So, I am once again updating on a day of the week that is not Friday, and I think at this point we're just gonna have to accept this as a regular theme. I've decided that I won't be updating this upcoming Friday since Thanksgiving is going to make that a nightmare and I have school related stuff I've been procrastinating as well. As an apology of sorts this weeks update will be longer then usual and hopefully a bit more interesting. 

Happy early Thanksgiving and I'll see you in two weeks. 

Meadowlock Academy was a fairly old school, built originally to be near the center of town, the large brick building sat about a block away from the city's central office. It was four stories high and the only high school in the entire town, originally serving as the only school in town but when more families had moved to Cloverleaf they’d had to build another school that housed the preschool through 6th graders.

When Nic entered through the large front doors she was instantly surrounded by the overlapping chatter of the various students already in the hallways. She walked through them, only listening to snippets of their various conversations. She was never really one for gossip, but if rumors of a pop quiz where floating around it couldn't hurt to know about it before class.

She quickly made her way up two flights of stairs to her locker, a skinny rectangle of metal about five down from the floors bathroom, and unlocked the door. She busied herself with unpacking and grabbing various textbooks and notebooks before closing the door and heading to her first class, Multi-Species History and Origins.

She took her usually seat next to the window near the back of the room and glanced over at the clock. It was still fairly early before the beginning of class so she pulled the most recent book she had started from her bag and let her long brown hair fall out from behind her ears and sweep across her face like a curtain separating her from the rest of the world.

She was nearing the end of a chapter, which of course meant things were getting interesting enough to end on a cliffhanger, when a strong gust of wind blew the book out of her hands and onto the floor. She glared across the room at Sapphire, whose baby blue eyes where still slightly glowing from the spell she had cast, and bent over to retrieve her book.

Against the rules or not Nic knew Sapphire wouldn’t get in trouble, she never got in trouble, so it was better to just silently take the abuse and hope it would eventually go away. At least, that had been her strategy since middle school, and while a small part of her tried to hold onto the hope that it would work, a larger part told her to be realistic.

As soon as she’d finished retrieving her book the echo of the first bell rang through the halls and everyone found their seats as Mrs. Greeves entered the room. A fairly tall and lanky woman, Mrs. Greeves was probably one of Nic's favorite teachers. She treated everyone exactly how she thought they deserved to be treated, but sadly she based her opinions of people only on what she saw for herself. The class pet could be the biggest shit stain you’d ever met, but if they treated her with respect, she did the same

She walked to the front of the classroom, her slight heels clicking with every step and quickly materialized her attendance book.

“Good morning class, let’s get this over with quickly so I can share some exciting news with you all.”

As she ran through the list of names Nic quietly stashed her book back in her bag and pulled out her notebook. The medium sized book was probably filled with more crappy doodles then actual notes, but it at least helped to make it seem like she was paying attention.

After Mrs. Greeves finished taking attendance she stashed her book back in her magical invisible bag and clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

“Alright everyone, as you all know we’ll be ending our unit on the history of vampires shortly and starting our unit on the origins and history of the witches.” A few students nodded their heads and smiled at the idea of learning something a little closer to home.

It’s not that all of the inhabitants of Cloverleaf where witches, a small scattering of werewolves and vampires resided in the town as well, it’s just that witches made up the majority of the towns supernatural population.

“Now after a long conversation with Principal Creass we’ve organized something very special for your senior year. In a little over a month, we will be taking a field trip to the witch capital Varain.” The room was immediately filled with various cheers as the excitement quickly spread. Any chance to get out of their small hometown was very exciting for the teenagers, especially if it meant going to the most magical place in the world.

“Now I must warn you that the trip will be expensive, it’s a long ride to the city of the witches and we’ll be spending a few days exploring the many sites that are tied into the city's history. You’ll have until the end of this month to turn in your money and get a signed consent form from your parents.”

While her classmates continued to talk excitedly Nic lowered her head to her desk, resting it on top of her crossed arms, and looked out of the window next to her. The trip sounded like an amazing opportunity to get away from the unending feeling that she didn’t belong, but she also had no idea how she’d be able to afford it.

Her brother already worked at both the local supermarket and a restaurant, and she even worked after school to help pay the bills. They lived rather comfortably as it was but the large strain of a field trip probably wouldn’t fit into their budget.

She became so lost in thought that she stopped paying attention to what was happening around her, missing the moment when the background voices of her classmates transitioned into only her teachers voice and their lesson began. It wasn’t until she was called on to answer a question she was horribly unprepared to answer that her mind snapped back to the present. A few chuckles bounced around the room following her stuttered and incorrect response and she attempted to keep her attention forward the rest of class.

When the bell rang and everyone got up to amble to their next classes, she didn’t even bother to grab a permission slip from the pile on her teachers desk.