Chapter Three

A/N: above is Cara Delevingne as Marie xP

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Andrew awoke early the next morning to an empty room. James had left in a hurry the night before just as he was falling asleep, mumbling about having to see Marie about something important. He had probably just wanted to apologize for being such a grump the day before, but Andrew was quite sure he didn't return any time during the night.

Andrew's thoughts shifted briefly to Marie as he gazed for a moment at the rosier than usual morning sky. She was really fun and bubbly; not at all like James. Although he had barely spent much time with her, she seemed like a really friendly and genuinely nice person; he would be happy to get to know her.

He took his time getting ready as his thoughts were consumed with excitement, but mostly anxiety, for his first proper day at his new school. He pulled on his short-sleeved, white uniform shirt which was a soft, jersey fabric. It had a sailor collar with a silver zip-up front, the circular zip having the school motto engraved around its donut shape.

He tucked it into a pair of navy pants and pulled on his navy blazer with forest green piping, those were the university colours. The blazer cuff had another longer one attached within it of the same white, jersey fabric of his shirt, giving the appearance of being a long-sleeved one with the cuff peeking out from under the blazer.

The left side of the blazer held the embroidered emblem of the college logo of a deer, standing proudly at the rocks of a large waterfall on the mountain range. The tips of its antlers were embroidered in silver thread to show that it was no ordinary deer but one gifted with fae magic.

Andrew lounged a bit at his window sill as he noticed something, but as he pulled out his class schedule he checked the time and gasped when he realized he'd be late on his first day. He rushed out the door and down the long corridor toward the main staircase at the entrance of the school. The lecture halls were on the upper floors and he cursed himself for not visiting them sooner but his new friends had described how to find them quite vividly the day before.

Andrew stumbled a bit when he got to the bottom of the steps. In the broad daylight he now noticed the rich carpet that laid upon the dark wooden steps was made of the finest red velvet. It looked soft enough to bury his whole foot in and Andrew felt rather self-conscious in his dirty old sneakers which looked horribly out of place pounding up the lavish stairway.

The tops of all the walls were carved wood with clear glass filling the gaps and there was an abundance of glass windows, carved into intricate designs, like the ones on stained-glass windows except that they were clear. The morning light sparkled as it shone through, creating tiny rainbows on the dark wooden bannisters which were definitely thick enough to slide down comfortably on.

The thought was intriguing to say the least but Andrew was sure none of the students would dare step out of line at a school as distinguished as this.

His class was thankfully only one floor above for he was still in the high school section and he knocked hesitantly before stepping into the classroom which he hoped was world history.

'...and you'll be getting your test results back today,' a jovial young teacher was saying as he scratched his chalk against the blackboard.

'Aha! Our new student has arrived! Andrew, is it?' the teacher turned to beam at Andrew with smiling eyes. "Mr. Clarkson", it said on big, rounded letters on the top left corner of the board,

'Yes Sir, sorry I'm late,' Andrew mumbled, dipping his head.

'Don't worry at all! It takes some time getting used to not getting lost in this place! In fact, one of you other students should have helped poor Andrew get here,' he said with a little grin, peering over his glasses at the rest of the class.

Andrew's eyes swept across the room as he noticed with relief that three of his new acquaintances seemed to be in this class, although, he was somewhat less relieved when his eyes met that of his roommates. As he wondered where to sit, Marie caught his eye and excitedly shoved James over by one space, gesturing for Andrew to come sit between them. She must've noticed him feeling awkward as he looked for a spot but Andrew still felt uncomfortable as he sat down between them.

'We're still learning about the final war.' Marie rolled her eyes as she shoved her notes in his face. 'You can copy my notes,' she offered generously.

Andrew was quite sure he'd be unable to decipher any of her notes as he looked down at the ink blotted pages scrawled without a care and riddled with random doodles at the places where she'd given up halfway through a paragraph.

'Maybe,' James suggested, 'you should copy mine.' Andrew glanced over in surprise to see him smiling lazily back from under hooded eyes. James tilted his head to the side and studied his shocked expression. Andrew hesitantly accepted the notes, hoping that the unpleasantness from last night had been forgotten.

'So, we will be going over the test paper corrections today,' Mr. Clarkson was saying, 'You can listen in on the areas you found difficult and do some silent reading during the rest of it.'

He handed out everyone's grades to a symphony of groans. James sighed and flicked away his F but Andrew noticed that Marie had gotten an almost perfect score. He was unexpectedly surprised and smiled wryly to himself as he thought of the phrase, should never judge a book by its cover.. or rather, by its terrible handwriting.

Andrew didn't have any paper corrections to do, so he borrowed James's notes to copy down everything he'd missed so far this semester.

The Final War – The war to end all wars.

That really had been the only thing they'd been learning this term; granted it was definitely the most significant. There had been unspeakable bloodshed but, in the end, it had destroyed all borders and countries were a thing of the past. All they had left was one world, divided largely into the mountains, the crater, and the archipelago. Of course, there were still class differences, especially between the mountains and the crater; and there was also still tension between them and the archipelago islands for the war had been mainly focused between these two general areas and they still didn't trust each other many decades later. But war was a thing of the past now. The world's population had decreased so dramatically that there was an unspoken oath between everyone left that they would never again allow such horror to rear its head.

'...History may hold many emotions, it is true, but facts are important;' Mr. Clarkson glared pointedly at James before he continued, 'now, I expect dates, and names of places and such to be mentioned and causes be factually explained in your essay questions.'

James sank further down in his seat and muttered something unintelligible as the teacher shot another look at him. His paper was lying spread out on his desk and Andrew couldn't help but peer at it in curiosity, barely trying to hide his interest.

The battlefield was a deathly arena of gunfire and explosions. The rotting corpses lay in tens of thousands around me, coating the soil in a sludgy red liquid. Their putrid stink of death lay heavily in the air, as tangible as the blown-up brain remnants coating my boots. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as I remembered the ambush that had spared no one but myself.

'We surrender! A soldier shouted, begging for his life, 'spare me!' the bullet whizzed heartlessly into his ribcage, piercing his side as he fell on his knees, spurting out his own life which joined all the others congealed on the ground. The soldier beside him put a bullet in his own head as his lifeless eyes stared at the grinning enemy before he fell alongside his comrade.

James snatched away his pages, scowling indignantly at the other boy. Andrew felt his face heat up as he looked away quickly, mumbling a quick apology and hurriedly focusing on finishing up his own notes. He secretly thought James's account of it was much more interesting and probably a more accurate representation of what it would've been like, although it was rather gruesome; and a bit odd that it was written in first person.

The rest of the class went by quickly until the bell rang for break and the students stared longingly out the large, ornate windows till their sir finally dismissed them.

'We're going down to the courtyard,' declared Marie loudly and they all shuffled out finally and headed to the double staircase.

Marie immediately hopped on the intricately carved banister and started sliding down with her arms thrown out on either side for balance. Andrew looked on in shock as his previous notions of the distinguished students he had expected to find at this school were immediately wiped from his brain.

'Wheeeee....' she yelled, unconcerned about decorum as her face tilted up in a huge grin.

'Get down from there,' instructed James strictly, 'You'd be in hot water if the headmistress were to see you.'

'Oh, brother dear,' Marie drawled out, 'how incredibly BORING you are!'