Chapter 2- Sparkling Anxiety

I wasn't planning to be in the principal's office for my first day at school, but I can't say it's completely unexpected. As much as I like to get people on my side, I realized some people just aren't going to like you. And want to kill you for lunch money, I guess.

The office was surprisingly spacious. Aside from the desk and two chairs for troublemakers like me to to sit in, there were dozens of pictures featuring a fair amount of both famous and infamous magic users. Some were elementals, others were enhancers of some kind and some had rare magic that wasn't fully revealed to the public. There was even a whole collage of them behind where the principal was sitting. It also felt like the chairs were sinking into the carpet floor but maybe that was just my imagination.

"So Elijah Lutz," the principal said, her face buried in what were probably my records, "getting into a fight on the first day of school. How cliche."

It's not like I asked to, I thought. But I couldn't say that. If anything it was better for me to just say quiet. This woman wasn't the type to listen to excuses. The aura around her screamed no bull crap.

And so I proceeded to shut up and look at her, hoping this was a better solution.

"Not talking huh? Smart, I like it. We need more kids in the school that know when to shut their trap and listen to adults."

Finally, she looked up from the documents her face was buried in. Her tone aside, she didn't look like what one would imagine as a school principal. She had long messy green hair that resembled vines and maple brown eyes. She wore a maroon suit that made her look a little too professional and added to the ferocious glare she was giving me.

She clasped her hands together like she was making a final judgment about me but didn't say a word. Finally she relaxed her shoulders and opened her mouth.

"Well considering it is your first day, I won't do anything rash," she said.

Phew, thank god.

"But I will have to call your parent or guardian."

My brain froze for a second. The actual worse case scenario. I'd rather be stuck cleaning all the classrooms after school for the year.

She stared down hard at the files. "Ms.Esther Delphine is it?"

Don't panic. Figure a way out of this, I had to tell myself. Panicking does nothing but create rash decisions. Besides, I knew what was going to happen the second I beat up that big oaf. In hindsight, I probably should've smashed him out of the window. Would've gotten the message across better. Only reason I didn't was to avoid trouble, but to no avail.

I shook my head. That's not Important right now. Think about how to get out of this situation. That's all that matters.

"Is something wrong Mr. Lutz?"

"Not at all Ma'am," I answered with the fakest of smiles.

I stared at her, digging for any kind of weakness. Something I could use to alleviate her mood. She was obviously agitated. If I could lift it even a little, I know she would rethink calling her. But I needed to find something that she holds dear. What does she hold in high self esteem? I looked at the posters behind her again and it became very apparent.

"It's just, I know I'm new so I don't understand everything, but I don't understand why I'm being punished for defending myself. While I prefer not to harm others, I will use my magic to defend myself and those I care about, just like the heroes on your wall. Isn't that what our magic is for?"

"From what I watched, you had no intention of fleeing. You were viciously fighting both of them. You even punched one of them until he passed out but you're trying to tell me you were defending yourself, right?"

Ah truly, there is no convincing her. Nothing I say is going to get through to her. It seems like I'm just screwed.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say?" she asked.

I stayed silent.

"It was a good attempt. I'll give you that. You had me second guess myself for a split second, but at the end of the day, I know what I saw."

Principal Reya reached for the school landline and placed it on her shoulder by her ear and started dialing what was most likely Esther's number.

Luckily she couldn't finish as she was halted by someone barging into the office. Both Ms. Reya and I froze completely as sparkle girl swung the door open and slammed into the doorstopper, which I thought wouldn't even be possible for her as small and weak as she looked.

"Wait!"

"Yes, Ms. Astra? I hope you have a good reason to barge in while I'm having a private talk with a student." Her eyes seemed to get darker and I could tell the girl was only one sentence away from joining me in the other chair.

"I saw it! I saw it!"

"Sigh. Saw what, exactly?"

She pointed at me and raised her hands up, not at all unlike a little kid. "The new kid. I saw the fight that happened."

Ms. Reya raised an eyebrow."Oh, please do tell."

I'm praying she not an idiot, I thought.

