News!

Well, for anyone out there who may be reading this humble little blog, here's an update: We've decided to rewrite. Completely. So, we reached about 8 chapters before, but won't be posting past Chapter 6 due to the choppiness and confusion of the last few chapters we had (they were under construction). We felt the plot wasn't working out and our writing was immature.

The two of us brainstormed until 4 in the morning the other day, and boy, are we glad we did! We got some new ideas and are feeling quite confident in this new plotline.

We'll post updates on the storyline and characters and all that jazz some other time. We have to piece it together a little more clearly first!

Chapter 6

What Happened to Emily?

Catherine

I waited for Emily outside of Monsters when her class was over, but she wasn’t there. I figured she had gone off without me and went to study hall. She wasn’t there, either. Worry began to gnaw at me. What the heck did she do? I hoped that she wasn’t avoiding me because of the incident in Weapons.

At last, I found her waiting outside the cafeteria.

“Emily!” I breathed, and ran over to her. I angrily scolded, “Where were you? I was really worried!”

Emily was about to reply, when a look of confusion crossed her face. “I- I can’t remember...” she trailed off.

That scared me. I was not the kind of person who was easily frightened, either. But losing your most recent memories was never good.

“Are you sure?” I asked as she continued to look confused.
“I- oh!” she exclaimed. “I remember! I was watching the advanced fairies and I fainted. Drew walked me up to the nurse.”
“Um... okay, I guess...”

Something’s not right here... why in the world would Drew help Emily to the nurse? Something just isn’t right here...

“Emily, Drew didn’t do anything weird to you, right?”

“Catherine! Why would Drew do anything mean?! She is the nicest, kindest, most--”

“Okay, okay!” I exclaimed, cutting her off. “I get it.”

Yep, something is definitely not right.

I sighed, but didn’t question her more. I looked up at the large clock that could be seen all over the school. 5:50. Ugh, we only had ten minutes to get ready for dinner.
“Hey, Emily, we need to get up to the dorm and get dressed for dinner.”
Emily looked down at what she was already wearing and then replied, “But I already have clothes on...”
I rolled my eyes. I really hoped this foggy thinking would wear off soon, because frankly, this Emily was even more annoying than the normal one, something I didn’t think was possible until now.
“No, I didn’t mean like that, you idiot. I meant that we have to get into our school uniforms for dinner. I have to get into my Dragons uniform, and you have to get into your fairy clothes.” I paused for a second to think about what I just said.
“Wait, did they teach you how to change into you full size fairy form? It’s a lot easier than doing the actual fairy size, but you still have the general fairy look, plus the wings.”

“No, I don’t know how to access any of my fairy powers,” she said haltingly.

“Um... okay, then we will just have to get you in some nicer clothes...” I trailed off as I grabbed her hand and made a run for our dorm room. Once we were in our room, I turned back to the dazed-looking Emily.
“Okay, Emily, let me explain something to you. At Candlewick, dinner is much more organized and formal than the other meals. Not only do the different classes sit with each other, such as me sitting with all the Dragon students, but we also have to be in our class uniforms. Class uniforms usually are what a professional of your subject would wear. Wizards wear traditional robes, dragon-riders wear riding outfits, mythology kids wear the outfit connected to their god or goddess patron’s culture, fairies wear a bigger version of the outfit they wear in fairy form, and so on. However, first years in any class wear school uniforms. Newer fairies that haven’t learned to change just wear school uniforms, too. I have an old one that might fit you. Oh, and most dinners, the heads of the classes, such as Willy and I, sit at the head table with the headmaster. But tonight, since it’s Friday, all of the Deathball players sit up there, which would also include Willy. Oh, and that reminds me, make sure you ask Willy to explain Deathball to you sometime tonight.”
“What? Were you talking to me?” Emily asked after a moment.

This is worse than I thought, I silently worried.

