The Magnus Institute

Chapter One

Disclaimer: all characters belong to Rusty Quill and Jonny Sims

Jon stretched, attempting to bring his focus back to the paper in front of him. The letters blurred, ducking and weaving into odd spirals that made no sense. He sighed, leaned back, and rubbed his eyes. He knew that he was meant to be studying, but he was just so damn tired. He cracked one eye open to check the LED screen of his alarm clock. 2:33. He wasn't getting any sleep tonight.
    He craned his neck to make sure his roommate was still asleep. He was. At the beginning of the year he had worried that rooming with Martin Blackwood would have been unbearably awkward, as he'd heard from mutual friends that Martin was "hopelessly in love with him" (their words, not his). For a time, Jon had considered asking him out, but never could muster the courage. But that had been last year, and there hadn't been any of the residual feelings that he had feared would appear. At least not from his end. Jon didn't know if Martin still had feelings for him, and doubted that even if he did that Jon would be able to tell. He had this nasty habit of repressing his feelings that made it extremely hard to pick up on what others are feeling as well.
    After a few more minutes of watching Martin's form rising and falling gently, Jon got up and shuffled to the other side of the room, where he kept a coffee maker. He filled and turned on the percolator as quietly as possible, not wanting to get a berating from his roommate. He stared out the window at the sprawling fields of Kent, trees stretching long shadows in the light of the moon. A dark river cut an indigo gash through the field, snaking all the way to the sea. From his window, he couldn't see any of the other wings of the estate, which made him feel strangely alone. He sighed and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the counter. 2:56.
    The coffee maker beeped loudly, signaling the coffee was ready. Jon cursed and rushed over to unplug the device and stop the infernal beeping. He sighed in relief when he grasped the plug in his hand, and nervously looked over at Martin. The other boy was still fast asleep. Jon let out a small chuckle, and started rooting around for a clean mug. He pulled one with the school's logo, and filled it to the brim with steaming black coffee.
    Jon sat back down at his desk, getting ready to go back to studying. As he looked down at his history textbook, he took an absent minded sip of his coffee and almost yelled in pain. His entire mouth was scalded, he had forgotten how hot it was. He grumbled angrily to himself, cursing his stupidity, looking for a clear patch of desk to put down the mug, finally giving up and setting it on top of last week's maths on the far corner of the desk.
    He absolutely could not concentrate on his homework. It was something about an old British Architect, Robert something. He'd ask Tim at breakfast, he'd probably know all about this Robert fellow, being the architecture junkie he was. Tim loved old architecture, and was constantly telling Jon all about the latest book he'd read. Jon would pretend to be annoyed and protest that he had to work on some form of homework or another, but he secretly loved watching how Tim's eyes lit up when they were deep in conversation. How he seemed to be constantly smiling, how his hands could never stay still as though he had so much excitement and couldn't get it out fast enough...
    Jon shook his head. Stop thinking about Tim, he chided himself, you're supposed to be doing homework. He glanced out the window, and saw light hitting the tops of the trees. How much time had passed? He checked the alarm clock again. 4:53. How had he been distracted for that long? Jon gulped down his now lukewarm coffee and rushed to get ready for the day.

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    "Have you heard the news?"
    Jon looked up as Sasha James sat across from him, plopping her breakfast trey on the table and almost spilling her orange juice.
"No, what's happened?" Jon asked, closing his maths workbook.
"Ms. Robinson's gone missing."
Ms. Robinson was the history teacher, a severe old woman who never missed a day of work. She was notorious among students and staff alike for being strict with her students but a bit of a rule breaker herself when it came to administrative things. For her to be gone, something horrible must have happened.
"Great, no history test today!" Timothy Stoker gleefully said as he took his place next to Jon.
Sasha rolled her eyes. "Of course that's all you can think of, Tim. What if she's in trouble?"
"Not my problem," Tim said through a mouthful of eggs.
Sasha rolled her eyes and through her crumpled up straw paper at him, which he dodged easily. She giggled and took a bite of her bagel.
Sasha had smooth, amber coloured skin and honey-golden eyes that sparkled when she laughed. Her hair was dark and curly, normally styled in a low ponytail tied with a dark red ribbon. She wore high waisted burgundy corduroy pants and a black ribbed turtleneck. She was undoubtedly beautiful, but was far too smart to get involved with anyone at this school.
Tim had lighter skin and darker eyes than Sasha, but was just as stunning. He kept his ebony hair relatively short, but it still flopped into his eyes when he wasn't paying attention. He was a shameless flirt, but hadn't had any serious relationships that Jon was aware of. Even more reason for him not to catch feelings...
The three of them, along with Martin, had all of their classes together, and had for as long as they could remember. They were inseparable, getting into all kinds of trouble, from raiding the kitchen in the middle of the night to accidental arson.
"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late!" It was Martin, rushing over and sitting beside Sasha. His ginger hair still clung to sleep, curls going every which way. His pale cheeks were flushed, and it looked like he'd run all the way here from their room. He smiled sheepishly at the group, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to tame it. He only made it worse. "What'd I miss?"
"Gertrude's gone missing," Tim said between bites of a pancake. (How does he eat so much, Jon wondered.)
"Oh no! Ms. Robinson! Is she okay?"
"Hard to say, really," Sasha said, taking a sip of her orange juice. "Her room was found in shambles, furniture overturned and books and papers scattered all around."
"Oh no, I hope they can find her," Martin worried, twisting the sleeve of his soft yellow jumper.
"I heard they found all sorts of weird conspiracy theory stuff," a voice came from behind Jon.
"Really Melanie? What was it about, then?" Sasha asked, exasperated.
Melanie squeezed in between Jon and Tim, smirking. "Some shit about the Headmaster being involved in some sort of plot to end the world."
Jon snorted, "Like Mr. Wright would ever do anything other than sit up in his study all day writing up referrals."
Melanie raised her hands in mock surrender. "I'm not saying it's true, just what I heard." She laughed and grabbed Jon's uneaten bagel and took a large bite, chewing thoughtfully. She had tan skin, the colour of sandalwood. Her dark almond eyes always seemed to look right through you, always lost in her own world. She took another bite of his bagel and tucked a strand of dark blue hair behind her ear.
"Well, I'd better get going. See you losers later," And with that, Melanie was gone. Jon looked dejectedly down at his now empty plate.
"So, who do you think will be subbing for Ms Robinson?" Tim asked. No sooner had the words left his mouth then the first bell rang, and students began filling out of the cafeteria.
"I suppose we're about to find out," Jon said, standing up. The others followed suit, and the four of them made their way to first period, a cloud of apprehension keeping them silent.

A/N: hey everyone! I hope you enjoy this! This is the first long fic I've done in a while, and I'm really excited for it. I'll try to do regular updates, but they'll probably take a while cause I have a lot going on with school. Anyways, I'm really excited for this fic, and I hope you are too! Comments are much appreciated, I always love to hear your feedback! Have a great day guys, and thanks for reading!