Grey
"Ugh, my head hurts like fuck.." I groaned and complained from my awakening.
As if it the world trying to mock me, the door slamed opened and Elena was there with a face full of excitement. She was wearing a black blouse and long jeans today, which was weird since I didn't remember anything special today.
Seeing me flopped over as my posture was as if a poorly imitated yoga pose, her face turned from excitement to annoyance. Obviously realizing I only just woke up now.
"Hurry up and change, I already know you stink. And meet us in Ms. Clare's office." She said in a hurry and left. The door still opened. Normally I would've ignored her and continued to lay down before accepting my fate to wake up, but I couldn't be rude to Ms. Clare, now that school is coming.
I quickly washed up and changed, wearing a black t-shirt and baggy shorts. I quickly made my way to the office before I saw that Ms. Clare and Elena was standing outside of it, obviously waiting for me. Elena had a glare on her face as always while Ms. Clare had a stoic look.
As I made my way towards them they both started moving and Ms. Clare gestured me to follow. Elena though, complained about my late appearance, and my actual appearance.
"We were about to leave without you, since you decided to take your sweet time, you know? And what's with the casual wear? We're going to somewhere important." Elena said in a annoying tone of voice, to of course, annoy me. But I didn't care since I've gained a special resistance to her bickering.
"What? I like to be comfortable, unlike you who shows off. Sorry but my face is more than enough but yours on the other hand.. maybe your body can save it, pfft." I retorted back. Even though I knew what I said was completely false. Elena was already pretty and her outerwear complimented her quite nicely. Her body though was still developing as we were only teens.
But it seemed that my insults worked as her face turned into anger and pure disgust. Just before she could say anything though, Ms. Clare quickly stopped in her tracks as we were at the front door of the orphanage. She turned around and gave both of us a stern look.
"You two, stop it. Where we're about to go, there's no chance of bickering like this okay? Keep your quarreling to a minimum and act to the best of your behavior."
Me and Elena both had a look of surprise as Ms. Clare never really cared about us when we argued. But now that she did, it was obvious that the place where we were going, it was definitely important.
We went outside, and there was a black floating car waiting for us. It was sleek and short and there was no driver. I assumed that it was owned by Ms. Clare, and from the context and clues from everything that happened til now. I knew we were leaving the neighborhood. Maybe even going into the city.
Unlike Elena, I've never left the neighborhoods as I wasn't curious enough about the outside world. Maybe that's due to my incompetence at paying attention to my geographical lessons though. But I also never had to leave the neighborhood. We were in quite a wealthy area and everything that I needed to have a nice life was here.
Elena though, she was quite the scholar. She placed top in our rudimentary classes and was obviously limited by the people who taught her. Not Ms. Clare but the other assistants. They were normally hired teachers from regular schools that came to our orphanage to teach the children. Every weekend the entire orphanage, minus the part timers and chefs, went out to actual schools that were normally closed as it was the weekend, and had school days. The children had short classes but they were taught about every subject. They also had time to socialize with other children from other orphanages.
This was also about the time when I had my first fight. A bully from another orphanage kept mocking me whenever I talked, interrupting my conversations with my friends. So I pushed him. At the time we were only 7 or so and the fight ended in a tie as the teachers came to put us to a halt before a victor was recognized. We both had bruised but healing magic always took care of that.
The mana in the air also helped speed up recovery passively. Albeit way less slower than healing magic. And due to recovery being fastened, I learned from that one fight that, fighting was very enjoyable. Me and that bully butted heads every weekend but not only that, I also started fights with random kids as well. Thinking about this though it was definitely embarrassing to say the least.
'Oh crap, I definitely spaced off again..' Ms. Clare and Elena were waiting for me at the car while I was still on the front porch staring. I quickly made my way to the car and got in, Elena following me afterwards. We rode the passenger seats as this was my first time in a car, and Elena, well.. I don't know to be honest.
Ms. Clare got in the driver seats and quickly went into the air. The car itself could fly due to magic artifacts that replaced the previous generation of technology. This included the engine, wheels, steering wheel, and more.
There were barely any other cars in the air. Cars were fixed onto the road and parkways. They couldn't go off road and ram into a person or go into a forest, the magic artifact was designed so it could only follow the roads.
Elena stared throughout her window and I also stared out through mine. There were lots of big houses down on the ground but barely any pedestrians, as if the place was a ghost town. It was a silent and peaceful ride though.
But it wasn't long until the silence was disturbed as I couldn't let my curiosity hidden.