○○○

When we came out from changing, all Jack did was scrutinize Emily silently. However, she didn’t even notice. She just looked tired and confused. We walked down to dinner in silence. Even thick-skulled Willy noticed something up with Emily.
I kept expecting Emily to comment on the unusual garb everyone wore, since she hadn’t been listening to anything I had told her. However, she was still in a mental daze, so nothing seemed to be getting through.

As we walked in, a bunch of fairy kids saw her and smiled, and one that I had met before, Michael Aylwin, waved to her, motioning for her to come sit next to him. When she just stared at him, more confused than ever, a worried look came onto his face and he turned away. I leaned over to Emily.

“Do you know him?” I asked.

She seemed to struggle, as though something was holding her answer back. “No...” she said slowly.

“Go sit by him, I think he wants to meet you,” I said.

“No, I want to sit with Drew,” she replied, walking off.

I think I’ll ask that Michael guy about this... I decided.

“Hey, Michael,” I said when I got to the fairy table. “Have you met Emily?”

He turned around and said, “Oh, um, Catherine, right?” he inquired. Seeing my nod, he answered me, “Yeah, I met her in fairies today. What’s up with her? She didn’t recognize me even though we talked for a good fifteen minutes today.”

I gratefully thought, Oh, good. Maybe I can figure out what’s going on before dinner’s over.

When I talked to Michael about what had happened in class, he furrowed his brow thoughtfully and replied, “She changed. She said she’d never had any contact with fairy magic, so I don’t know how that’s possible. But she was really freaked out when she changed back, and Miss L’Velle had Drew take her to the nurse. And with Drew...” he trailed off, knowing that I would understand what he implied.

We continued to chat about Emily for a while longer. When Headmistress Sorcen rose from her seat to speak to the school, I thanked him for his help, assuring him that I would try to take off the mental block that I was sure Drew had placed. Then I walked away, thinking that one bright spot in the day was that Michael seemed to have a crush on Emily, which made me continue to question the mental stability of the fairy kids. But I still hoped she would feel the same when the mind block was removed, because Michael was a nice guy. Anyways, she needed some excitement in her life.

After the announcements, I sat by Lysander at my table and related to him the day’s events, excluding the mishap in Fairies. Even though he was my friend, I didn’t want to make a huge thing of this mess. Plus, Jack hadn’t said anything when he had seen Emily earlier, which made me doubt myself on the whole Drew theory. Even while I was thinking about it right now, I started to lean more towards the possible answer of Emily just being worn out from all the activities of the day.

Now satisfied that a good night’s sleep would help Emily feel like herself again, I relaxed and enjoyed my dinner. I talked to Lysander and my other friends in Dragons, and felt refreshed and ready for bed. When Emily stood up to go to our dorm, I stood up to grab her before she left the cafeteria. Emily was still confused, and I began to get worried again when she couldn’t remember how to get to our room. I figured that while she didn’t have the greatest memory, she would at least remember where the room was located.

She stayed pretty much silent as we walked up, only speaking to answer questions in one or two words, occasionally not answering at all. The closer we got, the more tired Emily seemed, and the more strained she looked.

“Emily, are you okay?” I asked as we walked into our room. “You’re kind of... wobbly.”

And she was. Emily was swaying back and forth from obvious exhaustion. She was just beginning to respond when she went limp and fell to the floor.

“Jack!” I yelled. “Something’s wrong with Emily!”

At this point, the book was too long for our Google Doc! We moved on to a new one. However, we're not posting the rest of what we wrote, because it was kind of chopped up and confusing. We were in the process of adding and subtracting story bits and got... well, you could say we got discouraged. It seemed too much like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. See my next post for more information!

Chapter 5

The Spell

Emily

I was off to weapons, right after lunch. So far, I had been having an interesting day. I had woken up late, received 10 detentions, and found out the hard way that I was not cut out for Pirates. This streak of bad luck made me slightly nervous for the second half of the day, but I was still excited.

Catherine was walking me outside because I had no idea where I was going. I still didn’t have a map, and Catherine had promised to get me one for tomorrow. I figured she was tired of walking me everywhere. We eventually made our way outside to a field. In the distance was a big barn that Catherine told me was the dragon nook.

