Chapter 3: Bianca
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"Oh gosh, will you look at her?"
I slowly looked away from the black crow sitting on top of the girl's dorm (I could swear it was watching me), knowing good and well that there was another student at the wrong end of Lauren's taunt. Sure enough, there was a girl walking in with Professor Ambrose and Gamma and some fiery bird I'd never seen before. Maybe her pet? She wore only white, had blond hair, and sported striking green eyes.
"Look at her hair!" Mercedes cried out. I looked at her hair. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. A bit flyaway on the top of course, but that happened to everyone. I reached up and brushed down my brown red-streaked hair just in case.
"Look at her eyes!" Rachel added, "Why does she look so serious? And they're red. Someone's been crying." Rachel gave this last statement in a sing song voice, making the other two girls nod, point, and laugh. My hands tightened on my quill. If they knew how often my gray eyes were rimmed with red…
Trying to ignore my friends, I developed my own (unsaid, granted) statement on the girl they were teasing. She had to be new, judging from the way she was looking around, probably amazed by Bartebly and the schools and everything Ravenwood had to offer. Professor Ambrose gestured at Bartebly, probably telling the new girl his name. She looked tired, sad, and scared, and one hand kept reaching up towards her eyes as if she was reaching for glasses that weren't there anymore.
"Bianca, why are you staring at her?" Lauren asked suddenly. I glanced at her and saw that Mercedes, Rachel, and Lauren were all staring at me.
"Guys, cut her some slack," I muttered. "She's new."
Mercedes shook her head. "No. She's not at all pretty, and she doesn't look like she's any popular material, and frankly, her hair? Bottle blonde. She's ugly."
I sighed underneath my breath. My best friends did this with everyone. They thought that they were the only beautiful ones in all of Ravenwood and for some reason included me in that description. Even though they used to be fun and we used to practically be sisters when we were all accepted into the school, as the years passed their ideals moved away from books and magic and splashing in the lake to makeup and hair and looking pretty and being popular. What I had planned to tell them one day became my ugly little secret, and I was terrified to tell them about the dark days before I discovered my magic.
Now don't think that just because I still hung out with them I did the same thing. I never laughed or pointed at new students or criticized their appearance. I tried to make friends with a new girl once, but Lauren had threatened me with spreading rumors (lying and making up stories was her specialty), which had made a record total of seven girls drop out and give up on magic, and I stopped trying.
My mother had told me to watch out for peer pressure before I left my family for school, and yet my own friends were pressuring me into making fun of others. Honestly, they weren't really my friends anymore. I hadn't made a new friend in the five years since their reign of popularity began, and I'd stopped trying to make any friends or help anybody out period.
But this girl looked so lost and desolate that I had a feeling that she needed someone to show her around. She needed a friend.
Just at that moment, Professor Ambrose received a letter via student. After reading it, he turned back to the girl, already walking back through the tunnel with Gamma and the fiery bird (not her pet then) flying after him, and called cheerfully, "I'll be back soon. If you want, you can look around!"
The girl turned back to the school, her eyes wide and terrified, and she squeezed her sides nervously. Right. I'd take a chance and try make make friends with her.
I put away my essay and my quill, rose from my seat on the bench, grabbed my bag with my wand and cards, and moved towards her.
"Where do you think you're going?" Rachel asked, grabbing my hand and pulling me back down. Her hand was growing hot; a warning for me to stay down.
"Look at her! She needs somebody!" I snapped back, suddenly defiant. "She's new, and she looks confused and scared and she needs a friend. Come on, let me make a new friend just this o–"
"Bianca Glassheart, you leave us and we won't be your friends anymore!" Lauren snapped, a thin sheen of ice beginning to cover her (dyed) ice blue hair and her brown eyes turning the same color.
Suddenly, I was done. Done with my friends who weren't my friends, done with this whole 'popularity' gig, and done having only three friends and not being able to make any more.
"Well, I guess that that means we're not friends anymore," I said coolly, standing and walking away, trying not to think about how insane this was. I could feel Mercedes' brown eyes drilling into the back of my head. I could tell that Rachel was glaring at my back. And I could hear the ice on Lauren's hair cracking as the anger finally exploded out. It was all I could do not to look back. I was done and I was going to help the new girl out.
I walked into the center of Ravenwood, right in front of Bartebly, and tapped the girl's shoulder. She jumped and turned. For a moment I was just as nervous as she probably was. I hadn't made friends in so long…how does one start that conversation?
Name.
"Hello," I began, smiling warmly. "I'm Bianca Glassheart, Theurgist. What's your name?"
The girl was silent, looking me up and down. Suddenly self-conscious, I fiddled with my earrings. She was taller than me, obviously older, and there was something about her, a certain air that told me that she was a mystery, and that there was a secret. Finally, the girl responded and held out her hand. I stared at it uncertainly and she withdrew it. "Destiny Starshard."
"Nice name!" I exclaimed, slamming my mouth shut the second it was out. The girl's cheeks grew red but she smiled and said, "Thanks."
Just at that moment, Bartebly opened his mouth and announced, "Class begins in five minutes."
