Later that evening, Sakura found herself staring out of her window. It gave her a clear view of the blue sky whereas most people in the city had to watch other houses. Unlike most people, Sakura didn't just admire the colour of the sky or try to figure out what the clouds resembled. Instead, she watched it in the same way she had looked at the sea in her mind earlier that day; she watched the sky's essence. Its magic.

After a while, Sakura got bored of watching the sky so she did something that she couldn't quite explain. It was like shifting the focus of her eyes except it wasn't such a conscious movement, so instead of seeing the sky's essence she saw the Wall that hung just beyond it.

The Wall was very old, its existence was documented just the once in the accepted history books as a desperate attempt at saving the world. It was a strong veil of magic, put up there by the strongest witches and wizards of the time, the effort of which killed all but one of them. The Wall was made of so many spells, seals, charms and the remains of rituals that it always took Sakura's breath away.

The young girl sighed as she thought about what it would have been like to grow up in a time when magic was a widely practised art. In Sakura's lifetime, there were no more than a hundred families who could claim to have magic in their blood. Fewer still had the power to actually use it. The only way to learn spell was from dusty old books and hope they weren't strong enough to kill you. Sakura sighed again, she didn't even have her parents to teach her.

The phone downstairs rang, startling Sakura. She shook herself and walked over to her laptop, accessed the phone-line through the computer. She answered the call and a picture of her friend, Illana, popped up onto the screen.

“Hey, Illana,” Sakura said, waving to the computer.

“Hey, cherry-blossom-moon,” Illana replied, grinning as she waved back.

Sakura groaned, her full name was Sakura Tsuki. Though it sounded not far from gibberish in the modern world, it did actually translate from Japanese into the Common language as cherry-blossom (sakura) moon (tsuki). Just as a spontaneous decision, Sakura had told Illana this little tidbit of information… and had regretted it ever since. Annoying people was one of Illana’s favourite pass-times. She had dyed her hair bright pink in the hopes of offending the teachers at school and she wore the most black and depressing clothes she could get her hands on so that her parents would worry she was slipping into depression. As it was, Illana was the most cheerful person Sakura knew, if Illana was depressed then the apocalypse was upon them.

“So, how's school?” Sakura asked once Illana had finished laughing at her.

“Boring, full of snobs, bullies, geeks and goths,” Illana replied, then shrugged, “The usual.”

“Made any friends yet?” she asked, leaning back in her chair,

Illana shook her head. “How about you? You're not sitting on your own, are you?”

“No,” Sakura assured her, “There's a new guy this year and they stuck him next to me.”

“Ooh,” Illana said, leaning close to her computer in mock-interest. “What's he like?”

“An absolute god,” Sakura replied, watching as genuine interest flickered across her friend’s face. “No doubt he'll be stolen from me in the next few days.”

“Really?” Illana asked raising an eyebrow. “Describe him.”

“White-blonde hair, tall, all muscles, the most incredible eyes you've ever seen and the nicest guy you've ever met,” Sakura told her briefly, avoiding too much detail in case she started to gush.

“Seriously?” Illana said, “He's not a snob or anything? Most guys, well, you know… they avoid you.”

“So far he’s been great, of course, no one’s told him about my social status,” Sakura told her. “He spent the entire day with me. Turn’s out he’s got brains as well as brawn and good looks.”

“Sound perfect to me,” Illana suggested.

“Actually, I think he might be,” Sakura replied thoughtfully, “But as I said, he doesn’t know the hierarchy yet.”

“Yeah, but that’s usually pretty apparent,” Illana reminded her friend. “Perhaps he doesn’t care.”

“Somehow, I just think he’d being a little oblivious, he's far too out of my league for this to be really happening to me,” Sakura moaned, self-pity catching up with her slightly. “Not only is he gorgeous and smart and funny, he's loaded. Life is not this kind to me.”

“Ah, you'll find a way to charm him,” Illana assured her, making gestures that indicated magic.

“I can't put him under a spell!” Sakura protested, outraged at the idea. “That's a total abuse of magic!”

Illana snorted in distaste, folding her arms in her own way of pouting.

“Besides, you don't even believe I can do magic,” Sakura pointed out, narrowing her eyes at her friend.

“True,” Illana conceded, shrugging her shoulders.

Sakura shook her head in exasperation. No friendship was perfect and the fault in Sakura's and Illana's was that Illana didn't believe in magic. She claimed to be a scientific kind of girl but despite the numerous times Sakura had provided her with proof, Illana refused to believe in magic. She seemed to prefer thinking that Sakura was slightly insane or a compulsive liar rather than admit that magic was actually real.

“Anyway,” Illana carried on, changing the subject completely. “Which subjects did you drop?”

Sakura sighed. In the fourth year pupils take eighteen subjects which dropped to just twelve in the fifth year. Six subjects were compulsory but the remaining six could be any range of subjects, provided there was at least one ‘creative’ subject, one of the ‘humanities’ and one ancient language.

“I chose Art, Drama, History, Ancient History, Advanced Computing and English as my ancient language,” Sakura reminded Illana for the tenth time, “What about you?”

