Opposites: The Staff of Light [Book One]

11. I Get a New Left Partner

Annabeth

“And here comes my star player,” Mistress Demetria marveled. Though I had to be late that day, it only appeared to me that the mistress had been awaiting me. And that was clearly one of the odds. No one waited for me like that before. Well, at least, not that I observed… “Please do take your seat now, child.”

I nod once and I head down the last aisle to the last seat. I glanced at my left and I suddenly thought of something considering offense. Why is everyone in my left always absent? Last night, I didn’t know who slept to the bed next to mine. Then now, don’t even know who the heck my partner was for sorcery class. I guess I would be forever alone.

On each of our tables in front of every seat was a pencil case. It wasn’t that kind of rectangular thing I saw others had, but it was a cylindrical wooden container with a pencil and a wand. Even the seat next to me had one. Then it struck me, maybe there was somebody beside me. Maybe she was invisible.

I looked around if anyone would notice. So much for that, no one did. I placed my hand on the seat. And yet, no matter how I tried, no one was really there. I sighed in failure and slightly slouched back on my seat. “Now, class,” Mistress Demetria said. “I am Mistress Demetria. I am just one of those teachers in this very camp to prepare you for the outside world. As you can observe…”

The door flew open. Our eyes laid attention on a boy, about my age, with this messy black hair and warm brown eyes. He had a backpack slung on his back and this pair of nerdy kind of glasses on his face. I wasn’t quite surprised. He was the guy I bumped heads with earlier. “How many times must I receive late-comers?” Mistress Demetria said. “Take your seat.”

“Ma’am, I am in fact terribly sorry…” he reasoned. “I-I left this book back at the cabin and…”

“Take your seat.”

He bowed his head down in embarrassment as the other girls and boys at the class giggled. “Yes, I will, ma’am.”

The boy made his way beside me. I prayed that he wouldn’t sit there, since I was expecting a girl for a seatmate, but he didn’t have another seat to take. “Hey,” he whispered as he placed his bag down under the table. “You’re the girl I bumped heads with earlier.”

A voice came around on the door. “Mistress Demetria?” the voice called. “We need you for a meeting down at the lobby.”

The head mistress fixed her table and made her way to the door. She opened it, turned back to us and said, “While I am gone, please make yourselves useful. Introduce yourself to the others, whatever that makes you happy. Be good children, now.” and left.

The room fell into average noise, but not as noisy as a crowd. Maybe as loud as buzzing bees, but I’ve never seen a bee personally in my life. Honestly, I haven’t seen one yet. My new seatmate turned to me. “I apologize for being a disturbance. I should have looked where I was going and…”

“No,” I hesitated. “No, no… it’s okay. I mean, if I wasn’t in the way, then we both couldn’t be late. It’s cool.”

I glanced down at the table and drummed my fingers on the surface. “So,” he uttered, offering me hand. “I’m Colton O’Bryan. And you’re name is…?”

“Annabeth,” I shook his hand. “I’m Annabeth Candum.”

“Oh, so you’re like Annabeth Chase’s namesake, eh?”

My heart fluttered. Finally, I found someone who understands! “Wait, what? You read those books?”

He grinned. “I only made it to the Lightning Thief. But I do love movies, especially that come from books. They’re not really that accurate, but… I enjoy them. It’s not that I try to overpower bookworms or anything… no offense to you… but I just really love movies. I like the way their projected on screen. I mean, if I wasn’t just so afraid of my own powers, I could have been at the theatres every single time they release on the first premiere!”

For one moment, I thought I found a book lover like me, but I’m afraid I was horribly wrong. And he only made it to the Lightning Thief. Oh, joy, but the Lightning Thief states almost everything in Camp Half-Blood. I shouldn’t really worry. “It’s fine,” I answered. “And what do you mean about ‘so afraid of my own powers’? What power do you actually possess?”

He bit his lip, looking down reluctantly at the surface of the table. A small tornado, about three inches tall, swirled beside his hand. I watched at it in amusement as it ate dust from the ground and the table. The little catastrophe seemed to jump down and exploded in the middle of the aisle without anyone in the class noticing. “That was awesome,” I mused. “You’re a wind elemental. That is so amazing. How do you do that?”

“It’s a gift,” he said. “But it’s not something I’d like to live with. So, what’s your talent?”

My heart started beating. For some reason, I felt ashamed. Colton was a guy promising enough to be trusted. I sighed. “I think that won’t be an appropriate demonstration,” I reasoned.  “But… well, here goes nothing.” I carelessly made a fireball levitate on top of my hand. It grew bigger in this slow motion, when suddenly Colton blew into it. I panicked. “Dude, don’t try to make it bigger!”

‘I’m sorry,” he stifled back a laugh. I killed the flame in his palms. “I can’t help it. I like fire. I like bringing life into it. I even started a forest fire from a piece of burnt firewood. It was definitely not a good flashback, not at all. So, what? We’re both freaks. I don’t care.”

I looked down at my shoes. Life wasn’t really the best thing in life I ever received. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t care about living. Sometimes, I felt like I was just a mistake. Sometimes, I thought that I really wasn’t supposed to exist. I had a rotten life, what would you expect? No one really accepted me. No one cared. I don’t at all feel love.

“Hey,” Colton nudged me gently. “Don’t take the ‘We’re both freaks’ line too seriously. I’m not really calling you a freak.”

“No,” I replied. “It’s not that what I was thinking of.”

“Then, what were you thinking of? Hey, I’m just being curious here.”

“It’s better off that you wouldn’t know. I assure you, it’s nothing personal, honestly.” I fidgeted with my hair. “It’s just another life problem I got to deal with, besides making friends, having these insane fears, getting trapped in my room intently for months I could remember…”

The door opened and Mistress Demetria entered in the room, with her staff in her hands. “Alright, class,” she began. “I’m sorry for the interruption. A new schedule regarding to the training we shall have has come up. I shall establish that soon enough. Now, let us all go back to the lesson. I suppose no one would be late now.”

She eyed me and Colton as the both of us gave up innocent grins. “Hopefully,” she concluded. “Get a partner and we’ll start with the lesson.”

Colton and I exchanged looks. “Can you be…?” the both of us asked in unison. “It’s settled then!”