Dragon Witch ✔️

44 - Beginning Magic

Prip. I scrambled to grab my ID, but it was already out of reach. My first day--no, my first ten minutes--and I was already screwed. Who else lost their ID, on the invisirails, on their first day of school? I couldn't even call Piper for help.

Or maybe I could. Grandma said that phones would work here. But what if I ended up dropping my whole backpack trying to get my cell phone? I was pretty sure the invisirails would stop eventually. Maybe I should just wait.

I get- Eva started to jump off my shoulder, but I grabbed her.

"Don't, you might get lost or run into someone else flying."

There weren't any stops. People just jumped off whenever they wanted to. Maybe I should risk taking out my phone or sending Eva to get help. Either way, I should have a plan. If I just grabbed at my backpack and unzipped it, things were sure to fly out. If Eva got caught up in the wind of this invisirail, she could get seriously hurt.

Something strange caught my eye.

What was that? It was flying toward me at an incredible speed. Small, transparent, glowing with hovering gold letters--it was my ID. It flew up and attached itself to the collar of my shirt. Apparently, that was a zipcord. An invisible, automatic puppy leash for my ID. They really did think of everything here.

I left it attached to my collar. It wasn't going anywhere. After a minute or two, gold light flashed, and I was on solid ground again. I stumbled off of the patch of cobblestone I'd landed on. If I stayed too long, I might have someone else land on top of me. The landing pad was directly to the left of a skyscraper with Beginning Magic over the door.

A little later, Piper appeared on the cobblestone patch.

"Any trouble getting here?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Not really."

Eva gave me an accusing look.

"Maybe it was a little troublesome. But we're here, so it wasn't too traumatizing." I nodded at the building. "How am I supposed to find my classroom? It's huge."

"Easy peasy. Just click on the map icon, then search for the classroom number." She skipped up the front steps to the Beginning Magic Building.

I followed her inside, messing with my ID. As soon as I found the right classroom, I clicked on it, and a green line appeared on the floor, stretching down the wide, marble-floored hallway. I stepped on the line. It curved to go over my foot. When I moved my foot away, the line flattened.

"Cool, right?" Piper had her ID out, too, and she seemed to be following the same line I was.

"Can everyone see it?"

"No, just you. Actually, no one can see anything that's displayed on your ID unless they have a special telepathic reader. Don't think you can sneak movies during lecture, though. Teachers can activate a blocker that disables everything but the basic ID features while you're in their class."

"Smart." I moved after her down the line. A little ways along, a blue line led off from the green line. "What's that?"

"It shows where the bathroom and water fountains are, if you want to take a quick stop on the way to class. If you see a yellow line, that's going to some kind of quick food shop convenience store thing."

She paused to skip around a group of satyrs loitering along one wall. "Ooh, and if you friend anyone in the comms app, then red lines will appear leading to your friends. You can turn off the extra lines if you want, but I would keep them unless you get way too many friends and it gets confusing."