"So what if I'm homeless? What's it to you?"

"What's it to me?" He came closer. I think he was trying to pick a fight.

"Yeah, what's your problem?"

"The problem is that you're contaminating the fountain."

"Oh, but Kai, the fountain comes from the river so it's always clean." A shorter green haired boy said.

"Oh quiet Yuzo." He snapped.

"Hey, don't talk to your friend like that. It's not nice." I said.

"Shut up homeless girl." Yuzo said.

What? I tried to defend him, and he told me to shut up? Now I'm angry. "What do you want?"

"You don't belong here. Only mages and townspeople that have money belongs here." Kai continued.

Oh, every second I got angrier and angrier. "That is not for you to decide, kid. You're no older than me and you talk bullshit." I spat on the ground.

"Don't talk to me like that or I'll beat you up." He snapped.

"Oh, you're sensitive to cursing ain't ya soft boy?" I sneered at him. "You picked a fight with me, you gonna get it!"

"Oh, five boys against one girl, surely that's suicide. You can't beat us. We're stronger than you."

"Oh really? I don't believe you."

"Who cares whether you believe me or not, but we go to a magic school and we learned how to fight."

"Where is this magic school?" That caught my interest. I wondered if it was free of charge.

"It's just around the corner next to the library. Why?" He narrowed his eyes. "Oh, please. You can't join because you're just a small tiny weak little homeless girl."

I smiled, "Who said I'm weak? I'll take you on anytime."

I followed them to a big widespread isolated field, away from the busy town. "So, who's first?"

"I'll fight you first. It should take only a second to knock you out." Yuzo said.

"Come on then!" I was growing impatient.

Yuzo lunged at me with his arms wide open, like he was giving me a bear hug and I dodged and escaped under his arms, appearing behind him instead. He ran at me again, and this time I stood my ground, grabbed his arms and twisted it. He gave a cry in pain. "Is that all you gonna do? Run at me?" I said. I pushed him on the ground and he whimpered, "Oww my arm!"

"Next?" I said, looking at the four boys.

A boy taller than Yuzo with short brown hair and brown eyes came forward. "Yuzo was just a test. He can't really fight properly."

"I think you guys are just all talk." I rolled my eyes.

"Go on Ru!" The boys cheered. He rolled his shoulders and aimed a punch at me. I dodged. He aimed another punch, I dodged again. He frowned, then he raised his eyebrows and punch at me again. I dodged but he caught me off guard by kicking me. I fell over to the ground and the boys cheered. Ok, he wants to play it that way, fine by me. So far, I've been on the defensive side but now, I'll take charge of this fight. I got up and smiled at him. He frowned. He punched me; I dodged and punched him in the stomach. He clutched at his stomach and gritted his teeth.

"Oops, was that too hard?" I giggled. He ran at me and threw punches everywhere; I tried to dodge all of them, crouched down and swung my leg at his, making him fall flat on his face. He grunted and got up.

"Enough. Let me at her." Kai said. He flexed his muscles. I wasn't impressed. He was only a boy.

"Come at me then." I wiggled my eyebrows at him and giggled at my silliness, despite the serious situation.

We looked each other in the eyes and circled around, watching each other's movement, and tried to guess who would attack first. I found that I'd liked to see him attack first and so I waited for him to make his move.

He took a quick step forward and punched me. I dodged. Well that didn't take long? He stepped to the side and hit me on the side. I took a step back from the hit. Hmm, this boy was better than the others - he was quicker and punched stronger. I decided to retaliate so I took another step back, making him come at me but I crouched down and swung my legs at his. Unfortunately, he had quick reflex and jumped over my legs, but my reflex was way quicker (being a cat and all) and so I got up and spun with one leg in the air, kicking him at the sides. He fell down. I stood there, staring down at him and felt triumph coursed over me. 'Hah take that!' I smiled at him.

