Gemstone Academy

Prologue

       The window to the spacious office was open, and a cool breeze swept through the room.  A paperweight was placed on top of the documents on the desk to keep them from blowing all over the place.  The headmaster had asked for these documents to be gone through, but they sat there untouched.

        A man in his early 30s with long golden hair and matching eyes sat behind the desk, with his feet up.  He looked at the documents grudgingly.  He knows he should go through them eventually, because he had to.  They were the enrollment papers for this year's new first-year students. The man had been working at this school for a few years now, and at the beginning of each11 year his least favorite thing to do was go through enrollment papers.  It could be so boring and tedious.

        He sighed and looked down at his phone, which had received a text from his wife asking if he'd be home for his daughter's birthday.  Of course he'd be home for his daughter's birthday. He wasn't a monster.  Although, sometimes people did call him a monster.  Usually only when they disagreed with him.  Or when he was scolding his students. Except, his students were a bit more creative.  They could come up with more vulgar terms than just a plain old monster.

       A knock came at the door disturbing the peace and quiet of the office. "Come in!" The man called.

        A man with graying blonde hair and bright blue eyes, which were covered by thin rectangular glasses, came into the office.  His eyes swept the room then finally landed on the untouched pile of documents.

The man with glasses sighed and shook his head disapprovingly. "I see you didn't look through the enrollment papers like I asked you to."

"I was just about to get to them," The golden eyed man lied. "What should I get my daughter for her birthday?" He asked attempting to change the subject.

"I don't know," The man with glasses said. "I don't know the kind of things your daughter likes."

"What loads of help you are," The gold-eyed man said taking his feet off the desk and sitting up.

"You really should look through those enrollment papers.  I think they may interest you." Obviously the daughter thing didn't deter the older man from the original topic.

The man with the gold hair sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. "I have this odd feeling," he said completely ignoring the man with the graying hair. "This... really... odd ...feeling."

"Oh good, I love it when you have feelings."

"C'mon, Old Man, even you without your enhanced senses should see there's something coming.  The atmosphere outside and all around us has completely changed."

"I assure you, I haven't noticed any atmosphere changes.  But I can guess why you're having odd feelings."

"Really?  Why?"

"Why don't you look through those enrollment papers?  I think that'll answer your question."

The man behind the desk glared at the blue-eyed man.  He felt as if this was a cruel trick to get him to look at the enrollment papers.  But curiosity got the better of him, and he picked up the documents and started pawing through them.

Nothing of interest popped out at him yet.  All he saw was just normal looking students.  There was a tough looking girl with a pixie haircut, a boy with shaggy brown hair whom he already knew, and a girl with long black hair and bright green eyes that he also knew, and a girl with ghostly like features, even though she was human.

The man's gold eyes looked up at the older man, who was now studying the books in the office. "I don't see anything that's interested me yet."

"Keep looking, you'll find it," The older man said waving a lazy hand in his direction.

He sighed and went back to the papers.  No, she's normal.  No, seen him before.  No, she seems ordinary.  He stopped flipping through the papers abruptly when something finally caught his attention. Oddly enough, it was one of the few files without a picture.  Only a name was written on top.

"Elizabeth Huntress," He whispered.

"Ahh, finally found the file, did you?" The man with the glasses said stepping up to the desk.

"Why didn't you tell me she was coming this year?"

"I told you to look through the enrollment papers," The older man said shrugging.

"Oh.  How incredibly annoying you are.  Well, you're right.  This most definitely explains my odd feeling."

His eyes scanned the paper on Elizabeth Huntress.  It had all of her personal information listed, along with what classes she would be in this year.

"How interesting," He whispered to himself.

The wind picked up blowing his long golden hair into his face.  He set the papers back under the paperweight and swept his hair up into a messy ponytail.

"Just wait until I tell my wife," He said chuckling to himself.

"I'm sure you have other people to tell other than your wife," The man with the graying hair scolded.  But there was a twinkle in his eyes that said he expected nothing less of the younger man sitting at the desk.

"Oh, I know.  I'll be sure to tell them as soon as I can. I'm sure they'll be most disappointed in me if I didn't tell them. After all, now I know for sure, this is going to be quite an interesting year."

The man with the blue eyes smiled. "It sure is."