Strange Aeons [Book 1]

15. Back to School [part II]

The Archangel Gabriel High School was an old Bostonian building of the late 1800s, and it had been a school for as much as long. Its hallowed halls, its decorated staircases, the air of quiet and severity of it all was awe-inspiring.

The Order had bought it many years before, and kept the front of a private catholic school, so exclusive that nearly no Bostonian ever got into it at all. Thousands of rich, posh people lined the registrations, but got the kind but blunt letter that refused entry to their top-grades children.

Students came and go, anyways. It was very well populated, from teenagers from everywhere and had an extensive and well-kept personnel log. Adults and teenagers came and went, and by the look of it they even had a nursery for the personnel's children.

No one was allowed past the strict security at the entrance of the school. Metal-detectors scanned everyone who entered, and guards were at every entrance and exit. Rumors about the school hosting the children of famous diplomats and stars were more than spread around Boston, even if nothing was ever confirmed.

Banshee had expected the academy to be a place of wonders, with people walking in corridors with all kind of magic contraptions, illusions, summonings around them. She thought every classroom was, in fact, a magic environment in which students spent the whole day draining their magic reserves to master their powers, followed by a flurry of familiars, spiritual or manifested.

She had hated the idea the instant Logan had tried to explain anything about academy at all. From the name. She had never been a bookworm and had endured through her high school just enough to be old enough to work and drop out.

It was a school. In every bit a school. The teenagers had their uniforms, perfectly in set with the idea of catholic school, from the dark red jumpers to the dark green pants for the boys and skirts for the girls, white socks and black shoes and all. For the adults, who clearly couldn't go in for the masquerade themselves, they had worker uniforms with the school's logo right on the heart.

Banshee passed through the metal detector with a touch of nostalgia on her face, and then proceeded towards the first classroom, as shown on her timetable. She had a clean crew uniform and no kind of backpack at all, unlike most of the other students who were storming the classroom.

It was a classroom. Quite a normal one. An Amphitheatre with long benches and desks, already lined up with people. Speakers and a slide projector, and the distinctive smell of human sweat completed the room.

At least she wasn't the older one. Sitting at the desks, here and there, the writhing mass of teenagers was spotted with older people in worker's uniforms like her. All people who had their Kindling late in life. There were so many ways magic could be kindled, in a lifetime. That one of them were severe traumas didn't help the never really increasing magic population.

Or its overall inner balance.

She couldn't miss Irissa if she wanted to. She and two other girls entered the room, catching everyone's eye as if they were moths to a flame. Irissa was gorgeous, and that much they already knew, but hadn't chosen her posse to shine in comparison, rather than by resound. They were the three most beautiful girls in the whole room, and they perfectly knew.

They moved, chatting, towards the first-row desks, and Banshee sighed deeply. Then, she stood up from her place, and went down the stairs, her hands buried in her pockets. Without a word, she crashed down in the only empty place, right beside Irissa.

The three stopped chatting instantly, as any wild animal when an unknown beast entered their territory and focused on her with the eyes of birds of prey. Irissa's became more intense by the second, as slowly she started to focus on who she was. Until she recognized her.

«You!» she exclaimed, dramatically.

«I.» Banshee replied, shrugging away the drama with the grace of someone who had lived with Chico for ten years.

«What are you doing here? You're a Coven Mage!» she asked, already defensive, gesturing her friends to remain calm, as if she controlled them with a simple gesture of her hand anyway.

«Ay, there's the rub. Apparently, they discovered I never had a day of academy on me shoulders. Ever.» Banshee smiled, innocently. «So, I was given mandatory lessons for at least six months.»

«This is advanced Destroy! If you didn't do a day in the Academy how can you be in advanced classes?»

«Lassie, I've got ten years o' experience on me ass. I need to control grown powers, not grow them. Basic classes are useless.» Banshee waved at the two, now even more suspicious girls beyond Irissa. «Hi girls. I'm Banshee.»

«I'm talking to you.» Irissa said, but her voice had lost some of her decision, as if doubts had already started to float in her head. «You're not here to take revenge on me?»

«Revenge?»

«For the trial. And... what happened in it.» she said, her voice trembling in uncertainty.

«Why would I want revenge on ye? Justin chose ye at the last possible moment, why should I take it out on ye?»

«Staccato said... you're petty and vengeful people, and that we should pay attention to you. That you wanted to hurt us.» she revealed. Banshee raised an eyebrow. «and he is always looking out for me, so he didn't say it just for kicks.»

She liked her.

«Well, I can be petty and vengeful, but I'm just here to follow me classes and get back to me life.»

«Then why did you come here to me? Why didn't you stay away?» Not only she was below average in her grades, the girl didn't have a smidge of political or subterfuge grace. Straight like an arrow, and ready to take no shit from anyone, at least at school.

«Listen, yes, I'm here to get to know you. Just like I wanted to get to know River, even if in a less biblical manner than he'd like. I came here because, as funny as it is, ye're the only face I know around this class, and I was terrible at school. Terrible. Worst grades in the whole school. I don't see why here it should be different, so, just wanted to bond a bit. If ye don't feel like it, I'll remove meself.» Banshee replied to candor with candor, and saw the genuine surprise appear on Irissa's perfect face and eyes. She was curious, and it was quite evident. But still cautious.

«You just want to befriend me to get to Staccato.»

«No.» Banshee shrugged, not lying at all. «Although I think that after all that trial bullshit, we could all get much more into letting bygones be bygones and see if we could be friends, than hold grudges like the most fuckers around here.»

She saw one of the girls giggle behind her hands at her language. Irissa's eyes remained incredibly serious, though, while she pondered her words. Then, she turned to sit right, just seconds before the teacher entered class.

«I can't tell you not to sit here.» she decided, with the demeanor and tone of a queen with a subject. «But I'm keeping my eye on you. One slip, and this bullshit about friendship is gone, forever.» she warned her, extremely serious.

Now she just had to survive the lessons.