Chapter Eighteen

Amber stumbled out of her room maybe ten minutes after Morgan banged on her door. She’d heard the blond doing the same to all the other doors on her floor, so she wasn’t the only one being tortured by being woken at seven thirty-two.

“You’re ready,” Morgan said as she looked Amber up and down.

Amber started to nod, then cut herself off with a yawn. “Yeah,” she finally said.

Jade was sitting on their couch, a satchel open on her lap and books stuffed within. Two more bags just like it were waiting on the dining table. “Your school supplies came in,” Morgan said. She tugged one of the bags closer, looked at the label fixed to it, then gave it to Amber.

Amber opened it to find some books within, a small laptop, and some pretty standard school supplies, most still in their packaging. There was a note atop it all that she pulled out.

The first half was all generic bureaucratic stuff. It was the table at the bottom that caught her eye.

Year One Schedule

Student

Team

Amber Green

Svalinn

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Morning

Agartha Studies

High School EQ

Magic Theory

Magic Theory

High School EQ

Lunch

Ethics / Elective

Afternoon

High School EQ

Combat Training

Agartha Studies

High School EQ

Combat Training

She looked over the list quickly, then frowned as her sleeping mind started to engage. “Hey, are we supposed to have this many classes?”

Morgan looked over to her, then peaked at her table which she turned to help the taller girl read. “That seems normal, yes?”

Amber hummed to herself. “What’s ‘High School EQ?’”

“That’s your high school equivalency class. Pass that and you get a high-school diploma. It’s math and physics and English as well as history all rolled into one three hour slog.”

“That sounds awful,” Amber said.

“It’s not too bad. You get some classes as a group, and the rest with a tutor to help you through everything. They’re usually really good,” Morgan said. “The tests are pretty hard though, so it’s worth attending.”

A tutor for every class? Or one for all of them at the same time? And do we each get one individually? That sounds expensive. “Alright. When’s, uh, Agartha Studies start?”

“Nine,” Morgan said. “It ends at noon.”

Amber blinked. She didn’t need a watch or anything to tell her that it wasn’t even eight yet. “Uh?”

“If you don’t want to starve all morning, then you need to get to the cafeteria early,” Morgan said.

That made perfect sense. “Alright ,cool. Where’s Cassy?” Their team’s second (mostly) blonde wasn’t anywhere in sight.

Morgan’s face set into an expressionless mask, and whatever good humour she’d gained from answering Amber’s questions faded. “She’s still sleeping, I suspect. I’d leave her behind and let her learn her lesson when she starves mid-class, but I do want to be a good teammate.”

Amber rubbed at her eyes. “I’ll knock on her door,” she said before trudging over to Cassy’s room. The night before the four of them had enjoyed a rather awkward meal at the cafeteria. Jade was very polite, but incredibly reserved, and it was a chore to get her to break out of her shell. Cassy was quite the opposite, dominating a lot of the conversation with questions, then prattling on before anyone had time to answer.

Morgan had been Morgan, which is to say, she had been cold and polite, but a lot more reserved than when she was alone with Amber. And Amber had... Well, I tried. Getting people to become friends was never her forte. She vaguely remembered asking people to be friends in grade school. After that, she didn’t know how she made her other friends.

Mostly via proximity, I guess.

She knocked on Cassy’s door. “Hey! Cassy?”

There was no reply.

Amber knocked again, then a moment later, knocked a little harder with the flat of her hand. “Cassy! Breakfast, then classes!”

The door swung open, and a bleasy, dishevelled Cassy stood before Amber. Her hair was a tangled mess, not the artful air-mussed style she’d worn the day before, but more the hair of someone who slept with their hair wet. “I hate you,” she greeted Amber.

“That’s nice,” Amber said. “Classes start in a bit, and I don’t think you can show up like that.” She gestured to Cassy who was currently in a pair of pyjamas that looked like they were about four sizes too big. The shirt drooped down to one side, and her pant legs were so big around that they looked like Cassy could fit both legs in any one.

“Urgh,” was Cassy’s response. She swung the door, but not hard enough for it to actually close. Then she moved over to her bed and flopped down into it face first.

“You’re not coming?” Amber asked.

Cassy replied, but it was into her blankets and Amber couldn’t make out more than a mumble and possibly some swearing.

“Come on, we can’t just leave you back here.”

“What time is it?”

“Seven thirty-seven,” Amber said.

Cassy grumbled. “I need at least... when did we go to bed?”

“We went to bed at eight twelve,” Amber said.

The girl looked up. “How do you know that down to the minute?”

“Side effect of weird time magic,” Amber said.

“That’s like.. Uh.” If she was going anywhere with that thought, it was lost when she closed her eyes and stopped moving for a bit.

Wait, did she just fall asleep? I can’t believe I’m doing this.

Amber stepped into the room and moved over to the drawers. There were a few bags in the room, the sort that she’d expect to see in an airport. It made sense, Cassy and Jade had had time to pack some things from home before coming to Agartha.

