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I awoke with a groan as my phone alarm blared at me.
I was glad that I didn’t have a roommate as I rolled out of bed and onto the floor, knowing that if I didn’t propel myself from the comfy duvet, I would stay there all day.
For a single twin bed, it was surprisingly comfortable.
I was glad to have slept through the night, but the comfort also meant that there was a much higher chance of me sleeping through the morning as well.
And that was the last kind of impression I needed to make on my first day at a new school.
I reached around my bedside table, blindly grasping for my phone while my eyes adjusted to the soft light making its way through the sides of the curtains.
Only before my hand found my phone, it found a thick piece of paper that I was sure hadn’t been there the night before.
I left the paper alone – as curious as I was, I was going to lose my mind if I didn’t stop my phone from blaring – and finally found my phone, grabbing it as I stopped reaching for the table and sat down properly on the floor, leaning back against the side of my bed.
I dismissed the alarm before rubbing my eyes and wondering briefly if I could get away with five more minutes of sleep if I was really quick putting on my make-up.
But no, as tempting as that was, I knew that if I gave into said temptation, I wouldn’t make it to my first class.
Good first impressions, I reminded myself, though the more I tried to use that thought as motivation, the more it lost its bite.
My hand went back to the bedside table, looking for my speaker. Maybe if I had a good audiobook to keep my interest, I would no longer be tempted by my bed.
Only my hand once again found the paper, reminding me of its existence.
I grabbed the paper to examine it, quickly realising that it had a school map on one side, with the same design that my Auntie’s pin had in the corner – the school badge, I assumed – though I frowned as I realised that the map and design lacked any kind of printed quality. It looked almost hand-drawn in ink, but I doubted it could have been. Presumably, every student would get a map, and there was no way that someone would hand-draw one of these for every student.
I briefly looked up to the door as it occurred to me that the paper had just appeared in my room overnight.
Had someone sneaked in to deliver it? I’d thought Auntie Jess had said that teachers couldn’t come into the rooms without permission.
But then I remembered that magic existed.
Of course, that was how they had delivered the map.
And probably why it looked hand-drawn, even if they’d had to make copies.
Yeah, that was going to take some getting used to.
I flipped the paper over to see a timetable on the other side and quickly scanned to the ‘Monday’ section.
Auntie Jess had said that classes started that morning, though as eager as I was, I did wish that I’d had a day or two to acclimatise to the school in general before everyone else arrived.
I frowned as I read, realising that it started with ‘breakfast’.
Of course. It was a boarding school.
I’d never really been a breakfast person, but my ADHD medication worked better if taken with food, so I didn’t have a choice in the matter.
I looked back to my phone to see that I only had twenty minutes to get ready.
“Shit,” I muttered, scrambling to my feet and heading to the bathroom, all my focus on not forgetting anything important while not being late.
#
I WAS LATE, IN THE end.
And I’d only remembered to brush my teeth after I’d put my make-up on.
That had been a fun test of dexterity and precision that I’d utterly failed.
Hence why I was late.
It was either that or show up with half of my make-up wiped away.
Yeah, I chose to redo my make-up.
It was fine, I could eat fast.
But then I’d been half-way down the hall before I’d remembered that I hadn’t taken my tablets, and I’d had to run back.
I swear, I wasn’t usually this bad, but a new school meant that everything was new, and that was far too much for me to keep track of.
I knew it would settle, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t frustrating.
Especially when I wanted to make a good first impression.
I barrelled downstairs, hoping that I remembered the way to the dining hall from the map.
Thankfully, as I approached the rough area where the building should be, I saw other students entering.
I tried not to frown as I noticed most were wearing skirts.
My wardrobe had both purple tartan skirts and black trousers as options, along with lilac blouses, and black blazers with purple piping.
I’d opted for the trousers.
And it looked as if I might have been the only one.
Thankfully, I saw a girl with curly, dark red hair that went down past her waist enter the dining hall and realised that she was also wearing trousers.
So, it wasn’t the popular choice, but it wasn’t completely unheard of.
Unfortunately, as I entered the hall, the other girl disappeared, and I found myself alone in the crowd as I turned to see that the large wooden hall, with thin windows from floor to ceiling, had several long tables of food lining the walls, and circular tables in the centre, forcing everyone to sit in groups.
My jaw tightened at the thought, but I figured that I should deal with things one at a time.
And the first thing was acquiring food.
I frowned as I made my way over to the tables lining the walls.
Where were the heaters or fridges to keep the food-
I almost groaned as I realised the answer.
I swore, at some point, the fact that magic existed would settle in my mind, and I would stop forgetting.
It was just taking a while...
I grabbed a plate as I reached the table and decided to settle for some toast. Though, then I saw the pastries.
Pastries were easily the best breakfast food.
