I looked out the window of the crowded room at the night sky full of stars. It was an odd feeling to learn that mythological beings and techniques were a reality, and an even larger shock to learn that I was one of the select few who were chosen to learn an 'irresponsible' branch of said techniques. "Magic." I reminded myself, magic was real and somehow, I was supposed to learn about it from the ground up. I was then supposed to be adequate enough to perform during the end of school showing.

I heard a snort from the bed next to mine and shifted my eyes towards the noise. "This has to be a massive joke! Magic? What kind of fools do they take us for? This is obviously some kind of government plot to test new technologies on us!" I heard a couple of grumbles of agreement and a couple snorts of amusement, as if not sure if he was serious or not. I just turned towards the window and continued my watch. I heard a few more theories about how the magic was real or not, but I payed it no mind. They had all been at the orientation with me, they had all seen the crazy things the 'principle' had done, felt the wind as the miniature tornado he created had pulled at our clothes.

I had no clue if it was really magic or some form of advanced weaponry, all I knew was it felt different. When the tornado had first been created, I felt a tug and then nothing, when I looked down at my arms, I saw that my veins were now colored a ruby crimson and were running much more steadily under my skin. Another Pearson near me had seemed to float a little towards the swirling windstorm before it looked like that were pushed to the ground at a rapid pace, almost as if they had a hand on their shoulder keeping them grounded. Another still had seemed to not feel the wind as if it were not there, their clothes not even fluttering in the heavy winds.

"What about you, dude?" I blinked and pulled myself back to the present. "Me?" I dumbly asked. I heard a few smatterings of laughter through the room and shrunk a little in my bed. The Teen next to me grinned and nodded, "Yes, you! Did you think we were talking to the wall?" I shook my head and sat up. "What was the question about again?" He grinned and shook his head a little. "What do you think about this whole 'magic' business? You yay or nay in regard to it being real magic?" I glanced around to check what people were thinking. "I guess it was real, it certainly felt real."

The teen grinned and reached his hand over, "The names Oliver, you can call me Ollie or Oliver or whatever." He grinned with his entire face when he finished. It made me wonder how old he really was and whether or not I was older than him. He was a shortish kid at around 4'6" and had garishly red hair, looked recently died, he was dressed in the same thing as all of us were wearing a pure white hospital gown. He had crooked teeth and a small nick on his nose that looked like a small rodent had taken a bite out of it. I glanced at his hand and stuck out my own. "Name's Jaih pleasure to meet you." I gave him a small smile and his grin, impossibly, widened.

I looked around the room wondering if anyone would call out their names in the following silence. I was not disappointed. "Names Melkor." A tall and dark-haired boy muttered. Even though he spoke somewhat quietly his voice had an abnormal power in it that seemed to carry and pierce through the other noise. I nodded and raised my hand in acknowledgement. The boy sitting next to him held up his hand as high as he could reach and trembled there almost as if asking permission. "My names Johnny! Nice to meet you!" I smelled and waved at him, he scooted his bed towards us and soon we had situated around each other on the beds closest to each other. Throughout it all Johnny hadn't gotten out of his bed.

"I'm so excited to be doing this kind of stuff! I've always wanted to be a wizard or a warlock or a sorcerer or a!—" Melkor abruptly cut off Johnny from his rambling and motioned and almost growled. "We've known each other for a few years. I refused to come unless they brought Johnny along with. They agreed eventually" Melkor glanced at Johnny before continuing, "They Didn't want to bring him at first, but they said they really needed me, so I offered an ultimatum. I only come if He does, they agreed eventually." I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Why didn't they want him to come? It's not like there's anything special about us to start with." Melkor nodded before motioning towards Johnny, "Johnny can't… walk. He was in a bad accident when he was younger, and he can't move his legs very well anymore. His parents didn't make it out of the accident either, so I've basically become his guardian."

