Chapter 4

Galaxy Hills

Morning came and I was awake, bright and early. Thankfully, I didn't feel very jet lagged. I'd gotten changed, brushed my teeth and hair and headed into the kitchen with my backpack to start breakfast. My Necronomicon greeted me when it spotted me walking through the living room.

"Kyle! Good morning!"

"Good morning!"

"Well, don't you look dashing today!" The book teased. "Dressed to impress?"

"As if.." I chuckled, rolling my eyes. "There's nothing impressive about a pullover sweater." The book followed me into the kitchen and watched me as I pulled a carton of eggs from the fridge, taking two of them out to scramble. I put my bag down on the floor and let it lean against a cabinet. I was wondering why it was still hovering around me, as it usually never did so for this long.

"What do you want?" I asked knowingly, whisking the eggs in a bowl. The Necronomicon almost looked to be grinning at me.

"Well...I was just hoping to accompany you today for your first day of school..."

"For what? To be in my business?"

"No, no! To support you!"

"Support, huh? Sure..." Turning to the stove, I grabbed a pan from the cabinet and clicked on the fire to start cooking. The book went on behind me.

"I mean it! I'm sure I'll be able to help you get through the day."

"I think I'll be fine."

"Oh please, Kyle?!" It begged now. I was growing annoyed and the book was distracting me at the stove, so I hushed it.

"Fine, fine! Just be quiet!"

Once I got through breakfast, I grabbed the snacks I'd picked up at the Frosty Mart the evening before and popped them into my bag. I grabbed my keys and pulled my backpack on. The Necronomicon asked to be left out of the bag for sight seeing, so I held it in my arms as we left the building. I made my way over to the bus stop where there was only one other student waiting, a short kid wearing a red leather jacket. It was the first person my age I'd seen since I'd moved here. We glanced at one another, but didn't greet one another. I was thankful for that, I didn't exactly feel like talking. I was still doing my best to take everything in, so I was mainly in the mood to observe.

When the yellow bus finally pulled up to the curb, we climbed on. I took a seat in the second row and the other kid took a spot towards the back. I turned my attention to the window as the bus started down the road and eyed the street on the lookout for more stops ahead. It wasn't long before we stopped again. This time, two girls hopped on the bus. One in very colorful attire and the other in a skirt and matching blazer. Before the bus was able to pull off again, a boy banged on the glass of the door and was let on, even though he was tardy. He had a skateboard tucked under his arm and sat with the boy in the back whilst the girls sat in the row behind me and talked to one another. Quite loudly, I'll add.

"I couldn't decide what to wear today, but I think this outfit is a winner. It's designer you know. Major label."

"You always look cute, Francine! We're already in our second week of school and I haven't seen any outfit repeats from you yet!"

"Me? Outfit repeats? Are you insane, Yo?! Repeats are for poor people."

"I mean, I wore this shirt last week, but it's only because it's my favorite."

"You know who wears repeats all the time? Nancy. How much do ya wanna bet she's gonna get on the bus with that same white t-shirt on?"

"The one with the blue stripes?"

"Hahahaha!"

I frowned listening in on the conversation. I thought I'd left these types of attitudes at Milkweed Academy. Being a prestigious school for wizards, the school attracted very wealthy children and their families who poured into academia with hundreds of thousands in sponsored donations every year. The kids there always felt like they had something to prove to someone. Seeing how quaint Galaxy Hills seemed to be, I wasn't expecting to hear such a shallow conversation.

When the bus stopped again, there was a queue on the pavement to get on. Two girls climbed on and were quickly greeted by the girls in the row behind me. Of the two, I instantly noticed the one they'd been speaking of before, only because she was indeed wearing the shirt they'd described. There was snickering behind me, but they greeted her as if they hadn't been speaking poorly of her moments ago. I found that cruel. The other girl had a strong accent and spoke just as loudly as the other girls had been moments ago.

