I woke up, completely unaware of my surroundings. Gasping for air, I run out of the clutches of my nightmare into the real world.
Standing at my feet was Margo, watching me from the doorway. “You good?” she asks. I turn over, drenched in a cold sweat. “Yeah,” I responded quickly. “Do we have classes today?” Margo smiles, and laughs, but it's humorless. “Oh, no,” she says, taking a deep breath. “Not for another few days, when quarter 2 starts.” I bite the inside of my lip, questions threatening to spill out my mouth. “Do you know what classes I should take?” I ask, as I had no idea what classes were even offered. She smiles, but something is off, everything about her just seems… anxious. “No, but Headmistress Rose will probably want to talk to you today about them,” she says, walking out of the room. I rise from bed, pushing away the craving for more sleep that seems to ring in the back of my mind. I wander into the small kitchen, checking the time. 9:45. Not too early. “Should we head to breakfast?” I ask. The room, with Ivy and Violet sitting in the conversation pit, and Margo about to join them, I was expecting a chorus of no’s. Instead, Ivy says, “We normally leave at 10, on Saturdays. That’s when they put the french toast out!” She raises her eyebrows in a silly manner. I smile, and the slightly tense air dissipates as the easy banter between us flows.
“So, I want to hear your story,” Violet says, leaning forward in her chair. I exhale, smiling deeply. “Well,” I start. “It started in New York City. I grew up in Greenwich Village. I lived near Elias, and we became friends in elementary school. I heard brief stories of magix, and learned about the houses from my father, who at the time practically ran corporate America for the first decade of my life. Elias’ mom also knew some magix. Her ex-husband, Elias’ dad, he’s the councilor for the House of Roses and Fire, and eventually, Elias and I both started showing signs of magix. We were so confused by it. When I was 11 and Elias was 12, his mother found out that he could do small spells and such. A few days after my twelfth birthday Elias left Greenwich Village to live with his father in the hopes of being able to understand and control his magix. Elias and I, we kept in touch for a little while, but you all know how the houses are about external communication." I see Ivy staring at me with wide eyes, and Margo drinking her tea rather aggressively. But Violet, Violet looks intrigued. “And?” she questions.
“And, I lived in the city for the next 4 years without issues. I went to The Avenues of the World School, hung out on the high line, made non-magix friends, and then, about 6 weeks ago, I got a call from some guy.” I shrug. “He said he worked with my dad, and there was an accident. Apparently my dad’s stress levels had been so high he had a heart attack. He was in the ICU for a couple weeks. During those weeks, I had to do something to make ends meet. His work gave me some money, but it… it just wasn't enough. So I did some stuff, stuff that got the police called, who then called my mom. Who then proceeded to rip me out of my life and stick me to the houses, right after my dad got better. Then, I went to her old high school, studied magix for a little while. I made new friends, only for one more mistake to send me in front of the court, who sent me here,” I say, catching my breath after all of that talking. Ivy just sits back, Margo sets down her cup with a thump, and Violet is struck speechless. “Woah,” a voice says from the edge of the spiral staircase. All of our heads turn in unison to the voice. “That's not quite how I would have described it,” Elias says, climbing the last of the stairs and revealing himself as the voice. “It's not?” I ask, slightly confused by his meaning, but still happy to see him nonetheless. “No,” he says, taking a step toward the conversation pit. “Not at all.” Another step. “It's a happy story, Eliza, not a depressing tale,” he exaggerates. “And anyway, you guys are going to miss breakfast. Did you not get the memo? Headmistress Rose scheduled an early breakfast,” he says while turning sharply on his heels. Margo looks purely shocked, violet is already up and has rushed over to the whiteboard wall, tapping it furiously. And Ivy ran into her room to change. While I'm standing there dazed. I turn my eyes to Elias. “Why are they rushing?” I ask. “When Rosey pushes breakfast early, she always has something good planned.” I look at him confused. “Rosey?” I clarify. “Headmistress Rose, everyone calls her Rosey, just not to her face.” He finishes his sentence with that goofy grin of his. I really missed my best friend. "Are you ready?” Margo says as she appears behind me, nodding to my baggy jeans and yale sweater with a white collared shirt underneath. “Yeah,” I shrug. “Is this a formal event?” I ask, realizing both Margo and Elias are dressed very nicely. Margo is in a pantsuit, and Elias is in a white button-down and suit jacket. “No, but formal is kinda how we roll here,'' Ivy says from behind Margo, wearing a jumpsuit. “Well, I only own baggy clothes, so until I get some new ones, I guess this is as fancy as I get.” Elias smiles and Margo comically rolls her eyes as we head down the staircase.
