~Following Lauren~
Lauren cracks her eyes open, the first thing she registers is the pounding in her head. "What the fuck" she mumbles as she pushes her body into a sitting position from her place on the floor. Laurens eyes clear and she takes in her surroundings, she sees the chairs that were sat at the coffee table knocked over.
Suddenly, the events of the previous day come flooding back to Lauren. She shoots to her feet but is then suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion. "Oh… I fucked up" Lauren says, slapping her fourhead a few times before pushing her greasy curls out of her eyes.
The ginger takes a couple deep breaths and begins the exhausting endeavour that is walking. Lauren stumbles out of her room, the halls are empty and dark, the complete absence of life a little disconcerting. She tries to summon her magic to help balance her but is startled by a sharp pain that emanates from her chest. Lauren lets out a groan of frustration as she stumbles along the wall of the corridor, using it to balance herself.
She makes her way out of her campus and heads to the centre staff building, thankfully for her the front office is in the entrance on the first floor.
~Following… Tanya?~
The twenty two year old woman is currently panicking. 'How, just how could half the staff request time off at the exact same time, do they not realise I have to be the one to find proper substitutes and that I am also the one that has to make the lesson plans in their absence!'
She just got done with her shift when she was told that 'no, you can't go home yet. You have to pick up the slack for more than half the school! I do not get paid enough for this complete and utter bull.' She slams her head into the piles of paperwork sitting untouched on her desk, and lets out a silent scream.
And even now she can't get a break as she hears the bell informing her that someone has entered the front office. 'What is anyone doing here, it's two in the goddamn morning.'
The woman puts on her best customer service mask and smiles politely.
"Hello, welcome to Xekinímata".
"Cut the bullshit Tanya it's me" Lauren speaks as she leans against one of the front office's waiting chairs, she waddles over towards the desk.
"Lauren… What the hell happened, you look like you just woke up from the best party ever" Tanya, ever the hypocrite says, looking just as bad as Lauren.
Tanya tucks her ashy blonde hair behind her ears.
"I may have overdone it with my magic and am now in some form of exhaustion" Lauren says, as factual as ever despite the circumstances.
Tanya sighs as her eyes start to glow a honey gold.
Lauren blinks at the sight. 'Oh yea, I forgot she has Honey Gold Sight. I don't think there are many other Druids at the school who possess this ability. Good fro you girl, good for you' Lauren hums appreciatively.
Tanya ignores this as her eyes scan over Lauren's hunched form, taking in every detail she can pick up on. 'Oh damn, okay focus Tanya, this is the most interesting thing to happen to you since you accepted this damn job. First thing is the residue magic from Laurens rune imprinted glasses, boooring. Okay, next is the hole in the grey energy surrounding her chest... WHAT THE FU-'.
"Okay. I got it figured out." Tanya says, allowing her eyes to fade back to their normal brown. Lauren gestures her hand, telling Tanya to hurry it up.
"Okay jeez. You, obviously, expended too much energy and are now going into a form of magical withdrawal. Your core is nearly completely empty and is still leaking. It looks almost like a ball of yarn unravelling because the string keeps being tugged on." Tanya finishes her assessment and tilts her head and gives Lauren the look.
"I'll just… head to the back now" Lauren hobbles around the desk and goes through the next door that leads to a laboratory. Tanya follows after and heads straight to the bench covered in carving tools.
"You owe me for this" Tanya says as she takes out different pieces and materials and starts breaking them down and merging them together into a kind of earthy paste. She puts the paste on a metal slab and carves intricate details into the surface, fusing the paste into the markings.
Lauren just stands guiltily off to the side as Tanya works.
Around an hour later Tanya is collecting the individual markings and attaches them to a thin band of metal. "There, this will absorb the magical energy within a certain radius of you and will convert it into energy compatible enough to fill your core and successfully prevent your death... You're welcome" Tanya says, nonchalant despite the sweat on her brow.
Lauren nods and places the metal band around her wrist. "Did you really have to make this look like a cheap friendship bracelet" Lauren snarks.
Tanya snaps her head up from her tools to glare at Lauren.
"If you have the energy for sarcasm you can move yourself back to bed. Also, those materials are anything but cheap" Tanya hisses in indignation.
Lauren flushes slightly and hobbles back out to the waiting area at the front desk entry. Tanya massages her temples as she cleans up her mess.
"Why do I put up with that girl?" She sighs and sits back at her desk, ready to start work on the piles of pure evil that is her paperwork.
"Okay, now let's… start… now-" Tanya yawns and promptly passes out, face planting onto the thick documents.
~Following Elora~
Elora opens the door only to slam it closed again and make a bee line for her bed. Her guilt along with the homesickness makes her shove her face into the bed.
Rolling onto her back she sighs, looking up at the ceiling, staring at the bright light in the middle of the room. It's shaped like a flower and glows, lighting up every corner of the room.
After a moment of just staring at the light, a voice echoes over the intercoms from outside her room. "Miss Collmary, can you please report to the front office located in the staff building". Hearing the intercoms announce her name, something comes to mind. 'When was the last time I talked to my parents.. or Ave?'.
Elora jolts, pushing herself up from the bed as she realises that she has not contacted her parents nor made connection with Ave since she arrived at Xekinímata.
Grabbing her coat from the corner of the room, she rushes towards the door, leaving it wide open as she leaves. Rushing through several other hallways and groups of students, Elora finally manages to exit the Elemental campus. She sprints towards the exit that leads to the staff building.
