by Nissa Gordon
Alex and Troy went on the coach first, and decided that this trip they would sit downstairs so that they could get off quickly when they reached the school; the other group had also had the same idea and were sitting at the back, so they sat in the middle.
A dark sandy haired boy stood up in the middle of the group and shouted over to them. "Are you following me?"
"Who's he?" Libby whispered as she sat next to Selena.
"I have no idea," Troy answered across the aisle.
"You do know that we're all going to the same place right?" Methos told him; he was one of the boys that had been sitting with Nathan; he was the same height as Will and had chocolate coloured short hair and an oriental appearance.
"You could have got on a different coach!" the boy shouted.
"Get over yourself already will you!" Eddie the other lad shouted, who was already in his seat; he had dark hair with blue tips and midnight blue eyes.
The boy started to make his way through his group of friends, but Lucy who hadn't taken her seat yet pulled out her wand and pointed it at him and smiled.
"Reagan...hi...how do you think your mum is going to react when she hears that you started a fight?” Lucy asked him. “And we haven't even got to school yet,"
"That...whatever..." Reagan said angrily as he turned back around and took his seat.
Lucy turned around and took hers as well, with them all staring at her; she hated to make a scene but sometimes you had to, to get your point across.
"How many people do you actually know?" Selena asked her.
"Who was he?" Will asked.
"He's called Reagan...and his mum is a senator," Lucy told them. "My dad told me,"
"Of course he did," Troy said smirking.
"What's a senator?" Libby asked.
Lucy thought about that, she didn't really know for sure herself. "I think it's someone who's important who works with the government,"
"He's an idiot," Eddie informed them.
"I think we got that part," Alex agreed. "And seriously...he was scared of Lucy pointing her wand at him...she probably doesn't even know anything that she could use against him,"
"Even if I couldn't remember a spell, I could have hit him; that would have shocked him more than any spell," Lucy told him.
"She has a point," Troy agreed. “And she does pack quite a punch,”
They talked among themselves as the coach filled up and then it started, though none of them had seen a driver come on board or anywhere where a driver could be, unless he was upstairs. The coach drove out of the docking area and away from the ocean, going along a dimly lit path out of the village so that they couldn't see very much, and then before they even realised, they were out on a country road with nothing but fields in every direction.
"So...how far do you think the school is?" Troy asked.
"It's probably on the other side of the island," Alex said smirking.
"Then it'll probably have its own dock," Will added.
"It's about fifteen minutes away on one of these coaches," Eddie told them, making everyone look at him. "What?"
"His parents told him stuff, but ours wouldn't," Troy said annoyed.
"Well he didn't tell us much," Methos told them.
"Are you brothers?" Alex asked.
Lucy knew that they weren't brothers, and not just because they didn't look anything at all like each other. "You don't look like brothers,"
"Well kind of...we live together." Methos told them.
"So am I the only one here who doesn't know anyone?" Libby asked feeling left out again.
"I don't really know that many people," Selena offered.
Libby wasn't sure that she liked that answer either. "I can't be the only one from a non-magical family,"
"Of course not, there's loads; there's some upstairs," Lucy said before she could stop herself, making everyone turn around and look at her, which she was going to blame Troy for. "I told you that I don't like large groups staring at me,"
"Wow...okay...relax..." Troy told her trying not to laugh, as her face turned red with everyone staring at her.
"Stop it! Now you're just doing it on purpose!" Lucy shouted embarrassed.
"Where did all those trees come from?" Jessica asked looking out the window.
Everyone looked out to see what she was talking about; she was right, it was as though one minute open fields for as far as the eye could see and then a tunnel of trees blocking out everything, so that it was just a straight road large enough for two lanes.
Chapter Seven
After a couple of minutes the road suddenly opened up and the trees carried on around the courtyard as they circled around the fountain in the centre; the coach pulled up front of the main doors of the building before them, with steps leading up to it. They all got up and had a look out of the windows on the other side before they filed off of the bus; it wasn't at all what they had been expecting. It just looked like a normal long building with steps leading up to the large double doors with pillars on either side; on either side of the courtyard, the trees still hid everything from view because they were so thick and tall, then there were small roads on either side so that the coaches would be able to drive off.
"Well this is kind of shabby," Reagan said as he pushed his way to the front, closely followed by his friends; then they headed up the steps first, as they got half way up, the doors opened outwards on their own as there wasn't anyone else up there that could have done it.
