by Jody Morse
The bed next to it had a black comforter with bright pink skulls printed on it. There was lettering above that bed, too. Ambur.
At that moment, I heard someone say, “What did you do to my hair? This is the wrong shade of blue!”
“I actually think it looks good. It compliments your skin tone.”
“No, it doesn’t. I hate it. It’s so not me. It’s so froufrou! You use your magic to turn it back right now!”
“You know I can’t turn it back for another twenty-four hours or else I’ll damage your hair. You’ll just have to wait.”
“Ugh! I have to walk around with cotton candy hair all day tomorrow?” The bathroom door opened, and a girl burst into the room. She was wearing black-framed glasses and a black t-shirt with a lime green spider graphic on it. Most noticeably, though, her shoulder-length brown hair had light blue highlights that reminded me of a unicorn’s mane.
Her eyes fell on me, and she blinked, obviously surprised to see me standing there. “Are you our new roommate?”
I nodded. “I’m Juliana Montgomery.”
“Juliana, this is going to sound really weird, but I just have to ask. Is there anything weird about your name and how it’s spelled?”
“Actually, kind of. It only has one ‘n’. It always confuses people.”
“There’s something about this room! I’m telling you. Everyone who ends up in this room ends up with something weird to do with their name. So, I’m Ambur. It’s spelled with a ‘u’, but it’s pronounced like the color amber—not Ambure or Umbur. Seriously, no one can ever get my name right.”
“And I’m On-drey-uh,” a voice said from behind her, as a girl with mocha-colored skin and long black hair with caramel highlights walked into the room. “It’s pronounced like the fancy schmancy way to say Andrea. But don’t be fooled. There’s no ‘a’ at the beginning of my name.” She motioned to the sign that spelled out “Ondraia” that hung over her bed, and glanced over at me. “You can call me Draia, by the way.”
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with names that begin with ‘a’.” Ambur rolled her hazel eyes.
“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with them. Just like there’s nothing wrong with your hair,” Draia said, glancing over at the blue highlights. “I think it came out nice, actually. It really does remind me of blue cotton candy, though.”
“And that’s exactly the problem! I asked you for peacock blue, not cotton candy blue!” Ambur turned to me. “This one”—she pointed at Draia with her thumb— “used her magic to give me highlights and messed them up.”
“I didn’t mess them up.” Draia’s dark brown eyes met mine. “Right?”
“I think it looks nice,” I replied with a shrug.
“See!” Draia beamed proudly at Ambur. “I told you I didn’t mess it up.” She glanced over at me. “Do you want me to give you highlights, too? I’m thinking green. Yes, green would be a nice contrast to that gorgeous auburn hair.”
“I think I’m good,” I replied, running my hand over my hair.
“See, she doesn’t trust you,” Ambur said with a pointed grin.
I looked from Ambur to Draia and smiled. I had a feeling that the three of us were going to get along just fine. Great, even.
“So, what are you?” Draia turned to me.
“Um… what?” I just stared back at her, confused by what she was asking.
“I’m a witch,” she explained. “Ambur’s a fairy.”
“Oh!” Now I understood. “That’s a good question. No one actually knows what my race is yet.”
“Is that even possible?” Ambur asked as she sat down on the edge of her bed.
“Yeah, I’ve never heard of someone not knowing what they were here,” Draia agreed as she plopped down on her own bed.
“Apparently, it is possible. Headmaster Crane said I come from several paranormal bloodlines, so I could be a witch, a fairy, a werewolf or—hopefully not—a vampire.”
“I always thought it would be sort of cool to be a vampire,” Draia said. “Why wouldn’t you want to be one?”
“The idea of drinking blood really grosses me out.” My stomach flipflopped at just the thought of it.
“Oh. Blood doesn’t bother me at all,” Draia said.
“It doesn’t bother me, either,” Ambur agreed. “And have you seen those vampire guys yet, Juliana? They are freaking hot.”
“So, it really is like the movies?” I asked.
“Except our vampires don’t sparkle,” she replied.
“You guys are the first ones who I’ve met here… besides Kelsea. Oh, and Brett.”
“Brett Summers?” Draia questioned.
“Yeah, you know him?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“Everyone knows him,” Ambur chimed in. “He’s one of the hottest guys on campus.”
“He is pretty hot,” I admitted.
“Well, don’t get your hopes up. He is taken, unfortunately,” Draia said with a sigh.
“And his girlfriend is the biggest bitch ever,” Ambur commented. “Her name is Everly Carmichael, and she thinks she’s better than everyone here just because her great-great-grandma was a Vixen.” She rolled her eyes.
I frowned. “So, she thinks she’s hot just because her great-great-grandma was hot?”
Ambur laughed. “No, the Vixen are this elite secret sorority on campus. There are only two ways to get in: either you’re invited or you had a family member who was a Vixen, which makes you a member by default. Everly’s great-great-grandma was one of the very first Vixen members in history, so that makes Everly the leader of the Vixen. Not that it’s really anything to be proud of. The Vixen are all stuck up bitches. I personally wouldn’t want to be one of them.”
