Dear Diary,

Exactly how fucking fucked up does my life have to be for me to forget my own goddamned birthday?

We're not talking 'oh, I didn't remember first thing in the morning that it was my birthday', either. My birthday wrote itself into history like two fuckin' weeks ago and I totally missed it. Not only that, it took Saffron damn near giving me a heart attack to remind me.

Fuck.

Anyhow, today started out pretty good for one where I hadn't gotten much sleep. Saffron knocked to get me up, I picked my chair up and quietly set it so I could stand on it while I opened the door, and then watched her desperately try not to lose her shit when the door opened and left her staring at my sexy bits. When she got herself under some semblance of control she looked up at me, face pink and one eyebrow raised. "I'd ask if you do this on purpose, but the chair makes it kinda obvious."

It took me a moment to think up a reply, so I just grinned down at her, trying to ignore how my boobs framed her face from this angle, hoping it distracted her from my momentary pause. "I'm just curious, I guess. I figure one of these days you'll either get somebody else to wake me up or leap into my room and ravish me. Can't wait to see which."

She just rolled her eyes and walked off, flipping me off over her shoulder.

I hopped down, got dressed, and put my chair back in place before following her to breakfast. Honestly I really hoped she didn't start having somebody else wake me up. She's the early bird among the four of us, and she woke me up in time to get to breakfast just as the Dining Hall finished laying it out. If somebody else had to wake me, that would leave me late to breakfast, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day, or so my Health teachers told me back at Eastside. The 'ravish me' option... I mean, I'm not super into girls, especially ones that are smaller and girlier than me, but on the flip side girls are usually prettier and there's no chance of getting pregnant. Given that the consequences I could envision included one I really didn't want and one that I was kinda ambivalent toward, the smart thing to do would be to stop teasing her every morning.

I mean, I'm not going to. I've never said nor implied I was smart, after all.

I managed to get to the Dining Hall while Cadets were still filing in, and caught up with Saffron before we got to our table. "Hey Saff?" I said, putting one hand on her shoulder to stop her.

She half turned, her expression guarded. "Yeah?"

"Sorry if I upset you this morning. I had a really rough night. Nightmare woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep."

She frowned, "That bad? Do you want to talk about it?"

I thought about it; if I had to tell someone about the whole 'died in another world and wound up here', Saffron wasn't a bad choice. If she told me she'd keep it secret, she would. This wasn't the time or the place, though. "Not right now." After a brief pause, I plastered a crooked grin on my face and said, "Messing with you in the morning is the bright spot of my day sometimes."

She took me completely off guard when she turned and pulled me into a hug, the side of her head pressing against my tits through my uniform. As she let me go, she said, "I'm here if you need to talk." After a pause not unlike my own she grinned and said, "It's not like it's a bad first thing to see in the morning," before turning and heading to our table. If she'd blushed when she said that, I didn't get to see it, because by the time I hit the table she'd focused completely on the food.

I tore into breakfast like it owed me money, remembering one of my Eastside ROTC DIs favorite phrase when we'd go on weekend trips: 'Food can replace sleep'. He'd say that as if a granola bar choked down while marching made up for the fact that he'd woken us at three fucking AM. On the other hand, two trays of sriracha eggs, a tray of sausages, a tray of jalapeno scrapple, and uncounted loaves of bread might just give me the get up and go to get through the day.

When we got to Basic Heroics, Marshall duBois was nowhere in evidence, but Sister Cheryl and Doc stood there chatting as we arrived. Doc turned to Saffron and asked, "So, do you still want to be Cadet Diaz' practice partner?"

She looked at me, saying nothing until I got a little nervous, then cracked a smile and said, "Sure."

When Doc had us settled in the corner of the room with my Geiger counter on a desk next to us and my double trouble bubble in place, Saffron whispered, "just fuckin' with you a little."

I couldn't help it, I cracked up. I'd focused so much on Saffron's obvious moral code and smarts that I'd completely forgotten she might have a sense of humor.

