But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.
The Bolvera Home,The Koa Forest ,Southern Ardeneon
March 18
Dexter barges into Elijah's room startling him while he is getting dressed. "Sorry" he apologizes his voice shaky as he shuts the door behind him. "I-I just um really need someone to talk to"
"Okay, all ears" Elijah assures him "Just one sec" he finishes dressing quickly proceeding to sit on his designated bed. Dexter had been pacing back and forth the whole time. He didn't even seem to notice that Elijah had sat down waiting for him to talk.
"Is everything okay?" Elijah asks uncertainly not really sure what to say after assessing Dexter's behavior for a while.
"N-no" Dexter stutters stopping in his steps pulling at his hair with a groan.
"What's wrong?" Elijah asks.
"I feel so guilty" Dexter sits down beside Elijah. "I shouldn't have gone for the trip, I shouldn't have left my mom, it was selfish" he turns to face Elijah hurt in his eyes "Now she's probably worried sick, that's not gonna help her condition"
"She's going to be fine Dex" Elijah rubs his back "We will find a way out of here, you will find a way back to her, I know for a fact she wouldn't want you down like this"
"She wouldn't" Dexter lets out a sad chuckle "She always put me before herself, I guess this is karma for putting myself first."
"Dexter" Elijah says sternly "What happened is not your karma, you're a great son"
"I'm not" he shakes his head.
"We are going to get out of this nightmare, and when we do it will feel like a fever dream." Elijah assures him.
"How do you know that?" Dexter frowns.
"I don't" Elijah chews on his lower lip. "But if there's one thing I know, it's that you can do anything you put your mind to" he punches Dexter's shoulder playfully. "And plus, you've got us, we're in this together. Like Skai said let's look at the bright side" Elijah tries to lift his spirits despite seeing no sense in it when Skai had first said it. Now he knew that the only way out of this problem was to stay positive and focus on the bright side of things.
"You promise?" Dexter takes out his pinky childishly.
"I promise you, we'll find answers" Elijah follows along locking his pinky in with his.
"Party at the Starling condo?!" Skai barges in loudly, River trailing slowly behind her. Elijah looks at River confused but not surprised and River shrugs. "Don't look at me, she was looking for Dexter and I said, 'Oh you should try Elijah's room' then she said, 'I bet they're having a sleepover without us again' and the-" Skai cuts her brother off before he could finish retelling the conversation they had prior invading Elijah's room.
"Then you said 'Damn that's rude' don't lie River Ladiston" she retorts making Dexter and Elijah laugh.
There they go as usual, they get into a heated argument which the others know will die down in a couple minutes, River will put Skai in a headlock and Skai will resist, attempting to throw punches at him but fail miserably. Then somehow the two siblings end up in a hug.
And just like that it played out. Emily walks into the room with surprise evident on her face at the full room. "Were you guys leaving me out again?" she frowns playfully and Elijah walks over to her planting a kiss on her forehead. "Of course not sunshine, they just got here" he smiles at her guiding her to the bed where River and Skai were now sat on conversing with Dexter.
"Let's play spin the bottle!" Skai cheers and River instantly smacks the back of her head lightly making her hit him back in retaliation
"Guys don't fight" Emily interrupts before a fight could break out again and they move away from each other.
"First of all; gross" River gags "And secondly, who do you want to kiss?" he looks at her weirdly lifting a brow "Dexter? Emily?"
"No kissing Emily" Elijah points out first knowing Skai could possibly do it.
"Hey, I decide that" Emily narrows her eyes at her boyfriend "But Skai on a serious note, I don't want to kiss you"
Realization dawns Skai, but she masks it almost immediately. "I mean...Dexte-" she begins to crawl over to Dexter when he cuts her sentence short using his hand to push her face away.
"Get over yourself, little Ladiston" He rolls his eyes, with a smirk.
"How about we do something more beneficial?" Emily suggests.
"What do you mean?" Skai asks settling down back on the bed.
"Why don't we create our game plan...to get out of here" she shrugs "I mean it seems better than watching Skai shamelessly flirt with Dexter" she pauses and looks at Skai shaking her head "You never cease to amaze me."
"I wasn't flirting with him, y'all take me too seriously" Skai huffs "No offense Dexter but you're not my type" Skai smiles at him mockingly.
