Author Note:

I wasn't actually planning on writing any fanfics, but I got this idea and really liked it. I hope you do too. :) I have lots of ideas and hopefully it will get better as it goes on. This is my first fanfic, so if it sucks, that's why. Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Prologue:

In the world this story takes place in; a small percentage of people are born with inherit magical power. Of these few people, fewer still actually have their magical power activate. A mage's power is only able to activate between the ages of 14 and 17, if their power doesn't activate before they turn 18, then their power will stay dormant forever. A mage's power is usually activated by a strong emotional response in the person. When a mage's power unlocks, it almost always happens in an explosive way. This makes it virtually impossible for a mage to keep their power a secret. When a person is discovered to be a mage, they are sent to MAGE (the Magical Academy of General Education). At MAGE a mage learns how to control their power. Mages are almost universally discriminated against by non-magical people, so MAGE is as much to keep mages away from the general populace, as it is to protect mages from them.

Chapter 1:

Yellow POV

I sat sullenly on my bed, looking at all of my things lying haphazardly on the floor. These were the things I would never see again, the things I needed were already packed into a small, yellow suitcase, which I was resting my feet on. Today was the last day I would spend at home. My house was situated right next to a forest, and I used to spend all of my free time there. I always felt more at home with the animals than with my actual family. But one day, I woke up and the forest had been cut down to make way for a strip mall. The anguish and anger I felt at this was so intense, that it awoke my magic. I remember the feeling of the magic coursing through me, transmitting my anger to the animals around. The animals responded to my anger, becoming angry themselves and they started attacking the workers. Luckily the magic enforcers showed up before the animals hurt anyone too badly, but by then everyone in the town knew what I was, so I was doomed to go to MAGE.

MAGE is the place where they send all mages to learn how to control their magic, but there's one caveat: once you're there you can't leave or contact anyone outside. This is mostly for the students' protection, because mages are extremely prejudiced against, so mages that are left in contact with the outside world end up bitter and vengeful.

I sighed and went downstairs to eat dinner with my parents for one last time. "Yellow darling, nice of you to join us," said my mom who was sitting with my dad at the dinner table. This was a lie. My parents hated mages just as much, if not more than the most ardent mage haters in my town, which means that they hated me. They had always had a problem with me because of my extreme shyness. They thought that there was something wrong with me, and now their beliefs were vindicated. I was a mage, which in their eyes is the most hated thing in the world.

"I thought I'd eat dinner with you for one last time," I said as I sat down at the table with them and started to fill my plate.

"Are you excited about going to MAGE?" my dad asked.

Excited? Leaving everything I know to become a mage in some super-secret school? No way. "Of course dad, I'm sure that I'll have a great time at MAGE," I said instead of what I actually wanted to say.

"I'm sure you will dear." The rest of the meal past in silence, my parent's polite conversation quota met for the day.

The Next Day:

I dragged my bag over to the corner of the street to wait for the bus that would take me to MAGE. I didn't have to wait long before it pulled up in front of me. It was a fairly normal looking bus, aside from the fact that all of the windows were covered with black paint. This was so that the students like me wouldn't know where MAGE was located; they didn't want us to try to run away. I handed my bags to the large forbidding man who had come out when the bus stopped. "Get on," he growled at me. His voice was deep and gravelly and outright terrifying. I squeaked and ran onto the bus as fast as I could.

The interior of the bus was quite dark (because of the covered windows) but there were dim lights on the ceiling that made it bright enough for me to see that there were three other people already on the bus. They were all spread out around the bus, none speaking and none sitting next to each other. They made such an imposing scene that I panicked and picked the seat closest to me, which happened to be the one right at the front, but luckily I picked the side that wasn't behind the driver. As soon as I was seated the bus soon started moving.

