Morgana was trembling, her tear stained face unmovable, her eyes entirely focused on the floor, the guard held one hand over her shoulder. Holding it so tight it was beginning to hurt, but she didn't have the nerve to complain, unsure of what the guard could do if she dared to.

'It was an accident' she had said

'I didn't mean to' she cried but no one was there to listen to her, expect Uther who stared at her with disgust while he ordered his guards to hold her.

"Is this the new one?" the voice belonged to an adult woman, there was a tiredness and curiosity to her tone. Morgana felt her eyes looking at her with wonder. The knight's hand tightened, making the girl hiss, unable to hold the pain this time.

"Yes" The knight said, his grip loosening slightly "The king Uther Pendragon of Camelot sends her himself"

The nun rose an eyebrow, her mouth in a line.

"And what was her misdemeanor?" she questioned.

"She was observed engaging in inappropriate conducts" the guard spoke, Morgana bit her lower lip.

"Young man," the woman spoke, her voice stern and tired "that sole reason alone is why half of the girls are here, so I suggest you to be more specific so we can properly work on her issues and you can get out of my sight, I have more pertinent things to attend than King Uriel's guard" Morgana smile softly. The guard coughed, his mouth twisting.

"This is Lady Morgana Lefay, daughter of Gorlois and Igraine." The guard pushed Morgana forward and she stumbled, glad she was no longer under his grasp.

"Princess, don't you mean?" The nun questioned.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, as far as I'm concerned no one has taken after Gorlois unfortunate departure, that probably means Morgana remains a princess" the woman shrugged.

"Lady Morgana was seen doing magic, behind the king's back"

Morgana lifted her eyes to see the woman looking at her in pure curiosity. Her eyes were as green as hers were blue and they had a particular sparkle in them, it was the first time Morgana noted the woman was plump.

"Now we're getting somewhere." She sighed "You may leave the premises now, Morgana, come with me child, I'll show you your room"

"But I was ordered by..." The guard tried, the woman shot a stern look at him

"In case you've forgotten, we hold multiple members of high-born families in this place. More so, this place is not under Camelot's domains, Uther's words have no value here above any others, I am the high authority." The woman sentenced.

Morgana stared at the exchange with eyes wide open, the knight made a small bow before turning their backs onto the pair. The woman lowered to Morgana's level, a kind smile and her eyes bright with understanding.

"You are safe here, Morgana" She said softly beginning to walk, indicating Morgana to follow her.

"I thought you were going to try to correct me" the girl said trying to rush to her, matching her steps.

"No, no" She smiled in secrecy "Nobles send their daughters here to correct them, what we do is show them how to hide themselves enough to not raise any suspicions, I am afraid no one here is acquainted with magic, doesn't Uther have a magic boy?"

"Emrys, yes." Morgana nodded, wondering if he had noted her absence.

"Then why did he send you here then? He doesn't seem to have a particularly bad view on magic"

"Because I'm disgusting, and he hates me" Morgana's eyes prickled with tears.

"You poor thing" The nun muttered "This is your room."

She opened a door, Morgana stayed in the entrance, not daring to step inside.

"Why this one?"

"I always know which room is the right one for each girl, now get in, dinner is at sunset, we expect to see everyone in the dining room by that time other wise we pick them up, understood?" She rose an eyebrow as Morgana slowly tiptoed inside.

-.-.-.-.

Valerie peered on the entrance of her classroom. She had woken Jonathan up extra early despite the boy's complaints. She noticed the emptiness of it. Out of the five people sitting there, two seemed to be asleep, other two were hurriedly doing their homework and Jane was in her usual seat, sketching.

Valerie walked to her "Can I switch places with you?" Jane rose her eyes from her drawing, eyebrows furrowed.

"Is Audrey sick today?" She said leaning to the side looking behind Valerie.

"I don't know" Valeri shrugged, her mouth twisting "Come on, Jane, please"

"What am I getting in return?" The girl rose an eyebrow, a line formed in Valerie's forehead, her mouth turning into an o.

"What do you mean what you're getting in return?" She questioned raising her voice slightly making one of the sleepers shift slightly in his seat. "It's a seat, you don't own it"

"For whatever reason, you didn't get here with Audrey today and you seem to really want this seat, I want something in return" Jane shrugged leaning against her chair, the pencil still in her hand.

