Sitting with her knees to her chin and her arms circled around them, Talia looked at the twilight sky in contemplation. She had only ever known the twilight sky, though she knew that Above had a different type of sky. One that could be blue and bright, and at other times cloudy and dark and almost menacing. Below’s sky was fine though. It wasn’t exciting or anything, but Talia found it to be a relaxing thing to look at anyway. The clouds would still shift and change, but they never really came apart and left an empty sky.

It was dark, but when one looked at it the right way, it was also quite fascinating. But that wasn’t why she was here. She was here because school was still in session at the Academy, and she was still a junior, which meant she had yet to graduate. She could see all of the others moving past her, becoming seniors, and moving on with their lives, but her? She was still stuck as a little junior. Bigger than being a Freshling, which was also not very fun, but was she any better because she was a junior? She felt as though it was never going to happen. That she would graduate, she would find a job, and she would be able to go where she wanted! She would be able to take vacations and see all sorts of restaurants!

… But without any friends, wouldn’t it be lonely? She had yet to make more friends than her roommate and while Lailah was good enough as a friend, Talia was still lonely. She couldn’t help the feeling though. Geists were often made to feel lesser at the Academy, even if the teachers tried to stop it. She wasn’t sure why, though from what she had read about her “species” then they could be tricksters, but otherwise, didn’t seem to be that much of a problem? They weren’t like the Elves from Above.

Okay fine, Geists were known to be pretty bad in general, after all their abilities led them to more… illegal activities and sneaking around. It’s not like they could help it though! And that didn’t mean that Talia was that way either! In fact, often times she forgot she could phase in and out and quite often bumped into things that were obvious when she had her head in a book, trying to avoid most of the other students.

Was that why she didn’t have many friends/ It could be one reason, but she wondered if there were more. Would it continue after she graduated? She didn’t think that she would be joining the other Geists, but maybe she would have to if she wanted to actually make friends? But if she wasn’t like the others, then what would be the point? She would just be bullied over there too!

She sighed and moved her legs so that they were now stretched in front of her and she was leaning on the palms of her hands and still looking up at the sky. She just… didn’t want to go back into the building yet. Every day she felt as though she was starting to get more anxious and while her familiars tried to help her, they couldn’t fix everything, and they could only take her mind off of things for the moment, when really what she wanted was to forget what was happening in the first place. She couldn’t be like Lailah, who seemed to forget things at random times and suddenly come back into the situation.

She started to move her feet. The heels stayed in place, but her toes were moving back and forth.

Perhaps she should join some clubs to make friends. It’s just, would they accept her? She was a Geist after all, and while they weren’t allowed to advertise that they didn’t want certain races, it didn’t mean that they wouldn’t do everything in their power to keep specific ones out of their clubs. And when a student pushed back and the club was eventually banned because the current members refused to let the person back in, eventually there would be so many rumors flying about and accusations, that the accuser would go back into hiding and the club would be allowed to re-form, albeit under a different name and slightly different subject.

Could she go through that though? Most likely knowing that even if she went into a club that would have very little “opportunity” for her to “act like a Geist” and steal things and such, did that mean she would still be welcome? Would they be suspicious of her stealing books if she went into the book club and tried to join?

Of course, she wouldn’t but stereotypes were alive and well and she had certainly had a few choice names and phrases thrown out at her while she had been at the Academy. And she didn’t have any parents to speak of either. She was an orphan, and one that was sent to the Academy because that’s what happened when one was an orphan. They didn’t want to have uneducated kids if they found them, but they certainly didn’t seem to care about whether or not those kids were happy. Maybe she wanted a hug sometimes? To have others that she could go back to and say “I love you” to?

She shook her head, starting to feel tears forming. There was no point in crying now. What would that get her anyway? She would just be crying at the mistreatment that she had been receiving since she had come here and had been old enough to actually remember things. Though there were a couple of students who had seemed nice, they were all gone now, having grown up without her, and where was she? Still stuck at the Academy, studying, but never seeming to get anywhere. She was determined to get out of this place, and unfortunately didn’t have a solid plan on what she wanted to do. She needed to think of one, and wanted to do it soon.