There are no words to properly describe the way my stomach feels when I wake up. Today I have to do magic. Magic.

Actual magic.

How long will it be before they realize whatever I did to Marcus and his friends during school was some kind of mistake and I actually don’t have a single magical bone in my body?

Is it going to be today? Day one? Already kicked out?

Why did I feel the need to vomit at the thought? Twelve hours ago, I didn’t even want to be here.

I slip on the uniform Maybe customized for me. If nothing else, I had to admit, it fit me perfectly. It pinches in right at the waist to highlight my smaller frame but stays broader at the shoulders to hide my smaller frame.

I… I actually do not look bad in it, if I do say so myself.

The white hair is another story. 

If I were anybody other than me, I’d say it looked good against my bright blue eyes and pale complexion. But for me, specifically, it only makes me stand out, and I hate that more than anything.

“Are you ready? Are you excited? Are you exploding with joy?” Maybe cheers as she jumps around the room. How someone can be both a night owl and a morning person is beyond me, but somehow she is.

I sigh. “I’m exploding with something.” 

No matter how I adjust my clothes, it still feels like they don’t belong to me. Like my body isn’t meant to be wearing them. And I can’t get the tie straight.

Maybe pops over and fixes my tie for me. “Don’t be nervous. You’ll do great. Once your head is in the right place, it’ll come naturally. That’s what being a wizard is: you are connected to magic. It’s a part of you. You just have to find it!”

“I’m still not convinced I am a wizard.”

Maybe plants her hands on her hips. “None of that now.” She skips over to the door and flings it open. I have no idea how she incorporated so much color into her blue and gold uniform while keeping it standard issue. “Now let’s go. We’ll hardly have enough time for me to get you to your class before I have to be at mine.”

“I should wait for Prince Rhettlin. He said he’d escort me,” I say as I take one last look in the mirror. What would he think of me in this uniform? 

Ugh. Stop even thinking about it, Allen! He’s a prince and you are nothing.

Maybe shakes her head. “I told you, he’s not going to—”

A voice calls out, “New guy!” and Prince Rhettlin pokes his head around the doorframe. “So glad I ran into you yesterday or I would not have even known where to pick you up. Hope Ms. Maybe did not eat you in your sleep, or whatever it is that she does to all her roomies.”

Maybe is so surprised by the appearance of the Prince that she leaps out of the doorway with a tiny shriek. “Oh for the love of the Realm, Rhett!” she yells as she calms her breathing. 

“You—you actually came?” I stutter. 

Of course he came, you moron. He’s here, isn’t he?

“It is my duty, and I do not take it lightly,” the Prince says as he fully steps into the doorway.

Oh. Oh. The way he looks in the school uniform…

Whatever I thought looked good about the custom fit of my uniform is meaningless now that I see him in his. The way his jacket is fitted to his tall frame in a way that doesn’t make him look too lanky or skinny and the pants are cut just tight enough.

I want to run and hide under the covers. No one else should even try to be seen in the same clothes as him.

“Oh wow. You’re just so humble, aren’t you?” Maybe says with her eyes rolling stronger than ever, clearly not at all impressed like I am.

“Indeed,” the Prince says to her with no irony before turning back to me. “Shall we head off? We’ll be late to Wand Spells and Enchantments if we do not hurry. Though, I doubt they will say much so long as you are with me.”

“I can’t—” Maybe says with a hand to her nose. “I’m going to class. Good luck, Allen.”

With that, she heads out the door and down to the ground level.

“Shall we?” the Prince asks and presents the exit to me.

“Oh… uh… yeah.” I walk out the door, shut it, and then stand on the small platform in the staircase, unreasonably close to the Prince.

I can smell the soap he must’ve used recently. Lemongrass, lavender, and vanilla.

There aren’t many talents in my unimpressive body, but I did have a nose for flora, from growing up in the forest kingdom.

“Ground,” The Prince says, and by the time I have recovered from the transport, he’s already headed down the hall, and the glorious smell has long dissipated. 

We go much further than I’d gone on any of my escapades, with either Maybe or the Prince. We go up a twisting stairwell that’s a bit like the dormitory ones, except much shorter and more open. The railings are lined with ivy.

We go around a mezzanine, which is still lined with redwood doors among the mossy rocks, but in the center the floor is open to the world below, which appears to be where all the school shops and restaurants are—for those not yet in focus halls… according to the Prince.

There are adorable shop fronts built right out of the rocky wall, all around the area. I made a mental note to make sure Maybe takes me there later.

Finally, we stop in front of a redwood door that looks as normal as every other redwood door we’d passed along the way.

How does the Prince know where to find the right one?

This place is going to be the death of me, out of pure confusion.

“We are a bit late,” the Prince says before we enter. “Just have your wand ready and do not act like anything is wrong. And then there will not be.”

“W—want?” I ask as I pat my pockets down like I’d find a hidden magical stick in there despite not ever having one. “I don’t have a wand…”

“You do not have a wand?” the Prince asked like the words didn’t make sense to him.

“No one told me I needed to get a wand! I don’t even know where to get a wand! How do I even pay for a wand? I can’t—”

“Please, do not panic,” the Prince says and puts one gentle hand on my shoulder. 

