LOST IN THE REEF ~ Wings of Fire / Anemone / Human AU

CHAPTER 1 ~ First Day

The second Anemone walked through Jade Mountain Academy's school gate, she was already sick of the place.

She didn't mind the school so much – she barely knew it. But she was more annoyed still about the bus than anything else. The bus came late, not to mention it was so crowded she couldn't sit anywhere. When she'd stared imploringly at Tsunami for help, her sister had merely smirked at her, as if to say, "You're welcome", or something.

Again, there was a new uniform on her body. Dark green with a white blouse. She liked the senior apple green dress and white skirt Tsunami was wearing more – but honestly, everything about the uniforms sucked.

When she told that to her older sister, Tsunami had simply shrugged. "I'm trying to get it changed so that we can wear almost anything as long as it's appropriate," she said. Anemone had been doubtful of that – How could Tsunami even have that much influence? But apparently, Tsunami's friend Sunny's mother was the principal of the school – Principal Thorn, so Tsunami did have a fair amount of influence.

"Which class am I in?" Anemone asked. Her shoes were terrible as well. Jet black, and already soaked through to the socks, due to a muddy puddle she'd walked through. She didn't want to complain, but Jade Mountain looked full of stone and bricks and hardly any trees. And where was the water? Anemone loved water. She was obsessed with swimming – as most of her family was.

"Hmmm. 7P," Tsunami said at last, examining Anemone's timetable as if it held the secrets to the universe. "It's the creative class."

"Creative as in creative, or creative as in insane?"

"What, do you think yourself as insane?" Tsunami asked, frowning. Anemone shook her head.

"No. I'm just . . ." She sighed, sitting down on a random bench and twirling one of her dyed pale pink and light blue curls around her fingers. "I'm scared, honestly. This is my forever school. And, not to be rude, but it doesn't look that – good, I guess."

Tsunami gasped, mockingly offended. "Did you just insult my high school?"

Anemone picked at her sodden shoes. "Muddy puddles all over the quadrangle even though there's no dirt, dusty corridors, hardly any grass, no rivers or lakes in the back of the school, terrible uniforms, depressing grey skies, moody kids that all seem to be glaring at me . . . are those two kids about to kill each other?"

"Hm? Who?" Tsunami turned around and glanced at the kids Anemone was talking about. A sandy blonde girl with black streaks in her hair, and a redheaded boy with a scarred face. Wait, a scarred face? WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

"Why is his face scarred?" Anemone demanded in a low hiss. Did these kids beat each other up or something? It wasn't that Anemone was fragile like Coral thought – she just didn't want a scarred face like that poor boy.

"Flame and Viper," Tsunami said, inspecting her nails as if the enraged roars from Flame were a common thing. "They should be in your class."

"Hang on, what? My class? Are you serious?" Anemone shrank back as Viper slapped Flame's injured face. So much for kindness. "Tsunami. Please, I beg of you, be joking."

"Nope. Flame plays the guitar, and Viper's good at drawing. Those are the only reasons why they're in here." Tsunami squinted at them, as a teacher came over. "Oh, yay. Old Webs is dragging them off to see Thorn. Weird, they usually get dragged in the moment they walk through the gate."

"This is a nightmare. A literal nightmare. I cannot be awake right now."

Tsunami pinched Anemone's arm, and she yelped. "No, no," Tsunami said dismissively. "You're alive."