A Series of Short Stories

Story #5 - A Room of Emotions

A/N: Hi again everyone! Sorry for not writing much recently, finals have taken a toll on me. But here's another short story, this time it's a fantasy one! This was also for my class. I hope you enjoy reading! Have a nice day!

The smell of food filled my head as I rushed across the flood of noisy teens. Groups of people were in every corner of the large room as I attempted to stride past them while holding my lunch.

"Hey, Ellis! I'm over here!" Across one of the waves of people, a small girl with bright red hair motioned me to come over. Holding my food, I rushed to the table she was resting at.

"Hey, Mari." I greeted her after setting my lunch tray on the table. We sat there as I noticed a large smile spreading across her face.

"Are you excited for today!?" Mari questioned me as she raised her voice in excitement.

"What? Um, what's today?" Quickly replying to her, I referenced back to the events of today until I realized what Mari was excited about. Learning new magic is something Mari would be thrilled about, but I never was.

"Silly, did you forget!? We get to learn new alchemy today," Mari used hand-motions as if symbolizing the nature of the magic us humans use these days, "Oh but of course you aren't excited. Let me guess, you learned them already?"

Mari changed her tone of voice to a sarcastic one as expected, everytime we learn new alchemy this exact situation happens. I nodded to her and sighed in annoyance.

"Well, I'm excited. Sorry, your parents make you do all this stuff before, but at least it's easy for you, right?" I became more annoyed as Mari spoke and I bit into my lunch. Once again, I nodded because that was the simple solution to Mari's words. She turned around and bit into her food as I saw another teenage boy walk over to our table with a small smile on his face. Arriving at our table, he quickly sat next to me and tossed his food to the table.

"Hi bro!" He excitedly greeted me with a smile.

"Hey, Alfie," I replied back while munching on my food.

The two people next to me continued chattering as I sat in silence. Compared to the noisy surroundings of the cafeteria, I preferred the peaceful classroom much more. I finished eating while Mari and Alfie were still blabbering away. Every once in a while, they munched on their food until it was all gone. The chat between the two friends was instantly interrupted as the strident bell rang and echoed the room full of chatter. Mari and Alfie stood up, still smiling, and grabbed their trays. The three of us arose as people slowly began leaving the larger room. Following the crowd of people, we made our way to the door and grabbed our stuff.

"What do you think we're learning today?" Mari questioned as we rushed through another flood of noisy teens.

"I'm not sure, but I don't want to learn any more magic today." Replying to Mari's question, Alfie grunted as he looked to the side.
"Why not Alfie? It's super cool!" Mari loudly exclaimed as she used her little hand motions to demonstrate her excitement on the subject.
"I suck at it." Alfie's expression changed as he looked at the ground and grunted.

"Nah, it just takes practice," Mari laughed it off as she tried to brighten the change of mood, "Those alchemy circles are hard to draw." Once Mari spoke the two of them looked at the ground as an awkward silence arose between the three of us.

"I believe we're learning elemental alchemy today." Attempting to break the silence, I quietly spoke with a semi-excited voice.

"Really!? That's awesome!" Mari replied, as excited as always.