“Tyson! Tyson wake your ass up!”

That was Lloyd. My landlord who was ever so chipper this morning, like he is every morning. The old man knocked on my door and hit the buzzer trying to get me out of bed.I rolled to my side folding the pillow I had to cover both of my ears. Maybe today will be different, maybe he’ll actually give up and let me get to sleep in a little for once. A couple of minutes pass, and the buzzing doesn’t stop buzzbuzzbuzz I couldn’t hear myself think anymore!

“Alright I’m workin’ on it just stop the damn doorbell for god’s sake.”

“You watch your tongue you little punk!” I could imagine him stereotypically shaking his fist in the air with his rebuttal. I really wish I could say this wasn’t a typical morning for me.For some reason that hospitable relic always takes it upon himself to cause a racket and make sure I get up in the morning. I don’t know why he does it, because no one asked him to, not me anyways.

“Alright since I hear movement I’m leaving, hurry up and answer your door boy, your little girlfriends been standing here for a while.”

Who? After thinking about it, I really didn’t care. Whoever it was didn’t run it by me that they were visiting so they could wait until I was finished getting ready for school. After a few minutes I walked my way over to the door while buttoning up my shirt. Upon opening the door I was greeted with the face of some girl who looked kinda familiar, not that there was anything outstanding about her from what I could see. She was about five feet six inches tall with pair of glasses on that complemented her short light brown hair. To be honest she was a bit of a looker up close. She went from cute to strange as she just stood in front of my door twiddling her thumbs and looking at me. Since she didn’t say anything, I decided I should. “You’re that new girl in school, right? Did you get lost or need something?”

She fidgeted with her hands a bit more and finally began to speak.

“Um…well I— “

“You’re supposed to look people in the eyes when you talk to them you know.”

It’s a peeve of mine.

“S-sorry Mr. Stengram” she said with a shaky voice, well that’s great, her discomfort’s contagious…

“What’s all this ‘Mr.’ stuff? Call me Tyson, we’re peers and all, right?” I reached back inside and grabbed my toast taking a bite. “So, what’s up?”

“You agreed to show me around school today. Mr. Travers said he discussed that with you yesterday?” She seems to be calming down a bit.

“Oh right, I gotta stick to my word, I guess. By the way, how exactly did you find my place?”

She picked up her notebook and flipped to a page with a green seal on it, faded and used up already. “Mr. Travers cast a hearthseal in my contacts notebook, so I just put a little energy into it and was transported here this morning. We haven’t officially met so I was too nervous to wake you up myself.” She started looking at her feet again.

Travers should really ask my permission before doing this kind of thing even if I am technically still his student. Not only did he give a total stranger my address, but he lied to her about discussing the whole arrangement with expecting me to just accept that! Which, I guess I am, he’ll just owe me later. In any case she seems nice enough, “That’s fine I guess, what’s your name before we head out?”

She smiled a little and put out her hand, “Alina Ferreri, pleased to make your acquaintance!”

I shook her hand and started to walk towards the school, “Tyson. C’mon Alina I’ll show you around and walk you to class today.”

“Alright!” She sounded happy to get started.

“You’ll only have to hang around me for today so just bear with it.” She gave me a puzzled look but disregarded what I said. Then we were on our way.

School pretty much went on the way it usually did, I was just kind of there. Meanwhile, my fellow students studied their incantations, scribing and alchemy. I sat there not participating,instead of being hands on like everyone else I was directed to take notes. Just pen and paper, I couldn’t summon guardians or throw fireballs. All I could do was analyze the processes, and just barely evoke enough magis from my body to use basic tools. Alina was always close by, she was friendly and enthusiastic about most subjects. Also, she was actually pretty good in all fields except P.E. where I actually could join in. I was usually just target practice though. In all theother classes I just stayed in the back by myself like always. I could see Alina giving questioning looks in my direction, but she wasn’t too nosy. I wasn’t concerned with her at this point because I figured she’d be just like the other seven or so people I gave tours to. They would catch on that everyone kept their distance from me, then follow suit. It bugged me up until about the fourth time, but now I couldn't care less. The only part I hate now is when they decide to cut me loose and spend ten minutes of my time trying to figure out how to say, “Thanks for showing me around today, I hope you’ll understand if I act like I’ve never met you right?” without sounding offensive. That part never gets easier.

