I opened the door to my new room, peering inside. As far as I could tell, no one else was in the room, although a piece of paper taped on the wall outside read: Kanata Allsworth and Soraya Neforis. I sat down on one of the beds and set down my bag. Almost immediately after I did that, the door flew open. Standing in the doorway was another girl.

Her long hair was colored orange and her clothes had a mix of vibrant colors. Her skin had a rich brown color, although all along her legs and arms were slightly red scars. She gazed around the room and then spotted me.

“Aaah!” She yelped. “Who are you?”

“I guess I’m your roommate,” I said. “Unless you misread the door number or something.”

“I asked to be in a room alone,” the girl muttered. “But I guess they didn’t read that part of the submission form.”

“Well, at least now we can both have someone else to talk to!” I said. “Not to be mean or anything, but sometimes my friends’ conversations get real boring.”

“Ha,” the girl said. “You’re lucky to even have friends.”

“Wait, you don’t have any friends?” I asked. “Well, we can be friends then.”

“Really?” the girl asked. “You really- Me?”

“Yeah, why not?” I said. “My name’s Kanata. What’s yours?”

“I’m Soraya,” Soraya said.

“Nice to meet you,” I said. “Don’t worry. We’ll be friends in no time.”

“By the way,” I asked as Soraya and I were getting ready to sleep. “How come you were so surprised that I wanted to be friends with you?”

“Well,” Soraya said. “It’s just, no one really likes me where I come from.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“I don’t fit in with either half of me,” Soraya said.

“Huh?” I said. “What do you mean?”

“The Angelics all think I’m tainted by evil and the vampires think I’m ‘too good’ or whatever,” Soraya said.

“Oh,” I said. “So you’re a vampire?”

“Well, I’m half vampire, half angelic,” Soraya said.

“What’s an angelic?” I asked.

“They were created from a mix of dragons and bird kimes,” Soraya said. “One upside is that most can see through objects. I can’t.”

“That’s cool though,” I said.

“And we also have wings,” Soraya said.

“Really?” I asked. “That’s so cool.”

“You think so?” Soraya asked.

“For sure,” I said. “Do you have them?”

“Yeah, I do,” Soraya said.

“Could you show them to me?” I asked.

“I guess so,” Soraya asked. She stepped into the center of the room and concentrated. With a sudden whoosh of air, two huge wings sprang from her back. The feathers were perfect, each one a gleaming silver color that scattered light around the room.

My jaw dropped. “Wow,” I said. “They’re so pretty!”

Soraya blushed. “Really?”

“Yes really!” I said.

“Thanks,” Soraya said. Then, with a soft whistling, her wings folded up and shrank down until they disappeared. She then flopped down into her bed.

“I guess our third roommate isn’t going to come tonight,” I said.

“I guess not,” Soraya said. “Well, goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” I murmured, before turning out the light.

I yawned slowly and sat up. I opened my eyes to see Soraya already changed into her school clothes and getting ready for our first day.

“You’re up early,” I commented, yawning again.

“And you slept in a lot,” Soraya said.

“To be fair, I traveled a long way to get here,” I said.

“How far?” Soraya asked.

“All the way from Renxandt,” I said.

“Wow,” Soraya said. “I came from Southern Galasia.”

“That’s so close,” I said. “Anyways, we should be getting ready for class.”

“Yeah,” Soraya said.

I opened the classroom door to a deafening burst of noise. There weren’t many students inside, but the ones that were were making quite a lot of sound. There were two kids with wings who were flying around the room, playing a kind of mid-air soccer. The rest of the kids were standing or sitting and chatting with each other.

I located Fei standing with Mathew and Arya, before walking over to them. Soraya followed behind me.

“Hey guys,” I said.

“Good morning!” Arya said. “Who’s this?”

“This is my roommate, Soraya,” I said, gesturing to her. “Soraya, these are some of my other friends.”

“Hi,” Soraya said.

“Hello Soraya,” Fei said. “Nice to meet you.”

“And who are you?” I asked a girl who had long blue hair who was standing with Fei.

“This is my roommate,” Fei said. “Her name is Nexus.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, Hi.”

“Hello,” Nexus said.

Soraya smiled and said, “Nice to meet you too.”

“Do you know where Shun is?” I asked.

“No,” Mathew said. “I was wondering where he was.”

“I think he’s just late,” Fei said.

“Probably,” Arya said. “He was like that a lot.”

Just then, the bell rang. Everyone rushed to find a seat. I ended up with a wall to my right and Soraya to my left. Arya was just behind me, with an empty seat in front of me. Fei and Nexus took seats to the left of Soraya.

Everyone waited in complete silence for a few seconds. Then I noticed the soft sound of wind. A breeze picked up, slow at first, but it soon escalated into a gust that blew everyone’s hair around their faces.

Slowly, a soft pink mist drifted in with the breeze. Each tiny particle cemented itself in place in a particular spot on the floor. Bit by tiny bit, the mist built itself into a woman. She opened her eyes and smiled at the group.

“Hello students,” she said. “My name is Mrs. Sandi, and I’m your magical instructor for this year. Today we’ll be introducing ourselves and beginning some testing.”

“What if we don’t have any?” Someone in the back asked.

“We all do,” Mrs. Sandi said. “Now, I’ll go first. You know my name already, I’m a human, and I specialize in transformative and crystal-based magic. Who’s next?”

One boy near the front stood up. He was wearing an orange shirt and dark purple pants. “Um, my name’s Gabriel, and I’m a cuttlefish kime. I’m pretty good at disguising magic.”

“Thank you, Gabriel,” Mrs. Sandi said.

Another kid stood up. Their hair was a dark red and their clothes black with purple edgings and highlights. “My name is Fyr, I’m a human, and I’m great at defensive magic.” Then, a blur passed over their features. When it disappeared, a different person was standing in their place, with a more feminine design to the clothing and long hair. “And I’m Fye,” They said. “I’m a Spirit and I’m great at offensive magic.” Fye then shifted back into Fyr.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Sandi said. “Who’s next?” Over the next twenty minutes, everyone introduced themselves. Of note were a girl with blue skin and tentacles instead of hair whose name was Indigo, a quarter-demon boy with pitch-black markings that he could light on fire whose name was Flare, and a girl who normally looked normal but could transform into many different kinds of animals whose name was Ivy.

“All right,” Ms. Sandi said. “Now it’s time for the testing. Follow me.” With that, she calmly opened a magic door in the air and walked through. The rest of us followed.

When I stepped through the door, I felt dizzy before arriving in a huge domed room. Nobody else was there. And right in front of me, huge and menacing, was a large and magnificent dragon.

It turned its head to face me. It slowly opened its mouth, a bright blue glow growing in its throat. And then a massive ball of blue fire shot toward me.