“Aeryn! Celeste! Stop it, both of you! Aeryn is in a correction program because he, er she? They?” Professor John looked at me to confirm. “Because they have shown enough talent to not only get into the school with flying colors, but also become a great asset to our community.”
I walked over to Celeste, and leaned over her, since I was a little taller, roughly five foot seven, whereas she was five foot four. (I’m making the average height for women in my world five foot five. For men, the average height is five foot nine)
“Listen babe, ya’ think that I want to be in a class full of sheltered rich pricks like you? I’m only here until I find a way to escape and disappear, you got that?” I sneered.
“And that brings me to my next topic. Aeryn, can you come to the front please? Thank you.” Professor John was addressing the entire class now. “As you know, this is not only your PMU class, but your homeroom. Meaning that you’re all my gremlins for your entire school life. Now, since I’ll be taking care of you children for a while, you’ll need to help me with this one.” Professor John clasped a big hand over my shoulder.
“He talks as if you’re his kid.” Min-jun rolled his light green eyes.
Go away. Min-jun growled, but complied.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, a feeling of dread forming in my chest.
“Aeryn, you are going to be our special project for the year! Our class’s job is to watch over you and make sure you don’t escape while teaching you our morals!” Professor John proudly exclaimed.
“Over my dead body!” I shouted before anyone could complain. “One, I hate everyone here. Two, I hate your morals. Three, no one here, aside from those in combat classes, would be able to keep up with me. Four, I may just try to kill someone. Five, fuck you!”
The class started to complain and protest, but Professor John slammed his hand on his desk to silence us.
“I know how you must feel, but believe me when I say that this is in the best interest of the students. Of all my students.” Professor John wagged a finger at me.
“I am not your student. I’m your burden,” I grumbled.
“Why should we care if some commoner runs off? It’s not like they’ll become anything.” Ivan Semenov looked at me with disgust clear as day in his dark purple eyes.
Professor John took off his rectangle glasses and took a deep breath. “Listen here, Aeryn is far more advanced in using magic in practical ways and not just in combat than anyone here. This is a small class, so I expect all fifteen, sixteen counting Aeryn, to study well.”
“What?! How is that possible?” The brunette asked in a dark tone.
“It’s possible if you’ve been in an environment that forces you to adapt or die,” I scoffed. “You all have been sheltered, living off of daddy’s money. I had none of that. No dad or money to go my way.”
“How long have you been on the streets for?” The brunette asked.
“Um…nearly ten years now,” I replied, my memory still hazy.
“Wow, that’s a long time. You’re a first year like us, so you’re eighteen, right?” A green haired female asked.
“Actually, I’m seventeen…and a half I think.”
A brunette male started asking me questions about my life as well. Soon enough, I was explaining the things they didn’t know about in the real world.
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John watched the interactions between the class and his new student. Aeryn could hold their own, that much was clear, so he wouldn’t worry too much about any bullying going on. At least, not in his class. Was he really that oblivious, or did the students hide the bullying that well? Well, they hid it well around him, anyway. He was sure that Margaret Howard and Cerius Trebax knew something and perhaps they were the ones who helped hide the evidence. But starting this year, John William promised to protect his small class. But all the same, he knew it wouldn’t be that easy for his class to get along with Aeryn. He had a feeling that, while there might be a few scuffles, that Aeryn will find his place here. However, that would only be possible if Margaret and Cerius didn’t interfere with his students.
The girls; Celeste Bellulas, Vivian Sallow, Melonie Tuffin, Halima Neraldi, Cheyenne Blackrock, Delilah Frivous, River Monolus, Wisteria Evermore. These girls, though tried to act like the other bossy brats, have softer qualities.
The boys; Alexander Caedis, Cassian Swift, Christopher Bellulas, Ivan Semenov, Forrest Monolus, Sage Canek, Jacob Concord. And Aeryn Luna, though is androgynous, will be placed with the boys to even the odds.
John knew that it might take a while, and that this small interaction might not mean anything in the near future, but in the distance he hoped that Aeryn could learn to trust him. And when that time came, John would ask about the scars he saw by accident when he moved the smaller teen. Those scars on their back…they’re definitely not from an animal. Those were made by someone deliberately.
