The moment I took a step inside the room, I could feel twelve sets of scrutinising eyes on me. The thirteenth pair was a kind one and it belonged to a nice looking elderly lady. She had her white hair neatly collected in a bun behind her head and she wore a long dark-grey one-piece dress. There was a clear difference between the students and the teacher. Her presence was indeed far “lighter” than the ones of the twelve youths. She was an “improper” archuman, like the townsfolk. For simplicity's sake, for the future I decided to consider this kind of people the same as regular humans.

The teacher welcomed me with a gentle smile.

“Hello my dear, my name is Mrs. Poole, and I’ll be your teacher for this semester. It’s a pleasure to have you with us”

Marnie was right, she was indeed a sweet old lady. After the brief welcome, she turned to the rest of the class. Unlike me, my classmates didn’t wear the school uniform. Each one of them was dressed in a different colour, ranging from bright yellow to deep blue. Some of the colour combinations were quite eccentric, with someone even wearing a striped blue and orange shirt.

“Guys, let’s give a warm welcome to our new friend, John. He is new in town, so please be considerate”

I tried to be friendly.

“Hello, I’m John. Pleasure to meet you”

Both the teacher esortation and my greetings fell on deaf ears. Although my entrance had for an instant attracted their attention, now nobody paid me any attention. Not particularly touched by this, I sat at the only free desk in the first line and observed my surroundings. The classroom was spacious, but bare. There were only a blackboard, notebooks and pens, desks and a bookcase full of books on the most disparate subjects,. Opposite to the entrance to the room, there was a wall with windows overlooking the park, from which abundant sunlight could enter.

“Ok guys, let’s start the lesson. Today, we’ll continue yesterday’s maths lesson. Erik, could you please be so kind to pass John the material?”

Mrs. Poole had turned towards the person on my far left. He was slouched on the desk, with his head covered by a hood. He briefly lifted his head, sent one look in Mrs. Poole’s direction, one towards mine and one towards the bookshelf, then went back to his previous position. Mrs. Poole smiled awkwardly and turned to me.

“Feel free to take everything you need, my dear. The book we need is the one on the third shelf on the left”

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I stood up and approached the bookcase. I took a notebook, a pen and looked for the needed book. Exactly where Mrs. Poole had said, I found the tome “Mathematics for secondary education”. The book was in perfect state, seemingly unused. Having taken everything I needed, I returned to my desk. Once I sat back down, I could see some of my classmates looking at me weirdly, while a big smile had appeared on Mrs. Poole face.

The teacher started to explain the content of the lesson. Due to it being the continuation of the one from the previous day, I had some problems following initially but still took notes. After all, there wasn’t much else to do. After a little bit of time, I started following with ease due to the maths explained not being particularly advanced. What made me curious was the fact that no one else except me was paying any attention to Mrs. Poole. A good half of the class was pretending to sleep, while the others were busy talking between themselves about this and that. One person for some reason simply continued to glare at me for the entirety of the lesson.

“Good work, guys. Let’s have a fifteen minute break and then we’ll continue”

After Mrs. Poole said those words, my classmates came to life and rushed out of the door, leaving me more and more confused.

“Excuse me Mrs. Poole, but what is these guys problem?” I asked, made curious by the strangeness of their behaviour.

Mrs. Poole turned to me and spoke, failing to hide her dejected expression.

“Oh dear, they are simply lively youths, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. I appreciate your concern, but everything is fine, don’t worry. Go and have some fun before we restart”

Clearly something out of the ordinary was indeed going on, but I left it at that. I exited the classroom and aimlessly went around the hallways for fifteen minutes, before coming back and sitting at my desk. Only after another half an hour had passed, the rest of the class reappeared and Mrs. Poole resumed the lesson.

About an hour later, a bell rang, signalling the end of the lecture.

“Thank you for your attention, see you tomorrow!” said Mrs. Poole, ignored by all.

Soon, only Mrs. Poole, me and two other persons were left inside the classroom. They were a boy and girl, both with fiery red hairs and orange eyes and the same malicious expression. If not for the clear hostility coming from the two of them, I would have paid more attention to their unusual eye colours.

Concern crossed Mrs. Poole's expression.

“Guys, please…”

“Shut up, old hag” the girl silenced her, making her tremble.

The boy approached me. He was slightly taller than me and was clearly trying to appear intimidating. He stopped only a step away from me.

“So, you are the newborn” he talked threateningly.

“So it seems?” I answered, slightly annoyed by his attitude.

His lips trembled slightly and he frowned, before returning to his malevolent smile. He put a hand on my shoulder, causing me to frown.

“Seems like I need to teach you how things work around here”

Suddenly, I perceived something moving and gathering around his hand. Soon after, I felt my skin sizzling. Mrs. Poole screamed, the girl laughed and my eyes widened in surprise: the boy’s hand was surrounded by flames. The bastard was trying to cook me alive.

My body moved by itself.