writingcamp + Divination Academy

Chapter 2

The moment we stepped into the portal, everything swirled out of existence, colouring my vision purple and blue as Mr Delvine and I were spun in circles. It didn’t take long for us to pass through the portal, but when we came out on the other side, a group of people were waiting for us, a few of them dressed in, what looked like, battle attire.

“I assume there was no trouble on the Other Side, Brother?” A tall man with similar features to Mr Delvine asked as he stepped forward, shaking hands with the man I had just left my life with.

“Someone almost found her. But they weren’t able to get close enough to sense where she went, so that’s good. Lovinia, this is my brother, Dustin. He is also a private tutor for the Academy. Dustin, this is Lovinia Devine.” Mr Delvine smiled as Mr Dustin Delvine smiled, holding his hand out for me to shake.

I smiled and shook his hand, feeling a strange sensation when our hands touched. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr Delvine.” I smiled, still a little nervous.

“The pleasure is mine, Ms Devine. And please, call me Dustin. Mister feels too formal for me.” Dustin laughed, causing me to smile.

“OK, well thank you, Dustin.” I smiled again.

Something about Dustin and Mr Delvine made me feel at home in this new, strange place. I’d never even been camping before and now I’d be living in a school, in the middle of the woods!

“Shall we head to school and show you your dorm room? There are only a few students here at the moment, due to the current school break. So, the only students currently here are orphans and teachers’ kids. All up, I think there are about 15, but they all make appearances at different times.” Mr Delvine suggested, directing me towards a gigantic stone building that looked at least 3 times the size of a modern castle.

“Wow. It’s huge.” I whisper, stunned by how peaceful and calming this place feels.

Dustin disappeared almost as soon as we walked into the school building, while Mr Delvine gave me a tour of classrooms, teachers' offices, equipment storage, locker rooms, etc. Our last stop was the dorm. Thankfully, there wasn’t much to show me in the dormitory, except for where my room was. As we got closer, I could hear music playing, one of my favourite songs, and it was coming from my room.

“Ah, I think one of your roommates is here. Would you like to open the door?” Mr Delvine smiles, holding out a door key.

I took the key and carefully opened the door. As it swings open, the girl I could hear singing, instantly turns, throwing a broom she’d been using. In a second, I had thrown my hands up in front of my face and was suddenly thrown against the ceiling as I walked in.

“Oh, my god! I’m so sorry, Headmaster.” She rushed.

After another couple of seconds, I dropped to the floor, having calmed down. “That hurt.” I groaned out.

“What happened? That wasn’t me. I can’t do that.” The girl rushed out as she hurried over to help me up. “Are you OK?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” I whisper as I dust myself off.

“Lovinia has just discovered her first power. I need you to help her keep it quiet. It doesn’t have to be a secret, but try and help her stay under the radar until she settles in. Lovinia, this is Kahlyla. She’s a teacher's child and has spent most of her life here, or nearby. Kahlyla, Lovinia has Levitation. She has yet to come into her mind's powers, so try and help her when she does and let me know immediately.” Mr Delvine informed us as I felt more and more isolated in my power. “I have a few things I need to attend to with school starting after the weekend. Lovinia, take time to explore the grounds a bit. I’ll give you a class schedule so you can find out where your classes will be, later today sometime. Let me know if you need anything else, OK? I’ll have one of the female teachers take you both shopping tomorrow for some new clothes, alright?”

“Thank you, Mr Delvine.” I nodded, smiling as he left, walking back towards the stairs that led to the ground floor.

I closed the door and faced my new roommate, Kahlyla. I had no idea what to say. I’ve never had friends and, to be honest, I’ve never really held a conversation with anyone before. I just can never relate to anything anyone says, and I’ve never really had my own hobbies to connect with people over, either. I’m not a people person, in any sense of the word. I had no idea how I was going to do this. Getting along with my roommate might be harder than I thought.

“So, hey! I’m Kahlyla, but you can call me Lyla. My power is Teleportation, which allows me to teleport others, as well. It comes in handy when I go on shopping sprees. My parents like to compensate for missing things by sending me out shopping with thousands of dollars, so I usually take my friends with me. I mean why not, right?” Kahlyla starts to introduce herself. “Do you like shopping?”

“Um, I, I’ve never had friends, so I’ve never really gone,” I answered, playing with my fingers.

“Oh, well, you won’t have to worry about that again. Come on, let me show you your room.” Lyla smiled, taking my hand and leading me through the apartment-sized suite. “That’s the bathroom, we have endless hot water here, too. So you never have to worry about using too much hot water, OK? And this is the linen cupboard, for towels and bed sheets.” She explained, opening the bathroom door to show a massive bathroom with both a bathtub and a big 2-head shower, while the linen cupboard was opposite the bathroom.

“Cool. At my house, I had to wait 6 hours for the hot water to fill up again. It didn’t last long either.” I replied, doing my best to keep the conversation easy.

“That must have sucked, but at least you won’t have to worry about that again.” She smiled brightly, looking at me as she closed the bathroom door again. “My room is right next to the bathroom, and your room is across from mine. Here you go. Mr Delvine let me know you couldn’t bring your clothes, so I’ve put some of mine on your bed for now. I hope they fit you, but if they don’t, I can tuck them in a bit for you. If you want, you can change out of your uniform. And then I can take you around the school.”

“This is my school's uniform. I forgot I was still wearing this.” I say quietly, remembering earlier when I first discovered Levitation.

“What was it like?” Lyla asks quietly as she sits down on my bed while I look at the clothes she put on my bed.

“I kept to myself. I tried once to make friends, but it didn’t end well, so I never tried again. I didn’t need friends, Mr. and Mrs Hollyoak let me stay at the bookstore as long as I wanted to.” I tell her, checking the size of the clothes to see if they would fit or not.

“What happened? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, by the way. I just want to get to know you.” Lyla smiled happily.

“It’s ok. I thought I had made friends with someone in my junior high school years, but it turned out to be a joke. Any time I told her something, the entire school would know the very next day. I should’ve known. I mean she was always on her phone when we hung out. I always paid for everything, even though I was an orphan. It should’ve been clear to me, but I was always so alone, I guess I just didn’t want to believe it was true. After that, I never spoke to anyone else and just kept my head down.”

“That’s horrible. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I hope I can be a better friend to you, and you don’t have to tell me anything until you’re ready to, OK?” Lyla smiled without pity.

“Thank you, Lyla. I hope we can be friends, too.” I smiled shyly.

“I’ll leave you alone to change, and I’ll change, too. Then we can go have a look around the school, OK?” Lyla said cheerfully as she jumped up and left my room, closing my door behind her.

Lyla made me feel welcome, and I was grateful for that. I was so scared of coming here, but I didn’t want to die. I mean, why? I thought about everything I had already seen and experienced today while I changed into a pair of blue-wash denim skinny jeans and a tight brown long-sleeved tee. I put my shoes on, thinking about what Mr Delvine had said about my power, and how I still needed to find my mind power. What if, because I have a power of the body, I won’t get a power of the mind? I’m sure I would’ve experienced both at the same time, wouldn’t I?