Chapter One

AN:
Welcome to my book! Hiya ya'll. just a quick disclaimer about trigger warnings and before people say this book ripped off Percy Jackson, but Greek Mythology was a thing way before that book series was published. Thanks!

TW for this book: not much to be honest - swearing, blood and perhaps some death if I'm feeling edgy. ;) This book is pretty light themed if you think about some of the horrors on this app. Hehe

Enjoy! :))))

T h e secretary fumbled through the stacks of paper on his desk, searching for my scheducle. "Here it is." He said triumphantly, pulling a piece of paper from the bottom of the pile and handed it to me. "But don't bother me next time- You should know where to go now."

I bristled silently, but ignored the remark. I looked down at the schedule, which had my name at the top, then listed all the classes and their locations around campus, as well as a map that I quickly scanned through, thankful for my photographic memory. I frowned. "This can't be right." I pointed out, peering closer to the paper as if that would make a change. The secretary make a scoffing sound. "This has me in all honours classes. I'm not that smart."

He scowled his sour face at me, as if this was my fault. He clicked around on his computer. "Your schedule is correct." He said frustratedly, clicking his mouse aggressively. "It says here your homeroom tutor requested honours classes for you."

"But I've never been in honours classes before." I protested.

"It isn't a mistake." He said finally. "And the bell's about to ring. If you need any more help come back at the end of the day." He made a clicking sound with his tongue. I rolled my eyes, stuffing the paper into my pocket. Please, as if I wanted to come back here with his cheek. "Your homeroom is C22 in the library. Mr Likings is your teacher. Hurry along now."

He returned to his computer, apparently done talking to me, so I turned and walked away, not thanking him.

I felt an odd sense of loneliness. Falcon Bridge felt so cold compared to my old school in North Dakota.

Boxy tan lockers lined the walls, and the concrete floor had scratch markings and was a mix of marble browns that reminded me of puke. Lovely.

There had to be something about the move To Connecticut for me. Unfortunately, I hadn't found it yet. My step-mum had been offered a place working as a top manager of this company I had never heard of, and my dad looked forward to the change of scenery to hit him with some 'inspiration' for a new best selling novel. Even my little brother Milo agreed it would be good to have a fresh start.

I didn't realise I'd arrived at the double doors until they were in front of me. At least I'd found the library without a hitch.

I walked inside, pleased to find it nothing like rest of the school. The wooden walls and golden carpet were comforting, and there were wide, ceiling-to-floor widows that I spotted at the back of the room.

I yearned to spend hours locked in this wonderful haven, but the bell had already rung and, so I headed to the left.

Hopefully being new would give me a free pass for being late. Just as the map said, there was only one door. But with it's ancient peeling wood, it looked more like it led to a storage room, not a classroom and there was no glass panel, so I couldn't peak inside. I had to assume this was it. I wrapped my fingers around the doorknob, my hands trembling. It's your first day. I thought to myself to snap out of my scared trance. No one is going to yell at you for ring late on your first day. I opened the door, half expecting it to be closet filled with old brooms or books. But it wasn't a closet, it was a classroom.

Everyone stared at me as I entered, so I looked to the front of the room, where a tall, lanky man stood in a suit of a horrible grey and red with a snug little bow tie. He stood next to the morning announcements. His black (with wisps of grey) hair shined under the light, and his wrinkled skin and warm smile reminded me more of a grandfather than a high school teacher.

I cleared my throat and pulled the paper from my pocket. "Mr Likings? I'm Aidan Sterling."

"Aidan?" He looked down at his paper. "Oh beg my pardon, my dear girl, I thought you were going to be a boy." He chuckled, going slightly pink.

I waved his apology away. "It's fine." When my parents wanted me, my dad said that I had to be a boy, and refused to even consider a girl's name. So when I came, they decided to go with a boy's name. Not that's smartest decision on his part.

"Aidan?" A muscular, Asian boy hollered from the middle row. "Ain't that a boys name?"

