The two days flew by quickly an it was Evelyn's first day at the prestigious School Of Magic faster than she wanted it to be.
"Can I not eat?" Evelyn asked at breakfast as she plopped onto a chair in the kitchen, fidgeting with the end of her lovely, light green patterned shirt. "I feel kinda queasy."
Evelyn had been thinking non-stop about how weird it would be at the S.O.M and how she wouldn't fit in or if something bad happened, and every single time she thought about it-which was quite often-she would feel queasy.
"Nonsense." Ellete replied, shoving a plate of pancakes into Evelyn's hand. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and you need a full stomach for school, especially the first day of school."
Atler, who was sitting beside Evelyn, nodded in agreement.
Evelyn decided to listen to Ellete and reluctantly choked the pancakes down.
"Okay, kid. You ready?" Atler asked when Evelyn finished with the pancakes.
Evelyn cringed and adjusted the strap of the backpack with was slung over her left shoulder. "I think I am."
She fished a teleball out of her shirt pocket and was about to flick it into the air when she turned to Atler and Ellete.
"Can you teleport there with me?" she asked.
Ellete winced. "Sorry, Evelyn. We can't teleport there with you- it's against the rules of the S.O.M. Apparently, one time, some kid's mom teleported with her to the S.O.M and kidnapped a student there, so now only mentors and staff are allowed to go to the S.O.M."
Evelyn was about to teleport when she thought of a question she'd frequently thought about. It was a stupid and silly question, but curiosity took over her. "Why is it the 'School Of Magic'? Isn't the 'of' supposed to be a small letter? Isn't it supposed to be the 'School of Magic?"
Atler shrugged.
Evelyn turned back, took one last breath and returned the waves of goodbyes she was getting from Ellete and Atler before teleporting.
The S.O.M was bustling with and students energy and it was even more crowded than the christmas bazaars and malls Evelyn had went to in the human world. She had to shove her way into the elegant and modern looking building.
Once inside, she unfolded the little crumpled sheet of paper that she had tucked into her pocket. In it contained a map of the S.O.M, her locker number and her class schedule.
The locker numbers everyone was given was the same number as the number they chose when getting their obtusce. Evelyn scanned the first few lockers for the number twelve.
When she finally found it, she scampered over and examined it. It was white with streaks of light pink and had dots of golden on it and a square scanner was set onto the side. Evelyn tried opening the locker but couldn't, so she figured opening it had something to do with the scanner. She brushed her finger through it and whispered some passwords that she guessed to it, but it wouldn't budge. She banged against it and flicked a finger at it.
A student walked over to the lockers and stopped at a locker a few lockers away from Evelyn and Evelyn watched her press her palm against it. Evelyn did the same and the locker clicked, swinging open.
Evelyn dumped her bag in and grabbed a textbook that had the words 'social studies' on it. Apparently, that was her first class, so she scanned for the classroom on the map.
She finally found it, and after four flights of stairs, seven rights and three lefts, she paused in front of a classroom which had the words 'Social Studies' plastered on top of the classroom's gigantic double doors.
She paused before pushing open the doors, bracing herself for the weird and crazy things she would learn.
After five deep breaths, she pushed open the doors and stepped into the classroom.
The classroom was one of the most biggest rooms Evelyn had ever seen, and that was an understatement. It was big enough to fit at least three hundred people and the room was filled with chairs and tables, but Evelyn noticed that only half of the chairs and tables were filled with students and the tables were in pairs. At the front of the room was a huge chalkboard and a giant, levitating hologram screen accompanied by a desk and a chair.
Perched on the chair was a tall, stick-like figure wearing a light gray coat and a black top hat. "Ah, Miss Ambrose." He stood to address her. "I've been expecting you. I'm Mr. Harrington, your social studies mentor. Please take a seat."
Mr. Harrington motioned to chairs and tables. "I'd prefer if you sat beside someone; I like to give group projects sometimes."
Evelyn nodded and scrambled to the closest empty seat. Sitting beside the seat was another girl with light blue eyes who had wavy, silky, brown and elbow-length hair. The girl was wearing the same uniform as Evelyn was, except the skirt was patterned blue.
"Can I sit here?" Evelyn asked before sitting. The girl nodded, scooting her chair farther to make space for Evelyn.
Evelyn plopped down onto the chair, placing her textbook onto the table and flipping it to the page that was projected on the hologram screen.
The girl leaned in closer to Evelyn. "Are you new?" she whispered in a sweet, melodic voice.
Evelyn nodded.
"In that case, if you have any questions or need help, feel free to seek help from me."
"Thank you," Evelyn whispered back.
