I watched him slowly walk across the room. When he was getting closer I noticed his tapping the paper was making the writing on it change. Weird.

When he got to the girl next to me, he gave her an odd look.

“Are you sure?” He asked. Incredible that he was capable of concern when he had been nothing but rude to me. The girl half glanced in my direction and gave a small nod. So she was definitely copying me? Iker tapped her paper but before I could see what changed, he was in front of me. He barely looked at my paper before he was moving on to the next person. Oh, there was new writing on the paper. It looked an awful lot like a schedule starting with something simply called gym at 8 in the morning. That was followed up by Weapon Theory at 10 and Weapon Practice at 12. At 13, there was an hour break for lunch and the three classes after that were simple spells, magic history, and An Introduction to Ritual Magic. At least the curriculum almost made it sound like a real school if the concept did not.

Way too late I noticed that the other kids were standing up. I copied them. 

“We are going on a small walk around the school ending at the dorms so we can become acquaintanced with the way the school is arranged.” The small girl whispered quickly. She also gave me a tentative smile. I nodded quickly and returned the smile, at least this one would be useful to keep around.

The tour started at what was apparently an administrative building or something. It was also where the teachers slept, probably somewhere at the end of the freakishly long hallway. 

We were mostly all walking behind Iker in a single file line except for Leanne and the prince who appeared to be whispering to each other very fast. Something about that bothered me, it was like they already knew each other but when would they even have met? I knew that Larissa was not the original Larissa and that she was actually someone that I knew but if she is the sister I think she is, then she should know about as much about the story as I did. Yet, the way she barely looked around and added small tidbits as Iker talked on, led me to believe otherwise. 

The beginning of a headache began to hit before Night lightly bumped into me and it was as if nothing had ever happened and it was familiar. Who else had taken away the pain in my head with one touch? No, I didn’t have the time to make my head hurt again. I needed to think about that later.

 We passed a few adults awkwardly standing outside an open door which according to Leanne was the room that the teachers hung out before classes started. A bunch more unmarked doors which were where parents stayed should they choose to visit their kid and labeled doors which were apparently teacher offices. The office of the principal hidden among them but I was not sure which one since we moved past it too fast. Once we were outside I noticed that most of the crowd of students outside were gone except for two girls and one of them was the annoying one who tackled me. Fantastic, I hoped they were not waiting for me but the way they casually joined the orientation line suggested otherwise. 

“Laila, Erin, you are not part of this group” Iker had clearly seen them and he was not happy. At least Anastasia’s fake friends had names, if I knew which was which.

They both stared at Iker and made no movement to leave the line. Finally, Iker sighed and continued the tour. 

“Did you know that the only reason he’s in charge of orientation is because during his own orientation he interrupted the presenter so much that the poor guy just gave up and let him talk as much as he wanted.” One of the girls whispered in my ear, thankfully the one that didn’t tackle me. The fact that the first thing she told me sounded like gossip made me think that she was the daughter of the Lazar family that Night had mentioned a few days ago. She was definitely one of Anastasia’s “friends”.

“Does he hate me or something? I swear he made at least four indirect jabs at me during his whole ‘presentation’” I asked quickly. If the Lazar family was known for spreading rumors then she might know something about the Iker kid.

“I believe his grandfather is part of the council that oversees the maze test. The same council that is quite angry at you for burning down the maze, if that little rumor I heard is true” She looked at me expectantly. I noticed her eyes were green, a much paler green than the prince. She was also pale skinned like almost everyone in the line except the girl who attacked me, who was a sort of tan or light brown. I looked down at my own arm, darker skin was a feature of Alacran, or so I had read, the Alacrėn people lived in some sort of dangerous desert where the sun never set. I blinked. Oh yeah, the Lazar girl asked me something.

“Yeah, I burned down the maze. I’m on academic probation or something to that effect since before I even got to the school. Oh, and I think that they charged my dad for the damages. If they didn’t want the maze to burn down, they should have put a spell on their flammable hedges. I found a few when I was doing some reading a few days ago.” I looked forward quickly to make sure that Iker was busy hearing himself talk. 

“Since when do you read?” It was the girl who tackled me. Considering all the weird hair colors I had seen since I woke up as a kid, seeing two people with brown hair was quite odd. Just as odd as the small girl still following me having black hair, where did all these normal looking people come from?

“Since I essentially spent an entire year alone because my friends forgot about me.” I said looking forward. We were approaching a building labeled “Magic Studies”. Wonder what they taught there…

“Come on, we were busy!” The tan girl said quickly, casting a quick look towards Iker. 

“Is writing hard?” I noticed the heavy wooden doors as we approached the building.

“We, well, I was worried that if we spoke too much about the school that you would get mad and not want to talk to us anymore. You got all mad that Erin and I passed the test when you failed.” Okay so Lazar girl was called Laila.

“That was just because she wanted to delay a year so Khloe would not be left behind.” Erin, the girl who tackled me, said. She also gestured to the small girl who was still right behind me but looking away. Okay, Laila, Erin and Khloe, Anastasia’s “friends” had names now. It was kind of off putting how friendly they were being. I thought Anastasia said they liked her house more than they liked her. 

That was when another interesting implication struck me. Anastasia had failed the test on purpose so Khloe would not be alone. If that was the case, then I might have to reassess how close Anastasia actually was with her friends. Then again, as far as I knew the Khloe girl had not kept in contact with Anastasia either even though she was not in school yet. Hopefully I dreamt about Anastasia soon, I had a fair few questions to ask her.

“That is it. You are not part of this orientation. Go back to the dorms or else I’ll tell one of the teachers about your interruption.” Iker had materialized next to us. Erin rolled her eyes but he and Laila stepped out of the line. I am not sure but as they walked away, I saw them wave and maybe say “see you at the dorm” but by then the heavy wooden door of the Magic Studies building had closed and I saw them no more. I waited for Iker to get back to the front of the line before whispering to the small black-haired girl, Khloe, “So did you barely turn seven?” If I remembered correctly, the age to get into the academy was seven and if Anastasia had wanted to wait a year, Khloe must have been only six. She nodded very very slightly. I stifled a laugh, so far this little kid was my favorite person. 

“Be quiet over there!” Iker called out.

“Oh no, someone is getting mad.” I said in a small voice and Khloe actually let out a small laugh before covering her mouth. “Guess we’ll have to save our talking for after the orientation.”

I cast an uncertain look at Lari-Leanne. She seemed fine, still whispering with the prince but I guess that Iker was not about to tell the prince anything. I faced the front of the line. Iker was going on about the remodeling of some labs. I hoped the orientation would end soon.