I didn't have a carry-on bag, so I had nothing to do while I waited. Sitting and doing nothing quickly got boring, so I decided to take a look at my soon-to-be fellow students. The boy with spiky brown hair seated all the way in the back of the bus was staring out the window, except that the window was covered…so really he was just staring at a black wall… A bit creeped out, I looked at a girl sitting a bit closer to the front. She had dark blue hair put up into two pigtails; the rest of her was obscured by the book that she was reading. The last person on the bus was the closest to me. He was wearing a white hat and appeared to be knitting, but I was probably mistaken, I mean why would a guy be knitting?

Having found out all I could about the other students without actually saying something or turning the lights up, I was reduced to doing nothing again. So I sat. And sat. And I sat some more. Eventually the bus stopped again, but we weren't at MAGE yet, we were at another student's house. There were so few new mages each year; that the same bus was used to pick up all of the new students. Of course this meant that some mages had been known as mages for months before they were sent to MAGE. Really I was one of the lucky ones; I can't even imagine how hard it must have been to live in the town with all of those people hating me for so long.

The dull thud of a bag being thrown into the storage area of the bus roused me from my thoughts. I heard the next student coming up the steps and looked up as he rounded the corner. He was wearing a red jacket and jeans and had a red cap covering his messy black hair. He grinned at everyone and said, "Hey guys!"

The silence was deafening. I could almost feel everyone turning to look at him. I waved at him nervously, but was too afraid to actually say anything. He looked down at me and grinned. He walked over and slumped into the seat next to me. "I'm Red," he said. "Nice to meet you."

"Uh, I- I'm Yellow…" I stuttered. Why can't I talk without stuttering? I thought angrily to myself.

"So what type are you?" Red asked. He was referring to the fact that every mage's power is one of twelve types. There are nine elemental types (Fire, Water, Nature, Electric, Ground, Air, Light, and Dark) and there are two mental types (Illusion and Knowledge). The last type is the Force type. Force mages can't manipulate an element, but they don't have power over the mind either, so Force mages don't actually fit into either category they're just listed by themselves.

"I'm a Nature type. What about you?" I was ridiculously proud of myself for not stuttering while I said this.

"I'm an Electric type." At this point the bus stopped and the door opened again. This time a girl with a really fluffy, brown ponytail and a pink hat walked in. Red waved at her as she passed and she smiled briefly at us before passing us and sitting further back.

"What do you think MAGE will be like?" I asked Red quietly, trying not to make too much noise.

"It'll be great won't it? We'll all be mages so no one will discriminate against us," responded Red, his voice much louder than mine. He was obviously an extremely outgoing person. The complete opposite of me. I would retract this statement once I met Ruby and Sapphire.

"I guess that's true," I replied.

I guess I didn't sound very convincing though, because then he said, "Don't worry, you know me right? So you have one friend already!"

I blushed and looked at the ground. We've known each other for five minutes and he's already calling us friends?

We chatted about trivial matters for the rest of the bus ride.

During the trip four more people had entered the bus. A boy with messy brown hair, a girl with long straight brown hair covered by a large white sunhat, a girl with brown hair and – strangely enough – fangs, anda boy with spiky black hair and goggles. They had all sat down and rode in silence like the first three.

The bus finally arrived at the school and the scary bus driver turned around and said "Gerroff the bus maggots!" Most of the kids – including me – scrambled as quickly as possible off the bus. The bus driver got out after us and started grabbing bags from the bottom of the bus and hurling them behind him – right where we all happened to be standing.

"Watch it!" yelled the girl with fangs as a bag flew past her in the face. The driver ignored her.

I felt someone grab my arm and I looked up to see Red who pulled me behind him. "I don't want you to get hit, you'd probably get squashed," Red said in answer to my confused look. I'm not that small, I thought a bit indignantly, but I was still touched by his gallantry.

Once all the bags were out of the bus (and strewn haphazardly on the ground) we all grabbed our respective bags and followed the driver who had gestured at us to follow him. MAGE was surrounded by a large brick wall that I assumed ran along the entire perimeter of the school. There were no roads or pavement anywhere in sight; all the pathways that I could see were made of brick. The bus was parked in the grass and I'm not sure how it got through the wall, as there were no gates or breaks anywhere in the wall, but it is a magic school. There were flowers and trees strewn about the grounds in no pattern that I could discern. The driver lead us to a large brick building which had the words 'Academic Advising' emblazed on it in large black letters. The building had large glass doors, which the driver went through.

