Burned by S. (books to read in your 20s female .TXT) 📕

My eyes slowly opened to my alarm clock; 12:30 AM?! Sasha was already up and awake. I guess she's more used to this schedule then I am since she's been here way longer. Made sense. "Come on! Get up or else we'll be late for classes," she said and tugged at me. I groaned, who wanted to go to class in the middle of the night when you're supposed to be sleeping? "Sienna is a pretty name but you wouldn't care if I called you Cassidy myself, would you? I mean I know we just met but Cassidy really does fit you, you can't change it now that the High Priestess has heard."
"Yeah, you can call me Cassidy if you want. And I understand that I can't change it anymore but you can only call me Cassidy when we're talking alone," I replied as I reluctantly got up and went to my newly-filled dresser. The clothing I pulled out were dark jeans with a plain purple tank top. Afterwards I slipped on my sneakers and smiled at Sasha, doing my hair and make-up in the mirror. Sasha smiled back and nodded.
"You'll fit in with the cool crowd, everyone talks about them," she said, making me wonder if she was part of them. Sasha shook her head as my answer.
"No, I have my own group of friends."
"Oh, I didn't mean-"
"You're fine. I like my group anyways." I grabbed my textbooks and followed her to our first class, which was in the stables? We stepped into a room full of other teenagers and they all eyed me suspiciously. Then a woman with white blonde hair stepped out of the office and greeted each one of us.
"Hello, I am Miss Epona," she said, "I see we have a new student. Sienna, will you come up and introduce yourself?"
"I'm Sienna, I don't have a last or middle name," I said awkwardly, giving a small smile. Miss Epona nodded and told me to follow her. We went down the line of stables and a horse started neighing and kicked on the stable door.
"This is your horse, it's chosen you," she said with a broad smile. I shot her a questioning look but didn't argue with her. I was told the first day that everyone got a companion, which was a cat who 'chose' you. It didn't make sense to me but I would just have to wait and see, I guess.
During the class we brushed and fed our horses, she said we would take them out tomorrow for a little ride. One of the shorter kids were freaking out about how they would get on top until the teacher helped her up to show how it was done. That made everyone laugh and we left the class on a happy note. We, Sasha and I, then walked to our second class which was Language Arts. On the way I started seeing the familiars that were walking around, I tried to pet some of them but they all hissed and stalked off, leaving me with a frown.
"Don't worry, Cassidy, you'll find your own familiar, er, companion as you call it, someday. It took my a month to find mine, until then..well, I still have scratches from them," Sasha said, trying to comfort me. I nodded and was silent the rest of the way, not wanting a cat to hurl itself at my face with its claws. Without warning, two cats threw themselves at Sasha with a loud "Meow!".
"Are those your familiars?" I asked, wondering how many each fledgling got.
"This one," she held up the pure black one with green eyes, "Is not mine. But this blonde one with copper eyes sure is! She's my pretty baby! Yes, she is." While she continued to coo at her 'pretty baby', I took the black cat from her. The cat nestled up to my neck and it seemed asleep. I smiled and poked Sasha. She looked astonished but nodded.
"That's probably your familiar, the cats usually get along with the roommate too. Many times roommates will switch cats and find out that they're the ones for them."
"Wow, that's pretty interesting. Is there a class that talks about it?"
"It's in your handbook.."
"Oh, okay, thanks." We entered the class and let our cats go. The teacher was a few minutes late which made me happy since we weren't exactly early either. But when the teacher did show up...it wasn't what I was expecting. All the Language Arts teacher I'd had in the past were old and cranky, well this one was young and happy. Her bright teal eyes lightened up the room and everyone looked at her when she came in. Her step was with a bounce, and her hair the color of the sun.
"Her element is fire," Sasha whispered to me. I shot her a questioningly look and she pointed to my handbook. I opened it to the page that was titled: The Dark Daughters and Sons: Elementals.
The Dark Daughters and Son are a group of fledglings that have elemental abilities. They form a circle and the leader, Spirit, will go around the circle and evoke each element before doing his/her own. When the circle is completed there will be a bond between the five fledglings and they can beat anything. Nothing is stronger than all the elements put together.

My eyebrows shot up at the last sentence and I couldn't wait for Language Arts to be over so I could talk to Sasha about it more, but for right now I needed to take notes in order for me to not fail this class.

Sooner or later, she was going to find me. I had been hiding from Sasha since after Language Arts class when she told me that the circle was missing the element Water, which was the element my birthday was under in the handbook. I shivered, I had always loved the Water but I didn't think I would have some kind of bond to it. Especially, not like this.
I walked into the cafeteria and glanced around. "Why have you been avoiding me?" Sasha asked from behind me, making me jump.
"I haven't been, we've just had separate classes," I replied and acted like I was scanning the cafeteria for a place to sit. I pointed to two empty seats surrounded by a bunch of other teens, "What about over there?" Sasha shrugged and followed me over to the table.
"Are these seats taken?" I asked, looking at a moderately-cute boy in denim jeans and a graphic tee that had wolves on the front. How ironic is that? Vampires...Wolves.
"Not for you, they aren't," he replied. Which I took as a 'yes' so I sat down with Sasha beside me. "So, what's your name?"
"Ca-Sienna."
"Sasha," she said, joining in.
"Oh, that's cool. I'm Lauren, and don't worry you get used to the name change sooner or later."
"Thanks."
"I know you! You're in our first hour class. The little one who was freaking out about getting on top of the horse!" Sasha almost yelled.
"I wasn't freaking out, I was just worried about my own health. Besides, I can't see you getting on top of that horse without getting some help yourself. You probably freaked out the first time you went to class too," Lauren retaliated.
"I didn't freak out," I added. Lauren glared at me, still waiting for Sasha's reply.
"I didn't freak out, either. Matter-of-fact I knew how to get on a horse on my own, considering the fact that I lived on a ranch before I was marked," Sasha retorted, sticking her tongue out.
"That's cheating!" Lauren yelled. I silently slipped down in my chair and acted like I didn't know what was going on. What did I just get myself into?

Later on Sasha and I headed back to our dormitories and she explained for the umpteenth time that Lauren and her were friends. They apparently always teased each other when they were bored but I think she secretly has a crush on him and he has a secret crush on her.

Word Count: 2,947

Publication Date: 08-11-2012

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
To P.C. and Kristen Cast for making House of Night.