Charles king lonely hope part 1
Chapter 10

Slowly everyone left the room, I think everyone was unsure of where to go and the cafeteria seemed to be the best idea, we made our way squashed in the crowd and walked around the corner to the cafeteria we had seen before, it had a nice view of the back garden where the marquees and fair games were on the reveal day. The cafeteria had 3 sets of double glass doors, inside circle tables splattered all around, and vending machines lined the closest walls. They had every single brand of chocolate I have ever seen, sandwiches in them, and cold drinks too. Counter of food that stretched the back wall and around the corners.

“Right now, it’s just lunch stuff,” a nice dinner lady said, twiddling her fingers then pointing at finger foods, small sandwiches, mini sausage rolls, crisps and “at Dinner everything you can think of”.

I smiled. And said, “Thank you” picked up two sandwiches and turned to replace a seat but was met with dozens of kids giving me the side eye. The joys.

“Come on, let’s go for a walk,” Kevin said taking a bite of a ham sandwich, “Oh this is good” he went back “Can I grab some more.”

“of course, you can,” the dinner lady said,

“You’re awesome,” Kevin said grabbing loads more, then pulling my hand out and sticking two sandwiches in there, “These are so good, coming Grace?”

“Yep,” she said holding cream cakes in one hand and mini sausage rolls in the other hand. She kept eye contact with us and then grabbed more sausage rolls, then scurried over to us and we walked out, Chatter died down when we walked past and picked back up when we walked past.

“Hey, ballface!” Kevin yelled jokingly at a boy at the nearest table to him, he slapped my arm “he got hit in the face by a random blast three times, it was funny, see ya balls” I bit into my sandwich and left with Kevin and Grace, the urge to laugh was insane, Balls did not like that being called that. We left and turned the corner and I walked into something squishy, whatever it was, my face was stuck in it.

“You okay there?” said a voice right above my head. Oh god, oh god, oh god, I stepped back quickly and saw a full-figure girl with bright pink hair, I instantly looked at the floor and could feel my face going red by the second.

“New boyfriend?” said a different voice, A boy appeared next to the girl it was the older boy who got in the middle of my and Wyatt’s argument and he clapped during my lesson with headmistress Simmons.

“Of course,” she said and pulled me into her “always liked famous boys” Both laughed, and she let go of me, I took a step back and looked at Grace, she looked shocked, Kevin was enjoying himself and his sandwich.

“Hi, I’m Noah and this is Olivia” He put his hand out for me to shake, I finally looked up at him, my face was still definitely red, Noah was good looking boy, with messy brown hair that I think was more of a style than he just got out of bed, honey brown eyes, small nose, full lips, and bum chin. Olivia has bright pink hair that travels past her shoulder. Puppy dog blue eyes, large eyelashes, button nose, glossy lips, diamond ear rings too, and more importantly both had black Blazers on, they are in school teams. I shook their hands; Noah’s was bigger than mine and Olivia had pink fingernails and soft hands.

“Hi, I’m Charles, This is Grace and Kevin.”

“Hello,” Grace said.

“Sup,” Kevin said before eating another sandwich.

“Nice to meet you both,” Noah said to Kevin and Grace, You might want to step back a minute.” I went to ask “Why?” but with the sound rushing I realized what he meant, I stepped back against the walls and doors flew open in every direction, I don’t think I could move from the spot if I wanted to know, Noah tapped my shoulder and then pointed to Grace and Kevin a signalled to follow him, I did what he wanted but not too sure how we will get past all the students here, everyone was taller than us and some an awful lot wider. Olivia went first and began forcing her way through, Some people just began to move, and we made our way towards the fields in the back and past the steps that Lead to the ground floor of the school. As we got outside, I took a deep breath in, nice and fresh. Compared to the compact sweaty air that was assaulting my senses.