The interior had white marble flooring and there was a desk with a professional-looking woman seated behind it. "Welcome everyone!" exclaimed the women in a way-too-happy voice. "You must be the new students. Thank you Bertrand you can go," she said the last to the scary-looking bus driver. She stood and walked over to us. I fleetingly wondered how she could walk in the outfit she was wearing. Her heels were higher than any I had seen before and it seemed like the smallest gust of wind would knock her over. "Now come along children!" The receptionist led us out the back door and into a large courtyard. The courtyard had brick walkways leading to the admissions building (the one we just left) and to two buildings, one on the left side of the courtyard and one on the right.

"Those two big buildings are the main academic buildings, and they are where you will have most of your classes." We walked past the two large buildings and out into a grassy field. There were several small square buildings placed in seemingly random locations on the field. "The buildings you see now are the dorms." She led us to the front of one of the buildings. The building was two stories tall and painted white. "All ten of you will be in this dorm. You will find all the information and your keys inside the building. Enjoy your stay!" Then she walked off without a single backward glance.

"Well, let's go in," said Red and he opened the door. Inside was a large common room. There were four black couches facing a large flat screen TV. The TV was sitting atop a cabinet. The cabinet had glass doors and I could see several video game consoles inside it. I stared at the spread wide-eyed. I had never seen so much expensive technology in one space before.

"Look at all the stuff," the boy with goggles said excitedly.

"Oh, we should do introductions!" said the brown, straight-haired girl excitedly. "I'll start, I'm Blue and I'm a Water mage. It's nice to meet you all."

"I'm Red and I'm an Electric type."

"Ah! I'm Yellow, and I'm a nature mage," I said as the introductions got around to me.

"The name's Gold, Fire mage," said the goggle boy.

"…" The next in the circle didn't say anything.

"Introduce yourself!" yelled Blue shaking he fist at him.

"Tch, fine I'm Green, Fire mage."

"My name is Crystal and I'm a Force mage," said the girl who had read the whole drive.

"Sapphire! I'm a Nature mage like blondie," said the fanged girl pointing at me. I already introduced myself…why is she calling me 'blondie?'

"So unladylike," said the boy standing next to her.

"What did you say?" yelled Sapphire staring at the boy threateningly.

"Uh, I'm Ruby, an Illusion mage."

"I'm White! It's nice to meet you all," said the girl with the ponytail.

"What's your magic type?" asked Gold after a while had gone by and she hadn't offered the information herself.

"I-I'm Illusion type!" She laughed, but she sounded a bit nervous. I vaguely wondered why, but the next introduction made all thoughts of White leave me.

"I'm Black and I'm going to be THE BEST KNOWLEDGE MAGE EVER YAHOOOOOO!"

After everyone had regained their hearing, Blue suggested, "Well, with that over with, should we go look at the rooms?"

I wandered over to the coffee table situated in the middle of the common room and looked through the papers lying on it. There were ten information packets sitting on the desk. Each of them had one of our names on it in large black letters. I picked up the one that said 'Yellow' and opened it. Inside the information pack was a page full of personal information and a booklet labeled The MAGE Handbook. I didn't bother to open it yet – I'll read it later. I saw my room number on the information page, so I decided to go find my room so that I could put my bag away.

