The Sparks Academy of Magic (discontinued)

Five- New Friend, New Enemies

'Gasp-' The whole class, including Ms. Siriena gasped as Ziara held the ancient wand that seemed to belong to Ziara now. Ziara herself was just as surprised as she could barely lift a teacup without at least an hour of concentration, but now the wand that was supposed to belong to a great sorceress or sorcerer was in her hand. Amazed, Ziara started to examine the wand, turning it over and over in her hand. The rowan wood was carved with a beautiful pattern of vines, twining around the wand in a delicate pattern.

The class started to calm down after five minutes that seemed like an eternity to Ziara, they started to mutter amongst themselves. Ziara stood, embarrassed, at the front of the class, she heard snatches of what the other students were talking about.

'Who is she?' 'Is she really a powerful sorceress?' 'Jennifer, do you think she'll beat you, Diana and Markus?' 'Will she be top of the grade like you, Diana?'

Some of the students who have excellent grades sent her some hostile glances, but the others were merely curious.

'Shush! I know it is a surprise, but please calm down. Jennifer, Ivy, Holly, stop whispering, or you will go to detention!' Ms. Siriena snapped. The girls turned red and immediately stopped talking together in hushed voices.

'Ziara, please go back to your seat. Now, as we have some time left, please spend the rest of the lesson organising your belongings and maybe filling in the forms for after-school activities and school teams.'

Ziara opened her folder and found a piece of papyrus with instructions on how to open her locker, which was number 741. According to the instructions, if it was her first time using the locker, she was supposed to use her wand as a key and enter it into the slot. The locker will recognize her after the first try and if another person got hold of the wand, the locker will not open.

Next, there was the after-school activity selection sheet. As Ziara frowned and tried to make sense of the weird activities like wand-dueling and magic-median. The girl sitting behind her leaned over.

'Pssst, need some help with the after-school activities and school teams sheet?' She whispered.

'Sure, thanks a lot! None of these make sense!' Ziara replied.

But then the girl whispered, 'Well, tough, stupid. You'll have to figure it out yourself.'

'Hey, don't mind Ivy. She's mean to everyone, except Jennifer and her twin, Holly. I'll help you, I'm Diana Silverstorm, by the way.'

Ziara gratefully accepted Diana's offer, and with Diana's advice, she selected the wand-dueling class and the Magi-scouts. Diana told Ziara not to worry about try-outs as they were still a week away. The stack of forms on Ms. Siriena's desk was already growing taller and taller by the minute, as students picked their preferred activities, Ziara and Diana rushed to hand in theirs too.

The two new friends chatted for the rest of homeroom until the bell rang. Then, everyone charged out of the room, shoving each other around, including Ziara and Diana, who were rushing towards their next class - magic training with Ms. Circe, the most popular class of all, although the teacher was famed for her strictness.