As soon as I stepped away from the toast, a girl came to stand next to me, though her gaze was firmly on the toast, not the croissants I was eyeing.
I wondered if I should try to say something.
After all, I was nervous because I didn’t know anyone, and that would only be solved by getting to know someone.
“Hi,” I forced myself to squeak at the other girl.
I tried not to visibly cringe at the awkward sound of my voice, but it was hard.
Thankfully, she smiled. “Hi. I’m Victoria Warren.” She said it as if I was supposed to know what it meant. “Are you new here? I don’t think I saw you last year.”
I nodded. “Yes. I just arrived yesterday. I’m Amelia. Amelia Bennett.”
I’d kind of liked Gail using my full name yesterday. It had sounded more... Well, more like the name of a Witch.
Victoria raised an eyebrow. “Bennett? Like the new Potions teacher?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged, hoping that that wouldn’t cause me any problems. “She’s my auntie.”
“So, you must be a hedge Witch like her.” Her tone made it clear that she didn’t consider that a good thing. “I don’t know how anyone could stand not living in a coven. Didn’t you feel lonely when you came into your powers? Didn’t you want to be somewhere where you didn’t have to hide?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, I haven’t come into my powers yet.”
Victoria frowned, looking me over. “Wait, how old are you?”
“Sixteen.”
“That’s not... That’s not possible. If you’re a Witch, you should have come into your powers by now. Even if you’re Litcorde.”
“Litcorde?”
Victoria’s frown deepened. “Don’t you know anything?”
“Not really. I didn’t even know about magic until a couple of days ago.”
“So, your parents are Human?”
I nodded, straightening my back.
I was far from amused by her tone, and I knew when to get ready for a fight.
Some might argue that I was too ready.
Specifically, that one guy I sent home from school with a black eye.
But he’d grabbed my arse first, so I felt that I was entirely justified.
And it was definitely nothing to do with my ADHD affecting my impulse control.
Plus, the school hadn’t punished me over it. Though they didn’t punish him either, so I think it was just that they’d wanted it to go away as soon as I’d said the words ‘sexual assault’.
Which, again, were entirely justified as far as I was concerned.
Victoria looked me up and down. “So, your parents were Human, and you haven’t come into your magic at sixteen?” She rolled her eyes. “You’re not even a Witch, are you? So, what? Is the school just letting in Sensitives now? You’re just a Human.”
Any retort I might have given was cut off by my stomach twisting with anxiety.
What if she was right? What if Gail had made a mistake?
What if I never developed magic?
“Why do you care?”
I turned to the calm, almost languid voice to see a tall girl, with sleek dark hair past her shoulders, contrasting her pale skin and crimson eyes.
She seemed to almost glide over to us, her pace slow and deliberate.
Victoria just glared at her in response.
“Why do you care, Victoria?” the girl asked again. “It’s none of your business who Ms Griffin lets into the school. It’s her school to run.”
“She promised us an environment free from Humans.”
“And you have no proof that she hasn’t delivered this. All you’ve done is shame a girl for being late coming into her magic.”
“Fourteen is late, Natalie. Sixteen is an aberration.”
“Again, I don’t see how that’s any of your business. It’s not up to you who gets into the school.”
The closer Natalie got, the more I got the sense that I recognised her, but I couldn’t figure out where from.
Victoria continued to glare at Natalie, and I got the distinct impression that she was lost for words, but then, another girl came up to Victoria’s side.
“Well, it’s no wonder you’re defending her,” Victoria’s friend sneered at Natalie. “You’re more Vampire than Witch, anyway.”
Two other girls then came up to stand beside Natalie. One was taller than Natalie again, with dark eyes, curly brown hair and olive skin.
And the other was blue.
I blinked, wondering if my eyes were deceiving me.
But, no. Where the other girls had skin, she had dark scales that looked like the ocean at night. The only thing that told me that the skin was a very dark blue, and not black, was the contrast with her pitch-black eyes, the dark depths of which were only broken for a light blue ring, where the outside of her irises should have been.
Her hair, cut into a short bob, was probably the most normal thing about her, and that was a bright shade of cerulean.
I frowned, a slight headache forming behind my eyes.
I looked down at my food, realising that I still hadn’t eaten.
But I had apparently sparked some kind of magical-bigot fight, so...
I sighed. This was not the best start to my first day.
The girl beside Natalie – the not-blue one – raised an eyebrow at Victoria. “You and your friends should probably just stop talking. You’re giving pure-blooded Witches a bad name.”
“Well, your friends wouldn’t know. You should really look for better company, Charlotte. I don’t think I’m the one damaging the reputation of pure-blooded Witches here. Not with the company you keep. But then, I suppose we should allow Litcorde their eccentricities.”
At that, Victoria spun on her heel and stormed off across the room.
Once she was gone, the blue girl turned to me with an apologetic smile. “Please tell me that she wasn’t the first person you spoke to here.”
