A New Light

Chapter 12

The class was suddenly filled with students rushing in, so I assumed that the bell would ring and class will start soon. Some stopped to stare at me in curiosity and others continued walking towards their seats. Feeling uncomfortable from the stares I shift around for a bit before taking out a pillow for comfort.

Once the class had settled down, the teacher motioned to me and said," Class this is our new student, Aliria. Please make her feel welcome." Right after he had said that, the entire class came rushing towards me with a strange look on their faces. Luckily my brother was right behind me and got them to stop running once he stood up. For a second I felt a cold chill coming from behind me, so I looked back to see what it was. It was rather strange though, because all I saw was a cheerful attitude around my brother.

The teach, having enough time taken away from his class cleared his throat and motioned for everyone to sit back down and get ready for class. "Continuing from this mornings lesson, we will be learning about defensive magic, such as shields or barriers..."

I really did try really hard to pay attention, but from behind me my brother was petting my head and playing with my hair. That together with my carpet and pillow was really relaxing. I felt my eyes slowly shut and my head drifting downwards, I then remembered was in class and snapped up head up trying to pay attention. My efforts weren't in vain though, because soon after the teacher announced that we would be practicing and to find a partner. I was very excited to finally practice magic, but then I realized that I didn't have a partner. Looking around the room it seemed like everyone was already in their own group. Shrinking in my small space as I studied the room I was a little nervous. That was until my brother patted my head and lifted me onto his shoulders. He then playfully asked me," May I have the honor of being your partner?"

I giggled a bit before nodding. Grabbing onto his hair for security, I let him walk to his station. Feeling how soft his hair was, I started ruffling it and messing with it. Strangely when I was playing with his hair, I heard a bunch of loud gasps before the room fell silent. I stopped playing with his hair to look around the room in confusion. Still not understanding, I ask a girl next to me," Why did everyone go silent?"

The girl looked at me as if I should have known this," Micheal hates to get his hair messed up," she then moved onto a whisper," or even to get his hair touched." Feeling ashamed that I didn't know something as simple as that I slowly moved my hands away from his head and shrank my body as much as I could. As I did that I could feel my brothers unhappiness that radiated off of him. He was unhappy because of me.

Startling me, in a very projected voice he spoke," Mary, I didn't know that you listened to rumors." He gave a dark chuckle and lifted me from his head to his arms, hugging me. " Mary, you do not have the authority to tell my little sister what I like and dislike, okay?"

The girl named Mary looked very frightened, as did everyone else in the room. With the exception of the teacher who was now shaking his head and my brothers friends who looked like they were trying very hard to hold back laughter. 

My brother who was obviously in a bad mood asked again with more force," Okay?" Mary, the girl who I was starting to pity, nodded before stuttering out an okay. Brother, who was currently staring down everyone in the room nodded, then set me down on our stations bench. When brother looked towards the teacher, he started to give his instruction.

"Now that everyone is settled down, I will give you your task.  Every group has a different sheet of paper on their stations board. That paper has a task on it. You will accomplish that task with an A, B+,or F. If you fail you will redo the task until you pass. That is all."

Once the class heard that not so direct threat, they all rushed to look over the piece of paper. However, Brother and I were very relaxed. Brother walked over to grab the paper, then held it where we could both read it. The task was very simple, Brother would give 15 attacks to me and I have to defend all the attacks with the same shield. Then the task would be done. Happily smiling from the easy task, I bring out a normal, defensive shield that wouldn't cause any harm to the attacker and would absorb the attack instead. Nodding at Brother to show that I was ready he launched balls of lightning at me. At first they were rather weak ones, but as he noticed the shield taking them all he started experimenting, and increasing the power. When we were done with the task, we looked for the teacher, only to notice everyone int he class staring at us. Wondering why, I look around to to see that the areas that didn't have the protection of the shield had scorch marks all over.

After a moment of silence a boy shouted out," That's our Micheal!"

Glancing back over at Brother with a questioning look he explains," I'm the top student in this class, which means I have the strongest magic out of all the students. Maybe with the exception of you of course." Nodding a bit, I call my carpet over, sit on it, on drag the teach over. 

For some reason, the stared blankly at out now black station and sighed," Micheal and Aliria, 100." Feeling a bit proud to be the first ones finished and to get a hundred, I gave a big smile to my brother. He then started acting normal again, turning his back to me and covering his face with one hand.