I said, walking over to her table. “What’s your name?”
“Kayla…”
she said, still staring at her book. “My old friends used to call me Kay.”
“Old friends?”
I asked, furrowing my brows together. “What happened to them?”
“They are at my old school. I haven’t heard much from them since I moved a week ago.”
“You are new here?”
I asked; that explained why I didn’t recognize her.
She nodded her head once.
“I just transferred,”
she explained.
“What school did you transfer from?”
I asked.
She was quiet for a moment as if she was trying to decide what to tell me or not, which made me even more curious about her.
“School of Magic in Emerson,”
she said in a breath.
I raised my brows at her; Emerson was very far from here. Not as far as Monstro, but it was an airplane ride away. School of Magic was one of the best schools for both witches and fairies. We didn’t have a lot of witches at this school, but we did have a few and we had a bunch of different courses for them.
We had no fairies at this school though; fairies aren’t always known for their niceness despite what popular stories might say. Most of them couldn’t stand shifters and other creatures of the night. They were selfish and if you got too close to one, they could, and most do, harm with their magic. They are known to keep to themselves, and they certainly aren’t ones to mess with.
With that being said, most fairies don’t want to attend a school where shifters are, so we don’t have any at this school. But that doesn’t mean this school isn’t open to them.
I never encountered a fairy myself; I’m not exactly sure what one would look like. I imagine them to be very tiny just as the stories say, however, the stories tend to be wrong about a lot of things.
When I didn’t say anything, she continued.
“There’s no one of my kind here… so making new friends is difficult,”
she admitted, her face growing even more red.
“So, you are a fairy.”
It wasn’t a question, but she nodded anyway.
“I know what the rumors say that we aren’t nice creatures,”
she said as she met my eyes. “And that may be true for a lot of fairies. But my family and I are different. We moved away and started a new life. It’s a difficult adjustment…”
“It’s always hard going to a new school. This is my second year at this academy and I’m still trying to get used to it.”
Her eyes widened.
“Second year? How old are you? You look so young, I would have thought it was your first year or something,”
she said, staring around my face with an alarmed expression, making me chuckle.
“I’m 18,”
I answered. “The academy starts at the age of 17,”
I further explained.
“You’re my age,”
she said. “The school of Magic starts at the age of 15. I went there for 3 years before coming here. I’m starting fresh with my family, so I guess technically this is my first year.”
I sat down beside her.
“So, you are from Emerson? I heard that’s a beautiful city,”
I say fondly.
I’ve only ever briefly heard about Emerson in class, but I never visited, and I always wanted to.
“It was very nice yes,”
she said, but I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. “But the city life wasn’t a place for us. We stuck it out for a few years, but….”
Her voice trailed off, not wanting to continue any further.
“It’s okay,”
I said quickly. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
She swallowed hard before taking a deep breath.
“My mother got sick because we couldn’t be in our natural habitat,”
she said in a breath.
“Natural habitat?”
I asked, unsure of what that meant.
“We are forest fairies,”
she explained. “We have to be near the forest and in the city, there aren’t many forest lands.”
“A forest fairy?”
I asked, my eyes widening. “So, you draw strength from the forest?”
She nodded her head once.
“We work to keep the forest alive,”
she further explained. “It’s our main job.”
“That’s cool,”
I said, and I truly meant that. “I too draw strength from the forest in a way. It helps strengthen my abilities as a Volana and it centers me.”
She gasped loudly.
“You’re a Volana wolf?”
She asked.
She didn’t sound terrified, just shocked. I nodded my head in response.
“Wow. I had never met a real Volana before. But I heard of them. You don’t seem as vicious in real life,”
she said, staring around my face in wonder.
I laughed.
“I could say the same about you,”
I said in return; this made her laugh as well. “Did you say you needed help with your studies?”
She sighed and glanced at her book.
“I’m behind because I’m starting in the middle of the school year. These lessons are different than the ones I’m used to at my old school and I’m kind of lost…”
she admitted. “I’m not sure what to do. My parents are paying a lot of money to send me here and I don’t want to disappoint them.
“Hey, it’s okay,”
I said with a smile. “I don’t mind helping you. I’m pretty good at most subjects. I can swing by your dorm later and we can get to work. I’m assuming the rest of your assignments are there, right?”
She was quiet for a moment longer, staring down at her hands now.
“I actually live off campus with my parents,”