“Sacrilege!” she gasped, her dark eyes rounding. “How can you say such a thing Princess Gwendalina?”
“Don’t call me that,” I begged. “It’s Darcy.”
“Of course, as you wish,” she said with another flourishing bow.
Oh God make this stop.
“Geraldine!” a girl called. “Is that one of the queens!?”
I sucked in air as I spotted a band of people running up the path to meet us.
Nope. I’m out.
“I’d better get going,” I said quickly. “I don’t wanna be late to class.” I gave her a polite smile then hurried away, relief flowing through me when she didn’t follow.
“Remember the A.S.S love you!” she cried and several people who heard her started laughing.
Really? That was the name she went with? The ass club?
I didn’t want to be ungrateful for her kindness, but I also knew there was a ninety nine percent chance I’d jump into the nearest bush the next time I spotted her coming.
I soon found my way to Jupiter Hall and gazed up at the towering, gothic building in awe. I filed inside with the rest of the students and entered a wide atrium made of white stone. A row of pillars held up a stairway on the opposite wall and I followed a group of freshmen up it toward the classroom on my timetable.
Everyone moved inside and I glanced over my shoulder, hoping to spot Tory at any moment.
The classroom was built of honey-coloured bricks and one side of the room held a long row of arching windows, allowing the sunlight to fall across the space in eight perfect shafts.
There were nearly a hundred students and the wooden desks were filling up fast. I jogged toward the nearest one, planting my bag on the one beside it for Tory when she showed up.
I was a few rows back from the front where a crescent-shaped oaken desk sat before a large electronic screen.
I pulled my Atlas out of my bag, finding a message glowing on it.
Welcome to Cardinal Magic, Darcy!
Click here to begin.
I tapped on it and a blank page appeared. I took the pen attached to the Atlas and scribbled on the screen to try it out.
“Hey!”
I glanced up, finding Tory beside me in her own Academy uniform, her eyes hooded with lack of sleep. She was much less of a morning person than I was but even I was feeling the pain of missed sleep today.
Sofia was a step behind her, smiling brightly as she took in the classroom.
“Did you manage to avoid the Fire Asshole this morning?” I asked Tory, tugging my bag off of the desk beside mine.
She dropped into the seat I'd saved with a laugh and Sofia took the one beyond that. “Yeah, not on purpose though. I'm not gonna hide from that jerk.”
“We might have someone else we need to hide from,” I said, filling her in on my encounter with Geraldine.
“She called you your majesty?” Tory asked in disbelief and I nodded.
“There’s a fair few royal supporters in the school from what I heard,” Sofia chipped in and I quietly hoped they weren’t all as enthusiastic as Geraldine.
“Que pasa amigas?”
I turned at the male voice, finding one of the Aer pledges dropping down to sit at the desk on my other side. I vaguely remembered him from last night. He wore a black beanie hat with a white cross on it, his dark hair curling out from beneath it. He had a kind face, his skin deeply tanned but his eyes unusually blue.
He raised a dark brow at me as I gave him a blank look. “Oh sorry, I thought you guys spoke Spanish.” He gestured at us in general. Our Latino looks had served us more than one occasion like this, but I was surprised to find it happening in a completely different world to ours.
“Are you from the er…mortal world?” I asked, feeling strange referring to earth as that.
He stared at me for a second then burst out laughing. “No, Solaria is a mirror world. The same but different, claro? So you’ve never learned our beautiful language?”
I smiled warmly, shaking my head. “Nope, we kinda missed out on learning since we were never in a foster home with anyone who spoke it.”
“Although there was that one maid who always called Mr Harrison an hijo de puta,” Tory chipped in.
The guy burst out laughing. “So the only phrase you know in Spanish is son of a bitch?”
“That's what that means?” Tory laughed.
“Yeah.” He took out his Atlas and dropped his satchel on the floor. “I'm Diego.”
“Darcy and that's-”
“Tory, I know,” he finished for me with a sideways smile. “You're Los Gemelas Vega -sorry, the Vega Twins. Everyone's talking about you on FaeBook since what happened at The Orb last night.”
“On…what?” I frowned.
“It's a social media site for the school. Here, look.” Diego took my Atlas, tapping on a purple app with a circle connecting each of the star signs. A social media page came up.
FaeBook? He's got to be kidding right?
I pressed my profile and found it had already been filled in for me. Star signs took the place of profile pictures and the Gemini symbol shone in pink on mine. I tapped onto the newsfeed and my mouth dried up as I spotted the most popular post at the top of the screen.
Max Rigel: A big welcome to Darcy and Tory （let's call 'em Dory to make it easier）。 I'm so glad the Vega Twins showed up just in time to try and challenge us for the throne of Solaria because I've been dying to try out my latest elemental combo attacks on someone. #waterguns #wetterisbetter
Comments:
Marguerite Helebor: PMSL
Milton Hubert: Hahaha yeah get them wet!
Gary Jones: BRUTAL BRO! Catch ya at Pitball practice later!
Milly Badgerville: You’re soooo funny Max!
Tory read it over my shoulder and blew out a breath of irritation. “Great, we're the butt of a joke on a social media site I didn't realise existed until three seconds ago.”
I scowled, closing down the app. “Just ignore it.”
“I'm not like those idiotas,” Diego said gently. “I don't know anyone here, my family live way out in the sticks of Solaria. Most of the Fae here already have ties with each other. It's muy cliquey. So…if you wanna hang out sometime…”
The door opened and Orion strode in, kicking it shut behind him as he sipped on a mug of coffee. I glanced at the clock on the wall noticing he was ten minutes late.
He strode behind his desk and the class continued to chatter with one another. I spotted Kylie cross-legged on a desk as she spoke with a couple of boys in the back row, twirling a lock of sunshine hair between her fingers.
I chewed on the end of my digital pen as I waited for Orion to start the lesson, wondering what we were going to be learning about today. I couldn't deny I was curious. Our whole lives had been tipped upside down in the space of twenty four hours. And now I was sitting in a classroom in front of the hottest teacher I'd ever seen.
I'd always had a thing for older guys and that coupled with the fact that Orion had the sort of face that made me forget to blink, meant I was definitely distracted. What kind of teacher looked like that? In my last school the male staff all had various combos of handle-bar moustaches and shiny bald patches.
Orion planted his coffee cup on the table and grabbed a digital marker pen, writing across the board in large letters: