Chapter 2

I sat down at the best table in the entire cafeteria with my four friends. In fact, we always sat at the best table in the cafeteria. The other kids just didn't dare steal our table without our permission. It's almost as if it was reserved for us. I sat quietly as my friends chattered loudly.

Lizzy was busy putting on her lipstick as she gossiped about a bunch of ugly girls who creeped her out, Jack was stuffing himself with the two whole chickens he had bought, Henry was, as usual, smoking and Iris was flirting with a few guys who were walking pass. I watched them silently, slowly chewing on my sandwich.

"What's in your pretty mind, Ryan?" I snapped out of my thoughts as I felt Iris' sharp fingernails graze against my back. I quickly spun around.

"Huh-oh, n-nothing at all!" I protested before she could question further. I just hate it how she questions me every single minute of my life. Maybe it was because of the fact she had a crush on me before, and she might still do. I sighed as she pouted, placing her hands on her hips.

"That face you're giving me sure doesn't look like nothing. What's wrong?" she insisted. I was annoyed…really annoyed. "It's nothing! Okay?" I finally half-yelled-half-hissed. I guessed that worked because she let out a soft 'hmph' and slowly slid down into her seat.

"Whoa, whoa, someone's having mood swings here." Henry said as puffs of grey smoke escaped from his lips. Everyone exclaimed "EWW!" in unison as he sighed. "I'm not having mood swings. I'm just fine." I muttered.

"Are you sure?" Iris piped up again, "Are you unwell? Do you need to see a doctor? Because I'll be more than happy to accompany you there." When will this girl stop? I slightly glared at her as she flipped her black curls when another bunch of guys walked pass.

I turned away from her direction, quite disgusted. Maybe my friends were right. Maybe I was having mood swings. Oh, but that's what they tell me every day. I am like this every day. Oh, well. I'm cool like that? My eyes scanned the entire cafeteria, hoping to find something interesting like a fight or a couple kissing. Nothing…nothing. Finally, my eyes landed on a heap of red mass.

I blinked. That girl looked familiar. She had her back turned on me while leaning against a wall. All she had on was a simple mid-thigh length red dress and a pair of black boots. How different it was from the girls in my gang, I thought. She looked awfully familiar and I racked my brains to try to remember where I have met her before.

Before I could even think, I saw a well-built guy walk over to her, and probably tried flirting with her. She finally turned around to face him, giving me a good close-up on her face. It was seriously, fucking familiar. I sat back and quietly enjoyed the show I was in for. The guy seemed like he was harassing her. Yup. She was yelling now.

The guy clasped his hand around her waist. That was the last straw. I watched in awe as a flame appeared in her right hand. That probably scared the guy to bits as he quickly ran away without a word. Eureka! I mentally cheered in my head. She was the girl who almost destroyed an entire training hall the other day.

"Who are you looking at?" Iris demanded as I turned around, only to find her face five inches away from mine. "Nobody." I snorted. I could sense jealousy. And that wasn't good.

"Are you sure it's nobody? Does she look like nobody?" she pouted, pointing at the auburn-haired girl who had just scared the shit out of a boy. Okay, I had it. "Iris," I said as I stood up, "You're not my mother." My chair made a screeching sound as it grazed against the floor. I pushed it back under the table and walked away. Maybe a little bit of training would take my mind off these bothering business.

I walked pass the classrooms and training halls. Where should I train? Almost the whole of my mind was set on training, but a tiny bit of it wanted to see that Fire/Poison mage again. What was I thinking? Maybe I could if I simply trained at that place she almost burnt down to bits. That was confirmed.

I set my bag down against a wall of the training hall. I rubbed my hands together, smirking to myself and pulling my white gloves on. Us, magicians, had to wear gloves to use magic without a stupid wand or staff. I started off by piercing a few straw dummies through the head with my oh-so-famous ice spears, my best and favourite skill.

I stabbed a few dummies, and froze some others. This went on for a while until I heard the door of the hall opening. I spun around and, there she was. She stood there, frozen, for a moment. She stared at me. I stared back. It was as if we were playing some sort of staring game. Finally, her surprised stare transformed into a piercing glare.

"What," she began, "Are you doing here?"

I grinned. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do because a second after I did so, a bolt of fire came flying pass my head, barely missing a few strands of my hair.

"Does this training hall have your name on it?" I challenged.

"Ah, so I see you're trying to challenge me?" she shot back almost immediately after I finished my sentence.

"I'm just playing fair. What I said was the truth, and only the truth."

"I don't like sharing."

"Neither do I."

She finally sighed, as if admitting defeat. "I guess you're right. Although I really, really HATE sharing." She mumbled. "You have no choice." I said emotionlessly. She looked at me with a rather innocent look on her face.

"Okaaay," I tried to change the subject, hoping she wouldn't suddenly start crying or anything, "I promise I won't interfere with your training, and you don't interfere with mine. Fair?"

"Fair."

And with that, she whipped out her white gloves from her bag and pulled them on in a matter of seconds. Wow, she was really pro at this. She quickly set all of the dummies in the hall on fire, leaving none for me. I wasn't the bit annoyed. In fact, I was quite amused at this young girl's skills.

The dummies reappeared as quickly as they faded. This time, I left no chance for her to attack. I swiftly waved my hand in the air and ice arrows fell upon the dummies, killing them in an instant. She couldn't keep her cool and spun around to narrow her eyes at me.

