The For Real and The For Fake by Isabella Burgos
“It’s suspicious, the color of this flower, don’t you agree?” Pyre’s voice engulfed the starstruck teen as she wearily agreed. She felt so exhausted. A large part of her was confused, her eyes darted around the empty darkness that was once her dorm room. “It’s my favorite smell. In fact, I think you might like it. Here, come here my child.” The fire goddess sounded almost hostile, like a snake nearing its prey. Rosemary felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand at the thought, was that what was going on? Was this real? Surely not. When she’d sat in silence for too long, the goddess hissed. “Come here,” the words seeped out of Pyre’s mouth menacingly slow. Rose cleared her throat, it took a second for her to be able to lift a foot off of the black floor. Slowly, she took a few nervous steps towards Pyre. Rose glanced from the lady’s eyes to the orange flower, she sighed gently before slightly leaning down. It hurt her eyes to look at the glowing petals for too long, so she wasn’t surprised when her eyes shielded themselves gently. A deep inhale of the thorned flower had Rosemary stumbling back in agony, almost tripping over her own two feet. Then, she felt it. The nasty feeling hit her like a bag of bricks; and, in less than a second, a blood curdling scream forced its way out from the very pit of her stomach. Rosemary’s cherry blossom pink hair bounced happily as she walked through the courtyard of her school. Her school. She had never thought she’d get the chance to say those words, not in a million years. The Academy of Elements is the toughest of all the Elem schools, the other four aren’t nearly as popular despite having heaps more students. The Academy was the hardest. The hardest to live at, the hardest to work at, and it’s especially hard to make friends. The reason being that it’s a school for “exceptionally gifted children.” It’s a general school, meaning powerful children from every Element live together in a single castle-like structure. When Rose was younger, she was constantly told she was gifted. She took the compliment like a grain of salt. Of course she was gifted, 166
