~Following Lauren~
Lauren starts her day going through her usual routine, she puts her fringe up into it's usual pinned back style and lets the rest of her curly red hair rest past her shoulders. Lauren lets out a sigh as she continues getting ready. She checks her schedule while pinning the last few pieces of hair back, Lauren chokes as she stares at her timetable.
"Fuck, PDHPE first period… AND IT'S A DOUBLE!" Lauren groans, she then walks out of her bathroom and to her wardrobe. "Where the hell is that damn uniform? I need to keep better track of these things." Lauren grumbles as she rummages through her clothes. After a few minutes Lauren pulls out the school's sports uniform, it's mostly black with red lining. She changes, careful not to mess up her hair because she spends too much time on it.
She grabs her bag and heads out of her campus, She puts her earphones in and listens to her playlist as she walks. After Lauren's third song ends she places her bag down on the grass, She's now standing in the field located in front of the school's gym.
Lauren sees Juno and other members of her class gathering a couple metres away from her, she sighs and makes her way over to the rest of her classmates. PDHPE has never been one of Lauren's best subjects, it's another case of the practical work being a pain in her arse.
"Hey Lauren, are you excited for today?" Juno asks Lauren as the other girl joins the group of students. Lauren hums in response, she then turns to their approaching teacher. The teacher taking them for this class is Mr Coffins, Lauren's least favourite teacher. She lets out a little groan and gives Juno a look of pure dread. Juno snorts but just continues facing Mr Coffins.
"Alright third years, this lesson will be the first of many in the new unit. This unit was originally made when tensions were still high between countries and the government felt that it needed extra protection. Nowadays this unit is mostly used for day to day danger and not full on war." Mr Coffins is about to start talking again but then someone yells out "Get on with it!".
Lauren, as well as everyone else in the class, turns to look at the perpetrator. It's Matthew. Matthew is a smart kid, but he's very typical for a teenage boy when it comes to his behaviour. He has longish brown hair mostly on top and a slight undercut, but most importantly he is Junos twin brother.
Juno, the more sensible of the two, slaps the back of Matt's head "Shut up you idiot, you can't just do that anymore" She growls at her brother. The boy just glares at his sister and remains quiet.
"Now as I was saying. This unit is a practical unit for basic self defence and hand to hand combat. The world is a very dangerous place and you need to learn how to defend yourself." Mr. Coffins picks up where he left off, explaining the rest of what he was saying.
Most of the class whispers in excitement, but Lauren is practically weeping on the inside. 'I already suck at this, how am I expected to do well in a class that's all about physical activity' Lauren thinks to herself.
"Now, as Witches you all are capable of manipulating and using your pure magical energy without having to rely on objects or channelling it through elements of nature. Because of this, you will be learning how to shield yourself with magic for the first half of this lesson. The second half will be teaching you all the basics to self defence. Good thing we have a double period." Mr Coffins seems to be having too much fun at the prospect of firing offensive magic at his students.
"Now I want all of you to pair off and practice summoning your magic and forming a shield with your energy. Once you have successfully created a shield and maintained it, I want your partner to throw a small object at you to test how much kinetic force you can withstand." Mr coffins nods to the students as a sign to get started.
Lauren turns to Juno and says "Hey do you want-". "Sorry, I promised Matilda that I would pair with her for PDHPE. Ask my brother, no one wants to partner with him" Juno cuts Lauren off and heads over to Matilda, the little know it all that no one really likes.
Lauren sighs before walking over to Matthew, he's looking at her with a cocky grin plastered on his face. "I knew you'd come around eventually, no one can resist me" He says while radiating smugness. "Let's just get this done and over with, I don't want to be around you more than necessary" Lauren says matter of factly.
Matthew just scoffs and begins channelling his energy, his magic appears as silver smokey clouds from his hands. He then gets a focused look on his face and the magic starts to swirl around itself, the smokeyness soon solidifying into hard silver energy. "Impressive huh" Matthew says, sweat evident on his brow. "Very" Lauren deadpans.
Lauren then sends out her grey tendrils of energy towards her bag, she closes her eyes and focuses on the feeling of her energy moving in the bag, soon she finds what she needs and pulls her magic back to her palm.
