sparks

Chapter 1: First Day

The alarm goes off. Zim sits up in his bed quickly. Too quickly. He shuts his eyes for a moment to stop the spinning, before getting up. At 16 he stands 5'10", his long, straight, black hair falling down his bare back.

Being an orphan Zim lived in a monastery, but today was his last day with the priests. He was finally going to the university of the 4 powers.

The school had dorms, so he would be residing there.
Zim rushes to get dressed, leaving without saying a word. He didn't care, he was going off on his own now.

Zim gets off the bus and stares up at the amazing castle of a school before him. The colorful stained glass on the front shines brightly in the light, each of the four elements shown on it.

He stares in amazement, as do his fellow new cadets. All except for one of them, who shrugs and keeps walking. His brown hair fell slightly over his eyes.

"Alright, everyone inside."

The wind blew around them, booming these words.

"T...That was head master Carter, the grand wind sage..." A girl to the right of Zim muttered.

She was about 10 inches shorter than Zim. She stared still at the window, her glasses having fallen to the tip of her nose. Her incredibly long blonde hair ran to the back of her knees, but it was slightly tangled and messy. Zim smiles and turns to her.

"Well then, I guess we should go inside." Her face turns red when she looks and sees Zim is talking to her. She says nothing and turns, running inside.

Zim sighs and walks slowy towards the door, which the many other cadets were now shoving through.

Once everybody was inside the large room, an old man limps out with the assistance of his white staff. He walked with a hunch. His skin was a dark tan color, with a long white beard flowing from his chin. Certainly a stark contrast with his completely bald head.

"Well hello students, welcome to my school..." He says with his goofy, silly voice. "My school of magic."

He flips his bony hand out and 10 banners fly into the room and hook onto the walls. A small blue orb flys into his hand. A table shoots onto the stage and he places the ball onto the table. It floats there, completely unsupported.

"Look at the banners on the walls; the elemental houses that came before you. The basic and most common of course being Wind, Fire, Earth, and Water. But as you all know there more than that. There are also Explosive, Lava, Life, Animal, Acid, and Darkness. Granted, our students don't really go into those last ones. In fact, at this school we only have one Acid and one Animal student. Now get in a line and come up the orb. It will tell you what you are and which banner to stand under."

Zim watches the students go one by one to learn what they are after. In the first few people he sees the girl go up and put her hand to the ball.

"Leeta Asume.... Wizard of life."

Every one claps loudly as the shy girl stands there stunned. The head master smiles at Leeta.

"Please go stand under your banner."

She walks slowly and stands there alone, under a banner that's not one of the four all the other students have gone to.

All the students go and the headmaster looks around.

"Any one else out there?"

The boy with brown hair walks up to the orb.

"Roy.... Darkness."

He walks to the banner of darkness, the only person other than Leeta in a unusual banner.

"Well come on boy, we haven't all day."

The head master gestures at Zim to come. Zim walks up to the orb.

"Zim.... Lightning."

Every stares at Zim and the orb, confused. The head master smiles.

"It appears we have a new magic in our mists. Well, we will have a banner made later. For now you will in the misc form with the other students not in a main magic group. Ok, go and meet your new friends! Bye every one."

A gust of wind blows through the room and he's gone. Zim stands there confused and alone as every one else starts to talk and make friends.

"Hey there, you ok?"

Leeta walks over next to him, smiling.

"We should be friends. After all, we are in the same boat now. Outcasts for a school of wizards."

Zim stands up next to her and smiles.

"Yes, friends. It is a pleasure to meet you, Leeta."

She closes her eyes and wrinkles her nose.

"Please, call me Asume. I prefer it."

Zim nods and they wander off to find the dorms.

Once in the dorms, it's clear that its a cold dorm with a poor and dirty look. Two kids are sitting in the middle of the slightly large, but quite dirty room playing cards.

"Look, it's a girl!" Zim yells.

They both look up, surprised. Asume giggles and the two boys walk over. One is kind of fat, and his sweat appears slightly greenish. The other looks like a little kid but his arm hair appears a dark brown color.

"Hi, I'm Psi the Acid wizard."

"And I'm Chuck, the Animal wizard. What's with the tall emo guy? He just showed up and won't talk."

Zim smirks. "That's Roy, but all I can tell you is he is Darkness. This is Asume, she's a Life wizard. I'm Zim, and apparently I'm Lightning."

They gasp in amazement.

"You're a new magic. That's AWESOME!" Chuck yells as he hops around.

"Get some sleep, both of you! Tomorrow they test your power to see what classes you should go into." Psi says quickly.

Zim yawns. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

He walks back to his room in the dorm and falls asleep on his whitish, uncomfortable bed in his dirty room.

Zim wakes up with a start. He looks around the room eventually realizing where he is. He breathes heavily.

"My head hurts..." He groans as he climbs out of bed and stretches.

A spark shoots between his fingers. He stares at his hands. It used to happen a lot; he always thought his sheets just built up a charge. But now? Now, he wasn't so sure.

He walks outside, it's still dark. A large man is standing infront of him.

"Are you ready to be tested, Lightning wizard?"

Zim hesitates for a moment.

"Yes, I'm ready."