JENKINS SCHOOL of magic. that's where it all began.

the school, per se, was not as much of a school as it was a gigantic boardinghouse for young witches and wizards. parents would send their children to the school if they weren't able to give their child the expertise they needed to learn how to control the magic within them. once there, the children would be taught how to keep their abilities in check and be prepped to be sent off to partake in an apprenticeship elsewhere.

felix never wanted to go to school. before his mother (widowed— his father passed on when felix was five) had sent him away, the two of them had lived in a small seaside cottage together in the land of ausrio and spent their days fishing and taking care of their cat. but felix's mother knew that it wasn't the life her son was meant to have. her husband had been a wizard and, through his bloodline, had passed his powers down to his son. however, felix's mother didn't know how to help her son use it. he hadn't shown any signs of being able to harness any magic of any kind, and as time passed, she began to grow desperate.

so, when he turned thirteen, felix began boarding at jenkins.

suddenly attending school after thirteen years of not doing so was quite the culture shock for felix, and he struggled in all of his classes. everyone his age had already gained at least some semblance of what their powers were and how to control them whereas he couldn't even manage a single spark from his fingertips. once his instructors noticed this, they scheduled him to get "outside help", which meant reciting spells until something finally happened. (nothing ever did.) the longer it went on, the more students started to take notice, and the more felix became known as the wizard who couldn't do magic.

"hey! failure!" felix didn't even have to turn his head to know that the group of boys behind him was talking to him. even as a seventeen-year-old he was still being called names by his fellow classmates, which was pretty depressing in his eyes. "hey! i'm talking to you, carrot-head!"

felix winced. that's a new one. he turned to see a trio of boys all younger than him standing in the doorway of his dorm room, arms crossed. even without stepping foot into the threshold they already seemed to take up most of the space in the tiny room. "do you need something?"

"yeah! we need you to leave!" the boy on the left piped up. he was short and rather plump, and his skin was a greenish tinge. an ogre's son. i didn't know they could use magic. "if it weren't for you taking up space here, my brother could've attended jenkins with me! but instead, you're here! and you don't even have magic in your blood!"

felix felt his blood begin to boil. the number of times he faced the accusations that he wasn't a magical being was astounding despite the fact that jenkins was a school exclusively for magic wielders. how would i have gotten in if i had no magic in my blood? "you're wrong. my father was a wizard. it runs in my family."

"oh yeah?" the one on the right sneered. he had a mop of blonde hair that hung over his eyebrows. felix had the urge to cut it. "then prove it. cast a spell. show us your magic."

"i don't have to do anything i don't want to."

ogre boy snorted. "sounds like an excuse to me."

except it wasn't. felix genuinely did not want to use his power. after spending four consecutive years at jenkins, he was finally able to cast spells— however, they were extremely unpredictable and caused quite a bit of chaos. one of his mentors worded it like this: "magic is like a flowing river. yours, however, is more of a fiery explosion." felix wasn't able to properly harness his abilities yet, leading to various incidents every time he tried to use them. he knew that attempting to conjure up anything to prove that the boys were wrong would most likely end in disaster, so simply not doing anything was his best bet to not potentially destroying his dorm room. "it's not. i don't have any reason to prove to you why i deserve to be here just as much as you do."

the blonde one opened his mouth to retort but the boy in the middle— a tall, lanky, redhead— stopped him. "he's right, you guys. he doesn't need to do anything." felix felt himself relax until the boy spoke again. "that's because there's not a single thing this worthless piece of manure could do that would show that he belongs here." 

the boy took a step into the room. felix felt his anxiety spike. "why can't you guys just leave me alone?"

"leave you alone? guys, he wants us to leave him alone!" the redhead laughed along with his friends. "you seem to like being left alone, failure. that must also run in the family."

a bundle of nerves erupted in felix's stomach. "what... what does that even mean?"

"don't act like you don't know." the boy gave him a malicious grin. "after you were born, your father abandoned you. and then your mother left you here at a boarding school far away from your home. i guess it's just your destiny to be alone."

felix felt rage burning under his skin. "don't talk about my father like that! he didn't abandon us! he died!"

the redhead shook his head in a mocking way. "oh, poor child. i see now: he definitely killed himself! he probably couldn't stand the fact that he had a magicless son."

the rage grew hotter.

"he made the right decision. i don't blame him for what he did."

don't talk like you know me. don't talk like you knew him.

"i mean, who would want a failure as their child?"

and felix went off.

❂❂❂

"i understand, sir. goodbye," felix said before closing the door to his headmaster's office and sighing. after the incessant provoking from that damn redhead, felix had blown up. literally. he couldn't keep his anger under control, causing his power to unleash itself in a grandiose display of pure mayhem. in short, felix's room was now nothing but charred walls and broken furniture which he didn't have the ability to fix. the only upside was that, in the process, the three bullies were knocked to the ground and got broken bones, but the glee felix felt was quickly crushed when his headmaster found out.

one long hour of lecturing later, felix was released to return to his poor excuse for a room to "think about his actions".

felix kicked a clump of grass as he made his way across the field to his dormitory. why was i the one who got in trouble? he thought. i wasn't the one who did anything wrong! plus, blowing up the room was an accident! it's not my fault i can't control my magic yet!

entering his room and seeing the mess that it was, felix wanted to kick something all over again. where would he sleep? how would he get new furniture? what was he supposed to do about the numerous notes he had taken in the four years he'd been at jenkins that were now burnt to bits? nothing. that's all i can do. nothing. i might as well just pack up and go home right now.

felix dwelled on his last sentence for a bit. going home didn't sound like the worst idea. in fact, returning to his seaside cottage, his mother, and his cat sounded like the best idea he'd had in a long time. in all of the letters he wrote to her during his four-year term he tried his very best not to tell his mother of how difficult everything was so as to not worry her, but it seemed he had finally reached his breaking point.

but when i return, felix thought, she'll be expecting me to be a great wizard. what will she say when she finds out her son is a failure?

no. he was going to prove everyone wrong, make his mother proud, and become the best wizard in ingary all without the help of his dumb boarding school.

scrounging around the room, felix found a few wrinkled button-ups and a couple of unwashed trousers that were still intact. he quickly shoved them into his potato sack (it was what he called his "bag" and was another reason he was teased mercilessly) along with a couple of trinkets before exiting his dorm room for the final time.

he had made it to the field outside before a girl spotted him from her room. "oi! tangerine top!" she called, her accent thick with foreign blood like felix's. "where d'ya think yer headed? it's almost lights out!"

"i'm leaving this hunk of rock!" he yelled back. "i'm going to find a great wizard to become my master and prove that i'm no failure!"

"good luck with that!" the girl scoffed. "ain't nobody gonna take a jenkins drop-out!"

we'll see about that, felix thought as he turned away from the girl and kept walking. he had no idea where he was going, just as long as it was away from jenkins. plus, how hard could it be to find a respectable witch or wizard to take him as their apprentice? he figured that ingary was probably crawling with them. i bet i'll find one tomorrow! i'm so excited! who knew that leaving your past behind and starting a new adventure could be so fun?

felix was miles away from jenkins when he realized that he forgot to pack food. well, shit.