What do you think of when you hear the words "magic school"? Hogwarts. Probably Hogwarts. Or a bunch of Satan-worshippers gathered in a room learning how to sacrifice people. Well, both of those are wrong. (Although I promise, we're closer to Hogwarts. We don't eat human remains or anything.)
Crystallo Academy of Magic & Astrology is not really like either of those. I mean, we learn magic, but we're hidden in these secluded mountains in Colorado, and we don't have quidditch, which makes me sad. Sometimes we play sports in zero-g though, which is nice.
In the world we live in, you're either a mage or a regular. It's in your DNA. It's a genetics thing. You're either lucky or you're not. If someone in your family is a mage, you're more likely to be one.
Having magic abilities is pretty cool if I do say so myself. But places like the Westboro Baptist Church and other crazy organizations are always after you. They hate gays and mages, which is especially bad for me since I'm both. Whoops. I haven't told anyone about the gay part, not even my best friend Erica. I think I might be bi or something, I don't think I'm completely gay. I'm really questioning everything right now, and I can't seem to find contentedness with any of the labels I stick on myself. Why the fuck am I like this?
Anyway, back to the magic & shit. I'm about to enter my 7th year as a mage, which I'm pumped for, mostly because we get our familiars this year, and we're getting way more into astrology and how it deals with stars. I love stars.
My name literally means "star" in Latin. Stella. I repeat it in my head. Stella Stella Stella. I like my name. It's aesthetically pleasing. I've been obsessed with stars since I was little, so I feel like it fits. During the summer, I make my mom take me on drives out to rural places where I stick my head out of the window and stare up at the night sky while the wind whips my hair around, watching the twilight fade into a dark abyss of sparkles. It's simply euphoria.
My mom finally stops in front of my school, and I get out of the car and stare at the massive building, wondering how we've managed to conceal it so well for this long. A lot of magic must have been involved. As we step out of the car and unload all of my suitcases, my mom starts tearing up. She does this every year.
"Mom, it's okay, you're gonna see me for Thanksgiving and Christmas and spring break and all of summer, and we can text and FaceTime and—" I'm cut off as I'm squished into a hug.
"I know, I know. I'm just gonna miss you so much." She's already freely crying as if I've just died and she's at my funeral. She pulls away a little, with her hands still on my shoulders. "I'm so proud of you." She says tearfully, and then attacks my face with at least 86 kisses.
"Mom, mom! Okay, I get it! Love you too!" I check to make sure no one else is around. I'm not too embarrassed of my mom, it's nice to know she loves me, but when she gets like this, it is a tad bit embarrassing.
"Let me at least help you get unpacked."
"It's fine, seriously—"
"Stella, if there's one thing I know about you, it's that if I'm not here to make sure you unpack, you'll procrastinate doing it for at least 5 months." She's got me there.
3 hours and a lot of magic later, everything is unpacked. Several fluffy blankets and a thick duvet (the same one that Phil Lester has, whoops), are piled on my bed. My little bamboo plant and all of my other houseplants are sitting around my half of the room. I feel bad, as these plants are only alive due to copious amounts of magic. I am a terrible plant mom. My clothes are all in my dresser on my side of the room, and my posters are everywhere. I've charmed them to be like little gifs.
Luke and Darth Vader continuously battle in a loop on one of them, while Phil tackles Dan into a hug repeatedly on the other one. Hayley Williams winks over and over again on another one, and Gal Gadot walks through a battlefield as Wonder Woman, dodging bullets and just generally being smoking hot on another.
It feels homey and normal again. Almost. Erica hasn't arrived yet, so her half of the room is eerily empty. She should be here soon. My mom offers to get food from the nearest McDonald's so we can eat it and talk before she makes the long trip back to our house, even though the nearest McDonald's is at least half an hour away. I know this is her excuse to get me to let her stay longer, but I love my mom and I'm not gonna pass up free food, so I agree.
As soon as she pulls away, I feel bad for agreeing to consume more calories. This past summer I fractured my leg, and even though my mom, one of the best witches I know, was able to charm it better, the process still took a while, and for a long time afterwards, I wasn't able to do anything strenuous to my ankle, so my streak of exercising and eating healthy ended abruptly. I hadn't started it back up yet. I was chubby again.
You're sugarcoating your words, just like you're sugarcoating your food. Using adjectives like "chubby." Putting it lightly so you don't have to deal with it. You are fat,
F-A-T. As if you didn't already look ugly enough compared to all of your friends.
I shove the bad thoughts back down again. This is a happy time, and for right now, I'm not gonna let them ruin it. I can always lay awake later tonight and think about them. Just not right now.
I hear footsteps in the hall, and stick my head out of the door to see none other than the one and only Erica and her mom walking towards our shared dorm. Erica immediately drops all of her luggage and runs to hug me, and her mom is about to reprimand her for it, but she gets a smile on her face as soon as she sees me.
"Stella! Hi!" She waves, and I wave back, although it's kind of hard when I have Erica in a death grip. I help her pick up a few of her suitcases and carry them to our room, and then we're immediately happily conversing about anything and everything. Erica just gets me, you know? Better than anyone else will. She's gotten used to me and my wild personality.