“And you’re better off staying far, far away from them,” Draia informed me. “They don’t have good intentions.”
“Yeah. We actually think they might have even murdered our last roommate,” Ambur said quietly, looking down at the floor sadly. “We really miss Ashleigh.”
“We do miss her. We light a candle for her every night,” Draia told me. “I hope you won’t mind.”
“No, of course not.” Truthfully, hearing that made me feel so much relief. It was clear just from looking at their sad expressions that my roommates didn’t murder Ashleigh. I would be able to sleep a little better tonight knowing that neither one of them was the killer. “Why do you think the Vixen did it?”
“Because the night Ashleigh was killed, she was out after hours. And guess where she was? Well, where she was supposed to be, anyway. Her Vixen initiation,” Ambur explained. “The craziest part is that they can usually tell who killed someone with magic around here, but whoever did it cast a powerful masking spell that made it impossible for them to identify the killer. And guess who are some of the most powerful magic users at Paranormal Academy?”
“The Vixen?” I asked.
“Yup.”
“It’s too much of a strange coincidence,” Draia said. “Anyway, promise us that you’ll stay away from them. The last thing we need is for another roommate to end up getting killed.”
“I promise.” Joining a sorority was the absolute last thing on my mind. Settling into this new school, hopefully finding some sort of home here, and figuring out what the hell I was were at the top of my to-do list. Getting murdered by some elite sorority members wasn’t my style. When it came to school, I had always stuck to myself, anyway. I was a bit of a loner, mostly by choice. I was always switching schools so often that it was nearly impossible to make close friends. I got along with people, but I was normally moving onto the next school before I had the chance to form any real, lasting bonds.
I sort of hoped this time would be different. I hoped that I would be here long enough to make friends.
Staring at the girls across from me, I was pretty sure I had already made them. Somehow, without even trying, I had found my tribe. They had been picked for me.
Now, I just hoped that I wouldn’t turn out to
be a werewolf or—shudder—a vampire. That would have meant switching Houses and losing these fun new roommates. It would have meant living in a dorm room alone. And, even though I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, the truth was that being alone again was the last thing I wanted.
At that moment, my stomach grumbled. Okay, it did more than just grumble. It sounded like there was some sort of lion living inside it. It almost made me wonder if I could have been a lion shifter.
Draia met my eyes. “Are you hungry?”
“Yeah. I can’t even remember the last time I ate,” I admitted. The night before in the human realm, I had been too nervous about meeting my escort to eat the Easy Mac Karen had made me for dinner.
“I’ll show you something,” Ambur said, rising to her feet. She walked over to the other side of the room and lifted a painting of a butterfly. She then brought it over to me, revealing that the painting was hollow inside. “It looks like wall décor, but it’s actually where we keep our secret stash.”
“We’re not allowed to have snacks in our room?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“We are, but if the other girls on this floor knew these were here, they would put their dirty paws all over them and we don’t like to share.” She pulled out a few snack-sized bags. “Do you want Dorito’s, popcorn, pretzels or fruit roll-ups?”
“Dorito’s,” I replied, relieved that there were normal, human snacks here.
“Cool ranch or nacho cheese?”
“Nacho cheese, please.”
As she tossed me a bag, Draia asked, “Did they give you your class schedule yet?”
I shook my head as I tore into the bag of chips. “Nope.”
“She’ll probably get it by pixie delivery in the morning,” Ambur commented. “That’s how I got mine.” She glanced over at me. “Pixie deliveries usually come in our sleep. They’re annoying as hell.”
“Pixie deliveries?” I eyed her curiously.
“Pixies deliver the mail around here,” she explained.
“Aren’t you a pixie?” I asked as I munched on a chip.
“God, no.” She wrinkled her nose at the question. “I’m a fairy.”
I hoped I hadn’t actually offended her. “Sorry. I thought fairies and pixies were the same thing.”
“We’re technically both considered fae, but there’s a world of difference between us. A pixie is tiny,” Ambur explained. “Think Tinkerbell-sized. And you can’t trust them. They’re dramatic little creatures, always pretending to be the damsel in distress to make humans fall in love with them. Fairies, on the other hand, look like humans most of the time, but we have the ability to transform ourselves into the size of pixies if and when we want to. And not to brag or anything, but we are usually pretty badass. We don’t do that whole damsel in distress bullshit. And unlike pixies, we can also hide our wings or let them come out whenever we want. See.” She closed her eyes and a pair of light purple shiny, opalescent wings appeared on her shoulders. She flapped them a couple of times and then willed them away.
“That is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” I said, completely in awe. A part of me secretly hoped that I turned out to be a fairy, just so I could have pretty wings like hers.
“That’s just because you’re a newbie,” Draia said. “There are lots of really cool things to see around here—way cooler than Ambur’s wings.”
“Hey! My wings are pretty cool.” Ambur rolled her eyes before glancing over at me. “Have you seen the garden yet, though?”
