The Great Divide
Chapter Five
The Pranksters

About two hours after practicing my spellcasting, I finally gave up for the day. Both my failures and the cold were starting to become too much to bear. I stuffed the book and my wand back into my bookbag and headed down the stairs for lunch.

Heading down and into the dining hall, I quickly noticed how much louder, packed, and warmer it felt than the previous weeks. There were finally students, the sight made me feel excited as I looked around for Arin's face.

It only took a few minutes of me wandering without direction before I heard someone call out my name. Turning in the direction of the voice, my eyes immediately focused on Dylan who stood up and waved his arm at me to come over.

Skipping over towards his table, was Arthur who quickly stood up to receive my tight "Welcome back, I missed you," hug before doing the same to Dylan.

"Where's everyone else at?" I wondered, taking my seat.

"Alfred's on the way, he lost his wand like the idiot he is, so we went on ahead." Arthur replied less than enthusiastically, "I'm not sure about the twins or Peter, but after even spending just this morning getting here with them, I don't care what happens to them anymore."

"That bad?" I asked, hiding my laughter behind my hand.

With that, Arthur's head collapsed in his arms as he let out a miserable groan and Dylan, with wide eyes nodded profusely. "You should've been there! No – wait, perhaps it's better you weren't."

"What happened? Now I'm super curious." I snickered.

"So last night, mom was complaining about how cold the weather was and Peter mentioned how the lake was frozen over too and that was that - we went to sleep, and no one thought anything about it, right?"

"Uh... Right?" I said with a bit of confusion.

"Kay, so come morning and we're woken up around five in the morn – before the sun even came out - to shouting from downstairs and so dad runs down to the front door to find this lady who lives across the lake complaining and yelling about the lake, which was weird, right?"

"Right!" I replied, this time more encouragingly.

"So she shouts some profanities yelling that she's had enough with our 'witchcraft' and 'misfortune' that we bring onto the world, which again, was weird! Well anyways, long story short, I end up waking up and go outside with dad since he doesn't trust those vampire freaks anyways and we go to the lake that she was shouting about, and all the ice had melted!!" He shouted, with as much enthusiasm and surprise as he must've had when he had first seen it.

"So...?" I wondered as he bounced in place as if holding back the best part.

"So, Seamus and Alroy thought it'd be a fun surprise to steam up the entire lake with some spells, just enough to be able to swim in and have fun in the morning, but they underestimated the spells they were using for that stuff and they ended up causing the whole lake to boil!"

"It was stupid... So stupid... Of all the stupid things they have done, this one takes the cake for the week." Arthur groaned, propping his chin up on his arms.

"Then what happened?" I wondered smiling more.

"Dad had to wake mom up so they could stop the lake from boiling since the vampire kept complaining but it was so funny! Actually, it might've been fun if you had seen their faces when mom and dad were yelling at them because that was funny!"

"If they boiled the lake why were they so mad though?" I said, grinning as I tried to imagine Seamus and Alroy's terrified faces as they got yelled at.

"Because they're stuck up and don't know how to have fun, I guess?" Dylan said while laughing, "Honestly, it was a bit annoying at the time since they woke us up so early and we actually had to deal with them on top of the stress of making sure we had everything ready for school and what not but thinking back it was funny."

Before I was granted the opportunity to speak again, from behind, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me. My heart skipped a beat momentarily as I thought to myself that it was Alfred – but as the soft scent of vanilla hit my nose and some long black hair tickled my arm, I could tell it was Arin Willows.

"Good morning, at long last! How was everyone's summer? I've missed you all so much!" She exclaimed in one breath as she found a spot next to me.

"It was bland until it was brilliant!" Dylan snickered before quickly telling his tale of his brother's misdeeds.

"Ah! It sounds like it would have been funny to see them scolded at the very least!" Arin said, covering her giggles with her hand. "Though it was obviously an act of inappropriate use of magic!"

"Oh, no one was hurt." Dylan said, still boasting his brothers.

"No, I agree with her completely." Arthur said quickly, "You and they are stupid. Completely and utterly stupid."

"I wouldn't go as far as to say they're stupid, Arthur." Arin defended as she reached over the table for some more cheese cubes. "But consider the fish in the water, they're all now boiled alive and a whole community of fish is now dead thanks to their reckless use of magic!"

"Not like we eat fish." Groaned Dylan.

"Perhaps not you but I'm sure others eat fish and now they can't because they've all been boiled alive! This is exactly why I wish they would pass legislation on the inappropriate use of underage magic – because bad people like you give good people like us a bad name!"

"I've seen those vampires' fish around there often from my bedroom window, actually." Arthur mentioned casually as though the realization had just hit him. "I'm sure they drank the blood and fed the meat and bones to whatever pets they have in there... If that's so, then they of course have a valid reason to be upset that their food supply is now gone because two idiots decided to boil all their food alive."

