Frostbite

Chapter One - The Assignment

 June, Kerran Rivera

The weather outside was insane for such an early morning day off, pouring cold rain pounding on umbrellas, with gray clouds blocking the sunshine from warming up the streets of my city. This storm was sudden and didn't even give me a chance to grab an umbrella from my family's home. I just know my mother would not be thrilled to see me coming back inside with all my clothes drenched in rainwater that could've gone to hydrate the land or be caught for use.

After desperately running to the research building of my college, I opened the double doors of the main library of the Tawrion's Academy for the Gifted, waiting for my classmate to arrive to work on a research paper we had been assigned together, I heard distant chatter of other students working on projects they have been assigned as well while I walked past to a desk we agreed to meet at. I don't know this girl well, but I've been told that she is an eccentric, the kind of person who would have a hard time making friends.

Furthermore, I've had friends who were paired up in projects with her and either have the whole project completed within one sitting, or it gets dragged out for weeks on end, and they all get a failing grade for how late it ends up being. Perhaps they were just not good partners? If Stephanie was capable of doing these projects by herself and the delay only happens with certain people, maybe it's my friend's fault instead of hers. Perhaps they're accusing her unjustly.

This institution prioritizes teamwork, a teacher can only teach as much as the student will allow, and other means of education tend to have to make up the backbone of the material for us to all understand the subject promptly and thoroughly. The Borealis is filled with unique people with unique talents and magic of their own, there would be no physical way one person could find the time to pass their entire life's knowledge to another without dire amounts of dedication, which not a lot of people have. It's a bit inconvenient to not have a person who could explain it to you, but it is for our benefit I believe. Sometimes learning new things can click faster if you learn at your own pace rather than the rigid structure education systems tend to have. Squanders creative minds, according to my father.

I take out my textbook from the green-stained leather bookbag I carry around, engraved with my father's initials 'K.H.R.' Though they could also be mistaken for my own, we do have the same initials after all. I opened the plain textbook and began to flip through the clean pages while I waited for my classmate to arrive. The library was dark, and quiet, with rain's thousands of fingers tapping along the giant tall archway windows adorning the wall across from me.
Our professor, Professor Treadwell had told us our project had to document and research an unknown or unsolved mystery that the city could benefit with more eyes on. The concept of the lesson was to teach that the more minds on one goal, the more likely it is to be completed. I have a hard time looking up these unsolved crimes or cases, it's all incredibly disappointing to see things like young lives being taken too soon with no culprit caught.

My black hair is stuck to my forehead thanks to the rain, luckily my bangs aren't long enough for it to become annoying. However, it soon started to get annoying when the residual water began to drip onto my hands. I turn away from the desk holding my textbook to spare its pages from moisture, putting up the hood and gently starting to massage my head with the hood's fabric, in hopes that maybe it would make the fact that the rain-drenched me a little less obvious.
It's been raining an awful lot lately, not that I am complaining about it. Rain is a relaxing thing, it hydrates the earth and provides wonderful smells that reinvigorate the spirit to a certain degree. I notice a shape appear in the window, covered by an umbrella as it walks towards the main double oak doors keeping out the weather. Those doors eventually opened and revealed my classmate.

Stephanie Valor, here we go.

"You know you didn't have to show up to the meeting so early, it's a bit weird for you to be sitting here, drenched in rainwater, by yourself," Stephanie commented on my current state, she had dark skin, black hair was done up in hundreds of braids that faded into bright green, resembling snake scales. Rich coming from you. I thought before I realized she had a point. I had been sitting alone, this library I thought was occupied by other students was empty with no occupants.