“I’ll take you out to see my dragon, Serengeti, later,” she said, seeming pleased.

I wasn’t exactly a weapons master. Catherine had me try just about everything, from a sword that was at least four feet long to a set of nun-chucks covered in dried, dark-red stuff, which Catherine insisted wasn’t blood. But for each weapon, I either almost killed myself or I wasn’t strong enough to even get it off the ground. By the end of the hour, my arms felt like they were on fire, and Catherine was in a foul mood. Finally she snapped after I failed, for the tenth time today, to lift a sword.
“Come on, Emily! That is the lightest sword in the whole school! Even those wimps that call themselves fairies can lift it,” she said, ignoring the murderous looks she got from some fairy students on the other side of the weaponry. She shook her head and heaved a huge sigh. “Are you even trying?”
“Yes! I am, I promise! I’m just not very good at physical activity!”
“Well, I’ll let you in on a secret. One third of your final grade is going to be this class!” Catherine took a deep breath. “Look, Emily, I know you came from a small, non-magic town, and the reason that your mom never told you about magic was to protect you. But the real world isn’t like your small little town! The real world is full of monsters and evil forces that you have never even heard of! You need to know how to fight them! So get real!” she yelled and stomped off.
I was crushed. I mean, I knew that I was a little out of place in this world, but it had never really hit me until now. As the bell rang, I resolved to get better at handling weapons. I didn’t care how; I was just going to do it. I struggled for a moment to remember where Catherine had said the Fairy classroom was, and then I set off.

○○○

I walked in the classroom and stopped dead. The room was a dream come true. It was a forest and a meadow, much bigger than it looked from outside. It was full of trees and flowers, and everywhere I looked was just nature. I had always been the girl at home who had played in the huge, forest-like backyard, and loved tending the garden. I sighed happily and looked for the teacher. When I found nobody, I sat down in the meadow. As I looked closer at a flower that Mom had taught me was called a windflower, I saw a tiny fairy sitting on the petals. She was beautiful. The fairy had long, dark, curly brown hair, and wore a beautiful dress that held an incredible likeness to the flower she sat on. Her wings were a shade darker than her hair, and looked just like a butterfly’s. Feeling incredibly shy, I just stared.
“Hello, dear!” the little fairy brightly said to me. “Are you Emily?”
I was astonished. The fairy knew me! “Y-yes, I am.”
“Oh, I apologize. One moment, please,” the fairy announced as she stood up. She fluttered a few feet over to a patch of empty ground, and a split second later, a woman who looked just like the fairy stood in front of me. The fairy was nowhere to be seen.
“Hello, Emily. I am the teacher, Miss L’Velle. And yes,” she said kindly, “I was the fairy.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, dazzled by the transformation. “My schedule says I’m observing this class today.”
“Your schedule is correct, dear!” Miss L’Velle smiled. “Now,” she continued as many fairies fluttered in and changed to older students, “please, take a seat anywhere, wherever you feel comfortable.”
“Thank you!” I said, no longer shy. I noticed a large pond with a willow tree off to the side, and felt drawn to it. I had always felt that way around willow trees and ponds, though I had never understood why. There was an oak tree nearby, and some lily pads in the pond. I went and sat in the willow by the pool, a few branches up from the ground, and took off my shoes. I dipped them in the pond and felt content for the first time that day.

I watched as students arrived. Some walked straight to an area where it was snowing, some walked to areas filled with spring and summer flowers, and others walked straight to the trees. I particularly watched a boy about a year older than I was as he came and sat in the oak tree near my willow. He was fairly tall and thin, but you could tell he was strong. He had thick, dark brown hair and a boyish face. He turned to look at me, and I looked away, feeling shy once more. I watched the last few students straggle in the door.

Miss L’Velle stood and said, “Class, I need a few minutes before we begin. You may converse.”

I came off the tree and lay back on the grassy bank of the pond. I closed my eyes and swirled my feet in the water. When I heard footsteps a few minutes later, I was startled. I sat up with a splash and turned around.

