Silverwood Academy Book 1

by Jasmaine Groth

  I grabbed the dumbbells from out of her hands and frowned at them. “They’re really not that heavy,” I told her with a frown, putting them back on the shelf.

  Selene glared at me from the ground, her jaw tight in anger. “You’re such a bitch,” she told me, her voice low.

  I turned around, my hair flicking her in the face as I flipped it over my shoulder and walked away from her. “I was just trying to be nice,” I told her innocently, walking away.

  “Natasha Marshall come see me when class is finished,” Sterling called out, looking pissed off. Nerves filled my entire body, I didn’t want to stay and talk to him when class ended. It would be the first time we’d been alone since we got back, the first time we’d talked in weeks.

  Everyone continued with what they were doing, until the bell rang. I watched everyone leave feeling miserable and wishing I could go with them, the longer I was here the later I was going to be for my Air Elemental.

  When everyone left, I stood with my hands folded, refusing to look anywhere but at Sterling. “What is this about?” I demanded, sounding a little bratty.

  “Did you have anything to do with what happened with Selene Kennedy today and yesterday?” he demanded.

  My teeth grinded together. “No,” I lied.

  Sterling stepped in front of me, looking pissed. “I can tell when you lie,” he stated. “What the fuck were you thinking? Harassing her like that in class and tormenting her?”

  My hands lifted in the air and I looked at him incredulously. “She doesn’t even know it’s me!” I yelled at him, not bothering to hide it was me anymore.

  Sterling rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t make it okay,” he replied.

  “Oh, fuck off,” I told him, turning around to grab my bag.

  “What the fuck did you just say to me?” he growled. I turned back to him, his jaw was tight, and he looked ready to throw down.

  Anger bubbled up in my chest and a harsh laugh left my throat. “You wanna stick up for that bitch?” I yelled. “Well guess what? She deserves it!” I stepped closer to him. “Has your head been buried in the sand this whole time? She’s been picking on me since I started here all because-that asshole-Oliver took an interest in me!”

  His eyebrows rose. “She hasn’t done anything to you since before you went on holiday!” He snapped.

  “Oh really?” I yelled, tears prickling in my eyes as they spilled down my cheeks, furious with him for taking her side, and furious with myself for caring about what he thought of me. “When we came back from Bora Bora, she confronted me in the laundry room and called me a whore and said I deserved to get hurt by Oliver so I punched her and she punched me in my already broken ribs, and when I fell to the ground in blinding-fucking-pain, she kicked me!”

  Fury rose in Sterling’s expression. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell anyone?” he demanded.

  “Because I’m getting my revenge, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than you telling me you’re disappointed in me for me to stop,” I told him, glaring, folding my arms across my chest, annoyed as tears still fell. “Now go the fuck back to ignoring me so I can move on with my life.”

  I slung my bag across my shoulder, storming towards the door, using my air element to push him out of the way, I opened the door and slammed it closed behind me. Once outside I took off into the woods in a blur to my air elemental class.

  “You’re late,” Professor Carr told me when I arrived.

  I wiped my hands across my face, hoping I didn’t look like I’d just been crying. “Sorry, Professor Blackwell had some questions after class,” I told her.

  “I’ll talk to him after later for confirmation,” she replied. She turned to look at the class. “Today I want you to work on creating a sphere of air between your hands.”

  We split up, some of the other witches worked near their friends, grouping together, but as usual, I went to a corner by myself.

  Bringing my power to the surface, forcing it to my fingertips, trying to create a sphere of air, it blew a wild wind that swept out in every direction, I tried using my hands to mould it, that was sort of working but it was more of a deformed oval than a circle.

  Every time I failed, or it slipped away, I tried again, growing anxious and frustrated over not being able to do it yet, but also a little determined. It was one of the most difficult things I’d ever had to do in this class so far, and when the bell finally rang, I groaned because I still hadn’t succeeded.

