Dameon Duke's Story

Dameon stood at the gates to the academy and toom a deep breath, his blazer lifted with his shoulders as he breathed in then followed them down as he exhaled."Bye, bye DD!" As he looked back he saw his mother and sister waving at him franticly. Dame followed the stone pathways into the school grounds and looked around to see people of both magical and non-magical backgrounds in the same place. It was a relief to be somewhere that they could mix freely and not be fighting, or so he thought. He walked to where he saw people that seemed to be his age and collected a slip of paper that told him, that his room was, "A075." He spoke his number aloud to a teacher that was telling people which building they needed to go too.

"That's the building on the left." She said sweetly with a large smile. Dame walked of towards the two semi-circle shaped buildings and entered the one on the left. As he walked down the corridor that was hundreds of rooms long he counted them. A066, A068, the walk was long and boring. When he approached his room he entered, avoiding the older looking student walking towards him. The room was small and contained a small bed, a desk and wardrobe. It was simple but it was enough to live in, after all during the holiday's the students could go home.

Dame looked at his watch, Sunday 1pm. Lessons did not begin until tomorrow but all students had to be into their rooms today. There was plenty of time left in the day for him to go looking for friends and that was what he intended to do with his time. As he left his suitcase by his new deck Dameon looked out of the window and onto the large courtyard between the boy's and girl's dorms. There were already people out there and it looked pretty busy but he was still sure he could find someone to talk too.

Melanie finally found her room and entered it. It was small with the bare necessities to make school living. She found a stack of books on the given desk with a slip of paper that noted her classes and school schedule. She was pretty excited to see it. Another thicker packet was labeled the high school's rules. That, she was little more reluctant to check out. The day was still young so she decided she would review it later. She left her bag there and examined her living space for about ten minutes. It was very, very clean, she noticed. Biting her lip, she searched for a mirror. She finally found one behind the entrance door and sighed at her reflection. She never was a big fan of the color red, but the white polo made her a little happier. All her life, since she lived on the mainland, she went to public schools, able to wear whatever she pleased without the restraint of a uniform. Melanie twirled a bit in her uniform, gathering her smartphone for a couple pictures. She could at least show them off to her old friends.

Leaving her stuff in the room, she locked it and kept the key in one of the pockets on the inside of her skirt. On the other side, she left her phone in it. It weighed awkwardly, but only she could feel it. She stood by one of the large poles that blocked the two semicircle dorm estates for the students. Much of the area was the same as when she entered it. More students were helping others then there were lost students at this time though. Looking down at the cement, she stared at her black shoes and cringed. Loafers. Trying to ignore them, she jumped a little on her heels searching around for a nice face or something that would make her less on edge. Her dark hair was straightened and as she bowed her head, thin strands would fall in front of her eyes. She pushed them behind her ears and walked into one of the hallways that led left.

She was trying to remember how she made friends before in her old school. It had been a while since Melanie had to make new friends. She had the same circle of best friends since she was five and breaking away from them was slipping into unknown territory. Breathing in she looked around for somebody, anybody. She saw another student, looking close to or younger to her age and witnessed a breath of bravery. Melanie was never the shy one, but today was testing it. "Hey," she said with a smile. "Are you a first year?" She asked the boy (Dame). Inside she punched herself. Shyness crept up on her face turning it pink. Usually, she held her own, but today was different. She wasn't in a normal school with more or less normal students. It was a magical high school. Yet, a high school nonetheless. Then she remembered, she wasn't very good with making friends and she just jumped into a conversation with someone she didn't even know. Hopefully the boy was nice.

Dame stepped out of his door and slipped his key into the lock as he turned it he was approached by a girl around his age. "Hey, are you a first year?" She spoke through a soft smile on her face but Dame still jump as he wasn't expecting her. As he pulled the key out of his door he slipped it into his pocket before speaking. "Yes, I'm Dameon Duke, first year." He spoke formally to the girl as if to suggest that he was a boy that lived an upper class upbringing. That was to suggest, but in reality that was just a disguise to cover up his average life, with his average family. Dame was always nervous around new people but it became around ten times worse when it was a new girl. "Umm, shouldn't you be in the girls dorm? If you don't mind me asking." Dame wanted to say something witty and humorous like 'or did they give you the wrong uniform' but to a new girl that would never happen. Dameon's wit always ended when a girl was in the room.

Melanie kept smiling as the boy introduced himself. She wasn't taken aback from the formality. Actually, she didn't recognize it at all. She wasn't very attentive to small details like that. "Nice to meet you Dameon," she greeted, tossing her head to the side a little. "I'm Melanie Casper." Melanie, as mentioned before, was never the shy one amongst her friends. She wasn't the outgoing one either, but she had her foot set on both sides of that matter. She was mostly an in between gal. She also never had problems talking to boys. In fact her first best friend was a guy. Lucas Smith. He was the quirky neighbor that treated her like a sister, or even in some moments like a brother. To be honest, she wasn't much of a girl when she was younger. Before her mother finally "corrected" her, she ran around with the boys until the age of eight. Then she started wearing skirts and getting into all that girly stuff. She still had guy best friends, but she also had plenty of girl best friends.