It was the boy from the oak tree. He paused for a moment and then apologetically said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to say hello.”

I felt very conscious of the water on my rolled-up jeans and the dirt on the back of my shirt. “Oh, hello. My name is Emily Rhodes. I’m a new student, and I was told to observe advanced fairies today,” I replied.

“That’s cool! I’m Michael. Michael Aylwin. So I take it that you’re a fairy student?” he smiled amiably.

“That’s kind of a long story, but yes, I am,” I answered him. “I’m really excited for this class!”

“Well, it’s good to be enthusiastic. Fairies are happy by nature, and a lot of our magic requires enthusiasm and optimism.” We continued to chat for a while longer.

“By the way, any particular reason you chose the willow tree and the pond to sit by? I don’t mean to pry, I’m just curious,” Michael said.

“I’m not really sure. I’ve always felt really happy around willow trees and ponds,” I explained, hoping I didn’t sound too weird.

“Then I’m going to take a guess and say you’re probably a willow fairy. They usually feel pretty connected to ponds and such, too. I’m the same way with acorns and oak trees.”

I was astonished. “You mean everyone in here is a fairy?” I exclaimed.

Michael laughed. “Of course! Everyone in here has fairy blood, some more than others. Like Drew,” he said, shooting a glance over to a group of blond, snooty-looking fairies clustered around Drew. I hadn’t even noticed her come in. “She’s 50% fairy. She’s the student with the highest amount of fairy blood.”

I was about to respond, when Miss L’Velle stood and announced, “Class, please take your seats. We will be practicing the fairy to human form transition.” Michael went and sat down at the base of the oak as most of the class groaned. “Now, now, I know you all know how to do this, but today we have a new student viewing our class. Emily, please come up.”

My face burning, I walked up to the front of the room.

“This, class, is Emily Rhodes. She is a new student and came to view our class today. I was glad to see that a few of you welcomed her. Now, let’s begin the lesson!” she announced.

Michael was called up first. He stood up front, closed his eyes, stepped forward, and with a shimmer of sparkling air, became a fluttering fairy. He was wearing green pants and little dark-brown, handmade wooden shoes. He had on a tunic the color of a yellow-orange oak leaf, with the hems shaped to look like the edge of one of the leaves. He had rounded wings that were an odd, translucent beige color that somehow made me think of autumn. To top it off, he wore an acorn cap on his head and had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. It was, without doubt, the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Without a word, he fluttered over to his tree and sat on a branch.

After most of the class had gone, Drew came up. She turned into a fairy that reminded me of a poppy. She had a deep red dress that came down to her knees, with many thin layers that gave the effect of looking like flower petals. It had black around the waist that seemed to be made of the fuzz at the center of a poppy. She had black butterfly wings with red tips, and she wore a headband made of a poppy stem. Thick blond hair rippled down her back, and she was barefoot. Though her looks had changed, her expression showed that she was as snooty as ever. She fluttered over to her friends and sat down.

When the last person had changed, Miss L’Velle asked if I would like to try. I eagerly agreed and walked up. Most of the class was chuckling. I could understand why. I mean, a new kid do an advanced change? It took all the kids in that class years to learn how to do it, so how could I?

I was beginning to regret coming up. I tried to compose myself and stepped forward, but nothing happened. Most of the class laughed again, and I felt my cheeks burn. I stepped forward again, willing myself to change, but I couldn’t do it. I glanced at Michael, only to see him pointedly smiling. I remembered him saying, Fairies are happy by nature, and a lot of their magic requires enthusiasm and optimism.

I thought about how happy I would feel if I could change, and that since I was a fairy, I could definitely do it. Bursting with power, I stepped forward once more, and instantly felt different.

