It had been two weeks since her last visit to their headquarters. The mission given to her made her hysterical. She kept recalling the words Mr. Charles had said.
"Yes, and your final mission is to kill the Black Beast."
Shock was painted in Dorothy's face. "Sir?" she spoke as she looked at her boss with a questioning look.
"You heard me right? I said your final mission is to dispatch the black beast."
"But sir, Why me?" Dorothy had a lot questions going on in her mind. Of all people, why would he picked Dorothy? This mission was an S-rank mission in the first place, would it be better to let the senior agents handle this? Dorothy thought.
"What kind of question is that? Why? Are you going to turn down this mission?"
Dorothy wasn't sure what to answer. She was reluctant, yes. But, she still couldn't say no.
Dorothy faltered. "It's not that, Sir. I mean, I'm just surprised. You know, killing the black beast is not an easy job. In fact, I lack informations about his background and about he himself. How can I defeat him? Does this mean I'm going to re-enter the school again?"
Yes, Dorothy was once a student of the School of Magic but she wasn't able to graduate as she was pulled out early from school because of a job offer. That job, was what she do now, being an agent.
Dorothy bit her tongue. She wanted to take back the last words she said. The idea of re-entering the school was horrible.
But, Mr. Charles just agreed with her. "Exactly! You're so smart! That's why I chose you to be in this mission."
Dorothy's face dropped. She couldn't complain at all but accepted the mission.
She was taken aback from reality when her grandfather approached her.
"Congrats, my child. Because of your mission, the marriage proposal has been cancelled temporarily." Her grandfather beamed at her.
She knew too well of her grandfather, behind that beaming smile was a worried face. He didn't like the idea of the mission. For him, it was too risky and if Dorothy failed, it could imperil the lives of the humankind and her life as well.
But Dorothy couldn't cared less what would happen to her in this mission. She signed up for this, so she was prepared to die. That's what she wanted to tell herself, but deep inside, she was more scared than anybody else.
"Yeeaahh! After all, this mission had done good things to me. Hayst!" she said sarcastically. She wanted to conceal her real emotions with numbers of layer and appear strong infront of others especially to her grandfather.
"Come on, Child! Cheer up! It's your first day of school."
The mission she accepted might brought trouble and danger to her life. But the jolly side of her grandfather's personality drew away the bad thoughts of the mission. In times like this, she was always thankful for him.
Dorothy smiled faintly, "I know, grandpa. I'll get going now, I still had to go to the headquarters." she kissed her grandfather in both cheeks, it might be the last if ever she failed her mission. No!She erased that thought immediately. No more bad thoughts. She said to herself. She'll come back.
"Okay, Child. Good luck!"
She bid her farewell to her grandfather. She looked back once again only to see a glimpse of her grandfather wiping away his tears. Seeing him like this, she felt courage in her heart.
Goodbye, grandpa. I'll be back.
She sighed deeply and went straight to the headquarters.
Time had passed, she was now standing in front of the school's tall gates. She had brought with her the tools and gadgets for her mission, clothings, personal belongings and a uniform. She hissed in disapproval when she saw the uniform, too girly, Dorothy thought.
The gates had open for her. It moved very slowly with a loud grating noise as if it was in slow motion. When the gates were completely wide open, a long roadway loomed in front of her. And at the far end of the road, the school's main building with a huge glittering fountain was in sight.
She let out a heavy sigh.
She took a step backward as she hesitated for a moment before making up her mind to enter the school, the place where someone like her under the age of 20 truly belonged. As she walked across to the long way towards the main building, growing fear and anxiety rose from her inside. Thinking about the danger made her ponder whether she'll continue or to turn her back away. But in the end, she made her way towards the main building and did not dare to look back. Her head was clear. She was now determined to complete the mission even if it involves near-death experiences and life threatening situations.
The moment she reached the main building, she immediately proceeded to the dean's office and submitted her papers. The headquarters had put everything ready for this mission. Only she had to do was engrossed herself with training and of course, mental prep.
She went out of the building and roamed around. She hated this place before until now but she couldn't resist the truth that she adored the beauty of the infrastructures and designs of this place. A lot had change since she left here six years ago, but so much to her relief, the pathways hadn't change that much which helped her not to get lost.