"It started with the new kid being interrupted by the two bullies. They wouldn't let him pass and were all like 'gimme your lunch money'. But he said he didn't have any and they were all like 'well you're gonna pay' and then he went zoom and was gone but they were all like zam and followed him. Then he used some kind of voodoo magic and they ran off, saying wait and running after nothing.

She paused for a second and caught her breath. "But they didn't give up! They came back like woosh and the big guy charged at him like rawr but the new kid zoomed to the small one and went blam and kapow. The big one rawred even harder but the new kid went zing and ba-bing until the small one went thump. But behind him it shattered and the big one went 'yah!' but the new kid dodged it like wshh and then went zap and the giant was like zzz. Then he walked away and was stopped by you."

"..."

"..."

"Huh? What's wrong? Should I have added more details?"

Would that even help...?

Ms. Reya looked as if she wanted to face palm. "No, no, I think that was quite enough, thank you."

I was at a lost for words. I don't even know how to respond to that.

"So what you're saying is Mr. Lutz here was stopped in the middle of the hallway by the two and was threatened. He evaded them several times but couldn't escape Tonga's mark magic and was forced into a situation where he had to fight. Am I understanding it right?"

Sparkle girl gave her a thumbs up.

Wait...she understood all of that?

Ms. Reya eased up a little."I see. I read you wrong, Mr. Lutz. I apologize. I assumed you to be a simple troublemaker."

I was about to relax a little when the principal cut off my train of thought.

"However, I do believe you could've handled the situation better. The next time someone tries to fight you in school grounds, your job is to find me. Unauthorized fights aren't allowed."

"Yes, Ms. Reya."

"Yawn. Now then, I believe both of you missed lunch if I'm not mistaken."

"I was too busy drawing the galaxy!" Sparkle girl said with a large grin.

Honestly, I was so worried about Esther getting mad I forgot I was even hungry.

The principal's uncaring demeanor hid a tinge of disappointment as Sparkle girl said that.

"...Regardless of reasons. So, considering you're both already late to class, why don't you two go get lunch and give this note to your teacher," she said, already scribbling cursive on a small piece of paper that she pulled out of seemingly nowhere.

I smiled. "Thank you very much, Principal Reya."

Sparkle girl held up two fingers. "Thank you! To show my appreciation, you can have this." She plopped her drawing on the desk in front of Ms. Reya.

"Well thank y—Ms. Reya started before looking down and seeing the gorgeous art. She started turning it from different angles and at that point I didn't need to be a mind reader to figure out what the principal was thinking. It had to be, "how much could I sell this for?"

"Well thank you very much Ms. Astra. I'll cherish it."

By the warm smile on her face, she seems genuinely touched to be given that by Sparkle girl. Don't principals usually get tons of art from students?

"Well, you two should leave now. Just tell the cafeteria staff I'm allowing it."

"Thank you," I said once again before turning around.

"By the way," the principal said in a more casual tone. "Tell Esther i said hello."

Wait, so she knew Esther the whole time? Could that be the real reason she didn't call her?

"Will do."

I walked outside the office and back into the hallway, except now I was downstairs.

Now to get food, I thought. I'll just go...oh. I still don't know where the cafeteria is. I should've just asked the principal. I guess I can still ask her but I'd rather not have another close encounter.

The halls branched out in three different directions, making guessing itself a risk. The school felt like a maze.

I looked in the corner of my eye to see sparkle girl looking at me but whenever I looked at her she would look away, like some kind of game. I tried to tap her shoulder to get her attention but she walked a few steps to dodge it to make it look like coincidental.

This girl is annoying. Like, really, really annoying. Sadly, I need her help.

"Umm, excuse me."

Finally, she looked over at me with her starry eyes. "Yes?"

"I don't really know my way around here yet. Could you show me the way to the cafeteria?"

She lit up like a Christmas tree. "Sure! We're headed the same way anyway right? That makes us cafeteria buddies!"

Ahh, I think I just made a mistake. A mistake I can't undo. She ran forward, hands straight out like she was an eight year old impersonating an airplane. Her sparkling hair flowed like it defied the law of physics.

"W-wait a sec."

I ran after her but despite how she looked she was extremely quick. Just as I'd get close she's turn a corner and nearly leave me.

