Lena

Cybele Academy, to be honest, looks beautiful and mysterious, almost as if it was made to be posed against a misty, cloudy background featuring a full moon and eerie-looking trees - just as it was in the photo. The building itself is quite large, and even though it isn't exactly a castle, the architecture looks quite medieval, particularly where the roof is concerned. Its walls are made of a black brick that somehow manages to look smooth and rough at the same time, with dark green moss growing in the various cracks that have formed with age. Rose bushes are absolutely everywhere, lining the entire wrought-iron fence surrounding the property as well as various parts of the school itself. I hope no one here has pollen allergies.

I'm itching to be able to explore the rest of the campus. What else is here? I know it's a residential school, so there may be separate buildings for the dorms. And it looks like the type of place that would have an abundance of gardens and old, gothic fountains around.

Not many people are here yet, as it's still fairly early in the morning, though the sound of vehicles can be heard in the distance. Figuring this is a good time to head in since it'll be easier to find whoever's running orientation with less students around, I start walking in the direction of the double doors leading into the building. These sturdy doors are a deep, glossy brown with beautifully designed brass handles.

I open the doors and peer inside, taking in my new surroundings. Amazement awaits me as I step inside the seemingly candlelit room. The walls are painted a very pretty shade of violet, with a border featuring a delicate black rose pattern near the ceiling. To my left is a set of stone stairs leading to the next floor and in front of me is a long hallway which presumably leads to lockers and classrooms. To my right is a door with a sign above it reading 'cafeteria', with beautifully lit candles on the wall on each side of the door.

"Hi." The voice of another student behind me causes me to wheel around to see who spoke. In front of me stands a somewhat tall girl with purple-streaked black hair who looks to be close to my own age. She's smiling somewhat nervously, which tells me she must be a new student as well.

I've never had trouble reading people; I'm quite good at it. Sometimes I wonder if it's one of the powers I have as a witch. Up until I got the letter from Cybele I'd dismissed the thought, and so had my stepmother when I brought it up. For a long time, she even tried to dismiss the fact that I'm a witch since the thought was so frightening to her. I've never been afraid of what I am even though I can't quite control my own abilities yet. I learned to embrace them a long time ago, and I've always imagined meeting someone like me.

The girl standing in front of me now stands patiently, waiting for my response. I smile back at her. "Hello. You must be a new student here."

"Yeah," she laughs nervously.

"I am as well. My name's Lena," I continue politely. "What's you name?"

"Artemis," replies the girl, her eyes lighting up a bit. "It's really nice to meet you, Lena. I'm so glad I'm not the only new student here. Imagine how nerve-wracking that would have been. So...are you a witch, too, or...?"

"Yes, I am. I have some elemental magic, though I can't exactly control it yet. But that's what we're here to learn, right?"

"True," Artemis nods. "I wonder if any teachers are here yet?"

"I'm not too sure," I reply and glance around to see if I can spot anyone.

A pale, thin boy with dark blonde hair walks through the front doors at that exact moment, allowing himself a moment to take in this new and beautiful environment just as I did. He eventually spots us, though, and comes over to introduce himself. "Hello. I'm Kaiden." he extends his hand in offer of a handshake.

I accept it with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Kaiden. I'm Lena and this is Artemis."

When my hand meets his, though, he abruptly yanks it back with an unexpected hiss of pain. To my horror, his hand is now host to several small burns. My own hand, I realize with a pang of guilt, is glowing fire bright. "I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" I panic, "I swear that was not intentional, I just – I can't control it, and—"

"I'm pleased to meet you, too, Lena. And there's no need to apologize," Kaiden assures me, cutting off my rant, "You and I are in the same boat. Are you new here too?"

"Yes," I answer, calming down but still feeling very guilty about what I just did to his hand. Fire is one of vampires' most prominent weaknesses, after all. "We both are. We're just waiting for a teacher to arrive."

"Well, you're in luck." Another new voice sounds from the direction of the stairs. We all turn at once to see a middle-aged woman with auburn hair and grey eyes heading our way. "Good morning and welcome to Cybele Academy. There'll be an introductory assembly soon, and I know the other students here will help show you around," she continues, "but in the meantime, I'll be responsible for your orientation. We have a number of things to go over before it's time to head down to the auditorium. Introductions, receiving your uniforms and such. Follow me, everyone."

It's in that moment that I realize the three of us aren't the only ones in the area. Other new students have been coming in as we've been talking and somehow none of us saw them. "We have uniforms?" asks one girl with brown and purple hair.

The woman nods in reply. "They'll be handed out shortly."

