Alyssa Corbyn was, on all accounts, a very normal sixteen-year-old girl. She enjoyed being on social media and had a very popular Instagram account. She often found herself spending hours taking the perfect photos and spent weeks learning how to properly edit them. She viewed as any other hobby people spend their lives on. She was careful not to let it consume her. Other than her father being prime minister of Britain there was nothing else extraordinary that stood out about her. Over the last year, she had shown a minor affinity towards wind-based magic and her father became involved immediately, as he usually did. He had a habit of becoming overly excited when it came to her potential future.

“Alyssa, I’ve found it! The perfect school!” Over the last week, her father had been using his extensive network of powerful connections to get her into the best magical university he could. With the minimum age of entrance being sixteen she just barely made the requirements.

“Dad! I can barely create a small breeze, why would I go to a magical university?” At that, her father rushed into their quaint living room with a huge smile. “The connections! Think of the people you could meet and the things you could see. You don’t have to be great at using magic to become a magician.” She sighed. It was impossible to argue with her father. They had been going back and forth on the matter nonstop for weeks, but it had been much worse this last week. She figured it might be better to play his game for the time being. “Which University is it?”

With a grand gesture, her father replied, “Falstrom Academy in the United States. I’m sure even you have heard of it.” Alyssa shook her head violently. “No, dad! I’ll be eaten alive there! I won’t fit in! Even you should know that.” But her father just waved off her objections.

“Nonsense! You’ll fit right in! Getting in there will guarantee you a great future. I’ll make sure you have the best resources available. At least come take a look at the campus with me. You can bring along a few friends if you wish.” Alyssa hesitated, she knew it was a trap but she wasn’t sure how. Knowing it would end poorly, she accepted to go visit the campus. She figured she might at least get a few good pictures out of it.

After a quick hop through the London teleportation station, she found herself in a brand new environment. The first thing she noticed was that no matter where they seemed to be in the city the smell of piss was always in the air. She kept looking for anyone else that seemed to notice, but each person just walked quickly ahead to deal with some unknown and very pressing issue. No one made eye contact, no one gave small pleasantries to each other in passing, and most people didn’t even seem to notice that she existed. It was bizarre.

The worst was yet to come at the university though. Her father immediately found some strange college student he knew and the next thing she knew the kid was using frightening magic against her father’s bodyguard. It only devolved from there as her father explained that student would be her bodyguard within the school. She now stood awkwardly in the corner of a bright white room trying not to puke as her new bodyguard’s bone was being pushed back into place. It was all so far out of her control and she now found herself entering Falstrom University under worse conditions than she expected.