When Dameon mentioned that she should be in the girls' dorm she was a bit taken aback. Growing up, her neighborhood was crowded with mostly boys and even in her classes, guys outnumbered the girls. She remembered being left out of games when she was younger because she was a girl. She was sensitive with things like this. Her eyes fell to the floor and her smile lost its warmth. "Yeah, thanks for reminding me," her voice blunt and monotone. Maybe she was being weird and female-ish, but she was suddenly irritated. "Well, I'll see you," she said before marching off in the other direction.

Dameon jogged behind the girl and stopped in front of her. "Sorry, I was just trying to be funny. I didn't mean to upset you." Dameon spoke with his hand lightly hovering over Melanie's shoulder, he didn't want to grab her shoulder in case for some reason she was to take it the wrong way. "I've never heard the name Melanie before. Which clan are you from?" Dame attempted to enter friendly conversation to make the girl feel more comfortable. He really didn't know what was wrong with her, he didn't mean to cause her any offence at all when he said it. Dameon did sometimes say the wrong things to the wrong people but it usually ended in a fight. It seemed like he knew just the right things to say to wind someone up even if he didn't realise it.

Melanie was taken completely by surprise that Dameon had stopped her. Her eyes got wide and she blinked a little. Then she realized she was being a bit off too. "Oh," she said letting out an awkward laugh. "It's okay," she smiled. Her head perked up at the mention of a clan. "Clan?" Honest curiosity lit up in her eyes. "Melanie isn't a rare name..." Then she remembered that she wasn't in a normal place. She had come from the mainland and things were different here then they were where she came from. "No, no," she put her hands up in front of her, a soft giggle playing on her lips. "I'm from New York," she laughed. "I just moved here like a week ago to go to high school here. My dad is a magical so I figured I wanted to explore that side of my heritage." Her mother wasn't all too thrilled about sending her to a high school on an island that wasn't filled with normal people. She had tried to remind her mother that she wasn't a normal child. Melanie took after her father though her looks came from her non-magical, human mother.

"New York, what happened to the old York?" Dameon had never heard of anywhere called New York before so he really had no idea where it was. In fact he had never been of the island or learned about what was beyond the vast ocean surrounding it. Dame had always wondered what the world out there would be like but he didn't expect they they would be remaking cities. Or maybe this girl was from the other side of the island. "Sounds like a fun place though..." He smiled.

Melanie's eyes widened at Dame's response. Her head bobbed down a bit and she opened her mouth in disbelief. "You're kidding right?" She asked, worried. "You don't know where New York is?" She squinted seriously. Everyone knew where New York was. The Big Apple. Manhattan. Long Island. People from all around the world knew the name. The population was a mis-mash of nations combined into one. "It's in the US," she couldn't believe he just asked her what happened to the old York. Actually she remembered something about that in 5th grade Social Studies, but she couldn't find the right answer. Something about Presidents and buying land. She tossed it off her head. "You've never heard of it?" Her voice was slowly careful. She didn't want to offend Dame, but he was beginning to worry her. What did they isolate their children from the world here?

"US..." Dame's eyes widened as he begun to ponder. "That's in America?" Dame asked with a sense of pride and hope for it to be the right answer. "I've never heard of New York though. Wait, if your from New York that means..." Dame looked the girl over as he paused between his speech. "Your from of them island?" His face displayed his shock and awe that was contained in his brain. ~Wow! I've never met someone who isn't from the island before. Sure the ancestors were from the mainland but I didn't know there was still people living out there.~ There was two types of people in the world, Magical and Non-Magical the magicals were a gift from god but they were pushed of the mainland by the Non-Magicals who believed that these people were witches. These witches then found the a small island to inhabit that they called the 'Homeland'. This created a divide between the Magicals on the Homeland and the Non-Magicals who lived on the mainland. Although there had been Non-Magicals living on the Homeland for sometime Magicals much preferred to live amongst themselves. This meant that they didn't choose to live on the mainland, or so Dame thought. "Wow, what's it like over there?" Dames eyes were filled with new and exiting thoughts about what life would be like when you were the odd one out.

Melanie couldn't help but laugh. Dame was really making her day. She knew life here was different, but she didn't figure it was this different. She wasn't provided with much information about her ancestors history and the divide between the Magicals and the Non-Magicals. She struggled with the question Dame had asked. She never really had to explain what her life was like in America because she was always surrounded by people who didn't need to know. She squinted. "Um," she began, "Well... There's a lot of tall buildings in Manhattan." She wasn't sure how to compare it to life on the island. She had no experience on the island what so ever. "I lived in the suburbs. I lived on a house in a cul-de-sac." She said. Melanie then realized her life on the mainland must have to be much, much different from Dame's life on the island. "Wait, so what's life out here like? I've been here less than two weeks. It's less modernized here then where I'm from," she turned to gaze at the yard. She had thought she had seen cars around here and people used cellphones. She wasn't too sure how stable or available their internet access was. They sure didn't have the same buildings as Manhattan or the amount of traffic and pollution. "Do you have a phone?"

