"Peculiar…"

Aseem Kirtley gasps at the utterance of the word. Never in his fifteen years of life, or at least the six after he became aware of how things work in Jedwimburgh, did he ever think he'd have it applied to him.

"I'm… Peculiar?"

His struggle to accept the news increases. Around here, being labeled «Peculiar» makes you a major source of ridicule, further impacted by the fact that most boys to receive the label end up enrolled at Peppermint Academy of Magic and Maids, which is typically an all-girl school. While that may sound humiliating, it's not at all debasing and the ridicule it has garnered is massively based on ignorance as the townsfolk are unaware of what the term truly means.

It's a truth that Aseem will finally learn today.

"Peculiar…?"

"Ummm… how many times are you going to repeat that word?" snarls the auburn-haired girl standing in front of him. Her name is Julita Redburn and she just so happens to be the president of the Peppermint Student Council. How a Junior achieved that position is anybody's guess, but it was far from a major concern of his.

See, he's been focused on the shades she's wearing ever since he stepped foot inside, as they were the first thing to catch his attention. This was largely in part due to their eccentric design: purple and pink bumblebees on the corners of silver frames. Despite how out there they appear to be, they gave Julita a distinguished kind of air, making her seem even more important and influential than the title she holds, kinda similar to a starlet from Mistlebarb.

Aside from the shades, Aseem couldn't help but to examine her whole body. She was standing about a foot or two from the entrance, apparently waiting on him to arrive. Had she been any closer, they would have collided, with him walking head-first into her bosom. It pains him to be so short, but on the upside, her chest would've been a sort of comfort for such an embarrassing accident.

She's a pretty tall girl though (probably about five-foot-eleven if he had to hazard a guess) and is equipped with curves for eons. Apparently too voluptuous for her own uniform as she kept pulling on the red velour skirt riding up her backside and constantly re-buttoning her pink shirt from straining to contain her chest. Being in the presence of a young woman like her had only been the stuff of dreams so far. Well, shattered dreams now due to the circumstances bringing them together.

She's been yacking away, but Aseem wasn't hearing a thing. He knew she was saying words, but couldn't tell you what they were if his life depended on it. However, he could tell you how sweet and tender her mouth looks and how the silver gum she's chewing filled the air with multicolored sparks when she blew a big bubble and popped it with one of her long and bedazzled pink nails. Also, there was a lingering scent reminiscent of a freshly sliced tangerine.

Despite noticing all of those things about her, that word kept pounding him in the head. It had developed a kind of tribal rhythm and his heart was racing like a cheetah. All he could hear was Peculiar reverberating throughout his mind. Everything else seemed to exist in a vacuum of silence until suddenly Julita's voice broke through.

"Ummm… hellooooo!? EARTH TO KIRTLEY!"

The sound of her thundering voice hitting all at once made him nearly jump out of his skin. He was in such a daze that the awareness of all sound had become duller than being in the doldrums. It is, however, extremely difficult not to obsess over this new label. To him, it felt like a death sentence.

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"Ah! Yeah, heeeey—I'm sorry, Julita. I was just thinking. I get a bit trapped in my own head sometimes," he nervously giggles, although nothing about this situation is humorous to him. Not in the slightest.

"Yeaaah, I'm sure you do. You've been like this since you first stepped through the door though," Julita starts, grabbing his hand and lowering her shades so she can look him directly in his eyes. Those same reddish-orange eyes which invoked a sense of primacy in her attentiveness towards him.

As he stares back into hers— which are violet-colored and nothing short of mesmerizing— Aseem drools a bit, but catches himself before it goes too far. Julita notices this, but doesn't say anything; she instead continues with her current statement.

"Look, Kirtley, it's best you don't become too 'fascinated' with that term. I mean, not in the way you are now. You still have a lot to learn about what it means and why you're here."

Aseem's eyes widen, "And what else do I have to learn? Because it doesn't seem like much from my perspective. I'm in a school full of girls learning the art of «Maid-Magic»."

Julita scoffs then grabs him by the ear, pinching it as hard as she can with her long and sharp nails. The pain makes Aseem feel like he'd be better off with his ear in the mouth of a snapping turtle.

"Listen here, Kirtley! The time is over for moping around and complaining. You can't cry about this forever," she grabs him by the chin, playfully wagging it. "I know this is your first day on campus and all that, but it's really not as bad as you're making it out to be. Being «Peculiar» isn't a crime."

"Are you sure? Because it certainly seems that way," Aseem pauses and shudders as his mind recalls all of the death-like stares cast upon him along with the demoralizing, vitriolic insults volleyed his way once the ranks were published for the public to weigh in on.

The last time this happened to anybody was ten years ago and it just so happened to be a set of twin brothers: Macarius and Ecferus Grimmelverg. The town reacted the same as they are now, and nobody ever saw them again. Aseem still wonders what became of the duo. Brushing all of that off, he takes a deep breath then continues.

"Like, you're a girl, so you're not going to understand why it hurts me so bad as a young man. You'll never get why it boils my blood with anger and disembowels my soul with depression. I feel suffocated by the fear that I've failed before my life can really get off the ground."

"Well that's where you're wrong, Aseem," Julita begins, calling him by his forename for the first—and what most likely will be the last—time ever. "Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean being enrolled at this school hasn't affected me. People have always looked down on everyone here for both our magical rank and choice of profession. And I use the word 'choice' loosely, as this is a profession that was largely forced on us because of how backwards this town still is."

"What do you mean backwards? I thought this cleaning crap is what you women are supposed to do?"

Julita's face immediately displays an expression one can only describe as "stale". She finds it absolutely mind-numbing that this is what women are reduced to in Jedwimburgh. Even more so that someone so young could say something so chauvinistic and sexist. While Aseem's question has riled her up greatly, she manages to stifle the urge to wring him by his skinny-thick neck.

"You know what? Your views are real narrow, Kirtley, but I'm gonna let that slide. Give your head a shake, for you only know what you've been exposed to thus far, but you're in the real world now. Your eyes are about to bleed from the facts."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means exactly what it means, now come along. I still have to show you around the school."

"No. I'm not going," Aseem protests. He turns around to walk back to the entrance when he's suddenly pulled to the floor, landing hard on his back. "AHHHH! What the hell!?"

"I said. I have to. Show you. Around—THE SCHOOL!" Julita roars, dragging him by his ear down the hall. He kicks and screams the whole way, his shoes leaving black marks on the floor from resisting. Julita doesn't relent though, she just twists his ear and continues pulling him, switching into tour guide mode.

"Now… if you look to your right— or left from your perspective— you'll notice Lady Reinhart's classroom, which we attend for Alchemy. You'll probably spend…"

Her voice trails off as she continues down the hallway, still dragging Aseem by the ear.

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