Rayne In Hell

Rayne had just turned 14, he was looking out the window of the car while his foster mother drove him to his new school yet again. This was the 5th school this past year and he wasn’t sure if he’d make any friends. He started to zone out and think about how he got accepted into the school, it was a day like no other. It was shining out, summer had just started. He was sitting outside on his porch with an ice cream bar, hoping his foster dad’s work had kept him all day long so he wouldn’t have to deal with him when an owl appeared next to him on his porch with a letter in his mouth. Rayne took the letter, seeing it was addressed to him, and opened the letter to read it.

‘Dear Rayne, We are excited to cordially accept you into The Pleasant Hill School for the gifted. On the next page is a list of school items you will need for the school term starting in the fall. Please let us know your decision by August 1st. Sincerely, Headmistress Moore.’

Rayne had brought the letter into the house to show his foster mom, and she decided it was a good idea for a fresh start.

Evie Hart was pacing in front of the Pleasant Hill school for the gifted thinking that she couldn’t believe that she got accepted to this prestigious school. At the same time, she was nervous and she wanted a fresh start this term. She sat down in front of the school, on the steps. She was thinking about what happened the day she got accepted into this school.

She was at school, her old school, Meadows Middle School, and had just turned 14. She went to the gymnasium, for a pep rally, and found her friends. After sitting next to them, the pep rally started.

The pep rally was the same as always. Evie and her friends had a smaller part in the rally than usual, but they gave it their all anyway. Evie was the lead cheerleader and dating the football captain, so it was expected for her to energize the rally crowd.

Once it was over, Evie located her victim of choice. A nerdy boy who had his nose in a book, he wasn’t much younger than her. She went over to him to tease him and call him names. Words were always her weapon of choice.

As school let out, she went home. After checking the mail, she put her parent’s and brother’s mail on the counter in the kitchen. In the pile, she found a letter addressed to her. Opening her letter, she began to read and quickly found out she had been accepted to a school for gifted students.

Evie was shaken out of her thoughts by her best friend, Cain Croft who had also gotten enrolled in this school. He had shaken her out of her thoughts by literally shaking her and calling her name.

“Evie what are you doing?” Cain questioned.

Evie shook her head, “Nothing, just thinking about how this year is going to be different,” she replied.

Cain smiled, “New year, new you, new me. No more bullying for either of us, we’re the new kids this year.” Evie nodded, then looked over when she saw the bus pulling up with other students. Behind the bus was a car with a boy she vaguely recognized but shook it off since she was certain she didn’t know the boy.

As the kids started filing into the schoolyard, ready for the first day back to school, Rayne looked around at all the kids. He was shocked by how many kids there were of different ages. He eventually took a seat in the cafeteria, which was bigger than the gym, as that's where they had an assembly. After sitting down he stuffed his nose into a book and only looked up when the head Mistress cleared her throat.

The Head Mistress waited for the room to quiet, and as soon as it did, she started her speech, "This year we don't have nearly as many new students as previous years. The reason for that is we had to remodel one of the boys' living quarters. So, we could only take a couple of new students this year. But the remodeling should be done within a couple of months. As you all are aware, if you are part of the cram school, that starts today. Normal school, however, doesn't start until next week on Monday." Rayne looked up from his book, and thought to himself, cram school? She continued, "For those of you who are new to the school, we will decide whether you will be at the cram school or not within the next couple of days so don't worry too much about it." When she was done talking, she nodded to a teacher who stood up and stood next to her.

The other teacher began, "The new students will follow me to the cram school hallway to start a tour of the school. The rest of you will either go to cram school if you're in it or go to your respective dorms." Everyone started getting up from their seats except for the new students. There were only six of them, 2 guys and 4 girls. The teacher went to the middle of the room and looked at all the new students, "My name is Mr. Penhollow and I am a cram school instructor, the cram school is for those magically gifted. Follow me please." He said while walking towards the door to the cafe.

Rayne and the other students got up to follow curiously because they had no idea what this instructor was talking about. When they got to the cram school doors, Mr. Penhollow walked in and stood next to what looked like a crystal. He waited for them to stop in front of him before explaining. "If the crystal turns blue you have magic, if it turns orange you're not magical."

One by one the students walked up to the crystal and only 3 of them were magical. The other 3 were directed to the dorms, once their memories were erased of magical knowledge. After they left the room, the headmistress came into the room to assign them their normal classes and give them their dorm information.

Three months later…

Rayne had started getting the hang of his schedule by now. His locker combination was easy enough as well. Apparently, the school had a barrier around it to keep the magical creatures from attacking the school, which he was only told because he joined the protection against magical beings club. Which was only available to the cram students, of course.

