Arcane Academia

Chapter 1

"Ooh, I look fine," I say staring at my reflection in the car window.
Mother tsks.

"Ma, does my hair look sexy push back?" I ask my ma staring at my reflection in the car window.
Ma sighs, her posture tensed as she watches Pa and the cop outside talk.
DING.
It had just struck twelve on my brother's watch. Thanksgiving had officially ended.  Now I just wanted to go home and curl in my sheets.
My belly weighs on me.
Grandma did make good turkey.
I breath into my hand, damn it's chilly tonight.
This was supposed to be just a security check. Outside another cop joins Pa in double checking his papers.
"What's taking pa so long?" I say shivering," I swear, I take less time to do my hair and still look this good."
My brother Kael giggles.
I pinch his cheek. Ma sighs at me but I see her half smile.
She says,"Oh Rei pipe i-".
Click.
Boom!
A flash of green. A deadly thud hits the car.

I jolt my head out the car window only to find a hand clamped over my mouth and the metal of a gun on my head. Mother screams. Kael cries.
The car doors are ripped open. An icy hand grabs me by the neck.
We're dragged out of our seats and shoved hard into the gravel.
With blood now dripping from my mouth I wince and see Pa sprawled unconscious and unblinking.
Cold eyes staring into my soul.
Mother starts howling at the sight as Kael squeals. Pa....
---

"REIA!". I snap back to reality. Zandar my coach pounds the glass. Get up Rei. With a grimace I lift myself off the newbie's arena floor.
Clarice my opponent smirks.
I smirk back. And land a roundhouse kick in her jaw. The buzzer goes off.
" Reia wins , " the voice calls.

"Girl, you look like crap" says Fiore as I wipe my face in the changing room.
" We're all in the finals!" Lyra says.
"Always knew I could," I say.
"Don't inflate that ego just yet," says Zandar my coach , " we have a lot more to cover till you become a warrior."
Ray of sunshine this one.
As we leave I meet the witch herself. "You'll pay," Clarice growls as we pass.
" How's your face?"
---
It had been three years since I'd joint the Arcane Academy.
Three years since fate took my life and twisted the normalcy out of it.

We enter the dorm. By dorm, I mean teenage wasteland.
40 students. One room.
There's separate dorms for both boys and girls.
One common room...
The Academy's grounds to very elite, prestige trust funds. Intakes are very rare.
On the whole there's two Towers, Zandar and Costaz.
Zandar's my tower. The lucky one.
Costaz, on the other hand, tower to a bunch of low lifes.
Each year, the Academy opens its doors to students of any age above 13 to enroll in the arts of Military in magic. Each student is then trained for 6 years in the Academy and then released as military warriors. With the upending war, intakes was higher this year.
Those who pass the tests make it to recruitment of official military soldiers only unlike the rest, we get to use magic in our weaponry. Arcane, we call it.

As we enter my dorm, everyone cheers. Well, nearly everyone.
" I could get used to this," I say with a smile. I definitely didn't have the best starts.
" You deserve it," Lyra says as everyone comes over to congratulate. Well most of them, there was still Clarice.
"Training in the morning ," a voice calls , " lights out in five."
I look up . Disgust fills in my eyes.
Ethane.