My last class of the day was Necromancy with Dworgyn. I was about to take off when Destiny grabbed my arm. My robe sleeve rode up a little and I froze, the scars on my wrists and hands suddenly visible to the world. Destiny's eyes grew wide and she quickly pulled the sleeve back down over them. I mouthed, "Thank you," before she asked, "Would you mind telling me where the Life school is? It's my first day."
She nervously pulled the hat off of her head and rubbed the fabric between her fingers.
"Absolutely!" I answered, grabbing her hand and racing towards the Life school. Professor Wu would love to have a new student.
Destiny
Bianca pulled me through the double doors so quickly that I barely had time to register my surroundings. When we stepped inside, everything went silent. You could tell that people had been talking up a storm, but now they were all staring and I was experiencing the 'new kid' feeling that I hadn't felt for years.
"Professor Wu!" the brown-haired girl who'd dragged me in called. Bianca prodded me towards the front of the room and told me, "I've got somewhere else to be, but if you need anything, I'm here for you. Come find me later on!"
And then my new friend was out the door and I started moving towards the front of the room.
Standing with her back to me, writing something on the blackboard, was a very large…cow. On two legs. She wore a bright green sarong and wore her black hair in a particularly tight bun.
The cow turned on her heel–hoof–as the wooden doors swung shut, also revealing Geisha-like makeup. She clapped her front hooves together and clopped forward.
"Well, hello there!" she greeted cheerily, in a human voice. "I'm Professor Moolinda Wu, teacher of Theurgy here at Ravenwood. And you might be?"
She extended her right hoof and I shook it gladly, glad to meet someone who knew the whole hand shaking thing…even if it was a cow.
"Destiny Starshard," I introduced myself.
"Welcome to the Ravenwood School of the Magical Arts, my dear." Professor Wu clipped back to her desk and picked up too long sticks, one from a small holder on the chair behind it and one from inside the desk. One was long, thin, and simple. The second was an oak staff with an orb of green between two branches filled with leaves.
"Right, Miss Starshard…This baggy outfit just will not do."
She lifted the staff and I flinched. Despite the fact that the cow was obviously benevolent, I wasn't too keen about someone casting a spell on me.
Professor Wu lowered her staff and stared at me quizzically. Then, as if on cue, the fiery bird appeared. He swooped through the open window one one side of the class, dropped a note on Professor Wu's desk, and swooped out the opposite window. Professor Wu turned back to her desk, read the note, and turned back to the classroom.
"Everyone, I want you to practice your spells in the Arena for the rest of the hour. Go now!"
Everyone stood and left quickly, chattering excitedly and pulling out long sticks, staffs, and intricate boxes.
"Destiny," Professor Wu sighed, taking my hand. "Oh, I cannot imagine how hard this is for you."
So the note told her what had happened. I nodded. I'd cried in Professor Ambrose's room. I was done crying.
"Right, I understand why you flinched away." Professor Wu took the other wand, the shorter one, and waved it. A green light spiraled from it and coagulated around my clothes. The floor-length robe shortened to the length of a normal skirt. The sleeves went from baggy to tight around the arms and loose at the wrists. The boots grew thinner and the tops of them rose, so they looked like the combat boots my favorite actress was known for. The hat that still sat in my hands remained pointy, but it became tighter and a little shorter.
"Quite a personality, my dear," Professor Wu commentated. "Most of the clothes do not change so much when a personality spell is cast."
Taking that as a compliment, I muttered a thank you and replaced my hat. Professor Wu held out the thin and long wand, which I took.
"Professor Ambrose told me that the wand that had just come from Olde Town today is to be your wand. This wand, if you choose to accept it, is yours."
I rolled the wood between my fingers. The wand was long and thin, made of light wood, with a small vine curling around it, petrified leaves sticking out from it. There was power in this wand; it was obvious by how the wood was warm and how it seemed to thrum as if it had a heartbeat.
"I like it," I whispered. Professor Wu nodded.
"My students will be gone for one hour, at which point school will be over. That gives me just enough time to teach you the basics and help you get comfortable."
I nodded and Professor Wu took her staff. She waved it and a quick gust of wind blew the door open and pushed my hair away from my face. Outside of the room, everything was silent.
"Come, Sarah," Professor Wu began. "We have lots to get done within the hour."
Hello! My name is Elder Gold. And I would like to share with you the most amazing fic!
(I CAN'T GET THAT SONG OUT OF MY HEAD EVERYTIME I SAY HELLO I HAVE TO STOP MYSELF FROM SINGING HEEEELP.)
Anywayyyyyy… I'm getting along splendidly with rewriting these if I do say so myself. So, if you're new, hello (DON'T SING)! The next chapter button is right there. If you've been here before, hello (DON'T SING) again! Please make yourself comfortable and read on.
If you're noticing idosyncracies in these stories, ESPECIALLY with Bianca's last name (sorry Velv!), then I'm really sorry. That's reason two for why I'm rewriting these anyway! :)
…I just realized that I'm doing a lot of rewriting. Warriors Unleashed (WORKING ON IT), Shard of the Star, and my real life book series. WRITER'S BLOCK HAS RELEASED ME!
Thank you for reading and review!