Saoirse

      The morning sun shone through the empty rooms of Lathaniel while everybody --- students, teachers and masters, (the mages who taught magic in school were called master.) dressed in their uniforms, were waiting at the front door. The uniforms could be useful at this time because usually the Lathaniel students didn’t dress their uniform in any classes. It was the morning of the day before the tournament day. The large lawn in front of school was packed and suddenly became smaller than it usual size. The workers hauled five giganticus birds out to the lawn. They were bigger than the hawks Zes used to ride yet they weren’t as elegant as them. “Those are the bus birds. They’re really expensive if you rent them outside. They’re quite hard to feed but one bird can load up nearly a hundred people. ” Rai spoke to Zes.

      Only five bus birds were needed to load up all the people who were in the lawn. When the bus birds flapped their wings to set off, the big wooden front doors that were opened shut at once. The workers already found a place to hide themselves.

      The birds took off from the Lathaniel valley and flew across a green mountain, then prepared to land in another valley which was full of flowers. You wouldn’t be able to see an inch of the green colour of grasses. They finally landed in front of a marble castle which looked as if it was a princess castle. There were students and teachers of Saoirse waiting to welcome. The white uniform of Saoirse that contrasted with the black of Lathaniel did really look good. Zes got off the bird and followed the others into the castle, headed for their temporary bedroom.

            They crossed the castle gate into a beautiful flower garden. In the garden, they could see every details of the castle; it was an ideal place for princesses. Red roses covered all over the walls and around the windows. The sculptures of enamouring angels, naiads, fairies and nymphs hung out living their daily life on the walls. I don’t think you’ll see anyone more beautiful than these sculptures.

      There still were the girls welcoming along the pathway in the garden. Other students who didn’t have a chance to welcome the Lathaniel’s, opened the windows from their rooms to watch the visitors. When Veejay and Reese stepped passed the gate, the scream suddenly grew loud. This screaming probably from those girls at the windows, some stared at them; some struggled to stick their heads out of the window. The girls who were standing in the welcoming line also secretly stared at them without blinking their eyes. Apart from Reese and Veejay, Zes could also hear another scream at the back, “That must be Haley and Sasha.” said Reese.     

      “Who are they?” asked Rai.

      “Haley’s in Arrow Zith and Sasha’s in Water plant Zith. They’re really good. I think, maybe, as well as me. But they’re almost graduated, last level this year, I think.”

      Each of the bedrooms for Lathaniel’s students fit for twelve people so Freza, Otis and Reese’s gang could stay in one room together. The rooms at Saoirse were much brighter than Lathaniel’s because it was made of marbles. It also looked cleaner and cozier although there were only twelve beds and nothing else in the room. The room, itself, was quite small for twelve people but everyone felt better than staying in a dark stuffy room at Lathaniel.

      While everybody was busy with their belongings in the bags. Someone knocked the door so Zes got up to go for a look.

      A curly, blonde hair girl looking shy was standing in front of the door, but a girl, whose brown hair was almost black, looked bored, she looked up at Zes and gave him a smile. Her height was almost as same as Zes’. Her skin was pale but she’s quite cute (Only when she smiled, Zes thought). Zes smiled back to her. Then the blonde hair girl who was trying to look into the room to find something, started to speak. “Could…er…Aham…Could you give this to Reese-waoda?” and she handed a pink letter to Zes. “A…aaaai!!! Quick, Mei!!” she, then, dragged the dark brown hair girl away.

      While Zes hadn’t abate his confusion yet, a big crowd of girls ran over to him and handed the letters for Veejay-waoda or Reese-waoda. They also tried to look over into the room. At that time, Zes did really looked like a letter box.

      “Phew!” Freza sighed. “Veejay, Reese, you guys are really popular.” And he stared at the two mountain-like piles of letters. “How are you going to read all these?”

      “Just read one, that’s enough, the others are the same.” Rai picked up one of Reese’s love letter to read.

      “What does it say?” asked Otis.

      “I like you so much. Would you like to go out with me? Something likes this. Aren’t these girls ever ashamed of themselves?” asked Rai.