I grabbed a piece of gum and groaned.

Do I really have to use magic on this, I thought? I don't even have much left. Whatever, I'm hungry. I pressed on it and popped it in my mouth. The area around me turned into a blur as I began to close the distance between us quickly.

"Oh, fast! You're fast!" She yelled. "How about this then?"

I blinked and she disappeared entirely. Where she was only sparkles and glittering stars remained.

"Where'd she—

"Over here!" Sparkle girl waved her hand out down the hall. She nearly doubled the previous lead she had on me.

That was definitely teleportation. But unlike Tenga, there didn't seem to be a condition for it.

I spit out my gum and threw another one in. I tried to keep up with her, but she kept leaping and teleporting and reappearing a large distance away. My mana was already halfway gone but unlike me, I doubt her pool was so small.

I spit out another piece of gum and put in my last piece of gum and really pushed my limits to get close to her. But just as I did she stopped teleporting and started walking normally. I stopped right behind her, nearly running into her. Right as I did, a huge gust of wind hit us both. I put my hands on my knees and wiped the sweat off my face.

"Woo! I win!"

"Win? What do you mean?"

She jumped. "We're here!"

I looked In front of Sparkle girl to see a myriad of empty tables and chairs. The lunchroom staff were still cleaning the tables and sweeping the floors, and they were definitely not happy to see us. I'm pretty sure one of them gave me a murderous gaze but I ignored it. Nothing new there.

The real battle was convincing them to make us meals. We told them the principal gave us permission but the brutish not so attractive lunch lady with a beauty mole by her lip swore the only way for Ms. Reya to do something nice for us would be to blackmail her and that she didn't trust us, which really speaks volumes for our dear principal's reputation.

Eventually though, they did cave in, after lying about not having leftover food and other excuses as to why they couldn't feed us. We were allowed to sit at the one table they hadn't yet wiped off. It wasn't clean by any means, but it wasn't exactly filthy either. Since this was the only table available, Sparkle girl and I sat facing each other. Surprisingly, she was quiet as she ate and didn't even try to start a conversation. For awhile, she didn't even look up.

"Uhh, so by chance, do you not like me?" I asked.

"She jumped and looked at me. "Hmm? What gave you that impression?" She asked, stuffing peas into her mouth with her fork. The way she spoke was completely different from how skittish she acted earlier.

"I mean, you've been avoiding eye contact with me and stopped talking to me once we got to the cafeteria."

I don't think I'd have a problem with her hating me, but I'd like to at least know why.

Then, a miracle occurred. She looked at me for probably the first time. Her fork danced around the sea of peas as she expressed a nervous face like when a child is afraid of telling their parents something.

"I know the guy in front of you probably told me to avoid you because I'm weird."

"That you are," I said bluntly.

"And people might not want to be your friend if they see you talking to me."

"Very true."

"Then?"

"Make no mistake, I have no intention of being anyone's friend. Including yours." I pointed at her with my fork.

"Everyone at this school will be an associate. Nothing more, nothing less. Some are just more useful than others."

I thought she'd be disheartened and maybe her feelings would be hurt, but I was completely wrong. She was gleefully smiling at me, as if I didn't just reject her friendship.

She jumped up on top of the table and stood tall and proud. Well, as tall as you can stand when you're 5'3. She puffed out her flat chest and let out a triumphant laugh.

"From this day forth, I am a useful associate!"

"Please just sit down."

"No can do, I can already feel us bonding."

"You say that, but I don't even know you're name," I said, sipping my milk.

"It's Luna. Luna Astra, queen of the galaxy!"

"Well Luna, please sit down before the lunch ladies report us to the principal. I'd rather not have two trips in one day."

She waved me off. "It's fine, they're used to it."

Ah, I'd rather not ask.

"By the way, I'm curious about your powers. What exactly is your magic? You appeared to teleport without any limit. And is that magic passed down in your family or is it special to you?"

But before she had a chance to answer, the wall on my right shattered and a large black figure towered over everyone in the room. It's red beating eyes scanned the room and locked in on me.

Tsk. This is not my day.