Charles king lonely hope part 1
Chapter 5

“I’ll show you around” Yasmin said and then walked past Lincoln and we followed her around. First, we made our way down the corridor, these sets of classrooms are all based on the theory of the supernatural. at the end were two doors, one into another corridor and the other leading to a set of stairs. But Yasmin opted to leave through the doors. Classrooms were on the right this time and light came through, There were windows on the left about halfway up and a door. As we got closer I saw a rectangular garden-like set-up in the middle of the school. Benches spaced throughout it, trees standing tall and even a water fountain in a corner. Yasmin called this a quad and there was another one on the opposite side of the school and in between them was the assembly hall. We went out into the quad; stone flooring led the benches with perfectly cut grass surrounding it all. I can smell the freshness of it all. I eventually noticed that on either end of the quad where windows of classrooms including Alex’s, inside still bickering was my family. We left the quad; Yasmin began to explain the school layout.

“So, there’s three floors. The main entrance where we all came in is the ground floor. You can see the second floor if you just look up” I know what she means I did notice that while waiting in line. “The second floor is just like the ground floor only no quad, but it does have a relaxing view. On the right side of the school, we have the nurse’s office” We were approaching that, it had double doors with windows carved into them I peeked through and saw a waiting room and another set of double doors but no window in them.

“Its massive in there its goes to both floors, and there is two nurses and eventually you will be in there everyone goes in eventually. I ended up in there last year thanks to the language wars.”

“What?” I said, so confused by that last bit.

“Oh, I should explain that bit she said as we came out of another set of doors, now we were at the back of the school, and it suddenly got loud. Yasmin stopped by a window that looked out at the back of the school, I had never seen anything like this. Thousands of people crowded in and around marquees and tents, some looked like restaurants some looked like makeshift pubs, all neatly in lines stretching across the field, and circus, and fun fair games too, looked like fun.

“Mental that isn’t it,” Kevin said. He pressed his hand on the mirror.

“We can go out there soon once I have explained abit more,” Yasmin said snapping my and Kevin’s attention back to her. “when you start school you’re put into a form class, it’s like a class that you attend every morning with the same teacher who will be your form teacher and they will give updates on school stuff and checks in and helps you out, language wars comes from them, because there are only six form classes for each year and they are split into two groups of three and those groups learn different languages, mine is French and the group is Spanish, long story short I broke my arm and it got fixed” looks like Yasmin is getting annoyed that Kevin and I keep looking out of the window and not at her and paying attention.

“Before we go outside too, do you see the bit of the school on the left that looks like the nurse’s office on the otherside that’s the library, underneath us here, in the cafeteria and all combat room that the basement level, you do combat outside to, and there is other bits but you two have stopped listening to me.” She’s right I got most of what she said but I just saw a guy walk past with a snake, another one on a Hoverboard and a girl creating mud golems. We made our way to the doors of the stone steps, I got to the bottom and saw people coming out of the basement floor. Kevin and I made our way through the crowd and watched as students from the school team performed spells to an audience, one guy set himself on fire and then immediately put himself out not a burn mark on his clothes. A girl had control of over ten plates spinning in mid-air then began to hover over the heads of people and back to her again.

“Let’s grab some food,” Yasmin said, she made her way to us and grabbed Kevin by the arm she knew how to get him to do what she wanted,” Lincoln said handing me £20" Mum told me to give it to you when we left Alex’s classroom”.

“Thanks” I said, money in hand I followed Kevin and Yasmin into a marquee. It smelled incredible. My mouth began to water instantly. a Caramel Mountain that leaked out chocolatey goodness rested behind the cashiers like a volcano ready to blow. Yasmin made us grab a seat first before ordering, she chose a wooden bench that sat four. I could smell our neighbour’s cinnamon hot chocolates it made steam come out of their ears with each sip, but what caught my attention was their meal pastry gladiators that fought each other in the middle of the plate, spilling the other strawberry guts. I want one! It was entertaining, smelled delicious and looked it too.

“what’s that called?” I leant over and asked the older gentlemen.

“Pastry coliseum mate”

“Thank you” I, told him, I told the others what I was getting I got up and went to the queue queue waited in line to place my order. “One pastry coliseum please.”

“No problem that’s £13 my love” the cashier said I handed her the money and she handed me a number ticket. number 34, I waited, Yasmin had ordered hers before I came she got, strawberry fields, no idea what it is but sounds amazing. Mine came out with a lid over.

“Thank you” I took the plate then went and sat down next to Lincoln who must have been waiting for me to come back because as soon as I sat down he got up. Kevin was sitting across from me.

