Chapter 3 – Introductions

I'm back for chapter 3! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! It means alot! Its a bit strange, but I hope you like this chapter ;)

Inside my room, a girl with lovely violet hair and fair skin flipped through a glossy teen mag. She looked up at me. "Piper?" she asked.

I nodded. "Starling?"

Starling flashed a dazzling smile and perched on her bed. "It's so nice to meet you! I came two days ago to get the room ready for us. Do you like the furniture placement? If not, we can change it up."

"It looks great," I said. "I couldn't have made it look this nice in two days."

Starling shrugged and rifled through her tan shoulder bag. She pulled out a cereal bar. "Want one?"

"Sure, thanks."

"Organizing is my thing," she said. " I'm freakishly neat and if I have a kitchen to work in, I can't stop cooking or baking."

"Wow. I can cook biscuits and cakes, but nothing fancy."

"I can teach you a few dishes sometime," she said. "If you want."

"That would be great." I looked at my wall and saw my bookcase was still empty. I reached into my bag and pulled out several volumes of 'Crystals and You'.

With olive green eyes locked on the books, Starling said "You must be really into crystals."

"All the way," I said, grinning. " I'm completely obsessed."

Starling nodded so hard her ponytail flopped up and down. "I completely understand. I've read a few chapters, as it's necessary for Sky Knights to understand the crystals they use in their weapons. After a while, it got a bit complicated though." I smiled knowingly at this comment. "I mostly read about the Sky Knight squadrons. The Kings squadron especially."

My face lit up like a candle. "Oh, I love Lightning Strike, he's like, my idol! It's a shame he travels a lot, I would love to meet him."

"Exactly! He's my inspiration as a Sky Knight. Lucky we do have the next best thing here…" She trailed off, giving me a wink.

"What do you mean?" I eyed her cautiously.

"Well, you probably haven't heard , you know, about Lightning Strikes son…" she trailed off again, smiling broadly when she caught a glimpse of my face.

Now I was really curious. I knew he had a son, but didn't he live with his parents…..wait, how old was he?!

I gripped Starlings arm and squealed, "Come on, tell me!"

She rolled her eyes and gave in. "Oh, you know. His son is about our age…and maybe attends this school…"

My eyes grew huge. "What?! Why didn't you tell me sooner! What does he look like?"

"Only exactly like Lightning Strike, except he has his mother's beautiful green eyes." Starling said.

"Oh my gosh, how am I ever going to survive attending the same school as Lightning Strike's son?" I sighed dreamily. I wrapped my arms across my chest and sunk into my pillow. "What an honour. Imagine, when the school dance comes along, do you think he'll want to dance with me? do you think he'll even notice me?"

Starling glanced around the room uncomfortably. "Um yeah, he might. But ah, could we please not talk about dancing?"

I whipped my head around at the sudden change of subject. "Why?"

Starling finished her snack and pulled out a box from under her bed. She dug around until she found a photo. In it, Starling was dressed up in a flowing green gown, arm in arm with a tall guy in a tux as they did what appeared to be ballroom dancing.

" My mom made me do ballroom dancing at any important Sky Knight dance," Starling said. " I've been doing it for years, before I came to this school to try to become an official Sky Knight. Once, I asked if I could just sit out one dance, and my mom nearly had a fit."

I giggled.

"So," I said. "I happen to have a poster of Lightning Strike with his wife and son. Should we put it up?"

"Are you kidding? Get that thing up on the wall!"

Shoving a box aside, I dug in a container for the poster. I whipped it out with flourish and Starling handed me the tape.

"You do the honours," I said, bowing to her in an I-am-not-worthy pose.

Starling put the last piece of tape on the wall and we stood back to admire it. Lightning Strike stood tall and proud in all his glory, next to a pretty woman with light brown hair and stunning green eyes, who was holding a beautiful baby boy with his father's wild red hair and his mother's eyes. My gaze shifted down to the bottom of the poster, where the words 'little Aerrow is born' were written.

Starling stepped over to our tiny counter with two cabinets for snacks. We were allowed to have a microwave and mini fridge, but that was it. We had to get permission If we wanted to cook in the dorm kitchen. The cabinets over-flowed with crackers, boxes of sand cakes, and packages of chocolate.

Starling gestured toward the cabinet. "My dad stocked this yesterday," she said. "He gets discounts on all kinds of food since he's in a Sky Knight squadron."

We settled on my bed, snacks between us, and began chatting about boys when a thought crossed my mind. "Why aren't you rooming with your old room-mate?" I asked.

Starling paused. "Well, Ashia was supposed to make the intermediate level last year so she could try out for the advanced level this year. But she didn't ever get past the beginner level, so there was no way she could try out for the advanced level this year. It was so hard on her. She quit the team and transferred out of Helix."

"That's awful." My stomach flip-flopped. Is that what Starling would be saying about me next year? "So, what's the scoop on Helix?" I asked, eager to change the depressing topic.

