The next morning, people all began to congregate around ten for breakfast, unlike the previous morning, when August, Mia, Chris and I had had the cafeteria room all to ourselves. I guess people were getting into the same routine.
It was an effort to have a conversation over the loud clattering of dishes and chattering from the other tables, but the six of us (the group from the mall yesterday) managed to have a conversation on books, music, movies, and anything else that came to mind. People slowly began to trickle out again, but I was continuing to inhale food. Finally the others got bored, and went off to do other things, one by one.
It was around that time when I really began to notice a small girl, eating at a table alone. Or more like picking at her food...she had been there the whole time, but only now did I start to notice her. She had shoulder-length curly black hair, though I couldn't see what her eyes looked like at the distance I was at.
I continued watching (staring) as another girl, with her blue hair in braids to her shoulderblades, stopped at her table where she sat alone and sat down, laying a hand on her shoulder. She asked a question I couldn't hear, and the girl shook her head. The other girl sighed heavily and remained sitting there.
She looked so lonely, I decided to go see if she wanted to talk.
"Hi!" I said cheerfully, setting down my tray with the food I had yet to finish on the table. "You look like you need a friend, so I decided to say 'hi'."
"You just did," the braided-hair girl remarked dryly. "I'm Samantha, and this is my younger sister, Sarah."
Sarah looked up and I saw her eyes for the first time. They were blue-green, and I felt myself drowning in their depths...
Samantha nudged Sarah. "Say hello," she hissed, looking both embarrased and angry.
"Why bother," Sarah said. "She'll just get scared of me, like all the rest."
"Why??" I asked curiously.
"I see the future," Sarah stated in a matter-of-fact, yet mysterious way.
I was suprised. I wasn't scared at all (OK, maybe a little), but what do you say when someone tells you they have visions of the future.
"Cool," was what I settled on, slapping her back. "Let's be friends, OK?"
She looked suprised, then let out a dazzling smile. She seemed like she wanted to talk, but was obviously much too shy. So I started babbling about me, my interests, and anything else I could think of, discovering she was a year younger than my and extremely small for her age, and she liked art and music.
"Oh, crud," I exclaimed, checking my watch. "Time to run! I still have to finish my homework!"
"Bye!" she said, waving cheerfully.
The rest of the week passed by rather quickly in a whirl of classes and memorizing strange things, like the ancient Celtic gods and various military formations and moves.
On Saturday was my art, choral and chess classes, and to my delight, Sarah was in both the choral and art class. She began to talk to me some more, and she turned out to be a really cool person.
I found myself wanting to spend lots of time with her.
One of the most interesting events of the school year occured right when the magic class was exiting out of meditation and just beginning true magic. Saturn seemed a bit at a loss, here- spirit magic apparently wasn't really her area of expertise.
The problem was solved, however, when a teenaged girl showed up one day in class. Saturn was beaming happily and introduced her best friend, Rini, here to teach us spirit magic.
Sarah seemed to find her fascinating, for reasons I would probably never understand, since every time I tried to ask her, she just looked at me with those eyes, and replied, "The future holds many things."
From that point on, we began to learn to concentrate energy into balls, arrows, and increasingly stranger shapes. (Hearts come to mind. I had more than enough classes of shaping energy into Happy Pink Hearts.)
"Next year," Rini told us, "I won't be here, but Chassidy will begin to teach those of you chosen by the gods to be sailor soldiers to use your own specific powers."
Myths and Religions went by in a blur of the names of gods and goddesses of Egypt, Celts, Greece, Rome, China, Japan, and more modern religions of the world in second semester. I seemed to be the only student who had chosen this particular history course, which was interesting, since the sailors all had patron gods and goddesses.
Math was a breeze, not really worth mentioning.
In English, I was one of the lucky few to get the live teacher, who was named Mrs. Juni and quickly became my adult figure at school. She was always great to take a problem to, like when I thought Sarah was being bullied by Tara, the fire magic user, or when I was having a slight personality conflict with Sailor Mars, the choral teacher.
Strategy was always fun. I loved learning complex manuevers with land, sea, and air troops, tanks, foot soldiers, different types of airplanes...the twenty or so students continuing on the next year would learn specific strategies for the twenty or so of us left. By then we'd all know each other and our powers, and so would be able to get specialized with what to do with them.
Figting I enjoyed, though I became very bruised. After Sailor Venus taught us the basics, we moved to Sailor Mars, who taught us not only more hand to hand combat, but staff and sword fighting, and the bow and arrow, with more to be taught to second year students.
And as is said in RENT, "I can't believe a year went by so fast!/Time to see what we have time to see..."
