“My pleasure. I’m Eva, by the way.” She held out her hand. It was a bit awkward being so close, but the girl made the effort to shake it.
“Juliana.”
“Nice to meet you.” Something clicked in Eva’s head. “Juliana Rivas?”
The blond’s head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes again. “You know me?”
“Only your name,” Eva said quickly. “Zoe Baxter, a teacher, mentioned we would be roommates with another girl.” As the blond relaxed, Eva said, “I wonder what the odds of sitting next to you are.”
Juliana dropped her head back to her knees. A muffled voice leaked out from between her arms. “Probably pretty good,” she said. Eva raised an eyebrow and the blond continued. “We’re not exactly going to the most prestigious magical academy around the country. More like the laughing-stock to be honest. I doubt there are more than ten freshmen girls including the two of us.”
“Ah,” Eva murmured with a frown. Neither the pamphlet nor Mrs. Baxter mentioned anything about the school being poorly regarded. Not that it was really something to advertise. Not to mention she wouldn’t be going anywhere at all without the scholarship provided by the school.
“Don’t worry about it. My brother said that the teachers are decent. It just uses teaching practices that are ‘untraditional’ in his words.” She shrugged, cracking her neck from side to side before dropping back to her knees. “Besides, if you are the one who brewed that potion, you’re probably at least a few years ahead of any school. In that department at least.
“Now,” she said, “I’m going to try to get some sleep.”
Eva nodded. “I’ll try not to disturb you.”
With that, the blond’s head dipped back to her knees.
Eva leaned back in her chair. She took a quick sip of her drink, lemon this time, and decided she may as well sleep too.
—
Two guys and a girl got on the plane at the first stop. All three headed straight towards the second compartment after hesitantly glancing about.
The captain had come on again repeating his speech, but this time saying that they would be waiting a good half-hour before departing.
Juliana stirred awake at the loudspeakers’ noise. She seemed to be feeling much better. Whether it was the nap or the potion, Eva didn’t know.
An awkward silence settled between the two. They exchanged greetings after she awoke, but Eva just didn’t know what to talk about. She never had much of a social life apart from Arachne and Devon. Maybe a handful of other demons that she or her master regularly summoned. Nothing they discussed seemed like a very safe topic with regular people.
Just as she was about to ask a few general questions about magic and the academy, the group that had been sitting on the couch approached. Two guys and two girls, all looking Eva’s age, stood around.
Eva felt a pit in her stomach. She had never been a victim of bullying in her old school, not unless you counted the minor annoyance that was Todd Farkas. This could be dangerous. At least, Eva thought so until the boy with brown and short, wavy hair offered his hand.
“Jordan,” he said.
Eva hesitantly shook his hand. “Eva,” she said.
The group then went through and introduced themselves to both Eva and Juliana. Maximilian liked to be known as simply ‘Max’. He was a bit taller and had the beginnings of brown facial hair poking off his face.
Irene and Shelby were twins. They didn’t really look it; one had brown hair and the other had black, Shelby seemed a bit more developed than Irene as well.
Jordan and the twins grew up together and all decided to attend Brakket despite the twin’s parents wanting them to go to a different school. They met Maximilian while shopping for school supplies and became fast friends. At least, according to Max. The face Irene made while he was telling his tale led Eva to believe it was a bit tall.
“I couldn’t help but overhear earlier,” Jordan said as soon as introductions were over, “you gave her a potion?”
Eva grimaced. “Yeah, is that a bad thing? I don’t know much about magical society.”
“Oh no. At least, I don’t care. I doubt anyone else would either. I’m quite interested in brewing myself though and was wondering if you might let me take a look.”
Eva shrugged and pulled out her potion case. She withdrew another light blue vial and handed it to the boy.
He held it up to the light of the window and rolled it back and forth. Eva wasn’t sure what he was trying to learn from it. After a moment of everyone just staring at him, he eventually handed it back with a nod. “Pretty good,” he said.
Eva wasn’t sure if that ‘pretty good’ had qualifiers attached to it like ‘for an amateur,’ but she decided to take it as a compliment anyway. “Thanks.”
Maximilian had knelt down during Jordan’s examination. Eva froze as she saw him try to peek past the book blocking the front of the carrier. “Who is in here?” he asked far to innocently.
“Aww,” Shelby cooed as she knelt down. “Have you got a little kitten?”
“It’s– I–”