“What did you get? Kevin asked, I didn’t respond only opened up the lid, to the waft of fresh pastry dough and strawberry and two gladiators in a little arena standing up to dual. It was awesome, pastry clashed against pastry, swords on shields and then eventually one was beheaded spectacularly with a spinning move. They stopped moving and I began to tuck into one and let Yasmin have some of the other, warm strawberry pie I couldn’t ask for more. I’m going to get more. I stood up. Lincoln and Kevin were already tucking into their food, they had something similar, Lincoln’s was a pastry animal farm and Kevin had small cars that raced around. Yasmin was tapped on the shoulder by two dark-haired girls.

There was quite a queue still, but I didn’t mind I got to see what other people were wearing, mainly just different variations of anything that can move. Cars, humans, and animals. I stood behind a red-haired girl she was vibrating with joy and excitement; her hair looked a little dirty and her white bag looked a little beaten down. But who cares she seems happy. Eventually, she was next up and ordered her food, princess pastry for £4:99 but then she threw her bag to the floor and began to dramatically look through it.

“I have it I have it,” she said in a panicking voice, “I can’t believe I lost the five-pound note” she began to whisper to herself, and I could hear others begin to whisper about her too. I leant beside her and said.

“You dropped this” I handed her a five-pound note. She looked from her bag to me, wasn’t just her hair that looked a little dirty, a few marks on the top, and holes in her jeans that I don’t think were done fashionably.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her large green eyes looked misty, and recklessly covering most of her face. And her full lips pulled into a thin line. I nodded and stopped and offered my hand to help her up, she took it and stood up paid for her food, said thank you to me again and left.

“Yes dear?” the waiter called to me, I looked down at the £2 in my hand, then looked at the menu for something I could get and saw hot chocolate for £2 and got that and headed back to the others.

“Thought you was getting more food?” Kevin said,

“Changed my mind,” I said and took a sip of the hot chocolate, steam came out of my nose, I must look like a baby dragon. Cinnamon and caramel are such a good combination.

“Having fun?” came a familiar voice that I recognized, I turned around and saw Dad standing behind me.

“yeah”, we all said together. I suddenly began to notice the eyes of the other people at the other tables starting to stare at us. “who’s up for checking out some of the carnival games?

“There’s carnival games?” Lincoln asked. He straightened up and looked excited.

“of course,” Marvin said appearing out from beside my dad about to eat a piping hot burrito, it looked impressive. “The school always does its stuff like this” he motioned to the restaurant that we are in, “and some carnival games, some people come early to try everything out.” We didn’t need more convincing everyone was up and following Dad and Marvin, and it became blatantly obvious that people were staring at Dad, before he was here it might have been harder to get through squeezing past people but now people moved out of our way, it wasn’t long before a group of young kids asked for a photo of him.

“of course,” he beamed and leant over for a quick pic. The kids looked at Lincoln and me for a moment, I think they put two and two together when their mouths opened up to form a giant O. We stopped first at a test your strength game. Whack the red button as hard as you can with a heavy hammer, I felt like Thor then I only got it halfway up and then I felt like Thor but with a cold. Dad hit the bell at the end. And he was the only one who did that until Marvin stepped up at the end and nearly took the bell off! I’ve never heard a hammer hit anything that hard in my life! he won a panda and gave it to Yasmin who looked both embarrassed and pleased. Next was shooting tin cans, then shooting ducks and then shooting clowns there were a lot of shooting games here. He tried throwing rings on bottles a lot harder than it looked I managed to bounce them off every time.

We arrived at a throwing game now; this one looks simple throw a ball out of a pyramid of pins and knock them down. I managed to hit three tins off and missed everything after that, Kevin fared no better, eventually, we both gave up and let our dads have a go. They leant back so far and even put their leg in the air like baseball players then launched the balls as hard as they could. They missed every shot. Hilarious really.

“Never mind this” Dad said in a huff, “shall we go try the magical ones?”

“Magical ones?” I asked and Lincoln slid up to my side.

“Yeah magical games like carnival game but magical versions, these are for the people who have no magic.”

“There is people here with no magic here?” Lincoln asked, Kevin, Marvin and Yasmin stood to the side waiting for us, I guess they must already know what Lincoln and I were about to be told.

“of course, some are here to tour the school before they start and not everyone in magical families have magic, Marvin has a cousin who doesn’t have magic.”

Marvin was nodding, “My cousin Anthony, you know he is a police officer now.”

