Athena Academy

I frown. "Oh....Well I doubt she hates you. Maybe she was just annoyed and the next day will be better. After all it was just our first day." I say with a slight sigh. "....Um Cindy? I have a question for you if it's alright to ask. Are you living at a home close by or living here at the dorms?" I ask nervously looking off to the side.

 

"I live in a dorm by myself," Cindy said. "Which is a shame, there's extra room for a room mate. If someone wanted that position. Or just to spend the night. Why do you ask?"

 

"Well, no real reason I suppose. I was just wondering how far or close you lived to the school. I have no one to really spend any time with as I live in a dorm room by myself as well. " I say with a slight smile. "We do have a couple classes in common both being beginners. Perhaps we can work on our homework together or something?"

 

"I'd really love that," Cindy said, grinning. "Friends stick together and help each other, right?"

 

Erza walked into the library in her normal attire, and headed over to the girls, just catching the end of Cindy's words,"How can you hate anything about Cinderella, she has great shoes! You ladies want to go do some shopping. I just fixed up Gabriel so we can take him out for a ride."

She clicked her heels together, smirking as the pulled out her car keys and jingled them.

 

I nod my head with a smile. "Right!" I glance towards Erza as she walks into the library. "Huh? Gabriel?....What do you mean by that?"

 

I returned home, walked inside, and shut and locked the door behind me. I walked into the kitchen after tossing my blazer onto the back of the couch. I poured Leo some food and patted his head gently as he began to eat. I then went on to make my own food, some spaghetti noodles, sauce, and two pieces of garlic bread, just enough for myself, definitely not enough for leftovers, I always made sure of that. Once the noodles were boiled I strained the water, put the noodles into a bowl, and poured the sauce over them, pulled the garlic bread from the oven, and placed it into the bowl and took it into my room along with my messenger bag.

I ate at my desk in silence as I began going over my homework for the day. After an hour, I finished my meal and my homework. I put my homework back into my bag, took my dishes to the kitchen and washed them, then grabbed some of my regular clothing and a towel and drew myself a bath.

I relaxed in the bath for about an hour... I got out when I started getting drowsy and the water began to grow cold. I dried myself off and put on a plain black long sleeve shirt and blue jeans. I walked to my room and lied down on my bed and stared up at my ceiling until my eyelids grew heavy. Leo jumped up onto my bed, climbed onto my chest, and curled up into a ball and fell asleep. I gently pet him and then covered myself up before falling asleep myself.

 

Erza gave a wide smile,"Gabriel is my baby, my lover and my mean machine. Although some might call him a camaro."

She smiled, pulling out her car keys set with the scottish flag and an eight ball.

 

I looks a bit confused. "Your camaro has a name then? That is interesting. Well if it's alright I don't mind going out shopping. However I can only speak for myself on that account." I says with a small smile.

 

Erza pumped her fist and grinned,"That's great! How about you Cindy? I don't know about you but I always like to start of my year with a new pair of Dolce's."

 

"I'd love to go," Cindy said, getting up. "I haven't been gal pals shopping in a long time!" She stretched and grinned.
"Let's go paint the town red!"

 

"Yeah! My car's just out front." she turned and headed out towards the parking lot, and walked over to the slick black Camaro, with shiny silver rims, and plush leather interior. She ran her fingers over the roof before walking to the driver's seat and hoping into the driver's seat. She unlocked the door's and waved the girls in, "Shouldn't take too long to get there. I hope you don't mind speed. I'm sort of a lead foot when it comes to Gabriel."

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Edgar sat quietly at a piano in the music hall and played quietly. His fingers danced across the keys elegantly as he shut his eyes and tried to repress his own demons. He was alone as usual, and preffered the silence. He didn't write this piece but he remembered it from home. He missed his parents but felt that they enjoyed the times somewhat when he wasn't around. He wasn't sad about that fact, children were burdens and he knew that the break would be good for them. When the song stopped he stood and stretched, before heading to the library to find a tasty morsel for the evening.

 

With a smile I get up and pack up my notebooks and homework into my bag and follow Erza out towards her car. It looked amazing compared to other cars I've seen. Brushing that though aside I open up the door to the back seat and get inside buckling up the seat belt. ".....A-ah. I guess I don't mind. It is your car after all. " I say a bit nervously and pull on the seat belt to make sure it was fully locked in place.....just in case.

 

Cindy confidently got in the car, securing herself in quickly. She folded her legs, and leaned back.

 

Once it hit nine o'clock the gates shut as per usual and students were expected to be in their rooms by ten.

The week would progress pretty normally, well, as normal as a school for magic can get. It soon reached Friday... it'd be a pretty eventful day for the new students.

