Rather proud of myself for still updating frequently. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: First
Melissa woke to gray dreariness outside the window, a faint dusting of witchlight illuminating the room, and Aribelle sitting cross-legged on her bed, dressed in her uniform and reading furiously.
"Nice of you to join the waking world," she said while maintaining eye contact with her book when Melissa made a noise to signal her consciousness. "I've been scanning our new textbooks for the past hour and found absolutely nothing – breakfast's in ten minutes by the way, so you better get ready."
Melissa propped herself up on her elbows, suddenly awake. "Our new textbooks?"
"Yeah, they were delivered last night. Your eighth year Mundane Studies one is especially gorgeous." She shot her friend a smirk before snapping her book shut.
"Shut up. And let me get this straight, you've been up for an hour?"
Aribelle nodded as if it wasn't something akin to death, and Melissa grinned before dragging herself out of bed. "Then you truly must be my best friend. But that's still ghastly."
"I hope you remember that when we're fighting a particularly bloodthirsty demon and you have an escape route!"
They were five minutes late for breakfast, much to Aribelle's chagrin, and they found that the Circle members had claimed their usual table, devouring the pile of flat golden pancakes before them. A brown-haired boy was tapped on the shoulder and turned with a shout, standing so fast he almost tripped over the bench and opening his arms wide. Aribelle ran and hugged him so forcefully that the pancakes were only saved by the quick reflexes of Michael Wayland.
Melissa slid into the spot between Valentine and Jocelyn and bemusedly watched Aribelle with her boyfriend. "Oliver sure looks happy. Bet he was waiting for this moment all summer."
"Most likely," agreed Valentine, flipping a bread knife with his fingers before buttering a piece of toast. "So how long did it take Aribelle to get you up?"
"To assume, dear friend, makes an ass of both "u" and "me.'" Melissa bit into a fresh pear with relish.
"You can't tell me I'm wrong though. Oh look, timetables are coming."
Melissa had enrolled halfway through last school year, so she had never experienced the sudden rise in volume as teachers moved throughout the tables, handing each student a slip of stiff paper.
The tenth year students were a bit calmer. Valentine accepted his with a nod of thanks and glanced at it before continuing to eat. Melissa scanned over her name and homeroom, which was the same as the others', before moving to the schedule.
"I got my free block!" she announced to nobody in particular. "And there's one first thing Wednesday morning. I think I have a new favourite day. But Latin three times a week, ew. Practical Combat first thing Monday is okay, though." She spotted Valentine's timetable lying unguarded on the table and made a dive for it before its owner could stop her.
"AP Latin, AP Rune Theory, AP Demonology, AP Weapon Theory and Handling, and let's not forget the assistant position in Practical Combat. You have got to be shitting me."
Valentine gave his girlfriend an irritated glance but accepted the praise from around the table with grace.
Jocelyn leaned across Melissa to see. "Oh, we're in the same Rune Theory and Demonology classes. Did you hear we're getting a new teacher, by the way?" Valentine nodded, and Melissa questioned the way she had addressed both herself and the boy beside her.
"There aren't enough students for a complete Advanced Rune Theory class, so they combine them but get different assignments." She shifted her focus to Valentine. "Congratulations on getting the TA spot in Combat, though." The happiness in her expression appeared somewhat strained to Melissa.
Melissa changed the subject, gesturing to where Aribelle, Oliver, and Luke were comparing timetables. "Let's hope those don't have a single class together."
"Unfortunately, they do," Luke answered. "But shouldn't we be worried about you and your girl, Valentine?"
"If we're worrying about anything, it should be violence," Aribelle laughed while Melissa protested vehemently about being called Valentine's "girl." Leila, her long hair curled and light blonde after two months of sunshine, joined in the laughter and conversation until the bell tolled for homeroom.
