The Gateway

The Gateway (cont.)

Eventually, everyone but Belle gathered up outside their History class, and their professor was a bit confused. "O-oh, is something wrong?" he asked.

"Uh, n-nothing, we just..." Sabine began before they all just disappeared immediately. They reappeared in the magic college, just off campus next to a store that sold potion bottles and accessories for witches. "...Well, that was...!"

"Yeah, you don't need to finish." Olli sighed.

They decided to chill out a bit after all that fighting they'd just done. The students were gone--maybe they were on their own campus/ Maybe they had their own Gateway. None of them were sure.

"I should be studying...I still have my actual books." Belle pulled out her non-magical books.

"What do you mean actual books?" Olli looked inside his bag. "...oh, yeah, right, we have all this boring stuff in our bags..."

"Boring? You mean useful. We aren't going to stay here forever." Belle replied as Sabine and Shouhei looked through their bags and silently wished they wouldn't have gone through with their non-magical schoolbooks.

"Hey, uh, did...I...just see you go through the Gateway?" asked a kid in armor, walking up to them.

"...Um...maybe? What's...with the armor?" 'I didn't know other people knew the Gateway was a thing!' Olli was a little panicked and then the others got what was happening and all shared the same panicky looks.

"My powers. I'm a Metal user. I've got Liquefy." He noticed the blank looks. "...Oh, uh, you haven't studied Metal?"

"...None of us are Metal users..." said Sabine quietly.

"Oh, my bad! I should've known from your uniforms. Basically, I can take anything metal and turn it into liquid or molten metal. I can shape it however I want, then turn it solid again. I made this armor myself and I've been wearing it around for defense and training." He extended his hand. "I'm Calvin by the way."

"Sabine..." Surprisingly, she was first.

"Belle." "Shouhei." "Olli!" "Cosette!" And the others went right after her.

"So, you guys just went through the Gateway." Calvin said, smiling and taking off his helmet to show off side-swept brown hair that was very messy from being in the helmet. His face was a bit freckled and he was a little tan. He pulled a braid out of the back of his armor. "Ugh, that braid always gets stuck. Anyway...you guys are also 'transfer' students, huh?"

"...Yeah." Belle was the most shocked of all of them as they nodded.

"We should talk more often. It's been weird adjusting to my magic and all, but I can give you guys pointers if you need it."

"How new are you, actually?" Olli wondered.

"I've been here about a year now."

"We have not been here that long. It's been about half a year--how do the semesters start here?"

"It's year-round, so if you wanna enroll, you stay here. All the time. Apart from the occasional adventures around the school, other campuses, landmarks in the magic world, the Wildlands...It's basically j--"

"The Wildlands?" asked Sabine.

"Uh, nothing, never mind!" Calvin got very panicked.

"No, I wanna hear about this! What are the Wildlands?" Olli cried.

"None of you need to hear about that right now." Dean Fouster appeared, walking up to them. "I was wondering when you would come back next. I've missed you all."