“Why did you choose English?” Illana demanded, ignoring the question. “Why not Japanese?”

“Because I speak Japanese fluently,” Sakura replied dryly.

“Exactly,” Illana insisted, “You'd have gotten a perfect mark.”

“That's called cheating, Illana,” Sakura reprimanded her.

“Yeah, whatever,” she replied, nonchalantly. “Anyway, I'm coming back for your birthday, so you better not have any plans.”

“Nope, it's just me and Cam, as usual,” Sakura assured her. “If you come down at eleven, we'll have lunch out and go shopping.”

“Sure but only if you let me pay,” Illana replied. “After all, it's not much of a birthday treat if you have to pay.”

Sakura chuckled as she heard the front door open and close. Her heart lifted slightly when she realised this was her brother coming home. It was the perfect excuse to end the conversation with Illana, since when had her only friend become so… hard to talk to?

“Sorry, got to go, Illana,” Sakura apologised, “Cam's home.”

“See ya!” Illana said, waving goodbye.

“Bye,” Sakura replied.

Sakura closed down the call and went downstairs to see her elder brother. He put his briefcase down on the table and untied his tie with a sigh of relief. His normally pale face was drawn and he had a strained expression on his face. Worried flowed over Sakura, he hadn’t even noticed she was there to greet him.

“Bad day?” Sakura asked quietly, surprising her brother.

“No, just boring,” he sighed once he’d recovered. “What have you been doing since you got home?”

“Homework and talking with Illana,” Sakura told him, watching her brother with ever increasing concern.

“How was school?” Cam asked, trying to keep up the conversation as well as away from himself. “Not to bad without Illana, is it?”

Sakura shook her head. “It's good.”

Cam looked relieved and Sakura sighed, something she found she did surprisingly often. Cam was worried about her, just as she was worried about him. Cam seemed to think it was his job to protect Sakura from the world but she knew he found it increasingly hard. He'd only had the job of being elder brother for a while, then their mother had passed away when Sakura had turned eight and their father had followed his deceased wife five years later. Suddenly, eighteen-year-old Cam had found that he had to care for both himself and his little sister. He never seemed to live up to his own expectations, especially when it came to looking after Sakura.

“Anyway,” Cam said, cheering up suddenly like only Cam could. “What do you want for your birthday?”

“The usual,” Sakura said shrugging her shoulders. “A lay-in, presents… oh and Illana is coming over on my birthday at eleven and she says she taking me out for lunch.”

“I'll give you some money,” Cam said nodding.

“Illana said she'd pay,” Sakura pointed out.

“I meant for the shopping afterwards,” Cam explained with a smile. “I can't believe my baby sister is going to be sixteen in two weeks.”

“I'm not a baby,” Sakura protested, “But you better not forget those special three presents, it is my right to have them on my sixteenth birthday.”

“Ah, yes,” Cam replied with a knowing smile, “The tools of the Protector.”

Excitement bubbled inside Sakura as she imagined finally having those three tools. They'd finally be entitled to the benefits that came with the title of Protector and they would be far better off. The first Protector had been the only creator of the Wall to survive its creation. She had been the first-born female of her family and had demanded certain things when the world had called on her for further help. These things had been pulled together into a contract that was valid so long as there was a female descendant of the first Protector living.

Sakura smiled. Not only would she get the Protector's tools, she would finally be allowed into her mother's study. It was in the attic and full of books; actual books with paper pages and they were hand-written! Most of them were so old that only a large amount of magic stopped them from turning to dust on the spot.

“What do you want for dinner?” Cam asked, jogging Sakura from her expectant daydream.

On Secondday Sakura was running late again so she took her bike once again. A bell sounded behind her and a silver bike darted through the crowd of bicycles towards Sakura. Soon the owner, none other than Damien himself, came into view. He waved as he closed in on Sakura, keeping balance with ease whereas a klutz like Sakura would have fallen off… or at least wobbled.

“Morning!” he called cheerfully. “Cutting it a bit fine aren't you?”

“Aren't you?” Sakura countered, with as big a smile as she could muster.

“Yeah, but I'm always late,” Damien replied, still smiling.

“Same here,” Sakura told him. “I don't know what's wrong with my alarm-clock but it never seems to wake me up.”

Damien just laughed.

They arrived at school together and Sakura tried not to get her hopes up about a lasting friendship.

The inevitable was sure to happen soon. The popular girls had allowed Sakura her one day of happiness but it couldn’t be long before Opal closed in on her prey and Damien became aware of everything that made Sakura so unpopular. Insanity was not generally considered to be an adorable trait.

“I've got get some stuff,” Damien told Sakura as they entered the locker-room, startling Sakura back to reality. “Save me a space.”

Sakura smiled slightly, he actually wanted to sit next to her, it wasn’t just because he’d been stuck next to her yesterday.

She walked out of the locker-room, humming to herself in a cheerful way that other people weren't used to. They whispered among themselves that she had put a spell on someone, most likely that poor new kid. If Sakura heard them, she didn't show it and waltzed into her classroom with a spring in her step. She sat down in the same seat as before and got out her laptop, ready for whatever they had for their next lesson.