We walk through the Victorian halls for a few minutes before entering the coolest dining hall ever. There are glass walls on all sides, but I don't even remember seeing it last night on the balcony. Ivy whispers in my ear, “We call it the Skybox. It's invisible to outside eyes, but it is here." I glance around the room, taking in the view, and the people. There are a lot of your classic type-a girls, with crop tops and pleated skirts, and a group of boys all in button downs and jackets. There are, however, a few girls in day dresses and some guys in t-shirts and sweats. I see a few girls dressed like me: cute but comfortable.
The massive room is filled with kids ranging from 5 to 18, and well over 500 of them. The kids all seem to know each other well. Everyone is talking to everyone and it just seems so… so nice. One might say even too nice. We walk into the skybox, and conversion continues like normal. I get a few side eyes from people, but that's to be expected. I am the court-ordered new kid, after all. We all continue through the room, walking towards the back of the room, where a big buffet table is. Scattered around, there seem to be five or six circular white tables. As people fill one table up, another pops up across the room. “Oh my god,” I mutter under my breath. Elias, who heard me, replies, “Yeah. Pretty cool, huh.” I look at the disappearing and reappearing tables. “At the houses, they told us magix was stronger in some than others, and whoever is doing this must be some kind of god,” I say as I continue to gawk at the kids doing little bits of magix, more magix than I'll ever do. “What do you mean? These tables are simple little diversion spells. Moving curses. This is stuff we learned in middle school,” Margo says from the side. “Stand tall, Eliza. Make them intimidated by you,” she chides, pushing me to the front of our little group. We make our way to the buffet table and load up our plates. Everyone here seems to eat a lot of food. I would never body shame someone, I'm not the skinniest person myself. For the most part, everyone here looks like a D1 athlete, sure, but for some reason, people are having 4-5 plates of food at a time. Elias must see the confusion on my face and takes it upon himself to answer one of my questions. “Magix takes up more energy than the houses think, so you…” I sent him a glare, but he continued on. “So people who have lived at the houses…” he says, putting his hands in the air in mock surrender. “Tend to have weaker magix, not because of genes or skill, but because of the conditions they were raised in. Because the houses focus on human stats, and still use the BMI scale, which, for people of magix, is useless,” he says. Now, I'm just more confused. “Elias over here, he did a whole year focusing on the difference between magix and non-magix physical requirements, so to speak. He found out that people of magix should eat roughly 25% more calories than non-magix people,” Grace and Margo finish their speech, with Elias speaking along to it, word for word. “Since then the school made better food, so it became worth eating,” Violet says from behind me. “And a lot of these kids are athletes, whose practice runs through lunch,” Ivy whispers in my ear, earning a laugh from me.
With the occasional stare, I grab some food and follow the group to a table, which popped up right in front of me. I let out a sharp gasp and glare at the table. Collecting myself, I sat down on the chair which almost made me wipe out. “Every so often, someone steps where a table is going to be before it appears. Sometimes they topple right over, but other times they end up standing on the table,” Grace says, sitting down next to me with a laugh. I smile tensely, still on edge from everything that has happened in the past few days.
“ Grimrose Academy!” a whimsical voice gently shouts from the head of the room. “Today, we have a surprise for you!” The woman I recognize as Headmistress Rose, or Rosey, parades into the room. “Today is the start of our Annual Enchantment Cup!” A few faces light up in the mob of people still inside the Skybox. “Tryouts begin tomorrow morning! I hope to see you all there. I expect only the best from all of you. We must beat the other schools, if not for your school, for yourself,” she explained. I begin to nibble on my french toast while some kid, who everyone referred to as Toby, talks to Elias. It's very good french toast, my roommates were not lying about that. I lean slightly over to my right where Ivy sits. “Uh, what is the Annual Enchantment Cup?” I ask tentatively. She responds with a smile as she begins to tell me all about it. She tells me all about how it's basically a magix test, to figure out who is the strongest. “It’s an annual competition between four magix schools, one of those being Grimrose. There are different sections, each for a specific type of contest. Many people at Grimrose specialize in a certain aspect of magix, such as witchcraft or potion making. If they are telekinetic they can use that to their advantage. Only members of the Kari can deal with raw magic or elemental magix, but they aren’t allowed to compete. They’d just crush everyone, and the current Kari is way too old to compete anyway, so it's more specialized now!” She kept talking until we got back to our dorm. Then she told me about the attire. “Normally it's all black. Originally this contest was how they would find the Reaper for that time period. But, with the changing of technology and the ability to test the output of energy, it became an inefficient test, so it was turned into a competition. A competition to show who wins at what. There are 4 different categories, potions, spells, sparring, and enchanting. Those four make up the Annual Enchanting Cup,” Grace said, finally pausing to take a breath. “So what am I supposed to wear?'' I ask with a laugh. Ivy interjects, “Just fancy, mostly black clothing. No dresses, but no sweaters.” I shrugged okay and sharply turned my head towards Ivy who was standing behind me right in front of our door. Only to have all of my surroundings change.
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