§

By that point, everybody had been fed, hydrated, and at least a little familiar with what they should expect at the school. Plus, they met two of the members of the staff, one of which they liked.

"Alright," Professor Suarez started. "Everybody up. Chop chop!"

The eleven students hurried up, except for Caleb and Eli, for Eli had just taken off his headphones and put them around his neck and Caleb just didn't care.

Professor Suarez turned around and lit a candle, holding it in front of him. Emery flinched.

"Follow me, adolescents."

Devin furrowed a brow at his word choice. Who used the term adolescents anymore?

Cameron tugged at his sleeve nervously, while Mira was doing anything but that, jumping around.

"Miss Adamyan, are you alright?" Professor Suarez asked with a genuine look of confusion.

"Of course, sir!" She answered, trying to calm down. "Forgive me, I'm just so excited!" Oliver grinned.

Professor Suarez raised an eyebrow, then looked away. "Alright, let's start with the lunchroom."

Nikita groaned. "Can we maybe start with something, you know, interesting?"

Professor Suarez turned around and gave her a piercing death stare. "We will go in the order I say we will. Trust me, there are many interesting things in store for you."

Nikita backed up uncomfortably, Lukas chuckling, which resulted in a sharp pain in his arm for the next ten minutes.

The professor led the group into the cafeteria, which was only a few rooms down from the one they were staying in earlier, and whatever they were expecting it to look like was nowhere near what it actually was. It wasn't like the cafeterias they were used to. No, this one was a hundred times nicer and fancier. Nine long wooden tables filled up most of the room, benches with cushions as seats and a chandelier above each one, thousands of crystals stitched into them. Buffet tables were set up along the edges of the room, none of the plates filled at the moment but could definitely fit as much variety on them as a box of fifty crayons. Even the floor was nice, each pearly white tile looking like it took hours to get positioned exactly right.

"Woah," Emery breathed. "This is... woah."

"Ditto," Parker agreed. "I never thought I would be so awestruck by a place I'm usually disgusted by."

Professor Suarez actually managed a small smile. "We make sure that our students have the finest eating areas. Just please do us a small favor and not have any food fights in here."

Oliver laughed. "That won't be a problem," Avalon said. "I would never get anything dirty in here."

"I take back what I said earlier," Nikita said, dazed. "This is fucking amazing."

"Alright, alright," Professor Suarez rushed. "There's plenty more to see. We must get moving."

"Gladly!" Devin exclaimed. She couldn't wait to see what other wonders that school had to offer.

Professor Suarez guided the group down a few more rooms and opened the door, revealing a room full of books. "This is one of the libraries," He explained. "We have eight, one for each type of book."

"Do you really need eight?" Caleb asked. "I mean, can't you just have one large library?"

Then, Professor Suarez did something that nobody was expecting. He laughed. "Oh, young man, don't make me laugh. One can not have one library for many different things! It would be impossible to find anything! Plus, it's much nicer to have everything separated. Everything has its place."

"What type of books are in here?" Lukas asked.

"Biographies," Professor Suarez explained. "Every detail about every person who ever worked with, was affected by or was killed by dark magic. Miss Hendrix uses them a lot for her class, and you will need them for your work as well."

"Miss Hendrix? Who's Miss Hendrix?" Avalon asked.

"She's your teacher for History Of Dark Magic. You'll meet her later today."

"Is she nice?" Mira asked hopefully.

Professor Suarez hesitated, his expression remaining the same. "No."

×××

The tour continued, each of the students in awe every time they entered a new room. Professor Suarez showed them two new libraries-one with fiction literature and one with spell books-and some bathrooms, which were actually quite lovely as well. There had to be at least five different soaps in each one, towels folded and placed in racks like you saw at hotels. And every morning, whether you used them or not, they were changed.

Professor Suarez and the students walked up the small spiral staircase he led them to, however it felt like it was going nowhere.

"I feel like I'm in a dream," Mira said gleefully to no one in particular.

"We have a few more stops before you meet your teachers," Professor Suarez explained. "And that's just on the first few floors."

"How many floors are there?" Eli asked.

"Seven."

"Seven floors?!" He exclaimed. "Is there an elevator or something?"

"Of course not. We don't have power. Well, besides the fridge. That's powered by coal."

"What about light?" Emery asked.

"Candles. Why else do you think I'm holding one? For show?"

Emery gulped. "Like, candles with fire?"

"Yes, that's usually what makes the light." Emery bit his lip, stepping as far back from Professor Suarez as possible, which wasn't very far since it was pretty crammed on the stairs.

Oliver took out his phone. He typed in his password and his phone's screen lit up. He clicked on the messaging app, went to his conversation with Ilani, and started to type.

