'Long live, Queen Anna!' the whole kingdom erupted with cheers. A new queen had been crowned in the world of Meridian. Her husband Edward, now King, stood cheering with the rest of the kingdom, a relaxed smile on his face.
Queen Elyon had stepped down from the throne so that her only daughter could take over. Elyon could now join the High Council of Kandrakar, just as planned 60 years ago. The responsibility that came from joining was something that she had been preparing for many years, sure that the honour would weigh heavy on her shoulders. The universe was suspended in a fragile balance, and Kandrakar was important to maintaining that balance. Of course it would be a great challenge.
Anna was a high spirited woman with a knack for understanding people. She knew how to read them and find out what could be bothering them; it was a skill many people did not possess and were never blessed with. It was a skill that made her more fit for being Queen than her older cousin Nelia. She held her head up high, smiling looking toward the crowd of people that had gathered in the palace gardens, the audience ranging from many of the old families of Meridian, to their second cousin's twice removed sister's husband, their children, and their cow. The whole kingdom was in celebration, just as it had been for the previous Queen's coronation.
After the large presentation of her royal majesty, many guests went back to their regular lives, leaving only a few close guests to celebrate a banquet with the royals. Anna was standing alone in the throne room, checking her hair in a metal vase, her reflection skewered. Her long fair hair was braided down her back and stood out against her deep green robe. Her dress underneath it was a lighter green, decorated with beautiful silver embroidery of flowers, species native to that part of Meridian. The door to the room creaked open but Anna did not notice until her daughter was hugging her from behind.
'Mom!' she laughed. Anna smiled back and hugged her daughter. Tia was an almost carbon-copy of her grandmother. Anna often wondered how unlike her own mother she looked, as if the genes skipped a generation but her daughter had been blessed with a brilliant smile and warm brown eyes, whilst hers were a very cold and distant grey.
'Hello, darling! How was the last day of school? I'm impressed you got back on time for the coronation."' she asked as they walked toward the large set of stairs in the main corridor of the palace. There were portraits of all the royal family for the last three centuries. Most of them smiling and some had stern faces. One in particular almost glared at you from the wall. Prince Phobos. Elyon's brother, but he was rarely talked about. His history was dark and his reign had been known as the Dark Ages, where the people of Meridian had suffered deeply. Luckily with the help of the rebellion and Guardians of the Veil, he had been defeated. The Light of Meridian restored fully.
'It was okay, school was boring but I went out into the city with my friends.' Tia replied. Her short blond hair was tied in a small knot at the back of her head and she was wearing a similar long robe dress, only hers was a pastel shade of green, the kind that you'd see when an ocean wave crashed and sprayed you with seafoam.
'Oh? Those girls? Who were they again?' Anna gathered the hem of her long dress and climbed the stairs after her daughter. Tia looked back at her mother, smirking.
'Can you really not remember their names?' she laughed.
'I'm sorry darling, I'll try.' Anna said apologetically. "I do remember many names after all, forgive me this once." she pleaded.
'Okay, okay, yes. Their names are Mei Lin, Ashley, Natalia, and Kara.' Tia said in one breath.
'Yes, I do recall so. Mei Lin was Hay Lin's granddaughter, wasn't she?"
"Yeah, but she doesn't know anything, remember? I'm always dying to tell her about Meridian and how cool magic powers are and ugh! I mean it's a miracle that I ended up befriending her on Earth anyway, what are the chances of that!" she shrugged.
"Tia, you cannot say anything to anyone. It's a secret, that was our deal, wasn't it? I let you stay on Earth with the premise that you will be quiet about everything magical. Don't make me floor you!" Anna huffed as they got to the door of the banquet hall.
"Mom, it's "ground you" in Earth speak, at least get it right if you're going to be Earthy with me." Tia sighed, still smiling, and walked ahead. Anna pouted for a second, then stood up straighter, following her daughter in.