Everything was huge! My glasses were gone, but I could see perfectly fine. And I heard so many sounds! I heard wind in the trees, leaves rustling, and water lapping at the bank of my pond. I glanced at myself and discovered that I was wearing a dress made of soft willow leaves, with a small piece of soft, flexible branch tied around my waist. I was barefoot, and felt as though I was in a cool, moist breeze that blew my thick, long, wavy blond hair around. Then I realized that I was floating. No, not floating. I had wings! I spun around, glancing at the huge green wings on my back that could have been a dragonfly’s. Then I began to fall. I couldn’t control my wings! Without trying to, I suddenly changed back to my human form with a shimmer of sparkles.

I was on all fours, breathing heavily. I felt willow leaves in my hair, water on my jeans, and dirt smudged everywhere. To make it worse, I was drop-dead tired. The room was silent. Then Michael stood up and clapped, followed by most of the boys and a couple of the girls. But Drew and her group, which was a good half of the class, stayed silent. In fact, Drew looked like she was about to explode. Miss L’Velle hurried over and helped me up.

“Emily! Oh dear, you must be exhausted. Drew! Take Emily to the nurse!” Miss L’Velle exclaimed.

“Of course, Miss L’Velle!” Drew exclaimed, putting on a mask of false worry. She hurried over and helped me stumble out. As we passed Michael, I saw him gaze at me with worry. Drew led me through the hallway, and then pushed me into an empty classroom without warning.

She leaned me against the wall and began to speak in a weird, lilting voice.

“Emily, you will forget everything from today’s lesson. You will not access any fairy powers. Furthermore, you will treat me as your superior. Come on.”

I followed as my mind slipped into a haze.

We walked into the nurse’s office and I vaguely heard something about me fainting. I noticed blearily that Drew said nothing about what had really happened.

Wait...what had happened? I wondered as my memories slipped away from me.

I loved writing about the fairy stuff. It's my favorite part!

Chapter 4

Stuck With the New Kid

Catherine

I lightly touched down in the Dragons classroom, elegant and graceful. Emily, on the other hand, was shuddering and gasping for breath, like she was experiencing some kind of seizure.
“W-what j-just happened?” she stuttered.
I glanced at her. “We transported. Duh. Gosh, did that seriously scare you? I suppose you’d never done it before...” I trailed off. “Are you okay?” Emily sat on the classroom floor with a thud.
Emily shuddered. “J-just fine,” she replied, taking a deep breath. “Although I would prefer not to do that again.”
She stood up, messed with her blond hair, and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. It was almost endearing.
“Eh, don’t worry, I usually don’t transport to my classes. It’s a lot harder than you would think.”

Ah, well, things could be worse, I thought as I walked to my seat. She could have done something totally embarrassing, like puking. I shuddered at that thought. I would never have been able to live that down.

I watched Emily walk up to the teacher. I almost ran up there and pulled her back. We had a substitute, and Mr. Hupfen at that. That freak show would reduce Emily to hysterics by the end of the class, I was sure. But she was up there before I could stop her. I saw her begin to ask a question, but the substitute took one look at her and pointed her to the empty seat at my desk. Great, I thought.

“Class!” he announced in a heavy accent that nobody could ever place. “Take out your books!”

Emily shot me a pleading glance that I understood to say, Can I share?

I sighed and moved my book to the center of the table. Mr. Hupfen turned from the board, saw Emily with my book, and exclaimed with power a drill sergeant would be proud of, “You there! Where’s your book?”

“M-me?” Emily quavered. “I-I don’t have one....”

“No excuses!” he roared.

“Mr. Hupfen?” I interrupted. “She’s new, and she hasn’t gotten any books yet.”

The teacher turned to me as if he had forgotten Emily was there. “Ah, Catherine. I see. Well that’s a perfectly acceptable excuse. Let us begin the lesson.” He turned to the board and began to write.

Emily turned to me yet again, this time with an incredulous look on her face. “What--?” she choked out.

“I’m the star student. I’m sure Mr. Dracon left a note about me,” I replied.

