Western Academy

['**' used for monologues / inner thoughts.]

Location: Western Heaven, Heaven, World#1024

Date: Geo Year 3045, April

Soft cherry blossoms fell upon the pavement, half covering it. I was standing, at a bus stop, on a road lined with cherry blossom trees on both sides. You could say it was snowing pink. The sun wasn't up bright yet as it was 6:00 in the morning, it wasn't much gloomy either. The temperature was a bit chilly too. You could call it a perfect morning.

Something felt off though.

I looked at the person next to me. Gwen, a considerably short girl with considerably short hair, was humming a brief tune as if a small birdie singing joyfully about spring time. She had a small smile in her face. She seemed to be enjoying it. This was an extremely rare sight, cause she wasn't like this all ways. Gwen normally had this serious bossy look in her face, commanding me this and that all the time.

Probably realizing that I was staring at her, she stopped her humming, quickly fixed her mood, and looked at me.

"You seem to be enjoying, Gwe", I told her.

I used to call her Gwe, cause the name "Gwen" just didn't sound right for me. It didn't suit her either.

"Ahem, what are you speaking about, Anna?", she said adjusting her throat.

"Look at you casually using my name… so adorable", I teased her.

I actually liked teasing her, even though she wasn't easy to be teased.

"Shut up", she pouted and looked ahead.

I actually liked this nature of hers, and she was the only one, besides a few others, that treated me this way.

She was like an elder sister.

I checked my hair, that was in a pony tail, and then my dress. It was actually a uniform, one with a rather short skirt and a shirt with a blazer on top of it. We also had a cap that looked like of an officer's. The whole uniform was navy blue, and had a few strips of light blue. There also was a white badge on the left side of our blazer. Next I checked my carry-on bag.

"Is something the matter?", asked Gwen attentively, as if noticing my nervous nature.

"Oh, no. Guess I'm a bit nervous… It just comes to me that I might have forgotten something.", I said twitching the tips of my index fingers with each other. I normally do that when I feel nervous and embarrassed.

"Hmm? Is it cause it's your first time attending a normal academy?"

"May be… I guess"

Gwen tilted her head and looked at me as if examining me from head to toe. Just then, a bus arrived.

The bus was half filled with students wearing similar uniforms as the two of us.

This seemed to be the correct bus.

"No no, the other sideee", Gwen corrected me when I placed the wrong side of the bus card against the reader. **Gosh, I'll never get used to these…**

I heard some one whispering about a clumsy girl. Yes, my hearing was good.

I decided to ignore it.

What I couldn't ignore was the silence and all the gazes I got as I went for a vacant seat.

I decided to ignore that too. **May be I was just imagining things, or I was just too nervous.**

As we arrived at our destination, the two of us got down with our luggage, so did the other students. From the looks of it, they all seemed to be freshmen.

In front of us was a great big wall, with a great big arched entrance. On the side of it was written, "Western Heaven Academy". It almost looked liked the entrance of a castle but, considering the ones I've seen, this was way smaller. Many students who also looked liked freshmen went into the entrance, as if ants entering their hill.

"Missing home already?", asked Gwen from behind me.

"Not even the least bit.", I said as we proceeded into the academy, through the arched entrance.

.

.

.

Before entering through the gate we were asked to scan our student ID cards that had been sent to us along with our uniforms, a week prior. I held mine onto the screen and the mechanism beeped, displaying my name "ANNA SPINESWOOD" followed by the word "VERIFIED" in green text. **Yay, I did it correct this time.** (I was the type of person to get excited over smallest things.). The gate opened and I went in. Moments before I proceeded in, I noticed the lady behind the mechanism, the operator I guess, stealing glances at me. **Well, what ever... **I decided to ignore. The ability to ignore things was sometimes like a supper power of mine. Gwen caught up with me as soon as I set foot into the school grounds.

Now as we were in the premises we could see the whole scenery that had been blocked by the great big walls. First there was a long pathway, that went through a large garden that had trees, benches and ponds with fountains.

It almost looked like a park. Yeah, a park would be best to describe it. This almost was enough to give me a good impression about this place to me. This was so relaxing, unlike in the city where there were not much greenery, just buildings and buildings and buildings. There were two things I hated about this place, one was that this was an island, and two was that there were not enough greenery. Since the day I arrived, I could only sense very week spiritual energy that came from plants. Fortunately papa happened to have a great big orchard. I obviously, spent most of my time there. The number of times Gwen and my cousin sister had tried to drag me indoors…

I really get carried away, when it comes to this topic. I really loved natural spiritual energy. We all did, back at home, I mean where I was born.

Now this seemed to be quite the same, as my beloved orchard. I love this place already How ever, it's really not ok to come into conclusions this quick. I would understand that soon.

