The Academy

3

Breaking News: Man dies in a car crash!

"We are here outside the The Plated on the Academy Avenue where a waiter died this morning due to a car crash. The police are at the scene are interrogating the driver. The man who worked as a part time waiter at The Plated was setting up the tables outside the eatery when the accident happened." the TV was turned on and the news reporter was talking with the background full of people and ambulance and police officers. 

"Such an ominous thing to happen on the first day of the quarter." said Marian as she sat on her bed arranging her backpack for the day. 

Amber walked out of the bathroom all ready. She looked up at the TV screen and her face turned paler than it already was.

"We just got information about the victim confirming that he was a senior at The Academy. His name: Jake Miles, Age 20." the reporter said with a photo of the boy. 

Marian stopped in her steps and turned around to look at Amber, "Wait, wasn't he the same guy we met yesterday at the restaurant. Poor thing I feel so bad."

Amber didn't say anything. The car honk and the scream started resonating in her ears again. Were these two incidents related? Amber was muddled by her thoughts and the news on the screen. Nothing made sense. 

The two girls turned off the TV and took off for the day. They realized they had three classes together.  Amber's mind was still preoccupied with what she saw this morning. They entered a hundred student lecture hall. The room was quite big compared to the classrooms Amber had ever visited in her town's high school. But she remembered her adviser telling her about class sizes and that she would only have one class in room of this size and that too only for the first quarter. 

They both saw Claudia and Hayden in the hall too. Claudia waved and invited Marian and Amber to sit next to them. Claudia brought up the news of the boy who died earlier in the morning at the cafe. 

A tall slender instructor entered the hall and the chatter murmured down and the room was completely quiet. 

"Hello everybody! I'm Mr. Gauss and you will be your general education instructor." he spoke into the mic on his table. He wore a grey coat and blue bow tie. He wore his hair in a short ponytail. "I'll be teaching you the basics of magic and the underlying rules of duels, potion making and all the various things you will learn here at The Academy. You can talk to me if you have any questions regarding anything related to the class or even outside class." he continued as he calmly paced back and forth as he talked, "Today is just introductory material and some house keeping things we need to take care off." 

Mr. Gauss talked for the rest of the class time. After the hour was up all the students started packing and leaving the hall. Claudia pointed towards the back doors and they all avoided the huge crowd of students and walked out using the back doors. 

"My next class is Water magic. What about you guys?" asked Claudia. 

"Me and Amber have Fire magic next." replied Marian pulling up her schedule on her cell phone. "And it is in the B wing. We better start walking otherwise we will be late." she said looking at Amber. 

"Text us when you are done. Maybe we'll grab lunch together." said Hayden. 

"Sure! See ya!" replied Marian as she turned around and walked towards her class. The walk from the General Quad to the B-wing was quite long but the two girls got to see the entire campus as the crossed. 

Marian and Amber found seats in the third row and sat down.  This classroom was a normal size room. Something closer to what Amber had imagined.