Reagan and his friends stopped for a moment before they carried on up, light was pouring out down the steps from the lobby as they all entered the round space; there were two doors, one straight forward and the other on the far left, on their right were stairs leading up. In the centre of the lobby was a man, by all appearances looked as though he could be in his fifties; he had a green top hat with matching robes over his black suit.
The man didn't say anything to them, just directed them to the far left door which opened for them as they approached. Now silent, they all filled into the large waiting room; more students coming in behind them as the other coaches must have pulled up right behind them. Once they were all in the waiting room, the man came in behind and made his way through to the front of the group, that lead through another door.
"Good evening and welcome to Burnaby's estate buildings, I am Professor Eldamar, Deputy Headmaster, and head of Disa estate. As tonight is your first, you will all be placed into your estates, these will be like your family for the next seven years of your life. Your estate is chosen on character, not who your family is or what sort of back ground you might or might not come from. This year is kind of special as you all must have heard on Earth, witch and wizards have begun to come out into the open, that's why your year group is larger than we have ever accepted before. Every magical school agreed to reassess the screening process, meaning that all schools have accepted even more students than normal; this will be properly explained to you tomorrow in class, why it has been done. For now, all you need to know is that this may take a while, so I need you all to be paying attention. You will be called forward in groups of six, when I call your name I want you to come forward in order, then you will walk through these doors. As you walk through in order, you will be placed into your estate, once that is done, you must take your seat at your estate table. Any questions?"
Eldamar looked around the room, but he wasn't really expecting anyone to ask him a question at this point, mainly because no one ever had, as they were all too scared.
"Now then, remember you will all be called in order; come forward straight away and in the order that I've called your name go through the door," the door behind him slowly creaked open, but there wasn't any light in the next room that any of them could see. From the inside of his jacket pocket he pulled out a small notebook and then opened it, cleared his throat then went on. "Right then; Gasper Agust'hil, Terry Alan, Keith Alean, Sandra Arise, Robin Armstrong and Tera Armstrong."
The six students made the
ir way forward as their names were called, others moving out of their way; and then they watched as they walked through to the dark room and disappeared from sight. As the last one went through Eldamar carried on reading from his list
Will and his friends had been stood there for ages and none of them had been called yet, meaning that their names were all at the other end of the alphabet, making them wonder who would be the first one to be called.
"Simran Hur'nullos, Macy Hurts, Jessica Huxley, John Hyde, Samuel Indevos and Jonas In'gar'nac."
"Oh my god...I have to go first?" Jessica said a little panicked.
"It's alright, my cousins Maris and Shura have already gone before you, you'll be fine; we won't be long behind you," Lucy assured her and gave her a little nudge forward as her group was waiting for her at the door.
"Miss Huxley," Eldamar prompted and Jessica made her way through, taking her place to be the first one in their group to go through the doors.
"You have cousins here as well?" Libby asked a little surprised and over whelmed at how many people she seemed to know, when she knew no one here or nothing about this place or way of life.
"Yeah, my family has always been coming here," Lucy told her.
"Mirandra Inty'us, Shade Inyon, Selena Isus, Marlin Is'van, Paul Jackson and Elliot James."
"See you all on the other side," Selena said smiling as she made her way through.
"Why do half the students all have really weird names?" Libby asked.
They all looked at each other, wondering how to answer her question.
"They're not from the same place that you're from, so they have different names...you might need a little practice saying some of them...I do sometimes," Lucy told her.
"You've got that right," Troy agreed.
More than another ten groups had been sent through and they were all still stood there waiting to be called.
"Myranda Ritan'ki, Whitney Robinson, Pandora Rotarvan, Nadja Rowland, Kallan Ryans and William Ryker."
"No way, you have to go through with all girls," Alex teased.
"Don't start," Will said annoyed as he went forward, not liking having to go through with no one he knew and especially all girls like Alex had pointed out.
"See ya in a couple of minutes," Troy said smiling.
Will joined the back of his group, not at all impressed that he had to go through with a group of girls and not one other lad; the first girl went forward into the dark room and he tried to look around to see what it was they were supposed to do to be sorted, but it was so dark he couldn't see anything at all. One by one the girls in front of him all seemed to disappear, and then he was on his own; but he still kept going forward hoping he was doing the right thing. Will felt something moving close by, he looked to his left and then his right, but still couldn't see anything but he was sure that he could actually feel something close by moving around him. Then all of a sudden he was on a slop of some kind walking slowly down it into the light of the opening, as he looked around himself it actually looked like a stone mouth; but as soon as he thought it, he quicken his pace and almost stumbled out of it.
