CHAPTER 7

I've never been so miserable. Last night took my appetite, I didn't eat dinner last night. I walked into the bathroom, peeling off my clothes and turning on the shower.

Last night, I just kept thinking. How I had been lied to all these years and now it's all out. I mean her name isn't even Winter. She's Molly. Her hair was fake. She made up the proposal scene, she never married my father, my mom is a goddess, she probably was the one who named me Autumn, they probably called me Arterisa back home. She lied to me for seventeen years. That hurts.

I walked out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth. I walked into my room, putting on my underwear then some clothes I just pulled out of the closet. I moved down the stairs towards the door.

As I opened the door, Molly stopped me.

"Autumn," she grabbed my arm. "I'm sorry. I only did it for you."

I turned to face her.

"I'm not angry with you ok. I'm just going through a lot lately ok."

"Then why didn't you  come down for dinner."

"I was still angry, I didn't want you to see me seething."

"And you didn't greet me this morning."

"I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you like that. If it makes you feel better, I promise not to lie to you again. I'll help you and change to my normal self."

"I just want one thing. Be my mom like you've always done," she smiled at me and pulled me for a hug.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"But could you change your hair to what it used to be?"

She pulled away, the smile still plastered on her face. "Of course. You forgive me, right?"

"Of course." I pulled away from her, grabbing my bag from the floor. She put some money in my hand.

"Lunch money."

"Thanks, mom, bye" I walked out of the house on my way to school. I felt lighter now that my mom and I are ok again. Things were already looking up for me.

As I walked into school, Paulina walked towards me.

"Hey, Paulina."

"Hey. How are you?" Worry etched on her face.

"I'm okay. And don't worry, I took care of Trace."

"What?!"

"Yeah. What's wrong?"

"You fought him?"

"No, I just talked to him. We broke up."

"And you're okay? With the break-up and then Maddison dating him?"

"Yeah. I told him not to break her heart."

"And he will not."

"We'll just have to keep hoping. I don't want to see her broken. She's been through a lot."

"Ok. If you're ok with it then no problem."

"I've gotta get to class." I stopped at my locker while She went to her class.

"Arterisa."

"Hey, Fofo."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You're ready to train? Before you go for camp training I mean. I could help you train."

"Yeah, sure but at home. Now go before anyone think I'm crazily talking to myself."

"You're talking to me with your mind."

"So no one's seeing me talk?"

"Yes, but they'll see your facial expression."

"That's cool. I was told that I do magic. Do I get a wand or something?" I closed my locker heading to my class.

"You're not a witch so you won't be getting a wand."

"Witches are real?" I raised an eyebrow and that got me stares.

"I didn't say that."

"Whatever." I walked into the class and to my seat second row

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We had a school break a week after. That means I had to go for training. Fofo had been giving me magic lessons and I was doing ok. My mom and I are ok. She changed her fake white hair to natural brown. And she was still my mother.

I packed a few things for my training at some forest called egar. She said it was camp for all training warriors.

I was picked up by Lena in a blue Toyota car. Looks like she loves blue cause her dress was blue too. I wouldn't call it a dress though, it was some sort of warrior jumpsuit.

"It's not a jumpsuit." Lena suddenly said I looked at her amazed.

"How did ..."

"I can read people's minds."

I can't wait to learn that.

"You don't learn, you have it." She

turned walking to her car I followed behind her.

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The drive was silent. I looked at her pet, fluffy who was busy with a yarn. I looked at her magazines, old and boring and then I looked at my phone, no internet connection, not even a signal. I was already regretting my decision of coming here.

"Don't worry. At the camp, we have a wifi network."

I heaved a sigh of relief.

"That is limited"

I froze in my seat.

"- and it's monitored."

And I just felt like crying. I looked at her. Her face was straight ahead. I turned back to my phone. I looked at the picture I and the decallions took at school. Paulina had a wide smile. I smiled a little and looked up.

The car swerved and we entered a campsite. I hate camping. I was already swearing when I saw the ninth wonder of the world if it was possible. It was The most magnificent building I had ever seen. It looked like a castle pulled out of a magic book.

"That's where everyone stays."

"Everyone?" I asked silently.

She pulled to a stop and moved out into the chilly air. I joined her. A rush of wind hit me. I think we were high up. It felt like we were on a mountain and not a leveled ground which would be impossible because there is no such thing as a mountain in New York. Magic. I sighed and kept my hands in my pockets trying to keep up pace with Lena.

We entered the house. At the door, a hefty woman stood watching. Immediately she saw Lena, she moved aside giving a nod in greeting. I was about to walk in when she stopped me.

"Don't worry, Puffy " Lena said not looking back. "- she's with me."

She looked at me for a while before allowing me to enter.

