"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Why even invest in an alarm clock when I have Inna? She kept repeating it over and over again, but I couldn't force myself to fall back to sleep anyways. How does she always have so much energy? "Okay, okay. I'm up," I groaned under my thick, brand spanking new comforter. My eyes felt wet, but I wiped my tears away like always. Forcing myself up and out of the warmth of my bed, I questioned what time it was. Sun up? No. Anybody banging on our door? No. A zombie apocalypse just broke out? No. I swear, if she wasn't my sister, I would have shoved a sock in her mouth by now. "I'm hungry," Inna said shyly, pouting like a baby. Half the time, I still see her as that six year old girl, playing with our dolls and throwing flour at our mother. She's always been so happy, and her positive energy kept me going. I would be lost without her. She had her long, curly hair pulled up into a ponytail, and she was wearing a floral babydoll dress with a white cardigan and flats. She was always dressed as if she were going to a party, and I was always dressed as if I didn't give a damn. That will never change. Showered and did the same old, same old. Not really caring, I put on a simple black t-shirt with a pair of blue jeans and some converse. I didn't want to waste any time on my hair so I just left it down. As we descended the grand spiral staircase, I could faintly hear voices coming from one of the rooms downstairs. I'm guessing the kitchen because of the smell of sausage and eggs in the air. At the bottom of the stairs, a grandfather clock chimed five times, signalling that it was only five o'clock in the morning. Doesn't anybody sleep around here? "Who do you think they are?" "What did they say to you?" "Why haven't we seen them before?" "Can everybody just calm down? I didn't really ask anything, and they didn't seem like they were in the mood for twenty one questions. I mean they just got here last night. I'm sure we'll find out when they are ready." Darian spoke in such a way that everybody in the room became quiet. A girl with a squeaky voice broke the silence. "We have gone here every single year with all of the same people, Darian. Don't you think there's something a little weird happening here? Everybody knows everybody." "Yeah, Stephanie is right. It all just seems suspicious to me. Who do they think they are to just pop up, and now they're staying in our house of all places. Ughh, and how could that girl deflect Holden's attack like that?" Another girl said with the snobbiest voice I had ever heard in my life. "We don't know anything, Cassandra. Give them a chance." This voice was a bit deeper than Darian's, but his kind tone made me like him already. How do I explain anything in this situation? "Everybody just needs to relax! Cass and Steph, stop being so damn paranoid. Do I smell competition in the air?" Darian replied, not hiding his irritation any longer. I squeezed Inna's hand, pulling her into the kitchen with me. All four of them were sitting at a table in the kitchen. Awkward silence. The warmth of Inna's hand quickly disappeared as she started walking towards them. "Hi, I'm Inna! Very nice to meet all of you, and I look forward to becoming friends!" She said in a chipper voice then demanded to hug each one of them. They all seemed taken aback for a second, but she sure knew how to break the ice. I hesitantly walked towards her and introduced myself to the group. Darian spoke up. "This is Stephanie, Cassandra, and Richie. It's just us four--well now, I guess six--in the house." "Would you both like to join us for breakfast?" Richie asked, smiling at Inna. "We sure would!" Inna pulled out a chair next to Richie, and I took the seat opposite Darian. The two girls at the table didn't bother to say or even acknowledge that we were there, but Inna paid them no mind. Her and Richie were involved in a conversation of their own; eating, laughing and shamelessly flirting. Yeah, this wasn't awkward at all. I sat their picking at my food, noticing Darian staring at me every once in awhile. From the looks of his plate, something was on his mind too. All of this awkwardness gave me a chance to get a better look at all of them though. Stephanie had short brown hair, tan skin, and blue eyes. She seemed pretty petite, and probably around the same height as us. Cassandra had long platinum blond hair, fair skin, and hazel eyes. She was probably the same height as us too, maybe a little taller. One thing was for sure though. She looked very high maintenance. You could tell that her nails and hair were done to perfection, and her jacket alone looked like it was worth a small fortune. I felt a little out of place, I'm not gonna lie. Richie was on the other side of Inna, but from first glance, I could tell he had a strong build, tan skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. Pretty much "tall, dark, and handsome". I could tell Inna felt the same way because she was practically drooling all over him. Now Darian...his pitch black hair was combed back touching the back of his neck, his eyes were a deep green, his skin was fair, and he was...beautiful. I've never seen someone so striking before. From last night, I'm gonna guess that he's around six feet tall, and it didn't look like he was a stranger to the gym either. I quickly looked away when he caught me staring at him. Real slick, nitwit. Darian got up from his seat. "The first day of school we all meet early in the auditorium. Its like an orientation plus overview of magic kind of thing. Its annoying but mandatory. It starts in thirty minutes so we should all start heading over there." He made his way out of the kitchen. We all rose up from our seats and followed him, even though my mind was screaming at me to go back into those woods, walk back up that lonely path, and travel down that lifeless road that led us to this nightmare in the first place. The sun was just rising over the horizon as we reached the bottom of the Victorian steps. As we walked away, Darian stayed back and stood in front of the house. "Conceal!" He demanded, and with a wave of his hand, the Victorian was no longer there. Inna and I stood there still in shock of how freely everybody used magic here. I couldn't help but look around with caution as if someone was going to pop out from behind one of the millions of trees surrounding us and take us all to "jail". Richie, Cassandra, and Stephanie looked unfazed and more focused on the path that led up to the auditorium. Inna walked towards Richie while I waited for Darian to rejoin the group. For what reason, I don't know why. Stephanie and Cassandra led the way followed by Inna and Richie. Darian and I were more towards the back of the group, but silence once again was all there was between us. I didn't know what to say, but I felt a strange comforting feeling just being near him. I don't even know how to describe it. His energy felt familiar to me, and I couldn't figure out why. We had been walking down the path for a good fifteen minutes before the buildings we had saw from the night before finally came into view. Not a person was in sight, but once we walked through the large chamber doors, what felt like maybe five hundred students were all sitting down in the large hall--and they were all staring at us. I hated the feeling of being in the spotlight, but Inna craved for all of the attention. Her, Richie, Stephanie, and Cassandra took their seats in the very back row followed by me and Darian. That feeling of unease was rushing back to me, and I tried my best to make it go away. Not again. I held tight to the edge of my seat, trying to breathe through it. I shut my eyes trying to imagine that I was all by myself in a room far away from this place, away from this hall, away from the hundreds of pairs of eyes on me, away from all of this magic. I call them magical "panic attacks". They have plagued me since the last day of our real lives, and one of these days its going to get us caught. As my emotions started to balance out, static from a microphone started to echo through the room. "I welcome you all back for another year here at Excellency. I would also like to introduce two newcomers to our school, Ivy and Inna Emery. Will you both please come up to the stage and introduce yourselves," Mrs. Holden's raspy voice requested from the front of the room. Oh, great. This was the last thing we needed.