As the song finally kicks in, two faces turn to look at me. The driver is Jason, driving his girlfriend's car. Jason lives down the street from me and has been a friend for a very long time. He and his older brother Cye used to play with us all the time as kids. So did our next-door neighbor's child. Yue and Jason used to skate together, the two bros. They got famous in middle school because they used their abilities as air elementalists to get more air. To get higher pops, to go faster, and to even get more tricks in.
Yue is five foot three, though that was expected. Both her parents are Chinese and moved here while Mrs. Li was still pregnant with our friend. Stereotypically, Chinese people are short and Yue despises it. Jason teases his girlfriend, blue eyes sparkling with mischief in the rearview mirror as they meet my own. "You're only that good at skating because you're tiny. Aerodynamics and all that" and I'm greeted by a small hand with chipped yellow nail polish giving me the middle finger as I snicker, that hand then moving along to Jason's face.
Jason laughs and ruffles Yue's pretty white hair that she had very clearly put a lot of effort into putting it up into a neat ponytail. As usual, she only has one earring in, her yellow lightning bolt. It always gets tangled in her hair, I don't get how she can stand it. That would annoy me so much, but then again Yue has always been carefree...
Jason wears his usual mustard yellow beanie with a black hoodie under a stonewashed denim jacket. His brown hair sticks out under the edges of his hat, and his defined cheekbones are a little more noticeable since his hair has been flattened and so it doesn't frame his face anymore. He's handsome Sure, but this five foot eleven boy really has some issues, the main one being that he's constantly choosing me and Yue over his own brother.
Why doesn't Cye just hang out with us? Well to put it simply he's my ex-boyfriend. A real piece of work who claims to be able to speak to the god of darkness and that it tells him what to do. What an asshole. What did I ever see in him?
"So, what do you think our first day will be like?" Jason's low voice chimes in and we start driving, Yue lighting up her own cigarette with a smile while she fiddles with her necklace. It's a blue ribbon with a blue stone pendant. She's worn it non-stop for the last six months after Jason asked her out, it was his gift to her. It's from some tv show she loves, something called Avatar? Where people are elementalists but they don't call them that. They call them benders... Weird.
We pull up at the next house of our friend. It's a wooden cabin tucked away in a corner just beside the forest. Alice stumbles out with a smile, her shoulder-length red hair falls in beautiful waves, and behind the blue sunglasses, those eyes of hers sparkle. That means that Alice has something to tell us.
Before she can get in the car, she turns to face the baby sitter who holds Alice's one year old in her arms so she can wave goodbye to her mother and hello to all of us. Alice's blue dress is loose and elegant but then again I would expect no less of her. Soft grey knee-high boots and black translucent tights to protect her legs from the cool autumn air, plus a white cardigan and her usual large blue handbag. She gets in and waves goodbye to her daughter, Dana.
Once inside, the same chipper Irish voice we're so familiar with. Despite being only 16, Alice moved here alone just a few days before she gave birth to Dana. We met in our last year of middle school and became friends because Alice was the talk of the school, having had a baby and all. She came from a large Catholic family and finding out she was a water elemental really seemed to mess her up emotionally. Her family thought she was a demon.
Alice hands us all a pack of gum, as she usually does once a week. Mom friends... Can't live with them, can't live without them. I flick the ash from my cigarette and smile "Jason wonders what the academy will be like" Yue comments casually. Alice seems excited while she pipes up "Well, I was out back taking care of Chestnut And decided to go for a ride while Dana was still with Maya last night... And then I found this old castle looking gate in the middle of nowhere down the left side of the trail. The house was huge, and so were the gardens. I think someone might be movin in there from all the work I saw bein done" I love the way she says think. Tink. Her accent is just so damn cute.
"I think whoever lives in that big house will have a huge family and they'll probably all be in the academy. I can't believe it's only two years until we start the rest of our lives. Maybe they'll be cute boys?" Alice adds, stretching out her slim legs to lay them across mine. "Or what if they're someone very important? That house was only ever used as a place for council members to practice weird occult stuff since it's said to be built on top of a set of caves that the god of darkness created beneath the island. Supposedly a whole lot of spooky shit happens there" Jason usually doesn't have stories like this, so clearly none of us believe him.
"What? Cye says he's been in there and that them building on top of it causes all kinds of weird freaky shit like people going missing and mirror reflections looking nothing like the person it's reflecting... Freaky shit" Ugh, Cye... Jason admires his big brother, but he doesn't really know everything. Jason loves his horror movies though, so no doubt we'll all get dragged out there to at least scope the place out. I hope Cye doesn't tag along...
