Sleep doesn't come. I sit there half conscious as that strange feeling overcomes me. Vague memories filter into my mind but they don't come in any particular order. Just vague impressions of events impress themselves on my mind.

I get impressions of books upon books. A grand lecture hall with a strange teacher. A cute girl with a bad personality. And many more impressions.

Slipping the medallion out of my sleepwear I watch as it slowly morphs. On the currency side it slowly squashes down one embossed arrow and impresses it in another location. My heart leaps as a large chunk of points seem to melt away. Hope you picked well, other me.

Flipping over the medallion I spot the same process happening on the other side. One region splits and forms multiple sections. Little dips and humps indicating lessons and free periods. The knowledge of what it all means feels like it's on the tip of my tongue but not in an unpleasant way. Slowly I start to get used to the sensation. It's as if the promise of understanding sits just beyond reach. All I have to do is wait.

But, try as I might, sleep doesn't come. The tremble of excitement, the unpleasant hammer of fear, the bubble of joy. All of it mixes into a slurry of amorphous emotion. But most of all the distorted sense of self sits in my centre worming its way into my gut.

She's there. That other me, learning, seeing, choosing. Curiosity, excitement, frustration, hope, all seen through that different lens. What should I feel about that? My hulking male body is just a vehicle I use to get around. I've never cared about it. Always scraggy and unkempt. Why should I care about it.

But that other me feels a different set of eyes on it. I feel the guilt of misappropriating someone else's form. Yet I also feel a strange shift in how I fit into the world, that world. Different from its alien surroundings and people. It's how other people treat me that sends a tingle of unfamiliar feelings through me.

Do I have to feel guilty? If the body is on loan anyway what difference does it make who wears it? Although it seems I'm the one who's more concerned with this at the moment. My other half seems too distracted to fully pay attention to their own body.

Of course this line of thought doesn't give me much solace. If I imagine a random dude wearing a double of Maiha's body it sends goosebumps down my arms. Sigh.

I twist and turn on my bed trying to find that blissful oblivion. I try to forget the strange comfort I get when people like the antlered lady treats me like an equal. Rather than feeling that invisible barrier I do with most people. Ah! Shut up brain already...

------

The sun has risen. I think I got some sleep, but I can't be quite so certain of that. Bleary eyes poke out from under the duvet. Ugh, I hate you sun... go away.

Cursing the sun for existing I drag my sorry ass out of bed. Throw some clothes on, that'll do. Gather my stuff for lectures. And I'm off to breakfast. Even if my stomach roils at the thought of carrying around another helping of that sludge. Another day of mundane events begins.

After passing through the gauntlet of the cafeteria cue I make my way into the dining hall. My eyes quickly latch onto a familiar group causing a ruckus. Not only Maiha but the rest of the crew have gathered.

"Like I said! It's not like she disagreed to it, right?" A rather laid back guy slouches in his chair as he defends himself. Lazily raising his arms in surrender he weaves another loose justification. "You know I'd never lay a hand on a girl who was unwilling."

This was another of my friends. Or perhaps you could unkindly call him one of those bad friends you sometime make. He's lanky and tall, not really what I'd call handsome but for some reason he always knows how to attract a girls attention. He ends up dancing from one relationship to another almost every week. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.

It seems though, that honest girls feel like they have a chance to reform him. Even when he's always brutally honest himself. I feel like he's skewing my idea of what a relationship should look like. Yet I can't seem to make myself dislike the guy. So I just sigh whenever he gets up to his usual antics.

"That's not the point!" Maiha responds. A rare top form Maiha has one ear out of her headphones. I can hear the music bopping it's beat in her ear even as she argues. "It's the fact you play around so much! It's a different girl every week. Don't you feel sorry for the trail of girls who's hearts your breaking?"

"Hey, hey! I always tell them I'm a free spirit. You can't tie this fella down with the strings of commitment." He gestures likes hes a puppet on a string. Before snipping his fingers and cutting his own strings. He dangles for a moment before flopping back in his seat dramatically.

Did I mention he does amateur dramatics. He loves to exaggerate and perform as if he were always on stage. I honestly don't know where he stores all the energy in that lanky body of his.

