“You can take over anytime,” one of the girls snickered from the front; the rest of the girls laughed.
The teacher didn’t look impressed. “Okay, that’s it; settle down everyone. Take your seats, please. We have a lot to get through today.”
His clear blue eyes scanned the class, finally landing on her. “We have a new student with us.”
Oh God, please not this, Jaycen thought as every student’s head turned in her direction.
“Stand, tell us your name and a little bit about yourself.” He leant on his desk, no longer looking at her but at the piece of paper in his hand.
Yeah, he didn’t care, she guessed. She stood, her chair scraping on the floor as it slid back. “Hi, my name’s Jaycen Reece.”
A guy sitting somewhere in the middle snorted. “Reece, huh? It sounds like a name so watered down it’s almost clear.”
The whole class broke out in laughter. Jaycen had no idea what it even meant. Was that supposed to have been offensive?
“Stephen, stand and go straight to the principal's office.” The teacher’s voice boomed over the laughter of the class.
The boy, Stephen, stayed seated, still smirking at Jaycen as one of the boys sitting next to him nudged his shoulder.
“Did you suddenly lose your hearing? I said get to the principal’s office. He’ll know you’re coming.” The teacher walked over to the door and held it open.
Stephen slowly stood. “I really don’t think you want to send me anywhere. My father will hear about it; he won’t be pleased. Do you really want that?”
Jaycen sat, watching the tense exchange between the two. The class had also fallen silent around her.
“Your father?” The teacher laughed, and the smug confidence on Stephen’s face morphed into red hot anger. “I’ll tell you what, Stephen, you run off and call your daddy; you can do it while you’re walking to the principal’s office. How about that?”
Everyone burst out laughing. Even Jaycen laughed a little—point one to the teacher.
Stephen yanked his bag up from the floor. “You’re laughing now, just wait until he hears about this.” He stormed out of the class, the teacher shutting the door behind him.
“This isn’t my class, so I can’t say how Mr Jenson runs it normally. But in this school, we don’t accept attitudes like that.” Everyone hushed to a silence as he spoke, his features now hard and his eyes scanning the room, making sure that everyone was listening to him. “We don’t accept prejudice, and I don’t care what your second name is; if I hear one more person utter anything about this subject you’ll be out of this school so fast it’ll make your ancestor’s head spin. Understood?”
A chorus of, “Yes, sir,” and “Yes, Mr Ravensmith,” filled the room.
Ravensmith? Jaycen thought, watching him hand out textbooks, making his way up to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he passed her the book.
She took it and nodded. “Honestly, I didn’t even know what he was talking about.”
“That’s probably for the best, but if anyone makes a comment like that again, make sure you tell someone, okay?”
He turned to walk back down the aisle when Jaycen called out, “Does every teacher have the last name Ravensmith?”
He turned and smiled at her. “No, just me and my brother. If it gets too complicated for you, call me Caleb.”
“Okay.” Jaycen watched Caleb walk to the front of the class. He didn’t look like Benedict at all. While Benedict was tall and well built, this guy was more tall and thin. Not too thin though, he definitely had muscles under his shirt. He also had no facial hair, and that was now a staple of Benedict, or it was in Jaycen’s head at least. Jaycen watched him walk away, his swagger clear by just his walk. Yeah, the Ravensmith brothers were nothing alike.
“Everyone turn to page twenty-three in your textbook,” Caleb called out, clapping his hands together.
*********
Luckily for her, Jaycen had already learnt most of what was in that lesson at her other schools, so while the others had their heads down trying to work out complicated equations, Jaycen had been talking to Mr Ravensmith the second, which she took to calling him. He had hated it immediately and kept insisting she call him Caleb instead. As it turned out, Caleb was only filling in for the physics teacher, and actually taught magical history and historic artefacts, which Jaycen thought sounded amazing. However, Jaycen also learnt that she wouldn’t be taking that class, and instead would be taking a class called, "The Beginning," which she had also learnt was a class for the younger students. She was going to be taught with children. Great.
When the school bell rang, most of the students turned left, all going to their next class together; Jaycen turned right. She dug into her bag for the school map that Benedict had given her and headed off in search for the class.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look at a piece of paper as intently as you are now.”
Jaycen stopped walking and looked up to find a girl with bright red hair standing just in front of her.
“And you’re walking the wrong way; we have physical next. Those classes are all up this way.” She pointed to where the rest of the class had just gone.
“I don’t have physical next,” Jaycen said simply, wondering what that class was. She walked around the girl, her map still in hand. The girl quickly followed and fell into step beside her.
“Everyone has physical next.” She smiled as they walked out of the school building. “There’s not a class called physical, of course. It’s what we call our active classes, running, yoga, fighting; you know, our physical class.”
“Well, not me.” She didn’t want to seem rude, but right then making friends wasn’t on her to do list. Finding her class was.
“Don’t be too bothered by what Stephen said to you back there. He’s a ass; just ignore him.” The girl nudged Jaycen’s arm with hers, a small sympathetic smile on her face.