My mom arrives again and we eat while she talks to Erica's mom and I talk to Erica. Then we set up Erica's half of the room, which looks extremely similar to mine as we are basically the same person.
Well, not really. She has a shy, cute personality, and everybody likes her, whereas I'm insecure, so I cover it up with a loud, annoying, crazy persona. Whoops. We have the same interests, though, and luckily I haven't driven her away yet.
My mom says more tearful goodbyes, and then makes me promise over and over again to text her every day. I agree, and then watch her drive off into the night. Part of me gets this feeling of dread and paranoia, hoping she'll get home safe and being terrified of living without her, even if it's just for 9 months with breaks in between.
"Let's see if Molly and Autumn are here yet," I suggest, trying to find something to take my mind off of my family. I can't be sappy. No vulnerability here. Just bravado. Erica agrees to try and find them, excited to see our friends.
Molly is almost as tall as me and has long cherry red hair that she styles in 2 braids. She is quiet, but always has the best book recommendations, and she has a good taste in music. Autumn is shorter than Erica, who I'm a few inches taller than, so I sort of tower over Autumn. She has short blonde hair and freckles, and you can see the dark brown roots of her hair, but somehow it makes her look cuter?? They go together like Erica and I do, even though they don't call each other best friends like we do. What can I say, we're sappy like that.
On the way to their dorm (which is inconveniently on the other side of our hall of dorms), we run into Daisy, another one of our friends. Daisy has short, dark brown hair that's in a slightly messy, almost-pixie cut. She wears a lot of makeup, although she's not spectacular at applying it. She likes the same shows as me, so she's cool. Her real name is Daisybelle, though, which is kind of crazy, even to me. I've come to the conclusion that her mom was probably one of those women who married someone with magical blood, and then decided that everything she did had to sound all ~mystical~ and ~witchy~, so she gave her child a name that sounded like it came straight from Wicked.
Daisy immediately starts talking to Erica, and doesn't acknowledge me for a little bit, but then she turns to me.
"Oh hi, Stella! How was your summer?" She says, although I'm not sure if she really cares. At least she's talking to me.
"Uh, good. Same as always. Our vacation was cool though. I got to see my aunt."
"Ahaha, you're so lucky! Your family is so rich. I'm so poor. We can't even go on a vacation!"
I know that's a lie, because she gets new clothes mailed to her from her mom every week, and she once found 50 dollars in the back of her car, but I pretend to believe her. However, my awkward ass has blanked and I have no idea what to say.
"Oh... um, okay." I silently berate myself for being such an awkward pile of fuck.
"Do you guys wanna help me decorate my dorm?"
"Oh, um, we were actually just going to find Molly and Autumn." I say, before Erica and her oversized heart offer to help, which will cost us a few hours and not being able to see any of our other friends.
"Oh, okay! I'll come too!" I wasn't really expecting that answer, but now that I think of it, I should've seen it coming.
"Oh, um, okay" the three of us start making our way down the hall to their room. When we get there, Molly's half is already decorated, and it looks super aesthetically pleasing, as always. They're both hanging up posters over on Autumn's half.
"Need any help?" I offer. Daisy shoots me a dirty look, and I can't tell if it's playful or not. In all honesty, it kinda scares me.
"No, we're aaaaalmostttt done." Molly says, stretching out the almost until they actually are done getting it stuck down to the wall.
"Looks good," I remark as I take a look around the room. As Molly steps down from the chair she's on, I give her a huge bear hug, then give Autumn one as well. Autumn hangs on for a bit and blushes, but i don't read too far into it. She's probably touch-starved. Autumn genuinely does not like most people. There are a lot of people who claim to hate humanity, but Autumn genuinely does. The only people she really likes are me, Molly, Erica, and Daisy, as Daisy claims to be her best friend. They've known each other since 4th year.
Here's another fact about Erica and I: we transitioned here in 6th year, aka last year. We've known each other since 1st year at our old school, a private Christian academy that only taught light, pure magic and claimed that astrology is evil. Don't tell my mom, but I like it much better here.
We catch up and talk about stupid memes and pop culture until 11:55, when Erica and I sprint back to our dorm just before midnight. Well, more like Erica sprints and I try to keep up. She plays softball and is insanely fast.
The first thing I do when we get back to our room is lay out my outfit for tomorrow, the first day of school. It's literally just a tøp hoodie and shorts, but I like it. We don't have a school uniform, luckily, but you have to wear a tie with a color that shows what year you're on, so the teachers and staff can make sure you're in the right part of the massive school. The 7th years' color is a dark purple. Other than that, we have a pretty lax dress code.
The shorts I've chosen are gonna show off my fat, heavily band-aided legs, but I don't care. My arms, legs, and sometimes face are always covered in band-aids because I'm a stupid clumsy fucker. But all my little scratches and bruises are worth it, because I got them all while having fun.
I'm worried about school tomorrow, but I decide to cover it up with excitement. Whatever happens, it's just 7th year. I'll realize later that that's a stupid mindset, but as of right now, whatever.
It's 1:30 when I finally tuck myself into my bed. "Night, Erica." I mumble sleepily.
It takes about 5 seconds, but I finally hear her mutter a quiet "Night, Stella." From across the room. I fall asleep contentedly, although I'm nervous for the next day.
