The Mistyard Academy

An Apology to Flowerbeds Everywhere

Once Thursday rolls around I am impatient for the day to end, I can barely pay attention in classes and spend most of the time spacing out. At the end of the day, I hurry home with Lewis as soon as the bell rings to meet Lawrence on time. When we reached home, he was already there sitting at the dining room table with Mom who got off work early to be with me when I made my decision.

"Have you come to a decision?" Lawrence asks as soon as I made myself comfortable at the table.

"Yes, I have, I want to go," I answer confidently, "I think my power can do some good and I want to understand it better."

"Excellent choice, if you are ready to go today you may say good bye for now and go pack some clothes, nothing fancy just clothes that are easy to move in," he says no emotion on his face or in his voice to go with the statement just given.

"Ok," I say, "Mom, can you help get clothes packed?"

"Ok course sweetheart, I think you made the right decision."

"I think you did too," Lewis chimes in, "though I don't think my opinion has any weight in this conversation."

"It does and it doesn't," I reply smiling.

"Now this is all very touching, but we do need to get going soon," Lawrence snaps from his dark corner, I swear it seems to follow him wherever he goes.

"Yeah, yeah I'm going to pack now."

Once in my bedroom with Mom I pack every single pair of leggings and athletic shorts I own, most of my T-shirts and my hoodies. Mom takes care of toiletries and other random things she thinks I might need, like comfort items and rain jacket. After my duffel is all packed along with my backpack (free of all school supplies) we head back downstairs where Lewis and Lawrence are waiting in the entryway.

"All ready?" Lawrence asks.

"Yep."

"Ok, grab onto my arm," I grab onto one arm and Mom holds onto the other and we jump towards the academy. As soon as we enter the void holding tight to each other's hands there is equal if not more pressure from the darkness around us.

When we appear in what appears to be a courtyard with lots of trees and a gurgling fountain Mom immediately collapses and Lawrence lunges to slow her fall.

"I assume these are the side effects from jumping you mentioned last week," I say bending over to check on Mom.

"That would be correct, you can see why I found it odd you did not have a similar reaction considering that your mother is the only member of your family who is mystikal and these things are normally genetic," he explains reaching into his pocket for a small vial, uncorking it and waving it under Mom's nose. She jumps awake almost instantly and rolls to her other side to vomit into a flower bed, "Smelling salts, very effective but they tend to make people nauseous."

"Yeah, I can see that."

Mom heaves one more time before shakily sitting up and getting to her feet. I am very glad that I am not affected from jumping like she is, though I suppose the vomiting is from the weird smelling salts.

"Are you ok? The feeling of jumping is quite unpleasant, especially for our family," Mom says checking me over.

"No, I'm totally fine, jumping doesn't make me feel all gross, just a little disoriented for a minute."

"Really? That's strange, we don't have any summoner ancestors so there is no dulling of the effects- or there shouldn't be."

"I have a theory," Lawrence puts in, "but I want to think on it a bit more before I explain it to you or Mrs. Hopkins."

"Ok, why don't we keep moving, if you're feeling up to it Mom?"

"I'm feeling quite alright now, the sickness is short lasting so why don't we head on inside, get you settled in and then meet with Mrs. Hopkins about your training."

"Yes, that will work, now you will have your own room in the north wing, but it will be in small compound with four rooms all opening into a common room, I think you will like your neighbors but if you don't that's not my problem."

Ok Mr. Prickly is back and ready to fight, I wonder who hurt him. "That sounds nice, who are my dorm mates?" Maybe we can become friends during our training time, I wonder what their powers are. He doesn't give me an answer, of course he doesn't. I may have only known Lawrence for a week, but I feel like I can already predict his responses to questions or human interaction.

Lawrence leads me and Mom down a long corridor with vines on the wall there are also little fountains in the walls and skylights all along the hall. The next wing we enter has a very different aesthetic, it is much darker and seems to be star themed or just sky in general because each section is made into different times of the day, so it looks like there is a sunrise room and a noon room and so on each section themed after the sky during that time of day. The door I'm lead through enters into what looks like the sunset compound of rooms, there are three girls all sitting on dark pink, purple, and blue couches all talking or reading. They all look up when we enter, one girl has gorgeous deep brown almost black eyes, black hair and bronze skin, the girl sitting on purple couch looks sort of like me with wavy blonde hair, tan skin and round facial features, the only differences is that her eyes are blue not green and she looks tall while I am 5'2" on a good day. The last girl almost takes my breath almost takes my breath away, she has shiny waist- length red hair, huge hazel eyes and ghostly white skin, there's something about the contrast of her hair to her eyes that seem almost other-worldly.

Lawrence steps forward to introduce us, "Reina, Brielle, Effie this is Aloisia May Parker she is from Seattle and has an unconfirmed power, Aloisia May this is Reina Sanchez a fire elementalist, Brielle Koffin a changeling and Effie Quinn a whisperer. They will be your dormmates and will be in most of your preliminary classes except for those specific to your ability." I wave with a small smile at the girls, and they return with smiles of their own. I almost choke when I see the brilliant smile that Effie gives, I swear it makes the room brighter.

"Alright," Mom says setting down my bag she was carrying, "I suppose I am not needed here while you settle in, unless you would like me to stay for a while?"

"No, I think I'll be alright Mom, love you."

"I love you too, see you soon," she says coming in for a hug, "these girls look nice, you'll be happy here I think."

I return the hug and whisper back, "I hope so." Mom gives a final squeeze before walking towards the door only looking back once to give me a smile. She leaves with Lawrence, and I am left with the girls I am apparently going to live with.

AN- The chapters are a little janky which I will fix later, the original draft had no chapter divides.