There were chuckles across the crowd.
“I’m happy and excited to see so many familiar faces returning,” Jones continued, “and to have many new students gracing our fine establishment for their first year at the Academy.”
Someone started to clap, but unfortunately for them, that clap didn’t catch on, dying off in an awkward silence. I tried to hide my smile. Usually it was me being awkward as fuck the few times I’d found myself in social situations.
I should find that person and make a new friend.
“Before we get into the fun stuff, I’m going to go over the rules. I know a lot of you have heard this speech multiple times, but a refresher never hurts. Some of you have selective hearing.” Princeps Jones started to stroll across the front of the stage.
“First, we have a zero tolerance policy to using our race gifts against another student. I do not care what they did to wrong you, do not retaliate. If you are suffering at the hands of a student, or struggling with something socially or academically, report it to a member of staff and it will be dealt with swiftly. Abusing race gifts to punish another often has dire results, including but not limited to dismemberment and death. It’s not worth risking. For any reason.”
His face was fierce, and those canines looked awfully sharp as he stopped center stage again.
“Zero tolerance. Don’t push me on this. You all have a lot of special gifts. This is what separates us from humans. We have to respect the gifts, or you’re not welcome here at the Supernatural Academy.”
Larissa shot me a wry smile. “He tries his best,” she whispered, leaning in close, “but there’s only so much he can do.”
Yeah, humans were hard to control. I imagined supes were near impossible.
“Rule number two: do not venture into the herbalism wing of the school unless you know what you’re doing. The same with the water world. Both of these quadrants are dangerous to the unsuspecting.”
Second time I’d gotten that warning, and I was definitely intrigued and slightly freaked out by what might be in those quadrants.
“Rule number three,” Princeps Jones continued, “respect your teachers. We are here to guide, not raise you. Having reached this age, we expect you to already know the basics of common decency. Of common sense.” He waved a hand toward the people standing behind him. “Each of these supernaturals has life and race experience that would take you decades to learn on your own. Use their wisdom to push yourself further than you’ve ever been before. Supernatural Academy is here to set you up for the rest of your life … do not waste this opportunity.”
For some reason I was half on the edge of my seat. His speech was compelling...
“Is he using that compelling thing?” I whispered to Larissa.
She tried to cover her laugh. “Nope, that’s just how he gets.”
I shut up as he finished. “Finally, every year I get the same question about why we enforce uniforms, and it’s as simple as this: the supernatural world will try its best to divide us by race … to keep magic users away from vampires and so on. We even have to do it to some extent in classes, because there’s no point focusing on race attributes you don’t have. The uniform is one way to unify all of you. You’re all Supernatural Academy students. Under one banner. One uniform. No segregation.” He clapped his hands together and straightened his broad shoulders. “That’s enough with the rules. If you have any questions about our expectations here at Supe Academy, just come and speak to me.”
This time when the clapping started, it picked up in intensity.
And I knew I’d never forget this first day of my new school.
11
After Princeps Jones finished, some of the other teachers made short speeches, noting things like the term dates and holiday times. We learned that there were twenty-five hundred students enrolled this year, and that there was a waiting list of over double that who didn’t make the cut.
This freaked me out, because I had no idea why I’d made it in. We didn’t even know what my race was or if I’d be powerful yet.
“So,” Larissa said as we stood, preparing to file out and head to our first classes, “you now know how many students are here.” She fluttered her eyelashes at Ilia. “Or did you miss that again?”
Ilia waved a hand. “Caught it this time, thank you, smartass.”
When we made it outside, there were students everywhere. We had to push our way through the crowds to make it into the rooms where my morning classes were held.
“Basics of Magic is a practical class,” Ilia said, using her elbows to move students who were in her way. “So you’re in this quadrant.”
This was my first trip into the practical magic section, and I was surprised to see how open and airy it was inside. We walked past a ton of different environments. The first one was a desert, and I could feel heat wafting off it. “Some magic users like to work under intense conditions,” Larissa explained. “There’s a desert and ice land here.”
The ice land sent literal chills across my body, and I shivered all the way past it. Ilia and Larissa stopped at the next part of this quadrant. “This is your room,” Ilia said.
I peeked around the corner. The room was large and dimly lit; there were only a few soft lights glowing up high. The ground was covered in a dark brown bark, and when I stepped onto it, it was spongier than I expected.
“The bark is from thejujeniattree,” Larissa told me. “It originated in Faerie and has amazing magical properties. It protects the students from spells that go awry, which as you might guess, is important when you’re learning new things.”