Then came a bigger sized student who waddled his way towards the back of the bus, where most of the boys seemed to gravitate. As he passed down the aisle, I noticed he didn't smell very fresh. In fact, he smelled positively rancid. I wasn't sure how that was possible so early in the morning. Judging by the gagging on the bus, I wasn't the only one who noticed the stench. One of the girls behind me pulled a bottle of perfume from her bag and spritzed the fragrance into the air. It didn't do much, but anything was an improvement in the air quality.

Finally, two more students got on. Their appearance was the single most shocking thing I'd ever witnessed and that was saying A LOT. Considering I'd gone to school with literal mutants and other mythical creatures, the costumes they had on were more strange than anything I'd seen at school before. Full on, head to toe, superhero costumes. I'm talking fully masked. And if that wasn't strange enough, they were in the most obnoxious colors. A bright, neon green and equally bright orange. As the pair climbed into their seats, I noticed their knickers were even on the outside of their clothes!

"What on Earth...?" I mumbled to myself. Clearly, it wasn't normal. Everyone else that had boarded the bus looked sensible, but this was just nonsense.

They were loud, they were bouncing around and they were just plain irritating. It was far too early in the morning for the amount of ruckus they were making. Singing songs, tossing paper around and just being a nuisance. Then and there, I decided to never take this bus again. I'd rather fly than take this bus. I was thankful when we finally got to the front of the school.

Just as I'd seen in the pamphlet, the stout building was mustard colored in appearance and very much an eye sore. It didn't look as renovated as the photo either, in fact, it looked like it could use some work. I didn't expect much from a public school though. I let the other students exit the bus first before I stood up to follow behind. I watched as the costumed boys trampled over one another as they raced to the front door of the school. The entire scene was ridiculous.

"That was...interesting..." My Necronomicon muttered from under my arm. I held back a laugh, but it came out anyway.

"You saw that too?"

"How could I have missed it? Do you think they're your new classmates?"

"I doubt that. They look levels below."

I was instructed by Mike to find the main office when I arrived to the school, so I stopped a random student to ask for directions and followed the ones I'd been given. Thankfully, I hadn't gotten lost. There was a woman inside who introduced herself as "Ms. Olive". She was a French teacher and a member of the faculty. She welcomed me to the school and handed me my syllabus, which highlighted the subjects I'd be learning this year.

"You're in Mr. Mufflin's class." She told me. "If you head down the hall, you'll make a right, then a left, then another left, then a right and you should see his room there."

"...um...thank you?"

I exited the main office feeling very much confused. The syllabus didn't look any different than the one I'd had in England at Waverly Prep, so I wasn't sure how this abroad program differed. And the directions I'd just received didn't help curb my confusion either. I hadn't a clue where I was supposed to find Mr. Mufflin's classroom and I didn't want to go through the trouble of asking her again.

"Sheepshank..."

"What's the problem?" The Necronomicon asked me, clearly hearing my frustrations.

"I can't recall how to get to the classroom. She was speaking entirely too fast and her accent was very thick."

"Lucky you didn't choose France after all, huh?"

"Heh...that's true."

"What's your teacher's name?"

"Mr. Mufflin. Thank Poseidon it wasn't muffin or I'd have an absolute breakdown! No more pudding names for teachers..."

"If you know his name, why don't you try teleporting to the room?"

"Hmm..." The book had a point. I wasn't exactly sure what he looked like, but I had the name and sometimes, that was more than enough to get you where you needed to go. I looked up and down the span of the hall and when the coast was clear, I did my best and took a shot.

I ended up in a restroom. And not just any restroom, the girl's restroom.

"IS THAT A BOY?!"

"THERE'S A BOY IN HERE!"

"AAAAAAAAAA!"

"GET OUT!"

Rushing out as quickly as I could, I raced around the corner and paused. I'd spotted the boy in the red jacket from earlier at the bus stop. He was strangely gliding backwards as he entered the classroom. That was a move I'd never seen before. I leaned against the wall and took a moment to catch my breath as my Necronomicon laughed under my arm.

