Untamed Spirits

Eight

Noreh's experience at Foxfire was interesting.

She and Keefe leaped there early that morning so that he could rig Fitz's locker to shoot green goo at him when it opened and say you've been pranked by the Keefester! Noreh decided to silently prank Keefe's locker as well so that when it opened a glitter bomb went off—a gift from Calista.

Hopefully Keefe didn't notice until it was too late. Then he showed her to some of her classes while pranking random lockers on the way. But there were too many halls for Noreh to remember where to go.

Then they headed to the Orientation. Keefe found Fitz and Biana like he had a tracker on them. Honestly, Noreh wouldn't be surprised if he did. He was full of surprises. Biana didn't seem all that happy by her presence, but Dame Alina started speaking before they could start talking.

Noreh scanned the crowd for Sophie during the speech, but had no luck. She did, however, see Calista, who was busy trying to dodge a group of talkative girls. She was clearly annoyed and upset by their presence, but they either didn't seem to notice or didn't care.

"And lastly, where are they. . ." Dame Alina said, searching the crowd of prodigies. "Ah, there they are! Please welcome Sophie and Noreh Foster!"

Bright lights shone in Noreh's face and she pushed Keefe in front of her. He laughed as she tried to hide. Another spotlight shone all the way across the room where Sophie was trying to hide behind Dex.

"Sssssophie," the crowd murmured. "Nooooreh."

"Is that a proper welcome?" Dame Alina asked, her voice full of authority.

Slowly the room started to clap. Noreh glared at the floor until they were dismissed and allowed to leave to attend classes. Fitz wished her good luck and Keefe offered for her to skip with him, but she denied. She at least wanted to see what her classes were first before she started skipping.

Her first class was Elven History, which wasn't the worst, since it kind of felt like Lady Astra was talking about a fairytale—a very in-depth fairytale. It still wasn't the best, though. She was pretty sure at one point she fell asleep, because one minute Lady Astra was talking about treaties, the next she was talking about some elf named Fintan and pyrokinesis.

By the time lunch came, Noreh was so confused by so much logical stuff that elves had somehow cheated the system with, she was beginning to wonder if she might be in a coma and her brain was giving her some really weird dreams.

She grabbed a tray and got in line for food, but it was all colorful soups and vegetables she hadn't seen before. She decided to go with some things that looked like celery, hoping it didn't taste like celery, and some blue and orange soup-thing.

Out of the corner of her eye, Noreh spotted Dex heading in the direction Keefe had just disappeared to—detention. She was about to go talk to Sophie when an energetic boy with messy brown hair and freckles walked up to her. Sophie nodded, looked around, and followed him.

So much for sitting with her, Noreh thought.

She couldn't just walk up and join them, could she? No. That would be weird. She saw Fitz at table with Biana, but her expression was pretty clear she didn't want Noreh to sit with them. Noreh thought about doing it just to annoy her, but she spotted Calista sitting at a corner table by herself and decided to try her.

"Hey," she said, setting her tray down. "Can I sit with you?"

Calista's gloom turned into pure happiness. "Yes!" A few people glanced at them. Calista lowered her voice. "Sorry. Sure."

Noreh smiled and took a bite of her celery stick, which tasted like a piece of juicy steak. The orange soup tasted like the chicken noodle soup her mom would make whenever she was sick, and the blue one tasted like buttered noodles. There were no words to describe how the butter blasts were.

"So," Calista said, taking a bite of what looked like a carrot. "How was your first day?"

Noreh shrugged. "It was okay. None of this stuff makes sense, though. Like bottling lightning and stuff."

"Cool, right?" Calista said. "Do you want to come over to my house after? I don't have to work at the store today."

"I'll have to check with the Sencens—"

"You're living with the Sencens?!" Calista's voice went from normal to squeaky high-pitched in half a second. "As in Keefe Sencen?"

Noreh sighed and hit her head against the table when a bunch of heads turned their way.

"Sorry," Calista whispered, her voice back to normal but filled with giddiness. "But Keefe Sencen? Seriously, girl! What lottery did you win?"

Noreh rolled her eyes. "It's not a big deal. I mean, he's fun to hang out with—"

Calista choked on her juice. "Not a big deal?! Of course it is! He's Keefe Sencen!"

Noreh wondered what Keefe had done to become so popular. Calista was talking like he was some kind of prince. She started staring off in the direction of detention, her gaze dreamy and distant.

The bell rang and Noreh got up from the table, nudging Calista, who was still in her trance. They headed to their classes, Noreh having all her energy drained and Calista more hyped than before.

She didn't know what her next class was, but unless it was P. E, Noreh didn't think Calista would survive a whole hour with that much energy.