A/N: For the sake of clarity, all characters mentioned throughout this story will be the same age, unless otherwise stated.

Students parted like the Red Sea to let the “ghost girl” through, their conversations dwindling and coming to stop as the androgynous girl passed by them, headphones firmly pressed against her ears as usual. If one asked any student the reason their reaction towards the girl was so strong, they would reply, “She doesn’t look scary, but just has this very strange vibe around her.”

Selcouth Academy.

Ostensibly, the academy was a prestigious secondary school in which an invitation was necessary for attendance. But Selcouth isn’t just an expensive weekday boarding school; it houses students with magical abilities, abilities given to the students when they were born or when they were in a near death experience.

The students were taught that they were being sheltered from the outside world, the world that would not hesitate to use them and their abilities to move up the social ladder. Money and power always went hand in hand with greed, a tragic flaw in so many people.

But many students would not help but question this teaching. They went home every weekend and were able to see their family and “normal” friends. The world was not a pretty place, but it did not seem as bad as the academy made it out to be. If anything, Selcouth looked like a prison, with the dismal ivy crawling along the brick walls, a tall and spiked gate surrounding the school. The weather was generally gloomy as well, with layers of grey clouds oppressing the building. But the weather wasn’t always so depressing, as the resident weather bringer, Jung Soojung, made sure of.

The sixteen year old was caught in a thunderstorm when she was seven, and struck by lightning. She survived by some miracle, and gained her abilities then. Not two weeks later, a letter arrived on the Jungs’ doorstep.

The message the flowing script written in a curious gold ink conveyed was simple. It was an invitation to attend Selcouth Academy, and the reason was clear. Soojung’s newborn power was not lost on the academy’s administrative board, and their invitation seemed to be more of a threat, implying that the entire family would be destroyed if Soojung did not attend the school by the age of 13, the age most students started the academy. Some came later if their powers developed later. Some always lived closed to the school if they were born with their powers. How and why that happened, no one knew, but it happened nonetheless.

And now, nine years later, Soojung found herself at Selcouth Academy, already used to all the quirks of the school and now one of the older, respected kids at the school. But no matter accustomed she was to school, she still found herself running to class with three minutes to spare before class started.

“Oof. Sorry, didn’t see you there, Amber!”

She patted her hair down and placed an arm over the girl’s shoulders, the girl that almost everyone tried to avoid. Amber Liu, the ghost girl as the students at Selcouth dubbed her. Soojung didn’t seem to be fazed though, as she practically dragged the other girl to class. But she had known Amber for a while now, having been roommates since the androgynous girl first came to the school three years ago. Their tentative friendship had begun when Amber moved in, bringing the whispers of other students along with her. Soojung had used her powers to slam the door close on the curious students’ faces, much to the surprise and gratefulness of the girl that was only a month older than her. The weather bringer had proved herself trustworthy in Amber’s eyes, their friendship grew almost instantly, though Soojung seemed to be the one more into the friendship than the ever quiet tomboy.

But it was small, ordinary moments like these, that proved that Amber was more than tolerant of Soojung, having offered no protest as she was pulled into class, where they were greeted by Choi Jinri, their other roommate and friend. She was one of the rare students who was born with her ability, the ability to shape-shift and transform into any animal she wanted at any given time. Jinri was the only other person that Amber tolerated and actually spoiled, as she had used her powers on many occasions to scare away students that wanted to harass Amber for her strangeness.

When the first tomboy first came to school, she was witnessed talking seemingly to herself and doing things as though there was someone there. Except, there really was, only she was the one person who could see the spirits of the dead. From then on, she was called ghost girl, once her ability was made known to the rest of the school, and she had taken to wearing headphones to block the voices of the dead calling out to her-for help, to , and all in all be an annoyance. Although she would still be able to see them, not being able to hear their voices echo in her head was a pleasant sensation.

And she wore the headphones in classes, despite her teachers’ constant protests that she had to pay attention or she would fail-protests that she happily ignored.

And today’s chemistry teacher would fail in his attempts to get Amber to listen to his lecture for once, his look of exasperation causing Jinri to giggle and Soojung to smirk.

When the chemistry class was finally over, the students quickly filed out of class, eager to get to lunch and socialize.

Jinri linked her arms with Amber and Soojung’s, ever the excited youngest member of the trio. The three got their meal from the cafeteria and headed out to their own little corner in the gardens.

“Soojung, I thought you were supposed to meet Mark to practice the duet for your piano class.”

Amber turned to the said girl at Jinri’s words and raised her eyebrows, not speaking a word.

Soojung merely shrugged as she bit into her sandwich. “He told me he would come get me. If I didn’t know any better, he just wants to see Amber here,” she explained, a sly grin curving her lips upward as she looked at the older girl.

The tomboy merely snorted and rolled her eyes as she too dug into her food. It was true that Mark was one of the few students who talked to her and actually smiled and greeted her when he saw her, but that didn’t mean he had any other intentions towards her, not in the sense that Soojung would always insinuate cheekily. Even Jinri was starting to playfully point out that Mark seemed to only have eyes for Amber, an observation that would cause her to blush out of embarrassment and slap a hand over the youngest’s mouth that was a little too big for her liking. She could only be glad that these...observations were done when the male was out of earshot, or her embarrassment would have increased tenfold.

Amber would be lying if she said that Mark Tuan never crossed her thoughts. In fact, he had been occupying her thoughts quite a lot lately, and she could not push away the foreboding feeling she had, a feeling that something bad was going to happen, and Mark would be right smack in the middle of it.

And whatever she had been feeling seemed to become real life as a girl, Song Gayeon, one of the school’s best mixed martial artists, ran up to the group. She too was one of the students who were civil to the trio and seemed to hold a high level of respect towards Amber. Jinri had asked once why she was so in awe of Amber, and all she replied was that the older girl was mentally strong, something she herself strived for. Physical strength was one thing, mental and emotional strength another.

Gayeon doubled over in front of the girls, catching her breath after the brief run.

“What’s wrong, Gayeonnie?” The familiarity in which Amber said her name no longer had an effect on the fighter. The older girl had taken her under her wing reluctantly a year ago, grudgingly admiring the young fighter’s persistence in wanting to become friends or at least civil.

“It’s Mark,” she gasped out. “He’s in the hospital wing, and the nurse said he’s bleeding too much make it.”