“That’s better” Noah said “It gets crazier in there on the first day, but don’t worry it’s not always like that” We walked around the school, past the library, I didn’t realize how big the school is, Noah turned into a tour guide as we walked, and Olivia kept trying to get her hands on Grace’s hair. “So over there are the sports halls we have a few of them, you done the reveal at sports hall 1, the one where you were training with Headmistress, that’s not a sports hall, that’s a training hall, and yeah, we have a few of them under the school, they all have spells on them to keep themselves intact... you see the woods past the fields here?”

“Yeah,” I said. Looking over the large field, if I sprint from where I stand next to the school and go full pelt to the woods in the distance it would take me at least 2 or 3 minutes.

“Well, that’s where they do school team events, We had a massive capture of the flag last year it was awesome, and we won.”

“It was fun,” Olivia said, She finally got her hands on Grace’s hair and was running it through her fingers, it might just be my imagination but I think she is cleaning and straightening it.

“Anyway, where am I? Oh yeah, on the other side of the school in the animal sanctuary, all the summoned animals stay there until they can home with their humans.”

“Animals?” Grace gasped. “Where? Can I see them?“.

“Some of them are adorable,” Olivia said, “I saw the cutest puppy today.”

“Oh yeah, Michael’s summons? That was cute” Noah said.

“What’s a summons?” I asked.

“An animal summoned through the user magic,” Kevin said, Everyone looked at him in slight shock, “what? You don’t spend a lot of time in a guild and not learn a new thing, You gonna eat that?” He pointed at one of Grace’s sandwiches, she handed him one. He took a bite out of it, “Basically, you can summon an animal through your magic, not everybody can do it though, Once summoned they are bonded to you, Look at your uncle Tommy’s dog he is a summon.”

“I never knew that,” I said honestly, “looks like a normal dog”.

“It is a normal dog; the summons doesn’t come out fully formed that are babies as they have just been born.”

“Rumour is” Noah said, we had completely stopped walking now, “the reason why wild animals have abilities is because of the summons animals mating with them... the reason why we had free time today” We pointed to himself and Olivia “We took our summons test but no luck, I was hoping for something cool like a hawk or big snake,”

“You’re scared of snakes,” Olivia said very judgey.

“I wouldn’t be if I had a small one that was bonded to me.” Olivia made a noise that sounded like she didn’t believe a word of that. We began walking again, and Olivia and Noah began bickering again, it was funny listening to them and walking to school to the front until some realization hit Noah.

“You guys have your assessments next, don’t you? We should walk back around to the sports hall” we agreed and then walked through the front door of the school, Students were gathered in groups all over the school each of them suddenly went quiet as we walked past, not like that bothered Noah who just continued to bicker about snakes.

“They like to stare at you don’t they,” Olivia said to me.

“Yeah, it’s the whole dark mage thing.” I said, “don’t think they have ever seen one before.”

“It’s just a new thing It should calm down soon, be like everything else that’s new, people will get bored, and it will just be like an oh yeah things.”

“What is oh yeah things?” I asked.

“It’s when something becomes old or forgotten and when someone remembers about it or told about it, they say oh yeah.”

“That makes sense, You’re very smart.” Olivia’s face went very red, the school bell rang as we got to the steps that led to the fields.

“You see that sports hall over there” Noah said, pointing to a building in the back, “That’s where you had the reveal go” I didn’t recognize it properly, guess I was caught up in the excitement of the reveal day and the field isn’t full of games and marquees.

“Thank you,” I said then we all said bye and we left.

“They’re nice,” Kevin said. I agreed with him, they were I didn’t expect it. We made our way down the steps onto the fields, whispers of chatter grew louder and louder and suddenly first years burst through the doors that are underneath and behind the stairs, the ones that lead to the cafeteria, some still eating, some even stuff drinks into their pockets. Kevin’s face looked longing like he wanted to run in and grab a drink himself, but he didn’t, and we walked towards the sports hall, the one that Noah pointed to, it was the furthest on the left, two more to the right and I managed to catch a glimpse of a circle glass down around the corner, that must be the animal sanctuary. Mr Ridgewell came out of the sports hall.

