۞ I ۞

Thea Rose Pearson's point of view

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IN VAN VELDHOVEN THERE ARE THREE PLACES for people like us, with magical abilities, the Springborn, the Summerborn, and the Winterborn Academy. We can go there from 8 to 19 years old, which is the age we end what the normies call highschool. After that, there's only one college in Van Veldhoven that is made for us, the Autumnborn University.

Springborn is the academy for the people who are good in numbers and everything related to math, physics, chemistry, and biology. Summerborn is the academy for the kids skilled at languages, history, geography, and other topics like philosophy and all. Whereas Winterborn is for arts, everything that is related to arts, all the kids with artistic aptitudes go there.

But there's a catch. All of the three academies are ruled by the legacy students. Kids that are children of other magical students that came before us. Families that were part of the foundation of the three academies, since they were all founded together and all represent the same families.

Families that were also part of the foundation of Van Veldhoven, the city we live in. The normies here are aware of us, but they don't say anything about it because they can get into trouble. But they are still full of prejudice against us, just as we also are towards them. That is, except for the normies that are born with magic and have to attend the Academies with us, which isn't uncommon, but they all tend to suffer a lot.

House Pearson is one of the most important families, and I'm one of the kids of this family. The second youngest, actually.

I was born 17 years ago, in the 5th day of January, on winter season, which is ironic since I'm in Winterborn because of my artistic aptitudes. But the thing is, my youngest sister was born on the October 7th, months after me, on autumn season. We are the same age but I'm months older, since our parents had us both in the same year.

They name me Thea Rose and her Amber Lily, and she's my best friend. We don't look alike, since I took after dad and she took after mom. I have long wavy black hair, dark green eyes, pale skin, I'm four inches shorter than her, and although we are both slim with curves and a tiny waist, my breasts are bigger than hers, which was always annoying to me. Amber has long wavy golden hair, big light blue eyes, her skin is tanned perfectly, she's around 5'9 tall, and looks like a model.

We live in a city in Switzerland, so everyone here is pretty tall, everyone in my family is. That's the one thing I didn't took from my dad, who's 6'3, and I'm 5'5, the shorter in the family. I'm also the only one, out of the six of us, that didn't took mom's blonde hair and blue eyes. I look adopted if you don't see my dad.

And to make it worse, my magic is kind of blocked. My family has a legacy of being fire and light magic users, but I don't really have that. Amber has both. Everyone of my siblings took both.

I first awakened my magic when I was 7, and I was alone playing in the woods. And it's definitely none of that. Instead, I have sound magic and spatial magic. How? I have absolutely no idea. Maybe I took them from far far far away ancestors of both my mom and my dad.

Spatial magic allows me to teleport myself, and sound magic is pretty much self explanatory I guess. So, at 7 years old when I was already anxious and annoyed for not having awakened my magic powers at 5 like everyone else, and I realized I was different from my family, I just refused to accept that. So, I blocked it myself. I refused to use or to ever show it to anyone, and so I never told anyone about it.

Not even Amber.

That's why they think I'm kind of magic-less. Everyone in Winterborn thinks the same too, so they all look down on me a lot. It's annoying, but better than facing the fact that I'm a weirdo and was born with two magic powers and none of them are either fire or light magic. And I absolutely hate that.

Now my sister is the spotlight of the family, she's great at both fire and light magic, and she's skilled in everything. She got awakened at 4 years old, younger than most. Maybe that's why all the three academies fought to get her on them, but she chose Summerborn because she enjoyed history and geography the most. I always tried to call her to Winterborn, because she's really good at painting, but she refused it.

People in Winterborn kind of blame me for that too.

No. I do not feel envious of my sister. She's everything to me. If one thing, I'm overjoyed that she doesn't need to suffer like I do. She's a blessed and beautiful girl, and it's impossible not to love her. So much that she's one of my favorite people.

I respect her choices, so I didn't push it forward for her to study with me, since she had made her mind. And there's absolutely no way I would ever manipulate her for her to come to Winterborn just so she could help me not to be so hated. She doesn't even know people here treat me like shit.