The sun rose over the bland bricked buildings, inching up their high walls, and illuminating the city. Somewhere in that town lived five very special girls. They were yet to understand who they truly were. An uncanny feeling of change hung in the air over the newly lit concrete world. Everything else was happening as normal - the traffic of cars and bikes and buses and all pedestrians trying to share the streets in a civilised way however difficult it may be. A horn blasted here, a shout of ridicule over there, the screeching of wheels accompanied the sounds of life.
A motorcycle was starting up on the east side of town, in a secluded street far away from all the noise and buzz of the town, its rider adjusting a helmet over his dark hair. His younger sister was closing the front door of the house, jingling the keys and turning around to wave at him. He nodded quickly and revved the engine of the bike, then sped down the street in a moment. Michael and Kara lived with their dad Jem, who owned a local motor shop down town. The small family of grease monkeys had their ways of getting along, usually functioning as a normal family, but sometimes just speeding off into their own worlds of machines. Kara left the house in the other direction. She walked to school alone most days but would sometimes go with a friend. Her friends lived close by, though most would argue friendship was never too far away.
Soon the sounds of traffic reached Kara, crept on her through her headphones and appeared bright and loud in front of her in the form of cars and cars and more cars stacked together on the main road through the city. Kara walked on her usual route to school, having agreed to meet with Mei Lin this morning. It had been a week since school started and things were more or less already decided for how the year was going to go. Classes were beginning to get increasingly livelier and students were starting to become more awake with their work.
The last few bends in the road came and went and Kara found herself standing outside the Silver Dragon restaurant; her friend Mei Lin's great grandmother Yan Lin had opened it up many years ago. Her grandmother Hay Lin had passed it on to Mei Lin's parents just as her parents had passed it down to her. The whole succession was more important than Mei Lin could imagine since as well as the restaurant, came a responsibility which would not only affect her, but her friends too.
Kara opened the door and fell into the warm air coming from the inside of the kitchens. It was still early morning but cooking started early enough so that the lunch hour could be catered for. Mei Lin was still wearing her apron as she placed some dishes over the island in the middle of the kitchen. She noticed Kara waiting on the other side of the restaurant, and waved. Her long black hair was pulled into two braids and her mint shirt was untucked from her jeans. Kara on the other hand was wearing a black sweater and jeans; the two made a stark contrast.
Kara raised her hand in response, and pointed to the clock; the two would be late for school if Mei Lin took much longer. Alarmed, Mei Lin threw off her apron and grabbed her bag momentarily and rushed after her friend.
'Morning!'
'Hey, I thought it wasn't your shift today?' Kara asked. Mei Lin shouldered her bag and fell in step with her dark haired companion.
'Yeah, but ever since grandma retired, my parents want me to keep busy, y'know?' Mei Lin brushed away a stray strand of hair. Kara looked down at her boots, unsure what to say.
'I guess, but shouldn't they cut you some slack? You've been working the entire summer and now that school has started you need to keep up.' Kara glanced at Mei Lin's frown.
'I'm not going to object, it doesn't matter anyways.' She paused. 'Did you find out about that weird kid, Will?' she asked with a little more liveliness. Kara rolled her eyes.
'Yes, we went home the same way, he lives on the street behind mine.'
'And? Anything else? C'mon! No one knows anything about him and it's been a week. Something is up with him, believe me.' Mei Lin exclaimed.
'Why do we care anyway? He's just another person that goes to our school.' Kara shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans, and fished out her phone.
'Well, I don't particularly but he sits next to me in math class and we don't talk, like ever. He keeps staring into space and never blinking, and that's odd.' Mei Lin was very bubbly and friendly so when someone didn't warm up to her, it was a strange feeling of rejection in her eyes. Of course her friends didn't think so since they liked her anyway.
'Look, I sit behind you and I see that he doesn't really want to talk. Leave him be, Mei Lin.' Kara read the message on her phone and sniggered. Her brother Michael had gotten to college and was wondering where his keys were. She tapped out a snarky reply and continued on her way with Mei Lin who skipped up to catch a leaf falling from a nearby tree.