"What do you want?" Valerie groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Everyone knows you're friends with the son of the owner of Doll's Bakery, I want a box of cupcakes from there"

"Why can't you buy them yourself?" Valerie narrowed her eyes, shrugging.

"Because I don't have a lot of money and I spend every single bit of it that I have on art materials, which in case you didn't know, are pretty expensive" Jane rolled her eyes, pointing at her sketchbook

"What kind of cupcakes?" Valerie questioned, noticing the proud smile on Jane's face.

"A box, half chocolate, half vanilla"

"Deal"

"Great" Jane stood up, a smile plastered in her face, taking her sketchbook and grabbing her schoolbag, "A pleasure doing business with you Valerie"

"Right" Valerie mumbled rolling her eyes, sitting where Jane had been before and putting her schoolbag in the chair at her right.

Little by the little the class began to fill up. Audrey walked into the classroom with her mouth into a thin line, her eyes looking around until she found Valerie. She stood in the entrance for a few seconds before walking towards Valerie, standing in front of her table. Valerie turned her eyes to the window.

"Valerie, we need to talk" Audrey tried, Valerie avoided her gaze "I'm really sorry, I never meant to..."

"Iman, I saved you a seat!" Valerie interrupted, noticing Iman walking into the classroom. Iman raised an eyebrow looking in between Audrey who stood there helplessly for a couple of seconds before turning her back to the girl and take a seat next to Jane and Valerie who was doing her best to avoid even looking at her.

"Is everything alright?" Iman wondered raising an eyebrow. Audrey glanced in their direction.

"Wonderful" Valerie plastered a false smile in her face. Iman tilted her head shrugging as she sat next to her.

Valerie noticed when Gabriel walked into the classroom, noticing that she wasn't seating next to Audrey. His eyes followed around until he saw her, he gave her a single nod that Valerie ignored.

The classes slowly progressed, Valerie had to do her best to avoid looking at Gabriel and Audrey. A thing that had proven itself more difficult than what she had anticipated since she had already gotten used to spend a good amount of her time in class either talking to Audrey in hurried whispers or staring at Gabriel hoping she wouldn't get noticed.

She felt utterly stupid.

By the time their break arrived, Valerie insisted on taking Iman outside for their lunch despite the thick, dark clouds that loomed over them. Iman agreed reluctantly walking next to Valerie idly chatting about her upcoming fencing competition until they both stopped to sit in one of the benches, the field had five archery targets resting.

"I wanted to ask" Iman began, sitting taking her lunch out "What's up with you and Audrey? When I left your house you two were the best of friends"

Valerie simply shrugged "You were right"

"Huh?"

"She and Gabriel apparently were dating" Valerie's shoulders tensed, as she grasped onto the end of the bench.

"But you like him" Iman added.

"Yeah"

"And she knew this"

"Oh yeah" Valerie nodded her eyes opening wide, a tense smile in her face.

Iman's eyebrows dropped, her head tilting slightly to the side "It must have been awful to find out"

"It was!" Valerie cried.

"Has any of them tried to talk to you?"

"Audrey has"

"Gabriel hasn't?" Iman questioned

"No"

"That's kind of a jerk move from him" Iman said, patting Valerie's shoulder "Why do you like him?"

Valerie hesitated for a second. She hadn't quite pondered on that herself.

"He has a pretty smile, I thought he appreciated me, or at least held me in a good regard" Valerie mumbled, sinking her head in her hands "And it was before I realized he was dating Audrey, who straight up lied to my face. She could have told me a while ago; I wouldn't have gotten my hopes up or minded that she was dating him,"

"There, there" Iman patted Valerie's back, a soft smile in her features.

"I can't believe I was such an idiot; you saw it before me!"

"My mom has always said I'm quite perceptive" Iman shrugged "Did you take care of yourself yesterday? Heartbreak can be quite a bitch" Iman questioned.

"I spent the entire with Jonathan, we watched movies and ate"

"You don't say" Iman's voice came in a soft singing tune, an amused smile crawling in her features. Valerie turned to her, an eyebrow up, not entirely understanding her tone.

