Arcane

Chapter 4

  When she woke up, it wasn't to her mother's sweet voice but her roommate, Lily, shaking her awake.  

"First day of classes Sleepyhead, get up! You have five minutes till breakfast!" 

Sora looked at her watch and saw it was six fifty-five am, she jumped out of bed, grabbed her uniform and hurriedly got dressed and brushed her hair in under three minutes. She met Lily in the hall and her and Sora walked to the cafeteria. Sora was very anxious and her stomach was hungering for food but, if possible, it also felt like Sora would throw up if she attempted to eat something.

When Sora got there, she immediately wanted to just grab the delicious looking food and a glass of water and eat outside or, really, anywhere but inside of the cafeteria. And Sora was about to go through with that plan when someone caught her eye. Another First Year was watching her from across the cafeteria, the way he looked at her made Sora feel like he could see right through her which made her even more so worried. 

Sora decided to join Lily at a table in the back where another Initiate girl sat across from them along with two other First Years, both males. All three of the Initiate sitting across from her had short, orange hair with purple eyes. Again, not uncommon traits in the Dark Country. Though Sora wasn't awfully talkative, she was excellent at listening. She heard one of the males sitting across from her talk to Lily about how he heard only four Initiate students had umbras. Sora wondered who the other two were, she knew Brisa and her had umbras but then who was the mysterious other two? She would find out in a few hours. The rest of the gossip Sora ignored, finding it distasteful and rude.

Lily wished her good luck and Sora wished her luck as well and off they were, walking to their classes in two separate parts of the school. When Sora got to the combat room she was surprised that most of the students were actually Novice and Adept year students. The room was filled with soft mats and training equipment. A couple of seconds after Sora was done gazing at the bright, sunlit room she heard a deep voice tell everyone to stand in a large semi-circle around him. 

"My name is Coach Sullivan and I will be your combat instructor for your years at the Academy. For those of you who already know me, you know my rules. For those of you who don't, my rules are simple... no umbras, don't use anything I teach against your fellow students, this is for self-defense or later on, stay in your gender's locker rooms, the fact that I need to state this is disappointing but, I must state it. Girls, stay out of the boys locker room, guys, stay out of the girls rooms. Those are my rules, understood?" 

Everyone echoed with a: "Yes, Coach."

The students quickly changed into black shorts and a purple shirt. When they were all out the coach told the students to get into groups of their year. When Sora found the other Initiates she was surprised to see only her and two other Initiates were in her class. She saw there were five Adepts and eleven Novices for a total of eighteen students. 

The coach then went to every student to pair them up, Sora got an Adept as her combat partner of the year. The other two Initiates looked relieved to be partners with each other instead of being paired up with a Novice, someone at the Institute for their second year or an Adept, someone at the Institute for their third and final year. 

Sora wasn't horribly worried though she knew she'd have a rough time because the Adept would have more experience and know more but her father had taught her the basics and she had strength and will-power on her side. Sora did her best to cover her arms where the shirt didn't cover, especially after Coach Sullivan eyed it then had put her with her Adept partner.

The Adept was slightly taller than her, she had dirty blonde hair that went maybe three inches past her shoulders.  When she introduced herself she came off very polite and sweet, she said her name was Taniya. Sora introduced herself then they both went silent while the coach showed the students how to do the four flips, front, back, left, right.