I want to start this by asking you one question. Do you like magic? If your answer is yes, think again. Magic is not that cool, mysterious thing that you see in TV shows, trust me, I would know. I wish I could be just a normal boy with dumb problems other than saving the world, but when you have the power to literally summon pure energy, I guess a normal life is too hard for you.
“Hey Sol!” I heard the kid that has been pestering me since yesterday, Cel, yell to me from across the hall.
“Great…” I muttered, kicking a pebble that was left on the floor.
Sometimes when I do nonchalant things like kick a rock or throw a water bottle in the trash, I think about its story. Was the water bottle created from recycling? Was the rock I’m kicking right now brought into this hall by some random kid pretending to play soccer? I know that whatever the inanimate objects had experienced, it was somehow better than my life.
I felt a slap on my back as Cel started walking side by side with me.
“Sol, stop ignoring meeeeee!” Cel was talking in such a nagging voice, it made me want to pull his mouth off his face.
“I’m ignoring you for a reason,” I responded, glancing at the room numbers as we went. “Just... head to class.”
“Fine, we're getting lunch together though!” With that, Cel ran off in what seemed to be half a second.
Why did it have to come to this? I came to this magic school looking for a place to be free, and I got anything but freedom this past week.
…
The first thing I remember when walking into this school was, amazing. The main hall was absolutely beautiful. There were two spiraling staircases that led up to the next floor, and two halls that led left to right on this floor. The floor was tiled with white and yellow marble, and the space of the room was up to 40 ft long.
I walked around the lobby marveling at the architecture that surrounded the halls. I have always been a sort of architecture nerd. I don’t know why and when it started, but perhaps I just got into creating things because I would always end up destroying them.
‘Hey, can we get some papa johns?’ I heard Inter pop into my head. Inter was a dead spirit living inside of me, who is the only reason my life sucks (for now). He also likes papa johns, for some reason.
Dude, I literally just got into the school, I’ll get you pizza during lunch. I realized the best thing to do when dealing with Inter was to negotiate, and NOT TO FIGHT HIM.
‘Nah, I want Papa Johns.’ Oh my god, this man is INFURIATING.
Look if I get you Papa Johns for lunch, will you stop bothering me for the rest of the day? I figured that this deal worked more in Inter’s favor, but at least it helped me clear my head for the first day of school.
‘Deal.’
Did I mention this man made me kill my parents and destroy six orphanages? I didn't? Well now you know.
Anyway, as I was walking down to the front I noticed someone interesting. He had dirty blond hair that was so messy it was bending in 90 degree turns. He wore a short sleeved, sky blue t-shirt that had a water bottle on it. Above the water bottle there was text that said “Stay Hydrated”. He wore normal black sweatpants, in fact, they were the same brand I was wearing.
My first impression of him is that I would dislike him. He seemed easy and outgoing, and I just felt like he was radiating happiness. If I were to describe this guy, I would say he was a ball of joy, a truly pure soul.
As I studied the man more I noticed that he had a mark on the top of his head. I looked around, but nobody else seemed to notice it. The mark radiated sky blue, just like his t-shirt. Before I could analyze it more the man turned around.
At first we stared at each other for a few seconds, I was getting nervous. If this man knew me from my life before I entered this school I was a dead man. Then suddenly “Woah! You got a silly mark on your head!”
It took me a few seconds to realize he was talking to me. I looked up, and I saw nothing on my head.
“I don’t see anything, might just be your imagination,” however, I knew that this had to do much more than imagination. If we both had a mark on our heads that only we could see, we had to be connected somehow. I needed to know more about this man, so I decided to engage in some, what do they call it, small talk.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Cel!” Woah, that was fast, and why did he have to yell it out.
“Uh, okay, my name is Sol,” well, Sol is my new name, I’m trying to assume a new identity because I allegedly “killed my parents at 3 years old”, I still don’t get how people bought that. I guess I did, but people actually believing the story surprised me.
“Hey, Sol! What’s your…..” After that, Cel kept bombarding me with new questions. It was like his words were on a machine gun. I’m surprised he didn’t take a career in rapping with how fast he was talking.
It only took this one interaction for me to think, yeah I do NOT like this man.
‘Me too’, I heard Inter come into my head, saying something finally agreeable for once.
I decided to just head to class so I could avoid Cel, I’ll try to find more about him through some other sources, like a parent teacher conference.
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However, when I checked in at the front desk, I felt a tug, and then a BOOM. One second and I was at a completely different area of the school. I checked the number, 259, which was the number for my homeroom class. I looked around, and saw none other than Cel.
I was completely dumbfounded, “How- what, why,” I stammered and stuttered with my words, feeling the after-effects of going Mach 20.
“Well, the magic I can use is speed magic, so I decided to get both of us to class!” Cel looked really proud of himself for having his face covered in dust and debris.
“Cel, do you always cover yourself in debris when you run 20 times the speed of sound,” I started recovering from the one millisecond 100 meter dash I just experienced.
Cel suddenly looked surprised, “Ah, crap! I forgot to put the shield up that covers the debris that hit my face, wait one second!” Cel zoomed out, then zoomed back in 1 second, with a fully washed face and hair, along with another pair of the same exact t-shirt and sweatpants. This man…
I decided to just head into the class despite Cel’s pestering. Despite the extravagant lobby, the classroom was pretty normal, all things considered. There seemed to be enough desks for around 20 people. On the chalkboard, there was a drawing of the seating chart. I was lucky enough to get the left window seat in the back corner, the classic seat for main characters. I don’t know if your world has magic, but if you watch a school show that doesn’t have the main character sitting in that seat, I don’t know what you are doing with your life.
