I walked through the hundred-foot arch at the front of the school and reminded myself of all the things I'm looking forward to this year at SUC:
1. Seeing Jaylin (that one I can bet on)
2. Not dying (hopefully, SUC is a dangerous place)
3. Acing all my classes (unlikely, I seem to always barely pass Magical Farming)
4. Avoiding Sel (which was much easier to do during the summer and really should be taken off this list)
And finally:
5. Figuring out why on Earth I'm here (for real, no one will tell me)
SUC or as Jaylin and I like to pronounce it "suck", is the official School for Unusual Creatures. You name it we have it, pixies, ogres, mages, fae, phoenixes, vampires, mermaids, we have them all. Then there's me Miranda Leerou, human, perfectly and completely human, except I can't be. Only magical creatures can pass through the arch, which is why my dad stands behind me, on the other side of the arch, watching me walk into the school.
I turn to him and give him a wave.
He mouths the words "I love you," or he says them out loud, I can't tell. The arch doesn't let noise from the outside go through it.
"I love you!" I mouth him and smile at him. Then I turn back to the school, the giant castle standing before me. "Two years left," I tell myself as I start going towards the school. "Just two years then I'm out of here."
The grand hall is empty when I arrive. Perfect, just how I like it. Did I come an entire full day early just to avoid the first-day chaos? Absolutely and so far it seems to be paying off.
My first year here, two years ago, when I was only fifteen years old, I ended up in the nurse's office after being trampled by a group of senior year centaurs. In their defense, they didn't see me in the crowd of students around them, in not their defense, screw them. I swear sometimes I can still see a hoof mark on my lower back.
Today there will be no trampling and I'm infinitely glad for it. The halls are empty as I walk through them.
"Got here early ey?" Miss Faolan asks me as she passes me in the hall. She teaches creatural politics, one of my least favorite classes but it's not her fault I find it boring, my father as a Congressman has spent my entire life telling me about it, and she barely has any information left to teach me.
I smile at her. She's a summer fae with vines and flowers swirling around and covering her body. "Thought I'd get here before everyone else shows up. Give myself a head start on unpacking and everything."
"My my you are ambitious this year," she says.
I'm tempted to say I'm ambitious to avoid crowds, but she doesn't need to know that. If she knew me she would know that already, but she doesn't, no one does besides Jaylin. "Well, I hope it's my best year yet!" I tell her and it's the truth. Freshman year sucked beyond belief, but then last year I found Jaylin, she turned my world around. Now, having a full year ahead with her, it was like I could do anything.
"If you have any trouble let me know," Miss Faolan tells me and I know she is being sincere.
"I will," I lie, because I already know, this year I won't have any trouble.
I pass other teachers in the halls but they ignore me like I'm some pest being here early. It's not like students aren't allowed to be here, technically students are allowed here all year, however, it is highly discouraged for us to be here between May 31st and August 1st. Something about giving the staff a break from obnoxious teens or something like that. Headmistress Dampner would never actually say that, but she would heavily imply it as much as possible. Why she is headmistress I never understood, she seems to have a deep hatred of students. I'm lowkey glad I don't see her in the halls as I pass by.
I make my way to the far end of the castle's west wing and find a spiral staircase to the top of one of the towers. My tower. Well not exactly mine, mine and my roommates, but tonight just mine.
The staircase is dark oak as much of the castle's interior is. On the end of the railing is the carving of a dragon. It signifies the dorms for the miscellaneous student, dragons, phoenixes, and all the high-powered creatures that like to stay with their kind and rarely come to Drunsten. Then there's me, stuck with these terrifying creatures because no one knows what I am, or if they do, they for sure don't tell me.
I make my way up the staircase, my hand trailing slowly along the smooth wood railing. There's something peaceful about this place. Something entirely foreign and familiar at the same time. It's like I was never supposed to be here but at the same time, it's become my home. I would flee this place at the first inconvenience, but I will also defend it to my last breath.
