MAGE CHRONICLES: The Beginning.

I lean back in my chair with a satisfied sigh, glancing at Blue who looks as content as I feel.

“Wow!”

I glance at Ax at his exclamation and notice he hadn’t even touched his food.

“Why are you not eating? Not hungry?”

“It would offend me that you probably forgot my existence in the past ten minutes, but that was the most fascinating thing I have ever seen in my not-so-long life.”

“What?” I ask looking around.

“Did you even breathe? Where did all that food go? You are tiny.”

I scoff at that, even a blind man wouldn’t call me tiny.

“My hips and thighs. I was really hungry because I was too nervous to eat before we came here,” I pause remembering his shock, “Please don’t tell me the people here eat like herbivores.”

“You are clearly a dancer, your mouth and hands were in perfect sync, and you didn’t even spill a thing, impressive.”

He goes back to his meal and I settle more into the seat surveying the building and that’s when I notice a few details I had missed before.

“Woah.”

“Yeah, that is possibly the most beautiful thing in this school,” Axel answers not looking up clearly guessing what had me enthralled.

The cafeteria ceiling was glass and what appeared to be a library was right above us. A library and an aquarium because I’m pretty sure I saw the fish I had previously assumed was just really realistic art move in the walls.

Feeling the hairs at the back of my neck stand, I turn with a sigh expecting to see the bitch crowd only to realize that the cafeteria that was almost empty when we came in was almost full and more than half that population is staring at our booth.

“Ax...Did I do something? What’s with the audience?”

“Took you long enough to notice, don’t worry though we’ve all basically grown up together, everybody knows everybody, suffice to say this school hasn’t had a new kid since we joined in, that’s all, their fascination will wear off.”

“Huh!” I muse turning back around.

Blue was dosing off again, so we left with Ax carrying him this time and I think every female we encountered felt the impact of a beautiful man cradling an equally beautiful child, don’t come at me, I’m a proud mama.

I walk in first to hold the door open for Ax and Blue and he places him on my bed with surprising ease.

“Do you have younger siblings?”

“Why would you ask that?” he asks his tone turning dark.

“Whoa there boy it’s just because you look like you’ve had experience, don’t get testy.”

“Right sorry,” he mutters his demeanour changing again.

“There’s…” he breaks off struggling to find words to explain his reaction.

“Don’t sweat it, I can tell there’s story there, you’ll tell me when you’re ready.”

At my words Axel’s entire demeanour relaxes, “So, what are our options?” He asks excitedly.

“Huh?” I mutter still whiplashed.

“The courses, what are we leaning towards?”

“I hate school, let’s start with that.”

“OK... what do you like?” he asks, amused.

“I don’t know really; I just know what I don’t and that’s a lot of math and science.”

“Then let’s start with art courses and go from there.”

Two hours later, I’m convinced Ax is going to yeet me out the window.

“Oh, my fates! I know females are the most frustrating beings ever, across all realms, but you take the cake! What’s so hard about this?” he asks clutching onto his hair.

I was going to make him bald and that would be really sad.

I just stare up at him, trying not to succumb to the giggles plaguing me at his frustrated face.

“Pick one! It’s not that hard.” He takes a deep breath to collect himself, “How about painting?”

“I can’t paint to save my life and it’s hard to get paint off clothes.”

“How about fashion design?”

“You want to die?” I growl at him.

“Huh? No! Why?” he asks a genuinely confused expression on his face.

Oh, he was being serious, me and my insecurities.

“Never mind, I think I would go with either photography or interior design, maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up and decide to do something else.”

“Don’t you have to submit this today?” he asks glancing back from where he’d been pacing while throwing suggestions at me.

“No, Dru likes me, so she gave me till Sunday afternoon.”

“Well, put that shit away then and let’s do something else, it is Saturday.”

“I wanted to go check out the rest of the school, but I don’t want to leave Blue here alone, so whatever it is we have to do it here.”

“OK, how about some TV? We’ve got Netflix here and FTV too.”

“You got Netflix! Hold up... what TV?”

Ax just sighs and presses a button on the side of my bed and the wall directly in front of the bed shimmers and turns a glossy black, then lights up into a white screen.

“Whaa...”

Something smacks me in the head and falls next to me.

“You are right, Dru likes you, she didn’t give me the remote till we were two weeks into the semester.”

“You pick what we watch,” I say, muffling a yawn.