“Ahem,” The large man coughed, trying to get the attention of the class. “This is Beginner Spellcraft 1802. I hope everyone is in the right class.” He eyed the kid sitting next to Jordan.
Jordan watched as the kid looked at his schedule, then scrambled out of the room with his face red. How did he know that?
“Now, today will be quite simple. I’ll only be passing out your textbooks, and then you're free to do as you please.” The man looked as if he was forgetting something, “Yes, and my name is Professor Phoenix Cove. I don’t like nicknames.” With that, he sat back down, waving his hand. In an instant, the textbooks landed in front of every student.
That man radiated confidence, and strength. Phoenix stood tall with broad shoulders, and arms that seemed to want to rip out of the shirt he wore. Jordan was pleased that this professor seemed more laid back than the last.
Shoving the textbook in his bag, he decided to have a quick nap. He didn’t get nearly as much amount of sleep as he should’ve the night before.
“Hey kid,” Phoenix nudged the sleeping Jordan in front of him.
“Huh?” Jordan groggily looked up at the huge man that towered over him. His heart immediately started racing; he held his breath as he looked around the—now empty—classroom. “What time is it?” He fought the urge to swear aloud. His first day and he was already messing it up.
Phoenix chuckled, taking a quick glance at the clock. “You still have enough time kid. If you hurry, that is.”
“Right thanks,” he exhaled, feeling the instant tension relief enter his body. Nodding a thanks to his professor once more, he exited the room.
A quick check at the clock in the hallway showed that he had a little over 8 minutes to get to his next class. Looking at his schedule, he saw Protection and Enchantments 1503. Damn that was downstairs. Rushing, he made it to the stairs. Anyone could swear that Jordan floated down the stairs with how fast he went down.
Passing the 600’s hallway, he knew he was close. Thankfully a clock was in each hallway; he now knew he had 3 minutes to make it to his class.
Panting, he finally made it to his 4th class with little over a minute to spare. The room was mostly full but the fourth row third seat was open fortunately.
He’d received an odd look from the kid on his left, but he didn’t care. He made it on time, and that was all that mattered. His breath returned to normal as the class began.
“Welcome to Protection and Enchantments 1503. The name is pretty self explanatory when it comes to what this course will be about.” The slim lady yawned, “I’m Salem Hall, you can just call me Salem, I don’t really care.”
“You,” Salem pointed at a kid in the front row. “Be a dear and hand out these textbooks to the class.”
“Yes ma’am!” the eager kid said, getting up and grabbing a handful of textbooks.
“Class really doesn’t start until tomorrow; when you get your textbooks, just read over it slightly. You’ll only need to read a bit of chapter one or wait until later—it's up to you.” Salem yawned again, walking over to her desk.
The kid walked around the room until he reached Jordan. He handed him a book, and he nodded in response.
Putting the thick book inside his backpack he groaned, the bag was getting heavier and heavier. By the end of the year he wouldn’t be surprised to have the strongest shoulders around. Glancing around the class, he noticed that no one else even had a backpack—just some little handbag. There was no way those books fit in that bag. It seemed the universe was answering Jordan’s confusion when the kid passing the books around reached the guy sitting next to him.
He watched closely in anticipation as the guy reached for his handbag to put the book inside. There was no way right?
Wrong.
The guy opened it and just dropped the book inside, Jordan had to force his mouth closed. Um what? What did he just watch? What made it worse was the lack of recognition of it from the guy. He guessed they would be used to this, seeing as they made it to this university; that didn’t change anything for Jordan, he was constantly being surprised.
“Um, can I help you?”
Fuck, he had been staring. “Sorry”—for staring like a creep—”I was just shocked.” He forced a smile, “I’ve never seen a bag do that before.”
The guy's face shifted from confusion to amusement. “Oh”—he pointed to his bag—”This old thing? My dad got this for me before school—it’s a spatial enhancement bag.” He said, as if Jordan knew what the hell that was.
The blank expression on his face must’ve given away his confusion as the guy continued with a raised eyebrow. “It like… gives the bag much more space without the weight being affected.”
“Oh yeah I knew that,” Jordan was aware of how dumb he looked right now, but still smiled in acknowlegement—the guy didn’t have to know that. “Well, I’m Jordan—” he raised his hand, initiating a handshake.
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The guy returned the handshake, “I’m Jason—Jason Kroft, nice to meet you.” Jordan echoed Jason's grin, saying it was nice to meet him as well.
He chatted with Jason, until the bell for lunch rang.
Making their way to the cafeteria, they decided to sit together. In contrast to yesterday when he first saw the cafeteria, it now boomed with life. Hundreds—no thousands of kids filled the space. He let Jason guide him to the different food sections that held different platters of food on each strip.
Looking at the food in front of him, he couldn’t help but drool. Without the constant chattering of the kids around him, he would’ve almost forgot this was a school; not a gourmet restaurant. He quickly piled food onto his plate and followed Jason yet again. Despite the fact that there were many people in the cafeteria, he was gravely mistaken that it would be difficult to find a seat.