      “It must be because they saw your tournament last year. No one screamed when you guys came in that time.” said one of the members of the gang, Jadan.

      “Anyway, what’s the waoda thing that they add after Reese’s and Veejay’s name?” asked Zes.

      “Waoda is kinda like Sir, but use only with the person you admire, appreciate or impress” Rai explained.

      “Woooow! I love being so popular!” Reese who was sinking into a pile of mountain of his letters finally said. “I’ve never thought that somebody like me could be this popular! Ha ha!”

      Veejay, still didn’t say anything since he read his first letter, and after he went through about ten letters. He stopped moving.

      “Hey! Veejay! Are you okay?” Reese who had just noticed Veejay’s unusual act, tapped at him and Veejay suddenly fell down at that moment. His ears and his face were bloody red.

      “Ow! This guy’s already fainted with shyness!” said Reese and laughed at the same time.

*

      Even when they were heading for the dining room, hundreds and hundreds of girls glanced up at Reese and Veejay all the way. Veejay’s face was getting redder and redder and it seemed like he was going to faint again but just when he was falling down, the girls around all rushed to help him up. That was what made Veejay jumped up again, making everyone laughed.

      At that moment, a cute girl who had long scarlet shining hair walked pass. She was one of the girls who were not excited with Reese and Veejay, which seemed to have not many of them. She looked at Reese and Veejay with hatred and walked away.

      “Scarlet…” said Reese, looking behind her. “See how she looked at us? Wait ‘til the tournament!”

      The dining room was decorated with many chandeliers that attracted all the boys. The dining table was placed as many as possible in this room so they were not really neat but the room didn’t seem to look smaller. On the table, a set of meal was placed at each of the seats for everybody. After a tumultuous moment while everyone was finding their seat, they were all fell silent when the strange dessert was served. On the small plates were fleshes looking jelly with the bloody red syrup on top. In spite of their disappearances, their tastes were great and they were luscious. Then, an old lady with lots and lots of wrinkles on her face, she seemed to be a principal of Saoirse, stood up.

      “Welcome! Boys, teachers and masters from Lathaniel. This year…the Green Tournament will be changed a little bit. Because of the matches between Reese Lorenze with Mairi Rinia and Veejay Kist with Scarlet Hyler had left a lot of impression on us. So, Saoirse has arranged a special competition for them, SURVIVAL!!!”

      When the survival word ended, the whispers spreaded around the dining room, the girls who liked Reese and Veejay were very excited. Principal Gizmo gave a cough and stood up.

      “And for the regular tournament of Magic Line and Weapon Line, we’ll have Rai Mathais and Zes Orson who got the second place on the selection instead.”

      “Wonderful!!! Zes, Rai! You guys are so lucky!” said Freza loudly “Don’t lose, okay? And Veejay, Reese survival seems fun.”

      After dinner while everyone was walking out of the dining room, a silver blue hair girl with her friends (should use the word “gang” here.) walked up to Reese. ”Hey, Reese, Veejay!” she said “You won’t win me this year. You know, survival competes in pair. If I pair with Scarlet, you guys won’t have a chance to win again!!”

      “Oh! Really, Mairi. I’m so scared” said Reese “Well, let see who’ll win this year… err… but I think I have never EVER lost to you, right?”

      Mairi started to get angry. She used her magic to attack Reese without thinking. But the magic that was formed with anger wouldn’t hurt Reese an inch.

      “Hey!! You can’t hurt the competitor before the tournament. It’s not right. It’s wrooooooong!!!!!!” Reese still didn’t stop provoking Mairi.

      Mairi tried to use the magic again but Rai quickly went between them because it looked like Reese was going to strike back.

      “Stop! Stop! Let’s wait until the competition, okay?” said Rai.

      Mairi who was angry stopped at once and if you look in her eyes, you’ll see that she’d got a crush on Rai.

      “Okay, wait till the tournament, chi!!” and she walked away with her gang.

      “Okay, wait till the tournament, chi!!” Reese mimicked Mairi but it was lots uglier.