Competition girl, p.1
Competition Girl, page 1
Competition Girl
Shadow Academy, Volume 5
Kat Cotton
Published by Kat Cotton, 2022.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
COMPETITION GIRL
First edition. July 31, 2022.
Copyright © 2022 Kat Cotton.
ISBN: 979-8201255305
Written by Kat Cotton.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 1
CHERRY LOVE: TEAM SUPPORT. That’s what the roster for the magic showdown said.
I wasn’t competing but I had to go along with the other students. But support, LOL. Something I’m not particularly good at.
The magic showdown was a huge event for other schools apparently. Well, for magic schools. Here at Edgewater Academy, magic wasn’t out in the open and we definitely weren’t a magic school, just a school with a few paranormal half-breeds. My powers were strong, very strong, but I didn’t have enough control to take part in any events. And really, there were no events that suited me. Well, competitions, in general, didn’t suit me. In fact, competitive sports made me feel like puking.
The rest of the paranormal students all jittered with excitement while I sat on the edge of the desk watching on.
“Water girl, that’s what support means.” Nova smirked. “You going to give me a rub down after I compete?”
“And what event will you be competing in, incubus?” No way would any self-respecting high school let an incubus event happen. But my grin of self-righteousness slipped from my face as I kept reading. Nova had been selected for the mind-reading event.
Mr. Norton tapped his cane. “This is our last meeting before the showdown. Gather around. We can’t let our standards slip.”
“What standards?” Campbell yawned, leaning back on his chair. “We’re no competition for Mount Penriffe. Not even sure why this crummy, non-magic school was invited, maybe for amusement value.”
Campbell had transferred here from Mount Penriffe. The official reason was that his parents had lost all their money. At Edgewater Academy, like the rest of us, Campbell got a scholarship. All expenses paid in return for protecting the human students. Only I wasn’t too sure about that. I hadn’t caught that jerk in any wrongdoings, not yet at least. But Campbell smelled fishier than a fish market. And now we were returning to his old school, Campbell had turned his pompousness up to maximum. You’d think he might be a bit embarrassed or awkward about returning there, but nope, not at all.
Britney screwed up her face. I knew that look. The look she got just before someone got attacked with a swarm of bees or other nasties. Personally, I’d have welcomed the attack, both to see her take Campbell down and as a distraction from this meeting, but Lucas put his hand on her shoulder to calm her.
Drats.
I didn’t want Britney getting into trouble but that smuggy smuggler Campbell rubbed me the wrong way.
As well as Mount Penriffe, two other schools were competing. Dragon Ridge Academy, known for their strong shifters, and Faraday Institute. Britney said rumors constantly circulated about Faraday. Rumors about them being not exactly black magic but definitely a bit grey. She’d started to say other stuff about them, too but then went quiet on me. I didn’t need to push to know what she held back. Vampires. Vampires went to Faraday. And that was a huge mark against them in the eyes of Britney and most of the other scholarship students. But vampires were okay in my book and that was a good thing because technically, I was one.
“Britney has a good chance in the spellcasting,” Lucas said. “You can’t deny that.”
“Ha, that might be true but you are one of the worst shifters I’ve ever met.” Campbell sneered like he actually wanted Britney to attack him. “You’ll have barely sprouted a hair before the others are in full wolf form.”
Lucas shrugged. He didn’t really care about the competitive side of things. He just wanted to take part in the wolf run. As the only werewolf in the school, he’d never been out with a pack before.
Naoki had a gas burner set up. As a kitchen witch, he might be called on to make any kind of enchanted treats. Whatever he was mixing up sure looked good. Would it be safe to eat though?
I guessed not.
“Are you disappointed you’re not competing?” Mr. Norton sat down beside me.
I wasn’t. I just hated that the others had this thing that they were excited about and I was left out. Over the past week, they’d talked about nothing else when we were away from the other students. And that made me mad. I might be a mean and petty girl. I didn’t want to compete; I just didn’t want the others competing. I wanted this showdown to be over and done with so we could go back to regular school life.
We had three days before we left, then ten days at Mount Penriffe. I’d have offered to stay back at school but ten days separated from Ren seemed unbearable. So, in less than a fortnight, we’d be back here. Back to classes and homework and the regular old scholarship gang meetings. That suited me much better.
Ren’s abilities weren’t much more controlled than mine but he was competing in the horse-riding event. Nothing even magical about that but it seemed something rich kids both paranormal and human loved. He’d been so obsessed lately with making sure both he and his horse Thunder were in top form that we’d barely had any together time. Definitely no Ren and Cherry alone and kissing time.
“You could fake some enthusiasm at least.” Mr. Norton gave me one of those encouraging teacher smiles. “You know why you can’t take part, but that doesn’t mean you have to sulk about it. Be happy for your friends. It’s a great opportunity for them.”
I tried to smile but faking emotions wasn’t really my thing. My fake smile probably looked worse than a grimace.
Mr. Norton leaned in closer. “I need you there, Cherry. You know I can only be there for the first night. I’m a little worried about leaving Mark and Aran in charge. They’re both inexperienced.”
Yeah, and I was way too experienced to fall for that. Mr. Norton only said that to make me feel part of the team. Was he forgetting that, apart from the whole showdown thing, half of this team had tried to destroy me? Because I wasn’t getting over that any time soon. Tarragon and Nova headed my hit list. As for Susan and Naoki, both had apologized a heap of times for getting wrapped up in that mess and with fake Mr. Norton giving them orders, I could understand them being fooled but I still had bad feelings.
“At least look out for Britney and Susan. I know Britney can look after herself but she’s a little...”
Naïve? Innocent? Optimistic? All that described Britney but then Britney and Susan had grown up knowing they were part of the paranormal world. They fit into that world in ways I never could.
A grimace was my only reply.
“One hundred points if you do a good job.”
Mr. Norton smiled and nudged me. He knew I loved getting points. I smiled back and nodded. It wasn’t like I had any other choice.
But what I could do to support the others, anyway? I’d tried helping Britney with her spellcasting a few times and just made a huge mess of things. I was barely speaking to Tarragon because he’d betrayed me so badly. Susan and Naoki just quietly did their thing and Ren was off at the stables.
“Work with Nova for a while. He needs a mind to read.” Another encouraging grin from Mr. Norton didn’t help.
“Do I have to?”
Mr. Norton gave me a gentle push. “It’s not like you have anything better to do.”
“Too easy,” Nova said as I approached. “You’re thinking you’d rather be doing anything else on earth than working with me.”
Yeah, well it didn’t exactly take top-notch mind-reading skills to work that out.
Before the meeting ended, Mr. Norton gathered us around. He plonked a box on the table beside him.
“I’ve got a special surprise for you.” He took a t-shirt out of the bag. “Team shirts.”
Then he held it up. A white t-shirt with “Team Edgewater” written across the chest in some horrible pumpkin color.
“Sorry, all the schools have colors and since we’re new, there wasn’t much choice left for us.”
Mr. Norton handed me one of the shirts. Oh yah. I wasn’t much for fashion or any of that but did he really expect me to wear a school t-shirt?
Chapter 2
BRITNEY MOVED AROUND the bus with Mr. Norton, double checking all the safety precautions and wards.
& nbsp; “We can’t trust anyone but ourselves,” she said. “Not for something like this.”
I glanced over at Campbell. “Not even ourselves.”
He stood with Nova and Tarragon giving them every detail of the school while Mark helped the driver load our stuff onto the bus.
“Of course, they’ll win the showdown,” Campbell said. “They never lose.”
“That school thinks it’s so good.” I huffed. “But we’re better.”
Ren shrugged. “They can select the best of hundreds of students while we just have us.”
“Exactly. And we’re more than good enough. We have real world experience, not just lousy book learning. We’ve destroyed real evil.”
“You’ve destroyed real evil,” Lucas said. “I’ve only just mastered turning. Anyway, running with a wolf pack is going to be awesome. I don’t even care about winning. I’m in it for the run.”
Ren had sent Thunder ahead with some of the stable staff. It’d taken all Mr. Norton’s powers of persuasion to convince him not to go in the horse float.
“I’m not feeling so hot about this trip,” I said. “Last time we went on a group excursion, it ended real bad.”
Ren frowned. “That wasn’t a real trip. Remember. We had some kind of weird magical hallucination or something.”
Even Mr. Norton’s research hadn’t explained what had happened there. But the camping trip had been as real to me as anything else in this world. And it’d ended so badly, locked in a creepy house while weirdos did experiments on us.
At least we’d be sleeping in real beds for this trip.
The driver whistled and waved for us to get on the bus.
“Just a second.” Mark waved at him. “Got to take a call.”
Like Mark couldn’t take his stupid phone call on the bus. He just wanted to make himself look important.
Ren and I grabbed the back seat. Lucas and Britney sat in front of us.
“I think I should sit between you two,” Tarragon said, trying to squeeze in. “We don’t want any shenanigans on the trip.”
I shot him a look that said if he even tried it, he’d be sorry.
“Cherry and Ren will not get up to shenanigans of any kind,” Mr. Norton said. “So sit somewhere else and leave them alone.”
I flashed a triumphant grin at Tarragon. Why would he even want to sit with us? Just to annoy me, that’s why. The group sure had split down the middle. Well kind of. Tarragon and Nova on one side, Ren and I on the other. Lucas and Britney were on my side but they stayed friendly with everyone. Aran definitely was on my side but I’d been keeping my distance from him so that Ren didn’t get jealous.
