Wings of Fire as Humans: Jade Preparatory Academy

Chapter Twelve: Cricket Tick

A/N: I promised myself I would update when it got to five hundred reads. So here you are. I had more inspiration for this one, even if it is short, so I will update again. (Very unlikely that it will be soon).

Cricket stepped out of the backseat of a nondescript 2013 white Toyota Sienna and onto the boring gray concrete of Wasp City. Jade Preparatory Academy loomed in front of her, the large building blocking out most of the sky.

Cricket smiled. This was where her destiny lay. In a palace of learning.

But when she looked back and saw the expression on her mother, Katydid's, face, her heart twisted. Jade Preparatory Academy might be the top school in Pyrrhia, but Cricket knew it held a dark past - and present.

Queen Wasp herself had been educated there, along with the rest of the monarchy, including Cricket's father, Malachite, Queen Wasp's cousin, and Cricket's aunt, Lady Jewel. Jade Preparatory Academy was where the royal family taught their subjects to be cruel. It was where Cricket's parents had fallen in love, and where Malachite had been arrested for having an unapproved affair. Katydid had almost been arrested too, but Lady Jewel had convinced Queen Wasp to clear her of all charges.

All in all, Cricket was not excited to be there.

She had her friends, of course, but as a Kypseli, it would be hard for her to spend time with them without getting in trouble. Her teachers would be watching her more than others, because she was a disgraced member of the royal family.

Cricket sighed, following her mother into the building.

"This way," Katydid said, opening the front door and leading Cricket to the end of a line, a disconcerted expression on her face.

"Kypselis to the front," a security guard called, beckoning them forward. Cricket and Katydid were swept up in the line, and Cricket glanced over her shoulder, looking for familiar faces. The line, like most in Pyrrhia, was organized by status: Kypselis at the front, Glacees and Noctus, after them, then Ramils, Segaras, and Zeruas, Shavars and Foglias, and finally Reshams and Uas. Cricket scanned the line as they passed each section, and she quickly noticed Blue and Luna standing with their mothers at the end. She frowned, wanting to talk to them, but as the guard ushered her and her mother along, she had to settle for sending them a smile that she was sure was sad. 

Cricket sighed as her eyes drifted over the line. She hated this. Why couldn't she just go to the end like a normal person? But she had to play the part of the obedient, ignorant Kypseli. 

Or else nothing would change, and she'd get herself killed in the process. 

A/N: I will update again, just not soon or regularly. If you want stories that are finished or regularly updated, then check out my profile. Basically all the other stories on it are finished or regularly updated. (Except for my Aru Shah fanfic that I'll update when it gets to a hundred reads).

Also . . . If you have an opinion on whose perspective I should do next, then comment here!