The Magical Prologue:

43 2 0
                                    


[Edited version]

Last edited on: 2020/ 10/ 14

House Donatus Academy is truly, for the lack of a better word, unique.

A good amount of space of the grounds is taken by the big ass building of Donatus, like any school should.

There are an adequate amount of pubescent, hormonal students, as expected of any high school.

There are teachers, a principal, ground workers, top dogs and the lowly misfits.

It's a place of education, forcing students to go from the early, break of morning till the blistering heat of the afternoon.

In so many ways this school is like any other in its nearest vicinity, but in many more ways has Donatus made a nationwide reputation for itself with it's notoriously unusual nature.

Firstly there's the building which was built by the prestigious stargazer turned king, Aristaeus Zeid VII and his self-proclaimed wife Delamey Lumi.
Of course the young king didn't build the magnificent building to educate overly preppy princesses and future fuckboys of the elite society like it is known for today.

Oh no, his reason are much peculiar than that.

Aristeaus had conjured up the idea that he needed a safe house for his children and wife to live in, away from their royal duties and any dangers such a life may hold. So with the birth of the first Zeid child, he built the first wing of House Donatus and gifted it to his wife and children.

The name Donatus was quite fitting you see, for the Gothic giant of a building was a magnificent gift subtly disguised as a prison. Needless to say his eight children grew up in complete unexplained isolation.
Over the years as winter, spring, summer and autumn made its way through its marble-carved walls, Artisteaus's offspring continued their father's vision of adding two more wings, to the prestigious structure.

Even today House Donatus towers over the other overly well-groomed houses of Elizabeth Crescent with its four stories and ancient stone exterior.
Its intricate towers, twenty-seven ostentatiously decorated rooms, heavy draped purple velvet curtains, antique furniture and precisely placed vertical windows adds to its architectural worth. The halls are even decorated with oil paintings of Aristaeus and his offspring; cementing his creepily documented bloodline's existence in the minds of the students. Frame after frame of pale, pasty faces glare down at any passers with noses held high in grace and eyes rimmed with purple. Although they don't move they almost seem to be breathing when you stop to admire one.

Surrounding the striking building is an somber water fountain, depicting a terrible war scene between a cyclops and a gargoyle. The horrendous fountain was circled by a neat cobblestoned path, green lawns and gardens tended to till perfection. There're also ten stone tables scattered all over the grounds... almost as an afterthought.
And like the gates to hell, lies the entrance of a tenebrous maze made solely out of hedges of green and deliberately overgrown trees that marks the end of the school's social area.

It is a known fact that the grounds are more groomed than the 710 students that can capacitate its person.
You could say that with the generous designs and touches paired with the old age clearly visible, it gave off an enchanted feel.

Oh and Hera forbid, you forget about the gardens! That too, is just as notoriously festooned as that of the school building.

Everywhere you look you're greeted by the overly trying sight of pink, red and white orchids, frangipani and the periwinkle wink of jacaranda trees plotting the neatly blocked off soil.

But somewhere in a distant corner, precisely covered by a thick gathering of pine trees and seven skyscraper kweper trees, lays a weather beaten structure over-shadowed by the Donatus's impressive thirty-four meter height.
This structure, unlike the Donatus, only has two floors, a slight Netherland-like build and faded red, cream and yellow brick walls. Vines of ivy and patches of moss decorates its filthy grayish bay windows, slightly crumbling bricks, akker-wood paneling and stone carved pillars. The muddy grass and messy footpath left quite the contrast against the Donatus's prestigious and perfectly preserved glory.

All in all the place looks like a damn castle for goodness sake!
Who am I kidding, it looks like a picture straight from a fairy book.

The only difference is that instead of friendly fairies floating magically in and out of the building all you can see are rich kids walking from one dreaded class to the next.

And that leads us back to the 710 inhabitants of the school. Donatus is a regular school, but for the elite... and those unfortunate enough to have a higher IQ than what is deemed the standard of the "less fortunate's" intelligence. Every year there are only and specifically 710 students- never more and never less.
It's a private school and only takes in the top of the ivy league crop and a scholarship kid here and there to look like a 'caring institution'.
Something about letting the public know that Donatus is a charitable school, but still the crème de la crème or something equally stupid and French.

No one truly knows how this royal house became the prestigious educating system it is today, but trust me when I say that it is a gem in it's own right. The school is known for being calm... almost too calm. Drama between the students or teachers are pretty much unheard of.
Scuffles in the gym lockers? Well, I'd never!
Disagreements between classmates? Don't even try it.
Two alpha males fighting over a girl? Gentlemen don't fight.
Blowing up the lab, because you suck at science? Oh no, dear sir, we're all educated youths!

This school is known for its record of scarcely any scandals and being one hundred and seven percent painstakingly boring! Or mummy and daddy has a good grip on the throats of their PR teams.

Nevertheless all that was about to change on one specific first day of school...

_____________________________________________

Word count: 1036

Fifth time's a Charm《Being Rewritten》 [BOOK*ONE]Where stories live. Discover now