“Only in passing,” I replied with a shrug. I wasn’t sure what could be so interesting about a garden. I mean, flowers were pretty and all, but they didn’t even begin to compare to the fairy wings she’d just shown me.
“Those flowers can talk,” she informed me.
Okay, I guess I was wrong. The garden could be interesting, apparently.
“What do they say?”
“Sometimes they just ask you about your day and stuff. Other times, they’ll feed you gossip they’ve heard from other students. It all depends on the flower itself and what type of mood it’s in,” she replied with a shrug.
“Wow,” I murmured.
“We should probably get to sleep,” Draia said abruptly. “Considering tomorrow’s your first day and everything. I don’t want to keep you up all night.”
“Yeah, I know,” I replied with a sigh. The last thing I needed was to be absolutely exhausted for my first day of classes.
“Oh. That’s your bed, by the way.” Ambur motioned to the bed across the room. “You can decorate your part of the room any way you want.”
“Are there stores around here that sell décor?” I questioned. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like I had any money to buy said décor.
“Girl, you don’t need a store,” Draia said with a laugh. “What color do you want your bedding to be?”
“Um. Blue.”
“What shade of blue?” she asked.
“Be very careful. Draia has a hard time when it comes to getting shades of blue right,” Ambur said, shooting her a pointed glare. “Don’t go for peacock blue or you’ll end up with cotton candy colored bedding.”
I laughed. “Turquoise?”
“You got it.” Draia stared at the bedding for a long moment. I watched as the gray comforter turned turquoise in color. It was pretty freaking awesome.
“How come you get her blue right?” Ambur asked.
“Just good luck, I guess,” Draia replied with a shrug.
“Thank you,” I replied.
“It was no biggie.”
“I’m going to just change into my pajamas,” I said then, grabbing the bag of clothes I’d brought with me.
The bathroom was really nice. There were three sinks, a walk-in shower, and a clawfoot tub. I’d never had such a glamorous bathroom at any of the houses I had ever lived in back in the human world.
I had just set my bag of clothes on the floor when I heard a voice say, “My, my, aren’t you pretty?”
I whirled around to figure out who had said that, but there was no one there… no one except for a black cat, that is.
“Sorry. I hope I didn’t scare you.” The cat seemed to grin at me.
I just stared back at it with wide eyes. “Y-you can talk?”
“I just spoke to you, didn’t I?” The cat rose to its feet and walked over to me, brushing his body against mine.
“But you’re a cat.”
At that moment, there was a knock at the door. “Juliana?”
I pulled the door open and found Draia standing on the other side, an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry. I forgot to warn you about Max. He’s my familiar.”
“We have familiars?” I thought that was just some human created myth that was featured in the movies.
“Yup, and mine can be a bit of a jerk at times. Just ignore him. Usually that will make him leave you alone.”
“Oh, Ondraia. You seriously underestimate my ability to communicate with a gorgeous human girl like this one,” Max commented, purring as he rubbed up against my leg again.
“I’m not human,” I informed him.
“Really?” Taking a few steps away from me, his green eyes carefully inspected my face. “I would have sworn that you were.”
“Why would you think that?” I asked.
“You just don’t seem like any paranormal being I’ve ever met.”
I swallowed hard.
It made me wonder, yet again, what I really was.
Chapter 4
The following morning, my eyes fluttered open, and I saw a trail of colorful, sparkly dust streaming down over me.
Glancing up, I saw the tiniest little fairy hovering over my face. She looked almost like Tinkerbelle, but she had short dark brown hair and was wearing a light pink dress.
A pixie.
“Good morning, Juliana,” she said with a giggle and then dropped a piece of paper on my chest. The pixie then floated across the room and slipped out through a crack in the door.
I just stared after her in amazement.
“That would be your first pixie delivery,” Ambur said from across the room. “Annoying little thing, isn’t she?”
I wiped the pixie dust off my face, hoping that I wouldn’t be walking around with what looked like glitter on me all day. “Extremely annoying.”
“So, what classes are you in?” Draia asked as she came out of the bathroom, pulling her black hair up into a ponytail on top of her head.
I glanced down at my class schedule.
Time
Course
Location
Instructor
9:00am
The History of Magic
Room 12
Professor Holmes
10:00am
Herbs and Potions
Room 11
Professor Martin
11:00am
Magical Animals and Creatures
Room 14
Enchanted Forest
Professor Frye
12:00pm
Lunch
Dining Hall
1:00pm
Elemental Magic
Room 25
Professor Tate
2:00pm
Spells and Charms
Room 22
Professor Ryan
I opened my mouth to read it to them, but before I could even get a word out, Ambur had already pulled it out of my hands and was going over my classes.
“The History of Magic is a freshman class. We’ve both already taken it.” She glanced up at me. “But I’m in your Herbs and Potions class, and you have Magical Animals and Creatures with both of us.”
“And I’m in your Elemental Magic class,” Draia told me excitedly as she peered over Ambur’s shoulder.
I breathed the slightest bit of relief. Taking these paranormal classes was going to be strange enough, so I was relieved that I had most of my classes with them.
