School of Elements [Discontinued]

Dance, Dance

[Unedited]

● AJ's POV ●

A full week has passed since our first day at Gresuwichs. During that time I'm not really sure I've gotten used to the level of living; the food is never late to be brought into the dinning hall, the grass in the school's courtyard is always perfectly cut, and everywhere I happen to look it's always spotless clean.

I've come to the reasonable conclusion that the servants are some sort of ninjas.

It makes sense doesn't it?

I look around the lunch table at Devin, Emily, and Spencer. "Well doesn't it?"

They all shake their heads.

Devin and Emily look at me like I've grown two heads.

"Oh come on!" I set down my spoon for a moment to try to make them see my reason. "Don't you think it's weird how spotless Gresuwichs is? The campus is HUGE." I separate my hands to show them how big Gresuwichs really is.

Still, they continue to stare at me without saying anything. It's like they're flat out telling me I'm wrong.

"It could be a possibility." Spencer just sits back and watches in amusement.

I throw up my hands in exasperation, "Hey look, I'm just saying- witches exist so why can't ninjas?!"

Before Devin has a chance to speak, we hear commotion coming from outside the cafeteria. We all share a look before abandoning our table and following the crowd of girls streaming out of the room onto the emerald green lawn outside.

I point at the ground. "See? Just look at it." I make a show of displaying the lawn with all sorts of hand gestures towards the ground.

"I've never seen a more perfect shade for a lawn. This could only mean one thing," Devin rolls her eyes, "ninja gardeners."

"My lawn is about ten times brighter than this one." Devin says with her arms crossed.

"Well consider yourself privileged Princess." I shoot back.

"Guys." Emily whispers and breaks our little verbal spat, she points to where all the girls are crowding around and whispering.

Curious, we make our way among the gaggle of hundreds of girls that have gathered in front of the school. Some of the teachers have come out to supervise the crowd of excited students. Evelyn is among them.

"What the heck?" I say out loud as I look around for the reason why there's girls skipping lunch to stand outside. "What's going on?" I ask a girl from the same year standing next to us.

She shrugs. "I have no idea, but from what I heard, some fifth years are coming."

I snort, "Wow, what a big deal this is." I turn to the others, "No way am I missing lunch for this. Tell me what happens later."

"Wait, I'm coming with you." Devin shakes her head, "I don't see why I have to stand out in the hot sun for a bunch of fifth years."

Suddenly there's a burst of excitement and the girls go crazy as a bus of some sort comes into view. I stop in my tracks and feel entranced as the bus loops into the school's circular driveway.

I watch as the bus stops, the whispering among the crowd diminishes and there's nothing but silence as we wait in anticipation. Emily stands on the tips of her toes, trying to see above the heads of the girls in front of her. I reach out and place a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

The door of the bus swings open, and cheers erupt from the crowd.

"The Captains are here!"

A figure steps out of the bus followed by others, but the first one to step out is the one that catches people's eyes. She smiles and waves to the crowd. Her brown hair is pulled into a ponytail and she wears a pair of jeans and a simple blouse. When she waves, the whole crowd starts screaming multiple names, but one name stood out from the others.

"Max! Max! Max!"

She walks through the crowd in into the school with two other girls following behind her. The teachers acting as bodyguards for the Captain and her team.

Then five other busses pull into the school's driveway, each carrying one group of girls. I found the Captain was always the first to step out of the bus.

"Paige! Paige! Paige!"

Then, "Quinn! Quinn! Quinn!"

"Eren! Eren! Eren!"

And finally, "Franny! Franny! Franny!"

But none of the cheers were as loud as the cheers the first Captain got. Max.

Once the Captains and their teams are safely in the building, the crowd disperses and we are herded back to class. But the excitement of the Captains' Homecoming follows us into class. Mr. Stevens for once isn't the subject of the girls' attention this time.

"What Captain will you pledge under?" Girls ask each other, totally ignoring Mr. Stevens as he lectures.

"Max of course! She's awesome and her team won at the Arena!"

"I'm going with Eren. She's ten times cooler than Max. And she's a fire elemental."

"No, Quinn is cooler! During the Arena I saw her blow a competitor into the stands with just one gust of wind!"

"Hey what about Paige? She's a mist elemental. That's almost unheard of."

"So what? Franny controls a secondary element too."

I yawn, I don't know what they mean by pledging but it all seems like one big popularity contest to me. I shake my head, trying to clear the sleepiness because after school today, I'll be in a dance studio in my very first dance class.

It almost feels unreal. Like I could wake up any minute in my old bed and have to go hit up tiny stores every time Marco wants to show the Reds' influence.

It doesn't help my anxiety when time seems to slow down as I count down the hours, minutes, and even seconds until I get on an express bus to be taken into the heart of New Rift.

I don't even mind when Shroader make us run laps until the end of class.

After class, I rush ahead of Spencer to pack a few of my things that I need to take to class. She looks questionably at me when she enters our room to find me packing away the snacks I managed to sneak away from the staff's kitchen into my duffle bag.

"Are you running away?" She asks in a monotone voice.

"No."

"Okay then." She loses interest and goes back to reading her books.

"Are you coming back from dancing before midnight?" Her voice makes me jump. I look at her, shocked.

"How did you..."

Spencer's eyes look around my side of the room, going from magazine cut-out to magazine cut-out of famous dancers that I stole from a library long ago and have brought it with me to Gresuwichs.

"Food and dancing are the two things that seem to make you excited." She shrugs. "I just put two and two together and assumed you were going somewhere involving two of them. That and I took into consideration your level of excitement." She nods over to my snack filled bag, "you have one part of the equation, you're just missing the other."

I laugh, looking at her in awe. "You know, you're something of a bit of a genius."

She cracks the tiniest hint of a smile, "Yes, something like that," then looking down at her book, she turns the page.

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