The girls reached school and split off to go to their lockers. The aforementioned Will had a locker next to Kara's, however the latter didn't know so until she closed her locker and the one next to hers was opened. The clang of the lockers made her jump. Each one looked up and caught the other's eye. Will was a tall boy with chin length brown hair and a concerned face. His brows were arched slightly in surprise as Kara had seemed caught unawares at the sound of metal closing on metal. A second passed and finally Kara broke off their competitive staring and turned to go. Will stared after her and rolled his eyes. Kara frowned at the encounter as she walked away. Mei Lin was right; he did tend to stare, though to her it seemed like a stare in challenge.
In class Mei Lin met up with the others; Ashley and Natalia. They waited for Kara and Tia to show up. Tia was sorta friends with the four but also had her distance from them, they'd only really started being friends at the end of the last school year. The summer had come and gone and none of them had heard from Tia. She was somewhat a ghost among them. But now that school had begun, they included her as much as she was there to be included and not somewhere else…
Ashley was a fiery spirit with hair just right to match her personality. She had a flaming, orange mess of locks and freckles peppered across her face, and that stood out against whatever odd combination of jeans and shirt she wore each day. Today's outfit consisted of olive three quarter chinos and a grey hoodie, complete with a red bandana holding her hair back. On the other hand Natalia was a calm, sensible girl with dark auburn hair kept in a tidy ponytail. It was wild, curly and bushy, but she refused to give into its will.
The trio were sitting around a desk, occasionally glancing towards the door in case either Kara or Tia showed up but the only person who came through the door was a new girl. She had been there since last week too but no one had noticed her much. She had long fair hair braided to the side and a grey cardigan. The girl looked about her as she went to sit down at the back of the classroom, between a sink and the window.
Soon, Kara joined her friends and they spoke about today's meeting after school. They were all going to go to Mei Lin's to hang out. Tia had said she couldn't come because she had to help her mother with "chores". It wasn't far from the truth but "chores" were more like a Queen's duties. Tia was going to be taught more about the ways of running a kingdom for when her turn came to rule.
'That's okay, Tia, come next time.' Mei Lin smiled.
'Thanks anyways.' Tia said. Internally she was a little disappointed she had to lie but of course, Meridian was a secret. In a way it was nice, no one knowing who she was. Tia didn't want to always be known as the Queen's daughter, or Princess Tia, because in Meridian, that's who she was. Here she was Tia. Just Tia.
The bell was going to ring any moment now, so Tia said her farewells and went to the other classroom hastily. She was the only one of the group in the other class and so they rarely saw her as it was. Once she was gone the four left continued talking.
'Hey, maybe we should invite Cleo.' Ashley piped up. The redhead motioned to the girl sitting at the back of the class. Her head was now buried in a book. The four looked at her in turn. Cleo hadn't made any friends yet, and it was becoming more obvious with every day. Ashley actually felt very sorry for her because that was the same situation she had a couple of years ago before she met Natalia in class over a project.
'Sure, but I don't really know her, guys.' Mei Lin said.
'She seems okay, I'm her lab partner and I guess she's smart, that chemistry assignment from last week? She did it in 10 minutes and it took most people half an hour.' Natalia added.
'Think about how she must feel; she doesn't seem to know anyone and it can get pretty lonely around here. I say we invite her.' Ashley persisted. Something was tugging at Ashley's mind about Cleo, like something intuitive.
'Okay, fine, I have art with her next so I'll ask then.' Kara concluded. The rest nodded and split up when the teacher walked through the door. Will slipped into the classroom at the last moment and rushed to a spare seat next to Cleo. Ashley looked back for a moment and felt a pang of guilt; the cycle of new people coming in was rather sad since they always ended up being alone at the back of the room. She knew she had to do something so she nudged Kara's foot under the desk. Kara shrugged the sleeves of her jumper down a little and gave Ashley a tiny nod as the bell rang.