Chapter 3- I go to Magic School

The girl in front of me popped her gum obnoxiously and looked me up and down, assessing. I did the same to her. She looked about my age, sixteen or so, tall, with fiery red hair and piercing silver eyes. She wore a strange robe and hat, both in vibrant pink and red. There was something about her that put me on edge, something about her skeptical smile that just said "Watch out". This girl scared me.

She stuck a perfectly manicured hand out, "Keena Rubycatcher," she said, "Magus Pyromancer." I shook her hand.

"Grace…" I paused, realizing that I didn't have a funny last name or fancy title to give her. Keena gave me a sly grin.

"You're a Novice Thaumaturge, right?" she stated more than asked. "Figures." She let out a little pity sigh. "You Thaumaturges aren't exactly known for your intelligence…"

She had just insulted me. She didn't even know me, and she insulted me. I smiled widely, "Well, you know us Thaumaturges…" I picked my things up off of the floor and turned to face her. "So how's this gonna go exactly?" I asked, looking into the eyes of the beast.

"Well," she sighed, "Ambrose asked me to show you around… I guess you're too stupid to find your classroom by yourself." She pinched her lips together and headed for the door. I shook my head in disgust and followed her.

We stepped out into a brightly colored street, with dozens of people milling around wearing weird clothes and riding strange creatures. Just go with it, Grace. Keena yanked my arm and led me through a dark cobblestone tunnel. I was just about to yell at her, when I caught sight of the humongous tree on the other side. Its great branches seemed to move and sway as if it were alive, which was actually quite likely, due to the fact that the tree had a giant face with one blinking eye. Where its second eye should have been, there was just a large gaping hole. I tried not to stare, but I couldn't help it.

"That's Bartleby," Keena smirked. She turned to the left and started walking, pointing at each building like a tour guide. "That's the Life school; I call it hippie central… Over there is the Myth school, avoid the teacher, he's a jerk… That," She said, pointing at a huge gaping hole, "Was where the Death school was. Tragic, really. No one knows where it went…" She didn't seem that upset though. Keena pointed to a tall boy in a black jester's hat. "That's Malorn Ashthorn. He's filling in as the Death teacher, for now." She blushed a little and waved as we walked past him. "This is the Fire school, and by far the best school, in my opinion. Over there, that's Ice…" A look of disgust crossed her face. "Past that is the Storm school… I expect you can walk to the door by yourself?" She walked back towards the fire school without waiting for an answer.

The Ice school had a majestic look to it. Snow piled against the walls and the top was decorated with a mural of falling snow. I felt a cool breeze blow from inside as I approached, and I suddenly felt at ease. I pulled open the doors to face a full classroom. A small fairy fluttered at the front of the room, who I assumed was the teacher.

I could feel everyone's eyes on my back as I walked up to her. I cleared my throat. "Um… I'm Grace… I'm new…" For a moment the fairy just stared blankly at me, and then she perked up.

"Oh, Grace! I heard you were coming. Take a seat, take a seat, we just started." She paused for a second. "I'm Lydia Greyrose, by the way, your Ice Magic Professor."

I nodded and smiled politely. I scanned the room for a seat. There was only one seat left, in the back, next to a very distracted looking boy. I quickly took my seat, and glanced over at the boy next to me. He looked about my age, maybe a little older. He had shaggy blond hair and friendly green eyes. He smiled at me.

"Hey, I'm Luis. Luis Raventalon." He winked at me. "I'm an almighty and all- powerful Aprentice. Oh yeah, you heard correctly. Apprentice." He winked again. "I can cast Snow Serpent… I know, I know, pretty awesome, right?" I couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

"I'm Grace," I said, then struggled to remember what Keena had called me. "Novice." Luis smiled a great big smile again, and then tapped the shoulder of a girl with blue hair in front of us. She turned to face us.

"Grace this is Jackie, Jackie say hi to Grace."

She smiled shyly. "Hey, I'm Jaqueline Iceblood. You're new here, right?"

