Academy for the Strange

Chapter 11: Likes and Dislikes

            After a Sunday spent doing her homework and lazing around the dorm with Meredith, Fiona found Monday had come too quick. Classes had been the normal, if busy, and she was glad the day was over. “You ready?” she asked Meredith as she slipped on her flipflops.

            Her roommate smiled. “Let’s go.”

            They barely made it downstairs before when a cry came from one side of the room. “Mo! Akuma no futago!”

            Fiona could see Asahi standing by her door, the tiny figure stamping her foot. They both hurried over. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

            “Mitte! See what the twins have done to my room!” she said, holding her door open.

            Fiona craned her neck, but couldn’t see much of the room. Which was mostly because the whole room was filled with inflated garbage bags. They filled every space, nearly all the way to the ceiling.

            Smothering a smile, she shook her head. “How they do it?”

            “I don’t know. They’re always playing pranks like this. And it just had to be today, when Yukimura-senpai is coming over.”

            Meredith sighed. “I’ll speak with them after dinner. They really ought to know better.”

            “They really like to tease you, don’t they, Asahi?” Fiona said.

            “I don’t know why! And it’s Ms. Tsukino,” she replied, before turning her attention back to all the plastic bags. “Now I must clean this up.”

            Fiona shrugged. She watched as Asahi closed her eyes, hands clasped in front of her face as she slowly exhaled. All around her tiny little lights winked into existence looking like dozens of fireflies. Even as she watched, they sped forward into the room. Each little light hit a different bag. The smell of burning plastic told her what the lights were made of and what they were doing. As each little spark made a whole in one of the bags, it jumped to another, until all of them were slowly deflating.

            “C’mon,” Meredith said, already heading towards the door.

            She followed more slowly, it being rare for her to actually see anyone do magic. Mostly she just saw people change into their normal forms. Which was still cool and shocking, but magic… That was a whole different kind of cool.

            The sun was still bright as they made their way towards the cafeteria. Fiona enjoyed the walk though she was sure come winter she’d be hating it. She really hoped that the island didn’t get too badly hit by snow and cold. She’d seen enough stories about the insane amount of snow PEI and the Maritimes got that she was a little concerned, especially since she’d never really left the city before coming to the academy.

            Which was odd to think about now. It had only been a week since she’d come here, and already everything was different. Fiona didn’t think she could have gone back to her old life. She liked the school and it was nice to have friends. Especially Meredith. She turned and grinned at her roommate who smiled back.

            “Why do the twins bug Asahi so much?” Fiona asked, the question having been percolating at the back of her mind since they’d left the dorm.

            Meredith sighed heavily. “It’s not that they don’t like her, which is normally why they play tricks on people. I think that they think her being angry is funny. I know they like it when she shouts at them in Japanese. I’ve tried to get them to stop, but they won’t listen. It’s the one thing they ignore me on.”