"Jocelyn!" Another pound on the door shook the floors. "Hey, come on! We're going to be late!"
Jocelyn bounced back in front of the floor length mirror one more time. As custom she was drabbed in complete black, from the hair tie holding back her wild, red curls, to the buckles on her combat boots. The outfit was familiar to her; she had worn something similar nearly her entire life, every day to school. But today… today was going to be different. Today she graduated.
She gave herself one more look over. Yes, she thought, now you look like a Shadowhunter.
"Jocelyn!"
"I'm coming!"
She shook her head, Luke, her closest friend since childhood, had to be just as excited as she was. She however, was not going to pass up the chance to make a first impression, especially as there would be new students just like her all starting secondary school, the final stage of a Shadowhunter's education. Jocelyn pounded down the stairs stopping only to grab several apples and her backpack. Her mother was waiting by the front door.
"Good luck," her mother whispered, giving her a quick hug. "Not that you'll need it."
Jocelyn smiled, not bothering to look contrite. Shadowhunting was in her blood.
"Thanks Mom, see you soon."
There was no big goodbye, no hug-fest, and no celebration. They just didn't do that, Jocelyn knew.
"Fairchild!" Luke yelled again from the front door, pounding multiple times in succession. "If you're not out here in five seconds I swear on the Angel…"
"Go," Jocelyn's mother said, "before he does something stupid like swear his life away. And Joeclyn-"
"Yeah?" Jocelyn asked, hand hovering above the doorknob.
"Kill some demon's for me."
Jocelyn grinned, one last time.
"I'm planning on it."
"Finally!" Luke cried as she exited the manor and bounded down the front steps with him. "I thought the sun would have risen before you got done staring at yourself in the mirror."
"You're one to talk, do you even own a mirror?"
Luke smoothed the fringe of his hair down nervously. It was an un-grounded accusation. As far as guys went Jocelyn knew that Luke happened to take a great care in everything he possessed, probably because he had grown up seeing the giant Fairchild manor compared to his family's place. The Graymark's weren't poor but they weren't rolling in money either.
"What do you think it'll be like?" Luke asked, as they joined up with the main dirt road. It was a three hour walk to Alicante and they were supposed to be there for sunrise. Jocelyn knew Luke was referring to the ShadowHunter's school – a sort of elite academy. She shrugged.
"I don't care so long as it's nothing like regular school."
Up until that point, Jocelyn, Luke and others of her age had attended the local schools. There was, Jocelyn thought, nothing to be ashamed of with that. The schools were modern, well-organized and had many resources. Still, she thought, they were nothing compared to the school. Most all ShadowHunter's graduated to the school around the time they turned sixteen, and up until that point, it had all been out of the books.
Jocelyn loved to read, but even she had grown bored with the same material in class each days. The history, the strategy, the theory. They had teamwork exercises and skill-builders but it wasn't anything that really mattered. Aside from a few decorative pieces, Jocelyn had never held a real weapon. They played war of course, with the wood sticks and the foam amour, they ran battle simulations and discussed all different types of scenarios, but until she walked through those Alicante doors, until she put on the ShadowHunter amour – it was just a game, just kids playing grown-ups.
Well no longer. Now that they were sixteen, they could enroll and begin their legends as true Shadowhunter's – no more games. The Alicante Academy was the place that Shadowhunter's went to learn what is was really like to be face to face with a demon.
And dammit – she wanted to kill some demons.
Jocelyn and Luke continued to speculate on the wonders that the Alicante Academy would hold once they arrived. Luke was convinced that the seniors, who would be nineteen and twenty, would brutally haze the freshmen as soon as they walked in the door. Jocelyn wasn't one to completely argue this point away, though she pitied the poor upperclassmen who picked on her first; her father had been giving her secret hand-to-hand combat lessons since she was six.
Finally, an hour before the sun was due, the glass towers of Alicante came into view. Jocelyn's heart swelled within her chest. They stretched into the sky and disappeared as though the clouds swallowed them whole, as though they stretched on into heaven itself, glittering with the lights of the city that could be seen coming to life as the people began to wake for another day.
"Wow…" Luke said.
