Their Betrayals: A Change of Heart (aka SkullWitch Academy)

Annoyances

The first week of school went by pretty slowly. My students went here in the mornings, and every minute of it felt like an eternity. I just wish I was a morning person. I don't like getting up early at all, but as long as taking attendance gets me a good paycheck, I couldn't care less.

Out of all the students in my class, there were a few who stood out to me. The first one was one of the more experienced students. I think her name was Hail, or Hale? I don't remember. Anyways, her Talent is the ability to control all states of precipitation. Ice, rain, hail, snow, etcetera. She's the oldest kid in the class I believe- seventeen years old maybe? She looks like it.

The next student that caught my eye was Grayson. His name is easy to remember. He's pretty self-depreciative for about ninety percent of the time. The other ten percent would be him talking about fate and how life is predetermined. That leads me into what his Talent is. He calls it Futuristic Eye. Basically, he can see the future of someone if he touches them.

And that last kid who piqued my interest would be Fannar. He's Hale or Hail's younger brother. Nevertheless, his Talent is Fright-Sight. He can look at someone and make them freeze in place until he blinks. I believe that he's probably the most experienced with his Talent.

Anyways, the other students in my class don't matter as much to me. With them learning magic, they'll probably only be useful for small jobs such as being maids or doctors. Ones such as Hail and Fannar would probably be good Mages. Right, another thing I forgot to mention. Mages in this world are people who help out citizens in need. For example, if a store was being robbed, Mages would catch the robbers. Or if someone was being attacked, they'd help too. Police are only here to arrest criminals and search places if they think someone's growing weed in their backyard. Mages are basically the superheroes of our world. And with the use of magic decreasing every year because of technological advances, criminal rates are going up. And the few kids who get lucky with their Talents and decide to become a Mage, it's up to them to help out citizens. Sure, we have the technology to protect important places and people, but there's always a way around it. It annoys me how people seem to not notice the problem that technology isn't the answer for everything. Most people have magic, so why don't we use it? I don't know, but I really don't care either. I'll die, and then it'll be the next generations' problem.

The dismissal bell rang and I watched as my classroom emptied. Only one student remained in my room, though. I think his name was Kyle? Cole? Yeah, I think that's what his name was. He had on a long green puffy jacket. He was busy reading a book, so he probably didn't realize the bell rang. I walked over to his desk and asked him what was up.

"Hey, the bell rang," I said, "You're gonna be late for your next class."

The kid didn't look up from his book, "Oh, I know that. I don't have a first period anymore since my schedule changed recently. I was going to ask you if I could stay here until it's time for the second period, but I got distracted."

"Sure, you can stay, but I normally spend this time sleeping and waiting for kids who get sent to detention."

"Okay, thank you, Teacher." He replied.

And I guess that's another thing I forgot to mention. Not only am I a homeroom teacher, I'm also the teacher that's in charge of the kids that get sent to detention after school. It takes place here too.

As time went on, Cole eventually left the classroom to go to his second period. I was hoping that I would get some peaceful rest now, but it wasn't as long as I expected. After the fifth period bell rang, the door opened to reveal another student. Fannar. He looked tired, but then I remembered that he always looks tired. I could see it in his eyes. The hood of his long, blue, hoodie was up. He looked as if he was going to fall asleep any moment as he walked into the room and over to me.

With a soft voice he asked, "Can I sleep here?"

"You don't have any other classes or homework?"

He shook his head, "Alright. I'll be doing the same."

Fannar nodded as he laid on the floor next to the door and fell asleep instantly. Sooner or later, I drifted off too. It was nice how someone else understood the importance of sleeping. Time flew by and detention came along. Fannar stayed put as only one student entered the room. He looked like a pain. The first thing he did when entering the room was greet me.

"Hello Mister!" He glanced around the room, "Would you look at that! You have me all to yourself!"

"Look next to you." I said.

"No one's next to me."

"On the floor."

He saw Fannar and bent down to his level, "Isn't the ground uncomfortable?"

"No." Fannar said quietly and went back to sleep.

"Well, what's a fella like you doing in detention? You don't look like a trouble-maker."

"He's trying to sleep," I said, "What's your name?"

The kid turns to me, "The name is Klaus! And you're the detention teacher, correct? What's your name?"

"I'm Sorce. You can call me whatever you want."

"Okay, then well then Mr. Detention, what will I be doing during these afterhours of school?"

"You'll just sit in silence."

"Why not? I can't even complete my homework? And what about talking to The living sleeping bag down there?" He points to Fannar.

"It's your consequence for behaving badly. If you don't like it, then don't misbehave and get yourself into detention again."

Klaus sighed and looked out the window in boredom. The second he walked into the room, I knew exactly what kind of person he was. The way he ran his hand through his hair, and his cheeky grin- I just knew he'd be a hassle.

I heard a faint banging from outside my classroom and decided to go and check it out. I told Klaus to be quiet while I was gone, and I grabbed a potion from my desk. I threw it at him and his lips were sealed shut. It would last for about ten minutes and I hoped that was enough time.

I walked out of the classroom and followed the source of the sound. My footsteps echoed through the halls as I walked along. I ended up in a hallway with rows and lockers on either side. I thought that I might've gotten the location wrong, but then I heard a meek say something.

"Isn't this unfortunate."

I whipped my head around towards the sound and faced more blue lockers. And then I figured it out. The person was inside a locker. I said that I was there, but I couldn't pinpoint which exact locker they were in. So they banged on their locker and I ran my hands along the lockers. Eventually, I felt one move a bit. Then I heard the person's voice again.

"This is the one!"

I tried opening it, but it was locked. So after I tried the obvious, I sighed. I didn't want to waste my energy, but I decided that it was for a good cause. With the snap of my fingers, I teleported inside the locker and grabbed the person's arm. Then I teleported out of the locker with the person.

Once out, I realized that the person who was in the locker was one of my homeroom students. I immediately recognized his bed-head gray hair. He was a tall kid, and a bit scrawny too. I asked him the usual questions. 'Are you alright?', 'How did you get inside there?', things like that. He just ranted about how deserving he was of being locked in there. He said that it was all fate's doing, so he didn't care what happened to him. Turns out, he's getting bullied and some jerk thought that it would be funny if they left him there overnight. They were even betting to see if he'd be rescued or not. I sighed, and told Grayson returned to his dorm. He waved goodbye and went on his way. I knew that I'd have to worry about the bullying problem eventually, so I'd probably do that tomorrow to get it out of the way. For both our sakes.

I walked through the halls thinking that this year was going to be long and tiring. I immediately stopped thinking about it because it was giving me a headache. I just wanted to get this year over with already.