Acamancy: The Academy of Manipulation and Control

Chapter 1: A Long Awaited Arrival

The blue eyes reflected in the puddle morph into the ones reflected back at me in the window of mom's old white truck. My breath fogging up the glass clears as that memory passes and I am pulled back into the present. My mind empties of the past and I force my gaze to see the landscape stretching outside, it blurs as we fly down the highway, but I can make out the green grass, small patches of white daisies, and even some houses as we approach our destination. The view turns from city lights, large skyscrapers and traffic, into farms, neighborhoods and small-town life. I fix my gaze back to myself as I catch my reflection in the mirror this time. The girl from the memory has my same gray-blue eyes but the rest of my face has aged quite a bit in these last 10 years. I'm not a 9-year-old excited to share my first Signs of Skills with my best friend. No, I am an even more anxious 19-year-old, on her way to the one place that will make or break her whole life!

Don't think like that Em you will be fine, even if you never hone your skills and go back home to live a life like your mother. It wouldn't be that bad...

Just as the anxious thoughts that constantly rattle my brain pass, I see it. We are pulling to an off ramp, exiting the freeway, and headed down a stretch of dirt road. Out of my window I see a vast lake surrounded by grassy fields, stretches of sidewalk and asphalt throughout between the endless walls of a giant gray stone building. There are trees and plants everywhere, beautiful flower gardens fill in spaces between water fountains. There are mountains peeking out from deep behind the building, rock pathways leading to the mountains are surrounded by dirt floors mostly covered by long hallways that look like tunnels. There are so many vast open spaces it's a miracle the space is large enough to still house the gigantic building and all of its sub towers. All in all it looks more like a castle than a school, the architecture screams old. The gray stone is crumbled in areas, covered in dirt, ash, green vines, and picturesque arched windows. I cannot believe my eyes. It is bigger and much more beautiful than I even imagined. But most of all, I cannot believe that I actually got in, I simply cannot believe I get to spend my next 3 years going to school here.

You hope it will only be three years. You better hope that you actually have what it takes. That you're even half as smart and talented as you think that you are and your success in high school wasn't just a fluke. For your sake you better hope that you can make it here, you know the alternative.

I push past those thoughts plaguing my mind again, as I tune into my mom's chatter about the school. I don't know if she's talking to me or Leo, as usual I wasn't paying attention to her as she rambles on to my family.

"....that was years ago. Who knows what has changed since I attended the school though. The outside always looks the same but inside... It changes more than the bipolar weather we have here. It is made to change, it has to, that's kind of the whole point," Mom says.

"I cannot believe you went here and Emmie gets to go here, and Mitch and even most of my friends will go too but I don't! The coolest place ever and I only get to look at it. It's so not fair" Leo pouts as slinks further into his seat.

"You're only 13 bud, you have years before we will have that to discuss this further-"

"Mom! Stop, please just stop getting his hopes up!" I cut in "you know as well as anyone Leo cannot go to Am-c. So don't break his little heart more than it already is, with your false sense of hope, okay?" I scolded her.

Mom stops talking and gives me a look in the rearview mirror and I snap my mouth shut, I've said enough already. It's not like it hasn't all been said before though. I start to think twice about continuing the conversation, but I risk a glance at Leo and any thoughts I had on what to say go out the window and drown in the lake next to our car. I cannot tell if mom is more disappointed in me, or if Leo is more disappointed about being reminded of what I just said. But either was Brian cuts in to change the subject.