Reckless Magic (6 page)

5.

Kingsley’s campus was hexagonal in
shape. The Administration Building sat in the front, welcoming all
students and guests. But leading out from either side of the
building was a stone pathway connecting all six buildings together
in the shape of a hexagon. A large grassed courtyard was located in
the middle, surrounding a tall, brick bell tower.

The English and Theatrical building
was placed on the far northeast side of campus, and the History,
Language and Arts building was placed on the southeast side. The
walk along the brick path was short; we just had to pass the
Gymnasium to get to it. All of the buildings at Kingsley were built
with the same dark, red brick and in the same architectural
style.

The campus was beautiful. The grass
and trees were still green and the flowers were still in bloom. I
would have loved to have walked this alone, and taken it all in
slowly.

Unfortunately, I was not alone. I had
somehow been forced to walk to French not only with Lilly and
Talbott, who couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off of each other,
but with my new best friends Seraphina and Kiran as well. And to my
disgust, Seraphina could not keep her hands off of him. I realized
this shouldn’t bother me, and I hated that it did.

The walk was short however, and soon
we had all climbed yet another marble staircase to find ourselves
on the second floor of the H and L building. I glanced at Lilly and
she pointed me in the direction of French.

I entered into another class that had
already begun; I was apparently unable to get to class on time
today. A very young, very sophisticated teacher glanced back from
the chalkboard to glare at me. Her short, cropped, black hair was
the same color as her short, cropped, black skirt suit. She wore
bright red lipstick and dark rimmed glasses. She reminded me of
something out of a bad adult film.

“
Vous etes en retard,”
although she was speaking French, her irritated tone did not escape
me.

“
I’m sorry. I’m new,” I
tried in English. I had never had a French class in my life. At my
previous schools I took Spanish; but that was not even offered at
this school and so I was stuck with French because it was the only
open class. Aunt Syl promised me it was very similar, but after
what Kiran said I was pretty sure it was the last available
space.

“
Excusez-nous s'il vous
plaît. C'est toute ma faute,” Kiran and Talbott finally made their
way through the door behind me and of course, Kiran took the
initiative to introduce himself to the teacher; and it appeared he
was speaking in perfect French, although I had no clue what he is
saying. “L'éden est nouvel aussi et nous avons été perdus le long
de la voie. Pardonnez-nous s'il vous plaît.”

“
Oh, ce n'est aucun
problème. Je suis heureux ainsi que vous nous avez trouvés,” the
adult film school drop out responded to Kiran in the most pleasant
voice. She had completely transformed from the woman who spoke to
me only seconds earlier to another adoring fan of our one and only
Kiran. “Accueillez, accueillir.”

“
Eden, you look confused,”
she turned her attention to me, and although she was not completely
rude, she was not completely friendly either. Her English was
marked by an unmistakably French accent. I wondered cynically if
Kingsley had all of their language teachers directly flown
in.

“
I’m sorry, I just, um, I
don’t speak French. I’ve only taken Spanish,” I tried to look as
apologetic as possible, while wondering silently if you could be
kicked out of this school just for irritating the bejeezus out of
every teacher.

“
Cela ne peut pas être ?”
she said again in French, shaking her head. “Why would they put you
in this class if you cannot speak the language?” Without waiting
for an answer, she continued. “Well, you are just going to have to
learn. I refuse to dumb down my curriculum because one student is
ignorant.”

She looked at me as if she expected me
to fight her on this. I didn’t expect her to “dumb” down the class
either. Although, I thought she could have said it in a nicer way;
but that was what I had come to expect of this school, of its
teachers and of its students. I just kept looking at her in the
same apologetic way as before.

“
Well, I suppose the best
way for you to catch up is by full immersion. I am Ms. Devereux. We
speak only French in this class, and although I will give you some
grace, I expect you to get caught up quickly. You will need a tutor
as soon as possible. You will sit at my desk, until I feel you are
ready for a partner. Go quickly,” she waved her arm in the
direction of the teacher’s desk and didn’t give me another look.
“Kiran and Talbott, I am so glad you have chosen this class. Please
sit down anywhere,” she spoke her instructions so quickly and with
such a thick accent I had trouble understanding; but I did as I was
told.

I took my seat at her desk and pulled
out my French books. I knew that I was the center of attention and
again felt completely humiliated sitting in the front of the class,
all eyes staring at me. Worst of all, Kiran was barely able to
contain his laughter.

I opened my books and forced my eyes
on to the page. Even the introduction was written in French. I
rolled my eyes and groaned inwardly, while Ms. Devereux began
speaking rapidly in a language I was afraid would be the reason I
never graduated high school. All of the students answered her
questions without missing a beat, including Kiran whose French
sounded more perfect than even Ms. Devereux’s.

I tried to avoid staring at him the
entire class, but found myself glancing in his direction more than
I would have liked to admit. Every time I looked up from my book, I
found him staring back, making me blush for reasons I couldn’t
understand. I thought I found him completely horrible?

The class flew by in a whirlwind. I
spent most of the hour just trying to find words in the book that I
heard spoken in class. Although I was pretty sure not one French
word was spelled phonetically. It appeared that all of the students
could already speak French fluently and Ms. Devereux was out of her
mind if she thought that I would ever be able to catch
up.

When the bell finally rung, Ms.
Devereux started to lecture me again on the importance of finding a
tutor quickly. But as the entire class had left by now, I didn’t
see that happening today. Kiran and Talbott were the only two
people I recognized in that class and I’d be damned before I asked
either of them.

I found history on the third floor of
the same building and realized that except for French, the same
people were in all of my classes so far. This had to be the entire
junior class. I had been hoping to meet new people, to be given a
second chance at proving I was not the idiot everyone in my class
thought I was. But it didn’t look like I would get that
opportunity.

