After setting all my stuff down, getting undressed, putting on my pajamas, I tell Amelia what all happened. After speaking, a small silence crept in between us. That didn't last long.
"Wait what?! Your emblem glowed?!? And on your first day too!? Wow, I can't believe it. Do you know that there are people who don't even have their own glow until graduation?" Her enthusiasm makes me smile and actually settle down quite a bit from all that happened in what seems like a short period of time.
"Yeah so I've heard, but I wonder why this happened to me all of a sudden." I lie down on my pillow and glance up at her, just to see her smile hasn't diminished. "And on the plus side, you're buddies with a totally hot bad boy, and he's even a visiting student at that!" She's up on her feet pacing back and forth from the door to her bed as she rants on about him.
"Yeah I know, he's Victor. You know the one who helped me in town yesterday?" She stops in her tracks and slowly turns around to face me. Her expression is out of this world. "You actually had your fateful reunion?! Oh my gosh I am so jealous right now! This is the greatest start to the best romance ever!" I sit up slowly and try to calm her down. "Hey let's not get ahead of ourselves - "
"Just look how red your face is getting! You must not be so against the idea of romance then." I put my hands up to my cheeks trying to cover them up from her. She, of course, had to interrupt my thought and make me feel all embarrassed.
"Come Amelia, quit teasing me. It's... It's not like that." I say trying to shy away. Amelia sits down on her bed and takes my hands in hers. "I know I know. You haven't fallen in love before, so you don't really know what it feels like." I turn my face away from her to try and avoid this conversation, but she pulls on my shoulders to draw my attention back. "I'll give you some hints. When you first look into his eyes, your heart starts to race. Second, when you touch him, it beats EVEN faster. And third, every word he says makes your chest tighten. Almost like your heart might explode." I tear away my hands and lie back down and cover my face for it's redder than a tomato. She continues on to tell me it's destiny and that we'll get married and have lots of children together. But I can barely get over the fact that her hints are true. Could I really be in love? We both head to dinner, then back to the room for late night studying till we both fell fast asleep.
Tonight I have the same dream again. The woman with the wings and speaking one word. But this time another word comes through. I can hear a desperate voice cutting in and out, but nothing more happens in my dream and I wake up the next morning with no clue as to what I was dreaming. It almost feels like a whisper. A whisper in the abyss of my dreams. I am able to grab some breakfast before class, thank goodness, so walking to class seems a lot easier with a full belly. But my dream still puzzles me to no end. It's the same one that I've had for two nights in a row now. I mean people don't have the same dream that often right? But I can't seem to get it out of my head. It's like she was trying to tell me something important.
"Freya," Jin says as she appears in front of me, pulling me away from my wandering thoughts. She's done her hair slightly differently today. It seems to be more carefree and loose than it was the other day. "Good morning."
"Good morning Jin. Want to walk to class together?" She nods and smiles gently at me. I was right. Absolutely beautiful. "You know, thank you for showing me most of the campus yesterday, it really meant a - ," Being cut off, Victor shows up. I can't help but feel annoyed at being cut off.
"Hey Freya, Jin. Good morning to you both! Want to walk together?" His toxic smile he flashes at the two of us makes my heart skip a beat. Jin, however, loses her smile and just keeps quiet. Almost as if she is upset to see Victor. Like she doesn't want him to come along. "Yeah sure. Let's all go, but we should go now. It's almost time to be in our seats. Plus we have the same white magic class together so that's cool." I try not to show my excitement, so I don't embarrass myself. I wish Jin could be in my class too. I could get to know her better. I think she's older than I am so I'm guessing that's why we don't have any classes together. She's also a genius.
With that, we all walk on to class. Of course Jin goes a separate direction, making me feel a tad bit sad. Walking into class seems normal now, with Victor beside me. But I also drew the attention of some of the girls here. I can tell just from their expressions that they are very jealous of me. That's very uncomfortable. I look for an empty seat, and it seems Landon has kept my spot from yesterday open for me. I quickly took my seat, as Victor takes the same seat he sat in yesterday, next to me.
Before I can take out my textbook, Lisa walks up and smiles brightly at me. But when she sees Victor next to me, her jaw slightly drops. "Oh hey, it's the visiting student!" Her voice is a bit raised and she puts her hands down on my desk. "Friend of yours?" Victor asks politely, but is almost kind of territorial.
"Yeah this is Lisa, she's in the next class but she's pretty awesome. Good morning Lisa." I smile brightly back at her. "Good morning to you too Freya." I can already tell that Lisa and I are going to be very good friends. I hope we can have a study group together while I'm here.
"And I'm Victor. Good morning." He chimes in and puts his hand out to Lisa. She gladly shakes his hand back, almost leaving her hand on his for too long. I can't help but feel jealous.
"Oh trust me, I know who you are. People are talking about you all over. We don't get visiting students here on training too often. Especially around this time of year. Anyway, I hear you come from a lab, right? What're you researching?" Lisa starts to become very nosey and I can't help but feel a wave of frustration come over me. I look at Victor to see if he'll respond the way he did to me.
"Sorry that's classified. Business secret. I'm not inclined to speak about it with anyone besides my coworkers, and only at the lab." He shrugs his shoulders and leans back in his seat.
"By the way, I love your tattoo on your arm. What does it mean?" Lisa's on to the next subject without even blinking an eye.
"My father had the same tattoo when he was my age. And when he passed, I decided to get the same tattoo myself." I felt my heart ache. So he lost his dad too? I hope he still has his mom. I wish I could still have my dad and mom. I can't help but feel more connected to him in some odd way. Seeing that his response made Lisa uncomfortable, she changes the subject yet again.
"So why'd you come to relearn white magic?" Before he can answer her question, the bell rings. Lisa swears to herself, then runs out of the room before the teacher can enter the room. Everyone else takes their seats and waits for the teacher. As we all wait in a sort of muted silence, while still chatting, Victor leans over in my direction. "You know, back when I was younger, and even today still, I gotta act more seriously. Take this whole school thing for real. It'll make a good impression on the ladies."
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