Later this morning, Eli was already the whole center of attention, exactly what she wanted to avoid. She didn't see the guy she talked to before classes started. "I didn't even ask his name" she told herself, remembering the black haired guy. 

Her plastic chair suddenly felt uncomfortable as she wasn't already used to sit in class for the whole day. Vacations really made her forget about what school life was and moving out didn't help either. 

Lately, her parents decided to "take a pause" as she remembered her mom say, to take a little space and help their couple get some fresh air. They decided to buy another house in the town where her brother would go for University and she decided to follow him over this new town. She didn't plan at first to stay there, but she fell in love with the nearby forests and parks and thought it would be a great idea for her to also get some fresh air. And there she was, sitting on a little plastic chair in an unknown school, surrounded by even more unknown people all trying to ask her questions.

- Did you hear what I asked?? said a feminine voice with annoyed tones, cutting Eli from her thoughts. 

Eli turned her head to the right, where a blonde tall girl was trying to get her attention.

- Oh, sorry... I was just thinking of something else. 

- So... she giggled, which boy were you thinking about?

- Huh? I mean... no one? she answered back, a little awkward.

- Come on! I know exactly that you were thinking of one... tell me who! she exclaimed herself, a little too excited.

- It could be a girl too... Eli quietly said.

- What? Did you say a girl? I mean, no offense, but I hope it wasn't me. 

She was looking at Eli with this judgment bitch face.

- Don't worry about this... she giggled. 

- Uh? I'm sorry??

"As if I just randomly fall in love with everyone I see" Eli told herself.

- The Universe doesn't turn around you, princess. A random guy said, as he leaned down on the blonde girl to kiss her on the head.

- Thomas! she blushed and turned around to kiss him with passion.

The two love birds stood there, giggling, smiling and flirting and Eli quickly got awkward of the show happening right beside her. She took her stuff and moved into a different seat that was in the last row of the classroom. "I'll probably be more discreet here" she thought. The classroom started getting more crowded and rapidly, almost every seats got occupied by a student. At her right, Eli noticed that a young girl forgot her pencil case. She was mumbling weird words she couldn't understand. "French", she unconsciously said out loud as she heard a few words the girl said. 

- Huh? Were you talking to me? Eli heard her say with an English accent that didn't look french for a second.

- Did I just say this out loud?

- I guess you did, but I wasn't really paying attention so I have no idea what you said.

- Are you french? 

- I- she laughed, yeah? Why this so sudden question?

- Ah well, Eli laughed too, I heard you say some french words so I thought...

- You thought right. I was searching for a pencil, looks like my every back to school curse isn't skipping a year...

- What do you mean? You always forget your pencil case on the first day?

The girl looked surprised for a moment.

- You look like a pretty smart kid to me. She finally said. My name's Maya, what about you?

- You can call me Eli, nice to meet you. 

They bot smiled and kept talking to each other during the class, halfly listening to the teacher and commenting about random things on themselves or on the way Mr. Castillo, their math teacher, was teaching. the old man was a bit overweight and was sweating a lot. Despise these facts, his movements were very fast and he talked the exact same way. It was almost hard to look somewhere else. This class probably needed a teacher like him more than anything else for the students to stay focused. 

The bell rang after an hour of classes. Eli and Maya decided to eat together in the cafeteria, but Maya had to go to a volleyball meeting for the tier of the lunch time. Sitting in the cafeteria alone, she didn't feel very well and decided to go walk around in the school. She heard there was a cozy little school library and felt the urge to go there. Eli always loved libraries and book stores, always felt good and safe in those kind of place. She naturally walked over there with the help of some random people she asked for directions. 

She entered the carpet covered library and immediately started feeling calmer. Her body felt lighter as she sat down in a red armchair. She looked around, the library looked a lot like any school libraries, with metal shelves and high ceiling, but this one had a different vibe. It almost felt... mystical? Eli couldn't really tell what felt different, but as she thought of magic, everything around her seemed different. 

"Magic" she whispered. "Nah... what are you even saying, magic doesn't exist..."

She stood up and walked in between the shelves, looking at some books there and there. In the third alley, a book suddenly caught her attention. It looked slightly bigger than the novels around it, but was a little thinner. But she only noticed this by looking at it better. What caught her attention was its color. A deep purple, neither too light nor too dark. Neither too blue nor too pink. It looked new, its cover was made of a material reminding her of leather. It bent a little as she took it. She looked at the front page, there weren't anything written on it, unless a name in the lower left corner that looked engraved. 

- Looking for a book? a deep voice asked behind her.

Eli jumped. As she was about to open the first page of this mysterious book, who was talking to her?