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“Alright class, I know we’re all excited about Aeryn’s story since they’ve grown up on their own, but let’s focus on the current task. Your job is to watch after Aeryn and help them adjust to school life, since they’ve been disconnected from any proper socialization for a while, likely years,” John explained softly.
“You don’t need to tell anyone about your educated guesses,” I huffed, a bit peeved at the accurate statement.
“You grew up by yourself?” Melonie, the brunette, asked.
“Wait, let’s focus on the assignment-” John tried to get the students back on track, but it seems as though he’s opened a new jar of questions.
“For how long?” Sage asked.
“Since I was eight,” I replied with ease.
“Wow! No way! Er- I mean, I guess that’s pretty tough of you,” Sage said nonchalantly.
“So, you’re a thief, right? I may have something for you to do…” Wisteria started, but after seeing the look on John’s face, she backtracked quickly. “Kidding, kidding!”
I sat back down at my desk in the back, involving myself in some light banter, but never letting my guard down. John went back to his original lecture about using magic in small, but effective ways, and not needing to use a whole spell to do minor things.
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“Phew, glad that’s finally over. I thought Professor William would go on forever,” Cheyenne groaned.
“So, our job is to keep you out of trouble?” Forrest asked.
“Yup,” I answered curtly.
“Seems easy enough,” Jacob said in a confident tone. “Right Aeryn…? Where’d they go?”
Everyone started to look around, but I was already turning the corner and heading to my next class. I memorized the quickest paths to each of my classes. Which were as stated. First I have Homeroom, then PMU, then Basic Combat which is a required class, then Math, Language Arts, Science, History, and Geography. AND THEN I HAVE MORE. I have Basic Survival Skills 101, Basic Weaponry, and finally Creature Identification. Ten goddamn core classes in a five day week, not including homeroom. Luckily, Homeroom is something I have for an hour every day before getting started on my two and a half hour classes.
I walked around the students in the halls, some giving me weird looks. It was probably because I was new. But hey, at least I didn’t share any classes with the female lead! I knew this because I knew her schedule by heart. Y’know, ‘cause I’ve died here a bunch of times. All the same, in this life things were very different. Christopher and Celeste were supposed to be in the female lead’s class, Class A. Not class D.
Some one rammed into me, nearly sending me sprawling. I growled deeply as a warning, but brushed off the encounter. The person I bumped into seemed familiar, but I was sure I had never seen this person before.
“Excuse me? Aren’t you going to apologize to me, the Lucas Evermore?” The pink haired male puffed out his chest proudly.
I looked at him with a disdainful expression. So he’s Wisteria’s family? Probably older brother, by the looks of it.
“I will not apologize to the Lucas Evermore,” I deadpanned. “You bumped into me first, and I don’t care either way. Have a nice day.” I walked away, but was followed by the male and his two companions.
“How dare you wench! Gwendolyn, tell this bitch how wrong she is!” The purple haired female barked at the brown haired one.
“You’re completely right Milly!” The brown haired one nodded feverantly.
“You see that? These two ladies saw you run into me. So about that apology…” Lucas trailed off, clearly indicating for me to submit. Fool.
I stopped and faced the tall male, over six feet, looking him dead in his cotton candy blue eyes. “N. O. No.”
Lucas grabbed my wrist tightly, keeping that smirk on his face, and tried to pull me in the opposite direction of my class. I smacked his hand and hurried away, quickly losing him in the crowd. I didn’t want to be late to my next class. I checked my schedule again to make sure I got the right class.
Monday: PMU and Geography.
Tuesday: Basic Combat and Language Arts.
Wednesday: Basic Weaponry and Math.
Thursday: Survival Skills 101 and Science.
Friday: Creature Identification and History.
Saturday: [No extracurriculars enrolled]
It seems that the school put one normal course with the school’s courses. Which I guess is alright. I didn’t have any survival classes in my old life, so half of these classes were new. Contrary to the similar belief, not everyone who goes here uses mana (magic). I walked in, immediately met with thundering noise and loud laughter. I walked to the very back and sat down, taking my notebook out of my new school bag, then started drawing in what was supposed to be my Geography notebook.