I nodded and flicked my eyes toward Johnny and raised my eyebrows. He nodded his head and shrugged before explaining how Melkor had been taking care of him, almost as a father, for a year or two. HE then split off into a spell about how he wasn't able to bring his wheelchair with him. "Literally a chair with bicycle wheels put onto it." Johnny laughed. Melkor looked away in embarrassment and mumbled under his breath. Johnny seemed to laugh even harder than before and fell backwards onto his bead before pushing himself back up into a sitting position. Oliver grinned at the display and played back onto his bed and shut his eyes with a smile.

Melkor grumbled out a gruff "night." Before turning over and starting to wrestle Johnny into his blankets. I Grinned as I watched my new friends. I had a feeling that if every day was a fun or exciting as this there would be no dull days.

I awoke the next night to the sounds of yelling and pounding feet. I opened my eyes and blinked adjusting to the light coming in through the windows. I propped myself up on my elbow and looked to see what the commotion was about. Melkor saw me looking and grunted out a greeting. "Breakfast time ya punks! Up and at 'em!" My eyes flickered to a buff man wearing a white tank top with a silver whistle hanging from his neck. He was wearing a pair of khaki shorts that emphasizes his very large leg muscles. I groaned at dropped my head back onto my bed, followed by rolling my whole body into a sitting position before standing up and stretching.

I saw that Melkor was carrying Johnny on his back in a strange form of piggyback. My eyes were drawn back to the man and saw that he was looking right at me. "Well? What are you waiting for? Front and center!" The fact that he managed to get all that out as loud as he did without taking a breath impressed me. I walked to the sort of orderly line that had formed in front of the man. Once Melkor had gotten next to me the man snapped into a straight line before exclaiming, "My name is Eric VanWhalin! You may call me Sir or Mr. VanWhalin! Am I clear?" There was a spattering of acknowledgment that he seemed to find acceptable enough because he continued. "Breakfast is in 30 minutes and I want all of you and this room to be clean! Showers are to the right! Half of you will take a shower while the other half cleans up their bed! The other half will take a shower, we will then switch! I expect a 5-minute shower and when you exit, I want to see you shine!"

I was even more impressed by his lung capacity as he had only seemed to take one breath the whole time he was yelling at us. He split us in half and almost seemed to push them into the showers. The rest of us started to make our beds and pick up the pillows that had fallen off. Once we were done, we just sort of stood back into a line and waited for our next 'orders'. About a minute passed and the shower water shut itself off, evidenced by some complaining coming from the bathroom. Eric was having none of it and yelled at them to leave. "I said five minutes it's not my fault if you don't listen!" Rub the soap in if you still have some on you!" A group of boys walked out of the shower, 5 of which still had soap in their hair. "Second group! Get in here!"

We walked into the plain tiled floor there were a line of showers with curtains around them, thankfully, and a bar of soap on a stand in each stall. "Alright everyone pick a stall and hurry up!" We all looked at each other waiting to see who would be the first to strip. Johnny laughed and, somehow, managed to get all his clothes off while still being held by Melkor. Almost as if it was a sign everyone started to strip down. Most still held onto their modesty with a towel, but some seemed to not care. We all chose a stall and walked forward into it drawing the curtain closed. The bar of soap was coarse and didn't feel very nice on the skin. From a couple of stalls over I heard Johnny laughing and Melkor grunting in irritation. I ran the bar over my head and suds seemed to appear in my hair which confused me, but I shrugged it off.

We made sure to finish in less than five minutes but there was still one unlock kid who hadn't gotten all the soap off yet. He yelped as the water turned off suddenly and sullenly walked out of the stall, towel wrapped around his waist. He glared at Eric and started to rub the soap into his head to get the suds to die down. Eric rolled his eyes and yelled out "Alright kids! Get dressed we have 10 minutes to get into the breakfast hall! Let's go!" Oliver raised his hand, "Don't we have 20 minutes?" Eric turned sharply and yelled at Oliver, "Early is better than on time! If your early you're on time, if you're on time you're late, if you're late you don't get fed! Now get dressed!"