For a while, Sakura stared at the room, trying to figure out what was different about it. Just as she figured it out, Opal came up to her with a school electro-book – a Maths text electro-book as far as Sakura could tell. Opal handed it to her with a customary sneer.

“It needs to be done for tomorrow,” she told her, “You know how it works.”

Sakura did know how it worked and took the little notepad-like computer from Opal. She opened the electro-book and it immediately flashed up a message telling Opal to do her homework. Sakura grimaced as she saw how much there was to do but she didn't complain. After all, that was how the system worked. Sakura put it reluctantly into her bag as Damien opened the door and walked in.

All of Sakura’s hopes seemed to fall down and crash around her as Opal intercepted Damien. The room’s layout had been slightly rearranged, putting an extra desk in so that there was another empty seat. Said seat was conveniently located next to Opal’s.

“Hi, Damien,” Opal said, using the voice she'd perfected from luring boys away from other girls. “There's a seat here, I saved it just for you.”

Opal was wearing possibly the most revealing outfit in her arsenal whereas Sakura was wearing old clothes. She had art later and she didn't want to get paint, or whatever they were using, on her clothes. Now she almost wished she had worn something a little more… special.

“No thanks,” Damien replied without hesitation. “Sakura saved me a seat.”

Opal stared, open-mouthed as Damien sat down next to Sakura, all of Opal's friends waited for her to do something. Sakura had expected her to explode but she simply shut her mouth, went unhealthily pale and sat down. Meanwhile, Sakura looked to Damien who smiled innocently at her.

One look at Damien confirmed what Sakura had already guessed. Damien, despite being perfectly intelligent, was oblivious to the hierarchy and Opal’s position onto it. Sakura was fairly certain that if she asked Damien why he turned Opal down, he’d simply reply ‘Because you’d saved me a seat’ or something along those lines; most likely accompanied by a look of genuine confusion in his almost white eyes.

As mentioned before, art was the last lesson that Sakura had and, because of the similarity in their timetables, so did Damien. They walked over to the Art-department and Sakura did her best to enjoy his company while he was still so oblivious to the way the school worked. However, the feeling was corrupted; Sakura knew the situation was only temporary and some how the joy she felt at being friends with such a gorgeous guy was tainted because of that.

During art, they were asked to draw their partner. Opal was also in their class – though Sakura had no idea why because she was awful at Art – and she once again tried to charm Damien.

“Hi, Damien,” she began, just as before. “Would you like to be my partner?”

“No thanks,” Damien replied, with the same ignorant smile as he had worn when he'd turned Opal down before. “I'm with Sakura.”

“You're sure spending a lot of time with Sakura,” Opal pointed out, spite tainting her sweet smile. “I'd almost think she'd put a spell on you.”

Damien laughed. Sakura watched at a distance away while Opal talked to Damien. Some of Opal's entourage kept her corner near the sinks with meaningless questions that they knew the answers to already. She felt so helpless. She didn't want Damien to be taken away from her, even if it was inevitable.

“What on earth made you say that?” Damien laughed.

“You don't know?” Opal asked in mock-surprise, “She claims she can do magic. The poor thing is so deluded but its probably best to stay away from her. She’s not quite right in the head, if you know what I mean.”

Damien sobered, his smile disappearing as he fixed Opal with a icy stare. He whispered something which caused Opal to look as he’d slapped her across the face. She eyed him warily before retreated with haste, taking refuge in her friends who rushed to see what was the matter. Sakura, now free from her human prison, rejoined Damien who pretended nothing had happened. Sakura however could not pretend, something was seriously wrong, she hadn’t been kidding when she’d told Illana ‘life isn’t that kind’. Unable to work up the courage to ask what he had said to Opal, Sakura settled with being silent as Damien took his turn to draw her.

“Is something wrong?” he asked eventually, putting down his pencil. “You can’t seem to keep a smile for more than a couple of seconds.”

“I heard what Opal said,” Sakura began slowly.

Damien frowned. “And?”

“You don't seem to care,” Sakura stated. “Most people would be a little worried if they were told the person sitting next to them is insane.”

“You’re not insane,” Damien replied, smiling once more. “I’ve met people who are insane… you most definitely are not.”

Silence reigned and Sakura felt another worry build up.

“I’m not a liar either,” Sakura defended herself. “I really do have magic.”

“I never said I didn’t believe you,” Damien assured her calmly.

Sakura blinked in an owlish fashion.

“And you don’t mind?” she question, a frown chiselled deep into her features.

“Mind what?” he countered, seemingly clueless.

“That I have magic,” Sakura persisted.

Damien smiled as though she had asked a stupid question then shook his head.

“Why should I mind?” he asked. “To have magic is a rare talent and should be praised just as much as any other.”

Sakura stared at Damien as he went back to drawing her. This was too good to be true.

“Besides,” he added as an afterthought. “I have magic too.”

It was Sakura's turn to smile at the irony of the situation. Yup, definitely too good to be true.