  I shot off to my room in a blur of speed and sat in my room until I eventually made my way outside, walking to The Hub. Walking through the woods I had a prickling sensation sweep over me like I was being watched, but when I turned around nobody was there, using my enhanced vampire senses I noticed a crow sitting in a tree high above me, peering down at me, but surely, it couldn’t be watching me, I shivered at that thought and hurried along faster, feeling slightly creeped out.

  Chapter 16:

  I woke up Friday morning and went for my usual morning run before going back up to my room to get changed in my uniform and walked into the cafeteria to get my coffee, when I arrived Sterling was at the coffee maker.

  I walked past him to the buffet, putting bits of fruit in a bowl with yoghurt, Sterling strolled up beside me, looking straight ahead at the food, his body angled toward me. “Sorry,” he told me. “I didn’t know what Selene did.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair in that way that told me he was either saying something hard, annoyed or frustrated.

  I rolled my eyes, walking away from him, not wanting to have this conversation or be near him.

  “Whatever.”

  Sterling walked away shaking his head, taking a little piece of my heart with him as I watched him leave, wishing I didn’t feel this way about him. I made my coffee and sat down at a table, eating my breakfast and sipping on my coffee and blood. People started filing into the cafeteria, I ate in silence as my friend’s talked together, discussing tonight, I nodded my head when they asked about things, not really listening.

  My first class for the day was Advanced Compulsion, it passed by quickly. My next class Advanced Abilities and we were still working on trances, it was really fun. Dawn and I worked together and laughed.

  I got ready in my room for Physical Exercise, darting off to the clearing the gym was held.

  Sterling came striding up to us, looking over the class. “Start running,” he instructed, looking more pissed off and annoyed than usual.

  Jogging off across the field, keeping pace, the rest of the class followed behind. Looking behind me at where Selene was running, above her a few metres away was a low-lying branch that looked like it was going to snap, I brought my power to the surface, and gave the branch a nudge.

  The sound of snapping filled the air as the branch came tumbling down, landing right before a screaming Selene. I chuckled a little underneath my breath, the rest of the class jumped over the branch as they ran passed.

  I finished running my laps, heading to the gym, Selene stepped in front of me blocking my way. “I know what you’re doing,” she hissed. “I don’t know how but I know it’s you.” She pushed me.

  A snarl worked its way up my throat. “Prove it bitch!” I snarled at her, pushing her back.

  Selene lunged at me and I side-stepped her quickly causing her to stumbled and fall to the ground. I laughed, a few other people that had noticed stopped to watch. “Argh!” Selene exclaimed angrily, jumping up and heading towards me, her hand balled into a fist, she punched me, my head snapped to the side and I cracked my neck, turning back to her.

  That was all it took. I laughed manically, all control went out the window. “You’re gonna regret that.” My magic brushed to the surface and I pushed her, a gust of wind at my fingertips. My fist mixed in with my power had her flying through the air screaming, I smirked, holding her up there with my wind, dangling her upside down. The rest of the class was watching, and Sterling just watched the whole thing unfold with his arms crossed, his eyebrow
s raised and a bored expression.

  “Let me down you psychotic bitch!” Selene snarled.

  I gave her a sweet smile. “Okay,” I replied happily. I let my magic fall away and she came tumbling to the ground head-first.

  The class gasped collectively. Selene screamed so loud and shrill I thought her voice would break, she was crying and sobbing uncontrollably. Right before she hit the ground, I caught her with my air, holding her a foot above where she was going to go splat, walking up to her. She looked up at me scared. “Don’t fuck with me, Selene. I will come out on top,” I threatened, dropping her the last foot. She was shaking and crying. I grinned triumphantly, turning to my friends, a few people in class had their notebooks raised, filming, I curtsied for them with a smile.

  “Come on now! It’s over, get back to it!” Sterling called out.

  Everyone dispersed quickly and Isaac came striding forward, threw his arm over my shoulder. “You’re pretty badass,” he told me, smirking .

