The Alchemists

Chapter 4

We were walking silently along the corridor towards my room. The silence seemed unnerving. It was too quiet for a university packed with teens.

"They have all gone down for dinner, if that's what you are thinking. That's why it's so quiet.," Axel said, reading my mind.

I let out a sigh. Well, in a way, that was a good thing. I would not have to see my "supposedly" snooty roommate just yet. As I opened the door, I was in for a shock.

The room was huge and very spacious. There was a couch in the hall with an LED TV over the burning fireplace, making the room comfortable but not overly warm. Two doors led off into the main rooms. I could make out which one was mine. One door was fresh and clean. The other was covered in posters and signs. I gave it one look and grimaced.

This was going to be a heck of a year.

Opening my door, I almost fainted. There was a huge double bed in the centre, covered by a blue sheet; a study table with a laptop by one side, a soft board with my schedule pinned up, a door probably leading off to the bathroom and a gigantic closet.

"Well, how do you like it?" Axel asked.

"I love this place. It's amazing. Why hadn’t I heard of this place sooner?" I replied, laughing.

"That's because you were underage," He said with a smirk, before continuing, "Now c'mon. We don't want to miss the first dinner here before the term starts. It's always like a circus with the senior students performing," he said, adding a mischievous grin.

Oh crap! I did not want to miss that. "Let's go then. Why are we standing here and talking?" I said playfully. "Last one there is a rotten egg!!!"

Huffing, we arrived at the dining room. I obviously lost to Axel. Hey, it was not my fault I dashed down the wrong corridor!

"Told you, you would lose," he stood by the door and smirked.

I stuck my tongue out at him and walked in. My mouth went slack and formed a perfect 'O'. It was huge with crystal chandeliers glimmering with light too bright to look at. The tables were lined up against the wall away from the doors leaving an open space near the entrance and running down the centre of the long rectangular room. I started to follow him but he put up his hand and stopped me.

He pointed at a table and said, "All new comers on that table."

I frowned. I wanted to sit next to him. I stalked off grumpily to the aforementioned table and grabbed a seat next to a red-haired girl. She seemed to be jabbering away at everyone in the vicinity.

When I comfortably seated myself, she turned to me and said, "Hi! I'm Sarah. What's your name?"

I turned to her, giving her a small smile. "Samantha, but please call me Sam."

"Hi, Sam! Which room are you in, if you don’t mind my asking?" she asked.

"I'm room 423. You?" I asked her back. She flashed a mysterious smile. "This is going to be so great. I'm in the room right next to yours!" 

"Really, well that’s great! I’m really gonna need some familiar faces around here!" I answered with a huge smile. "How did you find out you were an Alchemist?" I asked her, after a few moments of silence, for the sake of conversation.

She replied almost instantly. "It was too drab. I was fiddling in my dad's lab when I found this really cool book with circles and stuff. I was bored so I decided to copy the book. I drew a circle in the backyard and followed the steps. And the next thing I knew, our town was in the middle of a snowstorm. It was super funny! Mom got all angry at me and started yelling at the top of her voice. She stopped the snowstorm alright but the neighbours were all confused about the snow in the middle of July. That's how I discovered it," she said grinning.