“So... you like dragons, then?” she whispered.
“I love dragons. I know everything there is to know about them. Everyone in my family has a diploma in Dragons, and I’m on my way to getting one. Should be easy,” I answered.
Mr. Hupfen turned again. “Detention, Miss Rhodes. No talking,” he declared. Emily spluttered and looked at me as if to say, What the heck did I do? I shrugged. I could see where she was coming from, as she was probably the only person in the class that hadn’t actually been talking.

Mr. Hupfen then announced to the class, “We’ll be reviewing three chapters today. Turn to chapter two. Read here,” he said, holding up his book and pointing, “Now here. And here. No, Miss Rhodes, here. Detention.”

I snorted as Emily looked confused and terrified.

Mr. Hupfen continued, “Now turn the page. No, wait, skip lesson three, I don’t like it. Now, turn the page and read here.” He paused for just a moment, and then continued as if everyone had read the page already. We were all used to it, since Mr. Hupfen had been substituting all week, but Emily looked like she was close to hysterics.

Mr. Hupfen then had us finish the next chapter. Poor Emily gained three more detentions in the process. When the substitute finally finished his scattered lesson, he announced, “Now, class, pop quiz on chapter three.”

Emily burst out in a shrill voice, “Mr. Hupfen, you didn’t teach us that lesson!”

I felt sorry for the kid when Mr. Hupfen retorted, “Well, whose fault is that?” and gave her three more detentions.

Regardless of Emily’s argument, we took the quiz. Everyone but Emily aced it. In fact, Emily completely failed it. For that, she was given yet another detention. When the bell rang and Emily and I walked out, she was nearly sobbing. I was right about her ending in hysterics, I thought.

“Catherine! What did I do?” she asked in a strangled voice. “I-- just got-- nine detentions.”

“Oh, Mr. Hupfen gives everyone detentions, don’t worry. Anyways, Mr. Dracon will be back on Monday.” I replied. I then grabbed her wrist and transported us again.

We touched down in Wizards, and Emily was gasping like a fish out of water. “Catherine! I told you-- I didn’t want-- to do that again!” She bleated feebly when she found her voice. “And I thought you said that you didn’t usually do that!”

“Hey, we needed to get to class, and I didn’t feel like walking!” I smiled, knowing I sounded lazy.

I led her to a seat next to mine to recuperate, and went up to talk to the tall black woman in deep blue robes in the front of the room, Mrs. Osborne.

“Mrs. Osborne? This is Emily Rhodes,” I began. “She’s new, and a little bit confused right now.”

Mrs. Osborne looked up from some papers on her desk. “Ah, yes. And I see you sat her in the empty seat. Thank you, Catherine. If you could help her throughout the lesson, I would appreciate it.”

“Of course, Mrs. Osborne,” I replied.

I walked back to my seat. As I sat down, Emily punched my arm. I barely felt it, but she must have thought it was a pretty hard punch. “Don’t ever transport me again,” she muttered.

Mrs. Osborne looked up and cleared her throat. “Class, let us begin the lesson,” she announced. She noticed Emily slumped over her desk and walked over. She stood in front of the desk and said, “Miss Rhodes, for a spell to function, you need discipline. And I discipline my students quite sternly. Sit up. We can discuss this in detention on Saturday.”

Emily moved nervously in her seat. “I’ve already got nine detentions for this Saturday, Mrs. Osborne. I apologize.”

The teacher’s stern expression changed swiftly to one of utter astonishment. “Dear girl, how did you manage to receive nine detentions on your first day?”

I decided to help Emily out. “Mrs. Osborne, we just came from Mr. Hupfen’s class. He doesn’t like her too much.”

Mrs. Osborne instantly looked sympathetic. “Oh, Emily. Forget the detentions he gave you, they won’t count. And for the trouble you’ve been through, forget the detention I just gave you. Nobody should go through that on their first day here at Candlewick,” she fussed. Emily’s weary smile assured me that she felt better about the day.

The class went by quite uneventfully afterwards, and Emily followed Willy out the door when the bell rang. I stretched as I stood up, and transported myself to my next class.

