Numerous corridors my feet walkthrough. Sunlight coming through the stained-glass windows makes my shoes shine. Each corridor is similar; all are imposing and ornate lanterns hang from the walls. The ceiling has the shape of a large, round arch, which creates the illusion that I am in an old knight's castle.

Suddenly, the sound of a bell rings and within a split second, I am surrounded by students. A crowd of midnight blue and some beautiful white accents overwhelms me.

I look around me with the floor plan in my hand, while I receive a knock from the right. The map falls out of my hands and I quickly try to grab it in the air, but I miss when someone bumps into me and I almost lose my balance.

I look at the piece of paper, on which several soles leave a print, and can't help myself. I standstill in the middle of the corridor and see how the sheet of paper is stomped on, smeared and crumpled. I pinch the bridge of my nose so as not to shout out my bubbling mixed feelings.

A shoulder collides with mine. My shoulder claps forward and something about this collision tells me that it was not like the others. There was something venomous about it. It felt as if this person was deliberately bumping into me.

I lift my head, looking for the person who almost made me fall head-first to the ground. My gaze falls on a tall girl, who is already staring at me. A sly, satisfied smile adorns her lips. Her light brown hair hangs down her face like a waterfall, emphasising her heart-shaped face.

Around her stand, three other girls, all dressed in the same uniform and with the same disdainful look in their eyes as the middle girl.

"Go back where you came from, man," the girl spits. Dark purple eyeliner covers her chocolate brown eyes, which shine with superiority. In a line, the four girls walk past me. All with a posh bag in the crook of their elbow and chin up. The other pupils shy away from the four as they approach and I can only look on in amazement.

"I am not a human...I am an elf," I mumble back intimidated. My shoulders slump forward and I don't dare lookup. But the foursome won't hear me. They're already gone.

The corridor has cleared and the bell rings again through the halls; the sign that I am officially late for my first lesson.

Sighing, I pick up my map from the floor and try as hard as I can with my lack of coordination skills to find my way to the right classroom. After several minutes of wandering through the corridors and awkwardly looking through the different windows at classrooms, I finally arrive at the right classroom. Classroom 1002.

A lot of noise can be heard through the thick walls and doors. I bite the inside of my cheek nervously. These are your future classmates, Aire, I remind myself. There is no need to be afraid or nervous of them. My hand covers the cool door handle. The heat seems to be sucked out like a hoover and coolness gives way to warmth. A shiver goes through my arm.

"Step inside," commands a gruff female voice on the other side of the door. Suddenly, all other sounds, which at first were very evident outside the room, stop as well. I swallow, not knowing how she – most probably the teacher – knows I am standing here.

I can feel my heart pumping faster through my body as I push down the handle. A wave of sound, but also a kind of energy – which I can't quite put my finger on – overwhelms me like a surfer who opens her eyes only last-second and can't prepare for the huge wave that immediately comes over her.

"Aire, isn't it?" With a jolt, I look back at the teacher. I estimate the woman to be around sixty years of age. Her grey hair comes together in a high ponytail. A few crow's feet dance around her eyes as she speaks.

I make a nodding head movement and say, "Yes indeed, ma'am."

"I am Mrs Popperith. You may take a seat to Reina." The teacher points to a red-haired girl, who enthusiastically stands up from her stool, causing it to fall over with a loud 'bang'. Startled, the surrounding pupils look back. Reina's cheeks turn as red as her hair and uncomfortably she runs a hand through her curly red hair and says, "Well, I'm Reina."

She has to chuckle at her clumsiness and automatically my lips curl too. I already know that she is very different from the girl with the purple eyeliner whom I met earlier in the corridor if I can call it 'meeting'.

I walk between long tables, each with two pupils sitting on a stool behind it. When I walk past, I see them staring at me and whispering to each other.

"Her ears...human." I catch vaguely, as I walk past two girls. Automatically, my hand goes to my ear and tries to hide it with a loosened tuft of hair from my ponytail.

"What is she doing here? Newbies don't belong here," says a boy on my other side. I keep my eyes fixed on the ground and try to turn off all external noise. But it's not enough.

"See her clothes. So dirty, like she slept among the animals." I look at my wrinkled jeans which indeed have some mud stains on them from the trip. I try to remove the dirt and wrinkles with my hand, but it's hopeless. I feel tears welling up and I don't dare look up, to see who is making these remarks about me, afraid that they might see my wet eyes.

At last, I reach my seat next to Reina. I sit down as quietly as possible, afraid to draw even more unwanted attention to myself.

"Hey." I feel a warm hand on my upper arm. I shift my gaze to Reina. She gives me a gentle squeeze as if trying to reassure me. "They're just suckers. Almost everyone here is. The first day is always the worst, but after a while, it passes," she tries to reassure me.

I smile at her. "And how long does that usually take?"

"A few years," she says with a shrug. Her gaze is serious. My eyes spasm open after hearing this information. After a few seconds, the redhead bursts out laughing, drawing the attention of the other students, but also the teacher. "No no, calm down, it usually only takes a few days."

"Ladies," interrupts Mrs Popperith Reina. Reina winks at me briefly, before apologising to the teacher with a big smile and puppy dog eyes. The older lady sighs briefly and continues her lesson again.

"Who wants to show in front of the class how far they have developed in terms of transformation in recent times?" It is suddenly quiet in the classroom. So quiet that I can hear a pin drop. Mrs Popperith looks around the classroom and everyone – like me – avoids her gaze.

"Perhaps a human test subject for a change, madam!" a boy in the back row shouts through the room. Some friends start yelling enthusiastically at the proposal.

