I awoke, hoping that yesterday was just a dream, but that hope wasn’t success. Dylan and Carly came storming into my room, screaming, “WAKE UP, SARAH, OR WE’RE GONNA BE LATE FOR THE PORTAL!” Suddenly remembering the letter and the portal we had to go through at a certain time, I quickly grabbed the letter from beside my bed and read that the portal would close in 2 hours. This made me furious because I don’t like when people wake me up way earlier than I have to. Just as I was about to strangle both of them, Aunt Alice rushed in calming me down. 
“She doesn’t like being waked up so early on the weekends.” I did relax in the end, and they did apologise.
Once I’d finished packing, it was 9:04 which meant the portal was open. In a flash, I sprinted my way down the stairs, into the living room, to find the bright, indigo portal calling for me to step inside. “Are you ready?” They asked. 
I felt braver than ever, but the words I wished to say wouldn’t come out. Instead, I stumbled back and whispered, “No.” All of them looked at me, befuddled. “Not really.” However, my friends are probably not like your friends who would always listen when you don’t want to do something. Unfortunately, my “no” didn’t really mean anything, so they pushed me in.  For a second, I felt all the anger in the world that I could collect, travel into my heart. Only for a second.
 As soon as that was over, we arrived standing on a rocky ground. The sky was filled with the brightest stars you could ever imagine; it was like the sun was right in your hands, for even the warmth brought some sort of happiness that only the luckiest person in the world could experience. A few metres away from me, was the most exquisite looking field I’ve ever seen, swimming with daisies, tulips and many other flowers that I’ve never seen before. Animals of sorts ran or flew across the fields and rivers. Animals that never grew where I lived.  It was simply: heaven. At the end of the field, a castle stood. I didn’t know what it was until it came to my mind. That was my school. That was where my future lay. “Sorry about the portal, it can be a bit nasty at times.” 
I snapped out of my daydream, and looked at Dylan. “Oh. Yeah. No worries.”
“It’s beautiful, I know. I can understand it’s a bit of shocker for you, since you have come from Earth, which is not one bit like this place.”
It took me a while to notice that Aunt Alice was gone. 
“Where is she?” I asked. Carly sighed a sigh that meant she was about to say something that she didn’t want to say. Dylan then gave me a hug, shaking his head as if to say sorry. “NO! It can’t be. You’re lying to me.”
“I think she’s gone.” Carly said. “We completely forgot. You see, Alice isn’t like us. She’s a human, and she didn’t know either that the portal would…well…kill her. She only knows your different because your mother was like us. This school doesn’t allow non-magical people such as your aunt. I’m sorry, Sarah. I -we- didn’t know, we swear.”
I couldn’t believe it, Auntie Alice was the only family I had left. Now I had nobody back home, it would just be me…and my insects. I didn’t dare reply. Even though I knew it wasn’t their fault, something inside me was on the verge of tearing them apart. Physically, and mentally. 
So, looks like it was just me now. Again, Carly was able to read my mind. “It’s not just you, Sarah. You have us, and we’ll never leave you.” They acted like my aunt dying is her leaving me. 
“SHE DIDN’T LEAVE ME! You don’t understand, she died, ok? You should’ve known.” It was their fault; they’ve known this place, and how the portal worked for so many years. Though they didn’t know my aunt would die trying to go through that portal. Maybe they did it on purpose. I ran. I ran to the school, crossing me fingers so that I won’t lose myself on the way. 

For once, I felt…
Unstoppable. 

The wind flew in my hair; I finally felt free. Noone could dare try to stop me now. 

There were so many people on the castle grounds. They looked so happy, so free, so…friendly. Before I was able to explore, a young-looking woman came up to me. 
“Sarah Gonzales, I’ve been expecting you.” She spoke. Her hair was black as raven, and she wore a navy-blue dress finished with long black boots. I didn’t like her, not one bit.  “Oh, don’t like so frightened. I know I don’t really look like the kindest headmistress. Really, though, I’m not as bad as you think.” I must’ve look terrified. She took out her hand, “Headmistress Frostfire.” I took her hand, too scared to say anything.

Behind me I heard panting, and fast footsteps. Carly and Dylan. They caught up with me. 
“Sorry, headmistress. She ran and she’s fast.” Carly tried to breathe; it didn’t look very easy. However, Dylan, looked like he just came back from the cinema. Headmistress Frostfire just shot a stern glare at Carly. With that, Carly straightened her back, puffed up her shoulders a gave the headmistress an unsure smile. 
“I think you’re the only one who’s tired,” growled Ms Frostfire. “I expect more from you, Carly.” She whimpered, slowly walking up to the school, on her own. The headmistress turned to me with a reassuring smile. “Well, since Carly has gone off to sulk somewhere, I’m sure Daniel won’t mind showing you around our exquisite world: Prelonia.” He nodded, using his hand to tell me to come. I followed him, making sure nobody was trailing behind us. 

Even though the school was probably 2km away from me, I could still hear the chittering and chattering of the students. It reminded me of my school back home. No. I didn’t have any friends, but I still missed receiving all those detentions. 

“Hey Sarah, Prelonia is nice, but you can look around yourself some other day. Wanna go up with me to the school. You can meet my friends, and Carly’s of course.”
I wasn’t sure if he was breaking the rules or he just thought this was boring. “Sure. Why not?” I replied. We headed up to the school which took five minutes but felt like a week. 

On the way, another boy (who looked very similar to Dylan, but had lighter colour of hair) came up to us, or Dylan. I wasn’t sure. He didn’t even notice me, and just went to pat Dylan on the back. “Hey, bro,” he said. 
“Hey, Daniel. What you doing here?” It seemed like Dylan and Daniel knew each other. “This is Sarah, she’s new. Sarah, my brother, Daniel. Daniel, Sarah. 
“Nice to meet you.” He took out his hand so I shook it. 
“Nice to meet you too.” I could feel myself turn a little red, but I tried to shake it away before anyone could notice. There was some awkward silence which felt like a very long time. Finally, someone broke the quiet but deafening silence: Me. “Umm. So, are you guys gonna show me the school.”
“Oh, yeah, right.” Dylan started walking up with me next to him and Daniel was just there. Like he was our tail. 

The school was shocking, and definitely not what I was expecting.