Killer Magic Academy

Chapter 1

Part 1: Alyssa's POV

When you take into consideration the size of the crowd gathering, it was not surprising when someone bumped into me. I glanced up from staring at my sneakers and saw a guy a little shorter than me looking at me apologetically.  "Sorry," he said.

"It's fine," I said as I took a closer look at the place we were all gathered at. The building looked like an office building, but I had a feeling it wasn't - correction, we all knew it wasn't, and that's why we were here.  "There's way too many people here."  How many people did I expect?  Not sure, exactly.  I knew next to nothing about this place, the people, or what was going to happen.

"I've heard it's like this every year.  And we're stuck here for the next eight."

"And how would you know?" I asked.

"My sister used to go here," he replied.

"So it runs in the family for you?"

He shrugged. "I guess. I mean, I'm here, aren't I? So how'd you end up here?"  He seemed to be wary to talk about himself in more detail.

Good question. "I don't know. It was all such a blur; I didn't really think it was real. I just got the message and my parents think it's a boarding school."

"Isn't it?" the boy asked me with a small smile.

"If at most boarding schools people learn magic, then yeah I guess."

He laughed. "I'm Dylan, by the way."

"Alyssa."

"I bet you're a light," he said with a smile.

"Because of my hair?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "But seriously, I have no idea. It doesn't have anything to do with looks or personality, although sometimes it does."

"What was your sister?"

"She was a telekinetic. Moving stuff with her mind and such."

"What do you think you're going to be?" I asked, trying to get a grasp on any information that I could before I got into classes.  I knew I wouldn't be the only one behind - or at least I hoped - but even the smallest bit could help me.

Dylan shrugged. "I'm not sure. Probably something really common like a water or fire. But most people don't figure out what they are until they're 5s or 6s."

"5s or 6s?" I asked.

"Year numbers. You start at 8 and work your way up to 1. Then you graduate or whatever."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to count up?"

"Counting down and counting up are basically the same thing. I don't know why they chose counting down. I guess to be special."

"So what other power types are there?" I asked as the doors opened and the two of us began walking inside along with the crowd.

"There's the more common basic ones, like water, fire, earth, and air. Most people are one of those. Then you get into the less common ones. Metal controlling, telekinesis, flight, invisibility, powdering, time, energy, shadows, to name a few. I can't remember them all most of the time. And then there are the really rare ones. Elemental and healing. Elemental masters can control all of the elements and healers can cure or kill anyone or anything. But those two are really rare. I'm pretty sure there's only one elemental master at the school right now, and there hasn't been a healer for over 50 years."

Some of those words made zero sense to me, but I didn't want to ask too many questions on my first day. Once we stopped inside, I took note of the fact there were less people around.  I guessed that they were all the older students.