Knight of the Black Rose (16 page)

"Bye!" Craig shouted.

"See you at Christmas," Lucy said waving as she started walking off pulling her case along with her, trying to make her way through the other students who all seemed bigger than she was.

Lucy could just make out that there was a large room up ahead, that was if she could get up the ramp and into it, then she needed to find her best friend Jessica as she was sure that she was already here somewhere among all of these people. She near enough dragged her case up the ramp only knocking into a couple of people, but it was their own fault considering they wouldn't move out of her way.

An older tanned boy rushed past, looking through the crowds with another falling him. "Damn it...where is he?"

"It's only early Tunji...give him chance to get here," the other lad said as he trailed after him.

Lucy stared after them for a moment before she carried on, she had no idea why they would be getting so worked up already when the ship hadn't even left dock yet; they had like an hour before it was even time to leave.

"Damn it! At least watch where you're going!" a boy shouted angrily just in front of her.

Lucy looked around pushing to get through, the boy was a little taller than she was and had black short hair and was already in his school uniform; the girl who had knocked into him only looked the same age as herself, meaning that she was new as well and she was almost in tears. Her hair was longer, just past her shoulders and a lighter shade of brown with red highlights.

Lucy was just about to say something when another girl came up behind him and kicked him in the back of his leg, she looked just as fears as the boy, but she had blond hair in a similar style to her own just a bit longer. He turned ready to yell at whoever had kicked him, but held his tongue as she glared up at him with her hand on her hip.

"Why are you shouting at people? Is this what you normally do?" the girl demanded making him take a step back.

"Selena..." the boy said as calmly as he could.

"Wow! No way...you're actually bullying the first year girls that's a new low for you Seth!" another lad shouted as he came over to join them, with his two friends.

"What's it to you?" Seth demanded.

"So, you're not a morning person then?" Travis said smirking at him.

"You know we were just fine," Selena told them as she stepped around Seth to the other girl. "Hi, I'm Selena,"

The girl dried her eyes on her sleeve. "Libby..."

"Selena..." Seth said annoyed.

"Wait a minute, you two know each other?" the first boy asked surprised, that he would actually know such a cute girl.

"They're brother and sister, can't you tell?" Lucy told him, though she did know that they didn't really look anything at all like each other, but whatever, it was true.

"Are you serious? How can you have such a cute little sister?" Travis asked looking between the two of them; he so couldn't believe that they were related. "Liam, Reed...come on...you don't think they're really brother and sister do you?"

"Probably not," Liam said.

"Stranger things have happened," Reed said holding his book to his chest.

Lucy smiled at Reed. "Hi, I'm Lucy Shepherd,"

"Oh, hi..." Reed said a little surprised.

"I'm...err...I'm sorry for walking into you," Libby mumbled nervously.

"Oh, you can walk into him as much as you want; he's in Disa...we don't like them," Travis told her smirking.

"So, you're in Cadell then?" Lucy asked.

Seth grabbed his sister’s arm and tried to pull her away but she wouldn't go with him. "Yes those idiots are...come on Selena; we better get a cabin,"

"No...that's fine, I'll get one with them," Selene told him nodding at Libby and Lucy.

"Will! Alex!" Lucy shouted waving standing on her tip toes so that she could be seen.

"You alright there, or do you want me...? Hay, it's that girl who hit you with that book," Liam said laughing.

"Oh yeah." Travis said as he stepped around Lucy to get a better.

Lucy stepped around him as he made her way over to them, not caring if she wheeled her case over him, he had stepped in front of her. "Hey guys...I was wondering if you want to get a cabin with us?"

"Yeah sure...after we find Troy," Alex told her.

"Hey girlie, not packing anymore books?" Travis teased.

"What sort of girl name is Will? What's it short for?" Liam asked confused.

"Girl? You do know that he's and he, a boy; like you two," Lucy told them; but from the looks on their faces they didn't seem to believe her. "How stupid can you be?"

"No way, they actually think that he's a girl," Selena said smiling. "I guess my brother was right about them,"

"What?" Travis shouted angrily.

"Liam!" Tunji shouted through the crowd.

Liam stepped behind Reed, he didn't mind him most of the time, but the guy was way too much. "Can't he even wait until we get to school?"

Tunji and Scott pushed their way through the crowded space, not many giving way for them, but they still managed to get through tripping over several cases in the process.

"Liam, I was getting worried," Tunji said dramatically.

Will and the others edged away from them, not wanting to be caught up in whatever it was that was going on.

"Err...how do you all know each other?" Libby asked still a little nervous.

"Our families know each other," Alex told her.

"I've just met them," Selena told her.

"Jessica!" Lucy shouted and waved again as she spotted her best friend. "Oh...look, Troy's with her,"

"Great, now we can find the cabins," Will said as he led the way over to them, making a path for the others. "I thought you would have gotten here before us,"

"Mum got a little upset," Troy admitted.

"My mum did as well," Jessica told them as she joined Lucy. "I was kind of scared that I wouldn't be able to find you with all these people here...I didn't realise how many would really be going to school,"

"There's seven year groups and six estates, so obviously they're going to be nearly a thousand of us," Selena told her a matter-of-factly.

