Screaming kids echoed from the front veranda at Tribeca Prep. Their roars, screams and calls sent away the birds perching in the trees and the random squirrel trying to forage from the goodies the kids left strewn in the grass before the school. The school had eight hundred and sixty-one students in it and each of them was a story into himself. Monte Rodriguez was on the school's football team to appease his father, but he much rather would like to be a great chef. Angie Lowhorn was the pretty blonde cheerleader who much preferred wearing shorts and wrestling than the dresses her mother made her wear as a little princess. Dean Moriarty was the good-looking rebel surrounded by friends who liked being a rebel if but to disguise is sensitive side. Hopping down out of the bus ahead of Alex Russo, Harper Finkle tossed back her long brown locks and still held on to her youth and childlike personality even as her body and figure made her a woman. She pulled her pack up to her shoulder, started into the school and was lightly brushed aside by the guys chasing Mitch Anderson out the doors to string him up by the flagpole. Mr. Cooper chided the kids he could catch for running. Harper shined her smile to her friends and colleagues looking up to her. She hopped up the stairs to the second floor on her way to her locker, her feet carrying her on past the library where Justin Russo stepped back to avoid her and then came out after she was gone. A few people called Harper by name as she traveled the crowded current of under-achievers, freshmen, true students and future felons to her locker. She twisted out her combination and popped the lock ready to open her locker. By her side, Alex Russo crashed to the her side purposely.

"Harper…" Her rich brown eyes lit up with unbridled mischief and deception. "Guess what?!"

"Justin got the love note I stuck in his locker and has pledged his undying love to me!!!"

"What??" Alex pretended she didn't hear that.

"Nothing!" Harper briefly blushed over her teenage infatuation and pretended to be distracted by something in over over-stuffed locker.

"Harper…" Alex rolled her eyes over that discovery and turned back to her news. "I heard Mrs. Bobbitt went into childbirth during her anniversary dinner with her husband; that means she's out for the rest of the school year!" Alex made a face of sheer excitement.

"Ohhh…" Harper went more for the emotional family side of the story. "Was it a boy or a girl?"

"Who cares?!" Alex rolled her eyes trying to get to the point. "God… I mean, with her out, it means we got a substitute in that class for the rest of the year! No more tests! No more homework! We got a free ride!!! Oh, yeah… oh, yeah…" They were dancing and spinning slowly in place at lockers side.

"Hey!" Harper had an idea. "Could you zap up those shrimp cocktails for us?" She loved having a friend who could do magic!

"Sure!" Alex heard the first warning bell for class. The next one would make them late for class. Alex loved being able to do magic. Her father's family tree was a long lineage of wizards, magicians, witches and sorcerers going back to the days of Ancient Greece. Her father even claimed one of his ancestors was one of the Argonauts while another lost his life at the straits of Charybdis and Scylla from the ship of Odysseus. They had lived through the Roman Empire, fought in the Crusades, sailed with Magellan and even entertained at the court of Queen Victoria. The only problem was that in the Russo family tree, only one sibling was allowed to keep their powers over their brothers and sisters, and the way things were going in her life, Alex was living her life to its fullest while she still could. Harper shoved her things in her locker and turned to make her first class. Alex turned round as a blonde girl turned and glared at them. She looked so familiar to them.

"Since when does Ashley Tisdale go to our school?" Alex asked Harper. The two of them rushed for gym class where they were subjected to the embarrassing ritual of ugly gym clothes and getting pummeled by basketballs. They then had second period biology with Mrs. Odom and her bad jokes. All the while they were looking forward to their snack together in history class, but then they started getting the bad news. Her classmates that had Mrs. Bobbitt's class first period started spreading the news that that the substitute was a hard-nosed, by-the-book, strict disciplinarian. He was a college level professor named William Danvers schooled in Britain with dark brown hair and goatee faintly turning silver with two brown eyes that could stare right through the most lazy lackadaisical student. Alex and Harper shared a look of worry upon the news. Just who hired these teachers?! And why did they hate teenagers so much. With this kind of omen hovering over them, Alex, Harper and their third period classmates wandered into class slowly and afraid. Professor Danvers's reputation was already starting to be felt through the school. Alex and her classmates started sharing rumors and stories shared by their classmates about this new teacher.

"Open your books to page 163…" He returned and marched in to class in a tweed jacket, red sweater, white shirt and dark gray pants, dropped his leather carry case atop the desk and turned to the chalkboard. He introduced himself by writing his name, Professor Danvers, on the board in large bold letters. Everyone reacted at attention, grabbed their history books, settled them to their desks out of unison and started hurriedly trying to find the lesson.