He got up, holding his sides while the rest of the gang threw him a million questions of 'are you ok?' They fell silent as he ignored them and lunged at me. I ran sideways, tried to dodge but his elbow connected with my back. I stumbled forward, caught my balance and spun around. This time he had a look of triumph on his face, watching me. I bared my teeth at him and he sneered at me. Ugh this boy was way too arrogant. I ran at him, he gave me a lop-sided smile, thinking I was stupid and desperate for doing that and stepped sideways showing off his coolness but I caught him off guard as I raised my right elbow and connect with his cheek. Then I elbowed him the stomach and he hunched over, clutching his tummy and then again elbowed him, this time on the back and he crumpled over. Game over.

The other boys watched in shocked. However, they recovered quickly and decided to attack me all at the same time. Oh shit, 4 boys against 1 girl, what are the odds? They threw punches after punches, kicking everywhere. I dodged, crouched and grabbed someone's arms and twisted it. Then, I elbowed that person in the face. Ouch, I got hit in the back, so I spun around to meet my attacker and punched him in the face - it knocked him out. After a lot of dodging, elbowing, and kicking, I found myself standing alone on the field with 5 boys lying down on the grass, all unconscious. Oops, I think I over did it. I shrugged, well they looked for it. I don't need to go to that school they told me about anyway, I'll train myself. I returned to the shed and fell asleep.

I woke up in the form of a cat. Strange, I didn't remember changing into a cat before falling asleep. Oh well. I went to the fountain to wash myself, this time in a form of a cat, and saw them. My eyes widened. Shit, shit, if they see me. What should I do? I moved too fast that I fell into the fountain, splashed water everywhere.

"You guys heard that?" A voice said. I knew that voice. That was Kai, the so-called leader of the group.

"What?" Another voice said.

"There was a splash. It must be the fountain there." Oh shit. They're coming. Uh, uh where to go, where should I go? I swam to the other side of the fountain and clambered up, and fell to the ground, but I managed to land properly. I heard their footsteps coming closer, and I hid.

"Hmm, there's nothing here." Said a voice I knew belonged to Yuzo.

"That girl is not here either." Kai said. "If I ever meet her, I will beat her up good and she won't be able to make snide comments anymore." Oh wow, he has some serious grudge over me. Ok, that's really scary. I should stay out of their sight, for a while, maybe for the rest of my life. Oh, can this life get any worse? I am homeless, broke, and a thief. Now, I've made some enemies, at only 11 and half years old. I'm going to die young, aren't I? I sighed.

I did what I usually do at the marketplace but keeping my eyes on the five idiots. I didn't know how I did it, stealing without getting caught and keeping them in my sights. Man, I'm proud of myself. They were covered in bruises- I smirked to myself. I followed them. Hey, I remember this- aren't they going to the Library? Then they walked into the corner of the library and onto a small pathway. I continued to follow silently. Finally, they turned right, opened a small gate, walked through a wide-open space of grass and into the building.

I looked up at the building and saw the sign, "Mahō o Manabu Magic School". My jaw dropped. I remembered it all, what he said. He said the magic school was around the corner next to the library. Oh my god. I found the magic school! Well, I didn't find it. They led me to it. I rolled my eyes at myself. 'Whatever', I thought. It was time to discover more about magic. I smirked and entered through the gates. I shouldn't let anyone see me at all. So, I ran to the side where the trees and the bushes were and used them as camouflage. I walked slowly towards the building and saw there was a window ledge that I could jump up to. It was a bit high, but I climbed a tree and stopped short of my tracks. I could see it all from here. Perfect. The window was large and opened, I could hear everything.

"Now boys and girls, today we will learn about different features of fire. Depending on the matter, it could create different powers. For example, a normal orange coloured fire is used for offence, to attack. However, a fire can also be used as a defence or to grab objects, not just burn things." Ok, that was an interesting info but not what I was looking for. I didn't see any other way except going to into the building itself. So, I jumped down from the tree and walked along the walls. Finally, I arrived at the door. Now, how to get inside? The door was closed and there were no flap door for pets. I rolled my eyes at myself. I heard voices behind the door and I panicked. I looked from left to right back and forth, looking for a place to hide. The door opened, and I saw four pairs of legs walking out. I stood there like a statue, hoping they wouldn't notice me.

