Exceptional

Chapter Eight

Breakfast was as cool as tea was. The difference was instead of going seeing one of the ladies at the counter all you had to do was sit down at a table. On each table there was a piece of paper with a list of options to choose from and a pen. Rose and I chose our options, the piece of paper flew off into the distance and with a matter of minutes a tray came flying with our food. For me black coffee with one sugar, freshly squeezed orange juice, pink grapefruit, brown bread toast and a banana. I love fruit. Actually I'm pretty sure there isn't any fruit or vegetable that I don't like... I don't think there's any food I don't like, well apart from anything aniseed tasting like tarragon.. I was almost sick the day I tried that stuff, literally my description of what poison would taste like. Oh and I don't like amaretto but that's it.

Rose on the other hand had a bacon sandwich with hash browns and tea. As we began to eat a sickly sweet familiar smell caught my attention, I turned my head to see that blonde idiot from yesterday. "You drink you're coffee black then," she scoffed, flicking her lose curls through her fingers. I just smiled before saying, "it's still not as black as your soul." Poor Rose nearly spat out her drink, the girls little group gasped at my audacity and the whole of the canteen burst into laughter. Her eyes light with rage. "You'll pay for that bitch!" She screamed. She was about to pull my hair however, Loki suddenly grew to the size of a jaguar giving her a low growl.

The girl stepped back in horror at my sweet kitty coming to protect me. She stood for a few seconds before swishing her hair and marched off the other way. Loki instantly grew back to his usual size and coming for a cuddle... he seemed very anxious to get some of Rose's bacon, to which she awarded him some. "Who is she?" I asked frustrated by her pure maliciousness. "That's Cecilia Tattersall... queen bee at this place," Rose replied, refusing to look in the direction of the now glaring girl, "and she doesn't like us because we stand out and it should only be her that stands out." I looked at her confused before realising.

"Yes I've had my fair share of her already," she laughed, "I've only been here a month, so has she, this academies term for the new students started a month ago and all the second years only came back a week ago and already there's a hierarchy!" She shook her head. "Is she causing you trouble cuz you know I'll deck her!" I said trying to sound like the riff raff that I feel I am here. She laughed. "She's been trying and I've been ignoring, she thought she could try it on you but I think she's realised that now we're together she's got no chance... we've just got to wait for her pea sized brain to let that sink in," she laughed with a smile.

Rose knows full well I'm all talk no action. However, if I had to I'd actually knock ten bells out of her. All the chatter and giggles in the canteen stopped as if all the life in the room had been sucked out by a black hole. I turned my head to the entrance to see a rather handsome looking guy. He had ebony black hair that scruffily sat on his head. I then turned my head to look at the ever so quiet crowed. They all whispered and people looked horrified as if they didn't want him anywhere near him. I turned to face him again to see him staring straight at Rose and I. His face was peculiar as if trying to figure me out. I tried to turn but I was deeply drawn to his emerald green eyes.

I finally managed to turn my head after I thought my coffee would get cold if I didn't drink it soon. However, my distraction was quickly interrupted when he sat on the table next to ours and directly faced us. Rose looked like she'd seen a ghost. Loki jumped up onto our table once again distracting me and now Rose from the guys stares. Until... Loki decidedly to jump on his table. "Loki, don't be rude," I said trying to convince the cat to come back. To my surprise he smiled at the cat and began to give him some chin rubs. "I thought we weren't allowed to keep pets?" He asked in a voice as smooth as silk.

Is it me or is this guy getter hotter every second? "Errrr... it's a long story.." I managed to find my voice, "and... you are?" He gave a soft laugh that was to die for. "The delinquent," he replied rather bluntly. This time I laughed and not some fake awkward laugh, a real laugh. "Well hi 'the delinquent'.. I'm 'the riff raff'!" I replied with a smile, holding out my hand to shake. Rose nearly fell out of her chair laughing. "Oh and this is 'the hoodlum' and you've met 'the fur ball of destruction'!" I continued. This time it was him who nearly fell out of his chair laughing. "I don't know what you're laughing about, it was Miss Felicity that called him that," I giggled.

His eyes light up. "This is that ginormous cat that everyone was talking about yesterday and you're the one that knocked over all those teachers!" He said in shock before laughing even more, "you really are the riff raff!" Everyone was whispering to see the guy laugh and smile as if he usually only adorns his frown. "I'm Amelia and this is Rose," I said holding out my hand again. "I'm Chase," he replied taking my hand. He stared down at my hand with shock apparent on his face. "Why do you have that ring?" He asked looking up at me expecting me to have an answer.

"Errrmm... when I opened the box to put the jewellery on, the ring was with the necklace, bracelet and earrings," I replied and that was really all I knew. Rose recovered herself from her giggle fit before grabbing my hand to look at the ring. "I'm guessing it was put in the box mistakenly then because there was nothing on the leaflet explaining what the jewellery is," I asked confused by the fuss over a silly ring. "They wouldn't give you this by mistake, this means you scored over 500 on the test!" He said in shock. Now I really was confused.

"What test, I never did any test!" I said trying to think of any test over than my external assessment at college. "He means the crystal ball, the thing they say is good look to touch," Rose explained, making me remember the shock it gave me. "Oh that thing.. yeah that gave me a nasty shock, my hand hurt for hours," I replied shaking my hands remembering the pain all to well. "Well that's definitely not normal..." Rose went on to say. Chase looked at me dead in the eyes, "the average student scores 350 points on the scale however, there are occasionally students who score 500 points or more... these people are given these rings," Chase explained pointing at my ring and then his own which was a plain gold band (I can't imagine a guy like Chase with a delicate flower ring like I've got).

Rose looked in awe. "One student with one is apparently rare enough but two in the same year?" She said dumbfounded, "what did you both score... I scored 462!" Rose beamed. "Wow... that's really high, you nearly got a ring too!" I clapped at her score. She pretended to take a bow whilst sat on her chair. "Well done, that's got to be the highest score in the year... well except for ours," Chase smiled before continuing, "I scored 578." They both turned to me. "I... I never got told my score... who should I ask?" Rose thought for a minute before saying, "Miss Felicity will know, we'll ask after we've finished eating!" Chase finally ordered some food and we decided to wait for him so we ordered another brew.

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We knocked on the door to Miss Felicity's office to here a rather cheerful, "come in!" So in the three of us went. "Ahhh Amelia and Rose and... Chase?" She sounded confused to see him. "What can I do for the three of you?" She quickly resorted back to her smile. "I've just been told about this ring and I was wondering what my score was since everyone knows their score," I asked politely but anxious to know my score. "Ahhh..." she replied looking rather nervous, "You three might want to sit down."

And that's when we learnt it all... how I broke the machine... how they aren't quite sure what my score was other than it was definitely over 1000 and how that is unheard of even in the magic society. However, that isn't what shocked me. What shocked me was what she told me next. "Amelia... about your parents..." Miss Felicity sounded quite upset which scared me. "Are they okay?" I asked anxious to know what was the matter. "Because of your score and your last name, I had reason to believe that they may not actually be your parents..." she looked at me sadly before continuing, "after talking with them I have found out my suspicions were correct."