"It's the first day of school! It's the first day of school!" Ral skipped around the couch chanting excitedly.
"It doesn't start for another four hours!" Jace snapped irritably. He glared at Ral, "So shut up!"
"It's the first day of school though, Cat Ears" Ral refused to be crushed.
"It is not. The first day of school is tomorrow," Jace growled. No matter how many times I try to explain this it's not going to make any difference. "Today is just the day that everyone gets roommates since the dorms finished construction late in the previous school year. They were done too late in the year for the students to have a dorm room. This is the first year any of the students will have dorms."
"So?" Ral sighed, "You're always trying to crush my excitement Cat Ears."
"It's not like your excitement makes any sense. It's not technically the first day of school," Jace muttered.
"It is too!"
"It is not," Jace snapped. He threw a stuffed animal at Ral's face, "Shut up. It's three in the morning and if you wake Lilianna, Chandra, or Elspeth then the two of us are more than dead meat." He pulled the blanket over his head and muttered, "And I don't know about you but I don't want to face that." Especially when it was just you being an idiot. Maybe I'm being too harsh. I mean Ral's always been annoying. It just bugs me more now. Oh well. He shouldn't be so annoying if he doesn't want to be told to shut up.
"You're probably right," Ral sighed, "BUT I CAN'T SLEEP!"
"Shut up!" Jace hissed. Don't wake them up you moron! Or did you not hear me the first time? "It's three in the morning you idiot! Don't wake them up! I don't plan on dying because of you."
"Sorry Cat Ears," Ral sighed and leaned against the back of the couch, "You know something?"
"What?" Jace rolled his eyes. It's so damn hard to ignore him now. He just grates on my last nerve.
"You seem really afraid of the three of them."
"I am not afraid of them," Jace snapped, "I just don't plan on dying because you decided you wanted to be loud at three in the morning."
"Isn't that the same thing though?" Ral asked.
Kaious glanced at Jace, "I've pointed this out to you before you know."
"I'm not afraid of them! Why would I be?"
"Maybe because Beautiful could burn you alive. Princess could rot the flesh off your bones and Elspeth's just terrifying," Ral shrugged, "You know. Maybe because they're scary."
"Just because you're afraid of them doesn't mean that I-"
"Would you two shut up!" Lilianna hissed angrily from the top of the stairs.
Jace cringed and shrank into the couch.
"Are you sure you're not afraid of them?" Ral whispered.
"Yes," Jace snapped quietly, "Now go away." He rolled over so his back was facing Ral and closed his eyes.
Lilianna sighed, "Geez." Those two are always arguing. At least Pyro and I are competent enough to keep quiet. Of course that's mostly Ral's doing. He is just plain annoying. Ugh, why does this group of numbskulls have to be so easily distracted? I mean seriously? Is it really that hard to find a treasure that's been collecting power for millennia? Of course it is because otherwise Bolas would've found it by now. He did spend almost this entire loop distracting us from what he was really doing. But why would he need it? It's just destructive isn't it? Lilianna rolled her eyes, "This is irritating." She went back into the room she shared with Chandra. The redhead wasn't there, insisting she wanted to look into something and wouldn't be back until just before orientation started. I hate to admit but she's probably the most reliable of the group here. Even though she is so damn annoying. She's so good at reading people that it's frustrating. She can turn even the most self centered person into a warrior of light. "I mean look at the company I hold. I'm allied with them. Never thought that'd happen," Lilianna sighed, "but the last loop proved just how incapable I am. I can't take on the multiverse on my own. Not yet."
Lilianna opened her eyes and looked around. An alarm was going off. She sighed and shut it off, "Redhead. Get up." She didn't bother being gentle in waking Chandra up.
"Would you stop?! What do you-"
"Orientation," Lilianna interrupted her irritated questions.
"Ah, dammit," Chandra sat up and yawned, "That's right." She growled.
"GUYS!" Ral yelled up the stairs.
"Be quiet you idiot," Jace snapped.
Chandra snickered, "Those two still don't get along well." She got to her feet and walked down the stairs. "If Elspeth wakes up to you two screaming at each other again you'll probably be cleaning the entire house."
"That's not fair," Jace muttered, "He's the one that's being loud."
"And by telling him to shut up so are you," Lilianna said.
The four of them walked to the gate of the school.
"Well, hello again," the guard said to Jace and Chandra.
"Hey," Chandra sighed, "We're going to school here now."
"Ah, siblings?"
"Basically," Lilianna muttered.
"Alright. Welcome." The gates squealed as they opened.
"Alright so normally," the principal stood on a raised podium in the center of the courtyard, "only the freshman would be at this orientation but since this is the first year with actually dorms for the students to live in everyone is here. So the girls will be in that one," he pointed to the building to the right, "and the boys will be in that one. Each building will be monitored by a security guard and the teachers of the same gender."
"Great," Jace muttered. I hope there's an odd number and I'm the last one. That way I'd get my own room.
"Girls over there. Boys over there," the principal jumped down from the platform and walked down the center of the gathered students to the back where the rest of the administrative staff watched.
"See you guys," Chandra got to her feet. Lilianna followed her away silently.
Jace sighed, "This is miserable. I wanna go back to Ravnica."
"C'mon Cat Ears. It's not that bad," Ral gently shoved Jace in the direction they were supposed to be going. Jace stumbled and glared at him over his shoulder, "Could you not? That'd be great."
"That was harsh," Jace whirled around and stumbled backwards into Ral in surprise. Someone much taller than him looked down at him in amusement. Before he had backed up they had been close enough that their shoes had almost touched his. Jace hissed angrily, "Don't do that."