The girl gave a soft smile and leaned back, her eyes fixated at the front where Mr. Harrington was teaching and Evelyn did the same, trying to make sense of the unbelievable things her new mentor was teaching.
After a few mentally torturous lessons filled with learning things that were considered 'legends', 'myths' and fantasies and wondering 'How is this possible?', the bell for recess finally rang.
She plucked the folded map from her shirt pocket and unfolded it, tilting her hand left and right and looking at the map from different angles, scanning for the cafeteria.
When she finally found it located on the ground level, she held it in front of her, making the map her guide. After more stairs and a few sharp turns, she arrived in front of a gigantic and wide pair of doors with rectangular glasses in the middle.
She pushed them open and gasped.
The room they led to was gigantic, and no doubt the hugest room Evelyn had ever seen in her life and put the other huge classrooms she had been into-especially the social studies room- to shame.
The cafeteria was bustling and filled to the brim with students and Evelyn could make out stalls lining the back of the cafeteria with long lines of students behind them as well as several tall stacks of trays laying on six carts lined against the left side of the cafeteria's wall.
The cafeteria was packed with tables and chairs as well and the students were chatting between bites of food.
Evelyn made her way to the carts and grabbed a tray, walking and lining in the shortest line she saw.
Evelyn glanced around to examine the cafeteria and students and her eyes stumbled across a pair of familiar, light-blue pair of eyes.
It was the girl who went with her to every class she had so far and sat next to her, as well as told Evelyn if she needed any help, she could reach out to her.
The girl was walking with another girl who was a brunette as well but was wearing the same light green skirt as Evelyn and had light green eyes.
The light-blue eyes girl gave a wave to Evelyn and pointed to her, whispering something in the green-skirt girl.
They both walked over and the green-skirt girl gave a wide smile to Evelyn. "Hi!" she said cheerfully. "Are you the new girl who's sitting beside Brooke?" the green-skirt girl asked, gesturing to the light-blue eyes girl.
Evelyn carefully examined both of them before nodding.
"I'm Leia." the green-skirt girl introduced. "And this is Brooke, as I said earlier."
"I'm Evelyn," Evelyn said cautiously.
"Well, pleased to meet you, Evelyn. Any friend of Brooke's is mine, plus I have a feeling I'll like you and you're new here, so we don't wanna let you feel left out and be alone in the friendship apartment."
Evelyn's brows shot up. She was Brooke's friend?
Leia gave another smile and both Leia and Brooke stood n line behind Evelyn.
After the three had finished getting their food and Evelyn had her tray full of delicious-looking food- a sparkly burger, fries and a cup of purple sludge- Leia asked Evelyn if she wanted to sit at their table and Evelyn gratefully took up the offer.
Leia motioned for Evelyn to follow her and Brooke and she led them to a table in the middle, where a boy and two girls were sitting.
The boy had blonde hair and the same light-blue eyes as Brooke and one of the girls was a brunette while the other had blonde hair. The brunette had brown eyes like Evelyn and the blonde-hair girl had bold blue eyes.
"Guys," Leia called, getting their attention.
"Who's our new little friend here?" the blonde boy asked.
"This," Leia said, gesturing to Evelyn. "Is Evelyn. Evelyn, this is Asher," Leia pointed to the boy. "This is Camila," she motioned to the blonde-hair girl. "And finally, this is Amelia." she hooked a thumb to the brunette.
The group offered friendly smiles and waves, so Evelyn waved back and offered a unsure smile.
Was she really making friends this quickly?
Leia slid her tray across the table and next to Camila while Brooke slid her tray next to Amelia. That left Evelyn with an empty seat beside Brooke and she quickly took it.
Evelyn was starting on her food when her eyes caught Asher's. For a reason, she couldn't look away-she swore she saw those pair of eyes before. Those light-blue eyes...
"I know," Asher said, noticing how Evelyn was staring so hard at his eyes. "These pair of eyes looks like Brooke because we're twins."
Evelyn stared at Asher, then glanced at Brooke. She had only noticed how they looked like each other-but there was only one difference between them.
"Why's your hair blonde and Brooke's a brunette?"
"Well, apparently, we're fraternal twins but our hair's different. My dad has blonde hair and my mom has brown hair. " Asher explained.
The group was silent after that with Evelyn and her newfound friends not knowing what to say. Finally, Evelyn slashed at the silence between them.
"I didn't see you guys during class- I only saw Brooke. Why's that?"
