Clovix Club: Origination

Chapter 1 - A Delayed Arrival

Alma

She sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs in front of the Headmistress' desk. The Headmistress herself faced one of the large windows lining the back wall of the office. Her arms were held gracefully behind her back as she gazed down at the quad.

Students had been arriving at the Alfea College for Fairies for the past few days. Only the last stragglers reporting in on today, the last day before classes. Alma was one of them, having stalled as much as she could to avoid showing up at the school. As soon as she had set foot on school grounds, she had been accosted by a rather severe-looking woman with a clipboard, demanding her name. As soon as she had given it, through gritted teeth no less, she had been immediately sent to the Office of the Headmistress.

 
On her way through the halls of the school, she clenched and unclenched her fists. Half out of the nerves of being in a strange place, half because she was imagining how good it might feel to have her fist collide with Griselda's sharp jaw. A name she only knew not because the woman had introduced herself, but because Alma had heard it being whispered by students she passed as she stalked away.

 
Not known for being very polite, Alma was the only one in the equation who had introduced herself. It had just been her name and home planet, but it had been more than an immediate snap for her to go somewhere else. The slight fueled the anger stoking in her even more. If she was already this annoyed with the school before it even started, she couldn't tell what was going to happen to her when classes began.

For a short moment, she entertained the thought of failing out of Alfea. Pros were she wouldn't be forced to attend a school she never wanted to go to in the first place, and she would be free to do whatever she wished.

 
Cons, well, she'd probably have to live in the woods eating berries for the rest of her life - something completely possible but too time-consuming. Or she'd have to get a job and that would take time away from her purpose in Magix. And leaving the school without an education probably meant she wouldn't get far in life in Magix, somewhere she'd probably be stuck forever.
She sunk lower in the chair, crossing her arms tighter over her chest. The scowl she had been sporting all day deepened. Perhaps all the dragging her feet to avoid showing up to the school early had backfired on her. Disciplinary issues before she was even enrolled. She could already feel the Archonness regretting pulling the strings to achieve her enrollment in Alfea.

She'd been rejected from Red Fountain for the reported reason of being 'overqualified', which she thought was a load of shit, but it was one she had no control over. Her burgeoning fairy powers had both landed her a spot at Alfea and a one-way ticket off her home planet of Destune.
She'd been sent with the express purpose of protecting the heir of Destune, a young specialist named Vale who was starting his first year at Red Fountain. She wasn't exactly sure about how effective she would be at her task from a completely different school, but she was the only one the Archoness could manage to get off-planet, so she would have to do.

"Alma," The Headmistress began. Alma steeled her face, pushing away her inner monologue. "I am Headmistress Faragonda." She could have told her that. Her home planet may be the textbook definition of isolated, but everyone knew who the Headmistress of Alfea was. She bit her tongue though, not wanting her smart mouth to dig her in even deeper. Not that she even knew why she had been rushed so unceremoniously to the office in the first place. She hadn't even dropped off her bags in her room; they lay in an awkward heap by the door behind her.

"As you may be aware, Alfea has experience supporting students from less," Faragonda hesitated, searching for the right words. "From less magically inclined backgrounds." And there it was. Alma uncrossed her legs, letting her foot stomp against the tile of the office. Faragonda wasn't phased, continuing in her spiel. "Alfea is prepared to help you with anything you need in your transition." To her credit, Alma would later be able to say she had at least attempted to bite her tongue at this moment. But as it had many times before, her temper won out.