At the end of medicinal alchemy, Alina walked up to me. I was expecting the whole “Thanks now let’s never talk again” thing then she says “Hey Tyson, I was wondering…”

She’s avoiding eye contact again, here we go.

“Would you sit with me at lunch? I don’t feel all that comfortable with anyone I’ve met yet.”

I was dumbfounded, which is really lame considering it was just some girl asking me to keep her company at lunch period.

“Uh yeah, sure thing Alina.”

“Great! I’ll see you after I go get my food.” She was beaming, and she even walked away with a skip in her step. I’m embarrassed to admit it but that made me pretty happy, I was excited to meet up later.

Lunch came around and it was actually pretty nice having someone to sit with. Alina told me all about how her father practiced magia with her privately since she was little. She said he sent her out to study abroad because there was only so much that he could teach her himself. She was excited to see what she could experience in a whole city dedicated to the study of magian arts. She seemed to be enjoying herself with me. I felt pretty good about it. That's when Tobias Kurt had to pay a visit and ruin my good time.

Toby was a jerk, the kind of no good chump who boasts about whatever little excellence he had. He was just a good-looking schmuck who had a silver tongue, the teachers always let him get away with everything. Kurt squeezed himself into a seat with his hair all shiny and looking like an oil slick. "What's a pretty girl like you doin’ with a scrub like this guy?"

He leaned in closer to her, "You should come hang out with me some time. I'm lots of fun ya’ know. Plus, I can actually perform some pretty advanced arts, and have an actual reason to be studying here. I'm not just wastin’ space like some people." There it was, that trademark goblin grin of his.

I was disgusted, but I was lucky enough to have someone nice like her stick around for most ofthe day. I just didn't make eye contact and continued drinking my tea.

"I wouldn't be caught dead with some stuck-up jerk who just drops in just to make fun of people"

Kurt’s eyes grew wide in disbelief "What'd u just say exactly?"

Alina looked him unwaveringly in his eyes and flatly said "I'm not interested."

Kurt laughed for a bit and his face grew grim, he put his hand over Alina's and gripped it tightly. She didn't speak, break eye contact, or even try to wriggle her hand away. "You’re new so I'll let you know how things work here." I felt heat coming from them. She winced and I realized that he was trying to burn her hand with a quick-spell. Alina was a bit more of a pro than he expected and was fighting his spell back well. She was running a minimal abjuring current of energy over the points of contact between them, leaving no direct point for heat to pass on to her body. Kurt was just making himself sweat profusely. I watched as the frustration grew on Kurt’s face. I probably should’ve stepped in by now.

“Toby my boy, I can’t find the words to tell you how lame you look right now. Not only are you picking on the new girl, on top of that you're not even doing well. It's unsightly man, this isn't your day at all.”

He tossed a glare my way and let go of her hand, it was admittedly satisfying watching every attempt he made to start something fall flat today. He composed himself then wiped some of the sweat from his face into his hair pretending to slick it back before cracking a smile, “Why don’t we have a friendly spar then? Just to quell all of this negativity, ya' know blow off some steam?”

I usually ignored this mook, but today he took things a little too far for my taste considering he actually tried to hurt someone. “You’re on.”

Kurt laughed thinking he hit the jackpot. “You can’t even cast! What do you expect to be able to do against me?”

I made a fist and slowly pushed it against his chest making him move back a step, “I think this is all I’ll need. For you anyway.”

Realizing I was serious he smirked and agreed to me in practice room 26 B. I started to head there with Alina close behind. “Won’t you guys get in trouble for this kind of thing?”

“Nope, as long as we’re both appropriately warded it’s all regulation. No worries.”