Tonight was the big ceremony, where we would be chosen or not to continue on to our second year...
**************************************
It was an effort to have a conversation over the loud clattering of dishes and chattering from the other tables, but the six of us (the group from the mall yesterday) managed to have a conversation on books, music, movies, and anything else that came to mind. People slowly began to trickle out again, but I was continuing to inhale food. Finally the others got bored, and went off to do other things, one by one.
It was around that time when I really began to notice a small girl, eating at a table alone. Or more like picking at her food...she had been there the whole time, but only now did I start to notice her. She had shoulder-length curly black hair, though I couldn't see what her eyes looked like at the distance I was at.
I continued watching (staring) as another girl, with her blue hair in braids to her shoulderblades, stopped at her table where she sat alone and sat down, laying a hand on her shoulder. She asked a question I couldn't hear, and the girl shook her head. The other girl sighed heavily and remained sitting there.
She looked so lonely, I decided to go see if she wanted to talk.
"Hi!" I said cheerfully, setting down my tray with the food I had yet to finish on the table. "You look like you need a friend, so I decided to say 'hi'."
"You just did," the braided-hair girl remarked dryly. "I'm Samantha, and this is my younger sister, Sarah."
Sarah looked up and I saw her eyes for the first time. They were blue-green, and I felt myself drowning in their depths...
Samantha nudged Sarah. "Say hello," she hissed, looking both embarrased and angry.
"Why bother," Sarah said. "She'll just get scared of me, like all the rest."
"Why??" I asked curiously.
"I see the future," Sarah stated in a matter-of-fact, yet mysterious way.
I was suprised. I wasn't scared at all (OK, maybe a little), but what do you say when someone tells you they have visions of the future.
"Cool," was what I settled on, slapping her back. "Let's be friends, OK?"
She looked suprised, then let out a dazzling smile. She seemed like she wanted to talk, but was obviously much too shy. So I started babbling about me, my interests, and anything else I could think of, discovering she was a year younger than my and extremely small for her age, and she liked art and music.
"Oh, crud," I exclaimed, checking my watch. "Time to run! I still have to finish my homework!"
"Bye!" she said, waving cheerfully.
The rest of the week passed by rather quickly in a whirl of classes and memorizing strange things, like the ancient Celtic gods and various military formations and moves.
On Saturday was my art, choral and chess classes, and to my delight, Sarah was in both the choral and art class. She began to talk to me some more, and she turned out to be a really cool person.
I found myself wanting to spend lots of time with her.
One of the most interesting events of the school year occured right when the magic class was exiting out of meditation and just beginning true magic. Saturn seemed a bit at a loss, here- spirit magic apparently wasn't really her area of expertise.
The problem was solved, however, when a teenaged girl showed up one day in class. Saturn was beaming happily and introduced her best friend, Rini, here to teach us spirit magic.
Sarah seemed to find her fascinating, for reasons I would probably never understand, since every time I tried to ask her, she just looked at me with those eyes, and replied, "The future holds many things."
From that point on, we began to learn to concentrate energy into balls, arrows, and increasingly stranger shapes. (Hearts come to mind. I had more than enough classes of shaping energy into Happy Pink Hearts.)
"Next year," Rini told us, "I won't be here, but Chassidy will begin to teach those of you chosen by the gods to be sailor soldiers to use your own specific powers."
Myths and Religions went by in a blur of the names of gods and goddesses of Egypt, Celts, Greece, Rome, China, Japan, and more modern religions of the world in second semester. I seemed to be the only student who had chosen this particular history course, which was interesting, since the sailors all had patron gods and goddesses.
Math was a breeze, not really worth mentioning.
In English, I was one of the lucky few to get the live teacher, who was named Mrs. Juni and quickly became my adult figure at school. She was always great to take a problem to, like when I thought Sarah was being bullied by Tara, the fire magic user, or when I was having a slight personality conflict with Sailor Mars, the choral teacher.
Strategy was always fun. I loved learning complex manuevers with land, sea, and air troops, tanks, foot soldiers, different types of airplanes...the twenty or so students continuing on the next year would learn specific strategies for the twenty or so of us left. By then we'd all know each other and our powers, and so would be able to get specialized with what to do with them.
Figting I enjoyed, though I became very bruised. After Sailor Venus taught us the basics, we moved to Sailor Mars, who taught us not only more hand to hand combat, but staff and sword fighting, and the bow and arrow, with more to be taught to second year students.
And as is said in RENT, "I can't believe a year went by so fast!/Time to see what we have time to see..."
Tonight was the big ceremony, where we would be chosen or not to continue on to our second year...
**************************************