She then leads us into an empty classroom to the right of the staircase with a sign above it reading 'orientation room'. There are several cedar wood desks set up in neat rows with comfortable chairs behind them. Each of us takes a seat while the teacher stands at the front, a professional air about her. "Now to start with, I'd like each of you to give a short introduction. You may state your name, powers and anything else you'd like to share. To start off, I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Miss Greystone, and I'm a witch. I teach history."

"What kind of classes do we have?" asks Artemis, raising her hand.

"You'll have the usual classes you would have in any other school available to you if you wish to take them - though a few are required- and you'll also have classes specific to magic, those are the main ones and most of them are mandatory for graduation. Classes start at 8:30 AM and run until 3:45 in the afternoon. Lunch is from 11:40 until 12:05."

I raise my hand before I can stop myself and she gestures to me. "Yes?"

"Are there any mortals here?" I ask.

"No," she replies. "Not students, anyway. Some of the teachers here are mortal. Why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Alright," I say. I clear my throat before continuing. I stand and speak as clearly as possible. "My name is Lena Reynolds. I am a witch with elemental powers, mainly where fire and water are concerned. My interests mainly include reading, writing and chess."

"Good," says Miss Greystone. She points to Kaiden next. "You next."

Kaiden nods and, standing just as I did, begins. "I'm Kaiden. I'm a vampire and my powers...well, they're standard for a vampire, though I can't exactly control them yet. Hypnotism, turning others into vampires, enhanced senses – you know the drill."

"Thank you, Kaiden. And how about you?" Artemis, upon being addressed, rises and clears her throat. I can tell she's still nervous, so I give her a reassuring smile. You can do this, it's okay, I mouth to her. She nods, a look of gratitude in her eyes, and turns back to Miss Greystone, who waits patiently to hear her introduction.

"Okay...my name's Artemis Smithson. I'm also a witch with telekinesis. I like chatting with people on Facebook, meeting new people, painting, and science."

"Good," Miss Greystone jots some notes down and then points to one of the remaining two, the girl with the brown and purple streaked hair. "What's your name?"

"Evelyn," she answers, but doesn't stand up. "I'm a mermaid, and as you may have already guessed I enjoy swimming. it's relaxing and peaceful. It's almost like the waves are washing away any fears or problems I may have. Taking them away, erasing them. I can't imagine anything better than that."

"That's deep," an impressed Artemis whispers to us. I nod. What Evelyn said was so beautiful, poetic even. Perhaps it was the cadence in which she spoke her words that made it so.

"I also like learning about different Supernaturals and their powers," Evelyn finishes off.

"Well, you'll be doing plenty of that here at Cybele Academy," Miss Greystone says. "Now that you've all introduced yourselves, I'm going to give you your uniforms. They must be worn at all times during school hours, but once school is over you can wear whatever you'd like so long as you adhere to the dress code."

She gives each of us a uniform and I examine mine with interest. The uniform for girls includes a black skirt with a lace overlay that goes to my knees, a pair of black boots that are just below knee-length, a white dress shirt, a bodice that each of us is allowed to choose a preferred colour for (in my case, maroon), and a jacket with the academy logo. For guys, it's a pair of black pants, a jacket with the academy logo, black shoes, and a white dress shirt.

"I will now show you to your dorms. There are two buildings; one for girls and one for boys," says Miss Greystone after everyone has received their uniform. "If everyone will please follow me."

As Miss Greystone leads us to the dorms, I catch up to Evelyn and attempt to start up a conversation. "Hello!"

"Oh, hi," says Evelyn. "Lena, right?"

"Yes," I say. "I must say, I like the streaks in your hair. It appears you and Artemis have similar taste."

"Yeah, I guess we do," Evelyn smiles, running a hand through her hair. "Thanks." We reach the dorms and are promptly told which building is which. On the right is boys, and on the left is girls. They look very much like the main building in terms of colours and materials, but are shaped more like small apartment buildings.

"You may choose which room you want to stay in and whom you would like as your roommate," says Miss Greystone. "Once you've put away your things, meet everyone else down in the auditorium in the main building. You'll notice each of you was given a map along with your uniform this morning. I'll leave you to it." Miss Greystone then proceeds to head back in the direction of the main building, and we all head into our respective dorms. Everyone else is already in the auditorium or heading there, so it's just Artemis, Evelyn and me.

The dorm president shows us which rooms are available to us before she leaves as well, probably so she can get down to the auditorium too. Evelyn winds up picking an empty room for herself, seeing as no one else is here to ask, while I turn to Artemis. "Would you like to be roommates with me?"

