“I’m sure you did fine. You’ve been studying really hard and, anyway,” she paused to yank open the door. “There’s no point in putting it off.”
I bowed to her superior wisdom and followed her down the corridor to the common room. Sam grinned when he saw us.
“I was starting to think you’d gone without me. Figured maybe the suspense got too much for you.”
Had everyone known about this other than me? I kept my thoughts to myself, because looking round the common room at the anxious pack of students, it was clear that everyone had known. Actually, now that I thought about it, I did sort of recall the professors announcing a date for the results. I’d just been too caught up in preparing for the match to pay it much attention. I paused mid-step as a thought struck me, and it took the others a moment to realise I’d stopped. They doubled back to me.
“If you’re going to hurl,” Sam said, “the bathroom’s that way.”
I shook my head. If we were getting our results this morning, then…
“Today’s the last day of the semester, isn’t it?”
“Hell, yeah,” he said, stretching his arms out over his head with a grin. “A few more hours and then it’s glorious freedom for two whole months.”
Kelsey elbowed him in the ribs, giving him a disapproving look. His face fell.
“Oh, right. You, uh, you haven’t seen your parents– I mean, your–”
“They’re still my parents!” I cut him off, a little more harshly than I’d intended. “Sorry. I mean, yeah, it’s going to be awkward, but they’re still my family. They’re the ones who raised me.”
And lied about me being adopted for my entire life. Awkward didn’t even begin to cover it. I forced a smile.
“Come on, we’d best go get our results.”
“If you insist,” Sam said with a sigh.
We carried on down to the main hall and queued up for our food – although how anyone could eat right now was beyond me; my toast sat untouched on my plate long after we’d reached our table. I took a sip from my coffee cup and glanced around – the professors were sitting at their table, and each head of element had a stack of envelopes in front of them.
The hall was awash with nervous chatter, but it wasn’t until all the students were seated that the element heads each stood up, collected their envelopes, and approached their tables. I watched Professor Alden cross to us, the anxiety in my stomach growing with every step she took.
“You will shortly receive your exam results,” Professor Talendale said, rising from his seat. “I urge you to remember: academic success is an honourable goal, but it is not the only one. So long as you strive to be a credit to the magical community, and abide by our laws, you shall have a place within these walls until you graduate. However long that may take you.”
His eyes rested on one guy on the Water table, who was clearly a couple of years older than his companions, and a handful of chuckles sounded around the hall. The guy grinned and waved.
“This is my year!” the water element announced, to more chuckles.
“Indeed,” the headmaster intoned, sounding deeply cynical. “Re-sits will be carried out at the end of summer, for those of you who require them. The rest of you shall be free to enjoy your break, but I urge you not to neglect your studies. First and second years, you have more study ahead of you, and I remind you that it will only get more intense from here. Third years: the magical community awaits your meaningful contribution, and I know you shall uphold the noble standing of Dragondale.”
A few faces paled at his words, and I suspected mine might have been one of them. Another two years of even harder study… and then my whole future. What did druids even do for a living? But there’d be plenty of time to worry about that later. Like, much later.
“Once you have received your results and enjoyed your meals, you are free to begin your preparations to leave the academy. Portals will be opened from mid-day onwards. Your head of elements will be able to advise you on your assigned portal times.”
He looked round – for what, I wasn’t sure – and then gave a nod.
“Very well, then. Without further ado, we shall distribute your results.”
He raised his arms, and the envelopes flew out of the professors’ hands, racing down the lines of students and dropping to the table in front of them. One skidded to a halt in front of me, my name emblazoned on the front. I looked around; everyone else had theirs, too. A couple of people were flipping them over and opening them. I suddenly wasn’t sure I wanted to know what was inside mine.
I heard a tearing sound from my left: Sam.
“It’s like a bandaid, right? Best to just rip it off.”
He gave us a lopsided grin then slid the paper out. His eyes scanned it – left to right, top to bottom – and then his lips curved into a relieved smile and he slumped forward onto the table, narrowly avoiding dunking his head in his cereals.
“Passed,” he said into his arms. “Just about.”
I looked to my right and Kelsey gave me a nervous smile.
“Okay, I’ll go next.”
She turned her envelope open, unstuck the flap, and eased the slip of paper out like she was defusing a bomb. As if she had anything to worry about. She sucked in a deep breath, let it out, and turned the sheet over.
“A pass,” she said, her face lighting up with a grin. I looked over her shoulder.
“Not just any pass. A perfect 4.0.”
“Like there was any doubt,” Sam said with a snort.
They both turned to look at me.
“You next, Lyssa,” Kelsey urged.
She was right. I couldn’t put it off forever. And if I had to re-sit over the summer, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. At least it would give me something to keep myself busy with.
Sam coughed.
“Alright, alright,” I grumbled. “I’m doing it.”
I pulled out my sheet of paper, flipped it over, and scanned it. In the top right-hand corner was my grade. 3.0. A pass. Not a great one, but who cared? A pass was a pass. Underneath was a breakdown of my exam results. My best was Supernatural Zoology with a near perfect score, followed closely by Elemental 101. My worst was Sepllcraft, I’d barely scraped a forty. No surprise there. And the less said about Gaelic, the better. But a pass. I’d take that any day of the week.
“She’s smiling,” Kelsey said. “Is that a good smile, or a bad smile?”
Sam reached over and plucked the sheet from my hands.
“Second year, here we come.”
“Congratulations!” Kelsey squealed. “We did it. We all did it!”
All around us, squeals of excitement and groans of disappointment erupted, and the volume of chatter grew louder and louder until I almost had to shout to make myself heard.
“I can’t believe I’m not going to see you guys for two months!”
“We’ll stay in touch,” Kelsey said, pulling a scrap of paper from her bag and scribbling on it. “My phone number. We’ll have to get together in the summer, all of us. And we should get our books early, so we can get a head start on next year’s lessons. Everyone says it’s going to be much harder and we don’t want to fall behind.”
I rolled my eyes while she babbled happily on – there really was nothing that got Kelsey so excited as a new academic challenge.
“If we can get through next year without any attacks or zombies,” I said, “that’ll be good enough for me.”
“Pfft,” Sam objected. “Where’s your sense of adventure? That was the only part of the year worth turning up for.”
“Says you, who slept through most of it.”
We laughed, and talked about anything and everything as we finished our last meal at Dragondale. My mind was only half on our conversation, the rest of my attention split between disbelief at the amazing turn my life had taken this year – finding out I was a druid, learning to use my magic, and discovering a whole world I’d never even known had existed – and a thrill of anxiety abo
ut what was still ahead of me. Two more years at the academy, and then who knew what I would be off doing, and where my magic would take me? I knew one thing though, as I looked left at Kelsey, and right at Sam: the friendship we’d formed would last a lifetime.
As for the rest of it? Only time would tell, but I was in no rush. For the first time in my life, I’d found the place where I was truly in my element.
A note from the author
Thanks for joining me for Lyssa’s first year at the Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Be sure to come back for her second year in Feral Magic, book 2 in the Druid Academy series – now available to pre-order by click this link, or the image below.
Meanwhile, if you enjoyed this book, I’d be really grateful if you would take a moment to leave me a review.
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The Adventure Continues…
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Druid Academy Series
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Druid Magic (Druid Academy Book 1) Page 19