“Forms W, X, Y and Z here, the rest go to the other sports hall!” Mr Ridgewell shouted. About 10 minutes later the first years had been sorted into the two split groups and then.

“Okay, follow me inside” Mr. Ridgewell led the wall inside and everyone squashed at each other trying to get through the door at once. Inside was just the same as I remember only, we didn’t go to the gymnasium,

“Boys in their changing room girls in theirs, Ms. Sandhu is waiting and will explain what is going to happen next” We walked into a door, and sure enough big letters that said changing rooms boys, inside were, rows of wooden benches across the walls with hooks above them. Square made of the same wooden bench with hooks on mental bars above them. The room was a large rectangle with two doors in the middle, one was for showers and the other for toilets.

“Take a seat, any seat it doesn’t matter” a scatter of confused feet as everyone tried to replace a spot they liked and finally everybody sat down and was happy.

“Underneath the benches is your outfit for your assessment nothing spectacular, everybody gets the same one, the same colour, including the girls so no complaining, both the outfit and shows will fit your size so do not worry, now get changed into that hang your cloths up and the hooks and meet me outside”. Mr Ridgewell left the room and we all reached underneath the bench and pulled out a pair of black trainers they looked and felt comfy enough and then reached under again and pulled out a black onesie, but it felt thick and a little heavy. But that’s not what took me by surprise, what did was the sudden tension in the air and nobody getting changed, just boys looking around for someone to make the first move.

Kevin stood and took his blazer off and hung it up then began to unbutton his shirts, this then caused a ripple through the changing rooms, and everyone followed him, within minutes I was sat in my boxer shorts trying to stick my feet into the thick onesie, Kevin too.

“Both feet at once? or one at a time?” I asked him.

“I think both at once” he said and that’s what we did, the zip was on the back so we zipped each other up and then out our shoes which were massive on us but they did shrink to a comfortable size, I put my bag on the bench underneath my clothes that were hung up, then went for a wee before I left and got a good look at myself in the mirror, I look like a spy or a ninja, in all black with the onesie suit up to my neck. Outside of the changing room stood Mr. Ridgewell with a few of the boys and Kevin I walked off and gave them a nod, I was wondering why It was so Quiet until I saw some of the girls around the corner in the same outfits and suddenly feel a little shy, I get why it’s really quiet right now. Thankfully everyone came out quickly and joined the awkward silence, and then MR. Ridgewell and Ms. Sandhu gave each other a nod and told everyone to follow them, stuttering steps and awkward shuffling were the only noise to be heard, then it only got worse when the corridor narrowed and now, we were all shoulder to shoulder and squeezing through a door and onto the field that vaguely remembers from the reveal day.

Targets were set up, and a punching machine too? A 100-metre track to the left I didn’t notice that last time, a random crystal ball. And a bit further were things I couldn’t see.

“Go and take a seat in the stands and I will explain what is about to happen” Mr Ridgewell shouted, and we shuffled along past the Targets and the crystal ball, I saw Grace’s red hair a few steps in front, easy to recognize the hair after Olivia spent nearly all the break making it super straight and shiny. Guess nobody would recognize anyone by anything else since everyone was looking at the floor and doing everything possible to look people in the eyes, I nudged, Kevin and pointed at Grace, he understood and I pushed past a few people and tapped her on the shoulder, she shyly turned around and seemed happy to know it was us but then suddenly went as red as her hair. I didn’t ask her why, just walked with her to a set in the stands and faced the front.

“Hello, first years!” Mr. Ridgewell shouted, once again. “Welcome to an assessment day, here you will be assessed in all areas, these will help towards what classes you will attend in the coming year, also if you’re looking to impress the school teams this is a good chance” Ridgewell pointed to do we walked through and 6 kids walked through all with different coloured blazers on, must be 5th years from the look of them, I can feel the excitement buzzing through the area, everybody started to shift to get a better look at them.