I walked up the stairs nervously, clutching my information packet tightly. The second floor was separated by a wall, so you had to go up two different staircases to get to either side. One side was the girls' section and the other was the boys' section. There were five rooms in the girls' section and each door had a name written on it. I found the door with my name on it and went inside. The room was decorated a wooden desk, dresser and bed. There was another door on the other side of my room, which I opened curiously. Inside was the bathroom. Well that's boring, I thought disappointedly. I sighed and sat on the bed. It was comfortable, but it wasn't home. I could never go home, not anymore. At least I know that one of the people here is nice, I thought remembering how nice Red had been to me. I looked at the page of information and found the section that talked about which classes I would be taken. The paper said that I was in Level 4 section A. I hope that Red is in there too, I thought wistfully. Wait, I just met him! I quickly looked back at the information sheet to stop myself from thinking too much. Six classes, Manipulation, Creation, Divination, Protection, Precision, and…P.E.. What? I've been shipped off to a magic academy and I still have to take P.E.?

"Hello! I'm your next door neighbor," said a cheerful voice from the door.

I looked up. The girl with straight brown hair stood at my door. What was her name…Blue? "H-Hello, You're Blue right?"

"Co~rect!" she said with a sing-song voice. "And you're Yellow. What level are you in?"

Something about her unnerved me a bit, but I didn't see any harm in answering her question. "Level 4, Section A."

"Me too! We can go to class together tomorrow," she said in a way that gave me no option to refuse. I didn't really mind though, going to class with someone would be much less scary than going by myself.

"Okay."

"I'm going to go say hi to the other, see you tomorrow morning Yellow~"

She left and I relaxed again I have to watch out for her, I thought. She seems suspicious. I got up off the bed and looked around the room. There was a laptop computer and speakers sitting atop my desk. The desk had two drawers that I opened. The first was full of pencils, paper and other assorted school supplies. I decided that the things in this drawer was boring and opened the second drawer. It was full of books with titles like Magic and You, and How to Control Your Power. I investigated the closet next. It was full of school uniforms which consisted of a short sleeved white blouse with an optional black jacket that could be worn for warmth then a black and silver knee length skirt for girls and black pants for the guys. My shoes were lined up at the bottom of my closet; several pairs of black closed-toed shoes.

"Hello, I live across the hall from you," said a friendly voice from my door. I turned around and walked over to the door.

"You're White, right?" I asked.

"Yes, that's me. White Touko," She responded while bowing. "I'm in Level 1, section B."

"Ah, I'm Yellow Amarillo, Level 4, section A."

"R-really? You're three years older than me?" she asked shocked.

I nodded. This wasn't the first time I had gotten this response, and I was sure it wouldn't be the last. I had always been short for my age and even now I still looked like a little kid. I briefly wondered how old Red thought I was. "I'm 17."

"Wow! I'm only 14; I thought for sure I was older or at least the same age as you."

"Yeah, I get that a lot…"

"Sorry to cut our conversation short, but I need to finish unpacking my things. See you later," White said as she walked out the door. That's a good idea, I thought and walked over to my bag. There wasn't very much in my bag, it was mainly clothes, but I had a few personal items as well. I put my clothes in the closet and put the pictures I had in my bag on my desk.

That done, I decided to go downstairs to take a better look around. No one else was down there and I assumed that they were all still unpacking. Both the staircases were in the common room, but on different sides of the room. There was a door on the opposite side from the front door, which I opened and looked through. It lead to a spacious kitchen, which was full of more appliances than I could name, much less use. I looked through some of the cupboards, but the sheer amount of different spices and foods overwhelmed me so much that I gave up with that room and went to look at the last room in the building. The last room was a dining room which had dark wooden flooring and an antique chandelier hanging from the ceiling. There was a large wooden table and ten cushioned dining chairs spread around it. Satisfied with my explorations for the moment, I went back to the common room.

Sapphire was lying on the couch with her feet on the coffee table. She turned around when I came in. "Hey! Yer Yellow right?" I nodded nervously. "We're both nature mages, so we'll be in the same special class!" She seemed nice, but her appearance intimidated me.

"Ye-yeah that's right."

"Let's be friends!" She yelled while thrusting both of her fists into the air.

I smiled (if a bit weakly) and responded, "Okay."

At that point Blue came down the stairs holding a book and running away from Crystal, who appeared to be trying to kick her in the head. A few seconds later Gold and Black came down the stairs looking dejected. "I can't believe he kicked us out," Gold mumbled. What is going on? I wondered.

