Chapter 1

  I could really do that better, thinking back now. I talked with the person letting people in, and maybe I could smile more and also just try to show more confidence in what I did. I mean, it's not that I lack it. I've got plenty of pride and I could paint myself like a field of violets with no leaves. Blooms only.

  Laughing at the thought in my head, I walk around the stone halls with other new students, looking between the building, the paper map in one hand, and the other paper I have denoting my class and teacher that runs that class. I can also see my name printed out, and reading it has me calming myself through some self-absorbed mantra.

  Revel Ester

  It's not what most people have as a name, and sometimes when I need to feel better with myself I try to revel as my name indicates. It's true that I can be fun, but mostly I'm a quiet guy who you barely notice most of the time. Not that I mind. Being as shy as wild animals, I'm not one to be found in large groups. It's not anything I want to come off as spiteful of either, but I'm not just in them that much. 

  Walking along the hall more, I find a room with 62A, my room, and go inside. On the chalkboard, there's already a paper that shows where everyone is assigned to. Though, a message written in chalk denotes that a new chart will be made after everyone comes in.

  Looking around the class, I spot other students who are settling into their seats and new uniforms. I'm wearing this uniform too, with a palette containing white, black, navy, garnet, and canary yellow. The white is the shirt, the tie is black, and the blazer and pants are a mix of navy and black. Everyone also has a lapel pin that's garnet, and the canary comes in with the edge of the square lapel pin. The pin itself mixes a few animals and the letters of our institute. 

  The Combined College of Magic and Science. CCMS for short, and in the lapel pin the two 'C's pinch the 'M' and 'S' stacked on top of each other. Looking at in the right light, everyone's got a nice little square jewel to adorn their fresh uniform. It wouldn't hold under the tightest scrutiny, but I happen to really like the color-scheme that's employed at CCMS. I'm not the most adept at styling something to wear, nor am I artistic enough to create a logo, but I can recognize something I can appreciate. Looking at the lapel pins and the uniforms, and an occasional flag with the CCMS logo on it in the hall has me liking the colors more and more, until I have a pride in it that's not all founded, but certainly existant.

  Checking the seating chart at the front, I confirm my seat in the middle row and leaning toward the back. I'd prefer the very back but so does everyone else. Not to mention, nobody has any power in changing where they sit. I just hope I don't end up with a worse place to sit than here. 

  There are quite a number of windows on the left side of the room when I sit facing the front, and it appears to look out into a garden. Looking at the map in my hand, I see that it's one of several courtyards. The appears to be one larger courtyard, but it's a little bit off from where we are. I think the map I got earlier at the check-in showed a few courtyards, and I'm guessing this must be one of them. 

  Setting that down along with my bag, I take a moment to gather some information about my surroundings. Most of everyone seems to have filed in, though there are several seats open. Some of the kids start up conversation, but I just quietly sit where I am, not really bothering to. I'm not one to hate others, but for now I'm just trying to be calm. I don't consider it anything that inhibits me, but I have a rather lonely past. Being from an orphanage, it's like that. Even if the current society of America has several schools like this one that assist citizens who posses magical skills in their education, it's still sometimes hard to think that it's not for something else. I don't think as such, but I know people who are cynical and who don't leave that much space for other possibilities. I like to think otherwise most the time.

  This school along with a handful of other schools that I can't name off the top of my head are part of a school circuit in the DoE, Department of Education, that are made to cater to people like us in this classroom. Students of magical prowess. I think I heard some people when I went to city hall to register saying that these schools are insurance for society so that kids don't accidentally summon a singularity in downtown Manhattan by accident. I don't really know what that means, and thinking it was a joke laughed at it. 

  Not wanting to dawdle on that, I'm looking at my paper with my name again, looking at the information on it. Something about a Mr. Reap being my HR teacher. A Salvador Reap. It doesn't say anything about his exact course that he teaches, and I wonder exactly what it is. 

  I walked in from the dorms that I entered yesterday, and a handful of textbooks were there. I tried to read up on something, mostly because I've never in my life learned about magic. Some terms, languid kickback , schools of magic, and Verse Theorem jumped out at me, but because the explanations were filled with esoteric words, I couldn't make heads or tails of it. 

  Some of the courses that were indicated jump out, like majestic theory, sortilege, and CASM are listed to be read. These along with other courses like English and math are present, but it's still obvious that there are courses outside the ordinary. Call me a goodie-two-shoes, but I want to know about those courses and what the content is. Also too, I want to know what they are. I don't know how much of a magical person I am, or how much of that talent I have, but when it comes to something that's related to me, I want to know. 

  Then, I think the last group of teens walk in. We're all somewhere around fifteen or sixteen in this place, and we're 10th graders. From somewhere, a bell tolls, and I'm guessing it's eight now. Class should be starting soon. 

  A teacher, Mr. Reap, a mid-thirties man with a tall and lean build walks in, smiling. He has dark brown hair and a rich warm-colored complexion.

  "Hello everyone, I'm your attending HR teacher. You can call me Mr. Sal, Mr. Reap, Mr. R, anything. As long as it's not something I'll take as an insult," he says with a laugh.

  A few kids around the room laugh some bit, and Mr. Reap sits down at his desk to power on a computer, and begin taking attendance. I don't really know anybody here, because we all basically come from different towns. There's a pair of twins who sit on in front of the other next to me, and they're probably the only people who know each other before coming to this class.

  I'm thinking why exactly there's a set of twins in this class since that's never supposed to happen when my name is called, and I answer. Nothing happens after, but one of the twins turns to look at me and we catch each other's eyes. He along with his brother, can't tell which is older, are blond, and the one who looks at me has the same eye color as his brother. They have soft brown eyes, and the one who I saw smiles pleasantly over at me. I nod back before turning to the front. Though, I notice that the twin I did have eye-contact with nods to his brother to say something, and I feel them both glance over at me. Maybe I've somehow made a friend.

