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Finally, it had arrived. After hours of clutching their stomach in hunger, it was here.

Lunch.

Well actually, at that point, it was more like dinner.

Margaret had made her "special homemade lasagna with beef, cheese and tomatoes" and a version without beef as a vegetarian option. Cameron was the only one who chose the latter. Along with the lasagna, Margaret laid out a few drink options, including water and lemonade, salad, and cheesecake for dessert. Sure, she was probably giving them so much because it was their first day and she wanted to make a good first impression, but it sure did work.  

"These little kids are going to get eaten alive here," Caleb said with a sigh as he grabbed a piece of beef lasagna.

"Damn straight," Nikita agreed. He turned his head to face her, making a small smirk. She returned it, and without verbally agreeing on it, the two started towards a table together.

Emery grabbed his tray from the counter, turning around to face the whole cafeteria. Cameron, Parker and Lukas sat at one area, Parker and Lukas making small talk while Cameron nodded along silently. Nikita and Caleb sat together-which was shocking in a way; two loners sitting together-and Devin and Avalon were at another table. Oliver passed from behind Emery and smiled at him, joining Mira as she walked towards Devin and Avalon at their table.

Emery hurried towards their table, but then something else caught his eye. Eli was sitting at a table far away from everyone else, slowly eating his lasagna as he swayed to his music. The boy's eyes darted between tables before deciding on one.

Emery, tray in hand, stepped over to Eli and stood above him, waiting before sitting down. When Eli didn't acknowledge his presence, Emery set his hand near Eli's tray to get his attention. Eli looked up slowly, keeping his headphones on.

"Can I help you?" He asked sarcastically.

Not taken back by the comment, Emery said, "Is this seat taken?" as he motioned to the chair across from Eli.

Eli, a little surprised, took off his headphones and let them hang around his neck. "Um, no?" He said, but it sounded more like a question, like he was trying to ask, "Why do you want to sit with me, the strange headphones kid, out of all the people you have the option to sit with?"

Emery smiled as he sat down, looking at Eli and waiting for him to say something. But he didn't. He just chewed his food as he looked at Emery with a confused expression.

Emery bit his lip before he started the conversation. "You like music, huh?"

Eli raised an eyebrow. "You just noticed that?"

Emery let out a small, awkward laugh. "Well, um, what kind of music?"

He shrugged. "I like nineties stuff. Eighties is pretty cool, too. But Nirvana is the best."

"Nirvana? Is that a music genre?"

"It's a band."

Emery nodded along. "I think I've heard of them. They have an album called The Wall, right?"

"That's Pink Floyd."

Shoot. "Well, then I haven't heard of them."

Eli chuckled a little, which Emery didn't expect him to do. "It's fine. Nirvana's basically this really cool nineties rock band with awesome songs like Come As You Are, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and a bunch of others that are totally worth the listen." Emery noticed how Eli's eyes lit up when talking about music. It was... sweet.

"I'll have to check them out sometime," Emery said.

"You can check them out right now!" He took his headphones off of his neck and the cassette player out of his pocket and set them on the table, pulling out a new cassette tape labeled Nirvana from his pocket. He took out the one currently in the player and placed the new one in, skipping to a certain number. "This one's my favorite."

Eli leaned over and fit the headphones onto Emery's head, and Emery suddenly heard a flash of rock music as Eli pressed play. He jumped, and Eli grinned. 

The music had been playing for a minute now, and Emery got used to it, swaying to the beat. Eli's smile widened and Emery formed his own. It was actually a very catchy song.

When the song was over, Emery took off Eli's headphones, handing it back to him. "Thanks, I really liked it," Emery said genuinely.

"Anytime. I love spreading the art that is Nirvana." Eli gave him another humorous grin, putting his headphones back around his neck. Emery wasn't expecting him to be so open to him so quickly, but it was definitely a relief.

"Are... there any other bands you like?"

Eli smirked. "Are there?"

"Yeah. Are there?"

Eli shook his head, smiling. "You young, oblivious boy." He plopped in a different mix-tape into the Walkman, clicking the 'next' button until he was satisfied. He handed Emery his headphones and player. "Here. You'll like this one."

  ××× 

Of the three people at the table, only two were really talking. Parker and Lukas talked mostly about their home-life and how excited they were to be there, while Cameron listened attentively, picking at his food and eating tiny bites at a time.

"My stepmoms basically said, 'Hey, Parker, there's this really cool school that we already signed you up for. Is that okay?'"

Lukas let out a laugh. "I was actually the one that found out about this school."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I was doing a little research on summer camps for this year, and I stumbled upon this one. I begged my parents, and they agreed only if Nikita came with me."

