The “opening ceremony” as Mei had called it turned out to just be a dull speech by the principal of the school. The principal was a shorter man who was neatly dressed in a black suit with a purple bowtie. He had white hair that fell below his shoulders. He must’ve been an older man because he used a cane to walk to the podium. His speech concluded in around half an hour, and the only interesting thing I learned was that the school was a school for “three types of students”.

1. Students of outstanding academic achievement.

2. Students of noble birth.

3. Students with powerful mages in their family.

I knew for a fact that I was the second option. I also knew that Mei was the first.

I got up, stretching my legs after what felt like hours, but was actually only minutes.

“Where are we off to now, Miss Mei?” I said in a patronizing voice.

She rolled her eyes, “I wouldn’t know, I have to go to Math first, check your own schedule.”

Wow, so even in this fantasy world they still had to attend math class.

“Ok, and where would I find that?”

She stared at me with an exasperated face for a few seconds. “How would I know that? Probably somewhere in your bag if I had to imagine.”

I felt my face turn slightly red in embarrassment. That should have been obvious, I don’t know why I expected her to have my class schedule too. I rummaged through the bag that Alice had left for me until finally finding a scroll.

In neat handwriting it listed my schedule for the day. Each block of time was an hour long, starting with math and ending with science. There was an hour in the middle of the day that was just labeled “break”. I wonder if that means we can do anything during that time.

“Lucky me, guess I have math with you!.” I smiled at Mei.

“Lucky me.” She said, rolling her eyes and starting down the hallway. I followed her, ready to attend my first class in years.

Well, I don’t know what I was expecting. I was sitting in a room lined with desks, a notebook and pen in front of me. The teacher, a tall woman with a pointed nose and wrinkled skin, was writing down on the chalkboard that spread across the front of the room. Around me were dozens of kids that I had to assume were my age, some of them paying close attention, and others sneaking whispers to those next to them. In other words, it was a completely normal class.

I am bored out of my mind. I tried poking Mei in the back of the head, but she finally turned around at me and glared like she was about to kill me, so I stopped doing that. I took some notes absentmindedly, but it really was just introductory algebra. I mean don’t get me wrong, I had trouble learning it for the first time too, but I don’t forget things very easily.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the teacher cleared her voice to bring attention to the class.

“Well seeing how it is your first day, I am going to give you the rest of the time to become acquainted with each other. Please refrain from doing anything violent, I really do not wish to have a repeat of last year.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Well now I really wanted to know what happened last year.

I thought about just talking to Mei, but it would be nice to meet some new people.

There were a group of girls in the back of the room that pushed their desks together and started talking to each other instantly. They were a no-go, I really didn’t want to introduce myself to a group right now. Instead I set my eyes on two girls who were in the corner of the room, talking to each other and laughing.

I was never one to initiate making friends, but I guess it never hurt to try and change. With all the courage I could muster I walked up to them.

“Hi there! I’m sorry but I don’t have very many friends that are also attending school here, could I maybe join you two?”

The girl who was facing the front of the room stopped mid sentence to look at me, looking slightly taken aback.

“That’s… surprisingly honest.”She had red hair and a freckled face.

The other girl turned to look at me as well.

“Oh my, aren’t you Emily Moore?” the girl said, smiling at me.

“Yep! That’s me, what’s your name?” I said, returning the smile.

The girl clicked her tongue. I wonder if I had struck a nerve, was I supposed to know who she was?

“My name is Aubrey Deli, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Aubrey reminded me of the popular girls in highschool. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, and was always smiling when she talked.

“And my name is Erica! Erica Haste.” said the girl with red hair.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Aubrey and Erica, so what were you talking about?” I said, pulling up a desk to join them.

“Well…” said Erica, looking slightly hesitant.

I wonder, maybe they were talking about something personal? Or maybe they were talking badly about the other students already.

“Sorry, but we were talking about something personal, I don’t think Erica would like to share it.” Aubrey looked at Erica, still smiling, but this time it seemed playful.

Erica blushed. Now that was not a reaction I was expecting, maybe they were talking about crushes? But this was an all girls school.

“No, let’s change the topic then shall we? Are you two nervous about the aptitude test?” Erica said with a slightly higher voice than a few minutes ago, she must have been nervous.

“What’s that?” I said before even thinking.

They both stared at me blankly for a minute. I felt my face grow slightly red.

“That’s another thing that’s supposed to be super obvious, isn't it?” I said shyly. I was growing increasingly embarrassed at my lack of knowledge.

Aubrey laughed, but not in a mean way. Erica just kept staring.

“Well putting that aside for now, the aptitude test is what tests the incoming students on their magical abilities.” Aubrey said.

That’s interesting, I looked at her expectantly.

“The students each test to see if they resonate with a certain property, or element of magic. The four properties are spirit, dark, water, and stone.” Aubrey continued.

Those were not the “elements” I had expected to hear. Most RPGs had the classic elements like fire and wind. What the heck was Spirit and dark magic, and not earth but stone?

“There’s only those four? And how do they test you on them?” I was nervous , I hope they weren’t about to drop me into combat or something.”

“There’s actually five elements but don’t worry about the last one, they say a student hasn’t possessed affinity for it in over two hundred years. Anyways the test is simple enough, you just place your hand on the enchanted gemstones they have, and they measure your affinity to each property.” She finally finished.

Well, that didn’t seem too bad. I could at least handle putting my hand on a stone, but did I even have any magical abilities?

“Also don’t forget to tell her-” Erica was cut off by a high pitch ringing.

“Ok students! I will be seeing you all tomorrow. Have a good day, and remember, stay out of trouble.”

I guess that was the bell then. I looked back and saw Mei staring at me, she quickly turned away when our eyes met, she must have spent the time alone.

“It was nice talking to you two, I hope to see you both again.” I almost gave a bow before I remembered what happened with Mei, so I just smiled and walked towards my stuff.

“Miss me Mei?” I said teasingly.

Her face turned a little red.

“As if” she said, rolling her eyes.

“I’ll be spending all day with you, don't worry, I really am lucky that we have such a similar schedule.” I started to pick up my things.

“I already told you that I don’t care.” she couldn’t hide the slight smile across her face.

“Well, after you then Miss Mei.” I said keeping my tone playful.

“Yeah yeah, I’m going,” she said standing up. “I guess you would get lost without me after all.” She stood up to leave.

I smiled to myself and got up to follow her.

Magic huh, honestly I don’t really care about that. I hope I can just live a normal highschool life again.