I gave a sheepish shrug. “You mean aside from Ga- Ms Griffin?”
She shook her head before glaring after Victoria. “I swear, most of us aren’t so elitist. Victoria was the only pureblood at her coven before she came here, so she was used to people being overly nice to her, despite her rotten personality. And now she has to compete with nice, well-liked purebloods like Charlotte.”
Charlotte folded her arms. “I think you’re exaggerating the ‘well-liked’ part.”
“Well, the teachers like you.”
“Teachers always like quiet smart girls. We make their jobs easier.”
I frowned a little, wondering if she’d meant that as a joke. It sounded like a joke, but she’d said it in such a matter-of-fact way.
“Well, regardless, it still makes Victoria look bad in comparison, proving that not all purebloods have their heads permanently stuck up their arses.”
I frowned. “What’s the big deal about purebloods? Sounds kind of...”
The blue girl snorted, clearly taking my meaning. “I know, right? As if I’m not more awesome than them. I mean, I have command of the sea, and I can cast spells. The whole thing is ridiculous, and isolationist, and twenty-first century Witches should be past that kind of nonsense.”
“Wait, you can control water?”
Charlotte nodded to my plate before her friend could answer. “Why don’t we sit down? You must be starving. I know I am.”
She turned to the table closest to us and I saw three plates of food, presumably belonging to the three girls who came to my rescue.
“Thank you,” I said, unsure if Charlotte knew what it meant to me that she’d invited me to sit with them.
“I’m Charlotte,” Charlotte said, rather than acknowledging my thanks. Maybe she just didn’t think that it was needed, though I did find it a little abrupt. “And this is Natalie, and that’s Lena.”
“I’m Amelia.”
“Is it your first day here?”
I nodded, but Lena piped up.
“Hey, I didn’t get to tell her about my magic, and if she doesn’t already know, then clearly we need to explain. We can’t have her missing out on the fundamentals.”
I frowned. “Fundamentals?”
It was Natalie who answered with a sigh, and it took me a moment of self-conscious panic to realise that the sigh was directed at Lena, not me. “Lena is referring to the fact that she’s half-Mermaid. That’s why she has scales and can control water. I’m part-Vampire. Mostly Vampire, in all honesty.”
I stared at her for a moment, my mind struggling to process her words.
She was a Vampire...
She raised an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”
“I... No. It’s just... You don’t really look like a Vampire.”
Lena smirked. “It’s the uniform. It’s hard for her to look like she’s seconds away from biting you in that outfit.”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “I don’t look like that out of the uniform either. It’s not as if I walk around with my fangs constantly out.”
“Maybe if you did, Amelia wouldn’t be having such a hard time accepting that you’re a Vampire. I mean, she’s not struggling with me being a Mermaid.”
I looked Lena over. In all honesty, the scales did help. It was an explanation of something bizarre I was already seeing, rather than something bizarre that came out of the blue.
Natalie gave a small sigh as she turned back to me. “Would it help if I showed you my fangs?”
“I... You don’t have to do that. Really. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...” I sighed, deciding to just be honest. “I only found out about magic – and that I was a Witch – a couple of days ago. I’m still adjusting.”
The slight frown Natalie had been giving me melted. “I’m sorry. This must be overwhelming.”
I shrugged. “It’s fine. I’m dealing. I just... I’m not really sure what’s going to happen moment to moment anymore.”
Natalie smiled, and I saw a flicker of light catch a pair of fangs in her mouth.
My hand went instinctively to my neck as I finally remembered where I knew her from, the memory of fangs trailing over my skin finally making sense.
I wished that I had never gone to that damn party...
Look, I had gotten very drunk, okay? It didn’t mean anything. I’d just been drunk and upset.
And she had been too.
Or, at least, she’d been drunk.
She hadn’t been upset. She’d been the one listening to me while I blathered on about how boys were the worst and why I didn’t understand what everyone else saw in them, and why couldn’t I just be normal and like someone...
And then she’d been the one kissing me.
Or maybe I’d been the one kissing her?
But that didn’t make sense. Why would I have done that?
I didn’t remember. Though, I did remember moving over to get closer, and then I was straddling her waist...
Which would seem like a big clue that I had been the one doing the kissing, but again, I had no idea why I would have done that.
The next clearest memory was something scraping the skin of my neck.
Something sharper than I had been expecting, given the softness that had come before.
And then Natalie had thrown me off her and ran out of there as fast as she could.
I should have probably realised that she had superhuman strength to be able to manage that, but by that point, I was just furious.
Whether it was with her or myself, I wasn’t sure.
When the morning had come, and I’d made my way back home, I’d just done my best to forget everything that had happened.
Except here she was.
Was that why she’d come over to save me from Victoria?
But then, she hadn’t mentioned it.