I could tell she had her doubts, but she didn’t push the issue. “But Tyson, is it true that you can’t cast anything?"

We arrived at the door and I turned around and smiled at her, “Yeah it is, I'm told I have more magis in me than most people. It's so much that I can’t properly release it without hurting myself. So, it’s basically, sealed in me.” Judging form the look on her face, that didn’t help with the concern, I guess.

“I’m not gonna let you get beat up for my sake! I’ll fight him, I’ve never casted on another person in a fight before but I’m more than capable of washing that bozo.”

I opened the door, “Don’t worry, I just need you to cast a shield for me and you can enjoy the show. I didn’t come here to get my ass kicked and you really shouldn't be fighting your first day here. What kind of tour guide would I look like? Plus, he probably challenged me because he knew he couldn’t take you.”

Kurt was already waiting with his shields fresh, an opaque silhouette of magic armor over his clothes; he brought his game face too. I imagined how his face was gonna look when he sees what happens once I cut loose. I couldn’t wait to get started. After Alina found her seat I announced, “Mr. Travers can’t know about this, agreed?”

He snickered and said, “Yeah I’ll agree to that if you win by some miracle, it won’t get me much in terms of clout, but I can’t wait to tell everyone about how I creamed the class' repeat cripple. It’s about time someone did something about this eyesore!” a nice bait if I had been feeling any doubt. "Maybe this'll give you some perspective and you'll finally drop out and do something with your life!"

I smirked and said “Perfect” I could see the anger it caused his now red face. The twitching in his face pretty much told me to get ready.

Kurt flared up and shot a fire bolt as soon as I started strafing, I slid under and began running right at him. I don’t have much time to waste before next period starts. He set up a flame apparatus after muttering a spell in an attempt to keep me at a distance. Kurt scowled “I’ll fry you, loser!” and began to expand the blazing barrier around him. His face widened incredulously, his jaw dropping in awe when he saw that I didn’t slow down and in fact had plunged my hands into the searing flames. I ripped open a path with my bare hands, not feeling a thing other than the resistance of his flame field as he tried to retain its shape. It was like stretching out a hole cut in a chain-link fence, I jumped through the opening and he had no answer. I dispelled the whole burning sphere and yelled “grit your teeth!”

BANG

I felt my fist practically push through the side of his face, all my frustration gone just like that. Physical therapy at its finest. From Alina’s point of view, she heard me yell then saw Kramer flying head first into the bleachers. If he were unshielded, he probably would have broken his neck.

We left him in there unconscious, I assured Alina it would be okay to leave him there. If we stuck around until he woke up that we would just be subject to him whining and cursing.

We didn’t get far before she exploded, “What was that?! The whole fire stopping hands thing! Did you make some sort of oven mitt-style ward? That's so genius!”

I kept walking towards study hall as I explained. “ Not anything so... specific and weird. Basically, I can’t expel the magis in my body traditionally, but I can however manipulate the current of it and change the direction of, or completely discern a spell when I come into contact with it. I can also use it to bolster my strength in short bursts, which is how I made the Toby missile. It works best if I can tell how the spell I'm working against works. It's pretty much the only reason I still bother studying here."

She was star struck; it was a little embarrassing watching her be all giddy over something I did.“I’ve never seen anything like that! It’s just like father told me, there’s amazing things all around. It’s crazy that you just happen to be one of them!”

I stopped in front of her and leaned close to her face making eye contact, “this is between you and me got it? Travers says I’m not allowed to use those abilities outside of emergencies so it’s a secret. As far as any of our classmates know, I’m a mundane and totally incapable of magis manipulation.”

She nodded her head and asked with a smile, “Soo since we’re sharing secrets and stuff now… does this mean we’re friends?”

At that moment I felt like an idiot, I had spent all day waiting on her to ditch me and here she is wondering if I even wanted to be her friend. I was overwhelmed, for a moment but brushed it off.

I didn’t make eye contact as I started to head to my next class.

“It’s weird you even asked.”