Amethyst Night - The Secrets of Nightingale Academy - Chapter 4

A Strange New Life

Fey shook me lightly until I opened my eyes.

“If you don’t hurry you’ll miss breakfast,” she told me.

I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock, which had failed to go off, and was shocked to realise that she was right.

“Bugger,” I exclaimed, jumping out of my bed and grabbing my clothes out of the wardrobe.

Fey giggled; being dressed and premed herself, she had time to relax and watch me frantically running around. I pulled my pyjamas off and slipped into my uniform. Then, hopping around, I tugged my socks on to my feet, almost falling over, and stepped into my shoes.While I sat on my bed to tie my shoe laces, Fey came round to sit on the bed behind me, pulling a hair brush through my hair. Her hands were gentle as they detangled the mousy strands.

“Thanks,” I said, peacefully.

“You’re welcome,” she said. Then she placed the brush back in a drawer and we met up with the other girls in the common room.

“This sucks,” Celia Pitch moaned. “We have lessons today.”

“I know,” Sophia Peterson agreed.

I didn’t dare talk to them – the way they turned away from me and ignored me when I spoke made it pretty clear that they didn’t want to talk to me. When we reached the dining hall I took my seat next to Leo and grabbed a bowl and a spoon from the middle and poured some cereal and milk into my bowl.

“Looking forward to your first day?” Leo asked.

“I’m dreading it,” I admitted. “That is if I actually make it to the classroom with out getting lost.”

He smiled at me. “I’ll wait outside the dorms and we can walk down together, if you want.”

I smiled back. “That would be helpful. Thanks.”

I took a spoonful of cereal up to my mouth and looked up just as he was taking his seat. Phoenix Parker appeared, as if on cue, and my previous relaxation disappeared. He took his seat and grabbed a bowl and a spoon from the middle of the table. The others greeted him as he sat down, while I dropped my eyes to the table and ate my breakfast with out speaking. Then I made a massive mistake – I looked up. Though he was talking to Fey and Gemini, Phoenix was looking at me. He scowled at me, his ice cold eyes looking straight into mine. I had had enough of him treating me like that so I scowled back at him. That probably wasn’t a good idea but it was too late to take it back so I just stood up and placed my bowl on one of the trolleys before leaving with Leo.

“Are you all right?” he asked as we were walking along the corridor. “Phoenix hasn’t exactly greeted you with open arms.”

I shrugged. “I’ll survive.”

He held the door open for me as we entered the common room. Slipping past him, I went straight towards my room to fetch my books for my first lessons. When I opened the door to leave I was met by an unwelcome surprise.

“You won’t need all those books,” Phoenix said, scrutinising the pile of books in my arms. “Someone took you for a mug.”

You’re kidding me.

I forced my anger back and simply smiled at him. “It’s better to come prepared,” I told him, a fake smile plastered on my face.

He simply scowled at me and went into his room.

I made my way back out of the corridor leading to the bedrooms and found Leo waiting for me, looking a little surprised when he saw my pile of books – I was more than a little hacked off when I saw his tiny pile. We walked down the complicated corridors and out of the dormitory. Then we followed the outdoor pathways until we reached a block of classrooms.

“We have theory class first,” Leo told me as we walked along. “So we should be starting off nice and easy.”

We reached a dark wood door surrounded by panes of glass, the type they put in your front door that makes everything blurry so that people can’t peep into your house, in matching dark wood frames. Leo opened the door for me, again, and I slipped into the room, thanking him, again. A lot of people were already there and the best seats at the back were either taken or being saved. Leo led me to a desk at the front. Every desk had apparatus set up and there was a long table at the front covered with ingredients for potions. I dropped my pile of books on the desk and sat down, sorting through the pile to find my theory books. Leo pulled a book out of the middle of the pile and held it out to me.

“It’s this one,” he said, doing well not to laugh at me like some kids at the back of the room were.

“Thanks,” I said, taking the book from him.

He sat down next to me as the room slowly began to fill up. Then the bell rang and I could hear the sound of purposeful foot steps behind me. They carried the gentle click of a man’s business shoes and were quickly paced; they announced the arrival of the teacher. I turned my head round to watch him come through the door. He wore a suit, tailored, probably magically like the school uniforms, with a thin black tie and a long black suit jacket. His hair was also black and cropped. His cheeks were sunken, giving him a permanently sour look, and his forehead was creased with the wrinkles that transpire from a constant frown. A pair of glasses with small, circular lenses and tarnished, gold frames shielded his deep, brown eyes. His face was stern and Phoenix Parker walked at his side.

What the hell?