"Soo.. where are we going?" I asked Ms. Clare, who stared at the air roads in front of us.
Elena's ears perked up as well, obviously she was curious but I totally thought that she knew already though. Seems like I was wrong.
"We're going to tour a magic academy. You two will be trial students for the rest of the month." Like that, Ms. Clare simply dropped a bomb of surprise on us, which recently have been quite often.
Elena and I quickly turned and stared at each other before looking at Ms. Clare. Elena was about to voice her complaints, evident from her mouth opening but Ms. Clare was faster to speak.
"Don't worry, like I said it's as a trial student. You guys won't have dorms and you'll only be there until you want to leave, which youll return home and I'll also be there with you guys as well. Use this time to familiarize yourself with this new surrounding and try to make some friends. Also make sure not to cause trouble."
Elena let out a relieved sigh while I simply had a neutral stance on it. It was weird for me to say the least. I've always been sheltered but now I'm entering new territory, and in the near future, living there for the time being.
***
Yesterday Night
Ms. Clare
"I'd like you to teach me more magic!" Elena said with a shout. She then looked surprised and held up her hand to cover her mouth. It was obvious that she didn't mean to say it with such loudness.
Looking at her then to the paper in front of me, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. Things truly were troublesome. The paper in front of me was delivered this morning and it gave me details on Grey and Elena as students. Their year, school, and rank.
Magic academies would normally just be a regular school that teaches magic, but not for prestigious ones. These prestigious academies were made for high ranking nobles, academically talented students and talented combatants. Basically only the best of the best, and the academy that Grey and Elena were submitted to.. they were definitely the best of the best. Probably the best.
'Is this just a coincidence? Why were they applied to the academy I used to teach at..'
I looked up to Elena again who was waiting for me to say something. I smiled and simply responded.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow I'll grant your wish. And make sure Grey is also there with you, I want him to come with us. So get some rest and be prepared for tomorrow."
Elena looked at me with a delightful face as she quickly nodded profusely before excusing herself by hopping off with joy.
'Maybe I should be there for them, this is too much of a coincidence..'
***
Grey
An hour went by and I still wondered when we were going to arrive. These airborne cars were fast. They flew by at the speed of an airplane from the old world. Some even faster if the magic artifacts are good enough.
I couldn't help myself but to have a change of view while in this car, it was quite boring looking out the window. I looked at Elena who was also looking out the window and I decided to annoy her.
Scooting as close as I can without her noticing, I prepared myself. Moving my mouth towards her ear and my arms around her shoulder. I blew air into her ear.
"AAAEREHEE!!" Elena yelled with such high pitch that if I hadn't know better, I would've thought she was being tortured. Ms. Clare looked at us before turning back to the road after realizing it was just me. While Elena who had a face of fright but now of a seasoned warrior. I realized there was going to be a fight.
She quickly threw out a punch to my face, but I dodged by moving my head to the right. Before she could retract it though, I wrapped her wrist with my left hand and held it firmly so she couldn't pull it back. Realizing that her right arm was trapped, her left hand balled into a fist and she quickly threw a punch at my right rib. Knowing the pain of that, I kicked it away with my shoe but my grip on her right arm gave away and she was free.
Realizing this, I quickly backed away to my side of the car until my back was against the window. I held up my two legs and started kicking at her wildly, she obviously couldn't do anything against me and my ingenious tactic.
"Stop! That's not fair! You can't do that you asshole." She complained as she tried her best to block my kicks.
"All is fair in love and war. And I think I've been too lenient to you lately, allowing you to beat up my ass these past few days, I can't allow that anymore." I said as I kept up my kicks. She actually managed to grab my shoe and fully stop one of my legs, but I quickly discarded my shoe as my feet slipped out and I continued to kick her. Her body was now slightly bruised and her pale arms were dirty from the underside of my shoes.
Her eyes started to glow and I understood what that meant, she was about to use magic. "Hey are you crazy! Why are you using magic in this cramped car, that's definitely unsafe!"
As I yelled at her to stop, fearing for my life. The car suddenly stopped. Both me and Elena stopped and looked ahead through the front window of the car. There, there was a massive building that had a dome over its head. There were also other small buildings surrounding our area and tons of people were walking around and talking. The magic academy had a massive plaque right above the entrance that said Pygonrid, Institute of Magic.
Ms. Clare who was quiet the entire time for most of the flight, suddenly spoke up.
"We've arrived."