She was on her way to her dormitory when she saw a group of students on the ground. Some were playing, casting some magic tricks, reading, sleeping, talking and some were doing nothing. The school had three separate buildings for each department: Elementary (from 1st to 5th grade, students aging 6 to 10 years old), Junior (from 1st to 5th junior year, students aging 11 to 15) and Senior High School (from 1st to 5th senior year, students aging 16 to 20). They also had a gymnasium, theater house, botanical garden, greenhouse, playground, wide open field, swimming pool, special rooms for students who have the same abilities and three houses with separate dormitories. The School of Magic resembled a normal school, except that the kind of students studying here were rather peculiar. They were all a magi.
Dorothy reached the house of Senior High School.
The houses where the students stayed were sorted into three: Elementary, Junior High and Senior High School, each having separate girls and boys dormitory.
There were a few students in the common room. As Dorothy entered the place, students turned their heads to her. Dorothy stood in her place awkwardly. She was hesitant whether to greet them or not.
Either way, one of the girls stood up and went up to Dorothy, saving her from awkwardness. She was a blonde girl, more like a dirty blonde. She must be a Senior High Student because of the school uniform she wore that resembled Dorothy's, which was a long sleeved black coat with a white polo shirt underneath and a maroon necktie, and a maroon pleated short skirt, except she had a badge, a particular crest, pinned in the left chest.
"Hello! You must be the new student. What's your name?" said the girl.
Dorothy cleared her mind. She needed to give a nice impression to her fellow students.
"I'm Dorothy Oliver, 17, Senior High School - 2nd year."
Up close, Dorothy noticed that the girl had a wonderful sea-blue eyes. Pointy nose like hers and small lips. Also, she looked like just about her age.
"Well, welcome Dorothy to the School of Magic. By the way, I'm Genevieve Lopez, 17, also a 2nd year, senior high student. I am the president of the prefect association of this department." said the girl— Geneveive, with a bright smile.
So that was the badge meant for. A badge to recognize a student as a prefect, a higher rank. Dorothy thought.
Genevieve faced the other students. "Guys! Meet Dorothy. Our newest student!"
All of them rushed into her. The girls and the boys wore the same color of uniform, which was maroon. This simply implied that they're all senior highschool students. All of them also had bagdes pinned in their uniform.
"Hi! I'm Jasmine Reign! 16, 1st year." A chubby bubbly, red-headed girl with freckles on her face, had a brown eyes, small nose, thin pink lips and fair skin came to shake her hands. Her brown eyes gazed intently to Dorothy scanning her whole body. When their eyes met, Dorothy thought she saw a faint light that flickered in Jasmine's eyes. Jasmine beamed at her. "Wow, your bone structures are amazing. You have firm and strong muscles."
Dorothy blinked in confusion. "You can see right through me?" She asked.
Jasmine shyly looked down at her own feet. "Yes and I'm sorry, I cannot help it. It's just my hobby, maybe."
"Jasmine possessed the X-ray Vision" Genevieve interposed.
"That's cool! I mean, seeing through something others cannot see, that's amazing. It could be useful in some secret-agent tasks."
"Secret agent?" Jasmine lifted her head as if she heard something that made her alert of all a sudden.
Dorothy felt something weird as the place came into an uncomfortable silence.
Dorothy bit her own tongue. Stupid me, Dorothy cursed herself in her mind. She made an awkward laugh to eradicate the tension building up. "Just kidding!"
Jasmine laughed awkwardly while Genevieve just smiled.
"Mentioning secret agents is kind of a taboo to us. I hope you'll understand us." Genevieve said with a worried face, but behind that face lies a nervous feeling.
Dorothy could felt it, something was fishy. As a secret-agent herself, she wanted to know the reason why they became sensitive about this certain topic. But she refrained herself from asking. Now that Dorothy knew how sensitive they are against secret-agents, the more reason she should be careful to hide her true identity.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to--"
"It's okay." Genevieve faked a laugh. However, it felt like the tension's gone.
Dorothy sighed heavily and curved her lips into a weary smile.
Next was a short guy with a curly, light brown hair and had a dark complexion. His eyes was color black, and he had a heart shaped-lips. "Hello Dorothy! A 3rd year, senior high student, Anthony Fraile, at your service." he said as he saluted. He then turned into a bird and flew away.