Earlier:

Blue's POV

I left Yellow's room and headed towards the next room. I wanted to hurry and meet everyone so I could start finding out their secrets. My one true calling in life was discovering peoples' secrets and then using them to benefit the greater good (well, the greater good as I saw it anyway). I ran into Sapphire in the hallway, "Hi!" I exclaimed.

"Hey, I was going to check out the TV downstairs, wanna come?" she asked. The way she spoke was quite forceful and I was reminded of how Ruby had called her unladylike earlier.

"I'll be down in a minute; I'm just going to say hi to White and Crystal first."

"Okay, see ya," she said as she continued on her way down the stairs. I past the room that was labeled 'Sapphire' and continued on to the room labeled 'Crystal'. Inside Crystal was sitting on her bed holding a soccer ball.

"Hello!"

She looked up. "Oh, hi," she said. I seemed to have interrupted her thoughts.

"Are you a soccer player?" I asked, my natural nosiness aroused.

"Yeah, or I used to be anyway. Why do you care?" she asked, suddenly suspicious. I don't know why though, I'm so innocent...

"I just want to get to know my dorm mates better!" I said with a sing-song voice as I walked over to her desk.

"What are you doing?" she asked distrustfully.

"Nothing," I said as I opened her drawers and looked through her stuff.

"Hey!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "Leave my things alone." I grabbed a book from her drawer and opened it. "Put that down!" she yelled and then kicked the soccer ball at my face. I quickly dodged and gave thanks for my super fast reflexes. She ditched the ball and started trying to kick me directly.

"Aaah!" I kept dodging and ran out the door, but she chased me.

"Don't just randomly take people's things!" She yelled as she chased me. I ran down the stairs with her hot on my heels. In the common room I saw Yellow talking to Sapphire, who was lounging on the couch, and Gold and Black coming down the stairs. I looked back and saw a foot headed for my face, so I ducked as quickly as I could. Unfortunately I wasn't quite quick enough and her foot hit the top of my head.

"Oww!" I shrieked holding my head in fake pain (It didn't actually hurt very much; I just wanted her to feel guilty).

Crystal looked a bit horrified. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you that bad!" she said apologetically (Score! I thought as I giggled behind my hand) "Now give me my book back," she commanded, all apologies gone from her voice. Darn.

"But Crytaaal, We're going to be best friends right, so I should be allowed to borrow your books if I want," I whined

Crystal (and everyone else in the room) looked at me like I was insane, but then again, maybe I am. "I never said we were going to be best friends and even if we were you can't read that book. Give it back."

"Fine," I relented and gave her the book back, but I made a vow to myself. I would see what was inside that book. Nothing stays secret from Blue.

Earlier:

Gold's POV

My room was…AWESOME. They gave us computers! And the greatest thing, I didn't even have to pay for any of it. Since all mages were forced to go to MAGE we didn't have to pay for anything. Actually they paid us. We were given a weekly allowance, all paid for by the non-magical people. You'd think that they would resent having to pay for people they consider pariahs (Ha! My middle school teachers were wrong, I can use big words), but they considered it a fair trade for getting us out of their towns.

"Hey, I guess we're neighbors," said a voice from my door. I turned and saw Black.

"Did you see all the free stuff we get?" I asked him excitedly.

"Yeah, isn't it great? WOOOO!" he yelled, his excitement levels matching mine.

I was about to join in his yelling when the annoyed voice of Green said. "Keep it down; I can hear you in my room with the door closed."

"But look at all the awesome free stuff we get, how can I keep from shouting my happiness to the world?" asked Black. He looked and sounded totally serious too…He's a bit weird… I like him!

"All the stuff is awesome, yeah, but even better, we have a bunch of hot girls living here with us," I said.