It was time for the first hands-on protection against magical beings club, the PAMB club for short, meeting. The whole point of the club was to update the headmistress on concerns regarding the barrier.

Only the president and vice president actually had to check the barrier, but the other members were allowed to and given special devices to test the strength of the barrier. One of the other members had spoken up, during the meeting, with a concern about an ogre close to the school. The headmistress told the students that the barrier was strong enough to keep an ogre out so there were no issues and the matter was dropped.

Evie had made some new friends; a nonbinary person named Alex and a girl named Agnes. She had a small crush on Alex, but she wouldn't tell him that.

Once the PAMB club meeting was adjourned, Evie started to head towards her dorm. She was stopped, however, when she passed by one of the other cram school boys - Rayne she recalled his name to be. She had observed him quite a few times but never interacted with him. He seemed like a loner, as he seemed to prefer his alone time and often isolated himself from his peers. Cain, who was still Evie's best friend, was worried at first that she was watching Rayne's patterns in order to bully him. That wasn't the case, however. Evie was just fascinated by the boy and the way he felt familiar, despite never having met him before they started school here.

Rayne didn't seem to notice Evie as she watched what he was doing, though perhaps he was ignoring her. Rayne was sitting in an alcove near the entrance to their Defense class, reading a book. Evie can't exactly blame Cain for his suspicions as Rayne was certainly the type of student she would have bullied before. However, that was then and this is now.

Shaking her head, Evie resumed her walk towards her dorms but was stopped once more, when a crash was heard throughout the school. The ground beneath her seemed to tremble for a few moments as well. She had a feeling that something was wrong, but wasn't sure what she should do. Then, she heard the sound of a creature calling out behind her, before hearing the shuffling of Rayne, who was getting out from his alcove. Evie didn't want to turn around, in fact, she wanted to bolt towards the direction she was previously going, but a little bit of her was curious too. Curious and stupidly brave. So, despite her better judgment, Evie did turn 180 degrees.

Before she registered Rayne frantically flipping through what was likely a defense book, she saw the ugly, beady eyes of an ogre. It was bigger, more mature, than the ones they started learning to fight only a week ago. Swallowing a lump in her throat, Evie tried racking her brain for the best defense or offensive tactics to use. Unfortunately, she wasn't the brightest student and was far better at putting plans into practice rather than inventing said plans.

Rayne interrupted her racing mind, however, "It says here that ogres are easily tricked and vulnerable to elemental magic."

"So, fireball spell, yeah?" Evie asked, anxiously.

"If you make sure not to miss," Rayne sounded just as nervous. "They're fast, so we'll likely need a distraction."

"I'm quick on my feet," Evie suggested.

"No," Rayne argued. "You can do the spell much better than me. I'm all books, you're all action. I've seen how you perform in classes."

"What do you suggest then?" Evie hissed as she backed up, just now realizing that the ogre started moving towards them.

"I'll kite him long enough for you to cast the spell," Rayne whispered to her, before running toward the ogre. He just barely dodged out its way, getting past it and running down the opposite end of the hall.

Evie breathed in deeply, focusing on her magic and the intention of the spell. She visualized fire, the warmth, and the light of it, forming in her hands. Seconds later, her hands were filled with a perfect ball of fire; a better quality one than Evie had ever produced in classes thus far.

Rayne must have realized that she cast the spell because he was kiting the ogre back towards her direction a moment later. Running towards them, Evie attacked the ogre with her magic. To her delight, she hit her mark and the ogre was soon flailing as the fire burned it.

Evie took her chance to attack the ogre with more spells, mostly she used the fireball spell over and over, though. Minutes after her first spell hit, the ogre was falling dead to the ground.

Rayne and Evie breathed heavily, the adrenaline now subsiding. Then, they looked at each other briefly before bursting into laughter. It wasn't that they found the situation particularly funny, but more so they just weren't sure how to react now that the danger was over.

Hearing footsteps behind them, Rayne and Evie saw the Headmistress and Mr. Penhollow rush towards them. Several other teachers ran in as well, trying to keep up with the other two.

"Oh my!" The headmistress called out. "What happened?"

"Rayne and I took down an ogre!" Evie announced, proudly.

"It came into the hallway and we weren't sure what else to do, other than fighting it," Rayne announced, his voice quieter than it had been before.

"I hope you two weren't injured," The headmistress replied as she looked them over for any obvious bruises or scrapes.

Rayne and Evie glanced at each other, smiling, before both spoke, "Nah, we're fine!" It was then, at that moment, without a word spoken, that Rayne and Evie claimed each other as a friend.

This is only the beginning of their adventures, but what a beginning it is!