"Psh," Dylan scoffed, finally realizing no one was on his side once some logic had been applied. "I'm heading out – Prefect duties await."

"W-Wait, prefect?" I almost shrieked with sudden joy, "Why didn't you start with that?"

"It was overshadowed by our brother's stupidity." Arthur said, ignoring the glare Dylan gave back in response.

"I was planning on it being a surprise, but it just came out, a little heads up though, I know Analie is the girl's prefect for the Ailat house too."

"O-Oh, yeah Darby told me about that at breakfast actually." I said, feeling myself deflate.

"________, weren't you going to try to go for the prefect title?" Arin asked, her brows raised with a mixture of both pity and curiosity.

"No. I didn't want to." I lied bitterly, though as he she glanced away, I could tell she understood not to push the topic further. The boys remained oblivious to the change of tone however as Dylan responded with a shrug, "It's not for everyone, but it does come with nifty perks!"

"Yeah? I think I heard someone in the other room say that they care about that load of rubbish." Arthur hissed in response, brushing Dylan off.

This time he gave an eyeroll, ignoring Arthur completely as he turned towards Arin and I and gave a short wave, "I'll see you ladies later during our introduction!"

It was only after he had left the room entirely that Arthur let out a scoff, he gave a smile as though he couldn't believe a joke he had just been told.

Arin took the words out of my mouth as she tilted her head and glanced right at him, "What's up with you?"

"That arrogant bugger is what's wrong with me!" He said, mocking her words which in turn, caused her to frown. "He falls into a comma that sets him back an entire year, somehow manages to catch up over the last two summers and suddenly he thinks he's so amazing and brilliant when all he knows is books and the fundamentals of basic magic!"

Neither of us got the chance to comment before he continued his angered rant, something which sounded as though had been rehearsed in his head over and over in case anyone bothered to ask.

"Our parents, they only care about him and Alfred! Father even took the two idiots to the nongifted's world in order to give them some stupid 'grand trip' to 'celebrate good health and good fortunes' so now they think they're better than me! To top it all off, he managed to become a prefect despite not even seeing the slightest bit of real danger – but I, who trained alongside you all and who fought and held my own against Hayden and Lucy over a year ago now, I'm disregarded and ignored! Gage didn't even consider suggesting my name for prefect even after I shadowed him and studied with him countless times!"

He only stopped to catch his breath, but his breathing was fast as he pressed his forehead into his arms as he laid his head down on the table.

Arin and I only exchanged looks, not daring to speak first as we contemplated a plan with our eyes of how to comfort him.

Arin acted first, moving from beside me over to the space Dylan had vacated minutes before and with a gentle hand, she placed it on his back and began to pet it like a frightened cat.

I pressed my lips together for another quiet moment before I finally decided to admit, "Gage ignored my requests for prefect recommendation too. Vlad's not a prefect either from what he said in one of his letters over the summer."

Arthur sniffled as he raised his head, but he wasn't exactly crying – just solemn in sadness.

"But you're close to Bliss, Liz, Toni... Hell, especially Darby... Why didn't you just ask one of them to suggest your name to the Headmistress?" He wondered.

"I could ask you the same." I said, laying my head on my arms to match him.

His face grew slightly pink and he looked flustered as he frowned and buried his face in his arms, avoiding further eye contact with me, "I'm not close to any of them. I thought I was close with Gage and I really respected his opinion and thought he..." He stopped; his words echoed out. He tried to speak again but found the words so hard to come out.

We sat there silently, patiently, until he finally sat up. This time, tears threatened to escape his red eyes as he looked down at his hands, "I thought Gage saw potential in me after everything I've done – after everything we've worked for together."

Hearing his grief, his words stabbed a hole right through my chest.

He was feeling exactly as I was. A sense of betrayal from the one we had been looking up to the most.

Arin was still petting his back, her eyes now full of sadness as she stared at him, but he kept his gaze down, only moving to wipe his eyes before laying his head down again.

"I tried messaging him countless times over the summer, but I only received a post card from him and even that was only signed by Bliss... I want to give that punk a piece of mind when I see him!" I said spitefully.

He didn't respond, instead we just sat in silence for another minute and then one more before he finally lifted his head and took in a deep breath, "Apologies for getting so emotional just now. Anyway, thanks for hearing me out. I'm going to go put my bags away and get settled in. I'll see you two later for the meeting here."

Arin and I both waved our goodbyes, but he didn't stop to return the goodbye as he headed off, a delay in his steps as he disappeared through the front doors.

"What a heavy day." Arin said sounding a bit defeated.

"I know, now I feel bad, poor guy." I replied.

"He did say something we should – well, at least I should also do." She said, standing up, "I'm going to get my things settled out, want to come with me? We can catch over as I clean up my area!"

Her tone was suddenly a lot lighter given what had just happened as she waited for me to tag along with her.

"You know what? Why not." I laughed lightly, sharing her smile as I got to my feet. "Lead the way!"