SORCERER (The Elemental Magic Series Book 1) by Michael Nowotny Page A

She had wanted to take Alec with her to meet her brother Billy but Alec begged off saying he was tired.
    Alec went back to the tower and saw Peter upon entering.
    "Ah, Alec, where's my other first year?"
    "She went to meet up with her brother, Billy I think it was."
    "Well the days of loafing around are gone." He said with a fatherly smile. "I just got your schedules."
    Peter handed him a thick sheet of paper with his name on it. Alec opened it and read through him courses. Magic lessons through the morning with Peter then after lunch it was general learning with a Mr. Caller every other day. At the end of the day was combat training with a Master Stolle.
    "Do you know a Mr. Caller, Peter?"
    "Yes I do, he's a very hard math teacher but fairly lax when it comes to reading and history, you have him for general then?"
    "Yep, and I have Master Stolle for combat training."
    Peter winced at Master Stolle's name.
    "What?" Alec asked.
    "Master Stolle is....well let’s just say he's a perfectionist who is very strict. I think he has more students transfer out of his class than all the others together."
    "Oh!"
    "Anyway, first years start their classes tomorrow. If I were you I’d go figure out where you need to be."
    Alec left, heading for the scholar’s school. He got lucky by going to the largest flat building and, after asking, found Mr. Caller in his room sorting through some books.
    "Sir, are you Mr. Caller?"
    "That would be me young man. What can I do for you?"
    "I'm Alec Carter sir. I'm in your general class starting tomorrow."
    "It’s nice to meet you, Alec. Have a seat. Did you have any questions?"
    "No sir just figured I'd see where the classroom was."
    "We meet right here after lunch at seven bells every other day. I don't have a lot of information on you, would you mind if I asked some questions?"
    "No sir, what would you like to know?" Alec replied taking a seat closest to his desk.
    "I'm told you're from a small farm community south of here by about two and half days and you're to be a sorcerer. That's about it. So I’d like hear you read the first couple pages of this book if you don't mind."
    Alec read from the book only stumbling a few times but catching himself without any prompts from Mr. Caller.
    "Not bad, you'll get better with practice. Now step up here to the desk while I write out a few problems for you."
    After about five minutes he had Alec working on some ever increasingly hard math problems. When he got to the problems with letters in them Alec was stumped. Mr. Caller told him it was called algebra.
    "Not bad, I was expecting a lot worse to tell the truth. I'll see you after lunch tomorrow." He said patting Alec on the shoulder.
    Alec left the room heading for the martial school. After seeing Peter’s reaction to Master Stalle he was a little nervous.
    Following one of the main paths he gave a polite greeting to a couple of wizards headed the other way, they acted as if they didn’t hear him. Passing the Bard school Alec gave smiles, nods and an occasional greeting to others and got the same back. Going through a small gate he saw Christi standing arm in arm with a guy who was fairly good looking and about a head taller than himself, putting him two above Christi.
    He felt a slight pain of jealousy even though it was obvious they were siblings by their common facial features. They had the same high cheek bones and slightly upturned nose. There was even a slight reddish tint to the guy’s brown hair.
    "Alec, over here!" Christi called seeing him standing there looking around. She dragged her brother over by the hand when Alec made no move to immediately join them.
    "Hey Alec, this is my big brother Billy. Billy this is Alec." She introduced them smoothly.
    "It's Bill, Christi has been talking my ear off about you. How's your first day of classes going?" He said holding out his hand with a smile.
    Alec took the offered hand with a firm shake. "It's been good, just got my schedule and thought I'd better