I had an opportunity to sit next to Bran, and behind our table sat Edna and Daphne. The four of us were at the center, and before class started, we settled in our seats and pulled out our books.

"…I really think the Bexleyford Buzzards are a shoo-in to win the Championship this year."

My head spun toward the direction of the conversation. A tall, muscular guy with flowing, curly auburn hair was chatting with a slender blonde kid with short hair. Both of them were dressed in lime green Venomaus cloaks.

"The Wiltonshire Bats and the Veelan Sparrowhawks, I think, will be the only teams giving them any sort of trouble," the muscular guy said. Then he glowered at me. "Aye, whatcha' lookin' at me for?"

My leg twitched. "Uh, nothing, I just overheard your conversation, and I just got excited that you were talking about Dragonstryke."

"You just always stare at strangers like that? Didn't you learn any manners in Amerzia?" He and his friend snickered.

"I just wanted to offer my opinion that—"

"I don't care about your opinion." He flapped his hand. "What does an Amerzian have to say about the Englaria Dragonstryke League?"

"I'm actually a close follower of the Englaria League. Some people in Amerzia follow it too. My favorite team is—"

"Still don't care." He and his friend burst out laughing.

"Oliver! Leave him alone!" A girl that was sitting next to him slapped him on the shoulder.

"Aye, he's a big boy! He can fend for himself. Just givin' 'em a rough time. Nothin' personal, right, Yankee?"

"Oliver!" The girl jumped out of her seat and held her hand out.

"Magdalene, darling, put your hand down. Whattya care so much?" Oliver leaned back in his chair.

"Because I don't want to date someone who hurls around ignorant remarks. Leave him alone. He hasn't bothered anyone! So what, he likes Dragonstryke? Take it as an opportunity to make a friend. At the very least, I think you should apologize."

"Absolutely not." Oliver's jaw dropped. "Have you gone mad?"

Magdalene gave him a death stare, which made her brown eyes look like fireballs. The whole class was silent. My heart galloped. Magdalene had short blonde hair and black mascara with red lipstick.

"S'alright, no need to worry about it. I can handle some ribbing. I get it." I gave an awkward smile and waved, hoping like hell it would de-escalate the situation. I felt more mature after going through therapy. Had I been my old self, I probably would have kept antagonizing him.

Professor Pemble strode into the classroom. Magdalene slid back into her chair, still glaring at Oliver. I thought maybe Pemble heard the conversation, but she stood before the class and flashed a wide smile.

"Good morning, class. Many of you are already aware the third year is challenging. You're moving on to casting better elemental magic and growing into your arcane abilities. Today I'd like to refresh our memories with a basic lesson to ease into the semester. I call it the guinea pig box. Let me know if you need any help, but please give it an honest effort before asking. All of you will be given a glass container with one of my pet guinea pigs inside. You'll just hold up your hand to the golden cube in front of it, maneuver the magic from your hand to the cube just right, and unlock the guinea pig! Now, this is a tricky arcane cube. It's not as easy as dispelling magic to activate a door. You see, not everyone has the luxury of getting a job where they use their main elemental ability. Sometimes we have to focus on our arcane magic to do things, and it's applicable to your career and your own personal life. Everyone needs to have a good grasp of arcane magic. Most of you will be able to figure out the puzzle, but this is a good refresher in case you haven't been using the ability or the summer. You may begin."

These metallic cubes floated to us from her table at the front to our shared desks.

Everyone worked amongst themselves. Daphne and Edna held their hand to the golden cube at their table and completed the puzzle in 5 minutes. Then they each had a fuzzy guinea pig crawling around their desk. It took Bran twenty minutes, but I didn't have such luck.

Sigh.

I couldn't help but laugh. By the 40-minute mark, I was still having a tough time unlocking the door for the little guinea pig. The brown and the white spotted critter stared at me with wide eyes, and it was breaking my heart. But each time, I held up my hand to the cube, it was a tricky puzzle. I couldn't see what I was doing, but I could feel my hand get pulled spiritually, and I kept hitting walls as I slowly navigated to the left and right to avoid them.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Observing the rest of the room, I noticed I wasn't the only one having trouble. Half of the bloody class struggled. My eyes landed on Magdalene before I realized I shouldn't stare in that direction. She was already aww'ing at her guinea pig. Oliver's face had gone red. He was ready to spike the cube across the room.

I silently rejoiced.

As the class period ended, Bran leaned over and whispered, "I think there's a path in the center. Don't try and go all the way through."

Giving it one last try, I moved my hand along the invisible wall inside the cube and finally went in a circular motion. Something pushed my hand back.

Kerplap!

The cute little guinea pig had been released, and it immediately came to me and sniffed my hand.

Everyone else sat silently next to their guinea pig, giving a few head scratches, but I let mine crawl on my hand and to my other hand, using my arms and shoulders as a bridge. It kept going back and forth. I was giggling to myself.