“That’s great!” Dad said before ushering us away past onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of Dad. Something he said repeated in my mind.

“Dad?.., you said some of them would be touring the school before they start.”

I think Dad caught on to what I was getting at. “Well, this school also takes in some none-magical students and teaches them magical items and other stuff I don’t know that much about what they learn but be nice when you meet some of them because it must be hard being different in school, none magic in a magical school it must be tough... Bullying” he added the last part to drive home his point. Look after those who need it, something my parents have always taught me. Dad has never liked bullies, just the idea of people being picked on, insulted, or even hurt for no reason makes his blood boil, from the steam coming off him sometimes I think makes his blood boil. My Auntie who died just before I was born was bullied pretty badly when she went to school despite her brothers (Dad and Uncle Tommy) always defending her, eventually stopped but left a lasting mark on my Dad.

We came to the first magical carnival game. It was getting harder to tell where we were with all the people around, tents and games taking up all the space. DragonsBreath was the first game. You hold a liquid given by the vendor and blow it threw the large ring on a pole in front and it creates what looks like a dragon’s fire breath attack. Yasmin first spat out her water and missed the pole. Lincoln laughed and then stepped up to have a go, he managed to hit the ring and created a small flame.

“Step aside,” Marvin said and took a big swig of the liquid and sprayed the water instead of spitting it, that worked a lot better, a large flame burst out the side of the ring, and then the vendor checked how far he went,

“3 metres,” the vendor said in his strong Birmingham accent. Marvin turned to face us with a smirk on his face.

“I thought you spit it” Lincoln said, “I didn’t know to spray it!”

“You live and learn kid” Marvin mocked. I didn’t fancy a go of this, I didn’t think I could do the spray thing. Next up was the gauntlet pistol, I went first and slid my hand into the metal gauntlet with its fingers shaped like a gun, instantly I felt a pinch around the wrist, then after being explained to by the mullet guy the vendor of this game.

“Aim your gauntlet at the target wee man, hit 10 you win big, 6-win middle and 3 win small, to shoot tap the top of it, it will fire the magic it has absorbed”.

I did what he said and tapped the top and outshot a small orb-like object that whizzed across and narrowly missed the target in the centre.

“Cool” I whispered to myself, steadied my aim, and shot nine more times I hit it twice and missed the other. Dad had a go next and pinged nine targets including the moving ones, but what I noticed about his orb compared to mine, his orb was ruby red. Marvin’s was a crackling yellow, even Lincoln’s had a hint of red in it. Dad got a massive elephant.

Next was a boxing game, and the smallest man I had ever seen was in charge of it. He held a pair of boxing gloves in his hand standing next to a punch machine,

“Having a go little miss?” the vendor said to Yasmin, she immediately spun her head to Marvin and mouthed.

“Did he just call me small?” Kevin coughed violently holding back a laugh and even hid behind me, to avoid Yasmin’s death look, “yes I’d love a go, thank you” she sounded mad, Yasmin proceeded to take the glove slip it on and change into what looked like a boxing stance.

“what’s magic about this?” I asked Kevin, he shrugged his shoulders.

“The punching bag can only be moved by magic,” Marvin said leaning in between Kevin and me, “so more strength of magic and force of a punch counts for a lot here.” Yasmin let back and let rip with a big swing and hit the punching bag clean, it flew back into the machine with a thud, number began scaling upwards on the machine eventually halting at 675.

“Not bad” the vendor said taking the glove back from Yasmin. “who’s next?”

“I’ll go,” I said, stepping forward handing the vendor a pound and taking the glove, slipped it on my right hand and felt a pinch around the wrist and slight suction too. I got into position and practised a swing stopping just before contact, then I went for it with everything I had. Bang! It flew back with a louder thud than I expected.

“946?” the vendor said, eyeing me quizzingly. I turned to see my family and friends looking just as shocked as the vendor,

“What the hell? Kevin said. “All that chatting we have done, and you fail to mention monster magical power?”

“I didn’t mean that,” I said honestly. Pointing at the machine.

“that’s some power,” Marvin said.

“Hell, yeah it is,” Lincoln said flexing his muscles. Dad laughed and joined.

“that’s the king’s family power,” Dad said.

“We are all like that” came Mum’s voice from behind and the others. “I see that sweetie was very impressive but it mummy’s go now.” Yasmin and Kevin looked excited to see Mum have a go, Tracy nudged Marvin’s arm and Madison came to a halt next to Lincoln looking more interested in her large ice cream cone filled with sparkles, caramel chocolate dripping off the side.

