Matilda was reminded of several other famous works of literature involving a kid going to a magical school. This particular school felt more Westbridge than Hogwarts. Just walking to her dorm room, she’d passed nervously by several demons, accidentally walked through a ghost, and caught an uncomfortable glimpse of some kind of elf and an honest-to-goodness alien making out in an empty corridor. She’d tried her best not to gawk, but Tilly had never seen magic practiced out in the open, much less been confronted with the existence of extraterrestrial beings and several pieces of conflicting evidence towards various religions on her way to use the bathroom.
She looked positively giddy, and the other students were taking notice. She definitely wasn’t the first fish out of water to come through the gates, and she wouldn’t be the last. A few students sniggered and whispered about her, but most smiled sympathetically. They’d all been that kid before. A boy with horns held the door open for her as she left the dorms. A cyborg eyed her aura warning bracelet uncomfortably as she passed him by.
She was half skipping, half walking down the steps, towards the seating near the statue in front of the high school. She had just dropped her luggage in her room. She’d kept her staff, which attracted less odd looks than you might have expected, as did the wide-brimmed wizard’s hat she sported. She hadn’t yet had time to change into her uniform, so she still had on the clothes she’d been wearing when she left Michigan an eternity ago: A black leather jacket over deep V-neck jersey t-shirt, a red and black plaid-lined pencil skirt, a pair of plain black leggings, and some comfortable boots. Most of it was stuff she’d picked up thrift shopping, save for the hat, and looked worn but comfortable. One man’s trash, after all…
She plopped down on one of the stone benches, laying her staff across her lap neatly, and pulling a pocket watch from her jacket. It was old, the kind you had to wind up every morning, but it rarely gave out under duress from her magic, so it was worth the inconvenience. She was… Several minutes late. And these were several minutes for late Tilly, who tended to show up ten or twenty minutes after the specified time on principle.
”Oops.” She mumbled, glancing nervously around for the guide she was supposed to be meeting here.
She looked positively giddy, and the other students were taking notice. She definitely wasn’t the first fish out of water to come through the gates, and she wouldn’t be the last. A few students sniggered and whispered about her, but most smiled sympathetically. They’d all been that kid before. A boy with horns held the door open for her as she left the dorms. A cyborg eyed her aura warning bracelet uncomfortably as she passed him by.
She was half skipping, half walking down the steps, towards the seating near the statue in front of the high school. She had just dropped her luggage in her room. She’d kept her staff, which attracted less odd looks than you might have expected, as did the wide-brimmed wizard’s hat she sported. She hadn’t yet had time to change into her uniform, so she still had on the clothes she’d been wearing when she left Michigan an eternity ago: A black leather jacket over deep V-neck jersey t-shirt, a red and black plaid-lined pencil skirt, a pair of plain black leggings, and some comfortable boots. Most of it was stuff she’d picked up thrift shopping, save for the hat, and looked worn but comfortable. One man’s trash, after all…
She plopped down on one of the stone benches, laying her staff across her lap neatly, and pulling a pocket watch from her jacket. It was old, the kind you had to wind up every morning, but it rarely gave out under duress from her magic, so it was worth the inconvenience. She was… Several minutes late. And these were several minutes for late Tilly, who tended to show up ten or twenty minutes after the specified time on principle.
”Oops.” She mumbled, glancing nervously around for the guide she was supposed to be meeting here.