Chapter 3 3

"Here are your schedules, have a great first day." the counselor grinned, handing the papers over to the pair of siblings.

As they walked out of the office, they were greeted by a crowd of people clogging up the hallways, all dressed rather expensively.

"Damn, these kids would get robbed if they walked around Zephir past seven." Jason muttered.

"Meet me back at my car after school. Don't be late, I don't want to be stuck in traffic." she warned him as he walked off, probably in the wrong direction.

She looked down at the piece of paper in her hands, going through her different classes.

"C21? What?" she mumbled to herself, seeing that she was currently in the A hallway. Cluelessly, she pushed her way through the pool of people who were now in a rush to get to class.

The tardy bell had rung unexpectedly, indicating that she was already late on her first day.

"Wonderful." she hissed, looking around the near empty hallways.

She dragged her feet through the entire second floor of the building, exhausted from how big the school was compared to her old one. It at least gave her an opportunity to get familiar with the layout while there weren't animals stomping everywhere, providing herself with some sort of ease.

"Are you lost?" a deep voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

Luisa turned around on her heel, greeted with a boy with platinum blonde hair. She cleared the dryness in her throat, flickering her eyes back to the piece of paper.

"Uh, yeah. Shouldn't you be in class though?" she scratched the back of her head.

He approached her, taking a look at the schedule. "You're on the wrong floor, it's the one above this. It should be on the right side, two of my friends are in that class. And I'm an office assistant for the first period, helping lost students is a part of my job." he explained, making her eyes widen a fraction.

"T-There's more than two floors?!"

The boy let out an amused chuckle, nodding his head. "Welcome to Titus Alsfield High School." he shrugged, flashing his pearly whites.

"You're a fire shifter?" he questioned, noticing the burnt orange color in her eyes.

Luisa froze nervously before cracking a tense smile. With no words she nodded her head, making him nod back in response.

"Nice, did you just move to the Republic? Or did you come from the other side of town?"

What is this, an interrogation?

"I- uh, I'm not from the Republic." she replied, unsure if she was able to continue lying.

"Oh, cool. Fire... does that mean you're from Argenta? That's the most populated fire city in Trodel."

"Uh, sure. I really gotta get to class, thanks though." she nervously chucked, leading herself back to the staircase that seemed to go on forever.

"No problem! What's your name by the way?"

Before she could escape his endless questions, she paused in her steps.

At least I don't have to lie for this question.

"Luisa Donaldson." she said quickly, desperate to escape from his never ending interview.

"I'm Dexter Leon, see you around!" he said enthusiastically, watching her head up the steps frantically.

Once she reached the third floor, she panted with anxiety and tiredness.

"Who makes a school this big?!" she whispered to herself.

As she looked on the right side of the hallway, she processed her first encounter with a student in this new environment, mentally kicking herself for lying so much.

Dexter Leon, the name echoed in her mind.

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, feeling the dryness rise back to her throat.

Dexter Leon.

"Shit, I just lied to the air leader's son."

"I forgot how exhausting school was." Dwain grumbled, yawning as he set his lunch tray down. It was his first day back since his un-enrollment, spiking gossip between every person in the building.

"I did too, and we were only gone for two weeks." Jordon signed, taking a sip from his carton.

"You don't have to keep downing cups of milk, you're done growing." Javier teased, pushing the buttons of the smaller boy.

"I'm starving, I couldn't even get breakfast because Javier was late." Darrell sighed, taking his seat beside Augustus.

He shot a glare in his direction, rolling his eyes as he took a bite of his carrot. "It's not my fault, maybe if you got out of your house early enough we wouldn't have been late." he hissed.

"Okay, fine. But I still paid for your gas." Darrell shrugged, digging into his plate.

"Anyways, how's everyone's first day back so far?" Lottie asked, happy to see all her friends reunited at once.

"There's a new girl in my statistics class, she delayed the whole class so that's fun." Augustus chuckled.

"Really? There's a new girl in me and Dwain's English class." Carlene added.

Dexter raised an eyebrow, recalling the situation from this morning.

"Was she like Lottie's height with black hair?"

The three of them nodded in response.

"Oh, cool. I helped her find her classes today, she's from Argenta." he shrugged, continuing to eat his meal.

"Was she hot? Fire shifters from the mainland are always fría." Javier smirked confidently.

The table knitted their eyebrows together, shooting him a confused look. "Fría means cold." Lottie chuckled, shaking her head at his stupidity.

"What?! I took French last year, it sounds like fire."

"Javier , that's Spanish." Darrell let out an obnoxious laugh.

He rolled his eyes, brushing off the inevitable correction. "Whatever, is she a cutie?" he leaned over the table, raising an eyebrow at the said witness.

Dexter shrugged inattentively. "I don't know, she was pretty, I guess."

Automatically, Lottie's gaze fixated on him with a nasty look, crossing her arms in shock. Dwain and Carlene eyed each other at the same time, knowing that he definitely messed up.

"Argenta? That city is swarming with fire shifters!" Augustus gasped, unintentionally saving his friend from a scolding.

"She should be a really good one then, her spirituality must be high being surrounded with that many." Dwain commented, aware of the city of flames.

Across the room was a clueless figure walking out of the lunch line, overwhelmed by the amount of seats taken in the cafeteria.

Luisa bit her lip in frustration, weaving through the different tables in hopes of finding a seat to herself. She caught sight of the only familiar face in the student body, making a smile graze her lips.

From a distance, she watched her little brother laugh with a large group of people around his age, looking like he was having a fun time.

At least one of us is.

"Luisa!"

Abruptly, she snapped her head away from his table, looking around to see who could've possibly known her name.

"I'm the one who called your name, silly." the deep voice followed up, landing her attention on the same head of platinum blonde hair from the morning.

He motioned her to come over, making her tense up. She scanned everyone's faces at the table, seeing all of their lavish appearances.

More specifically, the girl sitting beside Dexter, who was subtly staring her down. Luisa quickly tore her eyes away from her, landing them onto another intimidating figure.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, wondering where she could've possibly seen him from.

"That's the girl Javier almost ran over this morning!" a boy exclaimed, following up with a high pitched cackle.

When the realization hit her, she didn't hesitate walking out of the cafeteria, frightened of that entire table.