Jason and him talked about all their classes so far, and compared their schedules. To his surprise, he noticed that they shared his next period—Beginner Battle Magic 1607. He was lucky it seems with how chill most of his professors were—Jason on the other hand wasn’t so blessed. He shuddered at the mention of a pop quiz when Jason was talking about one of his teachers. He really did get lucky.
Wrapping up lunch, they headed to their next class. Approaching the door he could feel a heavy force, it reminded him of the headmaster’s but dimmer. Entering the class, they sat in the third row of the seating tables and waited for the rest of the kids to reach the class as-well.
Attention shifting to the front of the room, the large chalkboard had a name written on it. Professor Nix Kahn—written in white chalk—was his next apparent professor though he still didn’t see where they were. He turned his attention to the desk in the right corner, where a middle-aged woman sat comfortably. They were sleeping, surely this wasn’t our professor… right?
The bell rang and the woman quickly jumped up in surprise, blasting the air in front of her with fire.
“Oops,” Nix looked guilt-ridden at the kid in front of her. “You might want to go to the nurse for that kid.” She winced as the kid ran out the room—with no eyebrows and burn marks on his cheek.
He looked at Jason then back at the professor still in shock. This lady is crazy.
“Well that was unfortunate. Anyway!” She said as if nothing ever happened, “Welcome to Beginner Battle Magic 1607. I’m Nix Kahn, but you should’ve known that already,” She glanced towards the board. “Don’t get used to this classroom as for the rest of this year this course will be held outside, near the gym. Enjoy today as it will be the only day off you get for the rest of the year.” She walked towards the main door to the room, “Get out and enjoy the rest of your day, see you tomorrow.” She said grinning evilly.
The class paused for a moment before getting up and heading to the door.
“Is it just me or is that lady totally insane?” Jason said when we reached the end of the hallway.
No, that lady was crazy, even the look in her eye… “It’s definitely not just you.”
Laughing, Jason asked, “What are you going to do with your time off?”
He hadn’t thought of that, he did want to check out the library that he saw from the tour yesterday. “I’m thinking of going to the library, wanna come?”
“I wish,” Jason sighed. “Remember I told you about that pop quiz I got to do tomorrow…” he trailed off. Oh yeah, he did mention that. “Catch you tomorrow?” He asked, turning to leave.
“Yeah see ya,” Jordan said, walking off in the other direction.
It took a good 20 minutes to find the damned library. This school was a maze; he was grateful for the guy who pointed him in the right direction. It was totally worth it however, the library was as cool as he’d recalled. There were multiple different sections—some had games—though he didn't know any of them—and most others had comfortable chairs, he’d assume for casual reading.
He was kicked out hours later. It wasn’t his fault the book was so good. Thankfully, the librarian agreed to let him take the book to his dorm, he’d be reading this later for sure. He stopped by the cafeteria for a snack—since he missed dinner, and now he headed towards his dorm.
As much as today was exciting, it was draining as all hell, so he decided to sleep early tonight.
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“Jordan I need you to listen to me” A glowing figure floated above his bed.
“Huh? Who—”
“We don’t have time—dear listen to me, you need to figure out your powers before it's too late.”
Wait, this voice… It sounded familiar.
“Jordan baby please… I don’t have much time—I already broke the rules doing this so please! Learn how to wield your magic before it's too late.”
This voice… it was—
“Mom!” Jordan stared at the glowing figure. “Mom is that—” It couldn’t be. She was dead.
“I’m sorry I couldn't be there as much as I wanted to, but remember this” —the glowing figure placed a hand on his head—”I always loved you.”
His heart tightened, breath moving rapidly throughout his chest. “Wait!” His chest burned, tears threatened to fall, “Please don’t–” he choked on his own breath, “Don’t leave me again.”
The glowing figure hovered in the air for just a moment longer before beginning to fade. He reached for it, trying to hold it together, trying to grab his mom… he failed. Hands touching nothing but air, his shoulders fell in defeat—tears rivaling tidal waves crashed upon his face.
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He woke up in tears.
He looked around, his room looking as normal as it had when he slept yesterday. His heart was tight, still feeling the effects of heartbreak from the dream he had. That was a dream right? It felt so real, he looked at his hands, it really felt like—
“Ahh!” A sharp pain broke through his head.
Again the sharp pain struck, coming in waves of force. Jordan was now on his knees, gripping the side of his head with a force he didn’t know he had. The sharp pain turned into a burn as he willed himself to get up—heading to the bathroom he burst open the door turning on the sink.
The burning sensation moved from his head onto his hands—it felt like flames dancing on his skin, yet there was nothing to show for it. Throwing his hands under the sink, he found nothing to help the inescapable burn. He didn’t believe in a god, but if he did, he would be praying to them right now.
The scorching pain moved back into his head, forcing him to let out another cry of pain. Why was this happening? W-Why—what… he looked into the mirror. A seemingly normal picture of himself reflected in the glass except for one thing. His eyes were red.