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Peggy stood on the other side of Dodgson's desk looking over the selection for groups. Today the students would be put through a training mission. They'd be set with a group and be sent out to a remote testing area throughout the day to complete a task. She looked up at the dean. "...Excuse me, I believe you've made a mistake here... this is an abnormally large group, seven students plus the instructor..." She said, usually a group consisted of four people plus the instructor, if there weren't enough for a full group then they'd just add on the extras into another group with students that didn't test very well, just for extra help.

"Don't worry about it." He said quickly. "But this is just a waste of re-" She began to say before he cut her off. "I said, don't worry about it, just make sure to distribute that list around, m'kay sweetie?~" He asked grinning. "...Again, it's Ms. Reynolds." She said, she could feel a headache coming on and frankly she couldn't care less, she knew that a wave of sexual harassment was likely around the corner if she didn't drop it. She left to go make enough copies for each group.

"Revenge shall be mine!" Charles proclaimed as soon as Peggy was out of his office. "...I heard that." She called back, but she didn't turn around, she knew better than anyone, once that man has an idea in his head, he's going to go through with it.

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The first class of the day, Alchemy. We were redoing the salve today. The first time didn't go over very well, so she went over the process of alchemy for the past week until everyone could get it down without having to glance at their notes. (At least she didn't notice them looking at their notes...) Some students were confused as to what to do, most ended in disaster, the ingredients either burnt up, barely managed a weak salve, and a few were able to make a decent salve, that number included mine and Chrysalis's groups. The two were naturals at alchemy. That would definitely help for what Ms. Foster had in mind today...

She stood in front of the whole class smiling. "You've done great for the past week, you've all made so much progress... So today, you'll all work alone to create the salve! Best salve wins a prize, and the rest who can at least make a usable salve gets an A, those that try and fail will get a C, those that don't try at all get an F, in this class, all I'm asking for is for you all to try." She said smiling, she snapped her fingers and small cauldrons and other utensils necessary for this flew from her trunk along with herbs and mandrake roots for everyone, there were four hotplates at each table, one for each student, it'd suffice for making such a small amount. "You have half an hour, please begin." She said smiling.

 

Tam frowned.
My mother was a woodland fairy. I'm pretty sure that I can do this.
He worked in silence, and figured he made a somewhat passable salve. He glanced over at Noroi, who managed to make one that actually looked functional instead of just being functional.

 

I look around a bit surprised. "A contest?" I say quietly looking towards the supplies. Well it was as much for a grade as it was for the contest so I figured it was best to try and work as best as I could at it. I start up the hotplate and set up the base to boil as I prepared the herbs and the root properly for the salve I wanted to make. I would take my time and double check to make sure I was following the steps correctly. Once I was finished with the salve I made sure to turn off the burner and almost sigh in relief. I was pretty sure it was alright but I was nervous that Lilly would find it otherwise.

 

I poured the water into the cauldron and turned on the hotplate. I began to prepare the herbs and the mandrake root, I cut away the dead parts of the herb and waited for the water in the cauldron to begin boiling. Once it was boiling, I added in the ingredients as necessary and stirred it slowly. I just kind of blanked out and even allowed myself a contented smile as I felt it get harder to stir, I took a look around the classroom, Tam and his friend seemed to be faring alright, that shy girl that kept giving me the 'deer in the headlights' look seemed to be doing well, better than all of the other students... it occurred to me she was likely my competition, half of these idiots looked like they didn't know which end to stir with, and the rest still seemed unsure of themselves...

I looked back down at my own cauldron and saw that I had accidentally missed some mandrake root. Not much, maybe on sixteenth of the plant, not much to worry about. But it'd still affect my final product, albeit to a very small degree and it was too late to put it in now, my salve had already thickened, it was ready. I knew that my salve would still blow most of the other's out of the water, but I knew ultimately that girl would win, I had seen her while she had gone through the process, she double checked her work and had been extra careful, and Ms. Foster was likely a master alchemist, or close to it, she'd notice such minute details. Oh well, it was probably just some lame prize like candy or something.

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A timer dinged. "Alright everyone, stop working and turn off your hotplates, it's time to test your final products!" Lily said smiling cheerfully, she began to test everyone's, some were able to slightly heal the cuts that Lily had inflicted on herself, some were able to heal them completely although slowly, others did nothing, and a rare few actually burnt her skin. She finally got to mine and Chrysalis' and tested both, the superficial cuts that she inflicted on herself were healed almost instantly in both cases. "Oh my... these are wonderful!" She said smiling, then continued on with everyone else, once she was done she walked back to the two of us. "Yours were the finest by far, oh..." She mumbled looking between our two cauldrons, after a little bit of indecisiveness she took a deep breath.

