I was walking in the school's courtyard alongside Serenity, or Sam as my classmates would come to know her. She was wearing the boys uniform just as I was and the two of us were heading towards our homeroom class. The raid and entrance ceremony the day prior had gone off without a hitch and now, the two of us along with the rest of the student body were preparing for the first day of school. We entered the main building and began heading up the stairs. The third year classes were all on the third floor of the school building, similar to how the third year dorm rooms were on the third floor of the dorm building.

I adjusted my fake glasses nervously as we approached the classroom. Thankfully despite most of the students watching my performance yesterday, none of them seemed to recognize me with my disguise. We entered and for the most part, the class looked like what I would expect. Students, both humans and otherworlders were talking and laughing with each other. The teacher still hadn’t arrived yet so the two of us found open seats and sat next to each other.

“Oh, Alexander, to think we would be in the same class.” A voice behind me said. Once again, I was stricken with a sense of deja vu as I turned around to find Lia sitting behind me. "It seems we are in the same class," I said, stating the obvious. Conversations weren't my strong suit. "Indeed she replied, and this is my roommate and dear friend, April." Lia gestured to the girl sitting next to her who was sporting a head of green and blue dyed hair alongside glasses.

She gave off a slightly nerdy vibe with her long bangs and hair color but seemed nice enough. Her dyed hair was the only eccentric thing about her though because like me and half the student body, she was human. Avalon Academy paired human students and otherworlders together as roommates in order to help grow relations between the two worlds. Many people from earth had never interacted with otherworlders so places like Avalon Academy were built to help lay the foundation for a peaceful merger between the worlds.

The class suddenly began to grow quiet as the teacher walked in. She looked rather young for a teacher and carried herself with a certain energy that was hard to describe. "Hello everyone, I'm your new teacher, Miss Smith. I'm so excited to be your homeroom teacher this year and I hope we all get along wonderfully. I also have a very important announcement. Joining us this year will be a very special student. Everyone please give a warm welcome to Angelica.” The young demon girl walked through the door and the class erupted into cheers.

She was apparently quite the celebrity. She performed a small bow as she said, “I am excited to learn and make friends with you all this year.” A number of students ran up to her and showered her with questions. She answered them dutifully before the teacher finally forced everyone back to their seats

Angelina began walking to her seat. And then stopped. Right in front of me. "Have we met?" She asked. I averted my gaze, staring hard at my desk like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Nope, definitely not," I managed to squeak out. Shit, she had seen my face last night. I prayed that the hair dye and glasses were enough to throw her off. "Oh, ok. Sorry for disturbing you Mr. . . ."

"Alexander." I said introducing myself. Thank God she's so dumb. Angelica decided to take the seat in front of me, much to the annoyance of my male classmates. I tried to ignore their heated glares while the teacher began her lesson. Modern Magic Theory. It was a topic I was intimately familiar with. Mostly through my experiences on the battlefield. "Mana is the basis of all magic. Mana exists in three primary states. The inert state, activated state, and unstable state. Inert mana exists within everyone. Different races can store and expend different amounts of mana. Inert mana is easily transferable and can be stored in things like machines, mana batteries, or magic stones. Because of this, inert mana is an important energy source."

She pulled a small clear stone out and poured mana into it causing the stone to glow. " the second state of mana is the activated state. Mana is transformed into the activated state while a person is performing a spell. Spells are ranked based on the length of their incantation. Starting from one line incantations and ending at seven. Spells can also be performed without an incantation with enough practice.”

“Every person has a certain magical disposition that largely determines what spells they can use. Dispositions can include things like Fire Mage, Holy priest, or bard. A disposition determines what type of magic you can use most easily and most efficiently. While it would certainly be possible for a fire mage to use water magic, it's incredibly difficult. Many dispositions are also exclusive to certain races. These are called bloodline dispositions. There are rare exceptions however like maste.. erm Mister Judas who can use Necromancy magic despite being a human. Regardless, activated magic is what allows us to use spells.”

“The final state of mana is the unstable state. Unstable mana Is the mana that is released after a spell is performed. Unstable mana moves incredibly fast and is very hard to study. Over time, it will clump together in the air lowering its speed and increasing its mass. Once the mana is slow enough and large enough, it is reabsorbed by nearby people and returned to an inert state. You can convert inert mana into unstable mana by focusing on your fingertips and releasing it. This process is called Mana Flushing and is similar to transferring mana to another object but instead, you just release it.” She held out her hand and the air seemed to distort around it as a bluish hue enveloped her fingertip.

The teacher's lesson ended and our class dispersed as we all began heading to our next class. Because Serenity was serving as my bodyguard, she had the exact same schedule as I did. Our next class was one of our required culture courses. There were several culture classes that studied and contrasted things like food and architecture from both worlds. The culture class me and Serenity had though was called prospective entertainment and focused on the history surrounding movies and Tv shows from earth as well as plays and dramas from fantasia. The instructor was an older man with several bronze patches of scales dotting his skin and a reptilian tail hanging lazily behind him.

He reminded me slightly of the Innkeeper who had helped us out when I had the run in with the assassins. They were likely of the same race but I didn’t want to generalize. It was possible there were many kinds of demi-humans with patches of scales and tails. “Hello class, I’m professor Ilford and I’ll be teaching you about the culture variations between entertainment in Fantasia and Earth as well as Contemporary Entertainment. Joining me as my assistant is Ms. Beckham” I suddenly shivered as I noticed a woman I was rather familiar with standing in the corner of the room. Lauren.

Her eyes locked onto mine and I nearly broke out into a cold sweat as she smiled slyly. “Hello class, my name is Lauren Beckham and I’ll be your TA. I’m majoring in stage production and acting at a local college so I hope I can help you guys get excited about class.” Class continued as normal despite my trepidation and Lauren for the most part didn’t seem to interact with me much. Aside from her deathly cold glare that was. After class ended, I hurried out, wondering how difficult it would be to have my schedule changed.

After school had ended, the two of us decided to take a walk through the school's courtyard. The sky had grown overcast during class and now, the harsh sun was hiding behind a gray veneer providing us with a break from the heat. Serenity suddenly turned her head up towards the sky as she tugged on my shoulder. "Alexander. Rain." Her words were followed by a sudden downpour as an oppressive and powerful torrent began to fall from the sky. I suddenly realized that both of us needed to get out of the rain for it threatened to expose our identities. Serenity, because the outline of her bra might be visible if her shirt were to get wet and I, because my hair dye might wash out in the rain.

As it started pouring down harder, I realized we wouldn't make it back to the dorm in time. "In there, a small house!" Serenity said, pointing to a small maintenance shed on the courtyard grounds. "Good call" I replied as the two of us turned and began running towards it. I reached the shed first and pulled the rusted metal doors open. It was fairly dark but I could still see the outline of gardening tools hanging and bags of fertilizer stacked against the walls. My glasses had fogged up so I took them off and wiped them on the hem of my shirt as I ran a hand through my hair.

Serenity must have found a light switch as the small room was suddenly illuminated by a single overhead bulb. Light flooded the room revealing a young demon girl in front of me. She was standing there topples as she held her shirt in her small petite hands and wrung the water from it. "Judas… No… Alexander?" She muttered as she looked up at me. "Angelica," I said, slightly stunned. Well shit.