"Sure!" beams Artemis. She and I head down the hall and choose an empty room to stay in. Just as with the rest of the school, the sight of the rooms here just takes my breath away with how stunning and magical it looks. The furniture is all made of woods that are dark in colouration and have intricate vine and flower designs carved in them. The piece that catches my eye the most is the beautifully crafted cedar cabinet that has a full-length mirror attached to the inside of the door, vine pattern prominent as ever. A large analog clock rests on the wall above the door to the room, its frame made of a dark wood like everything else in here. The windows, whose frames are made of the same kind of wood as the furniture, are decorated with velvet curtains in a deep, muted purple.

I set up my half of our room the way I want it and put away my clothes in the cabinet. I don't bother doing any decorating just yet, seeing as we don't have the time, but I do change into my uniform. I thankfully have no trouble with the bodice.

"Hey, Lena, could you help me with this?" asks Artemis. I look over at her to see she's having trouble with hers.

"Of course," I reply and walk over to help her.

"You're good at this," says Artemis. "Have you worn one of these before?"

"Yes, I have," I say.

"It's a little unomfortable," she complains.

"You get used to them," I assure her, and take out the map I'd been given. "We should probably get going. Wouldn't want to miss that assembly after all."

Kaiden

After choosing a room and putting everything away, I change into my uniform and exit my room. As I leave it, however, I run into a guy with long, light brown hair.

"Whoa, dude, watch where you're going," he says, though his tone is friendly.

"Sorry," I say.

"No worries," says the guy, "I'm Tyler. Who might you be?"

"Kaiden," I reply. "Hey, er...do you think you could tell me where to find the auditorium?"

"I'm going there now," says Tyler. "You new here?"

"Yes," I say.

"Come on, I'll show you where it is," Tyler says, and I gratefully follow him out of the building.

We converse easily as we walk, equally interested in getting to know each other. My new roommate is quite a fascinating person, I must admit. I learn that he's part Seer, part angel, which means that not only can he see the future, but he has a set of angelic powers as well. I find myself becoming very interested in the latter, since I've never met an angel before. "What kinds of angelic powers are they?"

"Well, so far I've discovered I can heal people's injuries and illnesses and stuff like that," begins Tyler, "and unlike witches I don't need any sort of lengthy ritual to do it. Other than that, a lot of them have to do with purification and blessings and shit like that. You know, all that benevolent stuff. I can possess people too, if I want, but unlike demons I have to have that person's explicit permission to do it. Angels are bound by a bunch of rules demons don't have, if that makes sense."

"It does," I assure him, "Most demons are pretty malevolent in nature so it's not surprising they don't have those kinds of restrictions."

"Yeah. And I'm not even a full angel, either, so even if I wasn't bound by those, my powers are even more limited than others' by default."

We finally reach the large, dark cedar doors leading into the auditorium and Tyler holds one of them open for me. We choose to sit near the back of the room next to Artemis and Lena, who are chatting quietly. For the hell of it, I take out my phone to listen to music before the assembly starts and as I'm scrolling through my playlist, I happen to notice Tyler peeking over my shoulder, curiously watching my screen. I glance up at him. "See anything you like?"

"Just Theory of a Deadman, my favourite band ever," Tyler replies with a wide grin. "You like them too?"

"Yeah, they're pretty great," I say. "Want to listen with me?" He nods enthusiastically, so I hand him one of the earbuds and he puts it in. I tap 'Hello, Lonely' and the song begins to play as more students file into the auditorium and take their seats. I begin to sing along quietly, and it doesn't take too long for me to realize Tyler's singing too. We manage to get through 'Santa Monica', 'Hate My Life' and 'Now or Nothing' before Lena lets us know they're about to begin. "Thanks for letting me listen, man," Tyler says as he gives the earbud back.

"No problem," I whisper, putting away the phone as the lights dim. Miss Greystone, the woman who ran orientation, steps up to the podium at the front of the room and the chatter stops at once. Wow, I think, they must have a lot of respect for her. "Good morning everyone, and welcome back to Cybele Academy. As some of you might be aware, we have a handful of new students this year, and to those people I once again welcome you to our beloved school. Here is where you will discover and learn to fully embrace who you really are. Throughattending our classes, getting to know your new peers, and participating induels throughout your years here, you'll experience a whole new way of life thatyou'll never forget. All that said, I have a few things to go over witheveryone...'

Okay, the idea of dueling someone is a bit unnerving. "Have you ever dueled anyone?" I whisper the question to Tyler.