"At least you tried!" It teased. I rolled my eyes and finally straightened up. I walked a couple feet away towards where I'd seen the boy enter the room. Sure enough, the brass plaque on the outside of the door read "Mr. Mufflin, Middle School Class". Though I wanted to walk in, I suddenly felt a little nervous. The Necronomicon noticed.

"What's keeping you, Kyle?"

"...I'm not sure. I mean, this is a new start."

"So?"

"So, I want to make a good impression. I mean, I don't care for the opinions of others, but I'd like to be well received and perceived..."

"Are you letting people know you're a wizard? Or do you want to be normal here?"

I hadn't really thought about it. The town had seemed completely normal when I first showed up, but after the bizarre bus ride, it clearly wasn't all that simple. The real question right now was if my magic would throw everything out of wack, or if it would blend in with the environment? I didn't want to become a town outcast, not that I gave an elf, but I also didn't want to be run out of Galaxy Hills with torches and pitchforks if people were anti-magic. Then again, I didn't want to be a friendless loser here too. Maybe my magic would attract people to me?

Before I could gather my thoughts, it happened again. The two costumed boys from the bus ride had entered the hall from behind me. They'd been racing and didn't even notice me, rushing straight past me to fight their way into Mr. Mufflin's classroom.

"I WON!"

"NO, I WON!"

Watching them cram inside, I was thoroughly confused now. Surely, we all weren't in the same class, right? That couldn't have been the case. I was supposed to be here on a higher level learning exchange. Nothing about the pair of them even fit into that thought.

"Did they just enter your classroom?" The book asked. After a pause, I nodded.

"I'm just as confused as you are..."

"Well then, make your entrance a grand one."

"What?"

"When you walk in—actually, don't walk in! Teleport inside and make it flashy!"

"I don't know, I'm weighing my pros and cons. It seems like a bit much right now..."

"And those costumes weren't a bit much?!"

Again, the book was spewing facts. I decided to go for it. I wasn't exactly sure what was happening in the classroom at the moment, but I was making my entrance and the lesson would have to wait. I stretched first, being sure to stay focused so I wouldn't end up in a restroom again. When I was ready, I peeked into the classroom for an empty desk and let both my bag and Necronomicon poof from me, to the empty space. I figured a little fog filing the space on the floor and an energy surge would impress. Maybe even rising up from the floor below? Showtime.

"From beyond the veil of dispose, comes one who is versed in ways of sorcery, traveler of the mystical realms of necromancy. Please tremble, and give it up for...Kyle, The Conjurer!"

Looking around the classroom after my display was a shocker. Crickets. Literal crickets. No one had been watching at all. In fact, half the room seemed to be sleeping, the teacher included! I couldn't process any of it. It was baffling. Then I heard clapping. Weak applause in the second row of the room that woke the teacher and a couple students. Applause coming from none other than the two costumed boys.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" The one in green cheered. The smaller one in the desk beside him nodded.

"YEAH, YEAH! DO IT AGAIN!" He begged.

The teacher, who I assumed was Mr. Mufflin, approached me from his desk. His appearance was just as disturbing. His wondering, lazy eye was off-putting and since he'd been sleeping, head down on the desk, his...hair piece was crooked.

"New kid, right?" He asked, rather harshly. I nodded.

"Yes. I'm Ky—"

"Sit in that seat, get out the book from inside your desk and start reading. Silent reading."

"O-oh...alright then..erm-" Noticing the costumed boys in the row behind the empty seat, I refused. Their appearance alone was grating. "Is there no other seat?"

"Deal with it!" The teacher spat. "Welcome to my world.."

Not the kindest welcome, but I quickly took to my desk and sat down. Mr. Mufflin seemed to reposition himself at his desk and fall back asleep, yet again. It was completely unreal to me. Annoyingly, the costumed boys were sat behind me and leaned over to talk in an instant.

"Hi, Kyle!" The green one spoke. "Welcome to our class!"

"Yeah, welcome!" The orange one repeated. I was seeing a trend with them. The little one was like some sort of sidekick.

"I'm Fanboy and this is Chum Chum!"

