Amethyst Night - The Secrets of Nightingale Academy - Chapter 3

Houses

When I came through the transporter, I found myself in a clean white room, tiled floors and walls and a metal door at the other end. We were funnelled forward. I followed the person in front of me, trying to ignore how dizzy I felt. When I stumbled Leo caught me and helped me back up.

“The transporter can leave you feeling a little disorientated at first,” he explained. “That’s why we don’t use it very often. Only for trips that need to be secure.”

Why did the trip to school need to be that secure?

We filed out of the room into the bright sunshine of the late morning. When my eyes adjusted I saw the building that I had seen so many times on the TV. It was huge and the stone that made it was a pale sand colour with patches of grey. Pillars, alcoves and gargoyles decorated the outside and the path we were following led to a ridiculously large pair of oak doors. As the first students reached the doors, they swung open, creaking and booming so loudly that the sound rang out through the surrounding area. As we entered the building there was an announcement playing on repeat.

“All students report to your chambers separated by houses,” it instructed. “All new students report to the dressing rooms at the back of the hall. If you don’t know where to go, ask one of the student council members. They are here to help you.”

Leo pointed over to a boy about two years older than us and told me to say that he’d sent me. I nodded and watched him disappear into the crowd. I headed over to the boy he’d pointed out.

“Hi,” I said awkwardly. “Leo said that I should ask you where to go.”

“Leo, huh?” he said, smiling widely. He had soft blonde hair and blue eyes and rounded features. “Well a friend of Leo’s is a friend of mine. Follow me.”

He swept out of the room down a corridor and I hurried to keep up. When we turned at a T-junction he pointed to a door at the end and said, “You’ll find a uniform in there. Change and wait and someone will collect you.”

“Thank you,” I said as he went back the way we’d come.

I went into the room and discovered it was a large changing room. Younger students, all female of course were already in there changing. I headed over to a cupboard at the end of the room and followed the signs to find my size. Then I took my uniform and chose a hook to change at. Once I’d changed and folded my clothes into a neat pile, I admired myself in one of the many mirrors. I was wearing a knee length, black skirt with a high waistband. My fitted, Victorian style blouse, complete with pin tucks and double cuffs, was tucked into my skirt and the collar was tied with a thin dark blue ribbon. Over all of that I wore a tailored blazer with slits in the side and the Nightingale crest on the breast pocket. When I put them on the clothes altered to fit me perfectly. I stepped into my sensible black shoes just as Miss Chariot swept into the room in a fancy red evening gown.

“Come now,” she called out. “Follow me to the hall.”

Everyone started walking and I followed. We made our way along the grand hallways and went up a wide wooden staircase before coming to another set of large oak doors that, again, opened on their own. Behind them was a hall. It had walls that were panelled along the bottom and bare stone at the top and dark wood floors. And it was enormous. There were six long, rows of ornate, dark wood chairs, which the students were sat on, and a few spare seats at the front for the new comers. There was a raised platform with seven chairs, one larger and grander than the others in the middle, sat on it. There was a long, red rug creating a path up the centre of the room that we were guided along and candles, flowers and other ornaments decorated the room, some sitting on large tables that lined the walls and others hanging on the walls. Behind the largest chair on the platform there was a gold framed mirror.

Miss Chariot led us to the platform and waited until we were all up the stairs before sitting down in the biggest, grandest chair.

“Welcome to another year at Nightingale Academy and to those of you who have just joined us welcome to your first,” she said, smiling at me. “Now, shall we announce the new members of each house?”

The hall suddenly erupted with cheering. A man who had been sat in one of the other six chairs stood up and handed a piece of paper to Miss Chariot.

“Those who are joining the bottom house, Hexer are as follow,” she said. Then she read out a list of names. “Those joining the fifth house, Penter.” More names. “Those joining the forth house, Buter.” More names. “Those joining the third house, Proper.” I still hadn’t heard my name. “Those joining the second house, Mether.”Still my name was not read out. “Those joining the top house, Ether, are as follow: Amethyst Night.”

What?

I could feel all the eyes in the room on me. I walked down the steps of the platform towards the row of chairs furthest to the right and walked along to the section where the year nines were sat. There was a single empty chair next to Leo. I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down.