  I threw my head back and laughed, giving him a challenging look. “And just you remember it.”

  The rest of the class walked into the gym, and Selene continued sobbing on the ground where I left her. “Get up!” Sterling roared at her. “I don’t care if you just got your ass handed to you, I told everyone to get up and hit the weights! It’s not my fault you want to cause fights with people more powerful than you!” I grinned behind him, my heart felt like it was floating at the compliment. He thinks I’m powerful!

  Selene flinched, scrambling to her feet, storming past me into the gym, I glanced up at Sterling quickly, he was watching me, an amused glint in his eye.

  “Natasha, a word please,” his voice was serious.

  Isaac pulled his arm from off my shoulder and followed Anna, Sophia and Nic inside. I hung back, waiting for them to go through the door before turning on Sterling. “Are you going to give me a lecture?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “Or detention?”

  “No,” he told me.

  I folded my arms over my chest. “Then what?” I demanded.

  He moved so quickly he blurred, then he appeared in front of me, his arm snaked around waist, his other hand went into my hair, wrapping his finger around it as he pulled me towards him and kissed me. My heart fluttered in my chest, and I gasped. My hands found their way to his shoulders and I kissed him back. I didn’t know why or understand but I lost myself in the kiss, forgetting where we were or what had happened.

  He has a girlfriend. The thought slammed into me, I stopped kissing him suddenly, pulling my power to my hands, and shoved him hard, he stumbled backwards looking at me confused. “You have a girlfriend,” I told him, looking away from him so he couldn’t see the pain it caused me. I swallowed thickly, a lump forming in my throat. “You can’t keep doing this, Professor.”

  Sterling’s arms snatched back, the electricity he sent through my body disappeared with it, making my heart clench tightly in my chest. “You’re right, I do have a girlfriend,” was all he said before he turned and walked into the gym.

  I stood there for a second longer, before I forced myself to walk inside, flattening my hair, trying to make it seem like I wasn’t just out here making out with a teacher. I walked over to the mats doing weighted squats as all the other machines were in use.

  When the bell rang, I was more than happy to leave, dropping the dumbbells into their holder quickly and stormed outside before anyone else. I dried the sweat from my body with a cool breeze and headed straight for my room to get dressed into my usual uniform.

  I sat in the cafeteria with Sophia, Nic, Anna and Isaac. “Did you get in much trouble with Professor Blackwell for what happened with Selene?” Isaac asked.

  I shook my head. “No, he just told me to not disrupt his lesson like that and if I have issues with someone to take it up outside of class,” I lied. No way in hell was I going to tell them he kissed me, I still didn’t even know why he did. It wasn’t like he cared, he moved on so quickly and the first thing he did when we came back to the academy was ignore me even though he said he wouldn’t.

  “That’s good,” Anna told me, smiling. “We were worried he was going to yell at you.”

  “You’re getting quite good control of your air element,” Sophia commented.

  “I think so, I’m really enjoying the classes,” I told her.

  “That’s awesome,” Anna told me.

  “Do you talk to any of the witches in the class?” Sophia asked. I shook my head. “Oh.”

  I looked at her and frowned. “I don’t think they’ve taken very well to having a vampire in their class.”

  “They’ll get used of it,” Anna said with a smile. “Don’t worry.”

  “I’m not worried,” I replied. We continued talking and laughing until the bell rang and we had to go to our Wellness Studies, walking together in silence.

  The class consisted of more yoga and me playing with my air magic more while Selene glared at me, looking sour. I had to give it to her, she had guts, after what I’d done to her I almost expected her to still be sulking.

  When the bell rang, I went to my Air Elemental class, leaving Anna and Sophia to head to their class. I darted off to the arena on the other side of campus, sitting on the ground as the rest of the class started filing in.

  “We saw what you did to Selene Kennedy on S-book,” Astrid told me, strolling over with her other witch friends. “It was brilliant. We wish we could’ve been there to see it in person.”