Thankfully, Lilly saved me a seat and
I took it, grateful once again that she was willing to be my
friend. Mr. Emerson, my “A History of Europe” teacher, was an
elderly man, with an all-white beard and all white hair. He did not
even bother to acknowledge me or Kiran or Talbott, which actually
surprised me. He was so far my favorite teacher. Although I
couldn’t admit that he did much teaching.

We spent the entire hour listening to
him drone on and on, not once looking up from his lecture notes.
His voice was a gruff monotone that I found very hard to listen to.
I struggled to take notes, but noticed that most of the students
were either sleeping on their desk or passing their own notes back
and forth.

Several notes ended up on Kiran’s desk
and I observed his smug smirk after reading each of them. I could
only imagine the important messages the girls in this class found
necessary to send him. Talbott had his fair share of notes as well,
although he had abstained from reading a single one. All the while,
Mr. Emerson was oblivious to it all.

The bell rang and we were off to
lunch. The cafeteria was located exactly one building over from the
Administration Building. Only seniors were allowed to take lunch in
the courtyard and as Lilly and I walked back across campus we
couldn’t help but feel jealous. They sat basking in the sunlight,
and again I noticed that all of them, without exception were
extremely beautiful. The same characteristics that defined my
class, defined them as well, uniquely bright eyes and flowing hair;
they all seemed to be ready for a photo shoot despite the drab
Kingsley uniforms.

Lilly and I walked slowly behind the
throng of juniors in front of us, watching the other students
gather around Kiran aggressively. Talbott stood close to him as if
to protect him from the overzealous girls. The seniors who had thus
far ignored the passing underclassmen seemed just as enthralled
with him as all of the others. Several of the girls and boys stood
up and approached him, shaking his hand and taking pictures with
their cell phones. These people were seriously
delusional.

The cafeteria was more like a great
hall, with long, thick, oak tables set up all over, than an actual
lunch room. I looked to Lilly for direction, but she was looking
down at the ground and her face was all red. We hadn’t talked since
we left the other building and I couldn’t imagine what had upset
her. I wondered if she was just as astounded over the scene in the
courtyard as I was.

“
Are you ok?” I asked,
trying to be as nonchalant as possible.

“
Um, it’s just that, well, I
don’t usually sit with anyone else at lunch,” her voice was shaking
slightly. She was embarrassed because she assumed I would think
less of her. However, I couldn’t have been more thrilled at the
news.

“
Oh thank God!” I blurted
out. We both immediately started laughing and got in line for
lunch.

After picking our way through the
large buffet-like selection of food which seemed to resemble more
of a Thanksgiving feast than cafeteria food, we found an isolated
table and took our seats. I looked around at the lunchroom full of
people, all sitting together in their own respective cliques. I
noticed that Kiran and Talbott had found a table near the middle of
the room surrounded by girls, including Seraphina and several
seniors, all giving Kiran their undivided attention.

“
So what’s the deal with
that girl from earlier?” I tried to sound casual.

“
Which girl?” Lilly looked
up from her apple.

“
The one that could be
Kiran’s twin,” I mumbled, allowing the sarcasm to drip into my
tone. I was embarrassed by the pang of jealousy punching me in the
stomach.

“
Oh, that girl,” Lilly
rolled her eyes and took another bite of apple. “Well her name is
Seraphina Van Curen. Her family has been part of this school
forever, like since it opened a thousand years ago,” Lilly was
obviously not impressed with her either and I breathed a sigh of
relief.

“
Huh,” I said a little
distracted, wishing I was brave enough to ask Lilly to spill all of
the dirt.

“
Apparently Talbott is
impressed with her,” Lilly looked over at the table and the blood
immediately rushed to her cheeks.

“
I don’t think its Talbott
that she’s after,” I said sardonically, but hoping to reassure
Lilly that Talbott was still available. Although I had no idea what
she saw in him.

“
Those girls are the rest of
the girls in our class. The one with short black hair is Adelaide
Meyer, and the one wearing all of the diamonds is Evangeline
Harris. They and Seraphina, make up the holy trinity,” she rolled
her eyes again and I laughed. I’d been in enough high schools to
understand the social order of things. “The rest of the girls are
just followers, with no minds of their own.”

“
Wonderful,” I mumbled under
my breath.

“
Just steer clear and they
won’t bother you…. Most of the time,” she looked down at the table,
in a way that hinted they had probably bothered her more times than
she would like to have admitted.

“
Well this is the side of
the cafeteria I prefer to sit on,” I smiled at her reassuringly; it
could not have been more of the truth.

The bell rang before I was finished
but we got up to clear our things anyways. I wasn’t sure if I was
ready to get back to all of the humiliation. We double checked to
make sure we had the next class together, Calculus, something I was
destined to fail at, and made our way to the exit. Mrs. Truance was
standing in the doorway eyeing me. Great, they had already decided
I didn’t fit in and should be expelled promptly.

“
Ms. Matthews, Principal
Saint would like to see you in his office please, wait here and you
can follow me there,” she looked less than happy to be running this
type of errand. I stopped to wait beside her, waving to Lilly as
she walked by giving me an apologetic smile. “Mr. Kendrick, please
come with me as well.”

Kiran and Talbott had been approaching
us with their group of lackey’s and Kiran rolled his eyes when he
was forced away from them. Kiran walked over to us slowly, and I
noticed that his eyes were looking over me in an appraising way. At
the same time I felt a wave of nausea and a tingle of excitement
ran up and down my spine. And slowly but surely I began to feel the
tiny prickles I knew would soon overwhelm me.