Life at the Academy
Chapter 1
Normal. Such a strange word and an even stranger feeling. But after last year's fiasco with Alex Blackmore, a boy from my past life at St. Josephine's Orphanage who strangely wound up in the same world as me, and as a pirate no less, it was a welcomed feeling.
After kidnapping me from Montressor, Alex had taken me on some weird and mysterious quest, which I later learned was to get back to our world so that he could take over the Earth. Along the way, he tried to hit on me, and while I shot down all his attempts, it didn't stop him from trying to take what he wanted from me. He stole a kiss from me, and seriously injured my arm in order to get it. Things probably could have turned out a lot worse if Jim hadn't come and rescued me when he did. But he still did a lot of damage, physically and emotionally. Alex had brought up a lot of my insecurities. He almost convinced me into thinking that Jim would hate me for not telling him the truth of where I really came from. Thankfully, my anxieties were dispelled when Jim took the news extremely well. He didn't care where I came from or how I ended up here, it didn't change the way he felt about me. Shortly after, we sent Alex through a one-way portal back to Earth. At least I didn't have to worry about him ever again. I could focus on my future without being afraid.
Jim and I returned for our second year at the Interstellar Academy. Aside from the normal stresses of homework and grades, everything was great.
The next summer was filled with more singing and shows. But other than that, nothing happened. It wasn't boring, though. Peaceful is a better word to describe it. Jim and I filled our days with each other's company, and a few hobbies.
Jim still had his solar surfer, which we would ride all the time. He was even teaching me how to ride. I was still a beginner, and far from being ready to take it out by myself without him standing behind me, ready to take over should I lose control.
I took up a few hobbies myself. After finding my sketchbook filled with drawings of him last year, Jim bought me another one. I had already filled it with sketches of fairies, mermaids, and the occasional naga. When he saw one of the half-snake, half-human drawings, he informed me that there was a species of creatures in this universe that look exactly like that. I found this quite interesting, but it was a short-lived curiosity. Jim had already bought me another sketchbook, and I was still trying to decide what I was going to fill it with, since I had run out of ideas.
In addition to sketching, I had also taken up archery. It had been an old hobby of mine back in my old world, and when Jim saw how much I loved it, he suggested I buy my own bow. I took some of my recovered treasure from Treasure Planet and we went to town to buy one. There were very few at the weapons shop, but we had one specially ordered just for me. Soon, I had my own recurve bow with a quiver full of arrows and a target to shoot at. Jim set up a small shooting range in a secluded part of the forest behind his home. I would go out and practice all the time. I was pretty good at it too. I could hit the bulls-eye eight out of ten times most days.
Silver writes to us often. He usually sends his letters to us under a different name, though, and our letters take much longer to reach him, since he is always moving around. Almost every letter has a different return address, and he may already be gone from that place by the time our letters get there. But he always receives them in the end, and we enjoy writing to him. We miss him a lot, so I get really excited every time one of his letters comes around.
The summer was coming to an end, and Jim and I began preparing for our third year at the Academy. I was glad to be going back. I loved most of my classes, and I had some great friends whom I had missed over the summer. I was ready for another fun, normal year of school.
But that wasn't what I got.