I remember one time when we were out in the shopping district as a group. He faked a dramatic swoon. A nearby old lady became so concerned that she fussed over him. I got to see the rare sight of a highly embarrassed Matt as he tried to explain to the little old lady he was just being dramatic. Didn't stop her from giving him a sweetie and telling him to look after himself.

"Ah, and so the amateur dramatics begins. Save that for the stage Matt." I comment as I sit.

"Tell him Mel! All those girls just want to tame him, they're still pining after him when he leaves them!" Maiha implores me for my input.

I raise my own hands in defence. "Hey, I'm like the farthest thing from romance. Don't bring me into this."

Lucy, a rather quiet girl, in the seat next to me nods her head. Oof, Lucy that's not one your meant to agree with. I mean, ouch, that's mainly a self burn, but...

She adjusts the glasses that slip down her nose as she nods. Before turning the page on the novel she's reading while eating her breakfast. Soggy cereal sits in her bowl almost untouched. I spot the steamy text written on the page before I quickly decide to focus on my own pile of slop I call breakfast. Stop reading vampire romance at the breakfast table Lucy!

Lucy may as well be just as bad as Matt. She would be quite antisocial if she hadn't been dragged into our little circle. She tends to sequester herself into a corner to read whenever we meet up. And whenever she does pitch in it tends to be with the most inopportune timing. I mean come on Lucy, listen before you respond!

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But she's still a good friend of ours. The occasional witty remark can be quite funny. Especially when it's not directed at me. And she does care for us even when she doesn't usually show it.

She has the bookworm vibe down pat. Her auburn hair seems to obscure her face regularly. She's always tucking it back behind her ear. Otherwise she's quite expressionless, hunched over a book giving her a small profile. I don't think she's actually that short, it's just the way she sits.

Just as I was sighing about my friend choice Lucy perks up. "Oh, that reminds me." What reminded you exactly?

She pulls out her phone and waves it at the bobbing Maiha. "New song Mai-Mai."

Her eyes light up and Maiha make grabby motions for the phone. "Uu! Gimmie gimmie. You got the game file too, by any chance?"

She composed another? One of the only things that seems to tear Lucy away from books is her hobby. She loves to write music. And of course that attracted our local music worshipper Maiha. Was that how she entered our friend group? I can't remember. Maiha has also convinced her to make custom levels for her rhythm games as well. She doesn't seem to mind, in fact I think she likes it a lot when people enjoy her music. She just doesn't outwardly show it.

I shake my head. Ignoring the usual banter, I distract myself with thoughts of last night. The memories are clearer now. Almost too clear. Every word I read every circle I saw are imprinted with unnatural clarity. Perhaps this is why we don't need to write notes in class? Still, it feels uncomfortable not doing it. I'll have a look and see what I can do about that when I return.

Pulling out a note book from my bag I start to sketch out one of the circles. It was the activation circle. It would be a vital part of my plans going forward. But it would need to be replicated on this side. I could only rely on my memory and skill to do that.

Remembering the detailed instructions that went with the diagrams I had to draw the circles in the correct order. Otherwise I may trigger strange effects if the circle had meaning on Earth. The chances were slim but it was a required part of the procedure. Perhaps I shouldn't be doing this now? But I never claimed to have the patience of a saint, I doubt anything will happen. So... first came the large circle... then we space out a small gathering circle here... right?

Immediately I came across a rather important problem. My drawing skills were abysmal. The outer circle was wobbly and sketchy. The proportions of the first inner circle were majorly off. And my straight line segments were comical in their winding paths. Ugh, wish I'd learned how to draw!

My attempt looked more like an ugly deformed smiley face rather than a mystical magical circle. Sighing I looked up to see Maiha's eyeing my creation. Music forgotten she quirks an eyebrow.

"What's that your up to?" She asks curious nodding at my sketch. Trust the artist to spot me fumbling at drawing.

"Ah, em. I'm trying to draw something I saw once." I fudge. Well it's all technically true.

"Is that like a diagram of the cell or something?"

Ah stuff it, lets go with the flow. Channelling my own inner Matt I spoke up with a stuffy nerd impression. "Actually, em it's a magic circle. I'm preparing to become a wizard." I lisp while pushing up my imaginary glasses.

"Ba, hahaha." Matt burst out laughing. "Too early! That only happens when you turn 30 my dude."