"Forget all that creepy shit! Jason heard that a new principle was elected to run the academy last semester, isn't that right, Qīn?" apparently that last word is a Chinese pet name. I hope Yue isn't insulting Jason, but who knows? Certainly not me. I can only speak Spanish, and not even that fluently. Jason smiles at his girlfriend with a gaze I have only ever seen and not experienced. I see it in the way my mother looks at my father, the way Alice looks at Dana, the way Seth looks at Chloe... I could go on but my thoughts are suddenly interrupted. I wish somebody would look at me like that.
"Well, Maya? What do you think?" I pause suddenly. I stub out what's left of my cigarette and put it in the ashtray compartment of Yue's car. "I think he definitely won't be as good as the previous principle. My mom said he's the old Vice Principle and that he's a lot more old fashioned" I say as I put my lollipop back in my mouth. "Dude will probably go on a power trip for the first few months, but he'll calm down after a while. He's not a supervillain" How... Realistic. Jason's never ever been this realistic. He loves his conspiracy theories and isn't exactly the most grounded person.
We pull up at our next friend's house and he gives us that charming smile we're so familiar with. Nick hops into the seven-seater car and smirks at us all. His father was an Australian man who moved here a whole twenty five years ago. His mother is my mother's best friend and dad passed away when Nick was 12. It's been really hard for him and his mom who he's supporting physically, emotionally, and financially. He's steady and stubborn and strong and he deserves the best. He's been one of my best friends since before I could walk. Nick retained a mild Australian accent that he got from his father's own very heavy one and I think his accent is hella cool if a little confusing with all the slang he's picked up from video calling his grandparents, uncles, cousins and a few online gaming buddies.
Nick is a tall, muscular guy and so Alice moves to lay her legs across us both now, despite Nick having to slouch heavily to be comfortable in the car, sat behind Yue who moves the seat forwards for his comfort after noticing. "Yous should come over for a barbeque this weekend. My ma is going to meet pa's brother in person for the first time so we can chill and get some beer in and smoke a couple of cones since the weather is gonna be fuckin beautiful. Maya, bring your bong?"
Shaking my head, I can hear my earrings jingle so adorably. I love it. "What about Cleo's place? I wouldn't want to get you in trouble, Nick" but he shrugs and grins, those green eyes twinkling with joy "Ain't no need to worry. Ma doesn't care. And neither do your parents. They smoke more ganja than me and Jason combined... But, my main reason for asking is because I've got some tabs in the freezer and it'll be fun as hell to do it in my place... Or Maya's. Whichever" hold on. Tabs?
Alice pauses and then looks over at him "What the fuck? Tabs as in acid? As in LSD?" Oh no... This is- "Count me in, a Pheata" what is it with all these native terms of endearment today? I can't speak Chinese Mandarin or Gaelic. As if sensing my confusion, Alice looks over at me and grins "Means 'My pet' but it's specifically for children. My mother used to call it me all the time before I came here, all my sisters were nightmares so I just had to be less trouble than them and I could get away with anything" Oh. "Like I do with my brothers then?" I add, and my Irish friend nods enthusiastically. "I can't get away with anything!" Yue pipes up, a pout on her tinted lips.
"That's because you're an only child, babe" it's at this point that Alice's heart melts. Yue looks over at her boyfriend and gives him a playful punch to the upper arm while we're at the traffic lights. "At least I don't have any older siblings to steal my stuff and eat my leftovers" she quips back, that playful glint in her eyes. I can't help but snicker and Jason puts on his stern face "I will turn this car around, Ying Yue Li. And then we'll all be late for our first day in the academy" Jason takes his leftovers very seriously, it seems. Good to know.
Nick slips his hand into the pocket of his dark grey pants, pulling out an off-brand mini pepperoni stick. He then unwraps it and shoves it in reach of Jason's mouth. After a brief pause, the skater takes a bite and calms down "Thanks, sugar lips. Hey, why don't you ever do that?" Jason asks Yue with playful intensity. These three... "I don't love you like he does," the tiny Asian girl says with a mock-frown. Nick lets Jason finish his snack and starts driving again now that the light has turned green. That felt like it took forever to happen. "I told you so" Nick comments casually as he decides to start poking me. I frown and pout and squirm, not liking his prodding at my ribs. This continues for several minutes, as we pull up to our last friend's house.