And wow was right. There was simply nothing else in the world like it. The glass somehow seemed stronger than a piece a steel, wider than any moat, longer than any wall. In there, she knew, everyone was safe. Struck with sudden confidence, the two finished their walk in silence, each silently preparing him or herself for the coming event – Registration.
"Name?" The lady asked. Jocelyn wasn't paying attention. She was still glancing up at the towers of Alicante. "Name?" She repeated, more fiercely.
"Oh – uh – Jocelyn. Jocelyn Fairchild."
The registration lady flipped through her stack of papers until she came upon Jocelyn's information and slipped it out for her.
"A – M are over there," the lady said, pointing. As she rose her arm, Jocelyn saw a dagger that would have been fit for decapitating a bear hanging off her belt. What did she use that for? She wondered. Removing staples?
However Jocelyn had already been reprimanded once and she stepped out of line quickly, waiting a few seconds for Luke to join her. Their last names began with F and G, so they were almost always next to each other alphabetically. That had, in fact, been the reason for their first meeting. In first grade their teacher had seated them alphabetically. Luke had stolen her drawing of a Shadowhunter on the very first day, before she had even finished. Jocelyn took her drawings very seriously, and was highly affronted when Luke refused to give it back. She had gone to complain to the teacher but he wouldn't have any of it.
"He took your drawing?" Mr. Gradus had said. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you. You want it back? – take it."
Jocelyn had taken his words to heart quite literally. The next time she had seen Luke she had decked him in the face, knocking out two of his teeth and causing a huge scene. The other teachers had been furious, demanding why she had punched him, and she just kept repeating 'he took my picture – he took my picture.' The other teacher's face remained blurred in her memory, but not Mr. Gradus. She could always seem him standing to the side, even years later, shaking his head slowly, smiling. Needless to say, they had been the best of friends after that.
The memory caused a smile to resurface.
"What are you so smiley about?" Luke asked. He looked rather green and Jocelyn couldn't blame him. She felt near to throwing up herself.
"Oh, nothing."
The last freshman, a short kid with tangled hair and glasses, called Stock-weather or something, she missed the name, finished registration and finally they were all assembled on the lawn of the Alicante Academy. Three stories high and built of a strange grey-brick the building was intimidating and formidable – just the way she liked it. Jocelyn could tell just by the size of the building that it would take weeks if not months to learn its' passageways. Jocelyn had been so distracted by the building she had missed the beginning of the welcoming speech. She quickly tuned back in –
" – think you're ready? You think you've got what it takes to join the ranks of the most elite community on the surface of this earth or any similar dimension. Think you're prepared. Well my little hatchlings, you are all wrong!"
Luke through Jocelyn a look. The man speaking was clad in Shadowhunter amour, black, head to toe, and covered in the white scars that so defined their kind. Jocelyn had only a few marks of her own, she had gotten her first when she was just twelve years old, and after that only two others – one for luck and one for endurance when she had become desperately sick. It made her proud to think that she had at least one, perhaps even two more marks than her fellow classmates.
"My name is Tiberius Blackthorn and I am here to teach all of you the secrets of surviving in the big, nasty world. You may be wondering why I've split you into two groups –"
Jocelyn had indeed wondered that when there were only 42 of them, barely enough to fill a classroom.
" – and the answer to that is so that we can start your very first day off her at the AA with a little game!"
The freshmen broke out in to a wave of whispers. A game? Here!? On their first day? Somehow Jocelyn doubted it was likely to be a name game.
"I want A-M over here and N-Z right here. Hurry, hurry, we don't have all day!"
The students shuffled around to their places.
"We have some upperclassmen here to facilitate the process, you will be lead and instructed by them. I expect to see the winning team back on this lawn in two hours. Dismissed!"
As Jocelyn looked around to face the other students, she was relieved to see that she was not the only one who felt apprehensive. Were they fighting against each other? Were they using real weapons? What happened to the losing team if Blackthorn only wanted to see the winning team?
In her experience, activities that were led by other students rather than teachers were not only more chaotic but also more dangerous. She couldn't help but feel excitement spreading through her veins along with a grain of fear. Finally, Jocelyn thought, finally, it looked like the time had arrived for her to begin her real training.
Watch out demon's, she thought. Here I come.
** This is just the first chapter of a progression that I would love to continue. If you guy's liked it, please comment or fav! This is my first publish, so I'm still getting the hang of things. :)