That, for sure, stops me in my tracks. I can barely feel his hand through the thick fabric of the uniform, but I am well aware that it is there.”

“Take mine. We will sort out the rest later,” the Prince says and releases my shoulder to pull his wand out from his side… somewhere.  He flicks it in front of my face, so close I go cross-eyed to look at it.

It’s elegant, dark brown wood with golden specks throughout. The whole thing its carved to look like a Phoenix, the head being right before the handle, and the tail feathers slowly tapering into the tip of the wand.

It looks more expensive than my parents' house in Lifewood.

“Oh, I couldn’t—”

“I insist. I will not get punished for not having a wand. You certainly will.” He forces the wand into my shaking hand and rips the door open before I can object further.

I am pushed inside the room against my will as fifty, or so, sets of eyes turn to stare at the Prince and me.

The entire room looks to be carved out of stone, half-moon shaped. On the side of the door, where I stand petrified, are long, stone-carved tables curving around the room in levels, going down, down, down creating a rainbow until it reaches the bottom platform where a teacher stands, short and stout, pointing at various objects on a stone table.

The students sit around the rainbow of tables and all were, presumably, watching the teacher five seconds ago, but now are all watching me.

“Ah. Your Highness. So kind of you to escort our new friend to class today. I figured he may get lost on day one,” says the older gentleman standing in the depths of the room.

“My honor, Professor Goodwing,” the Prince says, then sits down at the closest seat to the door. 

I’m frozen for a few seconds longer before I can locate the next closest empty seat. I just need to be sitting and out of the spotlight as soon as possible.

I end up sitting one level lower to the Prince, and one seat to the side. The sweet relief of breath starts to enter me as I begin to sit in the chair to blend in.

“Allen, is it?” asks the man who is clearly the professor. “No, no. Don’t sit down. You must introduce yourself.”

I stagger as I try to stop myself from sitting mid-sit and nearly fall flat on the ground. My nightmare. It is coming to life. Please, just let me sit down!  

“Oh, uh. Y-yes. Allen is correct,” I manage to stutter. 

Professor Goodwing nods and waves his hands around the room. “Wonderful! Tell us about yourself. The rumors are spreading fast about the mysterious newcomer at Wizard Prep. You must’ve impressed somebody high up.”

“I oh…” My words are lost. Can I even say not really, I don’t even know why I am here at all? Probably not. I can’t help but peer over my shoulder at the Prince. His eyebrows raise up and he gives me a subtle not to continue. 

“I… I guess,” is all I can manage to say.

“And…? About yourself?” Professor Goodwing asks again.

“Oh… I uh… I’m from Lifewood Kingdom. Lived there all my life. And I… I, uh, like to paint?” What else is there to say? That’s my whole life in a nutshell.

“That all?”

I nod. Please let this be over now.

“Well. How about a demonstration?” Professor Goodwing asks and my stomach twists so hard I think it’s trying to escape my body and run for cover. “You must know some impressive magic to be transferred from another kingdom by order of the King.”

“I… really… d—”

“Come on now! You’ve got your wand. Use it!” Professor Goodwing looks like a fragile old, roundish man… but his voice carries through the room like thunder when he gets loud. 

The whole classroom starts to clap to encourage me, but all that does is make me want to crawl into a hole and die.

My hands shake, grasped around the phoenix wand. I don’t even know what to do with the thing. Is it anything more than a wooden stick in the hands of someone without magical abilities?

I look around the room to see all the faces of the students I am about to disappoint and who will inevitably hate me for the rest of my life, when I catch the Prince’s gaze one more time.

“Just wave it,” the Prince mouths but says nothing out loud.

Okay. Okay. Just trust him.

Just do it.

I close my eyes and wave the stick right toward the bottom level of the classroom.

The first thing I hear is the shattering of something large and glass. My eyes squint even tighter.

Oh, no. I broke something. I totally destroyed one of the objects on the professor’s table and I am going to get kicked out of class and maybe the school. 

It happened. My worst fears.

I knew I was not supposed to be here!

But the sounds of the shards never hit the ground and the classroom goes silent.

When I open my eyes, I see that I have, in fact, destroyed a large vase full of pink and purple flowers…

However, the shards of glass and broken bits of flowers and leaves are not scattered all over the floor. Instead, they hang in mid-air, frozen in place. 

At once, all the bits of the vase start to float back together and gather up on the table. They do not form into the same vase that they came from. Instead, they form together into the shape of a glass tiara, floating, and decorated with the flowers woven throughout. It casts a streak of rainbow across the table as it catches a lightsource from nowhere.

The professor is speechless, as is the class and… well… me…

What had happened? How did I?

Before I get the chance to think about it longer, the classroom erupts into cheers. Some random kid next to me hits me on the shoulder and says, “That was sick, man!”

“Impressive, Mr. Silverlake. We cannot wait to see what you accomplish here!” yells the professor as I am finally allowed to sit down and disappear. But I don’t disappear. Everyone is still looking at me.

Everyone except the Prince who is not moving, but hiding his hands next to his neck and focusing quite hard on the spot where the new tiara floats above the table.

Was that… him?

I peer down at the phoenix wand, now a bit warm in my hands. 

The Prince is truly looking out for me, isn’t he?