She opened Cassy’s cupboards and found them empty except for her school clothes left on the bottom. She figured the girl didn’t have time to hang anything, or unpack her things yet. She picked out a set of the school uniform, then frowned. It was way too big.

“Cassy, your uniform isn’t in your size.”

Cassy mumbled, then turned around. ‘What?”

“Your uniform, it’s like, three, maybe four sizes too big.” Amber brought the skirt down over her own waist and tugged at the band. She didn’t exactly have the smallest hips, but she was pretty sure she could fit one and a half Ambers into Cassy’s skirt.

“The hell,” Cassy said as she got up. She swiped the skirt away, and pressed it against her front before glaring at it. She flung it to the floor. “I need another uniform.”

Amber nodded. “I have spares. You’re a bit smaller than me. I think... Morgan’s shirts are too, uh, big, but Jade’s might fit? They might be a little small.”

“I don’t mind showing off some abs,” Cassy said.

“Is anything wrong?” Morgan asked as she poked her head in.

Amber shrugged. “Cassy’s clothes are the wrong size.”

“All of them?” One of Morgan’s eyebrows rose.

Cassy moved over to her wardrobe, then started pulling blouses and sweaters and jackets out of their neat piles. They were all quite obviously too large. “Damn it,” she seethed. “This has to be some sort of joke.”

“Well, the administration building did get blown up,” Amber said. “Maybe they sent you someone else’s clothes?”

“I’ll ask Jade if she’s willing to give you a blouse,” Morgan said.

Amber got to discover that Cassy was rather shameless as the girl started to undress right then and there. She looked at her for a moment before the blood rushing to her face seeped into her brain and she snapped to attention. “I’ll get some things,” she said before running off. I wasn’t staring.

Soon enough, Cassy was dressed. Her blouse was a bit small and rather tight, and even with a sweater on she still had part of her stomach exposed, but if anything she seemed rather pleased with that.

“Alright, breakfast?” Amber asked. Her own stomach, hidden as it was, grumbled its approval at the idea.

Cassy’s face twisted in disgust for just a moment, but she nodded and when the others left, she was with them, broom and all.

Morgan led the way, with Jade a step or two behind her and Amber and Cassy taking up the rear. “Morgan’s so much taller than Jade,” Cassy said. “She could be her mom from back here.”

“I heard that,” Morgan said.

Jade turtled up a little, reaching up and tugging at her scarf so that it covered her lower face a little more.

I have to ask about that scarf one day.

Breakfast was had, the group arriving just before the first wave of other students. Amber had her fill, and was willing to forgive Morgan waking her up so early when she saw others rushing in and the line to the buffet stretching out all around the edge of the room. There were a lot of boys and girls complaining about how they were starving.

Once everything was gone, and their plates cleaned--Cassy didn’t eat much. Did she snack in the night? That would explain the sleep--they got up and headed out. Morgan once again knew where they were going.

They crossed the bridge and headed over to the lecture halls. There were some upper-year students milling around already, but Morgan ignored those and moved over to one of the halls that had a sign hanging out front. First Years. Agartha Studies. 0900-1200.

They filed into a room that Amber imagined could have been in any old college. There were rows of seats to one side, each row on a level higher than the one before it, and with steps to the side to access them. At the front was a blackboard over which a large screen hung suspended from the ceiling with a screensaver playing across it.

The teacher’s desk was off to the back, with a young man in a plain uniform sitting behind it, and next to him were two more adults, a silver-black haired man in a tweed jacket and jeans, and a woman in an officer’s outfit.

“Where do you want to sit?” Morgan asked.

There were three rows per level, each with four seats in them, and five levels in all. “Middle-Middle?” Amber asked.

“Not way at the back?” Cassy replied.

“That’ll just make it easier for us to fall asleep,” Amber said.

Cassy nodded. “Exactly.”

In the end they settled for the fourth row back, right in the middle. Soon, more students were filling the room. Only about half the seats were taken in the end when Amber’s internal clock struck nine.

The woman in the officer’s uniform straightened and moved to the front of the blackboard and cleared her throat for attention. It still took some time for people to get settled.

Cassy leaned over a bit. “Anyone else getting McGonagall vibes?” she asked.

Surprisingly, Jade was the first to nod.

“Everyone, welcome to your first lesson at Norumbega Academy. You should all have received your courses by now. We expect only the best from you, which includes a lack of tardiness and proper behaviour when in class. If you have difficulties, do inform a member of staff and we will do what we can to assist you. This isn’t a lesser school on Earth where the safety of the school and its budget comes before the comfort and abilities of our students.”

The woman pushed up a pair of spectacles, and Amber could see what Cassy meant.

“Before we begin, our principal would like to have some words with you. His name is Headmaster Williams, and any other name, even those given by him, are to be entirely ignored. Thank you.”

Amber blinked. What?

Then the man in the jeans stepped up and grinned at them. “Hey guys, I’m Headmaster Woden Allfather, and I want to welcome you all personally to our fine academy!”