“Where’s Mark?”: Mr. Norton asked.
I nodded to where Mark stood under a tree at the front of the school, still on his phone.
“I’ll go tell him to hurry it up.”
But Mr. Norton shook his head. “No need, he’ll be here shortly.”
That might be so but I cracked the window open so I could yell at him. This trip would be long enough without him holding us up.
Before I could get my best yelling voice on, my super vampire hearing picked up a bit of his conversation.
“They’ve swept for Himawari?’
Huh? What did that mean. Then Mark caught me looking. He held up a finger to indicate he’d just be a minute then turned his back on me. A second later, he put his phone in his pocket and got on the bus.
It took most of the day to travel to Mount Penriffe. I drifted in and out of sleep while the others discussed strategy.
About halfway there, I got bored of all the competition talk so I moved up the bus to where Mr. Norton and Mark sat, thinking it was high time I reminded Mr. Norton of that lunch he’d bought with him.
“Are the others hungry?”
“Of course they are.” Well, they were mostly caught up with chatting but I’m sure if they thought about it, they would be.
“I’m most definitely hungry.” Naoki could be counted on to back me up on any pleas for food. That little guy had to have hollow legs.
While Mr. Norton unpacked the hamper, I remembered Mark’s conversation.
“So, Mark, who or what is the Himawari?”
Mr. Norton shot him a very strange look then glanced over at Naoki and I.
“They’re... they’re... well, they’re my gaming guild.”
Ha, lame. So lame.
I grabbed sandwiches and drinks for the four of us and headed back to my seat.
By the time we arrived, it was dark but the place was lit up like a beacon. Mr. Norton had told us that the school was veiled from normal humans but those lights would surely cut through the strongest veil.
A prim girl who just had to be a school prefect swooped on Britney and me, telling us to follow her to our room. Mr. Norton nodded so I slung my bag over my shoulder and took off after prefect girl. She rushed us through the building so that I couldn’t get a good look at things but, from what I could see, this place made Edgewater look shabby.
I mean Edgewater Academy looked real fancy to parents and visitors with the swanky entrance hall but the rest of the school wasn’t so great, especially if you lived in the dorms and not the elite rooms upstairs. The classroom certainly needed an update and, as for the heating, well I hadn’t died of hyperthermia yet but that was more to do with my vampire blood than anything else.
Every part of this school looked high class and they had so much heating, I nearly needed to take my jacket off.
I jerked my head up and looked around. Had that girl taken us up one flight of stairs or two? I’d meant to keep track but there was too much to gawk at.
“I’m afraid the two of you will be sharing since we have so many to accommodate for the showdown.” The prim girl opened the door to a huge room with two beds. “Once you freshen up, join us in the main dining hall for supper.”
She handed Britney a map so we’d know where to go but, after she left, Britney and I exchanged glances. There’d be no way we’d find anything in this place. We’d walked down hallway after hallway and everything had started looking the same and now, we had to find our way back downstairs!
“Okay.” Britney opened her bag. “First thing is to find the bathroom.”
I pointed to a door. “Through there, I’d say.”
No communal bathrooms in this place at least. We both tidied ourselves and then grabbed the map. Suddenly a red circle lit up.
“Whoa, this thing is magic.” Britney grinned. “That’ll make life a lot easier.”
“Well, really it’s not doing any more than Google Maps.” I looked over her shoulder at the map. “Pity they hadn’t sprung for two of these things. We’ll have to stick together.”
I wondered where the others were sleeping. Hopefully close to us but I hadn’t seen them since we left the bus. It could be anywhere in this labyrinth.
An open door off the landing led to a massive library with huge bay windows. I bet you could see all over the school from those windows. And it’d be a great place to curl up with a book. Super comfy.
“Cherry, come on,” Britney called. “We’ll be late for dinner.”
Dinner. Yep. I turned and followed her. We’d stopped for lunch along the way but that’d been hours ago. My stomach rumbled with disgust at its own emptiness.
We got to the dining hall and paused in the doorway.
First up, the noise hit me like a rain of punches. Shrieks of laughter echoed from wall to wall, like they were trapped and looking for a way out. Students sat at tables crammed so close together that you couldn’t even see a way through.
Edgewater might be bad at meal times but it wasn’t like “monkey cage at the zoo just before feeding time” bad.
I grabbed Britney’s arm. “We’ll never find the others.” I didn’t need dinner. The two of us could head back to our room and have a quiet night.
“Edgewater?” A student approached us before I could bolt. “Follow me.”
We nodded and he guided us through the maze of tables while curious gazes burned into me. Who even knew there were that many magical beings in this world? And these were just the ones in high school. Not even in every high school in the world but just the three other schools competing. If Britney and Lucas tried to work out the different paranormal types of students here, their brains might just fry.