She takes hold of the slightly warm pencil and pegs it straight at Matthew, sharp point first right at his face. The boy yelps and raises his hands up to his face to protect himself from the incoming attack, the pencil bounces cleanly off the silver barrier still formed at Matthews hands, the barrier disappears shortly after deflecting the murder weapon.
"Ha, see I'm amazing. Your attack didn't even break it" Matthew exclaims while pointing at Lauren. She hums in slight disappointment. "Go on then your turn!" Matthew says, still slightly hysterical. Lauren relaxes her hands and allows her grey energy to snake out from her wrists, she barely has to think before the four tendrils start extending and weaving between one another. They stitch together to form a grey barrier in front of Lauren that covers her whole front.
"Our Magic is the same colour, are you sure we're not meant to be" Matthew says obnoxiously. Ugh, Lauren hates that superstition that if your energy is the same colour as another person's it 'means your soulmates'. "Just shut up and throw the damn pencil at me" Lauren says frustration leaking into her tone.
Matthew complies and lobs the pencil at Lauren, surprisingly he also manages to throw it point first, and quite hard at her. The point makes contact with the barrier and it goes right through, stopping halfway as the barrier tightens around the object. Lauren stops breathing, her heart is hammering in her chest as she stares at the sharp point that's only a few centimetres from her right eye. The glass like broken pieces of the barrier fall past her and onto the ground. The feeling of her magic breaking causes Lauren to reel inside.
Matthew stares in shock at how easily the barrier gave way to the attacking object."Are you okay?" he asks with concern obvious in his voice. "Shut up" Lauren mutters as she dissipates the remains of her shield and lets her magic retreat back into her.
"Okay class, now it's time for the quick test before we move on to basic self defence." Mr Coffins says with cheer. "Now make a line in front of me and one at a time I want you to make your shield and I'll throw a very weak offensive spell at you." The class nods in understanding and makes a line.
First up is Juno, she's standing confidently in front of Mr Coffins as pink energy forms a circular shield on her arm as she raises it in front of herself. Mr Coffins hand sparks a colourless lightning that forms a sparking sphere the size of a tennis ball.
He lightly throws his hand forward towards Juno, who braces for the attack. Once the ball makes contact with Juno's shield, her shoulder recoils slightly before she pushes the shield forward slightly which causes the electric ball to release along the shield before then fading away.
"Good job Juno, you may have underestimated the kinetic force of my attack but quickly fixed your mistake. Everyone, keep in mind that energy versus energy feels very different compared to deflecting an ordinary object." Mr Coffins praises Juno. "Okay, next!" Mr Coffins exclaims to get the line moving.
Lauren doesn't really pay attention, she has a few ideas to make this work for her but she'll need to be really careful. Lauren focuses again once she realises she's now second in line, Matthew standing in front of her. He forms the same shield as before in front of his hands and prepares for the incoming attack.
The electrical ball comes flying and smashes against the barrier, the silver of the shield blinding those too close. The ball quickly deforms around his shield. Matthew receives some praise from Mr Coffins before he moves out of the line.
Lauren steps forward and watches as the ball forms in Mr Coffins hand once again, She suppresses a shiver at the sight. Lauren repeats what she did earlier and creates a see through grey barrier between her and Mr Coffins. Mr Coffins windes his hand back slightly and throws the ball at Lauren.
Lauren, like the students before her, braces for impact. As soon as the ball makes contact with the barrier, the shield starts to crack and bend from the force. Lauren smirks as she puts her plan into effect, she forces all the magic making up the barrier to disappear, only keeping the part of the barrier in contact with the ball.
She then converts the energy that made up the rest of the barrier and uses it to form runes on the remaining pieces of magic. A second after the runes form, the Electrical ball gets sucked into the now swirling magic that was once solid. Lauren reacts fast and forms an identical looking swirl of magic in her other palm and directs it at the grass. As soon as it forms the electrical ball flies out of the second whirlpool of magic and onto the grass harmlessly.
