Chapter 4 (TRIGGER WARNING OF REYNOLDS BEING A D***)

James' P.O.V. (The Next Day)

School starts today. Ew. I was always good at school, but I never liked it. I'm a fast learner, and some people make fun of me for actually being in a magics school. I Reluctantly got out of my bed and took a quick shower, and got dressed for the day. "Hey James! I made breakfast if ya want some!" Thomas yelled from the kitchen area. I got out of my room and grabbed my bag, that held my books and laptop. "No thank you." I said in a quiet voice. Even though we hung out yesterday, I was still a bit shy. I grabbed a small package of tissues and slid it in my back pocket. I had a terrible immune system and would constantly get sick. "What class do you have first?" Thomas asked while making himself a plate of food. A maple smell filled the air. I took my schedule out of my bag and looked at it, "Potions with Mrs. Martha." I tell him and put my schedule in my front pocket of my jeans. I wore jeans, a t-shirt, and a green size too big hoodie. "Well at least we have a class together." He says with a chuckle, while taking the last bite of his pancake. He put his dish in the sink and grabbed his bag. "Shall we?" He asks opening the door. I smile a bit and nod as we walk out the door to the elevator. We walk in silence, Thomas presses the button to the elevator. "You don't talk much." Thomas points out, I just shrug. It was true. We go in a I press the button to the main floor. I look over at Thomas and he has his hand out in front of him, a small black silhouette was sitting on the edge of his fingertips. He was just watching it, almost expecting something to happen. He notices me staring. "I make little silhouettes sometimes in my hand, just to see if they do something. It's stupid, but sometimes they do things. I don't control them. Only recently, they have just sat on the edge, waiting for something I guess.." he explains to me, I nod my head. I feel my arm burn for a second, I hiss in pain, as the elevator door opens. Thomas makes the little black silhouette disappear, and shoots me a concerned look. I roll up my hoodie sleeve, and my tattoo is glowing a bright light. "Seriously..?" I mumble under my breath and I huff. "Woah... what's happening?" Thomas asks concerned as we walk out of the elevator. "Just my 'magic' being stupid. It always happens." I say annoyed with myself, my arm burned. "Oh, well at least it's a sign that it's still there." Thomas says with a smile. I scoffed. We walk the rest of the way with us having a small conversation. We enter a large building full of students. I feel panic rush in my gut and my heart begins to race. "James!" I hear a familiar voice yell. I turn and see Angie running over to me. I smile at her. "What class you have?" She asks with a bright smile. "Potions with Mrs. Martha." I tell her and her smile fades. "Dang it! I was hoping we would have 1st period together so it would be more bearable. I have History." She says while sticking her tongue out in disgust. I giggle at her and wave to her. "I gotta get to class. I'll see you at lunch!" I exclaim to her while walking to my class with Thomas at my side. We walk in and I see bunches of students talking to each other. I rolled down my sleeve, even though it burned. I sit at an empty desk near the front and Thomas sits next to me. I grab a sketchbook from my backpack, and flip through some of the pages. I mostly draw flowers and sometimes people. Thomas glances over my shoulder, and looks at my drawings. "Woah." He says in aw. I shrug and keep flipping through the pages. "Alright settle down students and pick a seat. Choose wisely, that will be your seat for the rest of the year." The teacher tells us while walking in. She has light skin, dark hair, and is wearing a floral dress. She had thick glasses that covered her face. She sets down her coffee, and looks at the class, which is now silent. She smiles at her new class, "Good morning students. I am Mrs. Martha, your teacher for Potions class. I expect you to know regular class rules, and you are allowed to bring a drink to class if needed. If you would like me to know something about you, please tell me after class. To start of this year, you are going to have to take a pretest. I know it's boring, once you're done you can go on your phones until everyone is done." She tells the class, getting out the pretests. A few growls and groans of annoyance come from the classroom. I chuckle at this, I look over at Thomas, he rolls his eyes as a pretest is given to him. One is placed in front of me upside down. She hands out the rest, and goes to her desk. "You may begin." She tells us, while opening her laptop. The sound of