Miss u alrea-

"Who's Ilani?" Mira interrupted with a smile, shaking her shoulders in mockery.

"She's, uh," He started, but ended up just closing the app. "Mind your own business, Mira."

"Put your phone away before I take it from you," Professor Suarez ordered sternly without even turning around. Oliver complied, sneaking a little glare at Mira, who giggled uncomfortably.

"It's not like you could charge it anyway," she said, trying to make Oliver less mad. It didn't work.

Professor Suarez suddenly stopped in front of an intersection, turning around and facing the group.

"These are your dorm rooms. Once you walk into yours, you will find that your names are already on the headstands, with your custom-fit uniform laid out on the bed. Mr. Harrison, another member of our staff, took the liberty of bringing your luggage to your rooms already."

"Wait, what did you just say?" Eli asked, alarmed.

"Mr. Harrison, another-"

"No, no, no. Before that."

"I said you will find your uniforms laid out on your bed."

"Our uniforms?"

"Yes, of course. This is a preparatory school, young man."

Eli's eyes went wide. "I am not wearing a uniform."

"I'm afraid you must." While his words made it sound like he was sorry, Emery knew he was actually enjoying Eli's frustration. Eli crossed his arms.

"On the left is the boy's dormitory, and on the right is the girl's dormitory. I will give you a few minutes to get settled and change into your uniform."

The six boys and four girls headed to their assigned dorms, but one student stayed behind from the crowd.

"Um, sir?" Parker started. Professor Suarez nodded. "What about me?"

"What about you?" Professor Suarez asked.

"I'm not a girl or a boy." They said, biting their lip a little.

Professor Suarez furrowed his brow, then after a moment he released, shrugging. "Just go to the girl's dormitory. We already set up your things in there, and there are two empty beds anyways."

Parker nodded, heading to the right. Sure, they would have preferred staying in the boys' dorm, but it didn't matter that much to them. They weren't going to be spending all of their time in there, anyways. They had classes to attend.

All six of boys stopped in their tracks when they saw their dorm room. They had seen rooms of kings and princes, but theirs threw all of them out. Their room was huge, velvet lining the floor to the ceiling. It probably could have fit ten more beds with extra space. The ceiling was at least forty feet high, images painted onto it that had the style of something found in a cathedral. Tapestries draped over each one of their canopy beds, each one depicting a war between man and magic. The floor was covered in carpeting, each stitch in the intricate design seemingly perfect.

"Holy shit," Oliver thought out loud. "And I thought the bathroom was nice."

Once they stopped staring, the six boys found their beds. Cameron found his first, since it was right next to the door, Caleb's being right across from him. Caleb gave him an intimidating look and Cameron quickly looked away nervously. The second two beds next to the windows belonged to Lukas and Oliver, the latter's being on the same side as Caleb's. Eli and Emery's beds were next to the bathroom, which neither of them minded much. They were too dazed with how amazing their sleeping arrangements were.

The six boys started to undress into their uniforms, using the curtains attached to the top of their beds for privacy. They slid on their white undershirt first, then their vest and tie. The uniforms were both red and white, while red was the main color. To be fair, red was basically the main color of the school, anyways. The tie was black, however, and was so long that it stretched down to their waists, while it was hidden by their vests. There was a sort of checkered pattern on the vests, making a plaid design for the entire uniform.

Caleb looked in the mirror at his outfit in disgust. What era was the maker of the uniform from?

However, not everyone thought that. Lukas quite liked the look of it, and Eli actually didn't mind it, while he still kept his headphones and hoodie on over his uniform. He didn't zip it, so you could still see the tie, but not wearing his hoodie felt weird, since he hardly ever took it off, except for sleep and washing.

Once they brought their luggage to their appropriate bed, the boys left their dorm, heading back out to the intersection to meet the girls and Professor Suarez. They were surprised to see that everyone was already there. The girls' uniform wasn't that different, except for the fact that they had a skirt and leggings instead of pants, and their shirt-of course-was fitted a little differently.

"How long have you been standing there?" Eli asked.

"A while," Devin answered. "You boys take a long time."

Lukas squinted his eyes in confusion. Brushing it off, Oliver sighed. "Let's just see something else."

"My thoughts exactly," Professor Suarez agreed.

§

A/N

Okay so I want to say this really quick. I know this is a lot like Ashwock right now, but I promise you the rest of the book is going to be much different. Over my "hiatus" aka my vacation I brainstormed and came up with a bunch of ideas for plot points (and friendships/ships 😉). I even wrote some of them out. So yes, the beginning is similar, mostly because it's the exact same building so there's not much I can write differently about it.

Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Make sure to stay tuned for the next one (which should hopefully be coming out soon since I have most of it already written)!

[also sorry if this had a bunch of errors it's unedited feel free to point any out that you see]