Chapter 8
1909 Words
SKYLAR
He was staring at me as if he was ready to kill anyone who was responsible for my mood.
"Sky, will you just tell me?" Darren asked me in a much calmer voice and only now I noticed that we were holding hands. I pulled my hands back quickly and stretched one of my best fake smiles.
"Nothing," I said gingerly, "The first class wasn't amazing and that's all."
"I hear you," the guys snorted, "I almost fell asleep now at Defence Magic for Shifters. They are probably thinking that we are a bunch of toddlers here and don't know the most basic things."
"Yeah, right," I nodded, feeling how my cheeks turn red. So, that's what everybody thought of classes here? I probably looked very dumb in comparison. "I need to go now," I said, walking away, "See you later."
"At lunch!" he shouted into my back and I ignored, consumed with my own thoughts.
The next class was The Hisory of Magic. My magical education left much to be desired and I was prepared to absorb all the knowledge that the teachers here possessed. Pr Rippling, an older man with silver hair knew how to teach his subject very well. And I listened to everything, writing the most important things down. Now it seemed more important than ever.
“And remember that next time we will have a quiz to determine your level of knowledge,” he announced and a wave of disappointed groans went through the room. I was not happy about it either as it meant less sleep for me. I obviously had a lot to catch up with.
I walked into the auditorium where my next lecture, The Introduction to Demonology, was supposed to take place and I noticed that on that one all the girls hurried to take seats in the first row. Which was unusual as in the previous lecture they weren't eager to sit there at all.
“What’s all that about?” I whispered to Deidra quietly and she shook her shoulders.
“This year’s fan club is forming,” I heard a familiar voice and saw a piece of paper landing in front of me. Lifting up my eyes, I met Cole's friendly gaze, the guy who was looking for his missing girlfriend. He smiled at me dryly and handed another paper to Deidra.
“Hi!” I mumbled, “What are you doing here? You are not a freshman as far as I know.”
“I am not,” he admitted, “But I am Professor White’s assistant. I help during the classes sometimes when my schedule allows that.”
“I see,” I nodded and he was about to move on when Deidra decided to ask a question.
“And what is it about the fan club?” the siren furrowed her eyebrows.
“You’ll see everything for yourself when Professor White comes,” the guy snorted and was about to move on, but then got something else out of his pocket, “Look, I know you are new ones here. But we are still looking for my girlfriend Arianna. We will have a search party outside the barrier next week. If you could join, it would be great. You can check in on Facebook.”
“Thanks,” I smiled at the guy, “We’ll try.”
Deidra took the flyer with the information out of my hands and looked at the picture of the missing girl. Then looked at Cole, “I hope you will find her.”
“Me too,” he smiled sadly but tried to keep his face straight, “I will not give up until I do.”
He moved on to the next row and Deidra and I gave each other sympathetic looks.
“That’s so sad,” she muttered and I was about to say something as well when a teacher went into the room.
All girls straightened their backs at once and all eyes were on the thirty-something-year-old professor with a dazzling smile. He was wearing an expensive suit and looking dashing when he brushed his fingers through his blonde hair.
“I hope you guys know CPR,” he said loudly, “Because the first rows just took my breath away!”
A wave of gasps and idiotic giggles went through the room while Deidra and I both rolled our eyes.
“Is that even appropriate?” I snorted.
“Don’t worry!” I heard the professor speak again, “I see all of you!”
Our eyes met for just a second and he winked at me.
But then he opened the interactive board and started his demonology lection as if he didn’t just flirt shamelessly with every student in the room.
The lessons flew fast and I found myself skipping lunch as well. Somehow the idea of meeting Darren made me feel... strange. What would he think when he realised how... behind everyone else I was? Would he even spare me a glnce?
Yet the joke was on me when I entered my first Fire Magic practice class. Here he was, right at the front of the lab, checking something in his phone and looking incredibly good. He had a white t-shirt and jeans on, simple classics that did his sculptured body justice.
“How about we join forces for this class?” the fairy who I saw clinging to him last time approached him. She was wearing extremely high heels and a super short tiered green skirt that barely covered anything. Ugh.
“No, thanks,” Darren replied nonchalantly and for some reason, my heart skipped a beat.
“It’s me, remember?!” the girl insisted and placed her purse on his desk, “Blair!”
