Rilie Riley
Rilie was very average at her school. She achieved B's and C's mostly, had a good group of friends, and decorated her side of her dorm entirely with posters of her favorite bands and singers. Just like many people, she hated her name, Rilie Cadee Riley. She had been adopted an an infant by parents who were going to send her to a grand boarding school for two years of high school; but that was before Mrs. Jackson came to their house with a papyrus letter, informing Mr. and Mrs. Riley that their beloved, five-year-old daughter had been selected to attend Newtseye Academy, the finest magic school in America, located in the mountains of Wyoming.
They had always known that Rilie was a little different. She seemed to always know what they were thinking and feeling, and she had bright violet eyes. But never, in their wildest dreams, did they believe that she could perform magic.
Mrs. Jackson explained that Rilie's true parents were not necessarily dead, but had gone missing while on a mission to free the Sirens of the Black Sea. Mr. Riely ordered Mrs. Jackson to leave, trying to disrupt his household with a load of cock and bull, until Mrs. Jackson began to float in midair and commented that the ceiling really needed a good cleaning. Finally, after a short test, to make sure that Rilie really possessed the power, her foster parents agreed to send her to Newtseye for her education.
So, between the months of September and May, Rilie, along with the rest of the school, stayed at Newtseye, only returning for the month off between December 10th and January 10th and the three summer months.
Now, Rilie was about to start her sophomore year at Newtseye. She had kept a job all summer, saving all her paychecks until the last week of her vacation. With the money she made, and the money she had been saving the last six years, she went on a shopping spree, first buying a laptop computer for her dorm room, and with the few hundred left over, as much clothes that she could get, after the five new shirts and four new bottoms she got for the new year anyway.
For the first time ever, Rilie loved her new wardrobe, now that she had all the latest fashions. Her favorite outfit was a pair of jeans with a fairy embroidered into the back pocket, a black halter top with silver sequins lining the top of it, and metallic silver Converse All-stars with black laces. She also had a few sexy dresses and a bunch of flirty and fun outfits that she couldn't get enough of.
So, on Sunday morning, the day she had to leave for school, she was all packed. With her Ipod and make-up packed into her purse, along with her red Motorola Razr, faux-Coach wallet (but only she would know it was a fake), and date book, and wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a shirt sent to her by Zody, her best friend, that was purple and said "Vixen Valor" in large loopy cursive, she sat down in the back seat of her parents Civic. She knew that Zody had made herself one that would be either a light blue or white with blue glitter painted on and would say the same thing. She assumed that Zody had also made one for Bella, Rilie's ditzy roommate, and an orange one for Bade, but with something about "Warlock" because Bade was no Vixen.
Vixen and Warlock were terms describing teenage magical humans. Younger than twelve, they were just Charmers, and after they turn twenty-one, they were either named an Enchantress or a Shaman.
As she had done nine times before, Rilie and her parents drove to the nearest train station, where Rilie boarded a bus that took her (or almost did) to the airport, which was a good two hours from her house.
"Rilie Riley," she heard the girl's low voice as soon as the bus that took her to the airport pulled away. Rilie didn't need to turn around to know that it had been Babe Marcia, Zody's quite evil roommate that had been the speaker. Rilie wondered how two girls that had roomed together since they were six could grow to be such total opposites. Babe was rather taller than most other girls, and while she didn't look masculine, she did have a strong figure, very defined curves, and long legs. She wore mostly black leather and caked her face in thick make-up. Babe was known to be the Academy's main druggie, though Zody had made it clear that she would not allow Babe to keep any drugs in their room. Babe had her curly black hair tied up at the time, and was wearing her Sapphire gem ring, which actually brought out her powers. Rilie kept her Amethyst ring on a necklace that she only took off to shower and sleep. Without a specific gem ring, no one had powers.
"Hi, Babe," Rilie said as Babe approached. Babe didn't try hard or achieve the greatest grades, but she had a natural talent for spells, which she must have used to pack because she only had a small bag slung over her shoulder.
"Vixen Valor?" Babe asked. "Zody's latest creation?"
"Sure is," Rilie replied. "You know Zody and making clothes."
