Chapter 8

“Oh look! Doesn’t that kid look weird?”

“Yeah! I don’t think she should be here at all! She doesn’t fit in.”

“You know, I heard that her mother sent her here just to get rid of her. What do you think?”

“Yeah! I heard that too. Such a pity, even her own mother doesn’t love her. She must have done something very wrong. Lets not stay too close to her. It might be contagious.”

“I agree. Ill warn everyone to not try and go near her.”

With a rustle of their skirts, the two gossiping girls walked away, not noticing that Amber was standing behind a pillar.
Amber clutched at the pillar with the words ‘strength’ inscribed on it in despair. Her worst nightmare was coming true. She was an outcast, and it was only her first day in school! With a heavy heart, she walked to a dark corner and sat down. Tears started streaming down her face. Then, through tear filled eyes, she saw Darren, Sapphire and Azure walk of, arm-in-arm, talking about her behind her back. Suddenly, a group of students surrounded her, pointing and laughing cruelly. Darren, Sapphire and Azure’s face stood out from the crowd. Her own mother stood mockingly in the front row in full view, laughing louder than anyone else. Azure walked up to her and started shaking her, calling her name.
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Suddenly, Amber opened her eyes to see a pale, anxious face leaning over her in the semi-darkness of her room. The sound of the thunderstorm crashing outside could be heard clearly. The howling of the wind sounded in perfect symphony with the song of the thunderstorm, cresting a rock genre song of nature.

Azure leaned away from her. “Wake up already. Its morning, and we are going to be late. Why don’t you go freshen up while I make up your bed?”

Amber grunted, which Azure took as approval and ushered her to the bathroom. “Don’t take too long, Darren’s waiting for us to go for breakfast.” Azure shut the door after her and went back into the room.

‘Breakfast? That’s right! I’m in Lotaholes Academy and today is the first day! Oh my gosh! I’m late! Darren and Azure are going to be fuming!’

Jolted out of her half-awake state, Amber washed and dressed in frenzy, all the while keeping an anxious eye on the hands of the clock.

“I’m here!” Amber exclaimed as she burst through the door leading through the common room.

“Just in time,” said Darren with a smile. The second hand of the grandfather clock in the common room ticked to 12, showing the time as 720. Next to Darren stood Azure and a pale, dark haired, short boy with puppy eyes. “This is Dave, he’s my roommate,and he just LOVES my War Zone figurines!” Darren informed Amber and Azure.

They exchanged the customary greetings and went down for breakfast together. When they reached the dining hall, they stopped in shock.

“These are all the students there are in the academy?” asked a surprised Azure.

The hall was divided into 2 parts, the first years and the seniors. The two parts were then divided into 4 smaller parts, one for each Ring. The first year section was full of students, and the number exceeded even the number of students over at the seniors section.

“Well, if we don’t hurry, we won’t get a place anymore. Let’s go!”

Realizing the truth of Darren’s words, the other three hurried to the remaining spaces at the first year Merlin table. Just then, breakfast appeared on the table accompanied by the soft pealing of bells. Breakfast consisted of toast, hot chocolate, milk, cereal and various kinds of pudding.

Suddenly, Azure started waving to someone at another table. “Sapphire! We’re over here!”

Sapphire was seated next to a girl with blonde hair, pink polished long nails, blue eyes and an air of aristocracy around her. The girl whispered something to Sapphire, and Sapphire gave a wave back, then turned her back and continued eating.

“Jeez, she’s unfriendly. I don’t recall her being like this yesterday. What happened to change her attitude so drastically?” asked Azure.

“Well, we’ll know soon enough. Its lesson time! Let’s follow the rest of them to the study hall.” announced Amber.

They got up and followed the crowd to the study hall. Halfway along the route, the seniors broke away from the crowd and went into the smaller hall. The rest of them then trooped up the 7 flights of stairs and filed into the bigger Study Hall. They each took their seats in the classroom and looked around them with interest. The classroom was filled with the nervous chatter of students on the first day of class.

Suddenly, a thick veil of smoke enveloped them. When the smoke cleared, they saw the strangest sight. A lady dressed in a long black robe stared piercingly at them with her green eyes. The class immediately fell silent, correctly assuming that this was their teacher. The teacher scrutinized them for a while longer them began to speak in a melodious voice.

“Welcome, class. I am thy class teacher, Lady Dorothy Andreas. As thou should know by now, thou art students in this revered academy of magic. Today, I will be assisting thou in the art of creating a mascot. Pray tell me, doth thou know what the mascots of thy Ring be?”

A chorus of yeses filled the room. Then, Lady Dorothy continued talking.

“Good. Thou hath not disappointed me. Now, concentrate, calm thy feelings and clear your mind of random thoughts. Then, imagine the
Image of the mascot down to every detail, and move thy hands in a gesture as if trying to pluck thy mascot out of thin air.”

The classroom became quiet as everyone tried their best to create their mascot. The silence was only punctuated by groans and cries of frustration as their classmate’s hand hit them. Soon, beads of sweat appeared on the student’s forehead as they concentrated hard.

All of a sudden, Amber’s shriek of delight filled the air.

“Yeah! I created a Shieldbubble! Aww… its so cute…”

A light yellow coloured Shieldbubble had appeared shoulder level with Amber and was focusing its eyes on Amber, as if trying to identify her. Then, it gave a delighted yelp and jumped into Amber’s outstretched arms. Green looks of envy was thrown Amber’s way as the other students saw the Shieldbubble.

“Excellent! Ms. Glassfire, thou hath succeeded in thy attempt. Thy classmates should learn from thou. Prithee tell us thy Shieldbubble’s name,” Lady Dorothy said.

“Starfire,” Amber said simply.

“Well, how come none of us could do it? I’m like, the most popular girl in school and I don’t get it? Why can a major loser do it? You don’t even have the bling, this must be some kind of deception!” the girl whom they had seen with Sapphire earlier burst out.

“Erm… pardon me, but who are you?” Amber asked.

“I’m Stella Natalie Opal Bartex. Duh! Anyone knows that right, Nick?” she said with a flip of her hair.

“Yeah,” agreed the boy, presumably Nick, who stood by her side said.

“Now, prithee tell me, what appears to be the problem?” enquired Lady Dorothy.

“Nothing, Lady Dorothy,” said Stella with a sweet smile.

“Then, pray continue creating thy mascots.”

With a last contemptuous glance, Stella strode back to her table.

At the end of the lesson, every student was accompanied by either a Shieldbubble, Harlin, Pile-O-Bones, or Darcmyste. Darren had created a red Shieldbubble, while Azure’s Shieldbubble was purple in colour.

“Class, thy books will be in thy rooms. Pray keep to the timetable and attend every class as thy magical education art very important to thy quest. I extend my sincere thanks to thy for thy attention. Class dismiss, thy may go for lunch now.” Lady Dorothy announced.

“Thank goodness that class is over! I almost died of boredom there!” a voice exclaimed as they were walking out of class.

Amber, Azure, Darren and a flustered Sapphire looked at the owner of the voice.

“Well, aren’t you going to join me anymore, Sapphire? Don’t tell me you’d rather hang out with those losers?” Stella said.

“Yeah! Thella ith wight ath alwayth, although Dawwen’th okay,” said Dave, who was trailing behind Stella together with Nick.

The four of them stared at Dave. This was the first time they had heard him speak and they hadn’t even known he had a lisp.

“What?” asked Dave defensively.

They only shook their heads mutely and continued to lunch. With a whispered ‘I’ll see you later’ and an apologetic glance, Sapphire traded places with Dave to go for lunch.