“I am sorry,” he tried to be polite and not to show how annoyed he really was, “This seat is taken, Clair.”
“Blair!” the fairy looked offended now.
“Yeah… right,” he let out an exasperated sigh, “I am waiting for my lab partner.”
“This is the first class!” the girl almost hissed, throwing back her perfect chocolate curls, “Nobody has partners yet!”
“Well, I do!” he smirked, “Do you have any problem with that?”
He shot her one glance filled with fire and she stepped back. Who knew that this guy could look so menacing when he wanted?
“You don’t know what you’ve just lost!” she spat and turned on her heels marching to another guy, who quickly took away books off the seat next to him, eager to see the beauty land next to him.
“Skylar!” Darren threw his hand in the air, “Here! I have a seat for you!”
He wasn’t serious, right? I was his lab partner?!
Forcing a smile onto my face, I decided not to make a scene. His eyes lit when I sat down next to him.
“You missed lunch,” he said matter-of-factly, getting something out of his backpack and handing it to me.
“What’s this?” I looked at a paper bag that smelled delicious.
“A hot sandwich from the coffee shop,” he turned and looked me in the eyes, “Because you need to eat, Sky.”
“I am not hungry,” I pushed the sandwich back to him right when my tummy rumbled loudly.
“Seriously?” he said with some kind of hurt in his voice, “You don’t like me that much that you prefer skipping meals just not to sit next to me?”
“It’s not like that,” I lied and bit my lip. This was getting ridiculous.
Darren was tapping his fingers over the desk while leaning over his chair when I decided to give up. At least this once.
“Fine!” I grabbed the bag and got out the sandwich, “Thank you!”
Just about five minutes were left until the beginning of the class, so I tried to eat as fast as I could. And in all honesty, it was good. Just what I needed now.
But it was still awkward since he was staring at me the whole time.
"Do you mind?" I looked at him beggingly.
“I appreciate your sacrifice!” Darren snickered, offering me a bottle of water as well and ignoring my gaze, “By the way, Sky, just so that you know… If you keep skipping meals, I would keep bringing you food. I am sure we can find a seat anywhere here.”
“Uh-huh!” I nodded, finishing off my lunch. He won this round.
From the corner of my eye I noticed that the fairy was shooting death stares at me. But I decided to ignore her. It’s not like they were dating. It’s not like we were dating. It was just a sandwich.
I cleaned up everything and sat back in place right in time when our next teacher, Professor Rett walked in. You could tell at once that she was a dragon by the way she held herself in public – proud and on the verge of arrogance.
Her introductory speech was really short and basically was about how easy it was for her to throw us out of the University if we failed her class. Good to know.
“Now, I want you to pair up,” her eyes glazed over the room, “I want seniors with freshmen. We’ll be working with fire spheres. Seniors make sure all safety measures are in place.”
Fire spheres! Unbelievable! Those were used as magical reserve storages and before today I only read about them in books. They were crazy expensive and used mostly by… well, the rich and the dragons.
Each student was given one and I twirled mine in my hands, still not quite believing my own luck.
“I hope everybody knows the basics!” Professor Rett walked between the desks, “We’ll start with you filling those up with fire as much as you can and then go from there.”
Everybody placed their spheres on special holders before them and I followed their examples. The basics the professor mentioned… I had no idea what she was talking about. I was self-taught mostly. But luckily, Fire always listened to me obediently. It would be okay if I just did exactly what Darren did.
He placed his arm on the sphere and bright light emitted from his palm and soaked into the sphere. He filled the storage artifact within seconds, and it looked easy enough.
I placed my hand onto the sphere and closed my eyes, summoning Fire.
“SKYLAR!” I heard Darren shout in shock right before a stupendous burst of light occurred, sending me flying into the air…
"Alpha Island" by Marion Artwood, exclusively for Stary Ltd (Dreame, Yugto, Dreame U, Suenovela, Ringdom). All rights reserved.
Author's Note: Do not try this at home lol. I know that you all want to know what Skylar is. And you will very soon ;)
On another note, today I found out that my previous dragon book - "Dragon King's Forbidden Love" was one of the winning entries in Dreame's Royal Contest! Thank you all so much for your support, guys! This wouldn't be possible without you and I am over the Moon!
- Writer
