Eventually, October rolled around.
It got a little chillier, the sun set a bit earlier, and lessons were starting.
“Kind of crazy, isn’t it?” said Ivan while we were heading to the classroom of the mansion. It was a big room encompassing pretty much the whole of the left wing, barring an office for the professors.
“What do you mean?” We sat down next to each other on desks. We’d arrived earlier than most, so we were free to take up some of the seats that were next to the further back window.
“Well, we’re here!” he said excitedly, his general smirk forming into a big smile. “About to have the first lesson in Atlantis. I’m just a bit bummed that we’re starting with Hero History of all things.”
“We have to disagree there,” I told him with a yawn. The dorm beds were extremely comfortable, but I still couldn’t sleep properly. For the past few nights I had practically endless migraines during night time which, combined with the nightmares, made sleep an elusive concept.
“Can I ask you something?” I said, eyeing Ivan up and down.
“Sure. I can’t sleep with you though. I’m pretty sure Birgit will freeze the lopte off of both of us.” His ever present smirk returned, alongside a hand to my shoulder.
“You told me that your power was to run fast, but you did something completely different when you fought Birgit.” I immediately brought up my hands to my mouth when I saw him look down with a frown. He was completely silent for a bit. More students entered the room. Their chatter seemed deafening, but Ivan still didn’t say anything.
“I didn’t mean to offend you though! I-”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said dismissively. His smirk was back, and he also wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “It’s, uh, how do you say it, a bit odd. I can do multiple things!”
“And you didn’t use any of them?” My interest was more than peaked, and Ivan seemed to enjoy that.
He leaned in closer. He had a look in his eyes similar to Iraklis whenever our classmates would flock to him after he’d done something incredible while flying. He’d never go quite fully down, floating just a little bit and looking like he was king of the world.
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“It depends on what I absorb,” he said. He placed his hand on the wooden desk, and his hand was coated with it. Suddenly spikes grew from it. “Wood lets me shoot out these small spikes. Stone makes me strong. Metal makes me stronger. When I’m well fed, I can run fast.”
“It’s safe to say you have a bit of variety then,” I said sarcastically. I had to admit though that I was genuinely impressed by his power set.
“Don’t sell yourself short, my man,” said Ivan casually. “You’d have beaten that Kurac if Birgit didn’t step in to save him.”
I clenched my fists at the thought. I didn’t know why Birgit chose to step in when she did–we rarely talked about it, other than when it had come up in a nightmare we’d talked about–but it did stop a battle that wouldn’t have ended well. For anyone.
“Thanks,” I said, trying to be as genuine as I could about it.
As more and more people flooded in, Ivan went over to say hello to a few people that I really didn’t know. He did eventually come back, but not without calling Sadid and the Sofias over. I felt a surge of anger at the appearance of my so-called roommate. He had made good on his promise and–over the past two weeks we’d been in Atlantis–I had to sleep at Ivan’s for five days.
It didn’t help that I’d barely talked to Iraklis during that period and that travelling between mansions at night was prohibited due to Paragon’s attack, so I couldn’t go to Birgit’s either. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have anything against Ivan, but having to practically cuddle with him for five nights–not my ideal.
Not to mention all the sidestepping I had to do when I had nightmares to make sure he or his roommate didn’t find anything out.
“You could pass for a zombie, Alex,” said Sadid as he sat in front of me. Sofia rolled her eyes and sat next to him, while Sofie sat next to me, a pitying smile on her face.
“You could sleep in our room, if you’d like,” she said softly. “My sister is the one he’s with half the time, so the bed would be free.”
I let out a sigh at that. It was true enough. My stay at Atlantis was shaping up to be like a bad college romance movie, and I couldn’t say I was too happy about that. Maybe I could consider Sofie’s offer, but at least one of my problems still wouldn’t go away.
“I would have to end my affair with Ivan in order to do that, though,” I said with a smirk of my own.
“Like Birgit wouldn’t freeze your cojones off if you’d tried to do that.” Sofie giggled in response.
“I would say that you guys are being ridiculous, but-”
Suddenly a loud bang shot through the entire room, followed by a flash of golden-yellow light. Professor Mystic stood between the two sets of desks–three rows in the back side, where we were, two rows in the front. Pens and notebooks appeared in front of all of us as well, each with our personal numbers on there–a demoralising one-zero-eighty-six stared back at me.
“This is not the first time we met,” he said, looking around the room. The red glow slowly disappeared from his suit, leaving it with its regular navy blue and golden colours. “I simply despise grandstanding, so we’ll get right to it.
“I suggest you take notes. Because we’re going back to the beginning. It’s April of nineteen thirty eight and, from ordinary men, rises the first hero.”