Phoenix walked beside him as if he was next to a close friend and not a teacher, and he commanded the same amount of respect as the teacher beside him. They split up, Phoenix heading for the last seat at the back of the room and the teacher heading for the front. He dropped a single book on the desk at the front of the room and turned to face us, pausing momentarily to scan the faces gazing back at him.

“Good morning class,” he said, his face remaining emotionless. “As usual, I will be your theory teacher and this class will include the practical applications of alchemy.” He paused as his eyes reached me and a scowl came over his face. “You must be Miss Amethyst Night.”

I shifted awkwardly in my seat. “Yes sir,” I mumbled.

His scowl deepened. “Welcome to Nightingale Academy.”

I hesitated, trying to figure out whether that was genuine or not, but he started his lecture before I could speak.

“Open your books to page five, we will be starting with a review of what ingredients you would generally find in different potions,” he instructed, looking out over the class again.

I was more than a little grateful for the book in front of me, as I would never be able to do the work without it, but, to my distain, when I got to page five, I discovered it was entitled revision questions and, sure enough, was filled with questions and not answers.

I turned to Leo. “I’ve never heard of any of these potions,” I whispered.

He smiled at me reassuringly. “You’ll get the hang of it,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

My eyes went back to my book.

“Now,” the teacher began. “Who can tell me the most common ingredient of summoning potions?”

Some hands went up around me. I looked around only to find that most people seemed to know the answer.

“Phoenix,” the teacher decided, a slight smile appearing on his face.

“Hair,” Phoenix said.

“Hair?” I whispered to Leo.

He quickly explained that hair was easy to collect and mix into the potion but that any possession of the subject would suffice. I had a lot of other questions but I caught the teacher looking at me. He looked back to Phoenix and praised him before asking for the most common ingredient in an emotion altering potion. He scanned the room and picked Celia, who declared, smugly, that the answer was, “gem stones.”

“You can put those in a potion?” I whispered to Leo again. He explained that they were only used in emotion altering potions because they could affect the human psyche. I was starting to feel a little disorientated and was about ready to call it quits when I looked up and found the teacher looking at me again, scowling through his glasses.

“How about you Miss Night?” he said, seeming slightly angry. “Did you any of those answers?”

I stared up at him helplessly, uttering only noises.

“Well?” he pressed.

“No sir,” I said sheepishly.

“Can you answer any of the questions on that page?” he asked.

“No.”

“Well, then perhaps you listen to my lesson, Miss Night. You might actually learn something.” He turned away and started his lesson properly again, seeming pleased with how much he’d humiliated me.

When the lesson ended, I grabbed my books, stood up and left the room as quickly as I could.

“Someone’s in a hurry,” Gemini called out from behind me.

I ignored him. Leo caught up to me too quickly.

“How are you going to get by here if you can’t even make simple potions?”

I stopped, forcing myself to remain calm, and turned to face him. Phoenix Parker was sat on one of the desks looking as cocky as ever and annoying the hell out of me. His lips pulled back in an arrogant smile.

“I guess you just won’t get by,” he said.

I allowed myself a moment of weakness and scowled at him. Then I turned and walked away with Leo to our next lesson. As we left I checked the door to find out that the teacher was Mr Keats.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

Leo guided me to our next lesson, which was maths, so it was something that I could do easily. I ended up sat next to Fey and just behind Leo so I had a comfortable defence around me when Phoenix walked in. The teacher went straight to setting some work, which Leo said was harder than usual; I think I was the only one who guessed why. Taking one look at the sheet, I confirmed that the work was definitely difficult for the first lesson of the year and definitely for my benefit. This guy was doing exactly the same thing that Mr Keats had done – he was trying to make me look like an idiot so, when it came to asking for answers, surprise, surprise, he asked me first. Luckily I was good at maths so he didn’t get the satisfaction of making a fool out of me. It was a small victory but I was more than a little satisfied with the surprised and disappointed look that he wore when I gave him the correct answer.

A note fluttered onto my desk. I opened it and read the words “Smart arse” accented by a winking, smiling face. I looked up and my eyes met Rune’s. She grinned at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. It was an extra bonus for me that the regular, non-magic classes were mixed, meaning that people from any house could be in them. Having Rune in the same maths and English and having Gemini, Celia and Sophia in neither of them was heaven.

“I can help you revise theory if you want,” Fey said when the teacher set us another piece of work.

“Really?” I asked, struggling to disguise my relief.

“If you’ll do something for me,” she said.

“What?”

“Help me with maths.” She showed me her book. The page was covered with crosses apart from a single tick.

I tried, and failed, to stop myself from laughing. Then we both looked at each other and started giggling.