I don't own Wizard101, Kingsisle does. Now on to Part 2!
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"Morning, sis!" Molly exclaimed as she met me outside my dorm the next morning. I nodded in response, yawning from the lack of sleep I had gotten the night before.
"Ready for classes?" she asked. As if. But I guess I really didn't have a choice. By 8:30 I found myself in the School of Life, crammed into the small room with thirty or so other beginning students. Almost all were dressed in green. Ugh.
Professor Drake took the roll, and oddly enough, a lot of people had the same first names. Before I went to Ravenwood, occasionally I'd meet a few people with the same first name. But here, there were a lot of people with the weirdest first names! I had never heard of a person with the name Wolf, but in this classroom, it was almost like half the guys were named Wolf!
After the roll was called, the lesson began. We began by reviewing how to summon an imp (easy peasy!), then Professor Drake began a lecture on secondary schools.
"Every wizard should have a secondary school in addition to their primary school," Professor Drake said. "I assume you all did your homework last night?" Most of the class nodded.
"Are there any comments on the professors you met?" Hands shot up into the air. The professor called on a girl with blue eyes and white hair in pigtails. "Yes, Lenora?"
"I liked the Storm professor!" the young wizard exclaimed. "He was cool!" Next, a boy was called on.
"I believe I would like to study Myth as my secondary school," he said haughtily. This sparked many of the students to make comments of disapproval.
"But that professor's awful!"
"He's mean!"
"I would NEVER want to study Myth!"
Once the remarks had died down, Professor Drake said, "Selecting a secondary school should be a choice YOU make, not anyone else." Turning to the boy, she said, "Mason, if you want to study Myth as your secondary school, you should do just that." She then noticed me, sitting in the back of the room. "Esmee, what did you think?" Thirty eyes stared at me.
"Um...well, I was wondering why I couldn't talk to anyone from the Balance school. My sister said that the school itself is in Cropotopeya or something like that, but why don't they have anyone in Wizard City?" Before the teacher could answer, someone burst through the door.
"Good morning, Mr. Ashthorn," my professor said. Why wasn't she scolding him for being late?
"Is Esmee here?" the student asked. "Professor Malistaire wants to talk to her." Ah. Death student, I guessed, since he was wearing all black. Professor Drake gestured toward me.
"Esmee, it looks like you get to leave early," Professor Drake said with a smile. "For homework, choose your secondary school by next week." I stood up, following behind the young wizard. We walked to the Death School in silence.
"Are you new here?" I finally asked.
"No," he replied. "I've been at Ravenwood for half a year now. I'm Malorn Ashthorn, in case you were wondering. I'm going to be the best Necromancer alive one day." I highly doubted that. Judging from his voice, he seemed like a complete airhead.
"So why am I going to the Death School again?" I questioned.
"Like I said, the Professor wants to talk to you. Probably about choosing your secondary school. It's weird, though. Professor Malistaire has never called a student out of class to talk about that! He must really want you to study under him, I guess." Malorn stared at me for a moment, trying to find something out of the ordinary about me. Other than my robes, which looked out of place in the Life school, everything looked pretty normal to him. We continued walking, not saying a word to each other the rest of the way.
Much like the Life classroom, the Death school was packed to maximum capacity. Students were everywhere, conjuring vampires, ghouls, and banshees. I stared in awe, only to be surprised by a tap on my shoulder by a cold hand. I turned around slowly, expecting to be attacked by some kind of undead. But it was Professor Malistaire.
"Hello, Esmee," he said.
"Hi," I said, relieved that I wasn't going to be attacked. "Um...why am I here?"
"Wait one moment," he replied. After dismissing the class, he turned back to me. "Follow me." He led me outside Ravenwood, into a large arena. Suprisingly, it was empty. I had heard stories about how arenas like this were usually packed with people fighting and watching duels.
"I thought you might want to see the power that studying Death brings," he said. "Stand on that circle," Professor Malistaire indicated, pointing to one of the four small circles on the left side of the arena. I obeyed, not knowing what to expect. Professor Malistaire stood on another circle on the other side of the room. Suddenly, the floor lit up around us. I was paralyzed in fear. What was going on? I tried to step away, but it was as if my feet were glued to the ground.
"Death not only can deal great amounts of damage to your opponents, but it gives a portion of your enemy's energy back to you." Saying this, Malistaire waved his wand. A shield with spikes appeared in front of me.
Observe." The Death professor waved his wand again, and what looked like a Grim Reaper appeared between us. A blue light glowed at my heart, moving toward the wraith as he literally stole the life out of me. I saw the monster give some of my energy to Malistaire as everything faded to black.
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Three pairs of eyes loomed over me as I awoke. I panicked.
"Gosh, Esmee, it's just us!" Molly exclaimed. Oh. I sat up and took a look around. We were inside a house. My vision was a little blurry, but I could make out that two of the Professor Drakes, Malistaire and Sylvia, were in the room with us.
"There we go," Sylvia half-said to herself, putting her wand away..
"Wow!" Molly yelled. "Maybe I should choose Life as my second school!" Sylvia smiled. "That was so cool, Esmee!" Molly remarked. "You should have seen it! There was this...tree woman, and then--"
"Esmee will get a chance to see it," Professor Sylvia said, "and she'll probably be able to cast that spell before long."
Malistaire was silent.
Suddenly, I began spitting out questions like there was no tomorrow. "Where am I? What happened? How did I get here? Why--"
"You fainted, Esmee," interrupted Malistaire. "I....didn't expect that Wraith to do so much damage to you. I am..." Malistaire struggled with what to say next. "Sorry. "
"That's all right. I think I got the point," I said, laughing a little. Everyone makes mistakes at some point, I rationalized.
"C'mon!" Molly said to me, noticing a nearby clock. "Rachel invited me to a party at her house! She said you can come too!"
"One problem," I said. "I have no idea of how to get to her house." Wait! I thought. Students aren't allowed to have houses...are they?
I was about to object when Molly pulled out her wand. "Watch this!" she said. "I learned how to do this today!" She flicked her wand, and disappeared. Seconds later, she reappeared on the opposite side of the room.
"All you do is think about where you want to go and then flick your wand, and you'll go there!" She flicked her wand again and disappeared again.
"Wait! Molly!" But she was gone.
"I guess I'd better follow her. I don't know what she'll get herself into," I said. "Thank you, Professor Malistaire, for bringing me here, and thanks, Professor Sylvia, for...you know..." I wasn't really in the mood for saying that "h word" at the moment. I took my wand out, gave it a flick, and the next instant, the professors were gone.