”We need to hurry! I don’t want to get in trouble for being late again!” Reina squealed, skating through the halls. It was a testament to the fact she’d been here for 2 months that people no longer looked at her attire strangely. Of course, the 3rd and 4th years had seen her for even longer than that.

Now wasn’t the time! If she didn’t hurry, she would be late for Sir Neptune’s science class. “This is your fault, Felicie!”

“Me?!” Felicie asked, sprinting through the hallways as fast as she could. “It’s not me who suggested staying up all night studying and eventually falling asleep! And slow down!”

“You didn’t say no, either! And I would have woken up if your body wasn’t on top of me!” Reina griped.

“Stop complaining and hurry up!” Juliet zoomed into view. “If we’re late, we’re going to be stuck in detention until our hair turns gray!”

“I don’t want my hair to turn gray!” Reina squeaked and put more force behind her skates. Needless to say, they managed to reach class barely before the bell rang.

“Since the entire class is now here, let’s begin, shall we?” Sir Neptune asked, arching an eyebrow delicately at them. Reina giggled nervously and headed over to her table. She dropped her bag and slammed the desk with her head, groaning in embarrassment.

“As I’m sure the majority of you have noticed already, there are vials on your desk. We are going to use them to create-“

“Potions?!” Matthew asked. Sir Neptune blinked several times, looking quite taken back.

“Of course we’re not going to make potions, where did you get that silly idea from?” Sir Neptune asked.

Matthew flushed. “I thought-“

“You thought wrong. Potions, my god! None of you are anywhere close to being advanced enough for that! Potions, you slay me! I can’t wait to tell the other teachers about this!”

“H-hey!” Matthew protested. Sir Neptune got his chuckles under control and continued the lesson.

“No, today, we are going to be creating what I like to call a SparkFire. It’s a delightful little concoction that if brewed correctly, will send sparks flying out! I just love it!” He did a little twirl.

Reina was a little. . .underwhelmed. She could tell most of the class was, their skeptical looks proof of that. Sparks? What could sparks do?

“My dear Reina!” Sir Neptune said when she asked the question out loud. “The better question is, what can’t sparks do? No, no, don’t answer that. Anyway, you want a real concrete reason to why we’re going this?”

“Yes?” The class leaned forward, expectantly waiting for their teacher’s next excuse.

“Because I’m the teacher and you’re the students, that’s why! Ha! Wonderful, wonderful. Here are the instructions, please do not blow things up. I will then have to write you a detention and I am out of detention slips. I do not want to go rummage through my drawer for one simply because a student screwed up, kapeesh?” Sir Neptune asked. The class grumbled and he smiled. “Maven lies! Now chop chop!”

Two months of dealing with this had made the entire class able to adapt very well to uncertain and unexpected things. This meant being forced to randomly switch partners.

“Hi, Brandon!” Reina waved. She remembered him being mean and grumpy a lot of times and she thought of him as an egotistical brat but that was outside of class. Surely he would behave better here?

Oh, who was she kidding, she’s screwed. Reina did her very best not to snap and punch Brandon when he messed around with her hair. This meant he had to touch Rabbit to do so and from his little squeaks of panic, he didn’t like that very much.

“Can you please stop touching with Rabbit?” Reina grit out.

“He likes it. You’re just being jealous. You know, maybe I show buy him off of you. How much do you want for him?” he asked flippantly.

Reina’s eyes widened in horror and she twisted away from him. Retrieving Rabbit from her head, she gently patted hik and whispered comforting words. “Don’t worry, you’re my precious friend. There’s no way I’m ever letting you go.” After he was reassured of his permanent place in Reina’s heart, she placed him back onto her head and got to work. Getting reference from Brandon’s prior partners, it seemed like he didn’t do any of the work. No matter, Reina could do this!

Reina snickered after reading the ingredients list. The first day they had science, Sir Neptune had them get loads of spices and salts and various other things. He ordered them to put them in the proper position, only to later change all their names into more ‘interesting’ ones. Vinegar was now Pip Sauce for no reason whatsoever.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Let’s see here, the first ingredient is Pusta,” Reina noted. Reaching over her desk, she got the bottle of Pusta and coated the inside of the vial with it. Grinning as her brain began pumping, Reina got more and more into it. She tossed various items in there, ranging from Tear Jerker (onion) to Live (Sodium). Reina had no idea how onion fit into it because she decided to give it the benefit of the doubt.

“Hey, kid,” Brandon spoke up for the first time since the Rabbit incident. Reina huffed at being called kid but turned to him anyway.

“Yes?” Even if she didn’t like him (which she will neither confirm nor deny), he was still her partner for the foreseeable future and partners had to work together.

“Why is a kid here at the Academy?” he asked.

“I’m not a kid, I’m 14. Didn't I tell you this all earlier?” Reina asked.

“Eh, I don’t really care about that. I care that I could have had somebody like her-“ he waved at the general direction of Monica, “-but nope! I got stuck with a flat girl like you!”

Reina frowned. “What?” she asked. Brandon rolled his eyes and cursed.

“Never mind, looks like you aren’t smart enough to understand.” He sat down and stayed sitting. Reina could swear he was pouting right now.