"Yeah, I just got here," I said, nodding.

Professor Greyrose clicked her tongue and glared at our corner of the room. "If you're all done chatting, can we please get on with the lesson?" My face turned hot, but Jaqueline just grinned and Luis let out a little laugh. Apparently getting busted by the teacher wasn't too big of a deal here.

We all turned our attention to the front of the classroom. Professor Greyrose had drawn a picture of what appeared to be some kind of beetle. "Okay class, who here can tell me which spell this is?" she said, motioning toward the blackboard. A boy with long white hair raised his hand, and she pointed at him.

"That is a Frost Beetle, Rank 1 Ice spell," he said smugly.

"Good, good, thank you Connor," Greyrose replied. "Now, how many pips does this spell use?" Jaqueline raised her hand.

"One pip, Professor," Jaqueline said.

"Thank you, Jaqueline," She looked around the classroom. "Can someone please come up here and demonstrate the Ice spell symbol. Luis Raventalon?" Luis was checking out his reflection in his wand. I nudged him and he looked up.

"Spell symbol," I whispered, and he walked up to the front of the classroom. He drew a sparkling blue snowflake-like symbol in the air with his wand. Greyrose beamed.

"Perfect, thank you Luis," she said, "Now remember class, we will have a quiz on all Level One through Ten spells tomorrow. You are dismissed."

I got up and walked out of the classroom with Luis and Jaqueline. "How am I supposed to take this quiz?" I muttered. "I just got here; I can't even cast a spell yet."

"Don't worry, I'll help you study," Jaqueline said, "Come on, I think your books should be at your dorm by now."

"Dorm?"

"Yeah, your dorm. Where did you think you were staying?" Luis scoffed. Jaqueline rolled her eyes at him.

"Come on, I'll show you the dorms," she said, grabbing my hand and leading me towards a tower. "What dorm number are you?"

"I dunno…" I panted as we ran into the tower. Jaqueline sighed and shook her head. She went over to a book pedestal in the corner and started flipping through the pages.

"Room 5, Floor 23," she read. Jaqueline motioned for me to follow her, and we ascended several flights of stairs. When she finally signaled that we were on the correct floor, I collapsed on the ground, laying on the floor and staring up at the ceiling. My heart thumped in my chest and sweat tickled my brow. I was clearly not used to so much exercise.

Jaqueline grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. "Come on, lazy pants, your room is right over there." She dragged me into a small circular room with two windows, a bed, a night table, and a small desk. A tall stack of books sat on the desk, all blue with titles like "Introduction to Ice Magic", "History of Ice" and "Thaumaturgy for Dummies." I wasn't sure how I was going to carry all of those books around until I finally realized that I still had my backpack on.

When I went through the portal, I had been on my way to school. All of my books and supplies were still neatly tucked in the brown canvas backpack on my back. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before. I walked over to the desk and shook out all the unnecessary supplies out of my backpack. I kept all of my pens and pencils and shoved all of my new wizard books into the pack. I grabbed my old school supplies and turned to Jaqueline. She was staring intently at something on my bed.

"Hey, Jaqueline," I said, "Is there anywhere I can throw these away?"

"Yeah, yeah, but first, come here." I walked over to her and looked at what she was holding. It appeared to be some sort of cloak, colored a bright blue and white. She smiled. "Your robes are here. Come on, put them on."

I looked at the brightly colored fabrics, and then at my jeans and plain T shirt. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing! Well… Just put these on, all the Novices have to wear them."

I sighed in defeat and took the robes from her. She squealed a little and ran out of the room so that I could change. I put the robes on and attempted to look at my reflection in the window panes. I looked utterly ridiculous. I groaned and called Jaqueline back in. She smiled widely.

"You. Look. A- mazing!" She squealed. I winced.

"Thanks…" I muttered.

"Hey, let's go meet up with Luis and get some lunch! I'm starving." Jaqueline said.

"Okay," I said, my stomach rumbling.