Arthur and Tom arrived early to the class the next morning. The walk from their apartment was uneventful and they arrived in one of the many lecture building classrooms on the first floor. They entered and only five other students were present scattered throughout the rows.

A total of twenty-five desks were spread across the room in rows of five with platforms of different heights giving everyone a good view of the podium at the front of the room. On the left stood a large window showing the sky and surrounding campus.

Arthur headed to the front left seat closest to the window and took a seat with Tom taking the desk behind him.

Arthur sorted through the items he’d found in his new book bag, taking out a notebook and paper while Tom stared out the window seeming lost in thought.

“I told you thirty minutes was too early,” Tom whispered to Arthur from behind.

“It’s the first day of class. Did you want to be late?”

“I guess this seat is pretty nice. I like how many windows they have in these rooms. Certainly nicer than the last school we went to.”

“What do you mean last school? We took those courses online at a library.”

“And it was an ugly library.”

The professor arrived through the doors in a hurry and began rapidly emptying out the papers in his bag into neat piles.

The room was still less than a quarter full but he introduced himself nonetheless. “Hello everyone. My name is Marcus and I’ll be your home room instructor. We’ll repeat this all again in more detail once class officially starts but I wanted to give a reward to all the early birds here.”

“Every first year student is required to complete a special task before they can proceed to second year. You’ll have from now until the end of the school year to complete it and each task is unique.”

“All you need to do is take a slip of paper from this cup to determine what task you'll have to complete.”

“You may be wondering, how is this a reward? Well, the reward is you have a better chance of dodging a special challenge included with the others. Probability wise, your best chance of getting a normal challenge is drawing a slip of paper as soon as possible.”

“None of these challenges are especially bad even the special one but they’re meant to challenge you. Additionally, any consenting students are allowed to exchange challenges as long as they confirm the switch with me.”

“Now, go ahead and come up here to draw. Order yourselves based on arrival to class this morning”

Each of the 7 students moved to the front to draw a folded paper slip. Arthur and Tom stood at the back.

Each student walked back to their seat after grabbing the slips, and Arthur had opened his to read as he walked. Listed in large bold letters, the sheet said ‘take a photo of a little red brocket deer'.

Back at his desk, Arthur had no idea what a brocket deer was, much less where we would find and photograph one.

Tom’s arrival was marked with a whisper to Arthur as he sat down at his desk, “Mine says I have to grow some weird moss. What did you get?”

“I have to take a photo of a deer,” Arthur replied.

“Huh. Guess you’ll be roaming through the wooded part of campus then.”

While they chatted, more students began entering the room. Marcus told each to grab a slip of paper and be seated.

Arthur saw the girl from yesterday with the floating suitcase platform arrive and sit near the middle of the room along with a few other familiar faces from people moving in the previous day.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Once each seat was filled, Marcus reintroduced himself to the class saying, “Welcome to your first day of class at Silverleaf. I’m so glad you’ve joined us and look forward to being your instructor. Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or anything you need."

"This first class will serve as your home room and mathematics course. While math may not sound the most exciting, our goal is to train you in your unique skills and abilities in addition to prepare you for a world of business, science and professionalism."

"For that reason, we'll be covering everything you need to fit into that world. Which includes algebra."

Arthur could have sworn he heard Tom groan behind him, but none of the other students looked in their direction so it must have been his imagination.

Marcus continued saying, "Before we get to the math however, we need to cover some ground rules for the campus and other introductory information. You'll be having a welcome ceremony from the headmistress later in the week, but for now focus on learning your way around campus and meeting other students."

"These will be the people you spend the next four years of your lives around. It helps to spend those years as friends so don't be strangers."

"As for the campus itself, Silverleaf has been one of the leading centers of the occult in recent decades. This is mainly due to our diverse populations of plant and animal life from around the world from the deepest jungles to the darkest caves."

"You should have been warned already, but know that no students are allowed in restricted areas without professor supervision. Additionally, first year students are required to be back at the dorms by 10 pm each night."

"You'll have chances throughout the year to improve your clearance, and know that any infractions will lead to even more restrictions than you may think exist now."

"Additionally, you each were instructed to grab a slip of paper before sitting down. Please try to finish those assignments in a timely manner. Lots of students save it for the finals weeks of class which is a lot of unneeded stress. Also, please write down the name of the task you drew before you leave today so I can keep track of who will be doing what."

"I should note that a special task is included to photograph a rare species of brocket deer. We haven't had anyone photograph the deer in the last five years of this challenge existing, but don't worry if you drew the task. You can always trade to one of your more adventurous classmates. The special prize for photographing the little red brocket deer comes directly from the headmaster who's issued this task every year of her tenure."

Arthur felt his heart drop looking at his slip of paper.

"If multiple students want to try and photograph the deer, it's allowed for you to submit your photo, but only if the primary person who drew the slip fails to complete the task by the end of the semester. That goes for any of the tasks you've been given. Prizes will be given out to anyone who accomplishes a task beyond their own."

“Any questions?”

“No?”

Well then. Let’s get to the math!” Marcus exclaimed before drawing a line on the board behind him.

What proceeded was a detailed explanation of basic algebra principles and equations.

Arthur could tell Marcus was a great lecturer from how quickly he was moving through material and how much sense his explanation made.

They’d only had experience with online courses or barely qualified professors so the fluidity and confidence that Marcus spoke with was very refreshing.

Marcus kept his attention well, and the rest of the class seemed to agree by how their eyes followed his every move.

Arthur was surprised when Marcus suddenly announced that class was dismissed. How had it had been 50 minutes already?

"Don't forget to sign the sheet saying which slip of paper you drew," Marcus reminded the class.

Arthur grabbed his books, filled out the sheet at the front of the room, and moved to the door with Tom following closely behind.

Once outside the room, Tom spoke up saying, “What an insightful and informative lesson.”

Arthur turned his head to stare at Tom blankly.

“What?! Just because I have a history of tomfoolery, doesn’t mean I’m not making my impending inculcation an imperative.”

Arthur’s eyebrows rose half an inch.

“You question my immeasurable ingenuity as an idiosyncrasy?”

“First off,” Arthur responded “Never use the phrase ‘tomfoolery’ to describe yourself again. That’s got to be the worst pun I’ve heard all month.”

“Second, where did you learn that many words starting with the letter i?”

“Didn’t I tell you I felt behind on vocab before we took the placement exam?”

“Yeah. Why?” Arthur asked.

“I realized I could only realistically cover so much material, so I just settled for learning the complex vocab for half the alphabet. I went with the odd letters and one of them just so happened to be I,” Tom responded smugly.

“That’s an…interesting way to learn.”

“Intimidated, are you?”

Arthur turned away from Tom and picked up his walking pace. “Alright I’m done with this. Let’s get to our next class.

Tom grinned and asked, “What class is next again?”

“It’s called transformation so take a guess at what we’ll be learning about.”

“Social studies maybe?” Tom asked innocently.

Arthur’s poker face cracked with a smile as they headed toward the exercise fields in the middle of campus.