A Missing Ring

Those Who Hide

There they were... back at the Swarthy Sea to gather all of their school supplies for 2nd year. "So, should we get our books first?"Andrea asked while they walked into the main area. Many kids were with their mother and father, Andrea and Asher only had each other. When Andrea looked to her side she saw Asher looking at one particular area. It was an alleyway, next to the hangout and wand shop.

"Ash... Are you alright?" Andrea asked, grabbing his hand, interlocking her fingers into his to get his awareness. Asher quickly looked away from his thoughts, he seemed unsettled, Andrea looked up to him with a tender gaze in her eyes. "I-I'm fine Andy, w-why do you ask?"Asher said, just from the stuttering it was a clear giveaway that he truly wasn't well.

Andrea turned Asher to make him look at her, his eyes were becoming glossy and he seemed to be on the verge of crying. "Ash... I can see right through you, tell me what is going on. Please?" Andrea voiced, and Asher could tell he won't be getting out of this conversation until he told the truth.

"F-fine," Asher forced out and pointed to the same section of Swarthy Sea,"t- that was the spot where I had the argument with my p-parents, the last conversation I had with them before... Well-".

Andrea didn't allow Asher to complete his sentence once she felt a tear on her shoulder. Andrea turned around and hugged him tightly, trying her best to hide his face from the public around them, even though he was slightly taller than Andrea, she tried the best she could. "I already know, and I promised you that it will get better. We are going to our 2nd year of Black Academia, just try not to think about it. It's exactly what I told you at the start of summer" Andrea said, only holding him harder.

Asher dug his head into her shoulder, slight tears were falling from his socket, "I-I k-know, let's go get our books first, we may even see Ryker and the rest". They had gotten lost because of the new renovations to their shopping area. They had made it into a modern theme just like the school itself. The buildings were given more room to expand their business with all the exteriors either being black or a dark gray.

"I really like what they did with the place, they did say many changes were going to appear this year, especially with the transportation" Andrea talked with thousands of people walking and shoving between them. Andrea could barely hear herself talking with all the strangers and new years trying to find their way around the Swarthy Sea. Asher looked down and just smiled, " there you go again with being an architect" he joked. Andrea slapped Asher on the arm, "don't start with that, also you don't need to look down, we are only a half inch difference, we both grew ". Asher just laughed and it soon became contagious, making Andrea giggle as well.

"Come on! We have to get our books for school, maybe we will see the Maron's over there" Andrea said, tugging him by the arm to the bookshop.

Once again they saw the view of all the books for all of the different years, advancement levels, and those books they could just read for fun. Just like everything else the interior was an overfill gray and black. Dark gray bookshelves, with all of the shelves stuffed to the fullest with any book they could imagine, all of them with a variety of shapes, sizes, and all the topics neatly organized to their own side of the shelf.

"Look at what they have done with the place, they really stuck to the modern theme" Asher said looking at all the dividers and walls. Andrea agreed and looked down at their checklist and told Asher all the books they had to gather.

"Here it says we have a class specifically for famous wizards and witches. So let's get that book first" Asher said, pointing to the section where they would be able to find it.

Andrea and Asher went to aisle number 6 where all the history books were located in the shop. In their 2nd year they do take slightly more classes and end the day later on. "What is the book called again?" Andrea asked, who was up the stairs looking at the higher brackets, looking down at Asher. "The book is called, Once A Wizard Legend" Asher commented and Andrea nodded her head and continued looking.