Auroras Academy

Chapter 7

I blink slowly, my head feeling like it just got dropped kicked across a soccer field.

“Like exploding?” My mouth gapes open. Neither make any move to correct me. Are they saying I can accidentally blow up at any moment! Why? Why! Did my Aunt have to accidentally send me to this school of all schools? Couldn’t it have been military school? I would have taken being screamed at and forced to do burpees over spontaneously exploding!

“I’m prescribing this watch.” Dr. Pelt slaps a plastic watch onto my wrist tightening it to fit. I faintly remember having a similar one as a kid. It could glow in the dark. “It will slowly remove the glamor. Allowing you to adjust to your mana-”

“If I do have mana.” I correct, not yet sold on the credibility of this family history test.

“Yes, if you do.” He flips open the front of the watch cranking a dial on it a few times then clicking the front back in place. A faint clicking could be heard but the hands on the watch remained still.

“It’s still not working…” I stare at the frozen hands, glancing up questioningly. Dr. Pelt grins his, a sparkle filling his eyes. I immediately knew I shouldn’t have asked.

“Isn’t it incredible? It can nullify a spell with little to no side effects and all you have to do is wear it! The second hand is the hours then the minute hand is the days then the hour hand is the mouths. I’ve set it to six months.”

“Six MONTHS!” I cry shooting up in my bed. “I have to get out of here. I’m not an Aurorian and I don’t have any powers. And for god sake I'm not going to explode!” I shoot Maria the Social Service lady standing quietly in the corner with a deadly glare. She’s been taking steady notes during the entire altercation. I hop off the bed slapping the curtain out of the way only to stop in my tracks.

Clarke shuffles his feet in the center of the infirmary, looking guilty. Thankfully, the rest of the infirmary looks empty, except for a few nurses scuttling about. A soft flush comes to my face and I want to crawl back to my hospital bed and wrap the veiled curtain safely around me creating an impenetrable circle where I can hide from the outside world.

“Let me guess you heard most of that?”

“Just… All of it.” He rubs the back of his head, ruffling his hair, somehow looking unbearably sexy while doing it. I shake myself out of it. No, he's not even human! Even as he stands there his toned muscles scream strength and his presence is like a coiled spring of held back power. How did I not notice earlier that no normal teenage boy looks like this. There is no way I can like him, let alone date him. It would only end in disaster. It’s best to squash this little crush before it begins.

I pinch my lips together, nodding my head while mumbling “perfect” through clenched teeth. I turn back to Dr. Pelt and Maria from Social Services, no longer caring.

“You can’t keep me here.”

“Well,” Maria interrupts, “You’re showing common characteristics of an Aurorian and I can’t illegally let you go without having a legal guardian sign off taking full responsibility for potential… outbursts.” She said “outbursts” like down in Social Services they referred to them in much cruder terms.

“Characteristics?” My eyebrows lift. Was there some set methodology to Aurorian behavior?

“Sudden mood swings, uncontrollable outburst of anger, flighty behavior…”

“You just told me I could explode!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands exasperatedly in the air. Each thing seems pretty justified. Maria frowns, glancing down and marking another thing on her clipboard. “Hey! What did you just write? Let me see that!” I lunge for the clipboard but arms of iron wrap around me.

“Let's take a break before you tackle the Social Services lady.” Clarke says into my ear and I fight a shiver as his breath blows a few flyways across my face. “I’ll take her to her dorm.” He reassures them over my head, pulling me with him. As much as I hated him shooing me out I let him. Still, I send one last glare at Maria and her stupid smug face for ruining my life before Clarke breaks my gaze with his body.

“Hey! She should really rest-” Dr. Pelt cries out frantically, but the infirmary door is already swinging shut. I sigh in relief. There was no way I could handle another bazaar prescription or one of the glowing tonics that he had lining the walls. God only knows how horrible they taste.

“Thanks,” I croaked, staring up at Clarke's tall figure.

“No problem.” He shrugged, taking long strides that he slowed down so we were evenly paced. “You did kinda fall down a flight of stairs because of me.” He joked but guilt seeped through in his tone.

“No! That was completely my fault, I was freaking out. I just had to get away…” I trailed off, I definitely could have handled that a lot better. I always thought I’d be one of those strong girls that didn’t freak out when everything went to s**t. But then again that was before I knew things like vampires were real.

“I’ve never had a girl resort to jumping down a flight of stairs to get away from me before.” He chuckles, and I glance up at him relieved he’s making a joke out of this. A small smile forms on my lips.

“Well, you are freakishly tall.” I smirk up at him and he tilts his head back, a musical laugh spilling out of his mouth. We walk a few paces, the only noise in the hall are our feet clacking on the cobblestone. This entire school's design is straight out of leftfield. One section could look like a classic school built in the 1950, vinyl tiles and all. Then the next a modern minimalistic look, sleek and freshly painted. Or a hallway could completely encase an old Oxford academy both obscenely large and ancient.

I take a deep breath and finally ask the question that really needs to be addressed. “So you’re one of them…” The question catches him off guard and he scans my face.

“Yeah, I’m a Werewolf, from a Royal bloodline.” My jaw drops. Maybe, I wasn’t ready to know what he was.

“A Werewolf like; shifts into a mangled half-human half-wolf on the full moon and devours humans for fun?” My voice quivered as my nervousness crept into it.

“Not quite,” He chuckled, “More like a shape-shifter who has a wolf form and a human form. The Werewolves you’re thinking of are curses usually from witches.”

“Witches…” I breathe out my brain going a hundred miles per minute. Vampires, Witches, and Werewolves. What else was there? Were they all at this school? With each passing moment it felt like my chances of survival diminished.

“Man, you really don’t know anything about Aurorian’s.” Clarke stated, sensing my growing panic. I shoot him a glare. Was he just figuring that out? He holds his hands up in surrender. “I just come from a solely Aurorian background. I’ve never met anyone like you…”

He stared into my eyes for a beat. Even though I know he didn’t mean it that way, I couldn’t help a light rosy hue that brushed my cheeks. My heart thundered and I didn’t know if it was because of all the chaos that happened to today or the way he was looking at me. We both turned away and he went back to guiding me to my dorm.