paused and turned to face all of us. "For the sake of Lily, it shall be done!"

"What-what happened?!" Lune's announcement had woken my grumpy cat.

"Nice to see you finally join us," I laughed.

After hot chocolate, and catching Aqua up on all the events she missed, Lune and Ms. Silvenda prepared the ritual.