“Here you go” The vendor looked up at Mum in awe, it didn’t take long for Mum to put the glove on and swing.

“1564” the vendor gasped then checked his machine to see if it was still working. Dad began to giggle.

“Anyone else want a go?” Mum said holding out the boxing.

“After that?” Marvin said, “notNotchance, let’s move on to something else before someone tries to force me into it.” He gave a dark look towards Tracy and then added and began to pull the first along. If I thought the staring was bad before, now Mum was here it got ramped up to a whole new level. Photos were taken of Mum and added as they walked past. Loud gasped and “Oh oh god,” kids began to point. We stopped at a new game. Small green creatures roamed around the vendor’s feet. They had on what looked like little white dresses. The game was a football game score past the little green creature. Imps, Mumm told me what they are called everyone wanted a go at this, and it became obvious who had and hadn’t played football because some of these kicks were horrible, the best by far was Tracy smashing it into the top right corner. And the worst? Marvin, couldn’t kick the ball straight always flying off to the side.

“I never played as a kid, just wasn’t a fan.” He said, making excuses after every kick. I missed my shot bouncing it off the post, Dad went last, and he also bounced It post but it hit the imp in the face. It looked like it hurt. I walked over to the goal and leaned over the imp lying on the ground.

“You okay buddy?” I said softly. Up close the imp’s skin looked rough, dark green like a Mossy tree. The imp turned its head to look up at me, With round eyes and a thin nose, pointy ears and two large yellow teeth separated, it looked like a vampire with a sweet tooth. The imp nodded its head.

“that’s nice of you,” the vendor said. “Nobody checks on the imps if they hurt them.”

“why?” I asked after offering my hand to help the imp up. it wrapped its Long thin fingers around my hand.

“They don’t care, but they see imps in a different light.”

“that’s mean, everyone and everything should be treated with respect until they show you why you shouldn’t respect them.”

“Well said” Mum praised me. The vendor smiled and then helped the imp behind the goal and a new imp came out. Mum ushered me away, I looked back and saw the previous imp looking around the corner, I waved at it, and it waved back and gave a crooked smile.

Suddenly a loud bell rang out and a female voice boomed over the entire crowd.

“Attention. The reveal is upon us, will the participations please make your way to sports hall A with one parent or guardian please, more information will be explained then” excited chat flared up instantly and families started to split up.

“Ready?” Dad said after he saddled up next to me. ” Mum is going to be with Madison and Lincoln” he added after seeing the look on my face. Kevin and Marvin stepped in front.

“let’s go” Kevin said bursting with excitement. We said our goodbyes to our families,

“Good luck and have fun,” Mum said. She looked more nervous than excited.

“Good luck,” Tracy said.

“I wonder if I’ll be a lighting mage like” Kevin said as we walked with the crowd, I’m not 100% sure where we are going but Dad and Marvin are, and they are leading the way. Eventually, we came large white building “Sports Hall A” in bold letters sprawled across it. We entered, slowly shuffling in with other kids and their parents I couldn’t get a good look around because of the number of people around me but I did know that we were walking down a corridor and then through double doors and thankfully into a large open space, a gymnasium, basketball hoops pulled up, inspirational message on the wall that said stuff like, “tough times don’t last but tough people do”, “our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Rows of fold-out chairs face a makeshift stand and a projector screen rolling down the wall. Kevin and I followed our parents to our seats towards the back of the gym, we sat in the middle of the row and an older man sat down next to me and smiled. I caught the other kids staring at me this time, not my dad for once and that was weird. A tall boy dark with a bit of a sneer etched on his face. A gaggle of posh-looking adults were at the front eyeing the crowd if a face screamed I had money it was this guy with blonde hair in an expensive-looking suit, looking down his nose at people and to my surprise he was with Charlotte’s dad, that girl I saw coming out of aunty Alex’s classroom before.

Stood on the makeshift stand was a slim man, I could see his face properly. He had on black pants and a long-sleeved white shirt rolled up to his elbows and on a black waistcoat. he signalled for someone to hand him a microphone, he got one put it to his lips and then cleared his throat to silence the noise.

“Please take a seat,” he said in a low dry tone. Sounds like he does not want to be here let alone doing this. “Hello. Welcome to the reveal day, let’s make this quick. My name is Mr Payne and a teacher here at kingsborn academy... the reveal will take place momentarily.”

“Guess he’s done taking about himself” I whispered to Dad, he giggled then replied.

“he’s always been like that, don’t annoy him, he has alwa”...