A quite voice pipes up from beside me. "...I'll buy you your wizards hat and robes..."

What ancient references are you dredging up! "OK OK." I raise my hands in defence. Trying to recover from the self inflicted damage. "I saw this pattern somewhere and being the geek I am I was playing around with the concept."

"Oh, like how?" Maiha ask, trying to cover her mirth from the earlier ribbing.

"Like, what math may apply to magic circles. Is it pure geometry or is there something even more abstract underlying it. So I was trying to draw this circle while I thought about what math would apply." Not really the reason I was doing it but it was a subject I was thinking about.

"Naive!" Matt suddenly bursts out. "Magic needs to be beyond normal mortal understanding. Or it ain't magic!"

"OK, like hypothetically. If math applies to magic what form would it take." I push, trying to hide my annoyance. Kinda a big deal for me at the moment. Even if I can't say that out loud.

Matt still shakes his head unyielding. "Nope. Not happening. You can't tell me if magic were real we could just science it up. That ruins the whole romance of it."

"Says the computer scientist. Come on, I thought you'd be on my side. We've got the humanities side with these two." I gesture to Maiha and Lucy. "Why couldn't you take my side with this?"

"Hey I quite like the idea of hard magic systems!" Maiha pipes up. Apparently taking my side in this issue. Oops, sorry, friendly fire.

"But." He raises a finger. "But. And hear me out now. If you can calculate it understand it and predict it. Is it magic any longer? That's just a new branch of science. It's why I hate hard magic systems. Much prefer the unexpected delight of being shown unusual applications of magic in a story. Why ruin it with a rigid system?"

I sigh, a heavy feeling settles in my gut. He's not doing this on purpose. "But which would you prefer if your life really did depend on it? A system that's predictable, or one that could fail because you lacked the imagination?"

"What's this we're arguing about?" Comes a deep voice from behind.

I turn to catch a glimpse of his large frame overshadowing me. James, or Jay as he likes to be called, is a big fella but soft spoken. Dark skinned and generally handsome he's the gentle giant of the group. He usually stays quiet during most of our banter sessions. Either to give one quick accurate jibe or just show a bemused expression.

He's a fellow science student and loves to geek out just as much as the rest of us. He always seems to add this mellow vibe to the atmosphere. And he's just the person I've been waiting for.

"Oh, hey Jay. I wanted to ask you a quick question."

"Oi oi! You're not shifting topic that easily Mel!" Matt laughs as he figures I wanted to dodge the argument.

"Shush you. So Jay, you got any recommendations for some easy chemistry books?"

"Oh? For what sort of thing? Like A-Level, or a pop science type of book."

"Hmm, more like text book than the pop stuff. Maybe a reference book."

I spend the remaining time for breakfast batting banter back and forth while picking Jay's brains on books. If I can get a good book on the subject I'm hoping it'll give me the leg up I need for alchemy.

------

It was after lectures had ended and I was currently on the hunt for supplies. I'd made a small list of things I wanted to buy for magic practice. Things like protractors and compasses, the chemistry book I wanted, etc.

Perusing the shelves at the local stationary store I picked up a couple more things as I spotted them. A set of pins and a bundle of string. If the circles need to be larger I'll need to use the locus method to draw them. A measuring tape would be nice as well.

My eye caught the fountain pen display. If the circles needed special inks I could use a refillable fountain pen and use a modified ink. Grabbing the cheapest I could find and a little pot of ink I added them to my basket. I'll need to reread the Universal Geometries book again to see what substances may be required. Hopefully Earth was a world where only the form was necessary. Not a speciality resource for conducting magic. But I wasn't betting on it.

Perhaps I was being a little hasty. I could go and do some experiments and then come back if I needed this stuff. But I didn't want to think about the next step in my plan. Hence the procrastination while I spent money from my dwindling funds.

Where to do my magic experiments. The problem wasn't that I couldn't think of a place. The problem was I had a perfect place to do it. I just don't want to go there...

I entered the book shop pondering my choices and searched for the books Jay recommended. But before I reach the promise land of hard facts and science I spot the humanities section. Poetry for D*mmies. Should I?

...

What's iambic pentameter? Why is this more obtuse than a graduate math text book!