“I wasn’t bothered; I didn’t even understand what it really meant,” Jaycen muttered, her head still bent as she read her map. If she was reading it correctly, the class should be in the building in front of her. She looked over her shoulder at the girl. “Aren’t you going to be late for class?”
She shrugged. “I’m just making sure you get to class okay.”
Jaycen straightened, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand as she looked at the girl for the first time. She was taller than Jaycen, not by much, maybe five-foot-seven; her bright red hair hung around her shoulder; she wore the same school blazer as Jaycen, but while Jaycen's fit nicely, hers seemed to hang loosely around her thin frame. She looked sweet and nice, not like anyone Jaycen would normally have made friends with.
“My name’s Jaycen,” she said, noticing all the younger students making their way into the building opposite.
“Yeah, I know; you said in class. It’s a cool name, really different.” The girl was now beaming, her smile so infectious that Jaycen smiled along with her. “My name’s Gemma. It’s not as cool.”
“Gemma’s a great name.” Jaycen couldn’t even count how many times she had wanted a normal name like Gemma. She also couldn’t count how many times people had mistaken her for a boy, especially when she’d cut her hair short when she was younger. It had been a phase she outgrew quickly; sadly, the same could not have been said for her hair. Because that had taken years to grown back; now it hung to the midway point of her back, and Jaycen didn’t dare touch it.
“I don’t think anyone has ever said that before,” Gemma said, the same smile still plastered on her face
Jaycen liked her. Which was surprising because as a general rule, Jaycen didn’t really like anyone. So, this was huge. “I’ve got to get to class.” She held up the paper in her hand, as if to prove it. “But I’ll see you after?”
Gemma nodded her head vigorously. “Oh yeah, definitely. Maybe, we could have lunch together?”
Jaycen had been to many schools, and one thing she had
learnt was that no one wanted to make friends with the new kid. Everyone was already in their friendship groups; they were already settled. It made making friends very difficult. Everywhere but at the Cure Academy it would seem.
Jaycen was about to say her goodbyes when she noticed a group of men walking out of the college building, none of them wearing the school uniform, and one face in particular standing out. “Who’s that? The one with the dark brown hair, is he a teacher?” she asked Gemma, nodding at the group.
Gemma turned to see what Jaycen had motioned to. “Oh no, they’re college students. The guy with the brown hair is Thornton. I know he’s cute, right? He’s like a God around here. But he is a Krull, so what do you expect?”
A college student? Why would a college student have been at the crime scene with Benedict? She turned and started walking in their direction. She could hear Gemma following behind her.
“What are you doing? Why are you walking up to them? You can’t just walk up to them,” Gemma hissed from behind.
“Yes, I can. He’s just a guy.” She laughed at the panic in Gemma’s voice.
“No, he’s not just a guy. He’s a Krull. It’ll be like you walking up to the Queen of England or something!”
Jaycen slowed down so Gemma could catch up. “Jesus, calm down. Take a deep breath.” She waited for Gemma to do so, before she continued. “I have no idea what a Krull is.”
“It’s his last name!” Gemma shouted, running her hands in her hair. “You know? One of the main five families?”
She didn’t, but she nodded her head anyway. “Oh yeah, that Krull,” she said, trying to hide her confusion. “Look, I was hurt a few days ago; he helped me. I just want to say, thank you. That’s it.”
Gemma’s body straightened as her face scrunched up in disbelief. “He helped you? How? I mean it’s great that he did; it just doesn’t sound like something he’d do.”
Now, that was interesting, Jaycen thought, eyeing the guy from across the grass. Benedict had told her not to tell anyone about their detour to the city and the attack, so she’d keep her promise. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t curious. So, she smiled. “He just helped me. That was all.” She carried on walking towards the group of guys.
“Hey,” she called out once she was close enough.
They all looked up. Thornton raised an eyebrow at her, his features masked in the same blank expression that Benedict usually wore. Was it something they taught here? How to mask what you were feeling and thinking? Because if so, Jaycen wanted to learn.
“Can we help you?” one of the guys asked, his long, dirty blond hair tucked behind his ears and his thick English accent reminding her of only a few months ago when she lived there.
“That sounded very formal.” She smirked, shaking her head. “But no, I just wanted to say thank you.” She turned fully to Thornton, having to lift her head to look him in the eye. She didn’t remember him being this tall, but then again both times she had seen him he’d been crouching.
“What for?” His voice was a lot huskier than she had expected. He sounded far more like a man than a boy.
“For….” What exactly was she thanking him for, she wondered, trying to pull something out of her brain. “For getting Benedict when I was injured. You didn’t have to, so thanks. Also, sorry for calling you a moron; I was just hurt.”
His friends all laughed as they turned to look at him, the blond looking confused while the other, a tanned, shorter guy, smirked.
“No problem.” Thornton didn’t even look at her, but at a spot just over her shoulder.
“Why were you there?” she blurted out, getting straight to the reason why she’d walked over.
Now, he made eye contact with her. “It’s not really any of your business,” he shot back.
“True.” She shrugged and smiled innocently. “Just wondered, that was all.”
Before he could reply, his tanned friend draped an arm around Jaycen’s shoulders.