  I smiled at Astrid. “It was pretty brilliant if I say so myself.” I flicked my hair over my shoulder.

  Astrid walked away with her friends, but she turned back to smile at me, I grinned back at her. We hadn’t really hung out since I first arrived, she was always hanging out with the witches, but I hung out with Anna and Sophia because we were all just closer because we had the same classes and were part of the same faction. It definitely wasn’t a good reason, but we both could’ve also tried to make more of an effort to hang out and talk more.

  Professor Carr walked into the arena. “Okay I want you to practice the air spheres we’ve been working on and when you have made it, I want you to throw it,” she told us.

  I stood up, walking over to a corner to practice alone, pulling my power to the surface, I focused on creating sphere of air in my hands, pushing and pulling it until it formed a round shape, winds swirling all around inside, hovering in the air. I pushed it away pushing it away with air. It flew across the arena, hitting a wall and exploding, a blast of air shot out from every direction, knocking me and a few other people nearby back slightly.

  The more I practiced the easier and faster I was creating them, my heart soared with happiness and being able to create the spheres. I couldn’t believe after practicing for days I had finally gotten a perfect sphere.

  The bell rang and I walked back to my room, enjoying the feeling of accomplishment that washed over me. I got back to my room, kicking the door shut and walked into my closet wondering what I was going to wear tonight to go out.

  I pulled a red sweater dress off its hook, pulled it on along with some black thigh high boots and a few pieces of simple jewellery. As I walked through the woods to The Hub a shiver went up my spine, it felt as though someone was watching me and it sent my skin crawling, I looked around only to see no one around, it made me uncomfortable and I grew uneasy. In the distance a crow was staring at me, its eyes followed me as I moved, it looked like the same crow from before but it was hard to tell as they all looked the same, but this one had a scar over its eye much like the other one did and as I looked more closely it’s eyes appeared almost human. My spine straightened and I don’t know why but I ran, following the path quickly, wanting desperately to get out of here. Looking back I watched as it lifted its large black wings, lifting off from the branch it perched on with a squawk, flapping its wings rapidly, swooping down at me, I ducked, sprinting faster, stumbling over a root as I exited the woods. The ground whooshed by but strong hands grabbed me, sending e
lectricity through me from their touch. There was only one person who gave me that reaction and I knew it had to be Sterling before I even looked up at him.

  Sterling looked around worried then back up at me, his brows knitting together. “What’s wrong?”

  My heart pounded and I shook my head. “I just…” Now that the light was on me, I felt like I was overreacting, it was probably just a coincidence. I felt silly. “I thought someone was watching me, then there was this bird with a scar over it’s eye and it had weird eyes…” I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. “I saw it before though, last time I thought someone was watching me… but that can’t be possible. I must be just imagining things.”

  Sterling looked down at me frowning. “What was wrong with its eyes?” he asked, looking around suddenly tense.

  Shaking my head as I blinked. “They looked human, but that’s not possible.” I shook my head again. “Don’t worry, I think I’m just losing it.”

  His back straightened and he pulled me up along the path to The Hub quickly. “Have you seriously forgotten already?” he whispered in my ear. “Vampires can shapeshift!”

  My body straightened and I stopped and looked up at him, my mouth dropped open, my heart hammered in my ears. “You’re saying someone’s watching me?”

  Sterling shook his head. “I can’t be certain… but I’d say so,” he pulled me into The Hub quickly, glancing behind him across the clearing. “Where are you going tonight?”

  I shrugged. “I was going to the club with my friends in town.”

  Sterling ran his hands through his hair, looking down at my outfit appreciatively. “Dressed like that?” he whispered.

  Crossing my arms over my chest I glared at him. “Yes.”

  “Well if anything else strange happens call me, I’ll come get you,” he whispered, looking around quickly to make sure no one else heard. “Don’t go anywhere alone.” Bending down he looked me in the eyes, all serious. “Promise?”