Lena led me upstairs to a room that served as the sitting area. It was just a girl sitting with a book. She immediately stood up when she saw Lena.

"Audrey, aren't you supposed to be at the training field."

"I'm sorry, Miss Lena." She made to walk away.

"Audrey?" I called softly.

She lifted her head and I recognized her. One of the decallions.

"Autumn, what are you doing here?"

"I was..." I was interrupted.

"Audrey?"

"Oh, right, I'm sorry."

She left hurriedly.

"I'll take you to your room."

She took me to a hall meant for the girls. She picked a room and gave me the keys.

"Don't lose your keys." She left me.

I opened the door. The room was fairly big, it looked cozy and felt like home. The four-poster bed with pink sheets, duvet, and comforter made the room even comfier. A reading table at one corner and the dressing table, inside the closet. There was some book on an inbuilt shelf beside the closet's door.

I walked in with my bags and arranged my clothes in the closet then changed into a loose white tee and casual denim pants. A jacket was on the bed with a note from Lena.

It's a jacket for juniors.

I snorted." Juniors." I muttered.

I wore the jacket and it fitted perfectly. I kind of liked it because it was just like a football team's varsity jacket. A logo of armor with some swords and spears was at the left side of the jacket and across its back.

I walked out of my room and placed the key under the foot mat. Just as I stood up, I saw someone beside me. I jumped and held the door.

"You ... scared me."

"I know. Let's go to the training ground."

She led me to a big field where a lot of teenagers like me were training and supervisors like Lena putting them through.

She took me to a locker room and told me to put on a suit that looked just like hers but looked much more 'junior-ish'.

We returned to the training ground. She chose a spot for me.

"I'm going to be your supervisor."

She looked at me expecting me to object or at least groan but I looked at her silently with a blank face. She continued seeing that I agreed.

"First, archery. Do you know what that is?"

"Shooting arrows at boards or dumb puppets," I muttered.

"Partially correct."

I gave her a fake smile and turned to pick the arrows and bows. I aimed at a target.

"I know you've never done this before -"

And then I shot. I missed the center and the whole target. The teens beside me started laughing. I have to admit, I almost cried. I dropped the bow and stormed to the locker room, double-locked it, and sat on a bench.

My hands were on my face. I was trying to think of mom Molly. She wanted the best for me. She didn't want me to come for a reason and now I understand.

Someone was banging the door and it was consistent.

"Autumn, open the door!"

I sighed. I leaned back and just watched taking notice of the smallest detail from the white tiles to the white doors leading to the toilet to the mirror and back to the white doors.

Wait a shadow? I took a mop, walking carefully to the door of the third bathroom. I opened the door and found a guy pushing his hand to my mouth.

I dropped the mop and tried to speak but his hands were already on my face so my words were muffled.

"You didn't scream? What kind of girl are you?"

A goddess.

"What are you doing in the girls' bathroom?" I hissed.

"None of your business." He moved out of the bathroom.

Someone was ramming the door now. He cursed quietly.

"I'll report you if you don't tell me."

He snorted."You don't even know me."

"Ryan, you're a senior. You have an extremely large ego. You want to be a warrior."

"How did you know that?" He asked with disbelief.

"We're living a life Of magic. I wasn't expecting you to be surprised."

"Of course."

I raised an eyebrow. "You want to talk or what?"

"It was a dare."

"What dare?"

"A picture of a girl doing the doodoo."

"Eww! That's sick. And gross. And doodoo? How old are you, five?"

"Do I look five?" He snorted.

"No, but you act like one." He glared.

They rammed the door again.

"I've got to go. Not nice meeting you redhead." He muttered some words and he was gone.

'Surprise' was not the adjective to describe how my face was. I was furious!

The door was rammed again. I opened the door before someone got hurt. That someone was me.

I think the person ramming the door didn't know I had already opened the door because he came running at full speed, ran past me, and rammed through the wall. Ouch! That had to hurt.

"Autumn! What is your problem!" Lena walked towards me.

"Sorry?" I gave her the sweetest smile I had.

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"I just want to be better, you know, goddess material."

I was in my room with Fofo who I could see now. And he was a dude. Looked like a dude. But he said there's no gender in the spirit world. And he said it's offensive to ask. Weird? Yeah, I know.

"You'll do fine. Wester land wasn't built in a day. It took months to plan and execute it."

I huffed. "Let's work on my magic."

"You know how to levitate, that's good. But do you know how to make them disappear?"

"Yeah, all I need to say is setives levitis  haperus disepurs."

"Right but what making them appear?"

"Just change disperus to aperus?"

"Wrong. Cretiz levitis haperus apertures."

"Ohh."

"You should go to bed it's almost curfew. Wenas Arterisa."

"Sopluseto Fofo."

The lights went out and as soon as I closed my eyes, I found myself in dreamland.