1 Not The Morning I Expected

The alarm clock blared. But Oliver didn't even flinch, he reached out and grabbed the clock throwing it across the room, smiling after hearing it shatter into a million pieces.

Oliver sat up and looked at the luggage bags he had packed the day before. Today is the day where he and Sami would go to the boarding school Mid-Horizon. Oliver had never been to a boarding school, in fact, the only reason he and Sami were going to a boarding school was that weird things always happened when they were around. They ended up getting expelled for something they never did, but of course, who cares what two teenagers say?

Oliver stepped out of his room and knocked on Sami's bedroom door.

"Yo, Sami wake up!! We have an hour till the train departs!"

"Give me 5 minutes," said Sami from the other side of the door.

"You have to get up now!" Oliver exclaimed.

Sami stepped outside his room shaking his head, "Morning," he said raising his hand in greeting.

"Morni- wait let me use the bathroom first-" said Oliver as Sami shut the door behind him.

Oliver sighed in vain.

"I.. really should have used the bathroom first," he mumbled.

Oliver's uncle Samuel Joseph who is Sami's godfather was waiting patiently downstairs in the kitchen.

Oliver walked down the staircase purposely skipping the steps that creak, he walked into the kitchen and sat on one of the expensive ebony table chairs.

Samuel turned around looking Oliver in the eye.

"What do you want for breakfast?" he asked.

"I'll take three waffles," said Oliver rolling up his sleeves.

"Oh! Samuel my alarm clock is broken,"

"Broken?!" said Samuel irritatedly turning on the oven.

"What did you do this time Ol?"

"I threw it across the room," said Oliver.

"Don't worry! I'll pay for it cuz you know, I'm rich!"

"Just pour yourself some milk, will you?"

"Sure thing!"

By the time Oliver was finished eating, Sami walked out of the bathroom.

"Man," said Oliver. "That took forever!"

"You have bed-hair," said Sami patting Oliver's head.

"Oh yes, I'm fascinated! How could I possibly have a bedhead?" said Oliver sarcastically.

"Maybe because someone took the only bathroom that isn't being renovated?"

"Yeah," said Sami stroking his chin whilst looking up. "I wonder who did that."

Sami and Oliver exchanged a quick grin as Oliver walked up the stairs and into the bathroom.

He undressed and stepped into the shower. Almost instantly, the freezing cold water made Oliver yell.

"SAMI!!!!!"

Oliver finished styling his hair and stepped out of the bathroom. Only to see Sami knocked out on the living room leather couch which wrapped around the room. He threw his cap on Sami's face.

Sami jolted awake taking off the cap, "Oh...did you have a good bath?" he said with a mischievous grin.

"I'll get you for that,"

"Sure, but I'll be watching my back..."

Sami yawned and stretched his arm out, "Man I hate waking up this early.

"Well, you better get used to it," said Samuel walking in the living room.

"Because you're going to have to wake up early every weekday in Mid-Horizon,"

Sami shook his head in disbelief and got up. "Well, it's no use just sitting around, is it? Let's go!" he said enthusiastically.

Oliver and Sami both grabbed their luggage and dropped it in the car's trunk. Sami beat Oliver to the front passenger seat.

And onwards they went.

They reached the station 10 minutes before departure, so Sami and Oliver rushed through the crowd.

"Sorry, coming through.." said Oliver whenever a large crowd came in front of him.

The train to Mid-Horizon was huge! Colored red and black, with huge carts. The train started moving at a slow pace Oliver heard someone announce, "The train to Mid-Horizon is departing, I repeat the train to Mid-Horizon is departing.

Oliver started running to a door that was still open, he expected Sami to follow. A kid with curly dirty blonde hair, and round glasses gestured Oliver in.

"C'mon give me your luggage!" said the stranger.

Oliver hastily gave him his luggage and hopped in as the train doors closed.

"Well that was close, right Sami," said Oliver wiping his forehead.

Oliver looked around to see Sami.

But Sami was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, hey," whispered the stranger clasping his hands over Oliver's mouth. "Can you quiet down, people are starting to stare. If something happened, just follow me whilst explaining. Also, my name is Gugs Ssalg, how about you?"

Oliver stared at him for a second and then took a deep breath.

"My name is Oliver, Oliver J.(Jack) Joseph. And the reason why I'm freaking out is that my friend didn't get on the train as the doors closed, we need to get the train to turn around!"