“And because there are a lot of students doing different assessments at once, we have called in help... from the Moonlight mafia guild.” Grace practically jumped out of her seat at that news and began to squeal and vibrate like a ticking time bomb, I noticed that all the girls were doing so, five young men stepped onto the field, leather jackets and hairspray best way I can describe it or maybe a boy band guild there I explained it they look like a boy band. Explains why all the girls are excited while the boys are not so much, Well some of them seem to be happy.

“Moonlight mafia has gracefully offered to help us here today.” Grace and some others clapped loudly. Ms. Musa and the other form teacher turned up, I didn’t get his name, tall slim guy with long hair and a feather earring.

“Okay let us begin, everybody please go stand behind your form teacher” Grace hummed and stared at the boy band as we walked past them, handsome guys, I can see why the girls like them, strong chins, nice clothes, cool hairstyles and strong aftershave, they all look different enough to be something there for everyone. We made it to Mr. Ridgewell and waited for a second and watched the other form walk away The boy band split up and each went with a different form and the one left out sat in the stands and put his feet up.

“Okay everybody gathers around... I want you all to split up into the groups of the tables you sit in, during our form class” Ethan and Tori came over and smiled at us and then Charlotte made her way over and stood next to Tori, her blonde hair pulled up into a messy bun, she looks very pretty. Our boy band member appeared next to Mr Ridgewell, smiling with all his pearly white teeth, dark slick black shoulder-length hair, high cheek bones, and almost grey eyes.

“This is Jay Tucker; everyone will address him as Mr. Tucker, he will be offering bits of advice and helping out when he can, and so will the members of our school team” he gestured to a blue-haired girl in a blue blazer at the back.

“Firstly, target practice, ten attempts to hit the target, this table will go first, stand behind the white line and take a target each” The first table was the table of kids who sat closest to the teacher’s desk, I hadn’t spoken to them, 4 girls and 2 boys. Mr Ridgewell handed out those Magical aid things to the first table, I hadn’t seen one before, it looked like a glove.

“Everybody else step back and first table you will shoot when I say shoot... shoot!” 6 balls shot out as the rest of the class took a step back.

“Shoot” a second round of balls were fired. Only two were hit, in the arm and the lower chest, A similar theme for the rest of their shots extremely hit or miss, the blue-haired 5th-year girl would whisper in their ears and the boy band would help with arm positioning.

“Well done, please join the rest of your classmates... next up will be your table, I turned and saw that Tori was being pointed at, meaning next up was my table, Kevin and I walked out and took a spot in the middle and looked at our targets and the spare boyband member in the background who has sat up to watch. Grace walked into me while staring at Mr. Tucker who was behind me and Kevin. She giggled and walked past me to take a spot next to Kevin, Tori walked past both of them and took the spot at the end, Charlotte took a spot next to me, she didn’t look too happy about it. Mr. Ridgewell handed out more magical aids, he got to me smiled and walked on to Kevin.

“Shoot when I say shoot...” I arm and instead of opening up my palm, I remembered something my mum taught me a year ago.

“Open palm creates a bigger blast ball and allows you to add more magic for more destructive power, but a finger gun compacts the spell to a single point, which can be more deadly or more accurate.

“Shoot!” bang I hit the target square in the face, Kevin hit his two and so did Charlotte everyone else missed.

“What’s with the gun dude?” Kevin asked quizzingly.

“Something my mum taught me,” I said and then a blew air at the top of my finger like a cool spy.

“Does it work?” Charlotte asked to my surprise. I looked at her, her blue eyes beaming at me.

“Shoot!” Mr Ridgewell ordered; I saw my moment to be cool I quickly raised my hand and pinged the target in the head, Kevin hit again, Grace did and so did Ethan, but everyone else missed, I turned to Charlotte.

“Think about the blast ball coming out of the finger, It will be smaller so don’t worry then shoot like a Laser, use your finger as a guide” She looked at me like I was talking Spanish.

