AngelBird Academy

 Closing the trunk after she pulled her luggage out, Crystal walked toward the gates that boarded the school she had always dreamed of going to. She drew a deep breath in through her nose and smiled, her eyes fluttering open. The smell of cigarettes and old coffee from inside the cab left her nostrils as the sweet smell of fresh-cut grass and lilacs filled her nose.

As the taxi drove off she stood in front of the open iron gates, her hand trailing up the bars, feeling the age that grew on it. AngelBird Academy has been around for about three hundred years, well, at least that's what the brochure had said that she had gotten in third grade on the field trip to the Posh high school.

Fear stuck in Crystal's throat when she thought about all the students going here, what if they don't like me, what if they think I'm weird. She began to fiddle with her hair as a nervous habit, but she had to swallow the fear down. She had studied for an average of nine hours every night to get ahead in her classes, she did almost every extracurricular activity she could just so that she could get into AngelBird, while mass-majority of the students here only got her because mommy and daddy paid for them too. A smile formed on her face, from ear to ear.

just one foot in front of the other she reminded herself, just take one step then follow it with another.

one step, "here I go," she giggled to herself, then she took another, and -

"Get out of the way!"

She looked to her right and there was nothing, there was nothing. To her left there was a blur, then blackness.

It hurt to open her eyes like they were sewn shut, her head pounding, her ears ringing, everything felt gone.

"Hey, you okay?" I blurry figure hovering above her, a halo shining above it.

Her hand raises to the sky, holding the face of the figure, "wow, I've only left home for a day and I'm already dead," her thumb grazed his cheekbone, "are you an angel?"

The figure chuckled, "no, but my father is, but you're not dead yet princess, you aren't getting out of this hell that easily," a hand came down into her perspective. "c'mon." she took the hand into hers as it pulled her up to her feet. her stomach sank and her head spun more, her grip grew tighter around the figure's hand. "hey, you okay?"

Crystal held her head as if we're actually going to help her vision steady, "not really".

As her vision came back she saw a boy, about eight inches taller than her, maybe afoot, he had stubble all over his chin, around his mouth, and the further it went towards his ears it faded; one eye was an aqua green color like the beaches of Cali, and the other like the sky that hung above Crystal; his hair was like sandy curls, not too tight, not too loose, drawn into what all the girls these days called a quiff, but Crystal just called it an up-do; his eyebrows were sculpted into perfect bends, and on his left eyebrow a scar dipped into his skin, slitting the end of the brow. Crystal knew that people were doing that as a new trend or style, at least that's what people at her old school were doing, but his wasn't to wow all those around him. his nose wasn't too wide, but it also wasn't thin, it was like a swoop nose; his lips were a perfect color of rose dust, and they weren't chapped even though the late summer heat was beating down on the two of them. He had a blue birthmark that ran from his left side of his face from his hairline, down his face, and down his neck, disappearing under his shirt. 

she realized that she was staring too long when the guy started to wave his hands in her face, "Hey, new-girl. Earth to new-girl, ". Her head began to spin again, she blinked her eyes hard, trying to stabilize again.

"sorry about that" her voice was small, not even sure he could hear her, but if she spoke any louder she knew it'd hurt if she did.

"It's all good", he kicked his skateboard up.

"What makes you think I'm a new-girl?" she asked.

"when the luggage kind of gives it away, and you're not in uniform"

"wait, y'all wear uniforms? I did not read about that anywhere" Crystal looked down at her BREAKING NEWS: I DON'T CARE t-shirt and her pale washed jean-shorts, plucking her shirt between her fingers, ashamed she didn't have any uniforms. She looked up at him, he was also in shorts, he came down to his knees, and a white tank-top. "wait, you're not wearing one either." she fixed her luggage to her side, "so either you're a rebel student or your bull shitting me." she smiled.

"You catch on really quick, don't you, new-girl?"

"As much as I appreciate the pet-name, skater-boy, but my name is Crystal."

"Crystal?" she nodded, "Crystal what?"

"I don't share mine first," she winks and smiles, "and I'd offer you a handshake, but you helped me up" she chuckled. 

"my names Jason Michaels, but people call me Jace," he set his hands on his hips in a matter-of-a-fact manner. "Now yours 'Crystal'"

"Crystal Black," her eyes widened and she began to giggle, trying to keep it back but couldn't, "did you just quote Fault In Our Stars?"

His face became red, "n-no, I don't know any human movies" he stammered.

"Okay then" she smiled and looked toward the academy, "you wanna show me around?"

"Sure, New-Girl".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking into the main hall, Crystal looked up to the ceiling in amazement; it was better than she remembered. The pillars were more of a pearl glimmer, the halls were higher, but now there were lockers, benches next to all the stairwells. She looked up through the dome and slightly blinded, she could only see the angels on the ceiling, almost moving. She smiled and walked in a circle, back and forth. 

As she walked, he bumped into something - someone, a clatter fell to the ground.

"Hey, watch it!" the voice snapped and she looked in front of her, a little higher, making eye contact with a boy, a little taller than Jace, maybe by a few inches. His hair was black, but in the light, it looked dark brown, his hair was spiked, two were what looked like ears, they were ears. The boy made eye contact with her and shut his mouth; he leaned down to the floor, picking up drawing, charcoal utensils, pencils. She leaned down and helped pick it up. 

"I'm so sorry," the boy didn't answer, snatched it all away, and left. "who was that?" she looked towards, Jace.

He let out a sigh, "that was Berman Mau"

"Mau, like the-"

"The Chinese Zodiac? Yeah, he's the cat,"

She looked toward the exit and felt a pang of sadness