Wings of Fire as Humans: Jade Preparatory Academy

Chapter One: Glory Paradise

Glory Paradise hated tests.

It wasn't the tests' fault. Most of the time they were easy. She didn't even blame the evil teachers at Jade Preparatory Academy. (Most of them were awful, particularly her mother, Magnificent Shine). Glory just . . . she had better things to do than sit staring at a paper trying to puzzle out a complicated math problem.

Particularly right now.

Glory glanced at the clock on the wall, then at the blue, Segaran head of her best friend, Tsunami Hurricane. Tsunami was scribbling furiously, mumbling something that sounded like, "So pointless," under her breath. Glory was half sure she wasn't even trying and was just writing random things.

Glory sighed. The only way she could get out of here earlier than twelve o'clock was if she hurried up and finished this. But she did want to do a good job, so she couldn't hurry too much.

This was the most important test of the year. It would determine her placement for her tenth grade class, 10A, 10B, 10C, or 10F. She'd gotten Class A last year, but she'd barely passed her finals, and hadn't studied at all over summer. She really needed to get a good grade on all the beginning exams if she wanted to get into the top class again. She'd passed science (Professor Mastermind handed A's to everyone who got the first question correct), language, social studies, foreign languages, and art, but it all came down to math. She needed to get a fifty or higher to get into 10A, as they were tested on what they were learning that year.

But her sister's birthday was just as important. Kinkajou Paradise was turning fourteen today, and she'd kill Glory if she didn't make it. Besides, a party sounded far more appealing than two more pages of incomprehensible numbers.

But there were still twenty minutes left, and two pages on the test. Glory sighed and looked at the test again - right as a ball of paper bonked her in the head.

Glory jumped, spun around, and glared at Peril Cinder, the fiery redheaded Zerua sitting behind her. "What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I'm done," Peril said. "Bye." Peril gave Glory a slightly smug grin, picked up her bag, and stalked toward the door.

"Hey!" the teacher shouted. "Where do you think you're going?" Mr. Frost, Lynx Frost's father, who taught math at the second-best school in Pyrrhia, did not look happy.

Peril turned and gave him a sweet smile. "Kinakjou's party. I finished my test."

Mr. Frost raised an eyebrow. "Did you? Then why is it not on my desk?"

Peril's smile faltered. She looked at the paper that was still sitting on her desk and handed it to him.

Mr. Frost smiled. "Now you may go."

Peril rolled her eyes and left the room.

Glory smiled and turned back to her test. She finished the next page and a half in fifteen minutes, during which half the tenth graders in the room finished and left. Now it was just her, Starflight Galaxy, and Reed Landslide, and Glory was really in trouble. There was no doubt she'd be late to Kink's party now.

Five minutes and the hardest problem yet.

She glanced at Mr. Frost, who was pacing around and looking over Reed's shoulder on the other side of the room. She could get a note onto Starflight's desk without him noticing.

But she knew Starflight would never help her cheat, and she didn't want to anyway. Starflight fiddled with his pencil, looking anxious as he always did during a test. He always used every last second of time to check and recheck his answers, and the last time he'd gotten lower than a ninety-eight was in fifth grade.

Glory sent him an amused look, and he rolled his eyes at her, mouthing, "Are you done?" Glory shook her head. Starflight's expression turned stern, and he jabbed his test with the tip of his pencil.

Now it was Glory's turn to roll her eyes, though she was smiling. She turned to her test and scribbled the first number that came into her mind just as the bell rang.

"Students," came the voice over the loudspeaker, "the beginning assessments for Jade Preparatory Academy are finished! Please turn in your tests for grading, and you may leave. You will get your results and class by tomorrow nine pm via email from school administration. Thank you!"

Starflight breathed a sigh of relief as he turned in his test. "I think I passed," he told Glory. "But I'm not totally sure. I might have missed number six . . . What did you put for that one?"

Glory rolled her eyes. "I don't even remember but number six is, let alone my answer! Besides, I don't have time to listen to you go over every single problem, you sloth. We have to get to Kinkajou's party, or she'll put my new shoes in the pool." Glory was only half sure her sister had been joking.

Starflight grinned. "That sounds like Kinkajou, all right. Let's go, then. She'll probably do something horrible to me during the sleepover, too."

"If she does, I'll help her," Glory told him.