"None taken, it's good to know that I'm not dirtbag and FTR little Lad, I'd rather drink fuel than kiss you" he mimics her and Skai charges at him, but River holds her back causing Dexter, Elijah and Emily to burst into fits of laughter.
"That's enough" River tries to hide his laughter just as Skai mumbles "I guess you're not into drinking fuel"
Dexter ignores what she said, "But Em is right though, we should plan." he agrees with Emily after their laughter had died down. "How exactly do we do that? We're practically blank canvases when it comes to this world" he ruffles the back of his hair nervously.
"Let's start with what we know" Elijah suggests running over to the desk to grab a paper and a pen. "The name of this world is Ardeneon" he writes it down.
"There's a 97% chance that we are sprites" Emily adds.
"We might have magical powers" Skai beams.
"Skills" River corrects his sister "We may have skills"
"Same thing" Skai shrugs waving him off.
"But how did we end up here?" Dexter thinks out loud "Are our parents from here?"
"A portal?" Emily looks at him like it was common knowledge, technically it was.
"oh really sherlock?" Dexter rolls his eyes sarcastically before turning serious "I mean why did the portal draw us in, surely other kids had gone through the woods before us"
"Maybe, it was timing?" River suggests.
"Or maybe they didn't want to 'change mankind'" Dexter grumbles placing air quotes on 'change mankind'
Emily stares at him taken aback for a second before retorting "Who brought us into the woods in the first place?" she lifts a brow at him "Wasn't me was it?"
"Pfft, to play hide and seek not to change mankind" Dexter opposes her and they begin exchanging words back and forth.
Skai, River and Elijah stare at each other exhaustedly before Elijah decides to intervene.
"What sane person, walks towards a weird light shining in the middle of a forest, in the middle of the night?" Dexter asks exasperated.
"W-" Elijah cuts Emily of placing his hand on hers and she turns to look at him. "That's okay, sunshine"
"You guys do know fighting isn't going to solve anything right?" River looks at them like they were both stupid. "To get through this we have to work together, we're all we have"
They both look down ashamed.
"River is right" Skai smiles softly before her expression changes to one of excitement "Seven minutes in 1990!"
Seven minutes in 1990 is a game they invented when they were 9 and thought kissing was gross, it's like seven minutes in heaven except instead of making out or whatever, you have to be vulnerable with the person you're locked in the closet with. It's how they resolve issues, or how they help each other out when someone is going through something.
"No need to spin, Emily and Dexter, you're up!" River ushers them both off the bed and they trudge their feet into the closet.
"We should do a spin for who goes next" River suggests, and Elijah nods looking around the room for a bottle or cylinder of some sort, then he spots an empty vase above the fireplace, filled with water.
Their first day at the new institution came faster than they expected, in the morning they were pretty confused about what they would take with them, Lucrari South Intermediate Scire being a new place of learning in a new world didn't exactly make matters easier for them.
Luckily for them, Mrs. Bolvera had bags packed for them in the living room, when they made their way down the stairs. They were pretty hesitant to ask her for help with anything because she was already doing so much for them providing them with food, clothing and shelter.
Arriving at the school they were greeted with numerous stares from students all around, of course they had expected it but that didn't make it any less uncomfortable.
"I'm guessing we need to get our uniforms." Emily points out taking in the uniform the other students had on. The girls wore a plaited black skirt with a white button-up collar shirt and a navy-blue sweatshirt, a black tie with the school logo on it, long white socks, black boots and an ankle-length cloak over it.
Some students wore a cloak some didn't. Everyone that had a cloak on had different styles of buttons, some just plain but some had designs on it.
The boys on the other hand had the exact same thing but with black dress pants.
"We should find our classes" River mutters. "What you should do is get in your uniforms before Ms. Snigs catches you out of conduct." A boy comes up to them, he has jet black hair and ghastly eyes with a blue button that was more like a snow globe, snow is falling down in it with butterflies fluttering in the snow. "Ferit Escendor" he smiles at them "Head of class, Year two"
"Elijah Starling"
"Skai Ladiston"
"River Ladiston"
"Dexter Bardo"
"Emily Solaris"
"Interesting names, nice to meet you all, I'll be taking you all to collect your uniforms and afterwards I'll proceed to give you a tour of the school"
Ferit took them to the uniform shop—which was huge, they all got changed and then proceeded to tour the school.
