I stared at her in disbelief. "Maia Davis, is that you? What are you doing here?"

My former friend-and future roommate-gave me a little grin. "Hey, Erin. Long time no see."

I cannot believe the fact that Maia is an Elucaen. We used to be best friends back in elementary school, ever since she offered me her apple when I had nothing to eat for lunch. I was really devastated after her family moved away the following year, especially since we formed such a tight bond by then. ­

"I don-don't understand. How can you be an Elucaen, when you once lived in the human world too?" I asked, shocked to the core.

"Well, actually, we didn't technically live in the human world. Our new house was being built around that time, so my parents decided to visit my aunt in the mean time since she decided to give up her powers in order to live in the human world. Besides, an Elucaen can live in the human world, just not longer than two years, which was why we had to 'move away' to the America part of Elucaen instead," she explained.

Okay, this is starting to make a bit more sense. "So you knew that you were an Elucaen all this time? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't tell you because my parents didn't want me to. You probably didn't know this, but my parents and yours were the best of friends when they went to Clarines together, but after your parents gave up their powers, they gradually lost touch. And so, after finding out that our aunt's house was in the same neighborhood as your house, you could tell they were really happy," she said with a smile.

Veralyn looked between us, and scratched her head in confusion. "Wait...hold up. So you two knew each other?"

We looked at each other and laughed. "I guess you can say that. This is honestly such a strange coincidence; my elementary school best friend is now my new roommate."

Maia then stood up and walked towards me, her long copper brown hair swinging behind her back. "I missed you so much Erin," she said as she hugged me, "I'm glad we get to see each other again."

I hugged her back. "Me too, Maia. Me, too."

After finally realizing that we weren't the only people in this room, I nervously looked up and two unfamiliar pairs of eyes stared right back at me.

I think Maia also noticed the awkwardness, since she coughed and turned around. "So Erin, this is Paige and Lily," she pointed to the girls sitting on the bed parallel to hers, "and you already met Veralyn. Paige lives in the China counterpart of the Elucaen world and Lily lives in the English part, same as Ms. Knucklehead over there."

"Hey!"

The girl known as Paige sat up, and after putting down the book she was reading, gave me a little wave. "Hi there. I'm Paige Cheung, it's a pleasure to meet you!" she introduced, smiling widely.

I could tell we were going to get along well. "Hi, I'm Erin. It's nice to meet you too."

Veralyn then leaned towards my ear and whispered loudly, with the intention for all to hear. "Just as a disclaimer, don't ever fight with her; she is seriously going to destroy you in every single argument."

Paige playfully slapped her on the arm. "Oh shut up V, you're just jealous because you've never won a debate with me before."

Veralyn dramatically nodded her head. "Well, she's not wrong about that."

We all laughed mirthfully and perhaps it was just my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard a cat purring. "Hey...did you guys hear that? I think I heard a cat purr or something."

Before anyone could respond, the girl who was introduced as "Lily" walked around and picked up something black and furry from beneath her bed. I gasped.

"Wait...is that a cat?" I asked, already knowing the answer. No Erin, it's actually a potato, what do you think?

"Oh shut up, conscious. I don't need your patronizing comments," I muttered to myself.

I looked up and Lily was standing right in front of me. "Hi! I'm Lily Castalone, and this little guy here, " she nodded towards her green-eyed cat, "is Trip. His former name was Obsidian due to his dark coloring, but now I just mostly call him Trip for short."

"Um...Trip? That's an interesting nickname, how did you come up with it?"

"That's because the first time we met, I accidentally tripped over his stray little body when I was walking in the park one day and right at that moment, I fell head over heels for him. Do you want to pet him?"

I gulped. "Thank you, but I'm fine. I love animals, but black cats kind of creeps me out."

"Oh, that's okay! He's really gentle, so you'll get used to him eventually," she exclaimed confidently, "And please don't tell anyone about this...I'm going to get in deep trouble if the teachers' finds out about Obsidian."