The other students are watching her with a mix of aw and confusion. Mr Coffins clears his throat "While that was impressive Lauren, It was entirely unnecessary. Portal magic is too dangerous to use at your current level, especially against hostile magic." Lauren shrinks slightly under his disapproving stare.
"I know sir, I just have a flair for the dramatics. Also I just finished a chapter on portal magic and I wanted to try it out" Lauren says, sounding suspiciously casual. "So that's why I broke your shield so easily, you just wanted to show off" This voice comes from Matthew who looks like the brightest light bulb went off in his head.
"Now that the first lesson is done, let's move on to hand to hand" Mr Coffins says, his smile back on his face. Lauren walks up to Matthew and drags him to a spot on the field by his collar. "I'm going to enjoy this," Lauren says with a vindictive grin on her face. Matthews eyes widen and he lets out a tiny squeak.
~Following Elora~
Elroa is walking through the halls of the Witches campus, she just finished 'English and Incantations' and is now on her way to the dining hall located in the main campus. As she's walking she passess a group of familiar girls, her eyes widen as she recognises them. They're the same group of girls who insulted her the day before.
She turns her face down and starts walking faster, luckily they don't seem to notice her so she continues making her way to the dining hall. Just as she reaches the door she feels someone pulling her arm, when she turns she sees it's Marilyn. "Hey Elora, come with me. I have some friends that you can eat with. Well actually they're my siblings but eh" Marilyn doesn't seem to take a single breath as she drags Elora over to a clean wooden table
located in the far left corner of the hall.
"HEY SIS!" Marilyn yells as she plops down on one of the table's seats. "I brought a friend to sit with us cause we're losers." Marilyn says as she pulls Elora down next to her. Marilyns
older sister turns away from the dark haired boy she's talking too to glare at her sister "Oh please, we both know I have friends and that I always eat with them. Your brother, not so much." The older sister says in a slightly haughty tone, she smirks when the brother lets out a "HEY" in offence.
"Yea, but your friends are losers as well so therefore your point is meaningless" Marilyn says, smiling at her supposed victory. "Oh right, Elora, these are my older siblings. Juno and Matthew, also known as the Truce twins" Marilyn introduces her older siblings with mock disgust on her face.
"Oh, I've always been an only child. How many siblings do you have?" Elora questions. "Oh, well we live with our dad in Queensland, our mother kind of left for England to marry this guy she met in a coffee shop. Now we have a bunch of half siblings running around the U.K" Juno says while chewing on a piece of banana. Marilyn blushes and mumbles "Don't tell her our entire life story, I just met her yesterday".
Juno shrugs in indifference and turns to look at Elora. "So, how are you enjoying your time here at school?" Elora looks at Juno with a thoughtful expression. "Well, It's been okay. I haven't really made any friends except Marilyn, and maybe Lauren '' at the mention of Lauren, Juno chokes and sputters for a second.
Elora is about to ask why Juno reacted that way but then she feels a hand pat on her shoulder. She turns and dread fills her stomach, Lauren is standing menacingly behind her.
"Hello Elora, I see you're making some friends," Lauren says in a sharp tone. She's about to continue but then she's interrupted by Matthew. "Speak of the devil and she shall appear" he says teasingly.
"Um, I don't know what's going on so Imma just leave you to talk" Marilyn speaks up as she grabs Elora and drags her to the opposite end of the table. "Anyways, what I was going to say before all that happened is, would you like to go exploring with me this saturday?" Marylin grumbles for a second before then going back to her energetic self.
"Oh, that'd be great-" Elora starts "Don't forget, I'm tutoring you saturday!" Lauren interrupts from across the table, having been listening to their short conversation.
"Damn, sorry maybe another time Marilyn" Elora groans, not wanting to do extra school work.
"Oh dang, well have fun with that" Marilyn gives her condolences and scoots them back over to the grown ups table. They all talk about nothing at all for the next fifteen minutes then head back to class to finish the rest of the day.
Nothing really of note happens for Elora, in fact the only thing she's particularly looking forward to is the first Tutoring session with Lauren.
"I will make her my friend" Elora mumbles to herself as she drifts off into oblivious sleep.