"Stop…KSing me." She warned.

"Wasn't that what you did at first?" I pointed out.

"I-ugh, that's why I hate sharing!"

"Live with it, girly." I snorted as she walked away to where her bag lay on the ground.

"Pfft."

Finally, after what seemed like a hundred aeons, I asked her,

"What's your name?"

"Hermione."

"Ryan. I'll keep that in mind."

I proceeded to continue attacking, but something made me want to turn back. I spun around. She was gone.

"Had a tough day, bro?" Henry asked in concern as he slung his arm around my shoulder. "No." I simply stated as I looked at him and sighed. Henry was quite the handsome one. He had shaggy sandy brown hair and sharp facial features. I'm just saying and I'm not gay or anything. Don't get the wrong idea.

"Oh, well." He shrugged. "Wanna hang out tonight?" I asked, out of boredom.

"Sorry, I've got a date tonight." And he was also pretty popular among the girls.

"Okay, then. I'll just go home and rot on the couch tonight."

"Good luck with that."

"Thanks."

And with a small gentlemanly bow, he walked away. His black knee-high boots made the floorboards creak under his feet. I walked away the opposite direction and headed to sword fighting lessons with Mr. Edwins.

"And this is how you hold a sword properly, you useless bastards!" the creepy-looking instructor, Mr. Edwins yelled at us. I looked left, right and centre at the boys who were surrounding me. They seemed equally displeased with Mr. Edwins as I was.

Mr. Edwins was a tanned, well-built muscly lad with a beard that made him look rather wise. I sighed. It definitely wasn't going to be an interesting lesson. I've had lost interest in sword fighting ever since my favourite instructor, Mrs Rockwell left. We've been having these silly replacement instructors ever since.

I was drowned in my own thoughts until the beardy man screamed my name. "RYAN! WHO DAHELL HERE IS RYAN?" God dammit, I wanted to stab him with my sword. Instead, I raised my hand. "Me."

"OKAY, RYAN. GO STAND OVER THERE WITH ANDY." He pointed to a skinny redhead who was practically dragging the sword on the floor behind him. He wore thick round Harry Potter-like glasses which made him look even nerdier than he actually was. And why did Mr. Edwins need to shout all the time? Did he have a disease or something?

I obediently walked over to the spot he was furiously pointing at and stood there. The nerd pushed his glasses higher up his nose with two fingers as he stared at me. I glared back. He quickly turned away and whimpered softly. Seriously…what a sissy.

We waited in awkward silence as our instructor screamed away at the other boys, trying to get them to stand at their fixed positions. The redhead walked up to me without warning. I was a bit shocked as well. "Do you happen to be Ryan Howie?" he asked.

What a weird question. "Well, yes I am. Is there anything I can help you with?" I asked and shot him one of my famous I-really-don't-give-a-shit stares. "O-oh, n-n-nothing! HI." He said, waving. How nerdy can someone get? I didn't say that out loud though. It might hurt his feelings and make him cry…and Mr. Edwins would probably make me do 3 gazillion push ups as punishment.

He was giving me the creeps by acting so nervous around me. I'm not bragging or anything but, I have to admit I'm pretty known around here and I'm quite popular with the girls as well, just like my good ol' buddy, Henry (*trumpets sound for this moment of pride* XD).

When everything was settled, Mr. Edwins shouted, for the hundredth time, "AAAAAAAAAND… BEGIN!"

I heard swords furiously clashing with each other. I tightened my grip on my own sword and charged towards the boy. I could see that he was sweating profusely and just waited there for me to attack. I let out a small yelp as I brought my sword down upon him. He blocked my blow with his own swords and I heard the loud Ching caused by the friction of the two swords.

I continued attacking fast as he kept blocking without counter-attacking. Was he just scared or did he have some secret tactics? I finally had his back against the wall of the hall. I slowly brought my sword up, partly because I was trying to scare him and partly because my hands were getting really tired.

He dropped his sword and blocked his head with both of his hands. I muttered something that isn't necessary for all of you to know. After a second or so, I brought my sword down on him so fast; I think he didn't even see it happening.

Instead of slicing his head into 2, my sword pierced the wall right next to his head, slicing off bits of his hair. Soft whimpers escaped from his mouth as he looked up at me, pale as ever. With a small salute, I said gruffly, "Nice try, buddy."

Mr. Edwins, who was observing us the entire match, clapped his hands together once, causing everyone to stop in their tracks. "TIME'S UP." He yelled as everyone nodded in obedience, dropping their swords. "HAVE A NICE RECESS."

I knew he had planned to make it sound nice but the way he yelled it totally changed everyone's thoughts about it. I grabbed my bag and slung it over my right shoulder. As I was about to make my way out of the door, the red-haired boy ran to catch up with me.

"Hi, R-Ryan. Can we have lunch together?" he asked. My eyebrows shot up so high, they almost disappeared under my fringe. Lunch? Totally unexpected. I hesitated for a moment, but couldn't turn down a request like that.

"Please?" he begged, "You're my idol! I must have lunch with you!" Okay, shocking.

"Uh-sure. If you don't mind my friends." I finally said, knowing full well my friends would tease him like hell.

"I don't mind." He cheerfully said.

"Okay, let's go."

He followed me from behind like a puppy. This was going to be a long day.