"No can do," said Gugs solemnly, he gestured Oliver to follow. "This train cannot be stopped, not by "us" anyways,"

He guided Oliver to a compartment and stored Oliver's luggage over the seats and on a shelf.

Oliver kept on calling Sami's phone, but there was no answer.

"If you're trying to call him... that won't work the train has a magical barrier that makes electronics unable to connect," said Gugs.

Oliver sighed as he sat,

"Was he supposed to take Gugs seriously, like he was talking rubbish about magic and stuff," he thought.

"Where was Sami, and how could he possibly get lost?"

"So while we're here, can I ask you something?" asked Gugs.

"Yes, yes you may," replied Oliver.

"What's your ability?"

Oliver stared at Gugs blankly, "Are you serious right now, my friend is missing and you're making jokes,"

"No, no, no. What is your superpower?" asked Gugs.

"What is my superpower..." Oliver mumbled. "I don't have a superpower because superpowers aren't real!"

Gugs raised an eyebrow. "Your coming to the school of Horizon, Mid-Horizon, with no ability?"

Gugs noticed the confused look on Ollie's face, so he reached into his bag and pulled out a pot full of dirt. How he carried that in there without it dropping it is Oliver's question.

Gugs placed the pot of dirt on the table.

"What. The. Heck is this kid doing. Who carries around a pot of dirt?" thought Oliver.

Gugs put his hand above the dirt and raised it. The dirt shot up, floating around Gugs hand.

Although it was just dirt, Oliver was amazed.

"How did you- How did- Just how?!" Exclaimed Oliver.

"My superability is "Earth," said Gugs grinning.

Oliver winced as a loud voice rang throughout the train, "All passengers grab on to the handles nearby, we will wormhole in 10 minutes,"

Oliver snapped out of amazement and got up. "I'm going to find Sami, he must be on the train somewhere,"

Gugs tried to stop Oliver. But Oliver was just too persistent.

Oliver opened the Compartment door and looked around. He checked all the compartments including the bathroom, then he walked up to the door to change carts but someone opened the door as Oliver rushed forward.

Oliver's forehead banged into someone's forehead, Oliver fell in the ground grasping his head, "Hey man, watch where you're- Sami! Is that you!" shouted Oliver.

Sami laughed, "I thought you got lost,"

"What do you mean, I'm not the one who got lost,"

Sami looked at Gugs. "Who're you?"

"Oh this is someone I met, his name is Gugs Ssalg," said Oliver as the train started rumbling.

"Oh no-," said Gugs. "It's happening-"

The train shook violently. There wasn't anything to grab for leverage. Oliver barely heard a faint voice, "Brace for WARP!" Before everything started spinning, as if he was fusing with everything, or as if everything was fusing with him! Suddenly everything ended as Oliver crashed to the left side of the Cart. Oliver groaned and Sami, who was on the floor with Gugs helped Oliver up.

Oliver looked up outside a window and at the beautiful town that was outside. The train stood still as if it had never moved in the first place.

A man walked into the train cart,

"Welcome, to Horizon!"

Oliver was just as surprised as Sami was, they all grabbed their luggage, and the man called students to follow. Oliver looked towards other carts and noticed other students were also being led.

"What is this place?" Sami asked Gugs.

"This place is called Horizon. Horizon is an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. But it can move if needed. Horizon is invisible to mortals as long as they don't know what Horizon is, and as long as they aren't looking for it, the ministry makes sure all word of Horizon in the outside world, is clear. Their job is to stop anyone or anything to ever know our location, not even high ranked officials know where Horizon is. King Chryin Emryn Alderson, knows where we are at all times, and The Council of Elders as well. All in all, Horizon has been hidden for centuries. Every year, students are destined to come and learn in Mid-Horizon, which is the giant castle you see in the distance."

Sami stared at Gugs blankly, "Brilliant! This is awesome!"

"Yeah," Oliver agreed. "It truly is amazing!!"

"Wait," said Gugs. "You guys never learned this stuff from your parents?"

Sami's smile faded, and Oliver's as well almost in unison.

"Well," said Oliver. "Our parents..are dead, it happened when we were both three,"

Gugs stopped walking. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't know, you two seemed so normal."

"It's okay," said Sami. "Although our parents are gone, we're still normal, I'm just adopted by Samuel. My godfather, and Oliver's uncle."

Gugs didn't say much as we admired everything, even the grass looked so much different, it was green and sparkly as if they were in another world. Oliver spotted some monks practicing some kind of chi ability. Then they walked on a large bridge where the towering over a large river where a large waterfall was.