If I were to tell her, she would come her and fight everyone for my sake, which would make it all worse. I also don't want to get her into trouble because of me.

She's my little sister, I should be the one makings sacrifices for her. Not the other way around.

Besides, I don't mind it. I love being in Winterborn, not just because I'm great at arts, both at painting, dancing, singing, sculpting, and even acting, (even though I pretend not to be), but because the boy I love is here. He isn't a legacy like me, but I can't help but to feel drawn to him like a magnet.

Grayson Elijah Graham. He's a month older than me, since he was born in December 5th of the year before. Also a dual magic user, having dark magic and telekinesis. One of the strongest students in all the three academies, and outstanding at all the arts.

However, he's a troublemaker. No one in the academy has the guts to mess with him, because he's a walking-trouble and will kick your ass if you piss him off. And he has quite the temper, I can relate, although I hold myself in front of everyone and pretend to be calm and indifferent.

My family despises him. Amber hates his guts too. Everyone hates him and tells me to stay away, because he doesn't love me and is just using me. But I couldn't care less.

Since we first kissed in a party two years ago, I can't get him off of my damn system, and I've been into him since I first set foot here. Just looking at him makes my body burn and my brain melt. I know I shouldn't be like this, because he's no short of an asshole countless times, but it can't be helped. And if I were as honest as he is, I would 100% be labeled as an asshole too.

He's my drug. I am pretty much obsessed with him and he's aware of it, but he doesn't seem to mind it. He hates everybody in school and is very conscious of how they see and talk about him behind his back just because he isn't a legacy. Maybe seeing a legacy like me so obsessed with him makes him feel a sense of power, especially because he know he has me wrapped up around his finger.

It's toxic? Yes.

But I honestly need his toxin. He makes me want to bring out everything I've been hiding, but I still can't do that. Grayson makes me want to be myself and show everyone what I'm capable of. The power I have within me.

He ain't the only toxic one in this relationship. I am jealous and possessive of him. And I think I'm even more dangerous than he is, because he shows everyone his dark side, whereas no one has idea of the overwhelming darkness lurking under my good-but-cold girl façade.

Again, I can't break through the chains I wrapped around my own wrists and ankles, but this feeling gets me hooked on him. Every time we kiss I feel like it's not enough, but he always stops when he sees me wanting more than that.

No. He doesn't know about my magic powers. He doesn't know I could ace all the arts in the academy if I wanted either. Gray probably believes I'm a pitiful girl. Maybe he's still with me out of pity, who knows?

We've been hooking up without a label since we were 15, but he was never talkative. He's pretty much an introverted because of our environment, I bet that if people weren't such bitches to him, he would be more easygoing. And not to bother him, I avoided making questions, even though I wanted to.

Being with him is what causes me to fight my family so much, even Amber gets annoyed at me for it. Like I said, everyone takes him for a troublemaker, but I don't agree. After all, they all provoked him since the beginning for not being a legacy, and he just fought back and made them shut up with his overwhelming power. It was his way of dealing with the situation and putting everyone in their places.

My parents are also aware of how strong Gray is, and they know they need him to stay in the academy and later go to Autumnborn, because they can't afford him becoming an enemy and attacking the legacies later. And he does have enough reason to do so.

If I were him, I would have.

If I wasn't a legacy, I would have.

I envy him for it, because he doesn't give a shit about what they say and always acts on his anger. When he says he will retaliate, he keeps his word and make them pay.

Honestly, I'm a coward. I chose to be one. I know.

I have so much anger inside of me, that I would have burned the world by now if I had been granted fire magic. Maybe that's the reason I wasn't. But again, if I had, maybe I wouldn't be so angered as I am now.

I wouldn't have to pretend to be someone I'm not.

My actions are no short of exhausting to myself. But it's better like this. I wouldn't be able to deal with how they would react knowing that, not only I've been lying my whole life about my powers, as I'm ridiculously different.