Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Chapter 4

10:00 AM September 13th 2026
New York Preparatory Academy, New York, NY

It started out a nice day. Except for that stupid article. But the weather was nice. Really nice. Like most days that change the course of history, they are stereotypically either really nice weather or very terrible weather. It's never just an average blah kind of day. Today it was an absolutely gorgeous Fall morning.

The leaves had just started turning colors, the sky was an unbelievably deep blue for that time of year, and it contrasted incredibly with the red brick buildings of the grounds for the New York Preparatory Academy for the absurdly rich and spoiled. That last part about the absurdly rich and spoiled wasn't actually part of the school's name. That was just something Anna's big brother, Kyle, would say to cheer Anna up about going there.

But it was a really beautiful campus. Austere red brick facades on emerald-green manicured lawns, obsessively landscaped formal gardens, shingled rooftops, and fall leaves. That was why Anna Watkins was deep in concentration, working on a watercolor pencil landscape sketch when Sara White approached unnoticed and kicked her sketchbook out of her hands.

Confused and startled Anna shrieked in surprise and jerked her head up to see who had interrupted her while she was in the zone. Seeing it was the most popular – which everyone knew meant richest – girl in school, Anna contained her sudden urge to destroy the first person she saw. But her nostrils flared, and she pushed the few strands of hair that had escaped her bun back over her ears in a nervous habit.

"What the fuck Sara?" So, what that they weren't allowed to swear at school. Sara's behavior was bullshit.

"You think Liam Ecclestone would ever be interested in a freak like you?" The brat's golden curls jiggled around her porcelain face as perfectly painted glossy red lips spat scorn at the girl sitting on the ground.

"Um, nooooo..." Anna arched one pale eyebrow unsure of what had spawned the current confrontation. "I'm not even sure who that is?" Unable to scoot back as she was leaning against a tree, Anna rose in one smooth graceful movement. That only seemed to infuriate her opponent more as Anna towered a full five inches over the other girl once standing.

"Stop pretending you aren't into him. Gina saw you say 'Hi' to him before school this morning." In a moment of clarity that made even less sense, Anna was able to place the interaction that seemed to have garnered her this unwanted attention.

"Look, I was just being polite to someone who was polite to me. He said 'Hi' so I said 'Hi' back. There's no interest between us from either party." Remembering her mother's words that it's harder to de-escalate a confrontation than to escalate it and that no one really wins in a fight, she tried to reassure Sara that she was not 'competition'.

Anna had noticed that Sara had shown up with her little clique of bullies. Not that they were there for intimidation or anything, just that the five of them went everywhere together. But Sara's shrill accusation that Anna was 'into' someone had drawn kids from around the school grounds. There hadn't been a real knock-down drag-out fight yet as the school year had only started that week and everyone was aching for some drama and gossip. A crowd was forming, and Sara had noticed she now had an audience.

"Well, good! Wouldn't want a freak like you who bleaches her hair white for attention thinking she was good enough for a man like that." It was all verbal poison and vitriol from Sara who didn't seem to want to de-escalate anything. A sigh escaped Anna that she couldn't quite suppress. Her hair was naturally white, all of her hair. This made for a striking contrast against her dark tan skin. It was eye-catching. And who the fuck called a teenage boy a man? The dumb bitch trying to let him know she was willing to let him in her pants, that's who.