"Excuse me?!" I accidentally questioned aloud. Those names were just as ridiculous as their appearances. They couldn't possibly be serious.

"How'd you do that trick just now?!" Fanboy asked me, volume on maximum as if I wasn't sat right beside him. "That was really cool!"

"I'm a wizard." I responded simply. "A conjurer, to be exact. Though I do tend to dabble in necromancy and dark arts."

"A wizard you say?" Fanboy questioned. "Classically trained or self taught?" I raised a brow in his direction. What on Earth was he asking for?

"Why?"

"Well, I happen to be a wizard myself!"

"Wait, what?!"

"Small world, ain't it? I happen to be self taught, which I'm guessing is the same case for you?"

"N-no!" I gasped. I took that statement as an insult! "I attended a very prestigious academy to learn my craft!"

"So what are you doing here?" The smaller one asked. I folded my arms. This was beginning to feel like an interrogation.

"I was expelled, alright? Turned my teacher into raspberry flan."

"Whoa! Interesting storyline!" Fanboy grinned. I wasn't understanding him.

"Storyline?"

"Yeah! For your wizard character!"

"Wizard...character?"

"Chum Chum and I love playing wizards, but we never thought of coming up with a storyline for our wizard characters! That's a cool idea!"

"Oh, I see. You're mistaken..." I chuckled. I realized they thought I was pretending. I wasn't playing around or making a storyline out of being a wizard. I thought that was pretty obvious from my entrance, but I guessed they were more unintelligent than I originally realized. "I'm not playing wizards, I'm a real wizard."

"Sure you are!" Fanboy nodded. "And when we play ninjas, we're real ninjas. We take our roles seriously!"

"I'm not playing a role!"

"You can play with us anytime, Kyle. I like your style! No one ever takes role playing as seriously as we do. Refreshing~!"

"What the—WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!" I was feeling my face heating up. This was beyond frustrating. It felt as though I was speaking to a brick wall, or talking in a foreign language. Why was he insisting on this ridiculous notion that I was pretending?!

"I'M NOT ROLE PLAYING!" I shouted. "I'M A WIZARD! A REAL WIZARD!"

"BE QUIET!" Mr. Mufflin suddenly shouted from his position at his desk. I jumped, catching myself and the high volume I'd indeed been shouting at. This wasn't the best way to kick off my very first day and I clearly wasn't making a good impression on the teacher.

"My apologies..." I muttered, turning back around in my seat to face forward once more. I was most positive my face had gone red. I was a tad embarrassed and a little disappointed with myself. I couldn't believe I allowed two, random fools to pull me out of character so quickly. I was supposed to be on my best behavior during this exchange, but at the same time, I was already dreading the entire arrangement.

I didn't want to prejudge, but to me, this public school looked worse than the one I'd left in Surrey. Waverley Prep was at least a little cleaner and lighter on the eyes, but this school was just...well...squalor. And I'd also noticed a trend of how miserable everyone seemed to be. There was a joint expression that the entire town seemed to share and it was lackluster. Then there was the lack of care for the curriculum at the moment. The teacher, sleeping. The students doing whatever they pleased. The books that had been left inside my desk, torn and violated with graffiti and nearly illegible. Milkweed would NEVER.

Milkweed.

I wondered how the current year was going. It would've been my sorting year afterwards if I got through, the year when wizards really began to focus on and study their specific allotted craft. It was a transitional year that split your regular class into new ones that blended with old and new students. It wasn't just schooling anymore, it was training. New spells to learn, new books to add to a magic library, new milestones and levels and potions and challenges and explorations and...I was missing it all. I was going to miss my sorting year.

"Hey, Kyle! Wanna sit with us at lunch?!" Fanboy asked me suddenly. His henchman beside him quickly agreed to the statement.

"Yeah, yeah! You should sit with us!"

"We can come up with more to add to our wizard storyline! I need to come up with a cool wizard name, like yours! Kyle The Conductor!"

"No! It's Kyle The Computerer!"

"Computerer? Is that even a word?"

"Sure is!"