"Tch, Go downstairs, both of you," growled Green. Even though his voice sounded level and quiet, I could feel the anger about to come crashing down on Black and me. I guess he thought we were taking too long in complying with his command, because he grabbed Black and my arms and pushed us towards the stairs. Black and I walked down the stairs by ourselves.

"I can't believe he kicked us out," I mumbled half to Black and half to myself. What I saw when I looked up surprised me. I saw Blue clutching a book – is that a diary? – while being chased by Crystal who was trying to kick her. I saw Blue pause for a minute at the bottom of the steps to look at us. This was a mistake on her part because it made her too late in dodging Crystal's latest kick.

"Oww!" Blue screamed. I'm fairly sure it didn't hurt as long as her scream implied.

Blue and Crystal argued for a while about being best friends and borrowing books or something, I wasn't really paying attention. I don't think Black was either, because when I turned to look at him I saw that his eyes were glazed over and there was a distinctly blank expression on his face.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"No idea," said Yellow, who was staring at Crystal and Blue in horror.

Blue stood up and loudly declared, "Crystal and I were just affirming our sisterly bond!"

"When did I become sisters with you?" Crystal asked annoyed.

Blue ignored her. "We just had our first fight, but now our relationship is all the stronger because of it!"

"I don't get it," Sapphire said from her spot on the couch.

"I don't either," said Yellow, who sat down next to Sapphire.

"Aww, Sapphire, Yellow you have both been missing out if you don't know what friendships are like," Blue said and she was about to continue on, but a voice stopped her.

"You all are so loud," this was from my new arch-enemy, stick-in-the-mud, AKA Green.

"C'mon man, we just got here, we can be quiet later," I said.

Blue giggled and walked over to Green, "We're not really bothering you are we?" she asked batting her eyelashes at him.

Green looked disturbed and mumbled "I'm going outside." He added, "Don't follow me," when Blue started to follow him. He slammed the door behind him.

Blue giggled, but it wasn't innocent, far from it. I could tell that I would have to watch out for her.

Earlier:

Red's POV

So, I'm level 4 section A, I wonder if any of the others are in there. I had just finished unpacking my bags and had decided to check out my class list. I wonder what level Yellow is in, I thought remembering the shy blonde girl from the bus. I was going to read about what classes I would be taking when I heard a loud "WOOOOO!" Wha-? Then I heard Green telling them to keep it down and go downstairs. Hah…That was a bit harsh, I thought, feeling a bit sorry for the objects of Green's anger.

Not long after I heard a commotion downstairs. I decided that I wasn't going to be able to concentrate with all the noise, so I might as well just go and see what was going on. I left my room and ran into Ruby, who was also heading down the stairs. "Do you know what's up with all the noise?" he asked. "It's disturbing my sewing."

Did he just –, "Did you just say, sewing?"

"Yeah, I sew, got a problem with that?"

"No! Not at all, I just wanted to make sure I heard you right," I replied and laughed nervously. "Why don't we head downstairs?" I suggested and started walking.

We went down the stairs and arrived at chaos. Blue was giggling maniacally, Yellow was sitting on the couch looking terrified, Sapphire was rolling on the floor laughing about something and Crystal was trying to kick Gold in the head. I looked at Black, who seemed more or less unaffected by the situation, "What's going on?" I asked

"Crystal doesn't like being called super serious gal," he said. That was the only explanation Ruby and I were ever given.

Excerpt from The MAGE Handbook:

Knowledge Type:

The knowledge type is the most disputed mage type. Knowledge mages are unable to manipulate their element (as it is intangible), but they never forget anything and never have any trouble understanding new concepts. This on its own wouldn't have made Knowledge mages qualify as a mage class, but eventually it was found that Knowledge mages had an affinity for divination. There is still some debate about whether they are truly mages or not, but they have been officially designated as mages. Knowledge mages don't have their power unlock like other mages do, they are born with their abilities, which is another point in favor of not having them listed as mages. In the end though it is up to the knowledge mage themselves if they are considered a mage or not, as it is nearly impossible to tell if someone is a knowledge mage or not unless they let you find out.