"Phone, what's that?" Dameon paused after his puzzled look faded before laughing and reaching into his pocket. "Yes, here." He held his modern looking phone in his hand and showed Melanie. "Life is peaceful here. There isn't any tall buildings but there are lots of small towns. The people here are split into Clans, depending on where they live. I guess you don't have a Clan?" Dame began wonder whether he should invite Melanie to see the island during the next weekend, or if that would not be ok since they had just met. Did she even like him or enjoy his company? He did not no the answer to that question but he did want to find out.

Melanie smiled brightly at the sight of the phone. Thank god! she thought playfully. She took out her phone from he skirt pocket. "What's your number?" She asked unlocking her phone so that it opened in the keyboard. "A Clan?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "Wow, life here is different," she said carefully. Here she was the weird one she guess. The foreign stranger from another land mass. She laughed thinking about it. Melanie looked at Dame; they were both human magicals, right? "You are so going to have to explain that clan system you guys have here. Pardon me for being so ignorant to how you live here. My dad didn't mention a thing about it," she giggled. She would have to complain to her father about this. At least Dame didn't look annoyed by her questions or her total ignorance.

Dame opened up a page that contained his phone number and turned his phone so Melanie could read it. "Your not being ignorant you just don't know. A clan is the area tat you live in. They stick together and help each other out in times of need. They also have a collective money pot that they use for any improvements that need to be done in the area. When people are going to important places like formal parties or to see someone of power they will be called by their name and then their Clan." Dame smiled and nodded his head to Melaine. "I'm Dameon Duke-Suko." As soon as Dame finished speaking he filled with embarrassed. He didn't know why but he thought it would be funny to say but it turned out to make him embarrassed and blush slightly.

Melanie's mouth went into a giant O shape as she took in the whole clan thing. People here are very community oriented, she thought curiously. Back in her place she had always felt financial things like that were held to a very personal level and it was basically every man for himself. Except the occasional help from family members. "So a clan is like your extended family?" she smiled. It sounded very warm and comforting to always have a group of people you could trust and rely on. "Your clan is called Suko. What would mine be?" she wondered as she took down Dame's telephone number. She gave him her number quietly trying to figure out if she had heard or seen something that would let her know of her family's clan. Dame seemed proud of his clan, smiling even blushing a little. "Er, I live down by the giant rock in the square," she tried to picture where her dad was staying. "My dad lives in one of the houses there on the road opposite of the square. It's about a thirty minute walk, but like ten minutes or less by car." She remembered a sign that said "Ryde" near the entrance of the square, but she didn't know if that was the clan name or what.

Dame thought of where Melanie was describing but it was difficult to picture. "Square..." Dame whispered to himself as he painted the place into his mind. "Wait, you live Ryde? That means you must be in the Kans clan. I think anyway, I'm not too good with knowing which areas are controlled by who. But that means you live near Capital City right?" Dame spoke ecclesiastically as he wondered if knowing this girl would get him a chance to visit the city, as this was something he had never done before. "Anyway, should we go and see if they are still serving lunch? I don't know about you but I'm hungry after travelling here." Dame rubbed his stomach as he asked his question. It was after 1pm now but they should still be serving food.

Melanie smiled. At least she was making a friend. Dame seemed like a nice enough guy to hang around with. She threw her hands up to her sides at his question. "You're asking the wrong girl. I told you, I don't know any of the places here. But I guess where I was staying was the most city-like area that I have witnessed so far," she crunched up her face and realized she hadn't seen much of the island yet. She would have to ask Dame for a tour sometime if they were allowed to leave the school grounds.

"Food?" she asked. The nearby clock on the high end of the brick wall told her it was just past one o'clock. As she has seen so far, they served normal dishes like her own back home. But her father had either made them or ordered them for her. Could the foods here possibly be different to her normal foods back home? "Lead the way," she smiled. Melanie expected Dame to know where he was going. She would follow him where he went.

Dame stood and thought about the layout of the school and wondered where the canteen was. "Umm, I think it's in the main block." He spoke unsure of his words and his destination. He hadn't been to the Academy before and he didn't have any older brother or sister to tell him what it was like. He walked out of the dorm looking back to Melaine every once in a while. "I believe we have gotten many of our dishes from the mainlanders so you should recognise them. But there is some foods that are native to the island so we will just have to see what is on offer." Dame smiled at Melaine and walked up to the map outside the main school building. As he read the map he noticed many other children walking in and running around outside, some of them looked Dames age but many were older and they tended to hang out in groups. The older looking students were all wearing badges on there shoulders that displayed a number, Dame was unaware of what this number was so this made him very curious. "Ritgh there." Dame pointed to the bottom of the map where it had the word Canteen written.