Of course, considering my luck, Cel ended up sitting to the right of me. I watched slowly as kids started to pour into the classroom. There were a few people of note to me. The man who sat in front of me was awfully gloomy, with heavy eye bags under his eyes. He wore a black shirt and dark blue jeans. Whenever someone strong is around I have this sort of sixth sense, that’s what I ended up feeling when this man walked into the room.
The one who sat diagonal to me was a girl with a Native American tan. She had brown braided hair and gray, stormy eyes. She wore a gray short-sleeved shirt and tan pants. The biggest thing to note about her is that she also had a mark on her head, the mark glowing a bright yellow. However the most interesting person was the one that was sitting next to Cel. He had pure white hair, which never was a good sign (I watch too much anime), and he had these blue eyes that just stared into your soul. Everything he did was robotic, even when he took his seat and put his backpack down. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen him somewhere before…
After everyone had taken their seat, the teacher appeared, five minutes after class started. I hoped this wouldn’t become a regular thing, because I feel watching five minutes of an episode on my phone right as the teacher came in wouldn’t do good for my participation grade.
The teacher had a stern look to her, like she was madly disappointed in all of us, even though she just met us for the first time. She had black braided hair that stretched all the way down to her waist. She wore a black suit jacket that was buttoned over a white flannel, and wore black suit pants.
“Hello everyone, my name is Ms.Green, and I will be your homeroom teacher, I will now pass out the syllabus.” She said her words with a strong voice, like everything she said was an order.
While she was passing out the syllabus, I wanted to take note of everyone in the classroom. To understand people, you needed to see how they acted in a situation. This would help my bargaining with Inter, so hopefully he didn’t try and destroy the whole school.
When she came to me, I noticed she acted differently, like I was some scientific experiment.
Ms.Green headed back to the front of the classroom. “Now is a good time for everyone to introduce yourself.”
One by one, from front to back each student said their name and hobbies. There was the kid in front of me, his name was Imo, and he was interested in playing the violin. I’m sure the violin probably had something to do with the magic he used. The girl that sat next to Imo was named Clara, and when she started talking I had the sudden urge to smile, it was something I couldn’t resist.
The white haired kid was named Sanguis, which made me chuckle. The entire class laughed, but I’m sure I laughed for a different reason. Sanguis in Latin means “Pain”, whoever this kids mother is must be very cruel. Cel came up and introduced himself with the same annoying enthusiasm, and then it was my turn.
I walked to the class, “Hi, my name is Sol, and I use energy magic.” I showcased my energy to them. Sanguis looked bewildered, like he had seen a ghost.
“I like architecture (I decided not to mention the fact I’m also obsessed with anime), and I hope we can all have a good year together.” With that I took my seat, a completely normal introduction, with my interest and magic type. However, Ms.Green kept eyeing me, like she was confirming something in her head.
Ms.Green stepped back up to the front desk. “Now that everyone has introduced themselves, we will spend the rest of class going over the syllabus.”
After the bell rang, I sat for lunch, and ordered some Papa Johns for pick-up. Cel saw me and sat next me, I knew there was no way to get rid of him, so I decided I would use this time to get more information from him.
“Hey Cel, where do you come from?” If I could find any information about Cel and why he had that mark on his head that nobody else seemed to know, it could help with dealing with Inter.
Cel’s eyes lit up. I’m not sure if it was because he was that excited about where he was from, or because I was engaging in conversation with him.
“Well, I’m quite normal, from Manhattan.” Cel talked so normally, I was wondering whether it was really him. “What about you, Sol.”
Crap. I didn’t think that far. “Uhhhhh, over in Newark.” I landed on saying the truth as I didn’t think it would affect my identity.
Just then, I felt a vibration in my phone. I took it out of my pocket, and it said my Papa John's order is ready for pickup.
“Ahh, gotta get my Papa John’s order, I’ll be back in 10 minutes.” Just then, as I got back up from my seat, I saw a pizza box in front of me, with Cel sitting in front of it with a huge grin. How many times did this man make a task 20 times easier for me? If he had a decent personality, we would probably be best of friends.
I sighed, “Thanks, I guess.” While me and Cel ate the pie, I would hear Inter’s voice pop into my head every once in a while.
‘MMMmmmmmmmmm, that’s the good stuff’, no bothering you today. Got it. With that, Inter left my head.
I felt inclined to automatically say thank you, but I stopped myself before I could say it. I remembered that’s how orphanage number four went down. Orphanage number two was the worst, because some kid said he liked Dominoes over Papa John’s.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. When I headed to my dorm, all I hoped for was a good roommate. I saw some good characters in my class. Maybe I can get paired with Sanguis, who I had actually befriended. Turns out behind that robotic voice was a really chill guy.
As I opened the door I couldn’t even analyze the room because my eyes focused on one face, Cel. I closed and opened the door, hoping he would disappear and that I was just hallucinating, but no, I wasn’t that crazy.
Cel beamed when he saw me enter the room. He rapidly fired words at me that I had to dodge like bullets. The room! Yes, focus on the room! There seemed to be 2 beds, one on the left and right side of the room, with desks in front of each of them. Cel already seemed to take the right desk and bed, so I set up on the left.
I was so tired from this train wreck of a day, I crashed on my bed and drifted to sleep.