I take off down the same path as the previous girls, now that those traps have been detonated already. The Glyphs glow on and off. Sometimes being visible, sometimes not. The sounds of girls screaming in horror and agony surround me.
Who invented this torture?
This should be illegal!
This is child abuse!
"Let's go ladies! We don't have all day!" Coach calls.
I step on an invisible one and my leg gets sucked into quicksand.
Someone trips over me and face plants onto another, also quicksand. I cringe as her head gets sucked in.
She makes her own glyph uses her air magic to blast herself out of the hole. Mud gets all over me.
I pull and pry and my leg but soon find myself in last place.
Finally, I get it free.
The perks of being last, not a lot of traps left.
Of course, unless I want to be first in line for something called the fear simulation I better get a move on.
Curse these short legs!
Another glyph appears right in front of me but I jump over it last second.
I watch a girl to my left get frozen in place.
Teleportation would really come in handy right now.
I step on another one which turns the ground in front of me to ice. I slip forward and fall on my face. I quickly get up and go again.
I catch up to Dariyah who struggles to get her ankle free from a plant vine that wrapped around it.
We lock eyes as I pass her.
She soon pulls free and runs up next to me.
I look at her and she pushes me.
I land on another and a bright flash right in my eyes blinds me momentarily. I stumble around rubbing my eyes and step on several more. A water geyser shoots me in the face, I fall on my butt right into quicksand.
I can hear Dariyah's laughter getting farther away.
I rub my eyes with one hand and use the other to try and pull myself free.
When I do get free, I step on another that shocks me.
"Ugh!" I grunt in frustration.
I'm only halfway when the winner crosses the line.
I finish last, only because just before I crossed the finish line I got blasted back by wind.
Coach O'Ryan walks over to me and stares down at me as I stare at the sky.
"Be here early tomorrow," she says.
I clench my jaw and force myself to sit up.
She offers me her hand but I slap it away and get up and stomp off to the locker room.
Stupid Wi—
I sigh out loud and grab my stuff and walk out of the locker room.
When I walk into Cyrene's office I'm still in my muddy, soggy, and singed gym clothes.
I plop on her couch.
"Whoa, what happened to you?" she asks.
"What is the fear simulation?" I ask.
I'm on the verge of tears but hold it in.
"What happened?"
"Just answer the question!" I snap at her.
"Okay, let's take a deep breath and calm down."
"Calm down! I was basically forced to run the world's most sadistic race and you want me to calm down! I'm still seeing spots! And everyone else could use their powers to get out of things but all could do was sit there and take it! Just a race she said, just a race! Now I have to be first to the fear simulation tomorrow! So no, I won't calm down!"
She sighs.
"Fuck this school!" I kick her table.
"Just get it out." She says.
"Fuck the people here. They are rude and stuck up and crazy! I have to read so many books I'll be lucky if I finish before I'm thirty! I am probably the stupidest person on campus! I don't even know what people are talking about half the time. All I can do is take it. I've been swarmed by fake bees, told my world history is a lie, forced to learn from a shadow caster, treated like a dog and now I've been tortured by a psycho coach! And I can't go home! I can't do anything!" I snap.
She gets up and sits next to me, rubbing me on the back.
"I hate it here!" I cry into my hands.
"Bad timing?" I hear someone say from the doorway.
I look up and see Cyrene's girlfriend.
"Very," Cyrene says.
"I'll come back—"
"Don't bother, I'm tired. I'm going to bed." I get up and storm past her.
"Emery wait," Cyrene calls.
"Leave me alone!" I run away.
I take a long hot shower and skip dinner, laying down to go to bed early.
A knock at my door makes me pull the blankets over my head.
"Emery, open the door," Cyrene calls.
"Go away!"
"I'll teleport in there."
Stupid teleportation.
Nowhere when I need you, here when I don't.
A flash of light lets me know Cyrene is in my room. She sighs and sits next to me on my bed.
