The gymnasium at the Academy was almost nothing like the one from my previous school. It was an enormous room about four times the size, and instead of having a basketball court and bleachers set up inside, it had a dozen permanent spell circles engraved into the floor. Each of these spell circles had a tray of chalk sitting beside it so that they could easily be used to work spells.

This class was a special one which was held only once a week. Every student in the sorcerers course was here, not only the first year students like myself. This class was described as something of a ‘free study’ period where the more experienced sorcery students could mentor the less experienced ones and show them the tricks they’d learned. However, for all practical purposes, it was just an excuse for the senior students to show off their tokens and spells.

I stood next to Sylvie, watching as an older student showed off some small ceramic figurines, each the size of a chess piece. These were his tokens which he then demonstrated by activating one at a time. The first figurine crumbled to dust and an armored knight appeared just a short distance away. This was actually just a conjuring, which was explained to me as a solid illusion.

I frowned slightly as I watched the demonstration in front of me, feeling jealous since my own attempts at magic weren’t nearly as successful. I’d tried casting the whirlwind spell earlier today in class but hadn’t been able to get it. By the end of the class, I was pretty sure that I was close. If I’d had time to try one or two more times, I’m sure that I would have succeeded. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and was the only person in class who hadn’t been able to successfully cast that one.

“Todd would kill to see this one,” Sylvie commented as the boy in front of us conjured an impressive looking black horse with flames coming out of its nostrils.

I nodded at that, thinking that it must be difficult for Todd to be a normal Touched while his younger sister was a sorceress. He was only a year older than her so they were still close enough in age to be very close and competitive.

Sylvia’s mention of her brother also made me chuckle as I remembered my conversation with him at lunch just a short time ago. The two of us had spent most of the lunch arguing over which Doctor Who companion had been the best. Then, just to yank his chain, I started mentioning companions from the original series, which Todd had never seen.

“I might have to correct that,” I absently mused, thankful that my laptop had streaming video capabilities.

Kimberly had shown up in the middle of lunch and sat down at the table, acting as though the events from two days before had never happened. She didn’t apologize, but since she hadn’t intended to be offensive, I just shrugged it off and decided it was water under the bridge. By the time lunch was over, the two of us had been joking around as though we were old friends instead of new ones.

Sylvie distracted me from my thoughts by calling out, “Hey Eve…” She waved to a blonde girl whom I’d been briefly introduced to during lunch.

I didn’t know much about Eve other than that she was a very pretty sorceress in training who was a year ahead of me. She’d sat down at our lunch table next to Todd, so I got the impression that they were probably dating. If that was the case, then Todd was a lucky guy. Then again, I got the impression that a lot of the other girls around school would think that she was the lucky one.

“Sylvie,” Eve greeted my new friend. Then she looked at me as though trying to think before asking, “It was Erin…right?”

“Yeah,” I responded with a faint smile.

“I was hoping you could show us some of your spells,” Sylvie said with a grin. “I liked that one you showed me a couple weeks ago and Erin could use some pointers.”

“Sure,” Eve responded her with a cheerful smile. She reached into a pouch on her belt and told me, “I like to use marbles for my tokens.” Then she held out two marbles, one a transparent red one and one an opaque white one. “And I color code them so I know what spells are in them.”

“That makes sense,” I said, thinking about how aunt June always wrote something on the business cards she used to let her know what spells were stored in each. However, I wondered how she was able to keep track of all the ones that were stored in her jewelry. I’d have to ask her about that tonight when I saw her.

Eve held the red marble up and stated, “Invoke” before setting it on the ground. A moment later, a small fire appeared in front of us, just the right size for camping.

“Now I wish I’d brought marshmallows,” I commented with a grin.

“No problem,” Eve responded, holding up her other marble and saying, “Invoke.” She suddenly had a bag of marshmallows in her hand.

“Pretty Good,” Sylvie commented with an amused look. “But where are the marshmallow sticks?”

“I knew I forgot something,” Eve muttered.

Suddenly, Sylvie scowled and told Eve, “It looks like you’ve got an audience.”

I looked to were Sylvie gestured and saw Teressa watching us from halfway across the gym. She was glaring at us with an angry expression that left me feeling confused. Teressa wasn’t alone though as she had a red headed girl standing beside her and looking annoyed. I recognized the red head from my classes. Her name was Kaellie, and from what I could remember, she was usually hanging out with Teressa.

“What’s up with them?” I asked.

“Teressa has a thing for my brother,” Sylvie responded with a smirk. Then she gestured to Eve and added, “And she’s jealous because she thinks Eve is dating him.”

“You’re not?” I asked Eve in surprise.

Eve shook her head. “Naw. We’re just friends. He’s not even my type.” Then she paused for a moment, looking a bit self-conscious as she admitted, “I kind of play for the other team, if you know what I mean.”

“You’re qay?” I asked, feeling surprised again.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Eve demanded, looking as though she was about to take offense.

I remembered how I’d felt when Kimberly insulted Weres and I didn’t want to do that to Eve by accident. “No,” I quickly assured her. “I just thought you and Todd were an item.”

“No,” she responded with a chuckle. “Feel free to go after him if you want.”

At that, Sylvie suddenly burst out laughing. “You don’t know yet, do you?” She gestured to me and smirked. “Erin plays for the other team too.”

Even gave me a curious look at that, though her expression quickly turned to one of consideration. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head before she discounted me as a possible romantic interest. For a brief moment, I considered changing to my enhanced form just to make her reconsider. But then, I realized that this was just my pride feeling a little bruised, nothing more.

I wasn’t sure whether to tell Eve about my change or not when Sylvie took the question out of my hands and began to tell her. I just stood there, feeling self-conscious and then shrugging.

“And I thought my mark was rough,” Eve said when Sylvie was done. At my curious look since she didn’t have any visible sorcerers marks that I could see, she let out a sigh and then explained. “I sometimes turn into a little kid. I’m not sure what triggers it, but every couple days I turn into a little girl for a few hours. Fortunately, I only get hit with it every couple days.”

“Yeah, it could be a lot worse,” another voice said from behind us.

I snapped around and saw a girl standing there. She was beautiful, with a nice body and long black hair. I vaguely recognized her as one of the senior sorcery students that I’d seen around, but I didn’t really know who she was.

“Sorry to listen in,” the girl apologized with a shrug. Then she looked straight at me and smiled, asking, “You’re Erin, right?”

“Yeah,” I responded suspiciously.

“Amylia suggested I come over and introduce myself,” the older girl told me with a smile. She held out her hand and said, “Hi. I’m Gayle.”