flipping papers fills the room. I flip my paper over and go through the questions. I circle each answer, I honestly know a lot about Potions, so it wasn't that difficult for me. It was about 5 pages long, I rest my head on my hand as I answer the questions. After 10 minutes I finish and flip my paper over. The teacher notices and rolls her eyes, Thomas gazed at me with wide eyes. I just shrug and open up my sketchbook. I start to draw a dying rose, a petal falling from it. I didn't realize how long I had been drawing, before I knew it the teacher began talking. "Those of you who finished first, don't be proud. It's better to take your time," she begins, glancing at me. "I will take your tests, and we will begin our first experiment." She walks around taking all the tests. She sets them on her desk, and then faces the classroom. Her eyes glow a bright blue and then Potion materials form in front of all of us. Everyone stares in amazement and she grins, wiping her hand with a rag she had in her pocket. "I want to know your knowledge on mixing Potions. Just try not to blow stuff up." She says smiling. Thomas and I put on goggles for safety, and Thomas looks at the Potions confused. I giggle and hand him a vile with a green liquid in it. He gives me a confused look and I giggle again, "Want to impress everyone? Trust me." I tell him. The classroom was a little loud because of everyone's confusion. Thomas shrugs and puts the substance into a large container. I look through the other liquids and hear a small poof from behind me. I turn and see someone's face blackened from a failed potion. I laugh and grab a pink liquid and hand it to Thomas. He pours it in with the other green liquid. I grab a mixing stick, and go on my knees in my chair to mix it. I was so short... the liquid turns blue and white smoke comes from it. Other students look at Thomas and I in shock that we did something right. The teacher observes what I do. I grab a small measuring cup and pour a purple liquid into it. I hand it to Thomas, and he pours it in, still confused. I mix it once again, and the liquid turns a bright green. "Do you have an Ice cube?" I ask the Mrs. Martha. She raises an eyebrow at me and smiles. The room was now silent, all eyes were on Thomas and I. "James what are you.." Thomas starts but I put my hand up, indicating for him to be patient. Mrs, Martha hands me a Ice cube, I smile and mumble a thank you to her. "Would you like to do the honors?" I ask Thomas, sitting on my knees in the chair. Thomas shrugs as he grabs the ice cube from me, and puts it in the mixture. More white smoke comes from it and I smile. I grab a thin tray, and line it with dirt. Thomas looks more confused and I giggle. I grab the liquid we just made, which was a vibrant green. I get some into a dropper, and put some drops all across the dirt. I wait for a second. Silence filled the room. I get nervous for a second, but the dirt glows green, and many colored plants sprout from the dirt, almost filling my side of the table. Tropical plants grow across my desk. Vines, multi colored flowers, and leaves are in front of me. Everyone in the classroom cheers, including the teacher. "My oh my Mr. Madison." The teacher exclaims, putting a hand over her heart. The other students calmed there cheering. "Where did you learn that James?" She asks me while looking at all the beautiful flowers. "I'm self-taught miss." I tell her scratching the back back of my neck. Her eyes widen, "Well, I'm glad to have you in my class." She smiles at me and I smile back. I grab a pink and dark green liquid and mix them. I put it in another dropper, sneakily picking some of the flowers, before I drop some of the liquid onto the plants, making them disappear. They all come together, and form into an apple. I grab it and throw it to the teacher. Everyone claps again. I hear the bell ring, I grab my bag and put it on. "That was great!" Thomas tells me while he grabs his stuff. I feel heat creep on my face. We go to leave the classroom, "Mr.Madison?" I hear the teacher call for me. I turn to her and she's holding up my pretest. It had a A+ on it written in blue ink. I smile and walk out with Thomas. "Hey James?" Thomas gets my attention before walking off to his next class. He pulls a bright blue flower from his bag, and puts it behind my ear. "It suits you." He mumbles before walking off. I feel my face heat up and I froze. Did he just...? "JAMES I HEARD WHAT YOU DID IN— Um.. why is your face red?" Peggy comes up to me making me flinch. I look back at Thomas who was now rounding a corner. I smile, "I ship it." Peggy says while putting a hand on her hip and smirking. I roll my eyes as we go to our next class.