“Who pouts? What is he, a baby?” Reina asked Rabbit who sniffled his nose. That didn’t stop her from examining herself in a handheld mirror.

What was wrong with her? The difference between Reina and Monica? She’d overheard several boys and girls saying she’s big and has a voluptuous body, but she doesn’t understand. Monica’s not very tall and she’s not fat at all! And Reina’s too bored to giggle up the word, voluptuous.

Rabbit pawed at her head and she smiled. “You’re right, as long as I like my body, nothing else matters!” she exclaimed. Brandon must have overheard but didn’t say anything, opting to scoff instead.

Reina was nearly completed with the concoction (she couldn’t wait to see if it actually sent out sparks. Maybe she could use it for fireworks?) when she experienced something looming over her.

Turning slightly, Reina found herself staring at Brandon. Wow, he was tall. Way taller than her at least. He plucked the bottle out of her hand and stared into its murkiness.

“Well? Do you like it? I think I did a good job.” Reina said.

Brandon grunted and shook the vail hard. Reina quickly snatched it away from him, staring at him in abject horror. “Are you insane? This thing could have blown up!” she hissed.

“So?” he shrugged. “From what I understand, it’s meant to blow up,” Brandon said lazily.

“Shoot sparks, not blow up!” Reina corrected, rubbing a forming headache at her temples. “Look, don’t do anything to it until I-oh, where did the stopper go?”

Just her luck. The stopper was missing. Ducking underneath the table, Reina scoured the ground. “Hey, do you know where it is, Rabbit?” A twitch on her head and Reina understood he didn’t. “Okay, tell me when you find it, alright?” Two twitches this time.

Reina gagged at the smell of the floor. It was disgusting! She didn’t know what kind of adventures this floor went through but nobody thought to clean it up?

Pitiful, just pitiful.

“Oi, you done yet, kid?” Brandon asked. “It’s super boring up here. Why don’t you find the stopper so I can play with this thing?”

“It’s not even ready yet.” Reina reminded him.

“What? What were you wasting time for? Useless, I say! Useless!”

Reina rolled her eyes. Brandon was really picking on her nerves, which wasn’t a easy task. Brandon’s kicking underneath the table wasn’t helping her temper any bit.

Before things could get even more heated up, Reina spotted the small stopper lying on the ground. Before anybody could step on it, her arm darted out and she retrieved the stopper.

“There! I got it!” Reina emerged from underneath the desk to find Brandon tossing the vail up and down. At that moment, Reina’s nerves were stretched to their very limit.

“Brandon. What did you do?” Reina asked slowly.

“You were taking too long so I decided to spend some of the time playing around. Honestly, what did you do underneath there? Look at my feet? Are you obsessed with my feet? Creep.”

Reina had had enough. Her hands clenched into fists and she growled out, “You have 3 seconds to place it back before I punch you in the face.”

Brandon smirked. “Try it.”

“3.” Reina began the countdown. Brandon most likely wouldn’t let go and that would allow her to punch him. She may get in trouble for this but she wanted this. Why would she stare at his feet? That’s a ridiculous accusation and she didn’t like the sound of that!

“2.” Reina said. Brandon yawned and covered his mouth. Dang it, when he did that, she felt sleepy as well! Stupid narcolepsy!

“1. . .” Reina trailed off, seeing Brandon gently shake the vial. No way. What was he going to do? He noticed her frozen state and smiled.

“I guess this little thing is really dangerous, huh? Who knew. I think I’ll keep it around. Maybe use it for some of my pranks. You can make another one, right?”

Brandon sneered and pocketed the vial. He turned to walk away when his knee collided with the desk.

“Ah!” He clutched his leg and bounced up and down. The vial slipped out of his pocket and Reina moved. Faster than she dared to hope.

One second, she was standing a yard away, expecting a large explosion. The next, she was right next to the idiot and grasping the vail tightly in her grasp.

Reina hoped nobody had noticed her sudden burst of speed. It seemed nobody had-everybody was too busy working on their projects together like good partners-but the person Reina wished hadn’t seen it the most was the one who saw it.

Did the fates have a grudge against her or something? Why did those things happen to her? Then again, it made sense. She was not even a foot away from him, he would at least feel the sudden increase in wind power. If he wasn't a total idiot (and Reina knew he wasn’t) he could tell something was up.

And something was up. Just something Reina didn’t want Brandon to know.

“What the hell?” Brandon asked. He pulled himself up and pointed a shaky appendage at Reina. “You just moved from over there to here in less than a second.”

“All thanks to you, genius,” Reina growled.

Brandon didn’t even notice the insult, he was too caught up in his mind. Reina didn’t like where this was going. “You’re not an Air Artist, you’re Fire, you said so yourself.” He stared at her. “What are you?”

Reina lashed out and struck him in the eyes. He staggered backward, bemoaning his temporary loss of sight as Reina began to hyperventilate.

Hearing his words, hearing the emotions behind them, made her so angry. This was bad, this was bad, he was getting so close to figuring it out. The fear and panic swirled in her stomach. She couldn’t handle it, she just-

Glitched.