"What about you, Cameron?"

Cameron almost spit out his water when he heard Parker ask that. "E-Excuse me?"

"How did you come across this school?"

Setting down his water, Cameron opened his mouth, no words coming out at first. "W-Well, uh, it wasn't very interesting."

"It's okay," Lukas reassured. "We don't mind."

Cameron hesitated before reluctantly continuing. "My mom just f-found an ad in the newspaper and thought I would be interested." What he didn't add was that the main reason she signed him up was to make him branch out more and have more friends than just Timothee.

Lukas and Parker looked at each other before looking back at Cameron. "Well," Parker started finally. "are you at least happy you came?"

Cameron shrugged. "Y-Yeah, I guess. It's really nice here."

"Then good," They finished. They then went on to talk about their little brother Jonathan and Lukas laughed along with them, Cameron even managing to smile a little.

  ××× 

"Welcome to Useful Spells!"

A young man with dark brown skin who looked in his late twenties or earlier thirties stood gleefully at the front of the classroom, looking upon his students. His contagious smile shined across the room, eyes bouncing around from student to student.

"Now, I'm not one for jumping right into things, so let's take today a little slower. My name is Mr. Robert Harrison, but you can just call me Mr. Harrison." Mira caught his grin.

"Today, I will be going over our curriculum, including showing you some quick demonstrations of what you will learn how to do, and answering any questions you may have."

Lukas smiled excitedly. Definitely a step up from lectures in Miss Hendrix's class.

Mr. Harrison started to pace. "In this class, we will be focusing on offense strategies when encountering magic-infested beings. Now, unlike Professor Suarez's class, where you will focus on defensive strategies, we will not talk about harming magic on it's own. Sadly, there is not much you can do to hurt it if it's not in a being. Luckily, there are not many cases, anyways, where you would need to take on dark magic directly."

He turned to face the chairs. "Did you know that even animals can be infested with dark magic?"

Mira gave a worried expression. "They can?" She asked nervously.

He nodded. "You ever wonder why dogs hate squirrels? They're the easiest to invade."

Cameron's jaw dropped. Squirrels were his favorite animal. Mira's lip trembled.

Mr. Harrison continued. "Once you finish this class, you will be much more powerful than any of those fake 'magic police' or whatever they're called."

"With only three months of training?" Eli asked.

He nodded. "These three months will teach you more than you could learn anywhere else. Trust me when I say that this was a good decision for how to spend your summer."

I had no choice, but I guess, Parker thought, though there was no way they were going to say it aloud.

Mr. Harrison turned around and grabbed a skinny book from his desk, placing it on a stand so he could flip through it efficiently. He stopped on a page, scanning it before uttering gibberish and holding out his hand. A purple mist-rope-sort-of-thing shot from his fingers, wrapping around a book from his shelf. Most of the class jumped, definitely not expecting that to happen.

"What the hell just happened?!" Nikita yelled.

"Language, miss," Mr. Harrison scolded rather sharply. She crossed her arms. "You'll learn to do that in the second month."

"Do we have to wait?" Oliver asked excitedly. That would be a cool thing to show his friends. Everyone would be so impressed.

"I'm afraid so," He said. "We must take things slow if we want to get anything done."

"But we only have three months!" Avalon argued.

"Three months of three-hour classes every single day, including weekends, with homework as well," He corrected. "You get a lot more in than you think."

Caleb sighed. Exactly why did he agree to summer school, again?

Mr. Harrison went on showing off some more spells and enchantments, never failing to amaze everyone. No matter how much magic they saw that day, they would still be shocked every time Mr. Harrison performed a new trick. It actually passed the time rather quickly. When it was over, some students frowned while others silently sighed in relief.

"What now?" Devin asked.

"Exactly what Professor Suarez told you earlier-anything you want. Today is going to be one of the only days where you won't have any extra work to do outside of class, so enjoy it." Nikita made a silent "yes" and Cameron grinned. "See you all tomorrow."

With that, the eleven students rushed out, talking with each other a few saying goodbye to Mr. Harrison. He waved, and did so until the door shut on the last kid.

Mr. Harrison let out a deep breath, and checked the door one more time to see if anyone was coming. He hurried towards his desk, and opened the drawer just enough so that he could stick his hand in.

Keeping his head up to watch for returning teenagers, he shuffled through all the papers in the drawer until he found what he was looking for.  He pulled it out, staring at it. He gripped it so hard that he was surprised he didn't damage it.

It won't happen this time, He whispered, eyes still focused on what was in his hand. I promise.

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