Blackthorn Academy - 1 - In progress

13 - Thornblossom

Soft footsteps glided across the dorm of the 3 girls, and scuffing of shoes followed. Rory lay stretched out across her bed, sleeping. 

"Time to wake up." Florence said gently, not wanting the girl to oversleep and miss anything. She stirred slightly, but continued sleeping. The boys had already gone down to breakfast, but they were still early, so at the rate Rory was snoozing the girls would arrive at roughly the correct time.

Selene, who wasn't as gentle as Florence, grinned mischievously and pulled the pillow from Rory's head quickly.

Rory grunted and mumbled something incoherent.

"Any day now, it's not like it's the first day of our new school." Selene spoke in a sarcastic tone, her deep brown eyes relaxed. 

Rory groaned, then heaved herself up onto her elbows. She leaned to the side, feeling around for her glasses, her eyes moving quickly, trying to make sense of the scene in front of her, but her blurry vision wasn't helping.

"It's time to get up and ready, breakfast is now." Selene was still clutching Rory's pillow, much to the awoken girls annoyance.

"Alright," Rory yawned, "I'll meet you down  in the breakfast room."

The fact that she didn't say where the 'breakfast room' was made the 2 awake-and-ready girls question whether or not to listen to that.

"Nah, you'll get lost. We're giving you 5 minutes, and don't think even once that I won't drag you down if you're not ready." Selene's stomach growled in response.

Rory groaned once again, then fell back onto her bed, disappointed to remember her pillow had been taken into hostage.

Realising that she probably would get lost, Rory decided to get up. She trudged over to their dorm's bathroom and washed her face, tying her hair back quickly, sighing in annoyance as her bangs fell right above her eyes as always. Slipping out of her pyjama shorts and button up, she put on the Summer Uniform, tightening the tie that Finley had done up yesterday.

Rubbing her eyes, she followed Florence and Selene down to the Grand Hall for breakfast. Florence sat next to William with Selene plopping down next to her. Rory sat on the other side next to Finley who greeted the others, then turned to Rory.

"Sleeping beauty wakes!" He retorted, cheekily grinning at her as she turned red and playfully shoved him.

"Ooh, feisty much." Liam leaned behind Finley to respond to Rory's shove.

"Shush." She rolled her eyes at him.

"No." Liam stubbornly said, his mouth twitching in the corners.

"Yes."

"No."

"Dumbasses." Finley joined their conversation, grinning at their meaningless argument,

Oliver chewed on his buttered toast, watching the three First years squabble. He looked down at the schedule lying down on his lap, and read over the subjects he and the other Emberflame first years would have. 

After speaking to Ethan Parker, one of the House Wardens, he learnt that some of the subjects would be with other houses. Oliver had forgotten to ask and now had to pay the price of waiting.

Botany : 9:00-10:00

History : 10:00-11:00

Alchemy : 11:00-12:00

Lunch : 12:00-13:00

Physical Movement : 13:00-14:00

Study Session : 14:00-15:00

Beast Management : 15:00-16:00

Arithmancy : 16:00-17:00

Dinner : 17:00

Oliver was not looking forward to Physical Movement. Beast management sounded a bit questionable and he wasn't so sure on Arithmancy as it sounded very conspiracy like, but the other subjects, he didn't think would be too bad.

Everyone slowly departed the Grand Hall, having half an hour until lessons started. Emberflame kept walking straight, as Iceforge and Vipercrest turned left into a long corridor. Silverglade and Thornblossom turned right, where the hallway was warm with sunlight.

Rory tapped her fingers in a rhythm against the tinted glass wall she was leaning on, her and the others waiting outside the greenhouse for their Professor. It turned out that they had Botany with Thornblossom, the blue coloured house known for loyalty and trust. Most of the students had a bubbly, friendly personality. The greenhouse door opened, and Emberflame and Thornblossom first years filed into the humid glass shed.

Everything around her, including the air, felt sticky to Rory. She disliked the feeling already, and wanted to leave the place. 

A tall lady with wild, bushy hair welcomed them in.

"Good morning!" A murmur of good mornings' rippled over the group.

"I'm Professor Moss," Rory and Liam snorted quietly in corner at the Professor's last name, "And over the first half of the semester, I will be teaching about Historical Herbology. So to start off with, I will call off a list, 2 from each house and if you can get into your group of 4 then that would be great. Alright, here we go."

Professor Moss called out the names of all the students in the Greenhouse, then waited for them to find their partners. Rory was in a group with a boy from Emberflame and two boys in Thornblossom. 

Luke and Selene were in a group together with one other girl and boy, Oliver and Florence with the same sort. William was placed with a girl by the name of Lucy in Emberflame, and had two boys from Thornblossom. Liam and Finley were with two girls who were giggling. 

The rest of the other students were sorted into their groups and settled down at the tables.

Rory was more than sick of the Greenhouse she was in. It was stuffy and sticky, and smelt too Earthy. Her glasses were fogging up, which she constantly had to wipe just to be able to see.

"Now that you are in your groups, I want you to read the essays placed on the tables. They will lead to clues with questions around the Greenhouse, which you will need to go and find, then answer. This is a treasure hunt, and you won't be graded, but there will be homework," Groans rippled through the students, "at the end of the lesson that I will explain after the treasure hunt. You have half an hour, go!" 

The first few minutes of the treasure hunt was in silence as students read over the parchment on their desk. After a bit, the Greenhouse was filled with people running around, searching and bringing clues back to their tables.

The timer went off and everyone sat back down at their seats, face flushed and sweaty. Rory's hair was swept across her forehead and had her glasses off, rubbing the moisture off the lenses with the edges of her skirt. 

The homework that was due for next Monday was a half a page of parchment on one of the things related to Historical Herbology.

Everyone hurriedly left the Greenhouse, Rory being the most eager to leave. Emberflame First years made their way over to the History classroom, then were let in by Professor Locke, a short, bald man with a small, wispy beard.