Homeroom was located in a first floor room nearly identical to their one last year and was nothing overly exciting. A lecture of the responsibilities of being the oldest students in the school (everyone looked to the oldest student and sniggered at the thought of responsibility) conducted by their new homeroom teacher, Mr. Blackwell, took all of the ten minutes given and made most students seriously consider dropping out that very day. Itching for physical activity and battle practice, they made their collective way down to the central courtyard only to find Mr. Cartwright in the place of seraph blades and Mr. Youngblood, the usual Practical Combat teacher and a school favourite. Even Valentine had to sit and take notes concerning the safety practices they all should (and, for most of them, did) know by this time. Most were then shooed off to Latin while Valentine departed for Greek. By the end of the horrible morning, Melissa's head was pounding and her notebook was full of doodles. Her personal favourite pictured her and Aribelle as scantily clad superheroes and Valentine as a scantily clad servant in a mansion built of all three teachers' dismembered limbs.
She was called over to eat with Aribelle and Jocelyn on the grass as she walked down a pathway skirting the outside of a building. They chatted and tried to talk positively, and Aribelle gave Melissa a sly smirk as she subtly inquired after Valentine's whereabouts. Jocelyn said something about spotting him writing furiously in an empty classroom and the subject turned to other things, for everyone knew not to disturb the Circle leader when he was like that.
"This is terrible," Melissa moaned as the bell signaled the end of the lunch hour and they followed Jocelyn's lead to the Rune Theory classroom with dread. "If every Monday is like this, I may not come back from my first demon hunting assignment. And everyone will be jealous."
Aribelle nodded her agreement as Jocelyn led them to the third floor of the sub-building and pushed open the first door on the left. "I hope this new teacher was fired from wherever they came from for being too exciting. But Latin adverbs are surprisingly easy!"
Melissa was about to demonstrate her colourful vocabulary on the subject of Latin adverbs when she entered the classroom and caught sight of the teacher standing near the blackboard. Jocelyn gave a little gasp of excitement, for it was a woman – and the number of women teaching at the Academy could be counted on three fingers.
Their classmates were milling around the tables staggered throughout the room: wood paneled like usual, but a little less luxurious and decorated than the ones in the main building. A table sat four, and as Lucian, Michael, and Valentine occupied most of the middle one, the three girls chose the one next to it. They were joined by Leila a minute later.
The bell tolled again and the teacher had to quiet the class as Michael tossed a jeering comment to the table behind him. Melissa had to face the board before she could look at its recipient. But she still saw Valentine stop writing in his notebook and tear the sheet off before her eyes swung to face her teacher.
"Alright – you can call me Miss Nightwine and before I say another word, I'll have you know that I'm not your teacher for the year. He is indisposed – yes, I know that's the teacher word for slacking – and won't be available until next week. At least, that's the extent of my knowledge."
Melissa nodded in approval of her brusque manner while Aribelle and Jocelyn sighed at her use of a male pronoun for their actual instructor.
"Secondly, I was just issued two announcements from the main office. I am to assume you all know about the Fall Carnival that will take place this weekend?" The class nodded in collective excitement. It was subdued, though – like child receiving ice cream after he'd got the treat every other day that week.
"But I'm not sure that you're all aware that the tenth years have to volunteer a minimum of three hours to run it. I'm passing the sign-up sheet around, and expect everyone's names on it in the next fifteen minutes." The statement drained most of the excitement from the room. It was passed to a boy called Hodge first. Melissa knew him as a fringe member of the Circle, and he often beat Aribelle as the class brainiac. His hand shot up as he scanned the paper with small, sharp eyes.
"Yes, Mr. …?"
"Starkweather, ma'am."
"Yes, Mr. Starkweather?"
"What's this on the bottom half – "Sign up for Italy Trip?'"
The effect was instant. Every student began chatting with their neighbor, and five pairs of hands tried to wrestle the paper from Hodge at once.
"Quiet!" The command was so loud that many looked around; not believing it could come from the teacher's small frame. But when she started speaking again, she had a smile on her face.
