Lily’s classroom on one morning. They are getting ready for a lesson with practical magic demonstration. Everyone is sort of excited.
"Ok class, settle down," the Teacher says. "Today we’re continuing from the stuff you learned from first grade, so no absolute basics here. Today we’re going to be moulding different kinds of materials. You all have a piece of clay in front of you. I want you to mold it into a perfect ball at first, then change it into anything you want, but it needs to be more complex than basic geometric shapes. Miss Enoka, if you’d be so good as to give us all a demonstration?"
Tarutaru looks at the clay in front of her, concentrates, and starts to mutter something under her breath. Everyone in the class is looking at her. The clay slowly clumps together and starts to form a ball. It takes shape and settles down into a perfect ball.
"Very good Miss Enoka, very good. You’re doing well with your studies. And I didn’t even hear an initial summoning, very, very good. You’ve learned well. Ok, now make it into something more difficult."
Tarutaru concentrates and the ball morphs into an amorphous blob, and then slowly begins to take shape again. It takes a shape like a small tree and finally impressions of leaves appear on top.
"Oh, eye for detail, good indeed. Very well class. Do it like Miss Enoka did here, but substitute the final shape for something of your own."
Lily looks at Rose, whose clay lies seemingly untouched on her desk. There’s a shimmer in the air and Rose is idly watching it. Her eyeliner swirls slightly. The shimmer becomes an oddly shaped piece of what seems to be a silvery metal. Rose looks at it disapprovingly, squeezes her eyebrows a bit and looks at the metal clump intensively. Her eyes glow softly. The clump of metal changes into a perfect image of a girl with long hair, individual hairs and all. The metal girl sits down as if it was alive. Rose looks at it approvingly, put her hands on the desk, lowers her head on them and closes her eyes.
:: Oh my, would you look at that? Cotton Candy… She’s properly good. Not just tiny bit talented, but she’s actually really good. And she conjured the metal out of thin air to boot! ::
The teacher walks around the classroom, watching what everyone is doing. She’s complimenting people that do well and advising people who do not. Suddenly she gasps. She’s looking at sleeping Rose and her Silver Maiden, who’s sitting in all her perfect glory on the desk. She scoffs and quickly moves forward. Lily catches Tarutaru looking at the teacher with a questioning face.
:: I must ask her about this at some point, Cotton Candy is clearly better than any of us, yet the teacher disses her so much. ::
"Okay, listen here class! Surprise exam!" The teacher announces to the class suddenly.
There’s a collective groan from the class, Rose lifts her gaze from all the noise.
Teacher turns towards Tarutaru and calls out to her "Enoka, image of a hummingbird!"
Tarutaru stiffens a bit, collects her cool, closes her eyes and starts mumbling and soon enough an image of a hummingbird buzzes in front of her.
"Very good Enoka, very good indeed. Alright, Martinson, image of a fish!"
Lily jumps and grimaces. :: Ah crap, well, here goes nothing, hope I can pull this off… ::
Lily closes her eyes and begins the incantation of summoning magic. She feels the power gathering at her fingertips, Her nails glow softly, then an intricate pattern emerges on her palms. She begins to mutter the spell under her breath, but stutters. A bead of sweat gathers at her temple.
:: Fuck! I messed up! How can I… What will I do?! It’s so embarrassing! If I start again, the teacher will surely— ::
"Very good Martinson, very good. Lively fish. You can let go now." The teacher says suddenly.
Lily opens her eyes and a fish swims happily in the air in front of her eyes. It’s a rainbow trout. It hops a bit and then disappears.
:: What?! How…? Where…? :: Lily thinks and glances around. From the corner of her eye, Lily sees a faint pink glow.
"All right, Caldwell, are you awake?! Frog, now!" The teacher barks at Rose.
Rose whips her head towards the teacher and smiles. Before anybody has time to do anything, she grins and her eyes glow pink intensively. Suddenly a frog appears in front of the teacher. Not an image, but an actually living frog. It falls down onto the teacher’s lap and croaks loudly.
"AAAaah! Caldwell what in the world?! Remove it immediately!"
"Mrs Teacher, you specifically asked for a frog, not an image of one. And I’m not going to kill a perfectly healthy frog because you hate him. Give him to me and I’ll carry him to the pond." Rose says with a straight face.
"All right, Caldwell. Out. For disturbing the class, out. And immediately to the principal!" The teacher commands her.
Rose starts to rise up.
"Uh… teacher?" Lily says and stands up too, "Cotton Can—uh, Caldwell did exactly what you asked, if she needs to leave because of that, I should too. For did I not do exactly what you asked too?"
"Martinson, you don’t—"
Lily walks to the teacher, picks up the frog and starts to walk out. "I’ll get rid of the frog at the same time. Cotton Candy, wait for me…"
Rose looks at Lily really surprised. "Mh." Rose nods and they both walk out of the classroom. People are whispering amongst themselves in the classroom. Teacher stands there with her hands just like the frog was still there. Outside the classroom, Lily closes the door behind her and looks at Rose.
"Cotton Candy… Thanks. I guess it was you with the fish?"
"Uhm. ye-yeah. I—don’t worry. It was nothing, I just didn't want the teacher... I—uh, nobody’s ever… done anything like that for me…"
"Wha…?"
"Stood up for me, against… anyone… I—I should—I’ll go… to the principal, you should take him to the pond." Rose walks quickly away, Lily watches after her.
:: Okay, seriously, what’s her deal?! She looks so fucking cute when she’s flustered like that. It should be illegal to be that cute. Also, why the fuck am I thinking about that?! What the fuck is going on with me?!"
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