   It's not as if I'm a difficult person. I mean, I have black hair and icy light-blue eyes, that I've heard somebody say makes me appear like a husky dog, whatever that means, but I usually have my eyes turned down since I'm pondering things being quiet. Though, I do have a polite shy personality, and people I get used to usually encounter my brighter side. Though, that's not common aside from my being quiet. Maybe that's the two words I can find to describe myself. Being quiet. And looking down. Being quiet: looking down. I'm sure everyone sees me as that, and it's usually hard for me to fix that since talking to people is not my forte.

  Mr. Reap talks about somethings he needs to go over like general rules about the uniform, school conduct, and venturing off the grounds of the institute.

  "You don't always have to wear the necktie, but on certain special occasions you're expected to wear them," says Mr. Reap, "and also try to wear black shoes on those occasions."

  "Are we allowed to wear jewelry?" asks a petite girl toward the front of the class who has pearl earrings.

  "You are, but nothing of magical properties," says Mr. Reap, "silver does have magical properties, and so does gold, but those are allowed. You'll get to learn more about that as your classes begin and you can learn about those specific topics."

  I'm wearing a thin silver box-chain necklace, and it's a modest piece of jewelry. It comes around my collar, and I guess it's okay to wear. Not that I want to take it off. I'd just button up my shirt since this is one of the few valuable things I own, having managed to acquire it at a flea market I visited once for the five dollars it cost. 

  Mr. Reap also talks about the prohibition on utilizing magic. I've never used magic, though there instances where I feel some emotion of mine coincidentally matched an outcome. But regardless, the rules go that something called discreet magic isn't allowed. Mr. Reap says we'll learn about that later in the majestic theory class. 

  "Right, well," says Mr. Reap as he glances up at a clock above the chalkboard, "I'll put up a new seating chart here, and after I do that, why don't you all get up and get to one another. This class only has forty students, and there's only six classrooms of 10th graders. You'll have plenty of time to get to know one another."

  Everyone takes a pause that lasts different amount for each person, and then starts to get up after the new seating chart is put up by hand, no magic I've seen yet. I spot my name, and it's on the desk right behind me, putting me one seat from the very back of the class, which makes me happy some amount. I'm sure every teen as well as person who's gone through school, everyone really, hopefully, wants to be at the back of the class, instead of at the back.

  Taking that seat after the tall girl there moves, I look around me to see who's around me. The girl with the pearl earrings, not Vermeer, is sitting to my left. In some way or another, the blond twins ended up to my right again, with one next to me and one in the last row.

  "Hi," says the pearl-girl, "I'm Hala. What's your name?"

  "Revel," I answer, "Revel Ester."

  "I don't want to come off as a nerd, but your name's pretty explosive, huh?" says Hala with a smile.

  "Is my name a meaning for something?" I ask, curious as well as smiling as well.

  "I think ester was some chemical," says Hala with assurance and her smile still, "I think it has something to do with alcohol?"

  "I don't know, but I'm glad to learn," I say grinning, as Hala's already peeled away my shy exterior, and I'm all smiles now. I guess some people are able to do that, and Hala is one of them. Hala has dark hair, similar to me, and has almond-color eyes. With a round face and warm smile, she comes off as having a pleasant approachable personality.

  "I like your earrings," I say, "I could never pull off pearls."

  "Oh, I wouldn't say that!" says Hala with a laugh.

  "I didn't catch your last name."

  "Oh, AlEla," says Hala, "it's Arabic, and if you don't have to worry about pronouncing it right."

  "I'll try my best," I say with a smile.

  "How about you two?" asks Hala to the two blond twins, and I turn to look at them too.

  "I'm Lucius," says the first one, "this is Sylvester."

  "Nice to meet you two," say Sylvester, and I'm having major difficulty finding a demarcation between the two of them.

  "Nice meeting you, Revel," says Lucius to me, and his brother and him both grin in similar ways at me.

  "You too, Lucius," I say.

  "How about me?" asks Sylvester playfully.

  "You too," I repeat to him with a smile, smiling and laughing.

  "Where you from, Revel?" asks Sylvester, leaning forward, showing far more curiosity than I've ever seen.

  "I'm from West Virginia," I say, and purposefully ask the next question so that there's no more questions about where I'm from, "How about you two?"

  "We're from Arizona," replies Sylvester, "warm place, and plenty of sunshine."

  "That's what makes us two so handsome probably," says Lucius say sarcastically.

  "I can tell," laughs Hala, "you two are hilarious."

  "Can you tell the difference between the two of us, Revel?" asks Lucius with a smile.

  "Not really," I answer with a laugh.

  "Well, we think we'll hang out with you a great deal, so you'll manage to figure it out."

  "Don't worry Revel, I'm having difficulty too," admits Hala to me with a grin.

  "It'll happen in time," says Syl with a laugh, "friends get to know each other, right? And you're a friend now."

  "Thanks," I say genuinely, "I'm very happy to have friends."

  "Um, how about me?" asks Hala to the twins, "Am I not good enough?"

  "Of course we're all friends!" says Sylvester with a smile.

  "Except between the two of us," says Lucius as he points between himself and his brother, "we have too many fights between us."

  Lucius and Sylvester go back and forth, with Hala sometimes asking some things. Around the four of us are also teens who talk with us and amongst each other. It seems that I'm getting a chance to start a life here at this institute. It wasn't this vibrant before in my life, and I'm starting to be very invested in the Combined College of Magic and Science.