The following days were hard for Flint. No student in his class wanted to make even the slightest eye contact with him, and the only one who did was put into the infirmary by his mistake in class. His teachers were the same. In Professor Kalyani’s class, he felt like he didn’t exist at all. They were learning how to calculate energy yield from various sources, and Flint loved maths. Yet, whenever he raised his hand to answer, Professor Kalyani pretended to had not seen the only waving arm in the entire class.
During his first Magical Defence lesson with Professor Fulbert, it was also as if he did not exist in the class, which only meant that word had got around to the other teachers about Flint’s various misadventures with magic. They learnt how to form primary barriers against magic in general. Primary barriers are barriers with a single layer, whereas the harder ones to conjure, secondary barriers, are formed using two different layers of magic. Apparently, different types of secondary barriers have different levels of effectiveness against different types of magics. The most blindingly obvious is that coating a barrier with water is more effective against fire attacks. According to Professor Fulbert, any barrier more than two layers takes a lot of focus and energy to hold together, and hence extremely difficult to hold together. In that lesson, Professor Fulbert chose two students at a time to stand at the front of the class. One student had to form a barrier while the other strikes him or her with the same force they used to move tables in Professor Ouran’s class. A bowl of water lay on Professor Fulbert’s table as a source of energy. After each of the pair had a chance to attack and defend, another pair of students were chosen to do the same thing. However, at the end of the class, Flint found that he was the only student who hadn’t attempted it. Professor Fulbert shrugged off Flint’s persistent questioning after everyone else left at the end of the class with “Maybe next time.” To avoid being disrespectful, Flint hurried out of the classroom with frustration.
What was worse than that is the fact that in Professor Ouran’s classes, it was as if he was the only student present. She always always picking him to try out something new, which usually wouldn’t be a problem for him, except that she always manages to ridicule him and make him the laughing stock until the next lesson. Like when they were learning to draw energy from electric lights, and instead of using the light energy, they were supposed to draw on the electrical energy and use it to split a clay vase in two. Before Flint could even do anything, Professor Ouran had gathered all the other students at the front of the class and put up the strongest barrier she could muster around the whole lot of them, which hurt Flint a bit. Though it was probably for the best, seeing that his vase blew up into hundreds of shards which Professor Ouran didn’t bother deflecting away from Flint, forcing him to leave the class immediately after that episode to head to the infirmary with a few nasty cuts on his face and arms. As he was leaving, he heard giggling from his classmates.
The walk to the infirmary didn’t really matter to Flint, as he had visited the infirmary everyday since Gracey was there. She suffered from a fractured skull and a mild concussion, which even with magic, took a few days to heal. Flint sat by her bedside during his every free time until she regained consciousness yesterday. To Flint’s relief, she didn’t have any memory loss. Gracey kept reassuring Flint that she didn’t blame him for what happened, no matter how many times he apologised. She was just all smiles, as always. The healers at the infirmary told Flint yesterday that they were going through some final checks with Gracey and that she would be able to leave by today. Knowing that, Flint picked up his pace to the infirmary, ignoring the sharp pains that shot from where his cuts were.
When he arrived at the infirmary, located in the central atrium of the school’s building, Gracey was just walking out the door. When she saw Flint, her eyes widened. “Oh dear, what happened to you, Flint?”
“Long story,” he replied miserably.
“Come on, I’ll follow you to meet the healers,” said Gracey, with a hint of worry in her voice.
“It’s no problem,” Flint replied. “It’s nothing. Plus, you’ve been here long enough. You should head back to your dormitory and rest up.”
That was the day Flint learnt how stubborn Gracey was. She would not take no for an answer, and there was no way for Flint to get rid of her. So he was forced to oblige to her wishes.
The healers patched him up quickly enough. Small cuts weren’t a problem for them at all, and both Gracey and him were walking out of the infirmary within half an hour, just in time for lunch. Flint usually had lunch at home, where Kiara would throw together a simple meal for him, but he thought that Gracey could use some company for lunch in the East Hall today.
“So, how’re you feeling?” Flint asked to Gracey, breaking the awkward silence between them as they made their way to the East Hall.
“Like nothing ever happened!” replied Gracey gleefully. “Would you stop worrying already? How about you? What happened?”
Flint proceeded to explaining what Gracey missed in classes for the past week, not missing out on the parts where he has the minimal talent possible with magic.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Flint complained, “I try my very best, I do. But while everyone else has no problems handling magic, all I do is destroy everything my magic touches. It never does what I want it to do. I have no control over it whatsoever!”
Gracey looked generally sympathetic.
“Don’t worry, you may just be a late bloomer. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough, then I’ll bet you’ll be a wonderful magician.”
Even though he didn’t believe what Gracey said, her words made him feel a bit better. He looked at her and gave her a small smile.
Gracey was returning the smile when something caught her eye. “Hey, what’s that?”
Flint looked at what she meant and noticed a small crowd gathering in front of a notice board outside the East Hall that Flint never noticed before. When he got closer, he saw what all the hype was about.
There was a huge poster pinned up on the board.
THE BATTLE ATRIUM
OPEN TO ALL NEW STUDENTS
HELD AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER
STAND A CHANCE TO WIN CASH PRIZES AS WELL AS EXTRA CREDIT FOR YOUR FINAL EXAMS
Flint was interested right away, for good reason too.
“Gracey, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Flint asked with a glint in his eyes.
“Yes!” Gracey looked equally as excited. “This could be your motivation to practice magic!”
“And I could use the extra credit.”
“Yeah, the teachers seem to hate you enough as it is.”
Flint shot Gracey a dark look.
“Sorry,” she said apologetically.
After a short pause, they both broke out in laughter.
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