Dorothy was mesmerized. She had once wished to become a shapeshifter. Though it could be learned through series of serious trainings and practices, turning into something would take a lot of effort and time. But if you're born with this possession, a natural, it's an advantage.
Another was a cute girl, no, rather beautiful. She had a black hair put together in pigtails. She wore a flower crown in her head. Her eyes were large and sparkling black, her nose was cute and her lips was soft and thin. "Hi! My name is Alice Blossoms. Nice to meet you!"
"Are you a first year?" Dorothy asked.
"Do I look like one?" Alice laughed. "Actually, I'm also a 2nd year."
"Your face doesn't look like you're 17." You're more like 13 years old. But Dorothy didn't said that aloud, afraid to commit mistakes again with her stupid jokes. Besides she didn't knew them well, even though Alice would likely to swallow her jokes lightly. Still it felt not right, after all, they weren't close.
"Thank you! I'll take that as a compliment." Alice beamed as she hugged Dorothy and immediately pulled out. "Nice to meet you again!" She said and walked out gracefully.
Dorothy wagged her head in humor, realizing Alice's oddness. Alice didn't look like her age, rather, she acted older than her age. She appeared to be young and cute, but once you met her, she was truly graceful and elegant, resembling a nature goddess.
"Don't feel awful to your face." Genevieve snapped Dorothy out. "Because I also felt the same when I first met Alice." She added with a giggle.
"I'm not." I grinned at her.
"Welcome aboard!" Another man shaked her hands. "Dwayne Hudson."
Dorothy was mesmerized. He was a tall guy. His hair was black, his eyes were blue, the nose and lips were perfect, and the body had nice built. He also had a fair complexion. He was like the epitome of beauty.
"Nice to meet you." Dorothy said unknowingly.
Dorothy got light-headed. She felt something differently new and amazing. It was as if she was in wonderland as she saw sparkles flying out in front of her and the world seemed to colorized with different tints of pastels. She spaced out and was almost out of her mind, but Genevieve snapped her out and grabbed her to the sofa.
"Dorothy, are you okay?"
A voice reached to her. In a quick snap, she was pulled out from her fantasy and the world regained its original color. "Wait, what?" she asked in complete bewilderment.
"Dwayne, look what have you done!" Genevieve crossed her eyebrows as she glared at Dwayne and went to the cabinets. She came back to Dorothy with a glass vial in her hands. "Come on. Drink this. It will help."
Dorothy still felt light-headed but she accepted the vial and drank it. After a few seconds, Dorothy's senses came back and her awareness to her surroundings heightened.
"What is this?" Dorothy asked as she lifted the empty vial.
Genevieve was relieved to see Dorothy okay. "That is a healing potion for love spells."
Dorothy was confused. "Love spells? You mean, I was victimized by love spells? But by whom?"
Genevieve's eyes went to Dwayne and Dorothy followed her gaze.
"Dwayne Hudson. You met him a while ago. I don't know if you still remember, you kinda spaced out. But don't worry you're fine now."
Dwayne came to them. "Look, I'm pretty sorry. I don't know I was doing it. But, tell me Dorothy, did my love spell work?" He asked eagerly. "Ouch!" He flinched as Genevieve punched him in the arms and glared at him.
Dorothy was embarassed. That was so not her. She let her guard down. If she were to face something like this on her missions, she would lose a face eventually. She just face-palmed herself in her mind. "Well, the fact that I don't remember anything until this very moment, yes, it actually worked."
Dwayne made a triumphant laugh.
"Dwayne, stop it will you?" Genevieve was having an irritated face and her eyes was glaring at Dwayne to his death. It looked cute though, thought Dorothy.
"No, it's okay." Definitely not okay because she just lost a face. But okay since no harm was done. "So tell me, your possession is something about love? And you're like Cupid?" Dorothy asked. She didn't feel any hard feelings towards Dwayne despite what he had done even though she's a hot-tempered woman.
"Yes, that's right! Like Cupid, as handsome as Cupid." He chuckled on his own statement as he flexed his face as if he was facing a mirror.
