The Magic Inside

Voices in the Hallway

The Elementals teacher looked fun. She wore brown robes, large, round glasses, and her hair was a light caramel brown and frizzy. She reminded me vaguely of Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. She was very jumpy, though.

"Who's that?" I leaned over and asked Scorch.

"Professor Dawn," she answered, "she's a bit-" she looked at me and waved her finger around on the side of her head.

"She's crazy?" I asked, "What?"

"Not exactly,"  Scorch answered, "But she's getting there. A few years ago, "she continued, "They say she went off into the mountains alone. When she came back, she wasn't the same."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah," Scorch answered.

"Class," Professor Dawn sat down behind her desk, "Please pay attention! I am Professor Dawn," she looked around as if a killer clown was sitting behind one of us, waiting to show itself and murder the entire class. She was skittish and jumpy, and she acted as if we were all plotting against her, regarding us with gray glares. She stood back up, "Welcome to Elementals. Today, you will learn about the other students in class. Everybody outside," she waved her hand and walked out of the classroom. Giving each other puzzled looks, Scorch and I followed, with the rest of the class trailing behind.

Once outside, Professor Dawn led us down a series of corridors, until i was 100% lost. She turned down one more hallway, and then when I turned the corner, she was gone.

"What the heck?" Scorch asked, "Where'd she go?"

There weren't any doors in the hallway, and it was a dead end. The class accumulated in the hallway, all asking where our teacher had gone.

"You were in the front!" A boy with blonde hair and brown eyes said to me, "You must've seen where she had gone!"

"No," I answered, "I didn't. I turned the corner and she was gone!"

"You're lying!" he snapped, "Why won't you tell us? She didn't just disappear!"

"Hold it!" Scorch grabbed his shoulder and I was scared she was going to punch him, "What gives you the right to tell her what she saw?"

He shoved her away, "Oh, are you her bodyguard?"

"What's it to you?" she asked, "But I'm surprised you don't have one, with all the people I'm sure wanna punch you in the face."

"My god!" Jessica exclaimed, "What are you, 12?"

"Yes," Scorch smiled, "On a scale of one to ten."

A kid in the back yelled, "Boi!" and others joined him.

Scorch turned around, "Let's go, Amber," she snapped and then pointed down the hallway, and then turned around, "I want some intelligent company now."

This caused everybody but Jessica and the blonde to start laughing uncontrollably, and  Jessica huffed and stormed off like an angry Markiplier. I followed Scorch down the hall, and when we turned the corner, I turned to face the class, "Jessica, you just got Scorched."

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

I followed Scorch down the gray halls of the school, and I asked, "So do you even know the way back?"

"Nope," she answered. The halls were silent and empty, making our words echo. She turned to face me, stopping for a moment, "By the way, I like that, 'You just got Scorched'. I might use that."

"It would be an honor," I said, the sarcasm thick in my voice. Scorch rolled her eyes and continued down the hallway. We walked in silence for a few minutes, and the only noise was our shoes hitting the cold concrete floor. Suddenly, Scorch stopped.

"Wha-" I started, but Scorch held out her hand to silence me. I was about to say something else, but I heard the faint sound of voices. They were female, and they were familiar.

"I am, it's great here, there's just these two girls that made a complete fool out of me in class."

"I know, hon. I promise, they'll get theirs when the time is right."

I could tell the first voice was Jessica, talking about us, obviously. It felt nice knowing we made an impression. The second voice was hauntingly familiar, and I knew I should've been able to place it, but I couldn't. It was like watching a movie with an actor you'd seen in another movie, but not being able to place what movie or what part.

"Thanks. I know they will. I'll talk to you later?"

"Sure."

I was so caught up in listening to the conversation and trying to place that voice that I didn't notice the footsteps getting closer. Scorch had just pulled me into the doorway of an empty classroom when Jessica came around the corner alone. We dove behind the teacher's desk and waited, holding our breaths, listening for anything outside. The door creaked open, and footsteps approached. I looked under the desk and saw Jessica's unmistakable 3 inch heels, silver and sparkly. She was looking for us, she had seen us. Scorch and I were huddled close together under the desk and we were barely breathing, not daring to move a muscle. Jessica's footsteps eventually retreated out of the classroom, and we still didn't move for a good 5 minutes, wanting to make sure she was gone. We crawled out from under the desk, stiff and neeeding to stretch, and we stood up.

"What just happened?" Scorch asked.

"I don't know," I answered, glancing at the empty doorway. What had just happened?