Starling's eyes lit up. She twisted around to face me. "As I'm sure you already heard, Helix has a long, long legacy of turning out superb Sky Knights and famous Mages. I'm here because of Helix's reputation of turning Sky Knight wanna-bee's into full-fledged Sky Knights. My parents just knew I would be great so they sent me here. But because of Ashia, I know a little about the Mage scene here, too."

"Spill," I said. I flopped back onto my pillow.

"This Is only what I heard, so I can't be completely sure. But supposedly, the Mage instructor, Ayrgyn, although tries to make it fun, is incredibly tough on his students."

My stomach flipped again.

"There aren't many guys on the team, so you're going to be competing against mostly girls. Girls like-" she stopped and looked away.

"Like what? What were you going to say?" I asked.

Starling bit her bottom lip. "Well, they're really competitive. They all want to be the best Mage. Last year, this girl payed a Mage's room mate to set back the girl's alarm clock so she'd miss the cruiser leaving for the tournament."

"No way." My eyes widened.

"The girl got lucky though. One of the other Mage's came over and woke her up, so she made it in time."

Whoa. Nothing like that ever happened at my old school. "Did the other girl get caught?"

"Well," Starling leaned forward. "Ashia said the girl was caught by a team mate. The girl who caught her made her promise never to do anything like that ever again or she'd tell Ayrgyn."

"That was lucky. Hopefully, there aren't any girls here like that now. I had enough to deal with this morning."

"What happened?" Starling asked.

"Long story, but one of my Firebolt crystals got away from me and it electrocuted a girl."

Starling winced. "Maybe it wasn't as bad as you thought?"

"Unfortunately, I think it was," I confessed. "I'm nervous about the meeting on Sunday. I test that day, too."

"What kind of test is it?" Starling asked.

"All of the new people have to show what they got in front of Ayrgyn. He'll decide if we work for the beginner, intermediate, or advanced group. Apparently, there's a tournament next month, too. What if I'm not good enough?"

"If you're here," Starling said, "then you're good."

"I hope so." My voice sounded small. "But I guess I'll find out on Sunday."

We stopped talking and just sat in comfortable silence. I took one of my deep yoga breaths. Sure, I could have stayed at my old school, but there would have been no room to advance. Other Mages would have moved up the ranks and I would have been stuck.

Now, I was performing with the best. Helix was what I wanted.

Wasn't it?

Starling sat up and stretched. "Are you hungry?"

"Starving," I said, stifling a yawn.

Starling checked her watch. "We usually have to go to the cafeteria, but it's not compulsory on Friday nights. I could whip up something in the dorm kitchen if we ask Mr Moss first."

"That sounds great!" it was official – I had the perfect room mate.

"Is grilled cheese and vegetable soup okay?" Starling asked.

"Perfect, I'll help."

We found Mr Moss in his office organizing his bookshelf. Classical music streamed softly from a CD player.

"Mr Moss?" Starling called, knocking on the open door.

"Hi, girls," Mr Moss said, barley looking up from his book pile. His pants were wrinkled and it looked like more paperwork had piled up on his desk.

"Is it okay if we made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches?" Starling asked. "I make them all the time at home."

"Don't you want to go to the cafeteria?" Mr Moss asked. "It's not too late. If you go straight there and back, it's fine."

"Well…," I started, not wanting to admit I was nervous about eating with a bunch of new people.

"I'd really love to make my grilled cheese for Piper," Starling said. "You haven't had a real one until you've tried mine." She grinned at Mr Moss.

"Okay, okay," Mr Moss said. "But you'll have breakfast in the cafeteria tomorrow, right?"

"Right," I confirmed.

"Come and get me if you need help." Mr Moss gave us a smile and turned back to his books. As we left, I had a feeling that if the kitchen exploded, we still wouldn't go to Mr Moss for help.

Starling tossed the sandwiches in the pan and I stirred the soup.

"Do you know anyone here?" Starling asked, while we leaned against the counter and waited for the food.

"Nobody. It's scary."

Starling flipped the cheese. "I can introduce you to some of the other girls on the floor and we can go to breakfast together tomorrow if you want."

"I'd like that," I said, stirring the soup faster.

Starling smiled and leaned over me to check that I hadn't burnt the soup. She took the pot and put it off the flame. I handed her a bowl.

After drowning Starling's grilled cheese and a bowl of soup, we each showered, brushed our teeth, and climbed into our beds to read. Starling chose 'Sky Knight Signature Moves: Everything You Need to Know' and I read 'Crystals of the Atmos: Common and Rare' for the twenty-seventh time. It was one of my favourites.

At exactly ten thirty, just In case Mr Moss really was patrolling the hall, I wiggled under my covers and spent the first night in the dorm, with my poster smiling over us.

O.O

Mr Moss listens to classical music...scary.

I decided to make Starling someone who like cooking. She just seems like that kind of person. Hope you guys liked it, review please!

Oh, and i'm going away for the weekend so i cant write up next chapter, though chapter 4 should be up middle of next week, until then, see ya! And Please Review!

~LouiLuvr