Nope, they didn't notice me. I looked at the door and saw that it was about to shut, and I quickly slipped through it. I found myself in a hall, with a door on my left, which probably led to the classroom where the teacher was teaching fire properties. There was a staircase on my left, and there was another door straight ahead. Well, the door at the front is closed, so I can't exactly get in there, so the other option was the staircase. 'Alright, let's explore.' I thought to myself.

I trotted to the staircase and jumped onto one step. 'Why am I jumping?' I asked myself and with that, I jogged all the way up. 'Well, is jogged the right term for a cat?' I thought. 'Whatever.' I shrugged to myself. I arrived at the top of the stairs and saw there were 2 more doors and another staircase leading up. Both classrooms had their door opened, and I could hear the voices of the teachers and students talking. I went to the nearest classroom and sneaked in to the back. I hid behind an empty, broken desk and watched the activity that was going on in the class.

"Alright, time to practice the basics now. Remember what I taught you, this will only work better to transform into someone that is very familiar to you, focus on the details and only the face please! I don't want anyone getting injured in my class." The teacher instructed. He has a strangely long white beard and a bald head. His head is shiny, I observed. I imagined him waking up every morning and shine his head with a cloth. I shook my head, getting rid of the stupid imagination and watched the children activated their magic. They were all about my age, ah lucky bastards they were.

Magic circles appeared under their feet and their body shined in yellowish light. Then the light receded, and their heads were replaced with different, err how should I put this? Replaced with different heads and faces. Some seemed to swap heads with a fellow classmate. One child had the head and face of their teacher, oh my, the kid got the beard right - long and white, and because the child was short, most of the beard were piled on the floor. Ohh I see, this is transformation magic. I nodded to myself, 'Take note Lia, take note.'

"Alright children, now I want you to move on to transforming into animal faces. This will be a bit trickier and less varieties." A young student with light pink hair raised her hands. "Yes Naomi?"

"Umm, what do you mean by less varieties?" Her voice, a slight high-pitched and childish.

"I only have cats at the moment, ehehe." The bearded teacher scratched his head. "Alright, let's get started. He gave the students each a cat. I heard them talking to each other, but the humans would call it meowing to each other.

'Ah, this is bothersome.' One cat said.

'I feel awkward now, having to stare at their faces.' Another cat commented.

'Imagine if somehow one of us accidentally transform into those little faces.' I laughed at that comment.

'They'll have the shock of their lives!' They meowed in agreement.

'Hey, where's Kit?' A brown cat asked the rest of the cats. They shrugged. 'Oh, that cat cannot sit still. He'll notice that one of us is missing.'

And the brown cat was right. The old man noticed because the little pink-haired girl asked him, "Sensei, I didn't get one."

"We are short on one cat. Now, where did the cat go? Alright, help me find the cat. It should be around here somewhere in the classroom." They looked around the classroom, under the desks, inside the closet, in the wastebasket and inside the drawers. Every time they came close to my hiding corner, my heart thumped loud and fast that I thought they could hear it, but then they moved away from my spot. They inspected every corner of the classroom except the corner where I was sitting. Then, they decided to come to my corner. I knew it, I knew this would happen, I should have moved earlier. Crap, where to go? Where to go? I saw my chance when they both had their backs turned to me, so I scrambled to the side of the wall and to the nearest desk. 'Now how the hell do I hide with this freaking desk?' I thought to myself.

'Hey look, a stranger cat!' One cat shouted. Shit, they noticed me. I hissed at them to make them quiet, but it wasn't working. 'What's it doing here?'

'Oh, it's trying to escape. That would be funny if it got caught and ends up replacing Kit.' I rolled my eyes and thought, 'I think I'm going to have to run for the door.' I was too busy thinking of a strategic plan to escape whilst hissing at the other cats that I did not hear the pink-haired little girl approached from the back. I felt myself being picked up, and to my horror, brought up to the little girl's face.

"I got it, Sensei!" I was doomed.