How Slowly Did I Walk Up the Stairs?

A loud bell chime rang, playing out a small tune and pulling me out of deep sleep. I could see the morning sun peeking out from behind the curtains and I yawned sleepily. As I walked out of the bedroom, I noticed noted a heavy piece of elaborately patterned paper on the marble kitchen table.

To Miss N. Willow,

There are only a few simple rules in the Academy we wish you to follow:

Do as you are told in class.

Believe in yourself.

Make the most of the Academy.

To make yourself at home and express yourself.

You are free to decorate your room in any way you like, requests for new room decor are available every weekend from 9am-5pm.

Lessons start at 9am and end at 3pm, when the bell rings for breakfast at 8am, lunch at 12pm and dinner at 7pm, you are expected to be at the Gathering Hall in 10 minutes. Bells will also signal you to wake up weekdays and when you are expected to be in bed on weekday nights. They will also signal the start and end of lessons.

Enclosed you will find your weekly timetable, which will change every week, and map, as well as what to wear for each subject and your Academy Partner- who will be with you every step of your Royal journey.

Lastly, visitors are allowed in the Academy from 9am to 4pm every weekend but they will only be able to enter with a special pass. Five special passes are enclosed, any requests for more will be accepted.

Yours Faithfully,

Mrs R. Golds, Academy Headmistress.

The subjects we had to take were:

Magical Animal Study.

Basic Arithmetic.

History of Anatosia.

Royal Arts.

Special Power Study.

Basic Physical Education.

Royal Etiquette.

and Identifying Poisons.

My eyes scrolled cautiously down to the bottom of the page and hoped strongly that Meraella was my partner, not someone who hated me...

Robin Rochards.

Great.

**

All six of us were seated around a large table, it was one out of five tables- which were filled with the older years— all scattered around the Gathering Hall. Seated across me was Robin and I was between Amie and Meraella. While Meraella looked overjoyed to be beside Remi, it was the exact opposite with Amie and Primo.

"Who's your partner?" Amie whispered to me, eyes glinting slyly.

I nodded to Robin and Amie leaned back into her seat.

"So Meraella has got my Remi."

Unfortunately, Meraella overheard this.

"He's not your Remi." Her eyes looked angry.

Amie smirked confidently, "What? Are you saying he's yours?" 

Meraella blushed prettily and scowled, "He belongs to himself, you idiot."

Uh-oh.

"What did you just say?"Amie's smirk froze and she leaned over to Meraella.

Meraella realised her mistake to late and started to bluster, "I-"

"I believe that she called you an idiot," A smooth voice cut in and we looked up to see that it was Remi, "You must be a bit deaf to not have heard that."

Remi slipped his arm around Meraella's shoulders as he stared coolly back at Amie. Now it was Amie's turn to bluster, "I- er, um..."

Then she abruptly stopped and turned on her charm, "Am I an idiot? Really?" She fluttered her eyelashes and dragged out her words.

"I'll be sure to change that for you."

Meraella narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth, but with an inaudible whisper from Remi, she bit her lip and turned reluctantly back to her food.

I could tell that Amie didn't care that Remi thought she was an idiot, and from her determined expression- she wasn't giving him up without a fight.

**

We had four subjects in a day, and on the very first day, we had basic knowledge tests for all of the eight subjects. I wasn't quite too sure of most of the questions though, and basically flunked it.

"Thank you. Results will be posted on the board in the first years' common room after dinner." Our teacher of Magical Animal Study said while collecting our final tests.

I felt self-conscious. I knew basically nothing as I had never thought I would be an Academy student and had not studied for this kind of thing.

In contrast to Robin who looked confident with his feet on the table. He pulled off the Academy uniform with his tall, lean figure. 

The boys' version of the Academy uniform looked like a comfier version of a suit with a white long sleeved shirt inside a black blazer with matching black pants and tie. Robin's shirt was untucked, his blazer unbuttoned and dark purple tie loose with naturally messy hair.

Primo looked like he tried to copy his style but failed miserably. On Primo, that look just made him look like he forgot to put on his uniform properly. The fact that his favourite colour was bright orange only made it worse.

Although Remi too had his shirt untucked, gold tie loose and blazer unbuttoned, he pulled it off in a way that made him look roguish yet precise and neat... if that even made sense. It was probably why girls found him so attractive.

As I walked out of class, I felt miserable. I had utterly failed the test and it would be posted for all to see.

"Why so sad?" Meraella smiled cheerfully at me and skipped slightly, "Don't worry, I'm sure you did w-" 

Her sentence was cut off by a sharp thud and the books that we had received in the morning tumbled out of Meraella's bag and onto the ground.

I looked ahead at Amie, "Whoops, sor-ry." 

Surprise, surprise. She smiled sweetly and skipped off.

Meraella stood there, stunned and I could see tears brimming in her eyes. In a flash Remi was beside her. I didn't think twice about how fast he gotten here when I remembered we had left him far behind in the classroom.

"You okay?"

 Remi was talking to Meraella but his eyes were trained on Amie's back, an angry frown on his face. Actually, angry was a bit of an understatement, he looked furious. But he forced his attention back to Meraella, who was inconspicuously wiping her eyes.

I bent down to grab at the books, but a voice stopped me.

"Don't bother..." Meraella looked at the books and they all slowly floated into the bag. I stood there with my mouth slightly open.

Noting my confusion, Remi smiled at me.

"Meraella has telekinesis."

Oh.

So she too had powers.

"Where did you go?" Robin ran up from behind us and glared at Remi. He had apparently ran from the classroom to here and he didn't look the least bit disturbed. In fact,  he wasn't even short of breath.

"Don't go teleporting so suddenly! You know how surprising it is." He glared at me as though it was my fault that he had been startled by Remi.

"Meraella was in trouble." Remi watched her as Meraella started to protest.

"I wasn't in trouble, Amie was just being Amie."

Robin looked at me, "And what were you doing when she was in trouble?"

"I told you I wasn't in trouble!" Meraella scowled.

At first I thought that Robin liked Meraella but then I realised that, for some reason, he was trying to pick on me.

Remi gave Robin a bored stare, "Leave her out of this. Let's go."

When they had left Meraella looked at me in surprise, "What did you do to make Robin so angry?"

I frowned slightly and murmured under my breath.

"Walk slowly up the stairs, I guess."