When I arrived out in the open field, I jogged over to the dragon dwelling, which was pretty much a really big field with a large barn near the mountain for the dragons. Dragon Field Work was my favorite class. Where else in the school could you actually work with dragons? Mr. Hupfen let us have free reign in this class, too. He just stayed holed up in the little building at the end of the field doing who-knows-what.

I walked over to my hatchling dragon, Serengeti. His scales were a greenish brown, and although he wasn’t the prettiest thing, he was the largest, strongest, and smartest dragon in the class. The dragon had bonded with me, too. All those who have bonded with a dragon have a tattoo that our dragons burned onto us. It doesn’t hurt when we receive it because it’s a magical fire that the dragon can only breathe out once. Thus, a dragon can only ever bond to one human.

As soon as Serengeti saw me, his eyes lit up and he started to shake all over with excitement. I smiled at his enthusiasm. He had almost doubled in size since last month, and would be big enough to ride in a couple of months. Just the prospect of soaring through the clouds with him gave me shivers. I led Serengeti out of the barn so he could run around and stretch his wings.

I rubbed Serengeti under the chin, and then turned around to try to find his brush. I walked over to the supplies rack, where I found my friend Lysander. He was a tall dark-skinned boy in his fourth year. He’d been my friend since last year, when I had admired his stunning ice-blue frost dragon, Annarie.

“Hey, Zander,” I said.

Lysander glanced over. “Oh, hey, Cat. You came later than usual, I was just wondering where you were.”

I sighed. “There’s actually a story behind it. It started when I sat down in Mythology this morning. We were listening to Mrs. Mason review yesterday’s quiz--”

“Oh yeah! She gave it to my class too. And I got a high C!”

“Nice!” I congratulated him. We high-fived, and then I continued. “Okay, where was I... oh, right! Anyway, this short blond girl burst in and asked if it was Mythology. So she had woken up late, I guess. She was new, so Mrs. Mason gave her the dorm assignment. Guess what dorm she got.”

Lysander winced in sympathy. “Yours? Sucks for you....”

“I know, right? She’s not too bad, I guess, just... I don’t know... so... naive. She grew up in an outsider town, one of those places that refuses to have anything to do with the rest of the world. She doesn’t know anything about magic.”

“I take it she’s not a wizard, then?”

“Nope. A fairy, of all things. She doesn’t even know what percentage fairy blood, because she’s an orphan. Poor kid. But she grew up with a fairy graduate, because the woman who runs the “orphanage” she lived in was in Fairies. She keeps going on about some kind of journal, too, whatever that may be.”

“Could it be some kind of text book?”

“The Fairy kids have textbooks?”

“Huh. Good point. Have you ever seen one? What would they even need one for?” he asked.

“Exactly. Anyways, she’s in Pirates right now, and--”

Lysander cut me off. “She’s in Fairies... and she’s taking Pirates?”

“Yup. She’s a little... overenthusiastic when it comes to academics. So I imagine that Willy will be telling the story at lunch while she flips out,” I laughed. “But the poor kid doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into, taking all these classes. I feel kind of bad. She’s easy to like, kind of an endearing little sister, but she’s a total nerd. She’ll drop a few classes by the end of the year, just wait!”

“No doubt,” he replied. “I better get back to Annarie, she wants to fly.”

“All right, I’m sure Serengeti wants to stretch his wings.”

We walked over to the dragons and led them out of the barn. I started to laugh when Serengeti shot past me and out into the field. From there, he stretched his wings and flapped them a little bit until he was off the ground. He flew a couple of large circles a few feet off the ground, and lightly touched down. I walked over and he happily puffed some smoke out of his nose.

“Aw, I missed you too, Serengeti! How’s my boy?” I cooed.

I grabbed the wire brush and big cloth from my belt and set to work cleaning his scales up. Serengeti loved being brushed, so he wiggled delightedly while I worked. I sternly ordered, “Serengeti, sit still so I can brush you!” Serengeti sat still, because he knew he would get brushed again if he did.