Dorothy wanted to take back what she had said. He was more like Narcissus than Cupid though, she thought. Even so, Dorothy wouldn't consider him as dislikable, he was fun.
"Oh shut up Hudson! No time for sick jokes please! Stop playing around! Go away!" Genevieve shooed Dwayne away.
"Fine, fine." He walked out and muttered under his breath, loud enough for the two women to hear. "But I really am handsome— Ouch!"
A flying book hit the handsome Dwayne in his head. Certainly, it was Geneveive who threw that book. Dwayne just scratched his head and scowl at Genevieve in response.
"What?" Genevieve played innocent.
Dwayne made an irritated noise as he went upstairs to the boys dormitory. When he was gone, Genevieve stood up and sighed happily. "Come on. I'm going to show you the girls dormitory and your room." She beamed.
Dorothy laughed. "Yes, please."
The two of them went upstairs (opposite from the stairs to the boys dormitory) toward the girls dormitory.
"What happened earlier, I'm really sorry. Dwayne, he's a jerk you know. Actually, it's not the first time something like, earlier, happened. That's why we prepared healing potions beforehand."
"It's okay, not a big deal."
They walked through the empty corridor and stopped in front of a door that had a number 018 carved at the upper center with Dorothy's name just below it.
"It is. Love can be very dangerous you know?" Genevieve suddenly spoke. She said it in a sad tone.
Dorothy didn't exactly planned what to response next. Love? Dorothy never experienced love before so she was not ready for this kind of topic yet. But Genevieve maybe, on the other hand. Dorothy didn't want to just end their conversation with that, so she said what came to her mind. "So, are you and Dwayne in a kind of romantic relationship?"
Genevieve bursted out laughing. "Gods, no! I mean we never had that kind of relationship." She stopped and then sighed heavily "Just, just friends."
Geneveive's eyes were sad, that brilliant sea-blue eyes that Dorothy saw earlier were already gone. Oh, this conversation's really turning out to be that kind of conversation, Dorothy said to herself. But she didn't want to be rude and appear uninterested to the very first person she knew in this school. She could talk about it and give her an advice, at the very least.
"I'm sorry if I ask you this. You're inlove with Dwayne, aren't you?" Dorothy questioned.
"Inlove?" Genevieve smirked. "Madly, yes. Well, he's handsome and perfect and nice and humorous and..." Well, Dorothy wasn't expecting her to be too honest with her. They just met. However, as a woman, Dorothy couldn't just pretend she had no compassion.
When Dorothy looked at Geneveive's eyes, pain and sadness could be seen. Dorothy smiled. "You know what, I never considered myself as a love expert but this advice will surely help you."
"What is it?" Genevieve was all ears.
"Get yourself an antidote, the healing potion will do." Dorothy said jokingly and Geneveive bursted out laughing. And the two of them laughed together.
Dorothy knew that there could be so much pain in Geneveive's heart right now, but she didn't want to overstep and make half-hearted advices. After all, they just met. She still didn't know Geneveive that well, it would be smart to be careful on what she would say. Nevertheless, she was happy to make Geneveive laugh. It was the least she could do as for now.
Genevieve cleared her throat as she finished her laughing. "That... is a nice advice... really."
Geneveive suddenly widened her eyes as she remembered something. She dug out a key from her side pockets. "Before I forgot my duties, here are your keys to your room." She handed the keys to Dorothy.
Dorothy accepted it. "Thanks."
"Alright. Do you want me to assist you tomorrow?"
"No, I'm okay. I can do it on my own. Thanks for the offer."
"Okay, see you by tomorrow then. If we'll see each other."
"Yeah, sure."
Genevieve went back to the common room and Dorothy was left with a smile on her face. "Well, it's nice to have friends." She sighed happily and inserted the key to the keyhole of the door.
She peeked inside her own room, it was dark and no sign of other occupants. Unlike other rooms, she was alone which was a relief to her. The agency probably set it up for her. She switched on the lights and started unpacking her things— putting her clothes in an empty closet, arranging her things in the study table, and settling her tools and equipments in a box and hid it under her bed. She also prepared her uniform for tomorrow.
"Do I have to wear this?" She grunted as she put it in the closet.
She spent her remaining hours roaming around the school and familiarizing. By tomorrow, her mission would officially start.