"Stupid name!" The one next to him muttered. I narrowed my eyes, but forced a pleasant smile.

"Oh my gosh!" I mock-fanned myself, gushing. "You have a stupid name too! Twinning!" I looked to the blond one. "We can be triplets!"

The whole class burst out laughing, and I smiled triumphantly, sending glances at the pair, who had crossed their arms and sank lower on their seats, faces flustered.

Mr Likings cleared his throat to capture the attention of the class. "Thank you for that, interesting introduction." He smiled warmly, seemingly sincere.

"Here, take a seat beside Harlow," Mr Linkings said, gesturing next to a girl with long brown hair and a fringe that hid her eyes from view. I shuffled between desks to sit next to her on the back row. Harlow shot me a nervous smile, that I returned.

Mr Likings turned toward the board, and whisked his hand. Suddenly, like a rock is dipped into a still pond. Ripples spread across the board, making the text unreadable. When the board finally stilled again, it read something about energy in colours.

"Sorry about all of the formalities," Mr Likings winked. "Us witches have to keep ourselves safe."

"Wait... Witches?" I finally asked incredulously after a tense moment of silence. Harlow looked at me from the corner of my gaze, concern glittering in the back of her muddy yellow eyes.

"Yes." Mr Likings nodded. "I'm not sure if you're aware but that's what we call ourselves - naturally magical entities."

I looked around at the class, astounded. Some people were smiling at me, others unfazed and some didn't even bother turning around to stare at me.

I'm sure I'm not a witch. I didn't receive a magical letter down my fireplace by an owl or catch a magical red train to get here.

"Come on, Aidan," Harlow said quietly, and placed a warm hand on my shoulder that made me jump. "Haven't you ever done something that you couldn't control? Something that didn't make sense when you were emotional- or feeling illogical?"

Only one time came to my mind. It was last year, and I was midway through an exam that I had completely winged, then suddenly like the click of fingers I knew all of the answers. I assumed my brain was just crazy that day.

"Yes but-" I let out a strained laugh, shaking our my arms. "I concluded it was science. And if I'm a witch- where's my wand?" I held a pretend wand in my hand and flicked it with a jolt of my wrist.

"It's not science." Mr Likings said calmly, taking of his glasses to clean them with his sweatshirt underneath his blazer. "I'd assumed you'd already started your studies in your last school, but it doesn't seem so. And regarding your question - real witches don't need to use wands, that was an urban legend created by humans to make them feel safer believing that if a wand wasn't in sight they couldn't be harmed."

I laughed nervously, pulling on the seem at the cuff of my jumper, which all of a sudden felt constricting. "You can't be serious."

"I'm completely serious." Mr Likings said. "I apologise for this abrupt learning of truth, but we must continue with our lesson before the bell goes- and please," he added. "Call me Carlo."

I dipped my head, glancing towards Harlow. She didn't make eye contact to me, her eyes were glued to her hands as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. I looked back up at Carlo, who smiled at me, and waited for the few remaining murmurs to settle.

"Cassius," Carlo called on the boy next to Harlow, who had dark buzzcut hair. "Hand out the textbooks, please."

Whilst he was doing that, I gazed around at the class. The boy Carlo called Cassius caught my eye from across the class where he was lugging textbooks around, and he grinned.

A girl with platinum hair filed her nails under the desk a few seats to my left, and the girl next to her had her head on the table and looked either dead or asleep; I hoped the latter. They all looked like typical high school student waiting for the end of class. Nothing peculiar about them.

That's when my gaze came to the end of the table with a guy with short, wavy raven black hair. His designer jeans and black hoodie and the casual way he leaned back in his chair eluded confidence and a carefree attitude. When his eyes met mine, goosebumps rose across my skin.

His eyes were a startling shade of silver, and they were curious, but had a calculating glimmer to them, as if he was trying to figure me out.

At this point, I needed figuring out, and I yearned for him to do it. I felt dizzy and faint and adrenalined and hyper at the same time.

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