Rosenwand High: Past Times Echo

✨ First class ✨

Awakened from sleep by the loud sound of an alarm coming from the hallway, Skylar buried her head under the pillow, pressing it as hard as she could. The school alarm clock must have irritated all the students equally. After a while the ringing stopped, and Sky felt a presence on the edge of her bed. Reluctantly, she decided to leave the pillow fortress and saw Lexie sitting right next to her.

"Is private space a foreign concept to you? Get off my bed" Sky growled.

"Oh, I just wanted to make sure you weren't late for Alpin's class, he is a mean guy. I looked at your schedule, and it turns out we're in the same groups, great, right?"

"Great" Skylar said ironically getting up from the bed and letting her roommate know that her role in terms of ensuring punctuality has already been fulfilled.

"Shall we go down to breakfast together?" Lexie suggested excitedly as she pulled on the plaid jacket of her school uniform with the letter "H" embroidered on the lapel, which Sky stared at for a moment.

"Henriette Rosenwand is the founder and patron of our school. Her father built this hilltop town and was said to be incredibly rich and super handsome! Henriette was also very beautiful, but I didn't find a single portrait of her in the whole school, but we have several books of her poetry in the library."

At first Sky wanted to stop talking and refuse to go to breakfast together, but she decided that it would be easier for her to move around the school with someone who already knew the building, and after a moment of thought, she agreed.

The dining room at Rosenwand High was very different from what she was used to at Dovedale. First, her beloved ice cream machine and cotton candy machine were not there. The dishes were also not appetizingly displayed behind the glass, decorated with vegetables and fruits cut into fancy shapes.

In a large dark room lit by hundreds of candles that never went out, there was a small window connecting the dining room with the kitchen. Several students were queuing for their portions, and the others were already seated at their tables, eating their first meal of the day. Lexie finally made it to the window.

"Good morning, Luisa!" she greeted cheerfully the young cook who was serving her carrot puree garnished with green peas.

"Nice to see you, Lexie. You finally have a roommate, right?" the woman asked, placing a slice of fresh bread on her plate.

"Yes, this is Skylar," she replied, moving slightly to the side to introduce her new friend. Luisa looked at her with piercing but friendly eyes. The woman reached for another plate and added what looked like chicken stew. She also put a glass of orange juice and a cup of ice cream on the tray.

"Is it some kind of special menu?" Skylar asked, looking at her friend's tray, on which there were completely different dishes.

"It's magic" Luisa smiled mysteriously and began to prepare a meal for the impatient boy who was standing behind them in the queue. They took their places by the door and Sky looked around the room. "What's with the food?" she asked genuinely interested in the variety of dishes.

"Oh, Luisa is a great cook. In addition, she can perfectly choose a menu for each student. No matter what mood you're in, this woman always hits your culinary taste. She's got a gift like that."

After eating breakfast, which Sky thought was "more than correct," the girls headed off to their first class. "Witch Laws and Forbidden Spells" had never been a problem for Skylar, and she stepped confidently into the classroom. Reluctantly, she found that the only empty seat was next to Lexie. She sat down silently at an old table covered with what looked like thousands of signatures from students who had been bored in this classroom for a century.

She took from her bag her black leather notebook and the pen she had received as a prize in a multimagic contest a year ago. The gold engraving of Dovedale High gleamed ironically in her hand. A grim-looking man in his forties entered the room. His dark chocolate suit had long since gone out of fashion and did not suit the man's pale complexion at all. Henry Alpin, however, was not the type to care about color analysis. Without saying a word, he erased the board on which the spells from the day before were still written. Without turning to face the class, he wrote "Operantere". Sky felt more confident seeing the familiar word.

The man looked around the classroom and noticed a new student, but contrary to Sky's expectations, he ignored her presence.

"Operative initiatives. Operante exodios."

Skylar's hand shot up.

"Transmission of thoughts. Silencing your thoughts" she said before the teacher could ask anyone for an explanation. The man furrowed his eyebrows slightly and the corners of his mouth twitched nervously.

"In this class, we only answer questions that are asked. We don't shout our thoughts, especially if they're not true, Miss..."

"Rivers. Skylar Rivers." She stood up. "Operantere initios is a forbidden spell that causes the other person or wizard to think uncontrollably. Operantere exodios stops the thought process and makes any reaction impossible."

"Unbelievable" he said to the other students." This girl doesn't understand the simplest rule in our class, even though I just introduced it to her. Did anyone ask for an explanation of these spells?

Or would you prefer to teach yourself? Then surely this school would release even more morons into the world every year. Dear class, future magicians and esteemed witches. Miss Rivers is wrong, and I don't think she should be your authority on spells. Please sit down.

If it wasn't for the honor that kept her from running out of class, Sky would have burst into tears midway through his speech. She knew, however, that under no circumstances could she afford to show weakness. She sat down without a word and spent the entire lesson in silence. The fact that she mistook a thought-quiet spell for a spell that made a person say their thoughts aloud or say the exact opposite was almost as painful to her as the fact that the teacher humiliated her in front of the whole class. And that was only the first lesson...