One Year Before High School

Chapter 17

Maci collapsed on the couch.

The others soon walked in. Tanya's hair, usually neat and tidy, hung in straggles down her face. Carla, ever the uptight student, had her glasses crooked, and her hair messy. Even Ivy looked tired, a sheen of fatigue covering her face.

It had been a particularly bad day. Since midterms were coming up, the teachers all have been increasing the workload. Not that it was light in the first place.

"Gah!"

Maci tossed a pillow over head so no one heard her shout out her fustration into the soft, sofa decoration. "I can't take this anymore!" she shouted.

Though they rarely agreed, being on polar opposites in the personality spectrum, Carla found herself nodding her head. Suddenly, collapsing on the sofa with her didn't seem so bad.

"Mhm"

Ella sighed as she dropped her bag in the middle of the carpet and collapsed on top of a adjacent sofa. Soon, she was out cold. Faint snoring could be heard.

Ivy shook her head and scooped up her bag, then headed upstairs to probrably get a head start on her homework. She stumbled heavily up the stairs, and dissapeared into one of the rooms.

"How can she still have enough energy for homework?" asked Tanya, slightly out of breath from the day, to no one in particular. Surprisingly, it was Carla that answered.

"She's tough, I guess"

Tanya looked at her, then turned away to hide a small smile. It looks like they made up, she thought. It wasn't exactly a secret that Carla didn't like Ivy all that much; though no one commented on it. It was one of those things that was enough of an issue to be noticed, but not enough so that anyone could call out on it. Which means whenever something like this resolves itself, it was a breath of relief for everyone.

"So do you remember what Mrs. Lowe said?" asked Maci, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"About the test? I really don't want to" replied Emily dryly. She sat down on one of the couches, and ruffled through her homework, pulling out a crumpled piece of lined paper with what looked like notes.. Tanya shrugged, "I honestly can't care right now" she said, using "can't" instead of "don't".

"Oh right!"

Maci suddenly bolted upright, and faced Carla. "You're the last one!" she said, with no contex whatsoever.

"Last...one?" asked Carla, not understanding.

Maci nodded excitedly, "Yeah! Think about it. Ella and Ivy have Ice, I have Cartoon Physics, Tanya and Emily have Twin, you're the last one without a type of magic!"

Carla nodded as she realized what she was talking about, "Yes, but I don't know what mine is" she said, "And it's not like I can just use it"

"Worked for me" said Maci. Tanya and Emily chorused her thoughts. Even Ella nodded tentatively.

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 Carla sighed, and dropped her bag. She cupped her hands together tiredly, and focused haphazardly.

One minute

Two minutes

Three minutes

"This isn't work-"

"Try harder"

"Ugh"

Carla's frown deepened as she focused harder. Slowly, a few, small sparks flew out.

"Woah!"

Maci was grinning now, "C'mon Carls, you got this!"

Poof!

Immediantly, the dorm room was covered with a thick shroud of lavender mist. Carla coughed as purple, glittary fumes popped out of her chest. "That...does not taste good" she remarked.

"I think taste might be the least of our concerns" Tanya said dryly. Emily agreed her.

"What even was that?" asked Ella. No one answered. 

"I'm starting to think that you guys are all plotting against me" said Mrs. La'Lune upon the entry of the group. Maci smiled sheepishly, "What can I say?" she asked rehtorically. 

Mrs. La'Lune took Carla's hand in hers, and closed her eyes. A faint light emitted from hers. After a few minutes, she let go.

"Carla, are you from an earth family or a Fantasian family?" she asked. Carla shook her head in bewilderment, "Earth! I was born and raised on earth" she said. Mrs. La'Lune let go of her hand and sat back. "It seems you're a descendent of someone very powerful. You seem to have inherited a special type of recessive gene. Incredible, what were the chances of two descendents meeting on earth to conceive you?" she said, shaking her head.

"I don't follow" said Carla.

Mrs. La'Lune looked her square in the eyes, "It means you're an Ivory"

Only Ella held her breath at that. An Ivory? But Nola had said that Ivories were only the stuff of legend. How could there be one here?! And it was Carla?!

"Well, half-Ivory"

Mrs. La'Lune sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'm taking it you don't know what Ivories are?" she asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

Mrs. La'Lune countinued, "Well, Ivories are basically people that don't exactly have a limit to what specialties they can use. Every normal Iridescent can only use one type of magic, so to speak. Ivories are valuable because of this, and most of the time, people find out by themselves that they are Ivories, and don't tell anyone. To life a normal life as an Ivory is near impossible. I'm surprised you didn't notice earlier Carla"

Carla nodded, feeling suddenly overwhelmed by the information. "What do I do now?" she asked. Mrs. La'Lune shrugged, "Don't tell anyone. I would say keep this from your friends, but it seems a little too late for that" she said, nodding in the direction of the stunned group.

"Oh, and one more tidbit. When I say Ivories don't have a limit to what they can use, I meant full Ivories. You're obviously not so much a full Ivory as you are...a half. What happened when you tried to use magic?"

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"I...I think I blew up something"

"Mist then" she said, nodding, "Half-Ivories are either Jack-of-all-Trades, or specialize in a specific and remarkable specialty. No one has Mist magic here, if you haven't noticed, and it's because it doesn't come natrually to people." she said, "I actually had a quarter-Ivory student a few years back, lovely girl by the way"

Carla nodded, "So what do I do then?" she asked.

"Keep using Mist, but pass it off as making oxygen visible instead of making mist from the moisture in the air"

Carla nodded, again (she seemed to be doing a lot of nodding today), and thanked her. The stary-eyed group left, shutting the door behind them with an audible click.

"That's amazing!" shouted Maci as soon as she was out of hearing range. Carla didn't respond, still a little shocked and moving rather stiffly.

"I mean, Ivory! I didn't even know you could be an Ivory. And all that about genes and stuff...just woah"

Tanya and Emily wanted to tell Maci to maybe not fill Carla with too much info yet. After all, she had just learned something pretty important. But knowing her, she probrably wouldn't anyways, so they left it at that.

The chattering group headed back to their room, unaware that Stephany was listening.

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Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again!