"Hey, before we get started, do you know how many times you had to cast Status before you got it as a Skill?"

She frowned, more focusing than upset, for a few seconds until she said, "I'm not sure exactly how many, because as we neared lunch and dinner, I get a little wonky from lack of Mana by the end of a session."

"Ballpark it?"

She blinked, mouthing the word 'ballpark' for a moment before shrugging and saying, "At a guess I'd say around two hundred fifty times. Since I've gotten it as a skill it's become significantly easier. I'm guessing having a Spell as a Skill significantly decreases the Mana expenditure."

I nodded. "That makes sense. Still, I think I've done Status at least twice that much, and still no Skill."

She frowned, "I've watched you in class. You've gotten pretty good with that," she motioned to my eye, "Status variation you use, but I'm pretty sure I'm just as fast as you are, and not to put to fine a point on it, but everyone can tell when you're casting. I don't think you've put in more than half of my casts here in Basic Heroics."

Before I could form a reply, she said, "I get you probably practiced a lot in Remedial Mana Shaping, but that's only a half day. At best you've done," she paused a bit, mouth moving as she did math in her head, "around two hundred casts between both classes."

I shrugged, "Yeah, but I practice in my room a lot."

Her eyes got huge. "You do what?"

I hid a wince. "Are we not supposed to do that?"

She cocked her head sideways. "It's not a rule, but with so many things that can go wrong, it's not a popular hobby. Also, I get that the thick walls probably block most of it, but you're not that far from the Infirmary; the unbound Mana..."

I cut her off, pointing at the Mana counter. "Watch."

I cast Status, dismissed it, cast Assess Health on Saffron, dismissed it without looking, cast a quick Stabilize with my right hand, dispersing it by pushing it into my right thigh, ignored my thigh jumping around because I was a little pissed off, and cast an Inspect on Saffron.

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NAME

Saffron Aetos

RACE

Hybrid

HYBRID

Bag (12.5%) / Human (87.5%)

AGE

Young Adult

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH

2

AGILITY

3

ENDURANCE

2

REASON

3

MEMORY

4

PERSONALITY

2

AFFINITIES

Air (6.25%) / Earth (9.375%)

PATRON

Artemis

SKILLS

STATUS

1 (+)

MANA SHAPING

1

RACIAL SKILLS

None

I just stared, lowkey seething, at Saffron's annoying ‘one plus’ in Status while she stared at the counter. After a few moments, she looked down, then her expression firmed and she looked me in the eye. "I'm sorry, Tabitha. I get a little irrational where my... I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions."

I sighed, consciously letting go of my anger. "It's okay. I'm in Spec Ed Mana Shaping, after all, I can see where you'd be a little edgy around me."

She shook her head. "That's no excuse for ignoring the fact that as flashy as your casting is, you've got complete control of it from everything I can see." She actually slid out of her seat and went to one knee in front of me. "Please, forgive me."

I pulled her to her feet into a quick hug. "There's nothing to forgive. You didn't do anything wrong, and it's in the past."

That was a little bit of a lie, but any residual anger redirected itself when Lancaster muttered, "So, you two Bag engaged now?"

I looked over at him and shaped Mana with my right hand while staring him right in the eye. "Hey, Lancaster, I need someone to practice my Stabilize on."

"What, you don't want to zap your girlfriend? I thought Bag were into that shit."

I shook my head, "She's perfectly healthy, but you seem to be suffering from some brain damage, I thought I'd see if electroshock therapy might do you some good."

He shoved his chair backwards, taking half a step toward me while growling, "Fucking Bag trash. I'll teach you your place."

I dispersed my Stabilize into my own leg, then turned my best 'threatened innocent' face to Sister Cheryl, who looked like she intended to intervene already. "Sister Cheryl? Please tell Cadet Lancaster to stop making potentially legally actionable racist remarks? I feel threatened, and he's ruining the learning environment."

Lancaster just stood there gaping while Sister Cheryl descended on him, a vengeful nerf cloud of disappointment whispering from her as she guided him out into the hallway to 'have a discussion'.