“Well, now that your little, 'thank you,' is out of the way, maybe we could all go for a drink? Huh, what do you say? There’s a bar not too far from here.”
Jaycen opened her mouth to decline when Thornton spoke for her.
“She’s underage, José.” He was talking to his friend but still looking at her, the same blank expression as before.
“So is John; they still let him drink.” José shrugged as he winked at Jaycen.
“Jaycen’s from the high school,” Thornton clarified.
José removed his arm immediately. “Well, damn. I nearly ended up with a criminal record.”
“Getting a bit ahead of yourself, aren’t you?” Jaycen tilted her head to the side, deciding then and there that she liked José a hell of a lot more than Thornton. What kind of name was Thornton anyway?
“Maybe. We’ll see.” He winked again, this time grinning from ear to ear.
“Don’t you have a class to get to?” Thornton cut in, her being there clearly annoying him. That kind of made her want to stay there longer.
Jaycen pressed her lips together and backed away. “Yeah, I do. Thanks again.” She waved and turned, hearing José laugh as she walked away.
“How did you not get choked up there? Or get red, or anything?” Gemma rushed out as they made their way back to the main building.
Jaycen rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything as she tried not to laugh at the blush that had consumed Gemma’s entire face and neck.
“Just so you know, when I tell people that we spoke to those guys, I’m going to tell them that it was me who walked over to them.”
This time Jaycen did let herself laugh out loud. “Knock yourself out, my friend.”
Chapter 5
“Our society is built on the laws of our ancestors. Laws that keep growing and building our great community. But there are five laws which we started with first, five laws which shaped our society. Can anyone name the five prohibited laws?” the pretty teacher asked as hands shot in the air. Jaycen was once again sitting in the back of the class. However this time, it was more because she was worried she’d block someone’s view if she sat in front of them.
The teacher pointed to one of the boys in the front row of chairs.
“You can’t kill someone with magic.”
“That’s right,” the teacher praised. “Anyone else?”
“You can’t make people pregnant with magic,” another student shouted out.
“You can’t control someone with magic.”
“Yes, that’s good. According to our laws, you can’t end or create life with magic. The birth of someone should always be natural. You also can’t end life; this should be obvious. Killing is bad.”
Jaycen wanted to get up and walk out then and there. Why did they need a class to point out the obvious? Of course, killing someone was bad, and if these kids hadn’t learnt that already then something was definitely wrong.
“But also, killing takes a part of your soul. As you are all aware, that’s where our magic comes from.” The teacher pressed a hand to the centre of her chest. “Killing another being, magical or not, chips away at the magical source inside of us, until there would be nothing left but a hole.”
The teacher carried on talking but Jaycen was no longer listening; all she could think about was the two men in the alley. How much of their soul had they lost from killing?
Jaycen pondered the thought until the class had ended and they all filtered out. That had been her second class of the day with the younger students, and she’d had enough. So, instead of heading to the cafeteria for food with the other students she headed straight for Benedict’s office.
Jaycen had made it across the courtyard when Gemma caught up with her.
“Hey, how was your class?”
“Crap. Complete crap. Why do I have to learn with the children? I’ve learnt nothing today.” She wanted to be with people her own age, learning actual magic instead of sitting in a class surrounded by children, and learning that killing is bad.
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“They’re twelve,” Gemma laughed. “Not exactly children, and besides Mr Ravensmith knows what he is doing. He’s a smart guy.”
It was with that comment, Jaycen realised she was definitely talking to the wrong person. She needed someone not on Benedict’s side.
“Let’s hope so.” She patted Gemma on the shoulder. “Well, bye then.”
She turned and stormed to the main building, slowing when she realised something. She didn’t know where Benedict’s office was. This was awkward, very awkward.
“Main building, straight ahead until you get to the stairs, and then up to the second floor,” Gemma laughed as she walked up to stand beside her. “I’ll see you when you get out.”
“Yeah, I know the way.” They both knew she was lying as she waved and headed again for the building. Her earlier anger was no longer there, she entered the building trying to conjure it up again.
“He thinks you should be with the children,” she reminded herself, pushing one of the doors open with far too much force. “Children that don’t even know that killing is bad! He thinks you’re a moron. You’re going to be twenty-seven by the time you actually get to use magic!”
By the time she reached Benedict’s office, her anger was back to boiling and Jaycen was ready to fight to be in the right class, to be honest, she was ready just to fight about anything.
She threw open the door and was about to rant when she saw a small, elderly woman sitting behind a desk. It seemed Benedict had a secretary.
“Can I help you, young lady?” She peered over her glasses.
“No. I’ll just go straight through.” She powered into the room and straight for the second door, ignoring the elderly secretary as she tried to stand and stop her. Nothing could have stopped Jaycen in that moment.
She pushed the door open, not caring that it slammed into the wall. “Why am I in a class with children? Why aren’t I learning magic? This is just so goddamn ridiculous! I’m going to be twenty-seven by the time I actually get to use it!” She shouted the last bit, her breathing heavy as she kept her eyes on Benedict who was looking back at her from behind his desk.
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