dedicated to Locky, 
who reads enough to help me discover amazing stories.

"You won't believe what I just heard," Alec says under his breath, as he jogs up to Day and Orion. Alec catches up with the pair and tries to catch his breath. His tie is knotted loosely around his neck, and his dress shirt is tucked in places and hanging out in others. The blue blazer hangs off his arm, and the usually perfectly styled brown hair is tousled.

Day raises his eyebrow at his mate's appearance.
"Never mind that, what happened to you? Please don't tell me you spent the last period getting laid in an abandoned classroom."

Orion snickers. When Alec shoots the boy a glare, Orion looks away, glancing around the corridor innocently.

"Have a little faith, would you? I was in Potions. It's so fucking hot in the classroom. Plus, it's on the other side of the fucking academy. This academy is too big for its own good. And we're not allowed to repentilate in here? Like who the fuck came up with that?"

"The rule is centuries old, dumbass," Orion says, with a roll of his eyes. "It's so the Malefactors don't come in to the academy."

"You would think that after the Dark King being trapped, people would stop being so paranoid. There aren't any Malefactors left," Alec replies, countering Orion's statement. Day stands between the two bickering boys and resists the urge to walk away.

"We just use the same protective wards and spells. It's got ancient spells that are useful." Orion shoots Alec a smug smile, satisfied that he has proved Alec wrong. Sierra Kingsley easily took the cake of topping their year. Though, if anyone could give her a run for her money, it would be Alec.

"True that. It might come in handy when the Dark King rises I suppose."
Orion looks at Alec in disbelief, surprised that the Italian is able to agree with Orion and accept that he is wrong. Day chuckles at the surprise on Orion's face.

"What were you going to say, anyways?" Day asks, shutting the previous topic down and pushing it out of their heads.

Alec's face blanks before he remembers.

"Oh right, yeah. I heard a bunch of controller witches talking, and guess who's the new freak in town?"

"Who?" Day asks with scrunched eyebrows. They enter the classroom and Day's eyes land on Zoe who is seated next to Minerva Cortez, the pretty blonde girl he had talked to along with Lucas Faye in the library yesterday.

"Sierra Kingsley," Alec answers. Day notices the red head's body turn rigid at the mention of her name. He can't blame her, especially since she is sitting two desks in front of them and Alec hasn't bothered lowering his voice to a whisper.

With his eyes trained on her back, Day asks, his voice dropping to a soft murmur, "What did she do?"

"Blew a girl across the classroom with her mind, no movements, nothing. Just her mind."

Day finally tears his eyes away from her, so fast that he worries that his eyes will slam into his head.

Alec notices Day's disbelieving eyes and adds, "That's what I thought, but I heard it from Divine or is it Diana? Whatever, something Harris."

"She's a reliable source because?"

"Because she is the said girl that got attacked by Sierra Kingsley," Alec replies, with a 'duh' expression on his face.

Day nods.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, something about Divination class and Diana entering her mind but Sierra is supposed to block her out and whoosh."

Before Day can reply, Professor Hart walks in. With his outfit consisted of mostly white, the professor nearly blinded his students. Day wonders if Professor Bane and Professor Hart are the ying to their yang.

"Welcome to History of Witches. Those who don't know the past, are bound to repeat it," the Professor says, the enthusiastic smile on his face, emphasising his wrinkles.

And thus begins, what students consider their most boring lesson of the day.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Alec wets his lips, and looks down at his outfit - black hoodie, white shirt and black sweatpants. It is hardly the most impressionable outfit, but it is eight at night and freezing outside. Alec's sneakers are soaked from walking around the outsides of the academy, but he couldn't resist checking it out again.

His eyes practically bulge out of his head when he sees Sierra Kingsley standing there, looking around calculatingly. Alec isn't sure what surprises him more, the fact that she is standing there when no one else is around or the fact that she is wearing a dress. A fucking dress. Alec almost offers her a bit of his sanity, he is sure she needs it. No sane girl, in the right of her mind, would've worn a summer dress that barely reaches her knees outside in the middle of winter.

But she barely acknowledges him, a barely there nod that Alec nearly misses. Alec reciprocates in kind and continues walking as if he had never meant to stop and look around. And so Alec heads towards the infirmary and finds himself standing outside the white door.

He slowly inches the door open, and peeks inside. When he notices that the academy nurses aren't in sight, he inches the door open a little further and scoots inside. Alec can't believe he is actually doing this.

With a glance around the room, he notices that only two beds are occupied. One by a sleeping boy that Alec has never seen before, and the other by a very wide awake Amisha Jeet. Who is in fact staring at him, the very second.

