Theo was a vampire and a witch. Maybe I should ask him some questions. That would only require me to work up the courage to talk to him again.
My hawk cawed again, and I looked around. The sky darkened, and the wildflowers faded. My dream was ending already. I stroked his feathers one more time.
“I’ll see you soon.”
When I woke up this time, I was lying on my stomach with my Water Magic textbook still open next to me. It was the only chapter I hadn’t finished, but hopefully, I’d have time during class while everyone else was getting sorted into their specialties.
As long as nothing unexpected happened, I was pretty sure I was ready for my classes. I let myself drift back to sleep, hoping it was dreamless.
Chapter 16
Five nights without a nightmare. I felt more refreshed and energetic than ever. Maybe it was all the reading and studying I was doing. I went to bed each night so exhausted that my mind couldn’t come up with any disasters. I wasn’t positive about what caused the change, but as long as this kept up, I wasn’t going to ask any questions.
“Do you need help?” Malik asked, leaning over and reading my answers to the history homework.
“I don’t think so.” I smiled and read the next question.
My classes weren’t as terrible as I expected. History IV was pretty close to the world history course I took my sophomore year but with a lot more information about the supernatural world. Phenomena humans couldn’t explain were caused by supes. The sudden change of tides in battles? Supes. The mysterious death of a corrupt king or ruler? Supes. Several inventions that helped progress human kind? Supes!
It wasn’t all that surprising once I accepted that the world had more beings and events than humans knew. There was less speculation and assumptions. The historical records kept by the supes were much more detailed, so there wasn’t a need for interpretation. Another thing I noticed was how much less biased the texts were. They were written from the supernatural perspective, sure, but when they made mistakes or shameful decisions, they still recorded them and we learned them. Things weren’t shoved under the rug, forgotten about, or distorted by time.
It was the class I was most confident about since it was all facts. I simply had to learn the supernatural pieces and commit them to memory. I wasn't sure how it would help in the long run, but I dedicated time every night to making progress. I needed to pass all my classes.
For the first time in my life, I was doing well in math, and it was the only class where I wasn’t behind. Conversions and measurements weren't something that changed from the human world to this one. The best part was Mr. Fitz accepted we would almost always have access to tools like conversion charts and calculators in real-life situations, so he let us use them on assignments and the upcoming exams. It wasn’t the most interesting course, but I was grateful to have one worry-free class.
“Did you get to the one about Joan of Arc yet?” Daniel asked, chewing on the end of his pen.
“Yeah, you need to skim the entire Hundred Years’ War section for the answer,” Hannah replied.
This was how most of our study sessions went, and I was glad it wasn’t entirely focused on me like I’d expected. We did our assignments together, and as questions came up, we asked each other. On Tuesday, Malik and Daniel’s friend, Carter joined us. He was a vampire from their rugby team, and he hadn’t said much other than asking how I was liking the academy and letting me know he was willing to help me too.
It was really nice of him. I thought the students might be more competitive or mean like at my last school, but everyone I met was nice. Aside from Niall and my brash roommate. Maybe it was because they were friends with my new friends. I hadn’t talked to enough of my other classmates to know for sure.
I closed my math book and opened my Science IV text with excitement. I was actually going to learn magic for potion making, portal creation, and animating objects. Not that we’d done any of that yet, but I had read through the previous year’s textbook Hannah helped me check out. Since their first two years had been really basic, I was only behind by one. I’d never done so much school work or studying in my life, but things were different now. I cared more. Learning mattered. This wasn’t useless information to cram in minutes before a test only to forget as soon as I turned it in. I needed to know how to create spells, brew potions, and control magic. History gave me a much better understanding of my new world and answered questions I hadn’t even known I had.
Like the supernatural council. It was founded hundreds of years ago before William Drexel established peace. The group led the entire supe world, keeping non-supes unaware of their existence and acting as the governing head of all the people. The council was the judge and jury for crimes, wrote the laws for the supes, and established a welfare system so no supe was left homeless or hungry. With the peace pact in place, the main council was now located in Scotland, but branches oversaw different regions. Ours was in New York City, and once a year, a representative came to the school to check on the students and give a report, like a State of the Union.
“I can’t do it anymore.” Malik fell back on the floor and threw his arm over his eyes. “Can’t we be done?”
Hannah chuckled. “Did you finish everything?”
He sighed. “No.”
“Just get it done, man. You’ll regret it if you have to do it during lunch tomorrow,” Daniel encouraged. “You don’t want to cancel on Travis, do you?”
I looked back and forth between the two guys. “Who’s Travis?”
Daniel smirked at Malik’s groan. “His latest crush. They have a lunch date planned.”
“It’s not a date,” Malik protested while he sat back up.
“You asked him to hang out. He said lunch worked best. Sounds like a date,” Daniel taunted.
“It’s just hanging out.” Malik didn’t sound convincing at all.
I smiled. “It does kind of sound like a date to me.”
He turned and glared at me while Hannah giggled. “It so is.”