With my anxiety quickly rising up in my chest again, I closed my eyes tightly to keep myself from shouting again. I took a deep breath, steadied my breathing and conjured a dome around me. I needed the noise to stop. The little, squeaky voices on opposite sides of me were too much. I needed to get out of my head and I also needed to get out of this school. Yes, I said it, I needed to get out of here.

Galaxy Hills just wasn't feeling like a home to me, no matter how hard I tried to make it work out. Like trying to make a triangular peg fit into a squared hole, it wasn't working. I'd wanted it to work so badly and I was still willing to give it a chance, but whenever I took a look around, I couldn't help but compare it to Milkweed. I knew, in my heart, that Galaxy Hills wasn't it. It was the thought alone, of what I'd be doing at this very moment in my prep sorting classes, that made me feel emotional. I was regretting the rebellious choice I'd made and it was really hitting a spot in my soul that I didn't know was there. Not home sickness, really, but school sickness. Missed opportunities sickness. Possibly even...friend sickness.

Not that Sigmund was a friend to me, sorta, but he was more bearable than what was happening around me at the moment. And it wasn't just that, it was the fact that he'd almost begged me to stay the day I was expelled, specifically because of the sorting year ahead.

"There's been so many times that I've stopped what I was doing to make sure you'd move up with me. You have to move up with me. You can't give up now. We're so close."

"I don't know what to do..." I spoke aloud accidentally. I felt the Necronomicon on my lap jitter. The book's face was summoned on the cover and it turned its attention to me.

"Are you alright?" It asked me. I shook my head. We both jumped when the costumed boys began to pound at the dome from the outside and unintentionally, a sigh escaped me. "You sound stressed..."

"I am. This isn't the situation I was expecting."

"What exactly were you expecting?"

"I mean...I guess not much."

"Refuge?"

"Mainly. Yes. I just needed to be isolated long enough to figure out what I wanted."

"I think this sped up that decision for you. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Wholeheartedly."

"So, you know what you want. The question now is, how are you going to get it?"

"WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO IN THERE?!" Fanboy called out, continuing to knock at the surface of the dome. His partner chimed in, a pattern I was beginning to notice.

"CAN WE COME IN?!"

With another sigh, I looked to the book to cloak itself and rolled down a partition of the dome once the book was rested in my lap once more. Looking out at the duo, who finally paused their knocking, they sported a pair of overly excited grins that irked my being.

"Oooh~! Looks cozy in there! Neat illusion!" Fanboy beamed. "How'd you manage to do this?!"

"I'm a wizard..." I repeated for the millionth time. I didn't care this time when they laughed it off. I just closed the dome again and stayed under till the class was over with. I was finished explaining myself and finished with this situation altogether.

When the bell chimed for lunch, I finally emerged from under the dome, grabbed my bag and book and rushed to the door. The costumed idiots trailed behind me, doing their best to keep up with my pace. I wasn't sure where the cafeteria was, but following the strength of the strange smell in the hall was probably the best guess for direction.

"Hey! Nice cape!" Fanboy marveled, pointing out my attire. "Is that satin?"

"It's velvet." I answered flatly. "Now please, leave me alone."

"Velvet! That's expensive! I've opted for a polyester blend!"

"Leave me alone."

"Mine is polyester too!" Chum Chum added, even though I didn't ask. "But I'm thinking of upgrading soon. Might go heavier, like a cotton blend!"

"Leave me alone."

"Cotton sounds like a great idea, Chum Chum! Yeah! Let's upgrade!"

"Thanks, Fanboy! Let's make Kyle a cotton cape too!"

"Good call! His cape looks a little worn if ya know what I mean..."

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" I finally yelled, stopping in the hall. Towards my outburst, two girls from our class glared in my direction and whispered to one another before they continued on into the cafeteria ahead. I blushed, rubbing my temples and turning on my heels to get away again. "Just go away! Please!"

"He must be shy..." I heard Chum Chum whisper as I distanced myself.

"Poor guy..." Fanboy muttered.

At this point, I was too close to just slapping them both. I was only halfway through the day. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take.