The first thing Elora notices when she approaches the building is a young woman with ashy blonde hair snoozing in a pile of paperwork. Elora slows her pace as she approached the twin glass doors, leading to the reception office, quietly opening it and shutting it as she enters in an attempt to leave the woman undisturbed.
To Elora's surprise, the woman wakes up the moment she steps foot into the room. As the woman's head rises, several pieces of paper go flying onto the ground.
"G-Good morning" Elora stutters out as she picks up and slowly puts the papers back on the woman's desk. Tanya tucks her ashy blonde hair behind her ear and looks up at Elora, studying the young teen. Her eyes flash gold as they lock onto Elora's left forearm, causing the atmosphere to tense between the two.
Elora tries to break the tension by redirecting her attention "Sorry about the interruption, but my name was just called on the speakers" she says with an awkward smile.
Tanya's attention snaps to the conversation as soon Elora starts talking.
"Yes, your parents called us asking to have a word with you, they strongly advised for you to be called to the office" Tanya says, responding to Elora's awkward explanation.
"Oh well, could I call them now?" Elora asks, nervousness plain in her voice.
"Yes they're actually on hold right now" the woman says as she hands a landline to Elora. When Elora reaches for the phone, she catches a glimpse at the woman's name tag. 'Tanya? I haven't heard of that name before, it's pretty'. Elora thinks to herself as she brings the landline up to her ear.
"Heeey Mom" Elora starts, hoping she won't die before she finishes her sentence. "WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU FORGET CONTACT YOUR GODDAMN FAMILY!?- " Elora slowly pulls the phone away from her ear as her mother continues to scream at her.
"Elora, honey, how are ya doing" A new voice enters the call. "Dad, What are you doing home? I thought you would be back to the stables already?"
Elora asks her father, trying to ignore how she ghosted her family for a week.
"We didn't hear back from you after you left. We thought you went missing, but the school told us you had arrived safely and were attending classes-" her father gets cut off by her moms screeching voice.
"SO NEXT TIME, YOU BETTER FUCKING THINK ABOUT YOUR FAMILY!" Her mothers screaming can be heard from the other side of school. "Anyway, how have classes been? Have you made friends? Are the dorms clean?" Eloras father interrupts again, his rambling a relief to Elora's eardrums.
"I'm okay, the school is big to say the least. I've met some amazing people and I even have a tutor, her name is Lauren. She's really nice." Elora says, trying not to cringe as she mentions Lauren.
"Guess what? We all have our own Dorm rooms that all have their own separate kitchens and bathrooms." Elora continues on until her father stops her.
"That's great sweetie but have you contacted Ave? They've been continuously coming by the house asking if you've called." he explains to his forgetful daughter.
"Oh, I completely forgot to. No wonder I haven't heard from them, I forgot to do the spell." Elora laughs nervously, she barely remembers the spell Ave taught her the night before she left.
Tanya's eyes widen, Elora's words catching her attention. Elora freezes at the glare Tanya aims at her.
"Well now you know I'm okay, I'll definitely call you tomorrow from the office, bye!!" Elora says, trying to act normal as she rushes to end the call.
"Elora, wait. just be safe-" before her parents could finish their sentence, she hangs up.
"So, my family wants me to call them every so often from the office. Does that sound good? Great! Sorry to be a bother, bye!" Elora rambles as she rushes to the exit of the building.
Tanya stares after Elora as the younger girl practically sprints out of the front office.
'She… doesn't have a core'. Tanya thinks to herself as her face turns grim.
'What's up with this girl and what does she have to do with Lauren?' Tanya sighs and goes back to doing her paperwork, trying to keep all thoughts about Elora from her mind.
~~
Elora is still sulking about what happened with Lauren, it doesn't help that she thought that she would be doing all sorts of cool magic tricks by now.
Instead she's sitting at the foot of Marilyn's bed.
"Could you remind me exactly how you managed to piss off my sister's best friend so bad that she actually teleported you into the dirt" Marilyn snarks, only slightly still in disbelief.
"I just accidentally broke her door" Elora whines, pushing her head into the soft cushions placed behind her head.
"That's it? You should report her for using high level magic on you" Marilyn defends, thinking that Lauren was being far too unreasonable.
"I may have also shattered her crystal ball" Elora adds sheepishly.
"What!!" Marilyn screeches, alarmed. "Those are super expensive! Not only to buy but also to fix!" She continues screeching, "Sorry to say, but you totes deserved that".
Elora groans as Marilyn smacks her over the head with a cushion. "My sister has known Lauren since they started here, the worst thing she's done to her when pissed was throw a pencil. You must've seriously messed up" Marilyn gets out of her bed and pulls her jumper over her head.
"Come on, if you wanna continue sulking, do it in class and not on my sheets" she says with a slight smirk as she hobbles out of her bedroom.
"Poop head" Elora mumbles under her breath, but she does take Marilyn's advice and gets up off the floor and starts sorting herself out.
Elora, after finally pulling herself off the floor, sprints through the halls.
"Why does this school have to be this dang big" She pants as she continues through the hallway. Elora closes her eyes for a second, that second without vision was all she needed to run face first into someone.
She opens her eyes only to see messy ginger curls , "Omg, Lauren I'm so sorry, both about this and about the door… and the ball… and making you constantly late" Elora rambles for a second until the person turns around and says "sorry you got the wrong person".
Seeing his face confirms that he is, indeed, not Lauren.
though, he does have similar eyes and hair. In fact, the only real difference being his sharper facial features, the length of his hair and his brighter eyes. But at the end of the day, he's not Lauren. Elora coughs awkwardly and runs off again.
The stranger flips open his phones and checks his messages, he opens his most recent and types back response.
'Sure, but you'll owe me'