A few minutes later, I heard the door open again and felt someone sit next to me. It was the pretty blue haired girl with the wavy curls. Her name was River, I believe.
“You sure know how to disappear,” she giggled.
“As a professional thief, it is required to know how to drop unwanted guests in a large crowd,” I said in a monotone voice.
“O-oh, um, I know we just met, but is there any way you could show me how you did that?” River asked nervously.
“And why would I do that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’ll do something for you in return,” River said begrudgingly.
“Unless you can get this band off of my wrist, there’s nothing I want from you.” I raised my hand to show off the silver cuff.
“Oh, come on! Please? What about-” River was cut off by a loud, drawling voice.
“Well, look who it is. The blue haired bitch who thought she could come onto my man.” A tall woman, easily five foot eight, walked over to where I was sitting.
“And who are you?” I asked with a bored expression.
“What, you mean you don’t recognise me, Rachel Grant, the daughter of Duke Grant?! Have you been living off of a rock or something?” The tall woman had long reddish-brown hair, garnet eyes, and a deep scowl.
“Duke Grant…Duke Grant……Oh! I remember now. Prodigy in research, but known to be excessively cruel. If I didn’t hear about you in my line of work, you must not be very important,” I gave the bitch a small smile.
“Why you little-”
“Sit down! I will not take any nonsense in this room. My name is Harold Junsen, and you will refer to me as Professor Junsen. The expectations will be high in this classroom, even though you’re all first years. Do not disappoint me. As you may have noticed, we have gained a new student. Although we are already two weeks in, let’s do our best to help Aeryn catch up. Now, onto the lecture. We’ll be talking about Suriah, a country full of mostly deserts. The mountains, however, can be freezing…”
“Psst! Aeryn!” River whispered to me.
“What?” I whispered back.
“That was really cool of you back there. No one has ever spoken to Rachel like that before,” River blushed slightly.
“It wasn’t for you. She was just getting on my nerves. Honestly, you rich people have no shame.” I rolled my eyes in disgust. Then I remembered Rachel saying something interesting. “Hey, did you really come onto her boyfriend?”
River blanched and grimaced at the same time, making some weird expressions in the process. “Absolutely not! Her boyfriend is coming onto me! Fucking pervert…” River mumbled that last part to herself, but with my heightened senses, I heard.
“Is that why you’re so desperate for me to teach you my tricks?” I asked. Might as well get to the point.
“Yeah…I’m surprised you got that. I guess I wasn’t very good at hiding it, was I?” River asked with a bashful expression.
“Not at all. Hun, your face is like an open book.”
“Hey! Don’t make fun of me!” River puffed her cheeks out. I gave a breathy laugh and poked her cheeks.
“Ahem. Aeryn, since you aren’t paying attention and catching up like you’re supposed to, how hot does it get in the Ghilan Desert?” Professor Junsen pointed his ruler at me.
“Up to fifty two degrees celsius. That’s roughly one hundred twenty five degrees fahrenheit,” I answered quickly.
“That is…correct? How did you know that?” Professor Junsen looked at me with suspicion.
“I did a little research on my own time. I like learning about other places.”
Junsen made a sound of approval and continued his lecture.
When I first entered this world, I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about it through pure fan motivation. Now I know as much as I could about this world without the help of the restricted sections or any of the special courses. In my past twelve lives I was put into average courses, not the extensive program that the school is known for. The one I’m currently participating in.
“River, right? I’ll teach you that one thing. And I’ll show you how to throw a fist if that guy tries anything,” I gave River a two finger salute.
“Really?! Thank you!” River gushed.
“But don’t think that I trust you or anything,” I said sternly.
“That’s fine!” River beamed.
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Second class of the day was finally over. And now I was heading straight into the cafeteria since I skipped lunch. River followed me like a lost puppy. I knew the basic layout from playing in the female lead’s perspective, but that was thirteen lifetimes ago. This was a different building from the other ‘normal’ prestigious highschool and college courses. Meaning that this wasn’t the building I had gotten used to. But all I had to do was follow the scent of food and boom! I’m in the cafeteria. It wasn’t as full as it would be during lunch, but it was still pretty packed. There were no empty tables, since every one of them had at least three people sitting. I grabbed a tray, filled it up with the foods I wanted, a sandwich and a chocolate milk, then looked for a quiet place to sit.