At the top of the stairs is the common room. Light streaks in through the wall of windows at the far end of the room. The sky is gray today with clouds that look so close I could reach out and touch. I likely could have if I had walked onto the balcony on the other side of the windows. But I don't usually go out there. That's the balcony for all the flying creatures to jump off, and it has no railing to make their flights easier, I'm not in the mood to die today by falling off a ledge that I very much don't have to get on.
I search the common room for the list of room assignments. Jaylin told me last year that they post them a week ahead of school just in case students show up early. I see the piece of paper on the coffee table in the center of the room.
I go to it and quickly notice that it's been lightly scorched around the edges. I pay no mind to it however once I see the name next to mine, Giselle Stormflyer, no, no, no. Sel may very well be the only other person in this whole school who knows who I am besides Jaylin, and it is only because she desperately hates me and I'm pretty sure tried to kill me last semester.
I'm tempted to tear the paper to shreds, but one spell and Headmistress Dampner would know it was me and I'd be in detention for a week at least. So instead I place the paper back on the coffee table and head to room five, my room, Sel's room.
My hand is turning the doorknob when the smell of smoke and metal hits me. I know that smell far too well and close my eyes as I slowly open the door. I walk in with my eyes closed, trying to ignore meeting reality for just another second.
"What's got you all twisted?" Sel's voice floats through the air and if I didn't know her I would have thought based on that soft voice that she was a fae rather than a dragon. Not that I was certain she was a dragon, I had never seen her in her dragon form before. No one had, rumors said she didn't like to show it. But she did smell like a dragon, all smoke and iron.
"Nothing," I say with a huff and open my eyes.
Sel has sprawled herself out on a bed to the left of the door. Her straight brown hair flows over her shoulders like a waterfall in the Enchanted Forrest, not a piece out of place. Her dark brown eyes look up and meet mine. "Something you need Mira?" she asks me.
"No," I give her a short, harsh answer.
Sel rolls her eyes and turns to face the wall and I notice she has a book in her hands. I must have interrupted her reading time. I would feel bad if she hadn't tried to interrupt my ability to live last semester. Sadly SUC doesn't have any regulations against students killing each other, otherwise, I may have been able to get Sel kicked out last semester. I had enough evidence, or at least a witness.
I was merely walking through the gardens in the back of the school, well not exactly walking, more like running, crying, on the verge of a panic attack, when I suddenly found everything surrounding me covered in fire. Then right in front of me was Sel. She just stared at me, saying nothing. It had to be her, she was the only one there, plus she's a dragon, possibly even The Red Dragon for all we know. That's not my point though, I could care less if she was The Red Dragon, I care that she tried to kill me and that Jaylin was there to see the fire too.
She saved me from it, Jaylin did. She put some spell over us containing us away from the fire until the flames had gone down. Most of the gardens are magic fauna and immune to the fire, but Jaylin and I are flesh and bones, me especially, the garden may have barely been touched but we could have died that day.
You get a new perspective on life after you nearly die. It was like every jumbled thought in my head straightened, I suddenly knew things. Like Sel hated me and Jaylin was my best friend. Also, I couldn't trust anyone here but Jaylin.
I place my things on the bed to the right and sit down on it. I turn to the chest of drawers near the head of the bed and open it up to place my clothes inside. It takes me less than five minutes to safely pack away my things. Then without the distraction of something to do my mind shifts to Sel again.
She's silently reading in the corner of the room and something about her acting so nonchalant infuriates me. I can feel my cheeks begin to heat as she shifts and her smell of smoke burns in my nose.
"Is there a way for you to stop doing that?" I ask her.
She sits up in bed and looks at me with a weary look. "Stop what?"
"That smell," I tell her. "The smoke."
She shakes her head. "I'm afraid I don't have control over that smell. If you want it to go away feel free to ask for another roommate. Believe me, I won't oppose you in doing so."
"The headmistress never lets anyone change rooms," I tell her.
Sel gives me a small grin, "Well I guess you're stuck with the smell." She leans back in her bed, raising her hands to place them behind her head. She still stares at me. Sel opens her mouth to speak but then shuts it.
I turn away from her and move to leave the room. I half expect her to say something, to antagonize me, but she doesn't. Sel is never as furious as me and I hate it.