After I finished his grooming, I led Serengeti over to the dragon nook. The dragon nook was the place we let the dragons hang out while we cleaned their stalls. I shooed Serengeti in and walked back to the dwelling. I chatted amicably with Lysander while I cleaned, and time flew by. I grabbed Serengeti from the nook and led him into his stall. He was tired, and laid down in his nest right away.

“Bye, Serengeti! I’ll bring you a new friend later!” I whispered, thinking of Emily. I shut the door and locked it with a rune to keep Serengeti from doing anything stupid like I knew he would if something wasn’t containing him. As I walked out of the dwelling, the bell rang. I started to the cafeteria.

○○○

I immediately sat in my seat before anyone else would sit in the area. After putting my stuff down, I spotted Willy walking in, with Emily in tow. I was pleased to see that Emily wasn’t injured or maimed in any way from her last class, but she was terrified nonetheless.

I sighed. “What happened this time?” I asked Willy as soon as he sat down at the lunch table.

He laughed. “Let’s just say little miss fairy over there isn’t cut out for Pirates.”

I groaned. “What did she do?”

Willy chuckled for a moment and answered me, “Oh, just failed to do just about every simple thing we were assigned today.”

I looked at Emily. She had her head on the table and was obviously a mental wreck. I figured that she had never failed a subject before.

Jack walked over, took one look at Emily, and said, “What’s up with her?”

Emily sat up. She took a moment to compose herself and opened her eyes. She was about to reply to Jack, but she stopped, her jaw hanging open.

I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me that she was confused. Jack’s hair was all spiked up, and it was a vivid shade of electric blue, with each tip a scorching red-orange. Along with the change of hair color, his eyes, instead of being the normal silvery-blue, were a bright, neon orange. This kind of thing happened whenever he messed up a really complicated spell, and since he had just come from Wizard Field Work, Willy and I weren’t all that surprised with the dramatic change in appearance. Emily, however, was a different story.

“Jack!” she exclaimed. “What happened?”

“What? Oh, that,” he trailed off as he realized Emily was looking at his hair. “Yeah, I channel my magic into my eye and hair color when it goes wrong. It’ll wear off by tomorrow.”

Emily stared at him, utterly confused.

“...I mean, when my spells go wrong, they change the color of my eyes and hair instead of exploding in my face,” he explained.
Emily sighed, exasperated. “I suppose I should be used to things like this happening by now,” she wearily stated to no one in particular.

I felt compelled to reply. “Actually, Emily, most people would have run out screaming by now. You’re doing great.”

Emily stared at me. “Really?”

“No, most people already know everything about Candlewick, and it doesn’t bother them in the slightest.” I took a breath. “Do you even know what sarcasm is?” I asked.

Willy snickered at that, but Emily just grimaced and pulled out her schedule. “So, after lunch, I have weapons, and then... Fairies! Yes!” she exclaimed, happy again.

Willy just rolled his eyes and started to scarf his lunch down. I rolled my eyes. That boy acted like he was never fed. I was still trying to figure out how he didn’t weigh hundreds of pounds. I turned back to my plate and started to eat my salad.

“So,” I said to break the silence, “it sounds like you’re pretty excited for Fairies, Emily.”

“Oh, yes! I’ve been waiting for it all day!” she exclaimed.

“Are you going to beginner Fairies today?” I questioned.

“Um,” she consulted her schedule. “It says I’m just viewing advanced Fairies today.”

All of a sudden, Willy looked up. “Wait, if you’re just viewing the class, that means it’s not your permanent class, which means they will have to put you into a different class later, which means there is a chance that you won’t be in one of my classes!” He paused for a breath, than continued, laughing breathlessly. “This is fantastic!”

I laughed too, but Emily didn’t look very happy about that comment. I sighed and started talking again. This process continued for the rest of lunch. When the bell rang, Emily jumped up. “Off to weapons!”

I rolled my eyes and waited for her to realize she had no idea where she was going.

“Hey Catherine, where is the weapons room?” came the question a few seconds later.

“It’s outside. Follow me.”

I feel like this one was kind of silly. I mean, really, we just weren't getting a good plot here.