"What did your mom tell you last night?" Valerie sighed changing the topic, the less she talked about it, the easier it would be to let it go.

Iman smiled. "She liked your aunt, but said Merlin was a little strange"

A pair of black shoes caught Valerie's attention before she could reply to Iman. She looked up to see a dark-haired boy using crutches standing in front of the two.

"Do you mind if I sit with you two?" Valerie looked at a boy standing in front of her, he was leaning onto his crutches, his hair was neatly combed back and held a small lunchbox "Usually I'm here because I practice during my lunch hour, but since you two are here I thought I could join you... if that's okay. If I'm bothering, I'll leave" he quickly added.

"I don't mind" Valerie shrugged, turning to Iman who quickly shook her head. Valerie moved to the side so he had enough room to sit. He left crutches by his side, laying them one on top of the other "What's your name?"

"Phillip Taylor." he said opening his lunchbox to reveal a tray of chopped fruit and several sweets.

"I'm Iman" she chimed in, raising her hand in a wave.

"I'm..."

"Valerie Pendleton, I know," he nodded

"You do?" Valerie leaned backwards; eyebrows closely knit together.

Philip nodded. "Yeah, everyone in my class knows you because you beat up Noah last year"

"Noah?" Valerie tilted her head, trying to look for any familiarity in the name.

"Yes, Noah Jones he's like around one seventy-eight, he said you had made it a far bigger deal than what it actually was and that you told him that by the time you were done with him he would need a brand new set of teeth" He made a vague movement with his right hand, Valerie's eyes opened wide and a smile crossed her face.

"Oh! Yeah! Now I remember him" Valerie turned to Iman "He used to be in my class, I had braces at the time, and he insisted in calling me tinsel mouth, magnet teeth, you know. I told him to stop all the time but one day he just fucking shoved a magnet on my face and said he thought my face would get stuck on it. Admittedly, I threw the first punch, and he might have lost a tooth"

"He did lose a tooth" Philip clarified "Everyone in my class called him an idiot when he switched classes"

"Why?" Iman questioned, an amused smile in her face. Philip's face suddenly turned red and he shoved a big piece of apple into his mouth. Valerie rose a curious eyebrow.

"He was an idiot," Valerie said, looking at Philip up and down "But now I want to know what caused your reaction?" she leant forward, resting her hands on her knees.

"Everyone's sort of figured out not to mess with you. As far as I know, someone warned him, but he didn't listen"

"Not to mess with her?" Iman rose an eyebrow, turning to Valerie "I thought you were all talk"

"Is it because of the whole Daniel Incident?" Valerie tilted her head, and Iman stared at her with eyes wide open "I thought people would have forgotten about it by now" she shrugged, taking a crisp out of its bag.

"It has a name, an official name?" Iman questioned, her eyebrows far up in her forehead.

"When she was in the seventh year she kicked a guy from eleventh year in the balls" Philip explained, Iman opened her eyes wide looking at Valerie.

"The dumbass really thought I wouldn't do it" Valerie beamed with pride.

"Why did you do it?"

"To be honest I don't even think I remember" Valerie mumbled with eyebrows furrowed. "It was probably his fault, you mention you usually practice here" She said turning to Philip, "What do you do?"

"Archery" he said with pointing at the targets at the other side of the field, Valerie put up an apologetic smile, mumbling a quick 'sorry'.

"Really?" Iman questioned, leaning forward in interest "How long have you been practicing?"

"Around three years" He looked up for a second, "I still have a lot of work to do"

"Are you gonna practice today?" Valerie questioned, Philip nodded "Do you mind if we stay and see?"

"I guess" He said, his cheeks turning a faint shade of red "I'm not very good though, I still lack some practice"

"We all start somewhere" Valerie shrugged, a soft smile in her face.

AN.

Hello Everyone! Here is a new chapter, I really hope you all enjoy it, and if you do, thank you so much for taking the time to read this story, I've noticed this has reached the five hundred reads and I'd like to take the chance to thank everyone, really, I don't have any words, the mere fact that there are people taking the time to read my story is unbelievable. If you liked this chapter, please don't hesitate to give it a vote or leave a comment, it would make my day. Have a lovely time!