Jessica and Lucy looked at her and then at each other before they carried on walking, following the flow of students.

Selena followed closely behind them with Libby at her side. "I know I'm right,"

"See you found Lucy," Troy said smirking as they followed.

"Actually...she spotted us," Will told him.

"She's scary that way," Alex teased.

Lucy turned around making them all stop. "I'm not scary." The three of them looked at her as though she had just proved their point. "What? It wasn't like you were whispering...I can hear just as well as the next person..."

"Wow...how long have you known each other?" Libby asked excitedly, realising that they really did know each other. "Are you all from magical families as well?”

"Yes and forever," Lucy answered.

"How do you know that I'm from one?" Selena answered.

"Well...err...you know...you're either from one or you got that book about the school," Lucy said off handily.

"I got that book...I haven't read it yet though," Will admitted.

"You actually bought a book about the school?" Alex teased smirking at him.

"My sisters already had it, but didn't bother reading it," Troy told them, and then noticed that they weren't moving. "What's going on?"

Selena stood on her toes to try and see over the heads in front of her, but she still wasn't tall enough. "I think they're only letting one group go through at a time, we'll have to wait,"

"My sisters never said anything about this...but they didn't really tell me much," Troy admitted.

Lucy turned around seeing that they weren't going anywhere. "Clair and Jake didn't tell me anything either, they wouldn't even tell me how we're sorted into the estates,"

"What's the point in having older brothers and sisters if they don't tell you anything?" Alex said annoyed; he didn't have any himself but his friends did and he wanted to know just like they did.

"It's supposed to be a secret, to test us," Selena told them; they all rounded on her, as if hoping that she would tell them. "I don't actually know what it is...it's just what my dad said,"

"Mine too," Lucy said disappointedly. "But everything is a test to my dad,"

"She has got a point there," Troy agreed as they all knew first hand what her dad was like with his tests.

Chapter Six

About twenty minutes later they finally reached the front of the line and was allowed through as a group, they all stepped forward pulling their cases behind them into a large lift that didn't have any buttons to direct it to the right floor; before any of them had even realised the doors slide shut with a bang and they started to move up.

"I was wondering why it said on the tickets that we were leaving so late, even though we were all here so early," Selena said holding onto the rail that ran around the wall.

"Dad said that they had increased security," Lucy told them.

"My dad said that as well," Will told her.

"Security...?" Libby asked worriedly.

"Not all non-magic’s are alright with us, but your parents must have been alright with finding out about you or you wouldn't be here," Lucy said smiling.

"Actually I'm not sure how they reacted at first..." Libby told them honestly. "Me...I was so excited...I was going to get to learn how to do real magic, why wouldn't I be?"

"You know, so were we...this is the best school," Lucy told her. “It was actually proven last year, with the annual trails and everything,”

"My dad freaked out again," Alex told them.

"Still?" Lucy asked surprised, she just didn’t understand why he hadn’t excepted all of this already.

"Do you come from a mixed family?" Selena asked surprised.

"Yeap, so does he," Alex answered and nodded at Troy.

The lift came to a shuddering holt, they all looked around wondering how the doors were supposed to open, a moment later they slide open onto a deck with a couple of dozen students their own age walking around; the sign on the wall read 'FIRST YEAR DECK'.

"Well I guess this is our floor," Lucy said nudging Troy in front of her to get out.

"I'm going, give me a second," Troy told her as he got his case moving again.

Alex and Will went out first with Troy behind them having a little trouble with the wheels on his case, then Lucy and Jessica with Selena and Libby at the back. As soon as they had left the lift, the doors closed, none of them heard it moving, but that didn't mean anything because it hadn't really made any sound when they were in it.

As they walked up the corridor they looked into the cabins for an empty one and one big enough for them all, but they were all pretty big; most of the first few cabins already had a few students in them, so they carried on until they finally found an empty room about half way along.

"This should do," Alex announced opening the door on his left and going inside first, with everyone else following.

They all went in to the cabin, comfy seats lining the facing wall with a large window that at the moment could only see fog, there was also two tables at either end where there were also more seats on the other two walls; along the wall they had just come through were cupboards so that they could store their cases, and then in the other corner was changing rooms.

Libby stopped at the threshold. "Wow..."

"It's massive; do you think that they're all this big?" Jessica asked just as impressed.

"Probably," Lucy answered as she dragged her case over to the cupboard, squeezing it along the bottom; well none of them could actually lift them.

"So now what?" Alex asked as he went over and sat down in the corner, with Will and Troy on either side of them.

Jessica looked at Lucy to see where she wanted to sit, and then at the other two girls, she wasn't going to sit down first and not next to them. Lucy seemed to get the idea and went over to sit next to Troy, seeing as none of the others were doing it, and it wasn't as though she was bothered about sitting next to them, she had known them all long enough; as soon as she sat down, they all followed her.

"The ship doesn't leave for a while," Selena said.

Lucy leaned forward so that she could see Will. "How come that guy thought that you were a girl?"

"A guy thought that you were a girl? When? Where? How did I miss that?" Troy asked angrily.

"I met him when I was buying my books...and I don't know why he thought I was a girl," Will said annoyed.