I made a zipping motion across my mouth with my fingers. "Don't worry, I won't tell a single soul."

Paige then beckoned for all of us to sit down at the table in the middle, and that was when I noticed the interior of the room. I was so focused on getting to know my new roommates that I didn't realized how cramped our room was.

The room itself was somewhat rectangular, with four medium-sized canopy beds located on each corner, each as wrinkled as the next. However, there appeared to an addition of a brand new bed, sandwiched between the first and second bed. But now that I think about it, the beds pretty much took up most of the living space; apart from the five trunks situated at the end of each bed, and a miniscule table in the middle of the room, that was it.

"Wait guys...why are there so little furniture? What happened to all the desks and bookcases and stuff?"

Maia laughed at my surprised expression. "You silly goose, that's because they're in that room."

I followed her finger line of sight and my eyes rested on one of the two white doors that were connected to our room. "Oh, is that like the study room, or something?"

Veralyn nodded. "Yeah, we used to have barely anything in there, but ever since your bed came, we had to move some of our furniture into that room, to make room for your stuff. It's essentially used as a quiet place though, whenever you want to practice your Elucae."

I looked at them guiltily. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

They all quickly shook their head. "Oh dear god no, I didn't mean it like that," she said with a laugh, "as a matter of fact, it's a good thing you came, since that sorry excuse of a "study room" was starting to get dusty anyways, from our lack of usage the past three years."

"Wow, did you just call the home to my beloved books a sorry excuse? Do you have a death wish, Saxon?" Paige asked, jokingly.

Veralyn yelped and hid behind Maia. "Please protect me, M&M. I'm telling you, that girl is dangerous," she said fearfully, pointing at Paige.

I shook my head at her childishness, yet admiring the fact that they were all so comfortable with each other.

"Hey, Erin? What type of Elucaen are you?" Lily asked suddenly.

Veralyn jumped up. "Oh, that reminds me. Erin, hold on," she said as she walked towards her bed, snatching up two circlets on the way. As she made her way back towards us, she accidentally tripped and sent the two chains spiraling towards us, landing smacked in the center of the table.

Before Veralyn hit the ground, I saw Maia muttered something and a breeze of wind cushioned her fall.

I looked at her in shock."How did you do that?"

"I'm an aer Elucaen, see?" she said as she pulled out her own circlet, a single white stone embedded on its silver band.

"Oh...was that a spell or something?"

She nodded. "Yeah, we've been learning these spells since our first year at this school, though we started learning how to conjure our element just last year. However, since your an aqua Elucaen," she explained, pointing to the sapphire gem, "you and Vera learn different spells than the rest of us, and that goes for each house too."

"But like...what if this is my first year learning everything? Do you guys think I can catch up?"

"I heard you're getting private lessons to speed up the learning process, right? Then yeah, no doubt about it; it just requires time and dedication," Paige replied with a wink.

I sighed in relief. "Okay good. But yeah, to answer your question Lily, I'm an aqua Elucaen."

"That's cool. I'm terra and Paige here is ignis," she said, pointing to her own emerald stone and Paige's ruby on their circlet.

"Wait, why aren't you guys wearing your circlets, then? I thought it's part of the uniform."

"That's because we're in our rooms, so technically, they wouldn't know if we wear them or not," Maia said cheekily.

Veralyn looked at her watch and slightly gasped. "Bloody hell, it's already six? Well ladies, I still have to give Erin here a tour of the school before dinner, so we'll see you guys later!" she yelled, dragging my hand towards the door.

I waved frantically as we neared the door, with them chorusing "byes" in return. Once we were outside, Veralyn whispered, "Now that wasn't so bad, now is it?"

I smiled. "No, no it wasn't."

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A.N: hey guys :) Thank you so much for taking your time to read this story! Y'all dont know how much it means to me; I appreciate every single comment and vote so thank you :)