He nods proudly. "Oh, yeah, a couple of times. I even won one of them. Which is kind of surprising when you learn most of my powers are pretty passive, but I think that makes it even cooler!"

Lena

The assembly lasts about 30 minutes total and by the time everyone's filing out of the auditorium, it would normally be time for everyone's second period. In this case though, we get the morning to relax and get settled in since it's quite literally the first day for everyone and even some of the teachers need a little extra time to finalize their lesson plans. Artemis and I decide to use that time to decorate our room since lunch isn't for another couple hours. We figure that's more than enough time to perfect the décor. And I have to say, we're both thrilled with the end result.

"This looks awesome, Lena, seriously. I never want to take this down!" Artemis exclaims. "Hey, do you think we could see if any of the other new students want to sit with us at lunch?"

"That sounds like a good idea," I respond, "but are you really asking my permission?" I add teasingly.

"No, Mom, of course not," she jokes, "I was trying to invite you to join me in that endeavor."

"Well, invitation accepted." I smile, and the two of us make our way to lunch. It's not too difficult for us to get to the cafeteria from the girls' dorm considering how close it is to the main building's front door. Like everywhere else, the cafeteria appears to be candlelit, the walls the same beautiful violet as in the entrance hall. I'm just beginning to wonder how difficult it will be to find the other new kids when Kaiden passes us, a guy with brown hair at his side. "Hey, Kaiden," I call out to him, and he turns around.

"Hi. Lena, right?"

"That would be me, yes," I confirm, "How'd you like the assembly?"

"I liked it well enough. Very informative," says Kaiden, "This is Tyler, by the way. He's my new roommate."

"Hey there," says the guy with him, "Who might you guys be?"

"Lena Reynolds, and this is Artemis Smithson," I introduce. "It's nice to meet you, Tyler. Hey, can we sit with you guys?"

"Yeah, sure you can. And it's nice to meet you too," Tyler comments. "I'm a Seer. I can see the future."

"Awesome!" Artemis compliments, and I can see her nervousness from this morning is long gone. I may not know her very well yet, but it still makes me glad to see her coming out of her shell. The four of us find an empty table and take a seat after getting ourselves some food.

"So are you guys witches?" asks Tyler as he opens the soda he grabbed. I realize with a rather large mental grin that it's cream soda flavoured Crush, which is one of my favourites.

My actual expression is a look of mild surprise, though. "Yeah, we are. How'd you know?"

"To be honest, it was more of a wild guess. But I kind of figured at least one of the new kids would be a witch. We get a lot of those here. Not many fairies or mermaids, though."

"I see," I reply. "So have you met Evelyn yet?"

"No, but I want to," Tyler answers. "Care to introduce me sometime?"

"Of course." I nod before returning to my now half-eaten lunch. The other three continue their conversation and overall, we use the remainder of the lunch hour to continue getting to know each other. it's nice, bonding with people when I don't have to keep my magic a secret from them. It's a more than welcome change that I wish would have come a lot sooner.

When the bell finally rings, I make a fast trip down to the orientation room to collect my schedule before heading to my third-period class, which happens to be a study period - also called a spare. I decide to spend it in the library, perusing the bookshelves to see what they have. They have the collection of fiction and non-fiction books one might expect to see in a non-magical high school, but they also have a variety of spellbooks along with books on different magical creatures, various mythologies, legends and lore. I have one hell of a time choosing what to check out, but I eventually decide to start with a book detailing our school's history and a couple of spellbooks. By the time the bell signaling fourth period sounds, I feel more than a little accomplished with what I've managed to learn. Who knew one school could have so much fascinating history behind it?

My fourth period class is supposed to be English, but it's replaced today by a duel between two students in the large dome behind the main building. We all make our way down there to watch the duel, and I have to say I'm quite excited for it, having never seen a duel like this before. Will it be a witch fight? A duel between vampires? Maybe a vampire and a werewolf?

The dueling arena itself, the dome, is breathtaking. The floor is a dark cedar just as I've come to expect by now, but the dome itself is made completely of glass excepting the pale purple brick that makes up the large door frame. The doors are identical to the ones leading into the main building. The inside of the dome is comprised of two floors - well, more like a floor and a half, since the upper level is more like a balcony overlooking the ground one.

When everyone is seated in the chairs placed on the upper balcony, we all turn our attention to the two people walking in next. Coming into view are a girl with dark brown hair and black eyes and a boy with vibrant blue hair and piercing grey eyes.

"The two students dueling this afternoon are Dawson Evans and Sadie True. Remember, you two, no fatal injuries may be inflicted on another individual. You may begin in three, two, one!"