phoenix academy for extraordinary girls (camren/norminah) ➸ unfinished fic

chapter 1

There's two types of people in this world, Camila decides.

She's sitting on the windowsill in the laboratory, watching as all of the other students rush around their tables to finish their classwork. Today's assignment: energy potions.

Camila has made them a million times before. She always adds just the right amount of sulfur to turn the mixture into a charcoal gray. It looks absolutely disgusting (tastes like it, too), but according to Headmaster Briggs, they're a necessity.

As always, the small brown eyed girl is the first done in her class. It comes to no one's surprise when she proudly walks up to the front of the classroom and places her flask on the boiler with a proud smile, earning a polite nod from Briggs.

And now Camila sits and watches as all the other young mages measure out exact amounts of Rosemary. A few of them are finished right behind Camila, although no one ever seems to get the amounts right.

Except for Camila, of course. She's been studying at the Phoenix Academy since childhood. Born into a family of witches, it was only necessary that on the eve of her sixth birthday, she would be expected to make the trek up Hightail Mountain. At the top sat the academy, one most mages had only seen in storybooks.

From then on, donned in her thick rimmed glasses (because her parents simply refused to buy her new ones), Camila had been whisked away into the world of magic.

She remembers when the first girl in her year received her specialty. Camila had been out in the courtyard with the rest of her class when Allyson (one of the oldest in her class) hurried over to the teacher, a black crow leisurely perched on her arm.

The students were abuzz after the girl was gifted with the specialty of animal manipulation. From then on, the excitement about finding their specialties only grew. Each day, Camila would wake up and sit on the edge of her bed, looking down at her hands and praying that today would be her day.

It never was, though. While all of her fellow classmates discovered what field of magic they specialized in, Camila sat on the sidelines.

It bothers her immensely. She recalls the VHS tapes they watched on her first year, explaining that over a witch's lifetime they have their specialties revealed to them. Some of her classmates had already discovered two, even three, by now.

Camila, however, can only sit and wait. To make up for her absence in universe-given powers, she instead makes sure that she is the best academically in her class. Maybe her stunning intelligence can make up for any of the power she lacks.

Most of the young witches have completed their potions by now. There are a few exceptions that curse under their breath and scramble to complete the task as the hourglass in the front of the room begins to run out.

And then, there's Dinah Jane.

She is a legend among the school, practically. The Polynesian girl has her feet propped up on the desk. An empty flask sits in front of her. She doesn't have to worry, though, because just as the last few grains of sand make their way into the bottom half of the hourglass, Dinah simply waves her fingers over the flask and it is filled with the life-giving potion. Camila can't help but roll her eyes when she sees the smug smirk on the girl's face.

While most of the other students in her grade had grown up together, Dinah hadn't exactly 'grown up.'

Camila remembers when she was eight years old and Dinah had stepped up to the podium during lecture time to give her story. She's heard it every year since then, too. Dinah had been 4 when she wandered off behind her house, and away from her mother's watchful eye.