"Rollie, class is over," Bran said, pushing in his chair.

"Oh, sorry, I must have gotten carried away, that's all." I grinned back at the guinea pig, which leaned its head closer. "I'll see you later, Tulip."

"Who's Tulip?"

"Just the name of my guinea pig." I chuckled.

"You named your guinea pig?" Daphne asked.

"Yeah, I guess I just got a little carried away. We were having fun there." I shrugged.

The four of us gathered together and walked down the corridor, where a familiar-looking courtyard was to my left.

That's where Leon summoned the troll.

"Come along, Rollie," Daphne said as they had already walked ahead of me.

It was a short route to Arts and Architecture with Professor Rymina. He was in the room right next to Kamara. Edna and I sat next to each other while Bran and Daphne were to our left. We were right up front. On the other side of our row, four Glaciens took a seat.

"That's Layla Moors sitting at the end," Edna whispered.

Layla shared Daphne's athletic build and imposing stature, but her features held a different charm. She had wire-framed glasses perched low on her long nose. Her hair was a cascade of dark brown, tamed into a ponytail.

"What's the deal with her?" I said.

"She's the captain of the Glacien Dragonstryke team. The Glaciens are our heated rival in Dragonstryke, but for Daphne and Layla, the rival goes a little deeper than that."

"Speaking of Dragonstryke, what was up with that jerk-bag, Oliver?"

Edna rolled her eyes. "Oliver, the captain of the Venomaus Dragonstryke team. He thinks he's so good, but as much as it pains me to say it, he is that good. Like, so good that he gets scouted by other professional teams. Definitely the best player at Loxton."

"Great," I sighed.

"Do you play Dragonstryke, Rollie?"

"Uh, uh, I used to." I rubbed my shoulder quickly and fixed my eyes on the table. "I was okay. So uh, do you like this class? It seems kinda like a weird one."

"Oh yeah, even though Glaciens are our rival, I like their sponsor professor very much! Rymina is a great teacher. Why do you say it's weird?"

"Art and Architecture, a required course? Seems like it should be an elective?"

Edna shrugged. "Third year is a difficult year, and I've been told this one is an easier class to help students maintain some sanity. Plus, mages around here are obsessed with pretty-looking buildings of all styles. I mean, look at Loxton. It's a mashup of so many different flavors."

Edna had a point. Some hallways were like walking down the hall of a mansion, whereas others reminded me of a castle corridor, and another was all glass with black lines of support and brick arches.

The last few stragglers entered the classroom, and Professor Rymina rushed in. He stood on top of a stool in front of the class, shorter than everyone else.

"Hello, class. I hope your first day back has been treating you all rather well. As I'm sure most teachers today have been going over reviews, we will be doing the same for the whole week, as a matter of fact," Rymina had a gentle and calming voice. I felt my shoulders at ease for the first time.

"First, I'd like to have a little fun with our two over-excited academics. I'm guessing they've already memorized the syllabus." He chuckled and pointed at Daphne and Layla. "I'll say the number and one of you will say the subject in order of what's planned for the year. Ready? Number one."

"Greco-Roman!" both of them yelled at the exact same moment.

"Number two."

"Gothic!" they said.

"Number three."

"Medieval!"

This went on and on and on and on. I couldn't believe it.

"And lastly, twenty-one!"

"Ancients!" only Layla Moors said it.

Daphne looked like a short-circuited robot.

"So… the win goes to Layla, but don't worry Daphne, that was extraordinary and impressive," Rymina beamed. "Both of you should be proud, albeit it's unnecessary to remember the syllabus since I don't ask, yet here you two are. So much attention to something so trivial is respectable. But perhaps the two of you should spend more time outside or hanging out with friends," Professor Rymina teased.

The corner of Daphne's mouth twitched.

"Don't worry, Daphne, there will be other chances for academic and sporting competitions over the school year." Rymina tapped our desk with a long cane that rested against his stool.

"Please remember that I know! Yes, I know. I know all about my class' reputation being an easier one!" Rymina waved, trying to capture everyone's attention. "But that doesn't mean it's any less important. If you have not already given serious thought to your careers, Arts and Architecture is highly valuable in Lementum. This is the time in your life to find what you enjoy and dig away at the curiosity. I hope some of you find it fascinating, but others may find it mundane, but please have fun with it! So today, I hope you brought your books because I want you all to flip through them and maybe make note of some styles that interest you or that intrigue you the most. We're going to write out a top ten! And we'll share our interests either this class or next."

Edna and I flipped through our book. Time flew by as I went through the pages and made notes of any designs I thought were cool. It was funny because I found most of them beautiful to look at. It reminded me of looking through one of my textbooks from my home world. Although near the back of the book is where I saw the chapter for Ancients, and the symbol itself had me intrigued. It was an oval in the center with three wispy lines in a V-shape with one on top. I assumed it meant a symbol for ancient in the rune language, but I still made a mental note of it and ended up putting it as my #1 design.