Chapter 10 - Enchantments of Excellence

The last thing Rich and Smooch said to him was to simply pick a weapon to train with and pray every night to the gods that want him dead. While Smooch tried to be cheerful and optimistic, Rich had now believed he was staring a dead kid's corpse and treated the whole thing so bláse, saying things like, "Another day, another dumb dead dipstick."

"You could at least pretend to be supportive. It's not easy getting news that I may not live through the school year." Dante said as the two walked back to the classroom.

"I could kid, but I like to consider myself to be a very honest person."

"Great. Just great."

The class were watching a dodgy orientation film made by the year above them. It had that kind of corny, 90's feel to it with these kids way to close to the camera either over-acting to the point of ridiculousness, or kids under-acting to the point where you wonder if they even read the script before thirty seconds ago. When Dante sat at his seat he noticed Kimmy jeering at Bernie while the blonde had her face in her hands. That didn't hide the blush on her neck though and soon Dante understood why.

A boy with curly blonde hair popped up on the projector. "Hey!" he shouted, obviously standing to close to the mic, creating a scratchy feedback in his voice. "Have you ever signed up for a regal boarding school for prestigious entities when suddenly..."

A funky font text appeared on screen. "UH OH! YOU'RE AT WAR AGAINST SKY MAIDENS WITH SEEMINGLY LIMITLESS POWERS??"

"Well don't worry your pretty little head about it!" The blonde showed up again. "I'm Mason Finster and me and my classmates are gonna help you come out of this school year with only a few missing limbs!"

The camera shakily panned out to other kids beside Mason. They all did jazz hands while saying incredibly out of sync: "Welcome to the drafts year!!"

The film cut off and Rich grumbled something under his breath about useless budget spending's on films like this one. "You'll see more films like this in your AE class. Which started 2 minutes ago come to think of it. So yeah, get lost, try not to die, whatever."

With that the class all stood up and dispersed out the door. The last one was Dante. "Uh, Rich?"

"Ugh that name's really gonna stick now. What Fairheart?"

"What class do I go to? I don't necessarily have any abilities to enhance."

"I've two suggestions. Either I help you dig an early grave, or you can do whatever you want because I stopped caring after college."

"Can you help call my parents?" Dante handed Rich his glitching phone. "It's been acting up since we passed through the dome."

Rich took the gadget and inspected it. "Oh boy, that won't work in here. Domes like these are electronic free. Try at the end of the year when we all leave. In caskets."

Dante scoffed, snatching his phone back and approached the door. He tried calling his father once he was in the corridors. It rang three times before a glitching sound filled Dante's ears, followed by a burning sensation from the device, causing Dante to drop it. Another voice appeared in the child's ear from behind him.

"You shouldn't have that, young boy."

With a yelp Dante whizzed around, the source of the voice stood before him with a creepy, wrinkled frown. "Hand it over." Ms. Winglet growled.

"No, it's mine." Dante bent down and picked up the phone. "I have to go to class now, excuse me." He planted the device in his pocket and walked swiftly away. Ms. Winglet only watched him go with dubiosity. The halls were empty as every student was now beginning their new lesson. If Dante didn't feel hopelessly alone before, he did now.

As he passed through the halls admiring the different paintings, something melodic caught his ear. He turned back to see a door on the right, open, but he never noticed it when passing. The organic turned back and took a little peek inside. The room was very artsy with different abstract self-portraits of students were taped to the front wall. When he turned to see the rest of room, it was empty, except for one girl singing to herself as she cleaned up. Without a warning for the girl, Dante stepped inside and stood by the door, enjoying the warmer air this classroom had to offer.

The room was big with three large windows on Dante's left side. It had cream painted walls and light pink tiling for a floor. There were rusty wooden desks for two, wooden stools, a few acrylic paint supplies...and they were all floating.

Dante felt motion sick just looking at it, he searched for something else and found the source of the singing and levitation. The girl around his age continued singing undecerningly as she cleaned under the desks and set them down. Dante at last decided to say something, he began feeling like a creep just watching her.

"Uh...hi." Dante said apprehensively. That crash had really shaken his social skills. The girl looked up as gasped with a fright. All the floating objects simultaneously crashed to the floor. "I'm Dante." The boy spoke again. The girl let out a sharp sigh. "I'm Jewellry. Jewel for short if you want."

"Oh I know you. We're in the same class with Rich."

"Oh cool."

Dante couldn't help but noticed Jewel's sea green eyes piercing into him. "Is something wrong?"

"You can't seriously be an organic."

"I am. Unfortunately."

"Well what are you doing here then! You should be at another school."

"What are YOU doing HERE. You should be at class. Not to sound like a teacher though."

Jewel looked away. "They'd all just laugh at me again."

"Who?"

"The other kids in my class. Being an enchantress means you must know the five types of magic. Blue: Magic of life, Pink: Magic of levitation and Red: Magic of destruction. The other two are green and black. But the school have abolished teaching kids that. I only know pink magic, which is like, for babies!"

"I mean, levitation is pretty cool on its own. What I wouldn't give for levitation powers."

"Of course you would! Why am I even rambling to you about this? An organic would never understand."

"I mean I could try. I don't have any special classes to attend. So we'll just go in and be the crappy students in the back. How's that?"

Jewel smiled. "Sounds alright now you say it like that. Alright organic, let's go."

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All eyes were on Jewel and Dante when they walked in. Luckily with Izzy being the only other draft in the room her table was free so the pair sat with her. The class were finishing warm-ups, which Jewel aced. Dante noticed whenever an enchanter/enchantress uses their magic, their hands light up with the color of the specific type of magic they're using. "It all comes with emotion." The teacher explained from the front. "For centuries enchanters like us were able to draw magic from key moments in our lives that solicited pure emotion. For blue, think desperation. A sense of longing for something you've wanted returned to you."

The teacher stood in front of a dead plant on her desk. "For example the dead. When a loved one dies, another is so overcome with a sense of despair. The world is upside-down and blowing up around them. All they want is that loved one back. And that's where blue comes in." With a wave of her hand, blue wisps of magic engulfed the little flower, stretching it up and out until it was a beautiful rose again. The whole class clapped. "Thank you." The teacher blushed. "We won't be reviving things first though, just healing. Look at the damaged rosebud in front of you."

The students looked at the wilting flower setted at each of their desks. "I want you to concentrate hard on bringing that flower back to its original, strong form. I know you didn't have an emotional bond with it, so if you can fix one petal I'll consider it a pass."

Dante watched as bursts of blue came from each desk, flowers growing one, even two new petals. But the true highlight was Izzy beside him. With a few waves of her hand she not only completely revived the flower, but managed to sprout more roses from the soil. All the class watched in awe while Izzy yawned like it was average class. The teacher grinned with pride. "Well DONE, Isadora."

Jewel was not so lucky. All she did was move the pot side to side with pink. As Dante watched her grow more frustrated, a familiar voice entered his ear again. "You've barely touched your plant, young boy."

"AHH!" Dante yelped and backed up at the sight of Ms. Winglet, who just ignored him and admired Izzy's bouquet. "She was DEFINITELY not here before!" He whisper-shouted to Jewel. But she seemed too preoccupied with her assignment. The more she tried, the more things around her began levitating. The plant-pot, Dante's phone, chairs, even a few students.

"Jewel dear, it's okay-" The teacher began.

"No it's NOT!" The girl snapped a burst of red shooting out of her finger and entering the organics phone. The device began rattling rapidly. "Jewel," Dante asked. "What did you just do to my-"

BANG!