“You must be a really powerful witch,” Leo said. “Only one other person has entered the top house on his first day at the academy and that’s Phoenix.”

I suddenly felt the pressure I was under having been put in the top house. Great.

“Now you have some free time to get settled in,” Miss Chariot informed us.

People were getting up to leave. Everyone seemed to know exactly what to do and where to go. Meanwhile I just sat there and looked around for some clue as to what it was that I was meant to do.

“Come on,” Leo said, standing up. “I’ll show you where the dorm rooms for our house are.”

I stood up and followed him out of the hall and along more corridors until I was sure I would never find my way out of this place again. He led me out of the first building and along the path ways that led to another large, but slightly smaller than the first, building that resembled an old boarding house. It had pale cream, painted pebble dashing and dark wood beams on the walls. We entered the building and went through a door at the top of some stairs into some sort of common room. Leo was greeted by different people we passed, while the only greeting I got was people scowling at me. I felt like a complete outcast.

“Fey,” Leo said, putting his hand on the shoulder of girl with blonde hair that was so pale it was almost white and mint green eyes.

“Leo,” the girl said distantly.

“Can I ask you a favour?” he asked.

The girl looked at me and smiled gently. “Amethyst Night, right?” she said.

“Yeah,” I said.

“I’m Fey Winters,” she said.

“Can you help Amethyst settle into the girls section of the dormitories?” Leo asked.

“Sure,” Fey said, smiling at him.

She stood up and signalled for me to follow her. We went through another door which led on to a long corridor with doors on either side. As we walked she explained that the girls’ rooms were all on the left and the boys’ on the right. The girls’ bathrooms were at the end of the corridor on the left and the boys’ on the right. The boarding house was seven floors, one for each house plus the communal floor where the dining hall and other important rooms were. Each floor was then split into five sections, one for each year group. She opened one door and held it for me to go into the room. It was small, with two beds, two dressers and two lamps. It was a room perfectly set out for two people to share, but the size meant that we would be quite close. It was the sort of room that I loved most with a cosy, warm feeling to it. There was a single window throwing light across the beds, with red curtains draped on either side. One of the beds was taken, sheets pulled back and personal items placed on the bedside table.

“This is my room,” Fey said. “And now it’s yours too.” She smiled at me. “I’ll give you some time to sort your stuff out.”

Then she left me alone in my new room.

When lunch time came Fey appeared in the doorway.

“Come on,” she said, emanating serenity. She moved with the same grace as Miss Chariot did and I couldn’t help but be jealous of her for it.

I followed her to a large hall on the ground floor of the dormitory building. She seemed to have a lot of friends in our house but she was the only one who talked to me and I caught some of them giving me dirty looks. I’d made a brilliant first impression.

“Amethyst?”

I looked up from my almost completely destroyed meal to see many eyes, including Leo and Fey, staring at me. Leo was sat next to me, watching me with a worried look on his face.

“Are you all right?” he asked, looking down at my plate of what used to be food.

“I’m fine,” I lied. I stood up and picked up my tray. “I think I’m just going to get some fresh air.”

“Ok,” Fey said slightly nervously.

I carried my tray over to a trolley with trays piled on it and put it down. As I was leaving the hall I could feel all the eyes in the room on me, most of them probably scowling at me. I didn’t have to look to know who was looking at me. Except one. Just as I reached the door, I turned my head slightly and looked out of the corner of my eye and was instantly met by his ice cold gaze, sending shivers down my spine. Phoenix Parker was scowling at me as if I was his worst enemy and I couldn’t figure out why but I wasn’t surprised either.

Then I was out the door and freed from his death stare. I walked along the many complicated corridors until I found a route that led outside. There were massive expanses of land that surrounded and filled the spaces between the many large buildings that made up the city like school. Fields and pavements stretched all the way up to massive forests that surrounded the entire academy. I walked slowly towards the extensive forests. Seeing as I loved animals as much as I loved humans, I had always been a fan of the great outdoors.

“Hey,” someone called out. It was the boy that Leo had sent me to. He grinned at me. “Settling in?”