Sami smelled the water, "That smells nice and natural, makes me want to jump in,"

"Sami," said Oliver. "No, just no, you'll die from a fall from this height,"

"Only joking! This waterfall is larger than the Angel falls,"

Oliver ran ahead, though still with all the kids following the man that was leading them.

He ran to the side of the bridge and saw another island, but this one was larger, and Oliver couldn't even see the end of the Island, Oliver slowly realized that there was no end to it as far as the eye could see, it was probably as large as a continent! There was also a large city, buildings everywhere you look, and the sun bright in the sky gleaming over everything. It made sense to call this place Horizon.

But even though, Oliver was so far from his home in Brooklyn, the truth was, Horizon felt like home.

"Beautiful isn't it?" said a soft voice from behind Oliver.

He turned back to see a girl with blue eyes like his but lighter, and she had light brown hair with a blonde ombre.

Oliver was dazed for a second but then snapped out of it, "Uh, yeah it's amazing, how large is that city!"

"You don't know?" she asked.

This was one of the moments where Oliver wished Samuel would have explained to him that he was going to an offshore continent.

"Yeah, I wasn't taught anything about this place," replied Oliver.

"So everything here is new to you?"

"Yeah, my parents passed away when I was three, I lived with my uncle since I was five. But whatever happened in the two years before my uncle took me in," said Oliver.

She looked at Oliver with a remorseful face and didn't say anything. After a few seconds of looking at the scenery she talked, "Well, I guess I'll explain. That enormous island is actually the continent Horizon." she said pointing.

That much Oliver knew, but the rest...

"And on the large island lies the City of Horizon, which is as large as... you can say all of California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Arizona! Now you're probably thinking, why a city is as large as 1/4th of the U.S, well that's because Horizon, is as large as a continent on the world map, and Horizon is easily the most thriving civilization in the entire world! It's also part of The Kingdom of Horizon! There are three kingdoms, I won't get into the other two. There is a ton of towns and places in the continent Horizon; there's also the Dark Forest, and the King's Palace. Oh, I almost forgot, the King is actually the headmaster of our school!"

"So, I can get suspended by a King?" Asked Oliver.

"Well, that's one way to think about it," she Replied.

"Hey I didn't catch your name, I'm Oliver J. (Jack), Joseph," said Oliver.

"Alyss E. (Elena) Eve," she said smiling.

"Alyss, come this way." said another girl calling her, possibly her friend Oliver noted.

"Alright, see ya around Oliver,"

"See ya," said Oliver.

"Who was that?" asked Sami as Oliver rejoined the larger portion of the group.

"Just a girl I met," said Oliver casually.

Sami just smiled faintly.

The man leading the students stopped in front of a gigantic gate and said, well 'said' would be an understatement it was more like shouting with the top area of your throat.

"This is Krona," said the man. "I've got students with me,"

The gate slowly opened and other groups of students were roaming around.

Gugs walked up to Sami and Oliver along with two kids who looked alike, possibly twins,

"I got separated with you guys, I met a few friends. This is Ryan Kenway and this is Max Aiden, and this is Oliver Joseph and Sami Parker" said Gugs introducing.

"Yo," said Ryan Kenway waving his hand.

"Wassup," said Oliver as they shook hands.

"We're planning on ditching the security check you guys wanna help?" asked Max.

Sami said, "Yes," but Oliver was a bit more paranoid.

"They seem chill, but they may get us in trouble in the long run," Thought Oliver.

"Yeah, I'll help," Said Gugs looking at Oliver.

Since Gugs knows them he must have some trust for them, Oliver will rely on that. If Sami and Oliver get in trouble this quickly on the first day of school, Samuel won't be happy with them.

"Alright," said Oliver. "But explain what you mean by *Ditching the security check,*"

Ryan looked at Oliver with an expression that said: "What, you don't know about the security check?"

"Well," said Max. "Basically Mid-Horizon checks if we're bringing anything dangerous or illegal in,"

"Well then what's the point of you guys dodging the security?" asked Oliver.

Ryan took off his bag and opened it.

"This is why!" answered Ryan grinning. "We have fireworks, a magic pen which writes what you ask it to, but if you open the cap of the pen, there's magical ink which Max and I crafted, there's other stuff as well," Ryan put his bag on again and an asked,

"So we doing this?"

"Yeah," said Oliver. "We are,"