Call Me "Ozzie" | ONC24

History of Citrine Academy 1

"You dare to threaten me with the full force of Hecate?" Headmistress Black steps towards Ms. Delight.

"Absolutely." Ms. Delight doesn't back down.

"You really want little Jett to suffer, don't you?"

"You lay a finger on him and I'll-"

"Then decide now who you want to save," Headmistress Black conditions. "Onyx or Jett."

Ms. Delight looks conflicted before she turns to me, clearly ashamed.

"I'm sorry, Onyx."

"It's okay!" I smile. "You did your best. Whoever Jett is, I'm sure they need your protection more than I do."

She smiles apologetically, but she also looks saddened. Ms. Delight's eyes study my face for a bit before falling.

"Very well, then, Spinner and Aphelion to the caves."

I sigh as I let them guide me out of the room, wondering what is going to happen to me when we follow the headmistress to a room full of plants. I look around, surprised to see some pretty huge Venus Flytraps when the biggest ones are usually up to six inches. These are practically dump trucks!

"Why're these so big?" I turn to my guard on the right.

He says nothing and the headmistress laughs.

"Wondering what helps these plants grow excessively?"

"Yes."

"It's everyone's magic." Spinner says quietly. "What they do down there, below these things at the roots, is what powers their growth. The tampering they do to see what our tears can harness, what our sweat can manipulate, what anything we can do that to humans is not normal is what fuels their excessive growth. That Hydrangea over there on the right has grown with the experimentations on Ms. Delight alone."

The Hydrangea she nods her head towards resembles a stinkin' forest of pure pinkish white flowers. Like its own little ecosystem, it even has a stream along the edges of the dirt and blocks most of the shade from about ninety something smaller plants growing around and below the towering flower shrub.

"Welcome to the Caves of Creation."

The platform we're on with the crest of the academy jolts a bit before we start to descend. Stalagmites, crystals (mostly Citrine, even though it's native to Brazil) and different levels of unfinished constructions are everywhere. There's hardly light provided by the very well-placed mirror to reflect light off the Citrine's.

"Whatever they do, just let it happen." Spinner's led to a different direction. 
Makes everything get over with faster."

"Got it." I nod.

"As it's your first time, the first thing we'll do is test your strength and capabilities as well as hand eye coordination and memory."

"What is this? A prep zone for war?" I roll my eyes. "Please. Even my mother knows I know how to throw a ball in a straight direction. I'm quite sure throwing a stun grenade is now different, Lieutenant."

"You know, you seem to possess the very same charisma that made me come quite close to killing Aquamarine several times." Is all the stern lady says. "This time, I won't make the same mistake of letting society get the best of me. Even if you're still just a child, I won't hesitate to kill you."

"I'm seventeen, as soon as I'm eighteen - which is in a short span of time - you won't be able to keep me behind these gates anymore and I'll be free to choose whatever I want to do so long as it's government approved." I inform.

"How cute that you haven't noticed how that specifically aligns with how we do things here at Citrine's." She laughs. "You don't do things unless they're approved by me depending on your non-human race. You can't mingle with humans and those who are children to gods and goddesses. You don't do a single class unless it's approved by the new Board of Educators to be a good class for you. You have no freedom of speech, but we'll go ahead and tell you that you do so you say whatever you want, and we have things on your records. Oh, I could go on all day about how the government is as equally unfair as Citrine's! But we wouldn't want to waste your experimentation day on pure talk, now, would we?"

"I have nothing against you going on about how corrupt and unjust your school system is."

"Well, you see!" Citrine Black points her finger at me. "This is what I'm talking about! You have 'freedom of speech' within the academy, but even for that very sentence you said, I can do whatever I want with you! And because all of your stupid parents are too idiotic and preoccupied with who the hell, they had sex with and sired a child with, they don't even come to check up on all of you! I've had twenty-seven children of all non-human races commit suicide and because the parents are so neglectful, none have even realized that the report cards we sent out for them are the same ones!"

"Are you even listening to yourself!" I snap. "You're claiming all of that right in front of me and-!"

"And who's going to believe you?" She leans into my face. "The Board of Educators? They gave up long ago when the Other World passageways opened up. The government? They're equally as irresponsible and stupid when it comes to this. Ah, but when I stepped up, I of all people within the group of politicians stepped up, I proposed the idea of an academy for the half non-human children! And what did they do? They named the academy after me. They made me the principal. They gave me unlimited authority to do as I fucking want."

Her cold and calculating brown eyes shine yellow before she leans back.

"And no one ever even realized I was not normal either."

I turn to the two guards and realize just how sleepy they look. Their eyes are open, and they blink when they should, but they seem to be in a trance.

"The whole politicians, the Board of Educators, the government as a whole is under my possession!" Headmistress Black throws out her hands. "Their souls are all lost in the darkness of Erebus, my father, and allows me to control practically everything. A minor deity, a non-official one if you please, someone born out of pure desire to control."

"Rumors of a new goddess having been born out of nothing and darkness," I remember when Aqua told me about that. "She was the daughter of darkness, sired out of pure desire alone to be able to control after being controlled for years."

"Ypnotia!"

I give it a minute as I stare at her in horror before dropping the act and laughing.

"Ypnotia?!" I shriek, trying not to cry of laughter. "Seriously?! If I were you, I'd've chosen a better and cooler name for myself!"

"What's wrong with 'Ypnotia'?! It means Hypnoticia, you know?!"

"HYPNOTICIA!!!" I fall back laughing. "What's your power? Hypnosis? HA!"

I hold my stomach as I try not to pee of laughter.

"Oh my gods, I'mma pee of laughter!" I laugh out. "'WhAt'S WrOnG WiTh HyPnOtIcIa?'"

I continue to mock the woman when I calm down.

"Ah, ho, damn, hold up." I get up, sore at the stomach from laughing. "Yo. Thanks. I needed that."

The glare I'm treated to makes me snort when I get slammed to the floor with the roots of some plant and I cough from the impact. I gasp as I try to regain my breath from the hard hit, not laughter this time.

"First thing you'll learn is not to laugh at me."