The first half of Sophie's day was a complete disaster. As if getting ostracized by Fitz wasn't bad enough, falling on her face in the middle of the atrium basically caused a stampede of screaming prodigies. Everyone was terrified of being seen near the infamous Sophia Imposter—even though I did nothing wrong, she grumbled to herself—in case Fitz randomly decided to make them an outcast by association as well.
Then, of course, 127 students were trampled in the panic. So she was blamed for THAT too.
My first class will be better, she thought as she wandered the endless halls, hours after the bell had already rung. It HAS to be. Right?
But when she arrived, she exploded her mentor when she accidentally threw a lightning bolt at him. She'd been trying to capture one in a bottle for almost TWO HOURS before getting frustrated, roundhouse kicking the bolt, and sending it flying toward Sir Conley.
He'd shrieked and ducked, but as her human mom would often say, "ya can't dodge The Thunder."
Finally, when her seemingly endless class finished, Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. But it wasn't quite over yet.
————
Sophie arrived at the lunchroom and started grabbing random pieces of food to eat, trying to ignore the stares of every single student in the entire school.
She glanced around, biting her lip nervously, but saw no friendly faces. Everyone was either scared of her, or angry at her for breaking their cousin's arm or leg in the stampede. One person even threw a few tomatoes at her, but someone grabbed her arm, yanking her from the line of fire. "Follow me," Linh said quietly, dragging Sophie to a table almost covered in shadows.
"Here," she said, sitting Sophie down. The shadows then seemed to fan away from the table, revealing a boy with a piercing, icy-blue gaze.
"Hey," Tam said from across the table, raising his eyebrows at her tomato colored-and-covered face. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just had rough morning," Sophie sighed. "I caused a stampede and turned my Mentor into ash, so it was really...eventful."
"I heard about the stampede," Linh put in, before Tam could respond. "I heard that Sophie burst into the atrium and cast a magic spell, causing school-wide panic and at least four deaths."
"That's probably exaggerated," Sophie said. "I only heard about two deaths. And I'm 65 percent sure I didn't cast any spells, but people will probably believe I did anyway." She sighed. "This day is harder than I thought it would be."
"I'm sure it'll get better. They can't obsess over you forever," Tam pointed out. "Plus, you still have us." He grinned at her, and she smiled back shyly.
"AND ME!" Dex cried, instantly appearing at her side and making her topple off her chair. "You have me, too! And I don't believe any of the rumors." He said, helping her up.
"Uh, thanks?" She responded, wondering what rumors he'd heard. "I'm glad you're here."
"I know," he said, beaming at her. Sophie was pretty sure she heard Tam sigh.
"Well, well, well," a voice behind them cackled and crackled like a 4-mile forest fire. The four of them turned around, spotting a beanpole with a face and a few sticks that must have been arms protruding from it. "An entire table full of insane people?" It said. "This school year is sure to be fun."
"Um," Sophie said slowly, not entirely sure how she was supposed to respond. Neither did the entire lunchroom, apparently, which was staring again."Yeah... I bet it will be?"
The beanpole glared at her and sniffed. "Uh, yeah. I'm like, so excited to watch the three of you fail all your classes and get exiled. Again."
"And me!" Dex exclaimed, waving to catch It's attention. "Me too! I'm going to be exiled too!"
"Whatever, strawberry man," It snapped. "You're jus—"
"I'm sorry," Sophie interrupted. "What—um, who are you? And why are you... 'insulting' us?"
The stick growled at her and tossed it's hair. "It's Stina. Stina Heks, also known as your superior."
"That's cool," Linh said awkwardly after some silence. "Nice to meet you, Bean-a."
"Stina!" She snapped. "Ugh, you stupid, ugly, short losers can't even get my name right. No way you're going to last more than a week at this school—it's only for the best of the best. I have no idea why Fitz let you back here; you're useless."
Some more silence passed before Tam raised a hot eyebrow and said "...are you finished?"
Stina gasped, utterly shocked. "O-of course!" She stammered, backing away a few steps. "See you later!" She tried to wink at them, but tripped over her own feet and rolled across the lunchroom.
...
"So what's your next class?" Tam asked Sophie.
A/N: heyyyyyyyyyyyy :D um hope u liked it i tried like really really really really really really really hard wooow so much work
Bro I'm not even trying w these titles anymore
Also I had a job interview yesterday and MY MOM FORCED ME TO WRITE A THANK YOU NOTE AND GIVE IT TO THEMMMMMMM it was so much more embarrassing than I thought the interview would even be ewwwwwwwww okay bye Beanpoles
P.S write your freakin story PATTY