"That's because we're Outsiders- you're an Insider, like Brooke." Leia explained, adding when she noticed Evelyn's confused expression. "Outsiders are the students who has found their crystals and has an ability, so they spend most of the day in the fields outside, practicing their ability with their coaches. Of course, we still come in for extra-important and compulsory lessons. Insiders are students who do not have an ability, thus they must spend their time learning and attending classes in the school's building."
That made sense of why all the classrooms she'd been to were only half-filled.
"What are your abilities, then?" Evelyn asked, eager to know.
"I'm a nature user, which means I have slight control over nature." Leia said. "If you want, I can give you a small demonstration of my ability."
Evelyn took up the offer and sat on the edge of her seat. This would be the first time she would see someone use their ability up close and personal- Atler and Ellete didn't like using their abilities when with Evelyn for a reason.
Leia curled her palms into a loose fist and put them next to each other. After she muttered a few whispers to herself, the top of lavenders popped out of gap from the top of her fist and green stems popped out of the other end. She whispered a few more things before she opened her fist, revealing three purple-violet lavender stalks in her palms.
"Here," Leia said, handing the lavenders to Evelyn. "Here's a little welcome gift. It's not much, but I hope you like it. It can be your little reed diffuser! Just put it in a little vase and keep it in your room- You'll wake up every morning to a lovely smell."
"Thank you," Evelyn said, bending the lavenders slightly and tucking it into her shirt pocket.
Her attention turned to Asher next, eager to see his ability. He gave a sheepish grin. I....can't really gift you something as a welcome gift- my ability's problem. Unless you want me to burn something, I can only offer a little show. And by the 'burn' I'm pretty sure you've already guessed my ability, so I'm going to assume I don't need to tell ya."
He held his hands out to her and curled his palms into fists, uncurling them a second later with little flames in them. He made the flames flicker blue, red and orange as he made the flames dance across his fingers before he mushed the flames together and shaped it into a flaming lion. He made the lion circle on top of Evelyn's head in midair and made it roar a few times before curling his palms and making the fire disappear.
He grinned when he noticed Evelyn's flabbergasted expression.
"That's.....crazy." Evelyn managed to mumble and she turned to Camila.
Camila tossed her perfect, wavy blonde hair out of her face and curled her palms into fists, shutting her eyes close and making a crease appear between her brows. Her fists expanded, as if something had suddenly appeared in her closed hands and she uncurled her palms, shoving two white-pink, smooth and round pearls into Evelyn's hands.
"Here's a little welcome gift too. Will these do? 'Cause if you don't like pearls I can change it into other gems."
Although Camila didn't tell her what her ability was, Evelyn figured she was a gem user.
"These are.....beautiful- thank you." Evelyn said, her attention shifting to Amelia.
She met Amelia's eyes and couldn't pull apart, for a reason. Her eyes were so.....intense.
"Okay," she finally said. "I know it's weird, but stare into my eyes."
Evelyn did as she said, and her brown eyes slowly turned black. The black-her eyes- became wider until it burst, making it rain black droplets. The droplets covered every single part of the cafeteria, coating Evelyn's surroundings with black. The black cafeteria turned wider and wider until she was no longer in the cafeteria- she was in a purple field, surrounded by the night sky.
In the distance, she could spot a tiny, blurry dot coming closer. The dot became clearer and bigger as it came even closer and Evelyn could make out a horse-a mare- galloping towards her. But not just any mare- a myth mare.
It's wavy, space-y mane fly in all directions as the mare galloped towards Evelyn. It slowed down when it was a few feet apart from Evelyn and swerved right, circling Evelyn a few times before stopping and standing in front of her. Evelyn stared at the myth mare, examining it. The was a stretched white star plastered in between the myth mare's muzzle and eyes, and Evelyn marveled at how majestic the mare was.
And the intensity of its eyes- it was even more intense than Amelia's.
Evelyn stepped closer to the mare, lingering there for a few minutes to see if the horse would turn and flee. But it didn't so she gingerly held out a hand, pressing it onto the mare's muzzle.
She stared into the eyes of the myth mare and lost herself in its eyes and she could've continued staring into the myth mare's eyes if she hadn't felt a tingly feeling and started fading away.
After she felt herself fade away completely, she found herself staring into Amelia's brown eyes.
"That was..." Evelyn was speechless.
"I know how you feel but I hope you enjoyed that moment anyway. Did you?" Amelia asked.
Evelyn nodded. "Thank you," she managed to stumble across her words and pick the right ones.
Amelia gave a smile.
Silence filled the air once again, and the bell rang just in time as the group finished up their food.
As Evelyn walked to her next class with Brooke by her side, there was a spring in her steps- she had friends and the day wasn't even over yet.
Maybe school wouldn't be so bad now that she knew she had newfound friends by her side.