"Alright! I've made my decision!" She said, I merely looked over at the girl expectantly. "Joe wins!" She said smiling, she turned to Chrysalis. "Sorry... his was just a liiittle bit better." She said.

I looked at her confused. "Wait, what?" I asked, she should have noticed that mine was a lesser quality than her's, I shouldn't have won.

"Yeah, you won!" Lily chirped excitedly. "Now come up here and get your prize!" She said and walked up to the front of the room. On her table there was something covered by a sheet.

I reluctantly walked up to the front and glanced at the sheet, I could feel the eyes of the other students on me, some didn't care, while I could feel others just glaring at me. "Please be something small and stupid, please let this just be a silly prank where she just draped a sheet over two larger objects." I thought.

She suddenly pulled the sheet off revealing a large trunk made of wood with ornate carvings on it, new alchemy equipment, and a small pouch. "Ta dah!" She said. "A brand new alchemy set, a special container, and I've put in a few basic alchemical ingredients within, along with a few beginner's books. But, that's not all, see this?" She asked picking up the small leather pouch, it was something simple that could be slipped onto my belt loop and had a silver clasp keeping it shut, she handed it to me, picked up a pen, and then tossed it into the container. "Focus on that pen and reach inside." She said.

I looked at her confused but I focused on the pen and reached into the pouch. It was a lot bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, my whole hand fit into it and I still couldn't feel the edges of the pouch. But I did feel something inside. "No way..." I muttered, I grabbed it and pulled it out, it had been the pen that she put inside the container. I wanted to see if she had pulled some kind of trick, I hadn't taken my eyes off of the trunk, so I walked up to it and opened it. Inside was everything she had described, except for the pen, it should have been on the top of everything, but it wasn't. "How the hell...?" I muttered.

"The pouch is connected to your trunk, so, you can place whatever you want within and then be able to take it out from the pouch and vice versa, all you have to do is concentrate on the item in question." She said and then she pulled out a key. "One last thing, if you ever want to use my classroom for alchemy, you're allowed to, if you're doing something a bit more complex please come and get me, safety is key, speaking of which, this will unlock the classroom, so you can come in at any time and use all of the equipment that you like." She said smiling. "Oh, and you can come back after school to collect this, I know you don't have a dorm to go and store it." She said.

I just looked at her dumbfounded as she began to put everything into the container. This was way too much... But I merely nodded, slipped the key into my pocket and grabbed the pouch, I walked back to my seat and sat down.

She walked around with small empty containers, ones that you'd normally keep balms in, she handed them out to people that had a working salve, two each. "To keep your salves in, it's always good to have such things if you get injured." She explained.

I simply unscrewed mine and filled each one to the brim with my salve before twisting the caps back on, I slipped them into the pouch. I had to hand it to her, it would be more convenient to carry stuff around, this thing didn't feel any heavier.

Suddenly a boy in a uniform walked inside carrying papers. "Excuse me ma'am, I'm supposed to hand these out." He said, after getting a nod from Lily, he began walking around and setting a paper in front of everyone, it was a list of names and times under a set of names.

I picked up the paper and read through it disinterested... until I reached the very bottom of the paper... my name, along with six other people.

Group 8

Joseph Nobunaga
Noroi Dragul
Chrysalis
Tam Rider
Cindy Stone
Erza Cormac
Edgar Anderson

Apx. 7:30 PM
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"...No... dear god no." I muttered, putting my head on the table. That bastard was getting back at me, that damn dean. I knew it had to be his doing. Everyone else's group was comprised of four to five people, we were the largest group, and it was filled with people that I didn't like or had gotten into some kind of altercation with, the only exceptions being Chrysalis, this Noroi person, and perhaps this Edgar... well maybe I had gotten into some altercation with them, I knew that this Chrysalis probably didn't like me because I had taken her prize away from her...

The boy stood in front of the class. "At the end of the day, please go to the dean's office to receive your assignment, thank you." He said, he bowed and walked out of the class.

 

Tam glanced at his sheet of paper, and shrugged.
"Looks like we're stuck with your boy-"
Noroi's mouth was stuffed with Tam's salve, which then shifted into a sticky grass like substance.
"Shut. Up."

 

I couldn't help but smile seeing Lilly was pleased with my salve. I looked over to Joe interested in his as well excited to see how well ours were. I wasn't really dissapointed in losing the competition though so I clapped for Joe when Lilly announced him as the winner. Then when we were handed out jars for our salves I placed mine into the jars and sealed them up. "Phew....Hehe these will come in handy....Hnnn I guess I'll need to take them with me." I blink as a piece of paper was handed to me. It had my name and several other's names on it. "Oh? I'm in a group with Cindy and Erza!" I say a bit too excited and quickly quiet down when a couple others give me off looks. I look towards Joe who had his head on his table....he was on the same team too though. I should probably talk to him. Hopefully he wasn't still mad at me from when we met."Um...Joe? Why is your head on the table? Are you not feeling well?"

