Chapter 3

Crimson Sparks

Chapter 2

Via POV

The next day was fine. It was going to be my first day in the school. The Special Dorm was small since it had the least amount of students (Ivy told me this yesterday). They had a great atmosphere going on here. Most of them waved at me and got to know me. They were better than my old classmates. I asked them where the R classroom was. They willingly told me where it was.

“Oh! You must be the new student. I’m Jasper. I’m from the R classroom too. Nice to meet you,” he said to me. He shook my hand.

“My name’s Olivia. So, how can I get to the R Classroom?” I asked him.

“I’ll walk with you there,” he stood up and waved goodbye to his friends.

“Are your classmates nice?” I asked him. I hoped the students were going to be kind. But I was sure not all expectations were going to be fulfilled.

“Well most of them are at least. If you asked me, it probably depends on your Class status.” He said.

“Huh?” That was the most I could think of at that time.

“Usually students believe in the rankings of the different classes. But don’t take it like that. I don’t you to think that way. It’s just unfair.” He said.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m not comfortable talking about it. But once you have your class, you’ll notice people will change their attitude towards you. Though, of course we want you here in the Special Class.”

“Jasper, what’s your Spark and what are other Sparks in the Special Class?”

“I have the Sleeping Spark. I can make anyone fall asleep with the snap of my finger. I won’t do it now because you might sleep on the way and I have to carry you back.” He admitted. “Other Sparks are shape shifting, clones, illusions, or nullification and amplification.”

“Oh. So that’s what they mean by special,” I said. “They don’t fit in to the other categories.”

“Yup. We’re usually labeled as the weird class.” He laughed. I laughed with him. “Ok, so remember the way to the R classroom okay? You go up the stairs which are on the leftmost side of the Learning Center. Go up to the 3^rd floor. It’s the 1^st room you see. You’ll know which one because there’s a label.” He explained to me.  

The classroom arrangement was different from the one in my last school. The desks were arranged near the wall facing towards the center of the classroom. There was one corner of the classroom where there were no chairs but instead a table. A woman was sitting near it and stood up when she saw me.

“Ah. Miss Noelle. Please come here,” she said. Jasper gave me a thumbs up. I went to her. “Hello Miss Noelle. I will be your adviser; I am Ms. Marla. Now I’d like you to stay here in front for a while. I’ll introduce you to the class later. Here are your books for all your classes. You don’t have to worry about changing rooms because most of our classes take place here. Your classmates will help you if you ask them and don’t be shy to ask me any questions.”

The bell rang. The students with their different color coded uniforms sat down on the chairs. I stood in front of the class while carrying all my books. “Class this is our new student, Olivia Noelle.”

“Hello.” The class greeted.

“Please take a seat there beside Josie.” Miss Marla motioned. I took a seat.

Miss Marla started discussing to the class. She talked about things I didn’t know about. I tried my best to listen but it just sounded like a different language to me. We had a short break after the Adviser’s time. Most students greeted me and welcomed me to the school. They were friendly at first. Jasper introduced me to some friends. Most of them were from the special class and a few were from the other classes. He had a lot of friends but there was a part of the class that looked at him differently; about one-fourth of the class. That included my seatmate, Josie.

We had five other classes. We had Chemistry, Home Economics, History, Language and Math. Their teachings were much different than the ones I’ve experienced. In chemistry we were asked to make tiny explosives and pass the recipe of it if we were successful in making them. Our teacher was Mr. Attila. The entire class moved to the Chemistry lab to do our task. My assigned partner was Sofi Elfrida from the Aqua Class. We were successful in our first attempt and passed our recipe.

In Home Economics, we didn’t cook but we did discuss on a certain dish. This dish was a Raven Family Special, meaning the Raven family created it. The ingredients were pretty simple but the name of the dish was a bit hard to describe and even I’ve never heard of it. We also discussed about styles of clothing in Swynden. It was weird seeing them. They were out of this world.

In History, even though we were in America, what we talked about was the history of Swynden, which I recall had never even been associated with this country. This school was just weird. Ivy was somehow right at some point.

During Math class, Ivy came to the door of the classroom. She looked at our teacher. “May I?” she asked. Our teacher, Miss Jay, nodded. “Special Class students please proceed to the Special Hall during Spark Class. Olivia Noelle, you are expected to come along.” She announced. She thanked Miss Jay and left.

Murmurs broke out in the classroom.

“Isn’t Ivy great?”

“She is! And she’s the same age and grade as we are!”

“She’s practically the best student around. Anyone can rely on her.”

“But she’s from the special class.”

“I know it’s such a waste. I wonder what she finds special about them. They’re mediocre. It ruins her image!”

This is what Jasper was talking about. The ranks he was talking about, the special class was at the bottom rank. No wonder he doesn’t want to talk about it. This school was placing one class lower than the other when they’re supposed to be the same level.

“Hey, Olivia, can I call you Via? Do you want to hang out with us?” Josie smiled at me. It was a smile without any warmth at all. She was also the one who said that the Special Class was a waste.

“If I was from the Special Class, do you still want me to hang out with you?” I snapped.

“Well…” she sat back into her seat and didn’t look my way at all. My comment got to her. Miss Jay continued discussing until the bell rang.

“Good luck Via!”

“Be sure to be in Fuego.”

“No. Via wants to be in Aqua.”

“What are you talking about? It’s Terra right?”

“Aria would be more fit for her.”

“She’s going to be in Special,” Jasper stuck his tongue out.

The people who I met earlier and those who were friendly laughed. “Don’t worry. No matter what class you’re in, we’re still going to be your friends.” A boy said.

“Thanks,” I told him.

“Now let’s go to the Special Hall,” Jasper said.

“What’s going to happen?” I asked. We went out of the Learning Center and headed to the Special Hall.

Ivy stood waiting outside. “To answer your question Via, I will be finding out your spark for today. And the Special class will be assisting me in doing that.”

I gulped. There was a tone in Ivy’s voice that scared me. My thoughts were racing. I felt like they were going to endlessly interrogate me for a crime I didn’t commit. But, “Here it goes,” I stepped into the Special hall and faced what was going to be my entrance exam.