I feel my windpipe closing and it becomes harder to breathe. Not me...not me, is all that echoes through my head. The teacher looks at me, I shake my head anxiously.

"Maybe for the next lesson, Theron. We don't want to scare her off already, do we?" I hear some of them agree in hushed tones and I breathe a sigh of relief after hearing her words. Fortunately, I don't have to transform. I wouldn't want to – wouldn't dare and certainly not in front of a group of students who are probably already much more skilled at this than I am. I would only make a fool of myself.

I would be the human loser.

"I'll go otherwise, Mrs Popperith." A familiar voice reaches my ears and startled, I look up. It can't be true, can it?

I look at the back row and indeed see the girl with the bright purple eyeliner standing up. She, I think, was the girl who humiliated me in the corridor. She looks at me defiantly, her gaze fixed on me as she says, "After all, I don't shy away from a little pain." There is disgust evident in her facial expression as she looks at me and parades past me. With graceful long legs, she walks to the front of the room.

A few pupils shout at her. She makes an extravagant bow, a devilish smile on her face.

"Bitch," mutters Reina next to me. She sighs and drops her head on her hand, which is resting on the table.

Once the cheering has calmed down, Mrs Popperith takes the floor again. "As I told you before, you must focus on your emotions. You have to fan them like a flame. You have to think about them, feel them, relive them. That way, in the beginning, it is easier to transform. Eventually, when you have transformed thousands of times, you will be able to do it in a blink of an eye and it will cost you almost no energy to conjure up those glorious wings." She looks at each student for a few seconds. Her gaze finally lingers on me.

"At the beginning, it may indeed hurt, as Naev just mentioned, but it decreases with the number of times you have transformed. Each of you has already undergone your first transformation, which was the most painful." Somehow I have the feeling that Mrs Popperith is trying to reassure me.

"All right, Naev. Get into position like I told you before and then the spotlight is yours."

"Just the way I want it," the girl – Naev – says with a cocky grin on her face. Her name matches her appearance and attitude. She comes across as tough, confident and her purple make-up is as dark as night, but the few glitters sparkle like lightning. I already know that I have to watch out for her, otherwise my stay on Negaron could become a lot more difficult.

Naev bends her knees slightly. Her arms are folded in front of her chest. Her head down. I raise an eyebrow and look at Renna when nothing happens for a few seconds, but I only see her looking expectantly at Naev. Everyone is dead silent. You could hear a pin drop.

I shift my vision back to the front of the room when suddenly a piercing scream echoes through the room. The scream came from Naev's mouth. Her back is arched like a cat's and her hands are balled into fists. She clenches her fists so hard, that from my spot a few metres away I can see the colour draining from her fists.

Another scream, even louder than the last, escapes from her mouth. I hold my breath in shock, not daring to make a sound. In the corner of my eye, I see Reina leaning forward, as if in anticipation of what's to come. Automatically I lean on the edge of my seat as well.

Naev makes wriggling movements with her back – like a snake moving through the bushes towards its prey. The movements become wilder and wilder. She falls to her knees on the ground but doesn't even seem to notice. I hear several bones creak. Her back folds in two. Naev is now screaming constantly, deafeningly loudly. I put my hands on my ears to reduce the sound, but it still makes my eardrums vibrate.

Suddenly her head shoots up. She looks at us, but her brown eyes are not as bright as before, but rather shiny, as if she does not see us, but stares into the distance. Her uniform rips open on her back. Two large, bloody holes – a kind of gash – appear. They are gaping holes. A trickle of dark red blood gushes out.

Like a young plant that has germinated and tasted the air around it for the first time, two snow-white bones with a downy layer on top slowly grow larger and larger. Next to me, I hear Reina gasp at the sight. I too can only look open-mouthed at the spectacle before me.

The bones – wings, I now think – are growing larger. They bend like a roof around her gracefully long body. Finally, the wings stop growing, which results in Naev also stopping moaning in pain.

She raises herself off the ground with her hands and slowly rises. Her wings tower far above her. Then, when I think the climax is over, she spreads her wings all at once, almost causing Naev to hit Mrs Popperith in the face, but she can just in time avoid the white feathers.

I look at the wings with big eyes. They are huge and powerful. Naev flaps both wings once inwards and outwards, again the already familiar grin on her face and I feel a gust of wind coming towards me. Leaves, books and pens fall from the desks to the floor or whirl through the air. I quickly try to grab my things, but Naev repeats the action, causing me to miss.

"Well done, Naev." Mrs Popperith claps her hands proudly and everyone follows.

Reina and I slowly, after a few seconds, clap along too. I bow to Reina and whisper, "Does everyone have white wings?"

Reina looks at me briefly, her expression confused. "Yes, of course," she says as if it were the most normal thing in the world. It feels like someone is putting a knot in my gut. I feel bile rising and I close my mouth to prevent myself from vomiting on the spot.

"Everyone? No one has...I don't know...maybe black wings?" I try to say so neutrally. I shift my gaze forward, afraid that my face might give me away. Cian told me that I've never been a good liar since I was young.

Reina laughs out loud, but when she sees I'm serious, she stops. "Um no, Aire. Every elf, literally every elf, possesses white wings."

I feel myself getting uncomfortable. Everyone has white wings. Naev has white wings, but I don't. I have black wings. Black. Dark as the night.

No one must ever see me transform, I tell myself. They will see the colour of my wings and I must keep that secret at all costs.

Because every elf has snow-white wings. So when they see my wings, what will they think? They'll think I'm not an elf.