“Shoot” I hit the target again so did Kevin and I gave him a fist bump, we were the only people to hit it. Charlotte didn’t try the finger trick. I hit the target another 6 times and was waiting for the last shot, Kevin had only missed one, and Charlotte had missed two so did Grace. Ethan and Tori had missed three times. In the corner of my eye, I saw Charlotte change her hand position to a gun.

“Shoot” I hit the target and Charlotte grazed the side of the target’s head, I caught her looking at her hand, then smiled and tilted her head.

“Should have tried it earlier,” I said to her,

“Shut up,” she said playfully and smiled at me, We left and joined the rest of my classmates, the blue-haired girl pulled me by the arm, her green eyes shot down to my hand.

“Hmm, no aid, impressive,” she said, in a shocking low-pitched voice.

“Thank you,” I said, She nodded at me and then to Charlotte and down the finger gun, she nodded again and pursed her lips at her. We watched the the rest of the class take their shots, I managed to watch people run the 100 metres and do something with a magical ball.

Eventually, my form class had finished their 10 shots and another boy hit all ten shots, Shinji his name. haven’t got a really good look at him apart from his spiky black hair. Next on our to-do list was the 100hundred metre race, I was feeling somewhat confident after watching the first two races of the other tables, I lined up next to Kevin and the sudden competition in both had rushed to the surface, we smiled and took our spots in the line. Mr Ridgewell’s yell was the starting pistol.

And we were off, I got a good start and took the lead, Kevin came up to my right to both of our surprise Ethan had stormed ahead of both and us and won! I can’t believe I didn’t win; I didn’t even come second Kevin beat me to that in the last second. I jumped on the floor to catch my breath, laying there with my arm over my head, trying to breathe, Kevin lay down next to me. We sat up soon after and saw Tori congratulating Ethan.

“He is fast!” I said to Kevin, he panted and nodded in agreement.

“I came last” Grace said, she had walked over to us while we were lying down,

“It happens,” Kevin said, “you’ll get them next time.”

“Yeah, it’s just one of them, isn’t it?” I said, “You can always win next time” I looked at Ethan still surprised he didn’t look fast at all he was short and chubby, guess I judged a book by the cover, and I was wrong.

Shinji came 4th. I took an interest in him after seeing his magic, I did think he would be faster, once again I have judged a book by the cover, he is small and slim.

Next up was the magical ball thing, a simple crystal ball resting on a plinth, with a scoreboard underneath, Giggles of excitement reached my ears, even Kevin looked excited.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“magical power test,” he said, “Mum told me about it, you put as much magical power into it as you can and it gives you a score out of 10, Mum is an 8 at the moment, and Dad is a 9" the first of class went up, a plump dark haired girl covered in freckles, she had reached over and put her hand on it and her whole body tensed up,

“Emily Emmerton” Mr Ridgewell announced “2!” Emily turned around smiling from ear to ear!

“Is that a good score?” I asked,

“Yeah, for a first year,” Kevin said, “nobody wants to be a 1, did your parents not tell you what was going to happen today?”

“Not really, they didn’t mention anything about this stuff, Wait your parents told you exactly what was going to happen?”

“Of course, most parents do get their kids ready, prepare them and hopefully get good scores.”

“I’m gonna have words with my parents”. Kevin laughed. And nodded his head.

“Peter Perry” Mr. Ridgewell, announced, “1" Peter turned around looking deflated, his chubby cheeks dropped, his eyes hit the floor, and he pushed his long brown hair over his head. The table he sat at tried to cheer him up, but everything seemed to pick up pace now we all knew what to do.

“Flint tingle” the size of a 10-year-old, his school uniform looks too big for him and his nose looks like a ski slope, “2" Flint jumped up and his clothes looked like they reacted a second later and jumped too.

“Shinji Hojo” Shinji was being cheered on by his table, I don’t think I will get that from mine, well from Kevin and Grace I might, “3" Shinji turned to a stunned audience, I clapped loudly and seemed to snap everyone out of there shock and help them close their gaping mouths, Shinji’s brown eyes met mine and we nodded to each.

