The Wind Whispers

Chapter 2: The Academy of Magical Arts

I wasn't actually looking forward to this day but now that it is here I'm both excited and terrified. I didn't have much friends at my old school and didn't want to live the same life here. I wanted to meet powerful people and learn from them as well. I wanted to have friends, crushes, school drama and all that shabang. I made a promise to myself to be bold and try new things. Since it was already late into the year I had a private induction ceremony and moved my stuff in hassle free. I didn't meet anyone from the hostel yet because they had all left for class. IBK was nice enough to escort me past the point my mother couldn't cross. As embarrassing as it was I asked her to at least follow me into class to make it less awkward but she had said no. Actually what she said specifically was "Don't be shy, be brave you're practically an unintentional terrorist. Isn't that enough of a conversation starter?"

"IBK pleeeeaseeeeeee." I whined. "They're in the middle of class it'll be weird if I just go in and sit downnnn. Pleaseeeeee."

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed. "You're wasting my time. Come." She took my hand pushed open the doors and there we were. The whole class had gone silent and turned to face us. They looked at me, back at Ibukun and then at me again. I didn't know whether to say something or just go sit down in an empty seat. I scanned the room and saw an empty seat next to one of the guys whose head was on the table. There was another one next to a girl who was making jokes with the guy in front of her.

"Sorry for interrupting your class everyone." IBK announced. "This is Afua and she'll be joining your year group." I waved. "She's a bit shy and new to this whole magic thing so be nice to her." Immediate mental facepalm. Maybe it would have been less awkward if I just walked in.

"Thanks IBK. See you." I said as I went to the empty seat next to the guy. She had waved to me, silently apologized to the teacher and left. 

"Afua, ba?" The man in front of the class spoke up. His voice was deep, huge, intimidating. It definitely did not match the stunted stature of the man leading the class. I nodded my head in response to his question. "I am Mr. Balogun. I teach Magical Theory and I just so happen to be this class's homeroom teacher." He walked round to his desk and pulled out a couple notebooks. He brought them over and placed them on my table. "Use these for now." Luckily he had brought over a pen too so it saved me the embarrassment of asking for one. I wasn't exactly prepared for this class. When I picked up the pen to fill in the details on the book— name, subject, teacher and start date— he began to speak again. "You see this pen? Guard it with your life o. Don't ask me for another one until the ink finish."

"Okay..." I said awkwardly. He retreated back to the front centre of the room and began cleaning the board.

"Out of consideration for Afua. We can do a review of what we've learned before." He wrote 'Review' at the top of the board. "Oh Afua. Leave space in your book so you can copy the notes you missed from your classmates."

As if on cue the guy who had his head on the table rose up and turned to look at me. "Is your handwriting small or big?" He asked. His hair was disheveled and he looked like he had just woken from deep slumber— or was about to fall into it.

"What?" I responded. His question had caught me off guard.

"Your hand writing." He said again. "Is it small or big? Mine is small so it took only 6 pages." He pointed towards the writing in his book.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "it's about the same size. Thank you." He gave a small smile and I noticed the tiniest mole at the bottom left of his lip. I smiled back or at least I think I did. I left 6 pages empty in my new book and started on the 7th page. I wrote Review at the top and turned back to face Mr. Balogun.

"Magical Theory in a nutshell is the what, why, how and when. We seek to investigate magic. What is magic? What can we do with it? Why does it exist? Why is it important? How do we channel it? How does it work? When has magic gone wrong? When has it gone right? What made the magic successful or unsuccessful? How can we learn from that? Magical theory is all about the nature of magic." Mr Balogun was a very animated guy. His voice was loud and boisterous overshadowing all the other sounds in the room. His hands never stopped moving as he walked up and down the class. He seemed very passionate. "Currently, all of the magic that exists can be separated into three main categories, there is no clear distinction between them but these categories are: Energy, Physical and Skill Magic."