Lunch time

(Still James' P.O.V.)

I sit next to Peggy at the round lunch table. Everyone except for me is eating their lunch and chatting. Thomas also sat next to me. The flower was still behind my ear. Did he like me? Pfft. Not a chance. I barely even know him anyway. I mean yeah he's cute but... ugh. I need to stop thinking that. "Well, well, Well. The rumors are true. This useless nobody actually did get into this school after all. I flinch at the voice. My new friends, John,Thomas,Alex, Herc, and Laf look at me confused. I just look down. I know that face all too well. James Reynolds. I think to myself. Peggy glares daggers at him. James always picks on me. How did he even get into this college? He has a criminal record!! His tattoo spreads across his cheek. Wavy lines and a dagger in the middle is shown. "What's wrong Jamey? Cat got your tongue?" He ask while coming closer to me. "Um excuse me? Who the hell are you?" Alex asks agitated. "Name is James Reynolds. And I can mess your world up." He tells them with a smirk. He quickly grabs my wrist and pulls my sleeve up, I see scars from the past... and scabs from the present. "Still want to kill yourself? You really should commit next time." He says with a smirk. I was so useless. I feel tears brim my eyes. "James, touch him more and I'll mess you up." Peggy defends me. But I know the sisters are terrified of him too from their own personal experiences. "James get off of me." I demand in a whisper. I immediately regretted it. "What was that fag?" He asked, venom lacing his voice. A red paint like substance comes from Alex's eyes, everyone around the table looks super mad. "I said get off of me." I say a little louder, my voice cracking. He stomps on my foot, causing me to tense up. Vines with thorns come up to grab his wrist, cutting Reynolds in the process, he hisses in pain. Thomas' eyes were black, and thorny vines came from his hand. "Touch him again. I dare you." Thomas says his voice spitting venom. Reynolds looks back at the table and realizes he's outnumbered. He scoffs, and pulls a dagger from his skin, and cuts the vines, making Thomas wince, as he brought the rest of the vines back. I see John glare at Reynolds, he flinches his head to the side and I hear a crack. Reynolds swears to himself, his hand looked broken. "Oh we aren't done here Jamey. I'm coming back." He says with a glare and an evil smile. He runs off to the bathroom. Thomas' fingers were bleeding, John was bleeding from his ears and nose,Alex was frantically rubbing his eyes, Herc was rubbing his temples, and Lafayette's ears were bleeding. "James.." Peggy says in a soft voice trying to comfort me. I run off. I couldn't take it. All I always got from them is pity. I want to be able to stick up for myself. I'm just so useless. I run outside, where groups of people were talking, and some staring at me. I feel hot tears run down my cheeks. I run to a nearby tree. I lean against it and bring my knees to my chest and cry. It's what I do best. And just to top this off, my tattoo begins to glow. I choke on a sob, Why now? "Why now?" I whisper to myself. I roll up my sleeve and see it glowing brightly. I give my own arm a confused looks. I roll my eyes, and bang my head against the tree. I stay like that for awhile. "James?" I hear a voice say. I snap my head forwards, I see Thomas standing there. I look away from him. He sits down next to me, I just look away from him. I flinch when I feel something on my leg. I look down and see a tiny black silhouette sitting Indian style on my leg. I tilt my head at it, and the silhouette does the same thing. I can't help but smile at it. I look over at Thomas, who has a sad smile and his hand out slightly, making the silhouette. I place my hand on my leg, and the black silhouette looks at me. I tilt my head once again, the silhouette gets up and touches my hand. My tattoo glows when it does. I take my hand away, of course my tattoo glitches when I'm trying to be happy. Thomas notices my frustration and frowns. He holds his hand out for the silhouette to get on, it does then disappears in his hand. I look away again. I feel something go behind me ear, I look at Thomas, and he places the same blue flower behind my ear. I hadn't noticed while I was running it fell out. I smile at him. "A lot of people think that people with black magic are bad." He tells me, earning a confused look from me. "I got a lot of hate for being who I am. So I did end up bullying just to defend myself. I know what it's like James." He tells me. I look into his eyes, which were now a normal color. "Thank you..." I mumble, my cheeks flushing. "Come on, let's go back inside. Class is starting soon. And if that Reynolds guy comes by, I won't hesitate to kick his a**." He says while getting up. I laugh at him, and he holds his hand out for me to get up. I gladly take it. We walk inside, with me smiling. Once the sisters see me they bombard me with questions. I giggle and answer them. I love my friends.

After school.

All of us walked back to our dorms together. The sisters already got to their dorms since the girls dorms are separate. Alex was ranting about how he wanted to punch Reynolds face in. I just laughed. John was smirking, he had broken Reynolds hand and was very proud of himself. The eyeshadow under his eyes was bright purple. I still had the blue flower behind my ear. Just the thought of it made me blush. "Alex calm down." John tells him rolling his eyes. "I'm just saying! Next time he comes around I swear to god." He mumbled more under his breath. "Mon ami, how long has he been doing this to you?" Lafayette asks me, raising an eyebrow. "1st grade." I say plainly. Alex looked even more mad. Thomas was busy watching the tiny black silhouette on his hand sit on the edge of his fingers. "He still not doing anything?" Herc asks looking over at Thomas. Thomas shakes his head and sighs. "They have little minds of their own, and it looks like he's just waiting for something." Thomas explained, frustrated. "Or someone heh!" Lafayette joked. I froze. Not by choice. Something felt off, I felt like I suddenly went looking into space. Everyone notices I stop, and they look back at me. My breathing paces up. "James? You okay?" Herc asks me, their worried faces surrounding me. My tattoo blinks a white flash. John gives me a horrified look, his nose now bleeding. "U-Umm... guys..?" John says, looking terrified. Everyone faces him now. He points to me, my breathing felt normal now, but something felt off. "What..?" I ask extremely confused. They look back at me and gasp. I tilt my head genuinely confused. Lafayette pulls a mirror out of his bag and faces it towards me. I look at myself. My black short hair, the blue flower in my hair. Everything seemed normal. Than I gasp noticing what they were talking about. My eyes. They aren't brown.

They're plain white.