“Grace Joyce” I didn’t even notice her go up.

“You’ve got this Grace,” I said, hoping to help I could see her hand shaking profusely.

“Let’s go Grace” Kevin shouted.

“3” Kevin and I turned to look at each other, both stunned we did not expect that to say the least, she had been nervous with everything she had done up to now, we suddenly clapped and whooped loudly when we realized how quiet it was, Mr. Ridgewell’s head turned sideways too. Grace looked like she didn’t know what to do, she turned from side to side and stuttered her steps, eventually, she picked a direction and walked through the class,

“Little Miss Powerful,” Kevin said, jokingly. As grace made her way to us. “Been holding back on us I see.”

“I’m really surprised by that,” she said smiling at the floor, “I did use magic when I was little” She trailed off and began rubbing her wrist, I sensed she didn’t want to talk more about it.

More people went up and then Kevin did, he tapped my arm and said.

“I’m going!” he walked off and put his hands on the crystal ball and his body tensed up, The class quieted down and watched, I don’t know why it suddenly felt tense was everybody else this interested in what Kevin’s scores were going to be?

“Kevin Church... 3” Kevin spun around and threw his hands up in the air.

“Power!” he yelled and began to shadowbox. The class laughed. Charlotte walked pasted him, blonde hair pulled up and somehow looked like it still wafted gracefully past him. Her hands reached out for the crystal ball.

“Charlotte Barrington Bennett... 3” She turned on her heels and smiled, I swear every boy here face went red, for a second. Charlotte came and to my surprise stood next to me, She normally doesn’t like being close to me well that’s the vibe I haven’t gotten. Tori and Ethan were next up and both got 2′s. Everything seemed to fly by and I didn’t notice that everybody else had been, and I was the last one to go, I stepped forward past my classmates and the class completely fell silent.

“Let’s go Charles” Kevin yelled encouragingly, “nothing less than a 3 or I’m telling your mum” I turned and then he nodded and raised his clenched fist and smiled. I turned to Mr Ridgewell who was standing in the same place side to the side so he could see the scoreboard, I put my hand on the crystal ball, and I didn’t put any magic into it, the crystal ball sucked it in, I could see why everyone’s body tensed up. it Felt like my hand was over a giant Hoover pole. It’s a strange feeling, like magic is being sucked out of your body. It stopped and I let go.

“Charles King” I looked at Mr. Ridgewell and he had stopped talking. he looked at boy band “Mr. Tucker could you please see if you can fetch the Headmistress... the Crystal ball had just cracked open.” Boy band and nodded like he knew exactly what to do and began to jog towards the sports hall.

“What?” I gasped and looked over the crystal ball, still silver all over... the back... the back had a crack like an earthquake ripped through it. I turned around and Kevin had come over to me and then peered around the back.

“Sir that got to be at least 5,” he said, Mr. Ridgewell smiled and then said.

“And then some... come on join the rest of the class” The boy band member who had been sitting down on the stands, appeared by the crystal ball picked it up and began examining it, I walked through the class,

“Because of the dark magic” someone whispered,

“He’s not really that strong” another one whispered,

“Disgusting magic”

“I can feel it in the air, gross.”

Someone then coughed loudly, “I agree with a 5,” Shinji said and left his clenched fist out for a fist bump.

“Thanks,” I said gave him a fist bump and made our way back to the back of the class.

“Not strong huh?” Kevin said, his jaw clicking, looking angry, “You don’t need magical aids, you’ve been nice to people, but they want to be mean for no reason, about something you didn’t pick, just born that way, okay” he turned to look at me with determined look and fire in his eyes.

“We have the Rookie Royale next,” he said loudly, clearly trying to get everyone’s attention. “let’s see how long they last when they come up against you during the royale, let’s see how strong they are!” jaws fell, hands ran through hair, some even clapped their mouth.

“Sounds good to me, Let’s win it, Kev!” I said, We turned to the rest of the class staring at.