Gwen, who was standing besides me, let out a sigh. Guess I unknowingly let my feelings show. I had a slight grin on my face.

In the end of the pathway was a huge complex of buildings that had a quite familiar architectural design to them. Now this too was a bit nostalgic.

Gwen seemed to be a bit excited too.

We were told to stay in the garden, till we were called into the main hall. We could see the building in which the main hall was, to the left of the garden. It was a completely separate building, from the main building. I didn't understand why they thought of building it in separate place. To be honest, it didn't quite match with the architectural design of the main building.

**Guess we had come a bit early**, but didn't seem so cause there were many students present. Some sitting on benches, some on the grass, and some just standing. The academy may still be preparing things for the induction ceremony.

The two of us proceeded a bit more inwards, along the pathway.

I was feeling a bit uneasy, as I noticed many gazes falling upon me. Gwen too seemed to have understood it, as she gave the on lookers threatening glances.

**She's making it worse...**

Well I agree that I've got quite an attractive figure, but it isn't that attractive to bring so many gazes upon me. I looked towards the school building as if ignoring all those glances. Wait a min-

BUMP!

As I suddenly happened to realize something, someone bumped so hard against my shoulder, I fell down backwards.

My pants almost showed.

Thankfully Gwen helped me up quickly. If not, it would have been a disaster.

"Hey, out of the way", said one of the students who was in the group following the person that bumped me down.

"Sorry", said the boy that had just bumped into me, without even looking back.

I frowned, **how indecent…**

Gwen was busy wiping off the dust from my skirt. Some one else I didn't know, probably another freshman, came towards us asking weather I was fine. A boy with brown hair.

Suddenly he started scratching the back of his head, as if noticing something and embarrassed to speak about it.

**Hmm?** I gave him a look with a big question mark in my face.

"Thank you, I'm ok", I said.

The one that bumped into me was wearing the same uniform as I were, but there was a difference. His cap had three golden stars on it, and his uniform had a golden badge along with another golden star on the right. He didn't seem to be a freshman either. There also were another four with him. It would be better not to mess with the unknown, so I thought of ignoring what happened. Also I was in half fault, cause I was standing bit into the middle of the pathway.**It wasn't like he pushed me by purpose...** It would be best to just stay silent. I didn't want any trouble.

"Hey you dumb ass, don't you have any respect for ladies!?", Gwen shouted at the boy.

"..."

**Now she's done it...**

The upperclassman, probably, stopped in his tracks. As soon as that happened the whole atmosphere went silent. I took a glance at the boy who had come for my aide earlier, he was shivering. For first years to be scared, let aside know this guy. **Who was he?** Probably some one famous in heaven, I guess. That reminded me, I was completely new here wasn't I? By "here" what I meant wasn't this academy, but this huge artificial island, Heaven. Guess there were many things I didn't know.

There were two girls and three boys in his group. All of them, him included, turned this way. Now I saw his face. Long hair that had strands dripping down from his sides, a face that almost looked like a girl, an arrogant one. Also his eyes, his eyes were like blue sapphires that shined in light, but they looked sad. **Why? I guess.** Now that wasn't the problem here! He who looked as if he didn't even care, stared at me with utmost curiosity as if he'd noticed something.

He started walking towards me. The environment became more tense. I took a step back, as I felt his magical pressure. I guess Gwen, and all others did too. I just didn't sense it earlier.

**This is bad…**

I got a ticklish feeling from my ears, they were very sensitive. He had touched, and was softly holding my left ear.

"…"

I was speechless, I actually didn't know what to say, cause I was looking straight into his blue eyes. Also, he was smiling, more like grinning. I was more than thankful about my self for not letting out any weird sounds. If I did, It would have been more embarrassing.

"H-Hey you idiooooot. What in the hell do you think you're doing?", Gwen shouted at him.

Her face looked furious. The boy didn't care the least, he was fully focused on me.

"Well well, look what we've got here…, an elf.", he said letting out his croaky voice, that didn't suit him at al- **wait what did he just say?**

"Huh!?"

**Ooooooh**, now I know what I had forgotten, what had made me feel a bit dubious this morning. It was my ears. My long pointy ears.

Of course, I happened to be an elf.

My ear felt more and more ticklish, making me a bit uneasy as he fiddled with my ear, rubbing it gently. I didn't want any more attention directed to my self by releasing my mana, but this didn't seam to end. I had no other choice but to-

"What's happening over there!"

Some one shouted. We all looked at the direction of the voice, to see a small girl with a heavily built man besides her.

I was saved.

[Hello, author here!

Well this is the start of our story "Elf Of Western Academy". Please support me by giving your honest feedbacks. So, I could improve my writing along with my editor (Neel-kun) and deliver you better chapters in the future. Also, add it to your library ;p

Ruchi Tarin.]