“Hey beautiful, where did you come from?” A male sauntered up to me, followed by another and a female. River’s face paled, and I just knew that this was the guy she had been talking about.
“Who are you?” I asked in a flat tone.
“The name’s Noah Lennon. The person next to me is Benjamin Carter, and the chick is Olivia Minx.” Noah looked over my shoulder and grinned. “River, is that you? Come sit with us, we promise to play nice.”
And just like that, we were herded to a large table. I groaned internally, but this was a good chance to get some information. Even if they tried to humiliate me, I could deal with it. After all, I’ve dealt with worse.
Be careful…something about the one called ‘Noah’ doesn’t feel right; Kanan whispered in my head ominously.
“Scoot over for our new guests,” Noah barked at some of the people around him. I recognized Lucas, Gwendolyn, and Milly from before, and the way that the two females were glaring at me made me sure that they also remembered me. I discreetly flipped them off before sitting down and taking my mask off, but not speaking. I took small bites out of my sandwich, ate my favorite fruit, strawberries, and listened to the conversations around me.
Rachel started like a queen bee. “Ohmygosh, did you hear about someone trying to steal one of the Sacred Grimoires?”
Olivia nodded like a well trained yes-man. “I know, who would be dumb enough to try and steal something like that? Especially the gross necromancy one.”
Benjamin snorted. “Of course they got caught. Probably set one of the lasers or something.”
Milly shook her head. “What I heard was that the thief got sent to a correction program right in this school.”
River nearly choked, but got ahold of herself at the last moment. Her slip didn’t go unnoticed though.
Lucas grinned slyly and tilted his head. “What’s wrong, first year? You know something?”
River paled and stuttered. “A-ah! No, I-I’m just surprised!”
I finish my meal, cover my face with my mask, and stand up, pulling River up with me. “Come on. If you want me to teach you, then we need to go to the library.” I toss my tray in the pile, taking my choco milk with me.
“Aw, you’re leaving already? The least you can do is stay, especially after the way you treated me in the halls,” Lucas pouted.
“You mean how you ran into me and tried to make me apologize for your own clumsiness? Uh huh. C’mon River, let’s just go.” I grabbed her hand and led her away. After walking a little, I stopped.
“What’s wrong?” River asked.
“Nothing, I just don’t know the way,” I replied.
“Oh! Right, I forget that you’re new sometimes. Follow me!” River skipped along the way, seemingly in a better mood.
Lucas and Noah tried to call us over again, but I simply ignored them. And by that, I meant that I flipped them off. River hopped along happily and showed me the way into the massive library. There were at least a thousand different books and I was just itching to grab four and start reading. But alas, I need to teach this human how to move like a thief.
I walked over to a dark corner and began my explanations. I told her about how she can’t sneak away if someone is looking directly at her and how to quiet her footprints. I do it naturally, but she needed to be shown how to do it. After an hour of practice, she was good enough to get away from Noah at least. I even showed her how to throw a good punch. For someone as sweet as River, she could sure throw a good one. But that’s probably because she’s the same height as me, making her rather tall for a woman. I could see why Noah is so interested in her, but he’s still a dick for harassing her while having a damn girlfriend.
“Wow, thank you so much!” River genuinely seemed to be thankful.
I waver her off and slung my bag over my shoulder. Classes start at eight and end at four, and it was currently five thirty. The sun was setting and it was starting to get dark earlier since it was fall. “No problem. Just don’t tell anyone that I taught you.”
“Um, sure? I’m not sure why, but okay! Y’know, when I saw you, I thought that we weren’t compatible at all, but now that I’ve spent time with you, I know that you’re actually a really nice person!” River gushed happily.
I snorted at how easy it was for her to let her guard around me. At first, I thought it was all an act, but the tall woman next to me seems to actually be that naive.
“Be careful about who you trust. The devil used to be an angel before becoming a demon.”
With those parting words, I left the blue haired female in the library.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