"That was the second. The school is organizing an educational weekend trip to our neighbouring mundane country. It'll take place two weeks from now. Forms to mail home to your parents or guardians can be found at the front desk, and you can pay the fee there as well. It's open to all students, but you'll be splitting into your respective grades in the daytime. There'll be cultural and mundane experiences in Venice, a stay at the Institute in Rome, and a practical assignment at the end of it all." Melissa felt the jolt of fear in her breast clash with the frenzied murmuring all around her and pushed it down with difficulty.
"And there'll be food," Miss Nightwine continued, "Lots and lots of food. Now Mr. Starkweather there has the initial sign-up sheet, it'll be passed around, please do not forget to sign up for a volunteer position as well, and I do not want to hear the "I" word for the rest of the class." She took a breath and fixed Luke and Michael, who were already compiling a list of spaghetti dishes, with a stare. "Now, I want you to find a partner and draw the most complicated rune you know on them. I don't care if it makes them turn into a pumpkin. On second thought, avoid Marks for loudness, rowdiness and energy. Away you go!"
She began to circulate around the class. Melissa turned to find her parabatai already drawing a rune unknown to her on her upper arm and frantically fished in her bag for her textbook to find its meaning before her friend made her grow a third arm or something equally as absurd. The whoosh of air her Rune Theory text displaced as it thumped on the table caused the sheet of paper she had missed before to flutter towards the ground. Melissa made a mad dive for it, recognizing Valentine's elegant scrawl at once as she read it on the way back up.
Circle Meeting at 9:00 tonight underneath the big oak.
Pass it on.
The perpetual drizzle that had kept Alicante in its grasp all day had finally ceased, as if even the weather couldn't deny the charismatic Circle leader's wishes. Melissa pushed her way out of the dormitory building's heavy front door and started down the path to the central courtyard. Aribelle had promised to be down in a few minute's time, having spent most of the early evening helping with (doing) Melissa's Latin sheets and only now beginning to work on her own. The brunette herself emerged from the shadow of the old trees lining the side path and crossed the expanse of stone, making her way to the enormous redwood rooted in a square of grass roughly five meters across in the center of it all. It would take the arm widths of Melissa, Aribelle, and Jocelyn to fully encircle the trunk of the massive tree. She could already see people milling beneath it in the semi-darkness, illuminated by two witchlight lanterns.
Melissa arrived at the meeting ten minutes fashionably late. Jocelyn and Leila nodded to her in greeting from their seats on the lawn. When she actually looked around, it was clear that almost everyone was already there and seated – she could even spot a few of the third and fourth years they had picked up towards the end of last year – and it seemed as if they were waiting for something.
"So the party hasn't started yet?" she said to no one in particular, suddenly aware she was on display at the front of the group.
"I was waiting for a very influential member," said the voice behind her with its familiar amused tone, and when she turned around Valentine took her lips in a passionate kiss.
Her cheeks heated in a very uncomfortable way, painfully aware that they were very public throughout the time that their lips were locked. Yet, she felt some of the tension leave her body when she saw the many faces now gazing at her in barely disguised awe. Pride pooled inside her as she realized what he had done – he had made it very obvious to friends and acquaintances alike that both he and she were off limits, and that nothing was going to change his mind about it.
"You're trying to kill me, right?" she brought her face to his ear and whispered before moving to sit beside Leila at the edge of the group. He gave her small smile before looking back to his Circle, one that felt extremely intimate even when surrounded by more than a class's worth of kids. Melissa was beginning to recognize that she was romantically involved with the leader of a powerful body of people – and she couldn't help but love how that was a powerful thing in itself.
"I'm so glad that everyone was able to make it so soon after the summer," he started, smiling warmly at his collective audience. "I'm sure you've noticed that there are no new people joining us tonight. Of course, I wasn't able to get the word around fast enough, this being the first day of school. But I'm sure we won't be opposed to adding a few more into our ranks?"
