Jiwa

Chapter Two

As I walked out of school a few hours later, I turned to survey the campus, my home-away-from-home. It was certainly very strange and resembled no other school in the world.

Well, no other non-magic school in the world.

My eyes traveled over the different wings of the school. The painting wing was covered in all different colors of wood and plaster. The pottery wing was covered in clay blocks and stucco. The paper-crafts wing was covered in magically enhanced paper machê. Then there was the performing wing, shaped like a huge theater, and the overarching wing, a huge mosaic that depicted all of the other odd-out art forms, like literature or cartoons.

At the main entrance to the school was a statue of the schools' founder, William Peculiar. According to school lore, the dude had been some kind of master artist. He had been the first to recognize that seni-jiwa influences a persons' magical ability. Each of his five children,  the Peculiar Quince, was a Master Artist at one of each type of art the school featured. That was the whole schools' philosophy. There was a Legend that there would be a Divergent-esque savior of the school, whose jiwa was strong with all parts of the Art Quince. At the bottom of the statue was an engraving with the schools' motto.

Seni adalah Kehidupan. Art is Life.

When I opened the door to my apartment, my brother was already slouched on the couch. I dropped my bag in the bin near the door and went into my room. At the time, I didn't consider the fact that my brother was home alone, and there was no trace of my parents or grandparents anywhere my room was pretty tiny, since I spent most of my time at school anyway. It only had a couch/bed with a rolley desk in front of it, a pottery wheel, and a coat tree that housed all of my school uniforms. I spent my weekdays in the dorms, mostly, but today I had decided to come home so I could practice on my pottery wheel. I did not like the idea of fighting with a bunch of Second Years for a class wheel.

I sat down and started the spinning wheel. I wanted to make something and practice my revised charm on it. Mme T had advised me to try my charm on things that were not alive, so I began crafting a mannequin. Just a tiny one, about fifteen centimeters tall. Once I had finished, I took it off and placed it on the bed. I didn't care about the stains; I never slept on it anyways. I raised my hands above it again, and said, "Nor the night is long and hard, rise above ye baird!"

The mannequin shook for a moment, then stood upright. The clay cracked and splintered and fell away from the figure to reveal a bright yellow plastic mannequin. I laughed and clapped with excitement. I gathered up the clay pieces and worked some water into them, setting them back onto the pottery wheel. Then I returned to my bed and picked up the mannequin. There was so much detail, you could hardly believe it had been a relatively shapeless lump of clay two minutes ago.

I glanced at the clock and sighed. It was probably time to eat dinner. The rest of my family tried to keep an honest dinner schedule, but I never bothered. Then again, I hadn't heard my dad making dinner - maybe they were eating out. When I was spending almost all of my time at school anyways, I had never really needed a schedule. I ate whenever I was hungry and studied in most of my free time.

I trundled into the common room at the front of the apartment and grabbed a plate, then plopped a forkful of veggies onto it, from a takeout container I found in the fridge. I didn't think to question why none of my other siblings were there. I sat down next to my brother on the couch and peered at the television. I had never been much akin to the TV, but I made an effort to look interested for my brothers' sake. It was probably not healthy to never have someone with you in the house, especially as a nine-year-old. Nine? Ten? I honestly didn't know anymore. Maybe I did need to spend more time at home...

The show was some kind of nutty story about three little animals having adventures. Not really my jam. I gave up trying to look interested and inhaled the rest of my veggies. After stuffing my bag with a spare uniform and the mannequin, I rushed out the front door after yelling a hasty goodbye to my brother.