Celeste~

It's not the same thing, I'm not gonna see you guys for forever." She said, trying to keep herself together as best she could. Chloe gave her mum a hug as did I. It was the day that we would be leaving again. Our letters would arrive any minute now and that would be us gone. It felt even worse than last time, I thought I had already processed what leaving was like but now that I was confronted with the reality of being away for years it hit me even harder. "Make sure you guys stay safe, and stick together if you can especially because of all this Angel stuff." They were so worried about us ever since that all happened. They've lived a

long time so they knew the Angel threat more than any of us did. They thought it was so out of the ordinary for them and believed that there had to be some kind of reason why they chose to do what they did. They were right considering what Caspian had told me. The Angels were targeting people with powers they could harvest for their own strength, I wonder what changed. What made them able to do this now.

*Knock knock

Amy cried even harder and I'm pretty sure I saw a few tears escape Saul's eyes. He gave his last words of encouragement before the news hit us "Good luck guys, just remember this doesn't define you."

I took his words on the chin as I prepared myself for what was to come. I thought that I did well but no one knew how they placed, not even the higher-ups. I decided to cut my losses early and remind myself that there's a poor fucker out there who had to hand in a letter to their parents who own a continent and tell them that they weren't strong enough to get a high place. There were people today who were so egotistical they couldn't comprehend the idea of them not being number one and thank fuck that wasn't me. I could cope with being average.

Markan was the one to open the door. Unsurprisingly he was the one who was lost excited to receive his letter, i'd watched him throughout the whole thing let his anxiety about his place nearly ruin him. He was so overrun by his thoughts he just took to training most of the time. I was glad that it could finally be over for him, and I prayed that he got the result he deserved. He needed it the most.

A man in a tuxedo stood before all of us, he wore purple and indigo, representing the academy and looked as polished as ever doing it.

"Your letters sir." With one hand he held a briefcase, gold and Amethyst incremented into the design. It contained three letters with all of our names stained in gold at the front. We took them from his possession and with that he turned on his heel and strutted away. My heart was pounding in my chest as I held mine and I could tell Chloe and Markan were just as nervous as me. "You ready guys?" I asked, and in unison, they nodded their heads.

Markan ripped his open first, then Chloe then me.

*Hello, Celeste, we are happy to inform you that due to your prestigious performances at the Trial Chambers and the predetermined potential of your attributes you have placed {Number #1 out of all of the Blue Phoenix Academies}*

What the fuck. My hands shook as I read the letter before me. Number fucking one. How did that even happen, I know that I did well but this well! I would never have even dreamt of it.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Number one!" Chloe shouted from her spot in the kitchen, I looked up and tuned back into my surroundings. Markan was practically shaking, I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing because he hadn't announced his results yet. "What did you get?"

"Number- number one." He said in utter disbelief. I was just as shocked as he was and by this point in complete denial about what had just happened. "Don't joke with me like this guy, you have to be lying." I looked to Amy who was just as shocked as we were, "There's no way you guys placed that high, I don't even know anyone personally who placed that high."

"Could it be some kind of mistake, an error in the system?" I asked them.

"I've never heard of any errors like this, it would be unlikely from them, they take this all very seriously. And even if it was you would be moved to where you're meant to be eventually." Saul spoke, and while what he was saying was the most probable he sounded as if he didn't even believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth as he spoke.

"This is crazy, absolutely crazy," I said to myself as I processed my reality.

"We're gonna be in school with the elites," Markan spoke from his bubble of surprise.

"So many opportunities." he murmured, utterly in awe.

"Wait we don't have long before we have to leave."

*Knock knock

Just as Chloe spoke they came to our door urging us to come out. We knew the protocol, we needed to leave as soon as possible so we said our very emotional goodbyes to Amy and Saul as we took off.

There's coaches were way bigger and more elegant than before, I didn't even know that was possible considering the ones they sent last time but what else could you expect. Even in times of success I couldn't help but pray that I didn't have to sit next to a prestigious asshole. If I heard anyone talk down on those who were below them for any reason I wasn't so sure I'd be able to contain myself. I climbed up onto the steep stairs and made my way into the vehicle. There were many students of different backgrounds, some looked as though they hadn't expected anything different to happen today while some looked like they were once dying and this was their last opportunity to be something in this cruel world.

I sat in seats towards the back of the bus with Markan and Chloe accompanying me in their seats. "Who the fuck are you, get out of this seat I wanna sit here." She couldn't have been talking to me? I looked up only to see a short-haired platinum standing over me. She looked like a lightbulb with her white hair and even paler skin. "No, move." There was no way I was going to be tormented in this place because I was afraid of a little confrontation. Both Saul and Amy told us to not be afraid to tussle a little during our stay, especially if we made it into a good Academy. These people genuinely viewed us as shit on the street to them. It was one thing being in the presence of them at the Trial Chambers when all eyes were on them but in what they believed to be their territory? They were one hundred times worse.

"Excuse me?" She said, even louder than before clearly wanting to cause a scene in front of everyone. "You heard me." I didn't have the time for this. I was riding a high that no one could take away from me, I was meant to be here and this was my fucking seat.

"Who do you think you are, ugh. You little nobody's always do something that makes your parents proud for once and forget how to act, don't forget your place dog." By now most of the Coach was silent, I didn't know who this girl was or where she came from but she clearly believed that she was of some sort of special ranking. She believed that her social status granted her special treatment, unfortunately such currencies aren't accepted everywhere and on this card machine? Fake social prestige l wasn't being taken here. "You'll be kicked off your high horse in a minute if you don't get the fuck out of my face."

She laughed. "Oh? What are you gonna do if I don't?"

Remind you of what you are. "What have you done apart from being a status-sucking leech for your parents huh? Do you think your parent's work makes you something? It doesn't. The only thing you got is their blood, and you better watch yourself because we've seen how that amounts to fuck all."

She took a pause before she responded, clearly struck by what I had just said.