Though, I hadn’t mentioned it either.
Had she forgotten as well, or was she just pretending?
Well, I sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up.
“Something wrong?” Natalie asked, bringing me back to the present.
Her fangs were now gone.
“Too much?” she asked, waving to her mouth.
I swallowed, guilt twisting my stomach.
Maybe she really didn’t remember me.
Which meant that she probably thought that my reaction was just that I couldn’t deal with Vampires.
I forced a smile, hoping that it was enough. “No, not at all.”
She smiled back, though it was muted.
“Really, I mean it. Sorry, I’m just kind of distractible and-”
Lena held up her hand, cutting me off. “She believes you. But if you’re looking for a grin or something, you’re not going to get it.”
Natalie shrugged. “Lena’s right. Magic draws from emotion, and while most magical beings produce more to compensate, Vampires don’t. I’m more emotive than most because I’m also a Witch, but if I seem a little distant at times, it’s just that.”
“That’s okay. Actually, my cousin is a little like that. Not really emotive, I mean. Not a Vampire.” But then I stopped and remembered how fast Nightingale had moved when we’d been attacked. And she hadn’t drawn a wand like her mother. “At least, not that I know of...”
I decided to change the subject. “So, I take it you were all here last year?”
Charlotte nodded. “Yeah. Lena and I are roommates, and we met Natalie pretty early on. We’ve been friends ever since. But it’s nice to see a new face. I take it you didn’t attend last year because you hadn’t come into your powers yet?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, a little sheepishly. “Like I said, I only learned about magic a couple of days ago when... When I arrived with my auntie.” I looked away, my stomach twisting at the reminder of how I had gotten there.
But I pushed past it, not wanting the others to ask about it. Bursting into tears would make a terrible first impression. “My auntie took me to see Ms Griffin, and she examined me. She thinks I’ll break through this year, so that’s why I’m here.”
Natalie frowned ever so slightly. “Do you know why it’s taken you so long to come into your magic? You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to, I’m just curious.”
I shrugged. “I have no idea.” That wasn’t strictly true, but Auntie Jess had said not to tell anyone.
“Really?” Lena asked, giving me an incredulous look. “Ms Griffin didn’t have any theories?”
Natalie turned to her friend, frowning once more. “Lena. Leave it alone. If she wants to talk about it, she can, but we shouldn’t pry.”
I smiled, more than a little thankful for that. As much as I wasn’t that bothered by the prying, I was glad that someone was willing to stick up for me after my run-in with Victoria.
And though Lena rolled her eyes, she didn’t try to press me further.
“So,” Charlotte said, “what does your timetable look like if you haven’t broken through yet? We all already had access to our magic when we arrived.”
I pulled my timetable from my pocket and gave it a scan. “It looks like I have my regular A-Level classes in the morning, and then nothing after lunch.”
Charlotte nodded. “That makes sense. I was curious to see if they filled your afternoons with something else, but I guess that would be too much of a headache with everyone leaving afternoon classes halfway through the year.”
Lena shook her head. “You’re so lucky. I would kill to only have half days.”
I raised an eyebrow. Was she serious? “I’d go to classes until midnight if those classes were about magic.”
Charlotte grinned, and even Natalie gave a small quirk of her lips. I suspected that was as close to a smile as she ever got.
“That is a sentiment I wish more of our fellow students shared,” Natalie said. “So many people are quick to dismiss the learning process.”
I reached for my croissant, realising that it was getting cold, as Charlotte sighed.
“Unfortunately, it’s a side-effect of so many Witches growing up in covens,” Charlotte said. “When you grow up around other Witches, magic becomes normal, and you pick up a lot of it before you ever get to classes. And while most enjoy having magic, so many of them think of it as purely innate. As if there’s nothing left for them to learn.”
“I didn’t grow up in a coven, either,” Natalie said, still giving me that small, half smile. “My grandmother was half-Witch, but the genes skipped my dad and my brothers. I grew up surrounded entirely by Vampires, so being around Witches is new for me, too.”
Lena chimed in with a grin. “And now you prefer us, don’t you, Nat?”
Natalie shook her head. “I don’t prefer one over the other.”
“Then why did you spend all summer with your Witch cousins out in Newcastle?”
“It wasn’t all summer. I was only there a week.”
I looked down at my plate, trying not to look guilty as I hoped that Natalie continued not to recognise me.
“You okay?”
I was snapped out of my daze by Charlotte’s words, realising that I’d been sitting with my croissant in hand, not eating it.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just not hungry.”
That was a lie, but there was no way I was telling her the truth.
Thankfully, Charlotte just nodded as the bell rang.
“Anyone got History next?” I asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
Natalie stood up and made her way over to look at my timetable. “I think you’re in the same building as Charlotte, though.”
Charlotte smiled. “Then come on, I’ll show you the way.”