He stood there; and was no adult instructor, albeit the perfect posture, pressed shirt and impeccably cut slacks. Yet, the sixteen-year-old boy managed to get a resounding shout of conformation from a group of nearly forty kids and teenagers.
"I know I can count on our group to get the message around strictly via word of mouth," he continued, smile no bigger than it had been before the shout. But it was Valentine, and he merely expected it; anything less would have disappointed him, and none of the students gathered wanted to do that. "I do not think the teachers would take kindly to any sort of poster on the wall. Just be sure to mention our next meeting – next week's Tuesday at eight, by the way – whenever you bring up the other piece of news circulating around the school. Which brings me to our next order of business.
"Please, if at all possible, try and accompany us on the trip to Italy in two weeks' time. It will be a great chance to improve our skills in a more realistic setting and get to fight in battle with our other members. And," he paused, "I may plan something for the overnight stay in Rome that you won't want to miss."
Melissa felt Aribelle sit down beside her and murmured a distracted hello, taking the opportunity to glance around at the crowd. All faces, but especially the younger ones, were turned upwards and nodding enthusiastically, drinking in his every word and knowing without a doubt that they would do anything they could to go on this trip. It had alarmed Melissa at first, but now it sparked a sense of camaraderie that she had never experienced before. This was a group of people, all with the same goals and purpose, and she was at the center of it all.
Valentine quieted the murmurs of speculation on what he was planning with a raise of his hand. "I hope to see you all there. That is all for tonight, and please remember our mission: to reform the horribly corrupt group that governs us and create a new world where we walk in the light of the mundanes' praise and admiration and demons and Downworlders alike fall in disgrace at our feet. Hocsignieritvincere and goodnight."
There was nodding, clapping, and even a few murmurs of hoc signi erit vincere in return. Melissa stretched from her place on the ground with a groan while the students rose around her, breaking off into little groups to discuss the night's agenda. Aribelle stayed with her on the ground, a strange look almost mirroring the sudden uneasiness in Melissa's own gut playing across her face for a second before speaking.
"So you're going to Italia, right?" Her voice was almost too chipper, even for the blonde.
Melissa shook her head and fell back into the soft grass, still damp from the earlier rain. "Psh, no. Seen one city, seen them all. Don't have a clue where I'd get the money from." The last statement was a lie – she had accumulated more than enough money through her performing to pay for the trip.
She pulled herself up onto her elbow to look at Aribelle more seriously. "Plus, until we get something figured out…"
Aribelle nodded, looking miserable about not having been able to think of a cure in under five minutes. "I know. There's still a bit of time left, though – I'll try my hardest to think of something before then. And, if you really don't have the money, I'm pretty sure I know a great source."
Melissa's eyebrows rose suspiciously. "What?"
"It's called your boyfriend, Valentine Morgenstern. Have you heard of him?"
Aribelle's arm received a healthy smack. "Shut it. By the way, he did something at the start of the meeting that would've flipped your top." She sighed dramatically. "You should've taken a page out of my book and put off that Latin until the next day. Or the next, or the next."
Aribelle gave a chuckle of pity. "That's just your problem. And that reminds me, remember question seven on your sheet today? You got it wrong. Jejuniumhominum, not vice versa. So it's time to go back and do it again."
It took three tries to get Melissa on her feet. "Are you my parabatai or my mom?" she questioned sarcastically, trying to distract her friend from the way she searched with her eyes for a singular person before they turned to leave. He was standing closest to the tree's base, deep in conversation with the couple of admiring fourth years that had come. But just before she swung her eyes back to Aribelle, he looked up and caught her in a smile so warm the earlier uneasiness almost faded entirely.
But as she walked back to the dorm with Aribelle, she realized what it was. It was the very first time Valentine had mentioned Downworlders along with demons in his closing speech.
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