I kept it low, but I couldn't help letting out a snickering chuckle as the door closed. Saffron just looked at me, a weird smile on her face.

"What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, really. Do you mind if I practice my Inspect on you now?"

I held a friendly smile on my face despite the screaming terror of discovery her words prompted. "Sure. Just give me a chance to explain if anything is really wonky?"

"I already said I would, Tabitha."

She focused on me, moving her hands through the passes of the Inspect Spell. The moment she finished, her expression lit up, and she giggled a moment before cutting it off. "I got it right on the first try!"

"Congrats!" I said, but she'd already dove into picking through my Status screen.

The first thing out of her mouth took me by surprise, "Why did you lie about your age?"

I frowned, "I didn't?"

"It says here you're a Young Adult. You told me you're a Juvenile."

I sat there, my mouth open, for long enough for her to reach out and push it closed. "Did you actually forget about your birthday?"

My face heated, and I looked away from the class before muttering. "Fuck. Yeah."

"So when was it?"

While waiting for my face to cool down I mumbled, "August first."

"August? What calendar are you talking about? I didn't know the English had their own calendar."

"Uh... about two weeks ago now?"

"Two weeks?! We definitely need to have a party for you." She hummed a little as she looked over my Status screen. "You're Human, Bag, Dan, and Vanir?" She looked at me curiously.

I shrugged. "I guess? I haven't talked about it a lot, but I really never knew much about my dad."

She grimaced. "Yeah, tell me about it." She turned back to my Status screen, moving her hand as she paged through it. My gut clenched, hoping she hadn't switched to the second Status screen. "This is really weird. You've got the Mana Shaping Skill. I mean, you don't just have it, which is really weird if you're a Juvenile, but you have it to Rank fucking six?" She hissed those last words, like she wanted to yell but didn't want to call attention to us.

"I dunno. It was just there the first time I managed to get Status right. What do you mean 'weird if I'm a Juvenile'?

"Juveniles can't get Skills. Okay, they can get Racial Skills, I guess, but those are more instincts than proper Skills."

I frowned, "Aren't Skills just Spells practiced until they're on a level of instinct?"

She got a thoughtful look on her face. "I never really thought about it that way, but given that Racial Skills exist, that makes sense. But other than Racials, Juveniles aren't supposed to have Skills at all, and if Young Adults get Skills, they've got that cap thing going on. You've actually got fucking Mana Shaping to rank six. Six! You ought to be teaching this class, not stuck in Remedial Mana Shaping."

I shook my head. "Like I said, I have no idea why I've got it, or how it got so high," I lied.

Saffron frowned and said, "Do you mind if I try this a bunch more?"

"You aren't going to tell Sister Cheryl?"

Saffron snorted, "At this point it might be something I'm doing wrong casting the Spell. Even if it isn't, I don't see any evidence of something I would have to report to the instructors. I mean, what am I going to tell them? 'Headmaster, Tabitha's Status is weird!' At best I'd get duBois telling me 'like anything about her isn't?' Not exactly the kind of reputation I want to foster."

I let out a breath I'd been holding without realizing. "Thanks."

"De nada."

"I'm okay with you practicing Inspect so long as you don't mind me doing the same."

She shrugged. "The counter says your weird eye-Inspect is safe, and I haven't been flash fried with loose Mana, so let's do this thing." She paused, then said, "If you could, keep half an eye on the counter, just in case something one of us does makes it unsafe in here?" She tapped the nearest surface of the bubble to indicate what she meant.

We spent the rest of the morning and all afternoon practicing, but my Status stayed static, no new Skills, no other changes. Oddly, despite Saffron saying Inspect saw me as Young Adult, when I Shaped Status it showed my Age as Juvenile. Or Juuvielle, which... was the same-ish, right?

Saffron wound up getting Inspect and Assess Health to Skill rank one, and got a plus on her Mana Shaping. Because she's a genius and I'm an idiot. But I knew that.