"And painting nails and signs and just playing with paint altogether," Babe droned on with an annoyed look. "What time is our teleportation?"
"You know we can't do that," Rilie said. Students are not allowed to publicly teleport until after sophomore year. Instead, they had to catch a helicopter, granted, a magical helicopter, but a helicopter all the same.
Rilie and Babe got into line, checked Rilie's luggage, and then went through security. All the other Charmers, Vixens, and Warlocks in their Wisconsin district were already at the gate. As soon as they were all accounted for, they were allowed through the gate and onto the helicopter.
Rilie took her usual seat in the farthest back compartment of the third level of the helicopter. They had to go to O'Hare airport before they would go to Newtseye, and Zody and Bella both lived in the Chicago suburbs and would join her as soon as they were on board. Until then, Rilie listened to her iPod, (and all the pop hits she had grown to love over the summer) and read her latest book, Frankenstein.
When the helicopter landed in O'Hare, Rilie could barely contain her excitement. She, however, kept reading, or tried to, pretending she wasn't interested. It was the same thing she had done since she first was a Vixen.
"Rilie Cadee Riley," she heard the squeal over the Black-Eyed Peas. Rilie looked up to see a very tan girl with iridescent blue eyes and dark brown hair with natural red highlights. She was about the same height as Rilie, 5'3", and was wearing the same shirt, only in light blue, as Rilie.
"Zody Kai Smith," Rilie smiled and replaced her bookmark in the book. Zody sat down next to Rilie and stole the far earphone from Rilie to listen in.
A few minutes later, Rilie's very ditzy roommate walked in. She was short, thin, and had pale blonde hair and pink eyes. She had a pink version of the "Vixen Valor" shirt.
"Hey, Rilie," Bella said. "How was your summer?"
"It was all work and no play," Rilie said. "Except for the shopping spree at the end. Still no boys, though."
"There are never any boys for you," Bella said. Bella had had several boyfriends during the summers alone, and even more at Newtseye. "So, I was thinking for this year's opening ball, I should go with Bade, you know, as a little something new."
"I was going to go with Bade," Rilie's head shot up. Rilie had asked Bade at the end of the last school year because she didn't want to go stag again and neither of them had a steady.
"Have you asked him yet?" Bella asked, hope swimming in her eyes that Rilie hadn't.
"Yeah," Rilie said. "At the end of last year. It was kind of a mutual agreement that we would go together so we would have someone to dance with."
"You can go with Hampton," Zody said. Hampton was the boy who had been crazy about Zody for the last few years, and Zody was looking for any excuse to get away from him.
"We would never work," Bella said. "He's so tall and I'm barely five foot."
"If you wear heels like the one's you have on now, no one would notice," Rilie said, indicating Bella's four inch pink pumps.
Bella wrinkled her nose. "I don't think so. He'd still tower over me."
Rilie shrugged. "It's not like it'd be hard for you to go another two inches taller with those," she said zapping the heel of Bella's right shoe so that it grew another few inches.
"Hey," Bella shrieked and zapped it with a counter spell. "Be careful, these are very expensive and not immune to magic."
As the helicoptor began into the air again, all three girls squealed and clapped. "Next stop, Newtseye!" Rilie yelled.
"So, how was the summer in the Caribbean?" Bella asked turning to Zody.
"Oh, it was fine," Zody said. "I'm just glad that Ferg kept his mouth shut most of the time."
"Did your sister decide what she wanted to do?" Rilie asked.
"Yeah," Zody nodded. "She's working with Sirens. She's becoming more acquainted with Siren culture before she'll get relocated to a more needing group of Sirens, probably near the Black Sea."
Bella rolled her eyes. Rilie knew her roommate had been raised in an anti-Siren environment, like many other classmates. In fact, from what Rilie learned about her parents, and their pro-Siren views, she was lucky to find Zody, who probably came from one of the few pro-Sirens families at Newtseye Academy, at least, of students willing to admit pro-Siren. Bade, on the other hand, she didn't know his exact views, but knew that he, at least, was not pro-Banshee, which was really all she needed in a best friend.