"Cadell!" a male voice boomed.
Will looked over his shoulder to see where he had just come out of, it was a giant head of a white tiger; but before he had time to think he disappeared and reappeared stood in front of a chair at table across the room, with a couple of students looking as dazed as he felt. He assumed that this was his table and pulled out a chair and sat down, then finally had a quick look around the hall. The first year round tables were at the front of the hall in front of the teachers table, then behind were rows of more round tables and right at the back were long ones. There were so many students; he had known that there were going to be, but it was something else to actually see them all, and that Eldamar guy had said that theirs was the biggest year group they had ever taken, which was probably why their tables were bigger than the other years.
In place of the tiger a stone Killibian otter Head appeared. "Clay Sa'har, Pallas!"
The Killibian otter head remained and shouted. "Roxanna Sarkul, Pallas!"
The Killibian otter head was replaced with the tiger again and shouted. "Alexander Sedgwick, Cadell!"
Still the tiger remained. "Lucy Luna Shepherd, Cadell!"
And the tiger remained in placed. "Gabriela Silver, Cadell!"
The tiger seemed quite pleased with itself as it remained for the last name of this group. "Troy Silverstone, Cadell!"
The four of them appeared at Will's table, the boys on his side and the girls facing him and quickly took their seats.
"See I knew we would all get into the same group," Troy told them.
"You were worried...you told me," Alex teased.
"Lucy...we got into the same estate," Jessica said leaning in front of Selena so that she would be seen.
"Well I think we did that quite well," Selena said.
"She makes it out as though we planned it like this," Troy said shaking his head.
"Yeah, but we all did want to be in the same estate, so in a way we did," Will told them smiling knowingly.
"I wanted to be in Cadell," Lucy told them.
"That's because your family are all in it," Troy told her.
She looked around the table but couldn't see her cousins. "Actually, this year, I'm the only one. But truthfully, I liked the colour of the uniforms for this estate; we get red,"
"Of course we do," Troy said shaking his head, not believing that was the only reason why she wanted to be in this estate.
"I forgot about that part," Alex said, as he had kind of forgotten that they get a separate day uniform.
"It'll be fine, everyone else has to wear them as well," Will told them, hoping that it was true.
A couple more groups on and the last of this group, the stone tiger appeared and shouted. "Ethan Edward Tormond, Cadell!"
He appeared at their table and they all stared at him as he took his seat near to a boy called Philip.
"Ethan...then why did you tell us to call you Eddie?" Lucy asked annoyed and kind of confused.
"Well...err...I guess...everyone at my last school called it me..." Eddie told them.
"Easy there Lu...what she means...what do you really want us to call you?" Troy told him.
"Eddie's fine," he assured them all.
"There we go, relax Lu," Troy told her. "Or we'll start calling you Luna again,”
Lucy knew that they wouldn't really call her that, not that it really bothered her, but she would pretend that it did to make them think that they had something over her, she liked to tease them like that. "Whatever,"
More names were called and placed into different estates; they were just thinking that they weren't getting anyone from this group, even though there were still empty seats at their table, when the stone tiger appeared. "Methos Validus, Cadell!"
Methos appeared at their table as whispers broke out, the tables behind them all seemed to get quite excited by this.
"What's going on?" Alex asked wondering if he had missed something important, which he could have, as its happened before. "Are you famous?"
"Is your dad a teacher?" Lucy asked before she could stop herself.
"Do you have to keep doing that?" Troy asked her annoyed. "If you know stuff, you're supposed to let us in on it as well..."
"I can’t tell you a lot of stuff that I'm not really supposed to," Lucy told him pouting a little.
"Yeap, that's my dad up there." Methos told them, pointing up at the top table at a man in his thirties with long brown hair tied back.
"Wow...what does he teacher?" Alex asked impressed.
"Transformations," Methos told them. "And his best mate, is the guy next to him; Professor Ordin Domnus, he teachers Defence,"
"The dark guy?" Troy asked.
Will looked up at the two men, sure that he had seen them before, which he might have considering how many people his dad had worked with over the years.
"I bet that you've alrea
dy learnt loads of stuff right...I'm so jealous," Lucy said as she didn’t like to be out done.
"I know, tell me about it," Selena said next to her.
The last of the groups were called out, Libby also getting into Cadell, which she was quite pleased about considering that everyone she had met so far were also in that estate, though she didn't like that she couldn’t really sit next to them with how they had all been placed.