“Uh…Yeah, thanks,” I said nervously. His smile widened. “I’m Amethyst.”

“I’m Jonathon,” he said happily. “Checking out the woods?”

“Yeah, I thought I might,” I said, relaxing a little.

Another boy came bouncing over to us joyfully. He was probably younger than the first but had the same hair and eye colour and the same soft features so I guessed that they were probably brothers.

“Go to North or South woods then,” the younger boy said. “But not the West Woods. The Wicked Witch of the West Woods lives there and she doesn’t like students.”

I cast a gaze over my shoulder curiously. Jonathon laughed and thumped the first boy lightly.

“Don’t tease her, Marcus,” he said, scolding the younger boy.

They both chuckled. Another older boy called out to them from his seat on a bench and they bid me farewell, heading over to their friends. I watched them leave and decided that I’d continue exploring on another day. Then I walked back towards the buildings and started walking around randomly, trying to find my way back to the dorms and failing miserably. I stopped walking and just stood in the middle of the path way, looking around for any clues as to which way I should go. I was lost.

“Amethyst?” someone called from behind me.

I turned to see Rune walking towards me with Alex.

“Hey,” I said as they came closer to me.

“You’re lost,” she said accusingly.

“No I’m not,” I said defensively and instinctively and, immediately afterwards, regrettably. I had said it without thinking, even though I was obviously lost and desperate for help. I laughed nervously.

Rune giggled. “It’s a big campus,” she admitted.

“Big?” I said, again without thinking.

She giggled again.

“Seriously,” I said. “It’s massive.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Alex assured me.

“I’m not so sure,” I said shaking my head. “I’ve never had a very good sense of direction.”

Alex chuckled.

“I’m serious,” I said defensively. “How am I supposed to settle in if I can’t even remember where my room is?”

“Oh, I just remembered,” Rune said, pulling a small blue stone out of her pocket. “Here. It’s a locater stone. Just think of your destination and it will direct you there.”

I took the stone from her hand and put it in my pocket. “Thanks,” I said.

“Come on,” Alex said, grinning at me. “We’ll help you get back to your dorm.”

“Thanks,” I said, following them along the pathways again.

Nightingale Academy would certainly take some getting used to; I hadn’t even started lessons yet and I already felt like I was in over my head. When I’d been exploring the school’s grounds I had seen kids half my size, and I wasn’t exactly tall, floating things twice my size just because they could. I’d seen a group of boys playing football, but the rules of this game meant that you didn’t actually have to kick the ball, just hit it with your best spell. When I saw one of them set fire to it I decided that it was something I would never get used to. A group of girls had mastered styling their hair with magic, sometimes changing the colour by just clicking their fingers only to change it back ‘cause it didn’t suit them, and loads of people travelled around on brooms, because walking was so last year. My mind was spinning round in circles, trying to figure out how everything I’d seen could ever become normal, and now I was exhausted.

Sluggishly, I headed back to my room and, at some point, I must have fallen asleep because I didn’t hear Fey come in. I was faintly aware of some noise in the room so I forced my eyes to open and was met by the dim, orange glow of artificial lights. Noticing that I was awake, Fey sat down on her bed and looked peacefully at me.

“I’m sorry,” she said as serenely as always. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s all right,” I told her, blinking to fully wake myself up.

She smiled at me. “Are you tired?” she asked.

“I didn’t think I was.”

She opened a drawer and took out a brush, which she delicately pulled through her hair.

“Are you feeling any better?” she asked. I frowned slightly. “You didn’t seem too well at lunch.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine,” I assured her, smiling so that she would believe me.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

I nodded.

There was a knock at the door. I sat up and Fey went to open it.

“You busy?” Phoenix Parker said from the doorway.

“No,” Fey replied.

“You wanna come sit with us for a bit?” Gemini asked.

Fey turned to me as if to ask for permission. That made Phoenix look into the room properly and as soon as he saw me a scowl occupied his face.

“I’m fine here, if you want to go,” I said, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

She smiled at me. Then she grabbed a jacket off a chair and left. I fell back on my bed and curled up into a little ball under the sheets.