"1194 to 1184 BC, the Dardanian plane was the scene of what historical battle…" Danvers stopped before Alex and pushed her textbook to the table so she couldn't hide behind it. She looked to him, eyes widened and frightened. "Mrs. Russo, identify this conflagration give me a summary and its effects on history in Europe…" Alex's jaw dropped in shock and trembled a bit. Her eyes rolled toward Harper next to her.

"I don't want the answer from Mrs. Finkle, Mrs. Russo, I want it from you." Danvers spoke with a faint British accent. He was confronting her on purpose.

"Um…" Alex had never felt on the spot like this before. "Uh, true?" She got a chuckle from a number of her classmates. Professor Danvers didn't chuckle. He just continued groaning exasperatingly toward her. He glared at her as if she were a spot on his jacket. The class fell quiet as he loomed down toward Alex and peered quite annoyed into her eyes.

"Mrs. Russo…" Danvers continued. "You have been sliding through your classes in this school since you started here. Lazy, shallow and disobedient are not career goals. I will not allow you to be a disruption to the education of others as my predecessor did." He turned away as another student shot his hand up. Alex could only slide deeper into her seat.

"Sir," Pete Granger stood up from the back of class. "You are referring to the Trojan War. That's not historical; that's mythological." He paused a bit. "Besides, we were about to start World War Two today. Mrs. Bobbitt was bringing a movie for us to watch about it."

"It is not mythological!!!" Danvers spun around and dropped a book hard to the floor, ready to pound that info into their brains. "Troy was founded by the Hittites, conquered by the Mysians and surrendered to the Dardanians before finally falling to the Argives. The Trojan War was the turning point from the pagan world to the birth of modern civilization! The Greeks carried the secrets of Egypt and the Middle East across Europe, they laid the foundations of Rome which in turn became the foundation of the Roman Empire which in turn became the basis of modern civilization. We owe everything we have today from music, art and culture and even in-door plumbing to the Romans and to understand the Romans we must start with the Greeks! As far watching a movie today, I have shredded Mrs. Bobbitt's curriculum and am starting anew. I will cram an entire year's lessons into your last five months of school before you started your regular summer vegetation period." He looked again toward Alex. "No one just slides by in my classes. I'm am teaching students, not another generation of under-achievers…" He turned round to the board. Everyone became very nervous and looked at each other scared to death. Mrs. Bobbitt was their favorite teacher; she showed movies every week, gave multiple-choice tests and helped her students to just slide by without teaching them really anything. Professor Danvers meant the death of their free ride. He wanted them to… study!

"Oh, my god!" Harper turned to Alex and mouthed her words silently. "He's a…"

"I am not a psychopath, Mrs. Finkle." Danvers somehow heard her. "Just a teacher getting tired of students not appreciating their education." He jotted several names of the history of Troy on to the board: Agamemnon, Menelaus, Helen, Paris, Achilles, Ajax… He turned round ready to teach. "This week we will be covering the late Pagan Period to the Age of Discovery and discover the why's, what's and what-for's of why humanity turned away from gods and started turning to science. You will study the foundations and links between the great civilizations of man, the events leading to war, the history of industrialization and exploration and be prepared to write a report summarizing why we grew out of the worship of gods and divinities."

There was a collective groan and sound of regret from several students. Something told them that they were not going to see another movie in this class.

"Ah, the sound of underused brains suddenly being forced to work…" Danvers heard a noise and looked behind him. Justin Russo entered the room with a stack of folders and papers in his arms. He dropped them down on to the table by the door. He was grinning excitedly. He looked to his sister rolling her eyes disgustedly tired and already overwhelmed.

"Isn't he great?!" Justin was excited! "Wait till you see the homework assignment! I'm not ever halfway through it yet!"

"Justin," Alex snarled at him with the personality of a pit bull. "What are you doing here?!"

"Your brother offered to be my teaching assistant, Mrs. Russo." Professor Danvers had removed his tweed jacket and draped it over the top of the coat rack in the corner. "Unlike you, he knows what is more important." He stepped aside to allow Justin to pass out the packets. "Now, class, Justin is passing out the schedule and reading assignments for the rest of the school year. We will have tests every Friday on that week's lessons, no more true-or-false or multiple-choice, summary answers only. I will expect reports every Monday covering at least one of the books in my required reading list, and you will each also prepare yourself an oral report on the history, culture and geography of at least one existing or forgotten country. The grade on your oral report will count as forty percent of your final exam from this class."

"Oh… oh…" Harper's hand went up.

"I will be hearing what country you will be covering tomorrow so I can approve them." Professor Danvers answered her question before she asked it. "I will not allow any students to cover the same country twice."

Alex's hand shot up next.

"I am not accepting oral reports on Atlantis." Professor Danvers predicted her question.

"Crud!!!" Alex cursed out loud.