"Nicholas!" our friendly neighborhood redhead snaps to which he immediately stops poking me. We ring the doorbell, and out comes the queen of chaos herself. Cleopatra Raeni Elizabeth Campbell, or Cleo as we, her subjects call her. Her family has been here since 1920. Nearly 100 years. They're very powerful fire elementalists with a taste for luxury. They're a wild, eccentric family with a huge, beautiful home. The architecture is amazing, it looks just like a nineteen twenties house in New Orleans. Her family left there in 1921 to come to the Isle Of Genetrix.
Cleo has opted for skin-colored dance tights, black knee-high socks under her favorite red heeled ankle boots. She's so tiny... Four foot ten if you want to be precise. So those heels help her feel more normal. Black shorts help accentuate her beautiful curves though. She's wearing the shirt I bought her for her birthday last year, a v-neck red top with long flowing elbow-length sleeves. she has it tucked into her shorts and is also wearing a cropped red leather jacket and an intricate-looking diamond choker and another necklace, this one has a huge ruby pendant on the end in the shape of a heart and it hangs just above her cleavage she has intentionally put on a show. That dark hair has been put up in one of those elegant old Hollywood buns with a few curled locks to elegantly and sleekly frame her face.
Eccentric red eyeshadow under classic vintage looking eyeliner and a pair of huge false lashes and a red lipstick really pop out on her dark skin. Those classic red nails too- wow, Cleo is really going for it today. She sets down her expensive-looking black backpack and pulls out a can of Coca-Cola for each of us "Compliments of my brother and sister, guys. But I wouldn't trust it... Leave it a while first" that smooth voice. If I were gay, Cleo would almost certainly be the girl I'd want to try it with.
Lesbianism aside, Yue rotates in her seat and leans over her chair to look at Cleo, sat in the back. She shouts over Radiohead. I decide to skip this song, we've had our obligatory loner song and Creep wasn't it this time, unfortunately. Ready or not by The Fugees? absolutely. Cleo grins "So my date the other night-" "A new guy? Already" Alice butts in. "Yeah. The last guy was disappointing. He tried telling me my place was in the kitchen. So, I went into the kitchen, made myself some leftover shrimp gumbo, and gave him some with my mom's laxatives in it. When he ran home, I broke up with him via text" Jason and Nick go quiet but I can't help being enthralled. Cleo is a fascinating, scary crazy girl. Absolutely psycho, and always with a new guy. I think her longest relationship was six months? Her reasons for leaving men are so fascinating.
"That's the second guy this month, you'll have had sex with at least half the boys we're about to be sat in an auditorium with and have at least a quarter of them on standby for casual sex. How the fuck do you manage that?" Alice asks, seemingly as amazed as I am. "I just can't help being flirty. It's in my blood. Oman intense gal, and if the boys I'm with can't handle me, I'll just have to see if I can get me a girlfriend who's steady and easy-going but always down for a good time... And obviously she has to be able to withstand me watching all those old Hollywood movies and all the candles in my room" Wait, Cleo likes girls??? This is news to me "What the fuck? Cleo, you never told me you liked girls!" our resident psycho looks over at me, and then her eyes widen slightly "Oh fuck... Right, guys, I'm bisexual"
With that confession, we all smile at her. A chorus of "Cool"s can be heard throughout the car, and all too soon we're looking for a parking space. Nick directs Jason and they let Yue out to go and get a parking ticket.
Once we've found our space, we hop out and Yue finds us. Now out of the car, 6'5 Nick's outfit can be properly appreciated. His green vans are worn and a little dirty, but Nick's always been outdoorsy so to us that doesn't look sloppy. A plain black v-neck t-shirt under a green flannel shirt and a grey denim jacket with his green backpack slung casually over his shoulder. His wavy blonde hair rests under a black beanie. He has a little bit of facial hair, and he keeps it nice and neat. He makes girls melt all the time, bunches of them love watching this beautiful man surf. It's weird and beyond Cleo levels of stalkerish.
So now we all separate and me, Yue, Alice and Cleo all have a little giggle to ourselves as we scout for cute guys, though Yue doesn't bother to join in too much, just pointing out guys she thinks the rest of us girls will do while Nick and Jason talk about boy stuff. Yue says it's just about videogames, football, and skateboarding and stuff like that.
The bell rings and we all re-group and head inside for the introduction assembly. I can't wait. I want to see if I can finally find my powers or get myself a new boyfriend or at least work on my art some more...
This is the start of the rest of my life!