He offers her an awkward smile, that she doesn't bother returning. Alec takes long and quick strides towards the bed and Amisha straightens up.

With what Alec hopes is a confident smile, he introduces himself, "I'm Alec Bacani, my friends and I found you in the courtyard."

"Amisha Jeet."

Alec nods. "I know, you turned up late to our first class, on the very first day. You are also the first person to put the leaf on fire, in Incantations. Oh and, let's not forget how you get yourself attacked on the very first day."

Amisha's dark eyebrows rise into her hairline, and she looks a bit impressed and surprised.

"You've done your research"

Alec throws his head back and laughs at the beautiful girl in front of him, who now looks at him as if she is contemplating spraying him with pepper spray and running away. Alec's face sobers up when he remembers the initial reason for him wanting to visit the girl.

"What happened that night?" Alec asks, and he notices the change in Amisha's posture. The awkwardness is replaced with lack of comfort and growing frustration.

"I don't know," she answers, looking around at the infirmary. Her eyes roaming everywhere but him.

Alec tries not to look too disbelieving when he asks, "You don't know?"

But by the not-so-happy look on Amisha's face, she has caught onto his disbelief.

"I. Don't. Know," she repeats, punctuating every word. "I can't remember what happened to me."

"Someone tampered with your memory?" Alec's eyebrows furrow together in confusion.

"Maybe," Amisha answers. She uses her right hand to muffle the yawn that escapes her dark lips, and he smiles down softly at her.

"You should get some sleep, I'll be off." Alec considers some form of affection but discards the idea and sends her a smile before turning around and walking. Before he can open the door, he freezes mid step and turns around to look at Amisha. "When do you get to go back to class?"

"The day after tomorrow."

Alec smiles in amusement. "So Friday?"

Her lips twitch up and she nods. And just like that Alec Bacani has met another person who is worth being around.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

"So the weekend's coming up," Sierra reminds, as she joins the group of witches in the hall for breakfast.

"Thank you for stating the obvious," Lucas replies.

Sierra rolls her eyes at the blonde boy and looks at Minerva and Zoe with expectation. When the two girls shake their heads in confusion, Sierra lets out a disappointed sigh.

She throws her hands in the air, and exclaims, "Am I the only one excited to go to Western Veneficia?"

Sierra turns to look at the boys with an enthusiastic smile that Noah finds hard to deal with in the morning. Witch-exclusive town or not, Noah struggles to deal with Sierra any time of the day. She is moody, sometimes nice, and sometimes sarcastic. Sometimes she is mature and other times she gets excited over shopping. He can't figure out who Sierra Kingsley is, and he isn't planning of doing it in the morning.

"Why aren't you guys excited?" Sierra asks, unable to comprehend the lack of excitement from her friends towards something she has been waiting her entire life for.

"I'm broke." Noah shrugs, directing his attention back onto his breakfast. The others will never understand (especially a rich girl like Sierra), but Noah appreciates the food in front of him more than the privilege of shopping at a town exclusive for witches.

"And I'm not much of a shopping person," Lucas adds.

Sierra turns to look at Zoe and Minerva with a questioning look. It is only then that the redhead notices the guilty expressions on the girls' faces. Sierra's stomach twists and she knows she isn't going to like the reason behind their facial expressions.

Nonetheless she finds herself asking, "What?"

Zoe looks at Minerva, who looks back at Zoe until the both shift their eyes onto the Controller witch.

Zoe smiles apologetically at Sierra before saying, "The academy allowed everyone to go to Western Veneficia yesterday. So Minerva and I went with Day and his friends."

"Oh," Sierra says, her face sobering up and the enthusiasm leaving her body. "Why didn't anyone tell me we were allowed to go?"

"They announced it over the intercoms, when you were in the library," Minerva replies, with an expression that clearly says that she didn't think she is at fault.

Sierra presses her lips tight in displease. "They don't have intercoms in the library."

"But we texted you, inviting you to come along with us!" Zoe says, rushing to justify herself. As Zoe stares at Sierra, she is flushed with guilt.

"I lost my phone on Tuesday," Sierra replies, turning away from the girls and looking down at her plate of food that has lost its appeal after the conversation.

Zoe smacks the side of her head. "I'm so sorry! I totally forgot about that."

"It's alright, I'll just go this weekend." Sierra shrugs and begins collecting her belongings. Before Zoe can even offer to accompany Sierra, the girl is already walking away. 

There you go! Another update done and dusted. Let me know what you thought xx
Silent readers, you shouldn't be so silent ;)