"We'll start off with showing you your lockers" he smiles. Skai couldn't help but stare.
He hands them each a sheet of paper from the stack in his hands. "That's your locker numbers and your schedules, year two lockers are located on the second floor, hallway one to four, hallway five is out of use" he informs them leading them up the stairs, a different set of stairs than the ones they took when they came to enroll.
"This floor is home to half of the year two classes, the other classes are located in other buildings, two of which are located in the donrak and leyfoe tower respectively" he tells them as they make it to the second floor. "First, we should find your lockers" he turns to face Skai taking the paper he had previously handed to her from her hand. "343a" he mutters reading what was on the paper out loud.
He showed them to their lockers, and they registered their fingerprints into them.
"The classes you have on this floor are General class, Life engagement, Chlomadine, History, Egg hatching and Caregiving" He reads off Skai's paper which was still in his possession. He shows them where each of those classes were located.
The classes were decent looking, they all looked different, the seating arrangement and everything. Most classes had two seats per desk, others had three, some the seats were arranged ascendingly, the seats at the front were on the ground floor but as you went back a desk the seating elevated, 'I think it's pretty efficient, that way no one's big head will come in the way of your view of the board' Skai thought to herself. The classes that looked like that were History, Chlomadine, Egg hatching and life engagement.
The other classes—General class and Caregiving—looked like a basic high school classroom.
Skai, Emily and River had general class, which is practically homeroom together, Dexter and Elijah shared the same homeroom.
Ferit led them out of the main school building through some sort of back door, they walked down a passage and ended up in a completely different building.
"This building is where 90% of experimental classes are held, you have no business with those stairs" he explains pointing to two sets of stairs one at the left and the other at the right. "Those are for the third and fourth years" he takes them through multiple hallways before they reach a dead end, he turns and smiles at them.
"These classes require a registered attendance" he starts to explain "That means, you can't miss them under any circumstance, it would stain your record and possibly deem you as 'not fit' but that's just what the rumors say" he shrugs turning around and placing his hand on the wall and a green ray scanning it and then it beeps red. "We can't go inside because a class is in progress, but you need to register your palm prints"
They all get their palm prints registered with Ferit's help, it was serum making and potion brewing class.
After that, he showed them to donrak and leyfoe tower which they had skill testing and skill cultivation classes, both towers were connected to the building they were currently in and had similar entrance pathways to that of Serum making/potion brewing class.
"The infirmary is in the main building" he informs them looking at his watch "We don't have much time before the alarm goes off for the mid-day meal, we were only granted class leave for morning classes" a sigh escapes his lips.
"Alright" he pauses and directs them towards a window "That field over there is for fitness class and you see those towers?" he asks and they all nod looking at the 16 towers arranged in a rectangular formation, the same ones Delta pointed out to them before "they house the elite students and the field they create is the sufliah field" he grins.
"Sufliah?" Skai asks unfamiliar with the name as they turn away from the window making their way back to the main building.
He chuckles "No way you don't know what sufliah is" he shakes his head causing heat to rush to her cheeks, leaving Skai to wonder why she didn't just keep her mouth shut like her friends. "There's a game at the end of midterms, you should come"
Skai nods in response before she could say something else that would make her seem stupid.
"When are midterms?" Elijah asks
"I'd say six weeks from now" Ferit shrugs "Timetables aren't out yet"
Skai gawks at him, captivated by everything he said.
'Skai don't swoon, you just met him' She warns herself internally.
"I'm not swooning." She says out loud accidentally.
"Huh?" Ferit looks over at her in confusion.
"Crap I said that out loud."
"You're talking crazy again" Emily whispers in her ear and she groans internally, shaking her head at Ferit. He continues the tour.
"This is the infirmary" he stops at the door which had a rusty silver plate above it with 'INFIRMARY' engraved into it. "Last stop is the dining hall."
A buzz sounds through the school just as they arrived at the dining hall—talk about timing—a rusty bronze plate above the doors which said 'DINING HALL' boldly lets them know that they had in fact arrived there.
"That's the end of this tour" Ferit spins around with a huge grin etched on his face "mid-day meals last about 45minutes, it varies depending on the day. If you get there 40 minutes late, you won't get any food because it's not ideal to finish a meal in five minutes, you'd just end up arriving late to your next class" he informs them.