"Sorry about that. I'm Onyx." The boy's tanned skin was almost a bronze color in the sunlight and Jace didn't even come up to his shoulder. He glanced at Ral, "He appears to be easily startled."
"Actually that would be the first time I've seen anyone but Beau-Chandra sneak up on him like that," Ral snickered. Jace could tell from his expression that he would never forget that it had happened. He gritted his teeth, "Whatever." He stalked away. This is stupid. Just because he scared me doesn't mean it was something that can be held against me. I hate Ral. Jace knew that he didn't actually hate Ral and would blame himself if anything happened to him. Jace slipped easily through the crowd in an effort to find a place where he could see. Everyone was at least a little taller than him. I'm the shortest one here huh? That's definitely not a disadvantage.
"Hey, kid watch it."
Jace turned. His eyes met that of an angry glare from the speakers deep brown eyes. He rolled his eyes, "I'll go where I want. It's not like I hit you."
"I can beat it into you if you aren't going to treat your upperclassmen-"
"Upperclassmen that are totally enraptured in their own believed authority are not deserving of the respect they demand."
"What?" he instantly looked confused.
As I thought. He's only got his physical strength to rely on. Jace smirked, "Nothing. If you can't understand that then there's no point in me talking to you at all." He slid quickly away to avoid the anger that his comment would more than likely arouse. Why the hell is it so crowded anyway? He sighed.
"Can you see?"
Jace gritted his teeth and looked to his right. A young boy closer to his age and height was standing up on his toes next to him.
"It's easier to just listen. A lot of the students here aren't human so they're large compared to the rest of us," he shrugged at Jace.
"Hmm," Jace shrugged. He looked around. He couldn't tell anyone of them from any of the others very well. He couldn't identify who was human and who wasn't just by appearance.
"Hey! Whisper!" Onyx pushed his way to them. He carved a path for Ral and someone else that Jace couldn't quite see behind them.
"Onyx," Whisper waited patiently for his friend.
Jace rolled his eyes. Why the hell do these people keep popping up? I don't want to talk to any of you. Go away. Or at least let me get away.
"Are you guys hungry?" the other kid asked.
Jace stared at him. He was tall but relatively thin. He looked rather fit but appeared tiny next to Onyx. Of course Onyx seemed to make everyone around them look tiny.
"Onyx is part of the football team," Ral said.
"Cool," Jace muttered sarcastically. Why the hell does he have blue hair. I've only ever seen one other person with blue hair and that was Echo. He sighed, "Great. Just brilliant."
"Alright, alright. I know you're all excitedly waiting to see who your roommates will be," Jace assumed the voice belonged to a teacher but the tone didn't convince him his assumption was accurate. Whoever they were they sounded like a kid that thought everyone around them was their friend.
"I'm Erin," the kid whispered. He handed Jace a plastic package.
Jace stared at it, "What is this?" The packaging was mostly white. It had a grassy hill design in the bottom right part. A purple sign had "Blueberry Muffins" written on it. The label was blue and said Little Bites. Jace looked at him incredulously, "What are these?"
"A snack," Erin shrugged, "I have other stuff if you don't want it."
Jace stared at him, "How much food do you need?"
"Well I always have snacks just in case if I get hungry and I have snacks for all my friends too," Erin said.
Jace handed it back to him, "Sorry but I have interest in being your friend."
"But-"
"Quiet." Onyx hissed.
"Sorry," Erin sighed. He put the snack back in his backpack.
"He'll come around," Jace heard Ral whisper. He gritted his teeth. We're not here to make friends. He could feel the book detailing spells for all forms of magic in his backpack. It took up most of his backpack but he didn't care. The rest of his backpack was filled by a compendium of artifacts. It was written an extremely long time ago. He estimated it was multiple millennia old, preserved with a simple protective spell. There was the possibility that it was out of date but if Elspeth said about the treasure was accurate then it should've existed around the time the book was written.
"Alright so if you'll all follow me," the crowd started to move. Jace noticed Onyx lift Whisper up onto his back. He snorted. Really? If he can't walk fast enough then take him to the back of the crowd. Jace quickly shut down that train of thought. He knew he didn't know the circumstances around Whisper. He sighed. I shouldn't be so judgemental. Whisper wouldn't be able to get to the back of the crowd without being trampled. He slid silently through the group to the back. There were way too many people. The dorm building was easily seven stories high. Apparently the top and bottom floors were gathering areas and the other floors were all bedrooms. He stayed to the back of the crowd. If I'm in the back then hopefully I'll be one of the last ones to get a room. And hopefully I'll be able to get a room to myself.
"Hey Cat Ears," Ral smirked.
Jace gritted his teeth and ignored him. We're here to find the treasure thing. Why do I have to go to school? Just because Gideon found out it was required by the law and was worried about us being unable to "blend in". That's stupid. Eventually it was just him, Ral and Onyx that were following the teacher around.
"How about you two be roommates her," the teacher nodded to Jace and Ral. He turned to Onyx.
"What?" Jace stared at the teacher and then glared at Ral, "I can't-"
"We're roommates Cat Ears!" Ral wrapped his arm around Jace's shoulders and grinned.
Jace gritted his teeth. This is what I didn't want! "Get off me," he pulled free from Ral and stalked down the hallway.
"Cat Ears!" Ral followed him.
"Go away Ral," Jace hissed.
"Leave him be."
"But-"
"Just don't," Onyx said, "Let him be alone."
Ral sighed, "Alright."