"Talk to me."
"I hate it here," I say.
"It will get better."
"When!?" I sit up. "When I finish reading all those books." I point to the large stack on the floor. "When I learn to use these stupid powers? When my bullies forget I exist? When I wake up and find out this is all some crazy dream? When?" I whimper.
"Emery,"
"I didn't ask for this! I didn't want this! I just want to go home!" the lights flicker.
"I understand but—"
"No you don't understand! No one here understands what it feels like to get ripped away from your normal life and thrown into this! So just don't okay. Just leave me alone." I lay back down and pull the covers over my head.
She rubs my arm through the blankets.
"I didn't ask for this," I say softer as tears stream down my face.
"It will get better. Yes, you'll have to read all those books. Yes, you will have to learn your abilities, and yes, you will have to go back to that gym class. But it will get better. I promise. Just give it time."
"I miss my mom and my brother. My dad hates me now. I just want to go home." I sob.
She sighs and gets up.
"Come on," she pulls on the blankets.
"No." I sob.
"Come on, I want to show you something." She pulls harder.
"No!"
"Get up!" she yanks the blankets out of my hands.
I glare at her.
She grabs my hands and forces me off the bed. Then we teleport. We end up back at the gym.
"No!" I whine.
"Come on," she pulls me over to the back office.
I watch her dig through a drawer and pull out a flash drive. She sticks it on the computer and scrolls through the files before clicking on one. A video loads up and beings to play.
"I can't do it!" a young Cyrene screams.
"Don't give me that. You are a star caster, yes you can." Coach O'Ryan shouts at her.
"I can't!"
Cyrene is no older than me. She's in the same gym uniform I wore earlier.
"What is this?" I ask.
"It wasn't easy for me either. This is me, you see I actually used to hate sports. But, because I was a star caster Coach forced me to try out for magic siege. Of course, I automatically got on the team, even though I wasn't even a good star caster. Coach forced me to train every night. Making me do things I couldn't do. It was hell. It sucked. I had breakdowns just like you. I almost even transferred schools. But, it was because of her I finally learned to use my abilities. And it worked out for me, I won the championships three times."
"Why are you showing me this?" I turn to her.
"Because, no matter how impossible things seem, you can overcome. It does get better. I know it does. Yes, right now you are looking up and staring at the mountain." She pauses the video. "But, one day you'll be looking down." She turns around and grabs a trophy off the shelf and hands it to me.
Her name is on it.
I run my fingers across the nameplate and hold the heavy trophy in my hands.
"I believe in you Emery. You can do this. I know it sucks right now, but I know you can do this. I wouldn't be where I am now if someone didn't push me, so I'm going to push you. I'm not letting you throw the towel in just yet. You are Emery Ellison and you got this."
I wipe my tears and hand her the trophy back.
"It's just so hard," I say quietly.
"No one said it would be easy. But one day you'll be a pro, even better than me."
I nod and sniffle.
"Okay, so what are we going to do tomorrow?"
"Not give up?"
"Yes, exactly. You will get up in the morning and you will do it all again because you are not a quitter. Show these Casters Emery Ellison doesn't go down without a fight. They will think twice about messing with you then."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay, I can do this," I say more confidently.
"Good. Now, you better eat something. You need to keep up with your health. Come on," she teleports me back to my dorm room.
"Get some rest, you got this." she pats me on the back before teleporting away.
I take a calming breath before going downstairs and grabbing a bag of chips from the pantry and walking back to my room.
She's right, I got this.
I can do this.
So instead of crying myself to sleep which had been my original plan, I crack open one of the many books I have to read. I pull my hair back into a tiny ponytail, no longer than half of my pinky. I tuck any stray hairs behind my ear and cross my legs before grabbing a pen and my notepad to take some notes.
I can't go home, so that means my only options are being a cry baby and letting people push me around or suck it up and become the best damn star caster the world has ever seen.
Emery Ellison is no pushover.
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