 

"...Shoot me." I said, I sat up and looked at Chrysalis. "I'm fine, except this group was created purely out of spite." I said, normally I wasn't so chatty, but I needed to get this off of my chest. "Take one look at the page and you'll see what I'm talking about, you see all of the other groups have four, except for a few that have five members, ours is the largest group and I've gotten into an altercation with almost all of them, you, and possibly Noroi and this Edgar boy, but I'm sure that I have done something to displease one of them at the very least." I said, I sighed. "This is gonna suck... hopefully we don't have to do anything that requires us to be together for large periods of time." I said.

 

"Oh.....yeah you're right. That is kind of odd." I say a moment looking around to the other students but then back to Joe. "Larger groups don't normally work too well together anyways....But hopefully we can all put our differences aside to work together. And....Sorry if I made you mad earlier when we met. I guess anxiety got the better of me at that moment. But I hope we can work well in our group together. Okay?" I say holding my hand out for a handshake.

 

I glanced at her hand. "Whatever." I said, realizing that I was probably being a bit to open and even somewhat friendly to this girl. I turned away from her. "This includes you as well, you realize this, right? I don't want to be stuck with you as well as the others, the less time together, the better." I said, I sighed as the bell rang. I waited for everyone to exit before I walked up to Lily, I grabbed my arm and looked away. "Don't take pity on me again, we both know that girl's was better." I said and before she could reply, I was out the door.

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Mr. Simmons' class went on as normal. He'd be strict, make sure that all of the students were doing their work, which was always book work, he had said that he wouldn't trust us with an ounce of magic until we all learned how to behave, and if anyone was goofing off, he'd send them out to the dean's office and lock them out for the duration of class. Though what some had noticed was that the was especially strict with the supernatural students. Sometimes out of the blue he'd walk up to someone's desk and yell at them to get out, even if they were just spacing out a little. If anything he was the one being disruptive whenever he sent someone out. Thankfully, it didn't last too long and we were soon off to Sparring. Today, we'd actually be fighting each other.

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Mr. Haines stood in front of everyone after they had finished changing and got out into the gymnasium. Behind him were large weapon stands with training weapons of all kinds, they'd hurt, but they wouldn't be able to kill. "Alright, as promised, we'll see you pathetic bastards try and fight, I'll put you into groups of two, you'll be fighting against each other, try and phone it in and I'll make sure to punish you severely." He said glaring at us. He soon split everyone into groups of two, though there was one person that was left out, but he was merely put into a group of three, they'd just have to switch opponents each time. He had pit Joe against Erza, Noroi against Edgar, Cindy against Chrysalis, and then Tam against a female student.

 

Tam's first fight ended practically as soon as it had begun. The female student stood in a battle pose, dressed in a karate gi, hands bound in tape. Tam walked up to her and held up a rose.
"My darling," he said. "You look as beautiful in spirit as in body. Please, don't hold back."
The girl was stunned, briefly, then she growled and launched herself at him.
Some moments later, she was on the ground, a rapier tip to her throat. The half fairy stood over her, his warm eyes never wavering.
"A bit sloppy, but that might be my fault," he said, taking away the sword and offering his hand. The girl took it and Tam stood her up.
"Care to try again?"

 

Erza moved towards two thick heavy axes. She lifted them as if they were pixie sticks and frowned,"These are so...pathetic." She itched to have her true weapons in her hand, but she guessed these would have to do for now. She gave a thick vicious smile and swung around her axes before throwing one so brutally towards Joe that it indented itself in the wall beside his head,"I've been waiting all day to get a piece of someone. Come on TEAMMATE! Let's dance."

She cracked her fingers walking towards him, as her ponytail burned into ash and her red hair flowed loosely in the air like a heated flame.She licked her lips, feeling the presence of her ancestors as if they were a cloak fitted for war.

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Edgar moved towards a simple sword picking it up and quickly slicing to the left with adept accuracy. He sighed, hating fighting among anything else. He rubbed his hands through his thick dark grey hair before moving towards Noroi with a blank expression,"So I guess we have to try to fight each other. I warn you now, that getting me angry will be of no great benefit to you. I am a beast when pushed to extremities. As for fighting fairly I think we would have more of an even match between us."

He set his blue eyes on the young man, a dark shadow beginning to fill his features as he prepared for this fight.