Today is the first day of my senior year at Florida State College. My schedule for this year is simple. I will be in one class four days a week from 8am to 2pm. I'm one of the few people in the country that was accepted into the new Demonology program.
To get into the program you have to go through an extensive interview process. This is the first class they're accepting. My junior year, I went through basic classes on many demons. For your senior year, you had choose a focus, pick one specific demon and become an expert. I chose dog demons- InuYoukai.
It's 7:45 in the morning and my shoulder length blonde hair is sticking to my neck in the obscene Florida heat. I'm wearing skinny jeans and a tee shirt with a light cardigan over it. I get to the Demonology building and go up to the fourth floor. I walk to the classroom and am surprised to only see 2 other people in the room. They are sitting on opposite sides of the room. I walk straight down the middle and sit in the front row.
I turn around to look at the clock in the back of the room, it's just now 8 am. The teacher should be in the room any moment. When I turn back to the front of the room, there is already a man standing there. He is really tall, at least 6 foot 4. He has long silvery white hair and the marking the show him to be a demon. 2 magenta stripes on each cheek and a matching crescent moon in the middle of his forehead. When he looks up at us, I notice he also has marking on his eyelids and the brightest golden eyes.
"My name is Sesshomaru Taisho. I will be your instructor for this year. I expect that you have already looked at the syllabus that I emailed to you. The first half of the year we will go over the basics that you will need to know about Inuyoukai. Then next semester, you will each specialize in one aspect of them. Before winter break I will need to know what you're wanting to specialize in. Till then, I will lecture, there is no textbook so you will have to take careful notes.," Mr. Taisho tells us in a deep baritone voice that seems to lack any real emotion.
We take out whatever note taking materials that we have. Which for the other two in the class is a laptop, where I have a pen and paper. He then proceeds to go into a long and detailed lecture about InuYoukai and their history, dating back to the Japanese feudal era.
About an hour before the class is set to end, he stops his lecture. "Now the 3 of you will get together in a group compare notes and get to know one another, you will be spending a lot of time together this semester, and possibly even longer than that. You will be the only human InuYoukai experts on the earth once you graduate, it will be good to make connections now."
The other two get up and sit on either side of me. The girl from the right side of the room, is the first to start the introductions, "Hello, my name is Alice Brown. It's a pleasure to meet you both."
I turn to the guy from the left side of the room, he sighs, but introduces himself, "I'm Jeremy Callahan."
This leaves me, "Hey, my name is Elizabeth Cooper." I smile at them hoping to make a decent first impression. We then go onto discuss out notes and add anything that the others may have missed.
Right before the class ends speaks again, " Do not get used to that, if you miss any notes, you will not get any more chances at the end of class to compare them. You will either deal, or do it on your own time." With that final statement he was gone in a blur of white.
I leave class to head to head to my part time job at a small bookshop. There's a small coffee shop attached to it. I get there a few minutes early and go to grab a coffee before work. I walk over to the bookshop part and say wave hello to my coworker and friend Jessica.
"Hey Jess, how was your first class today", I ask her.
She smiles a brilliant smile and starts to tell me about her day, " Oh my gosh it was amazing! My professor is a kitsune named Shippo, he's so awesome! He's very open about anything foxy. We spent the whole day just talking to him to get a better feel for fox demons. Also, our class is so small, there's only like 15 of us, so it's super personal, like we're all just friends."
I raise a eyebrow at her, " That's actually a larger class for demonology majors. My class has 3 people total."
"Whoa! You have a super small class. I wonder why they're keeping the class sizes so small?"
We start shelving books when I answer her, " They're keeping them so small because this is the first year that they're even offering the program, they need to make sure that we're trustworthy and will use the information that is given to us wisely. Think about it, demons have been out for the last 50 years, and this is the first time that they are letting any human learn anything about their world."
She nods understandingly. We complete our task quickly and quietly, and head back to the front desk. Jess turns to me, "Hey tell me about your first day, your studying Inu's right?"
I nod my head, " Yeah, Mr. Taisho is pretty strict, but I think we're definitely gonna learn a lot. He's having us specialize in one aspect of Inu's. We'll learn about inu's in general, so that we can be the specialists that we are supposed to be, but we will become specialize in one aspect of them."
"Really, Shippo isn't having us do that. I suppose since we are studying different demons, our courses are bound to be different."
We go about the rest of the day without any incident. When in half an hour before closing, Jess and I start our closing duties, when we're about halfway through, we hear the bell chime signaling a customer. I walk to the front to greet the customer. Standing there, is none other than with another demon, with reddish orange hair and bright green eyes.
" , hello, how can I help you?," I ask him putting on my customer service smile. I'm too tired to attempt a real one right now. He doesn't notice or care that my smile is obviously fake.
"I need a specific history book, I was informed that this establishment possessed it."
"Of course, right this way to out history section. If you are unable to find it, I can special order it for you." He follows me to our history section and starts to browse the shelfs.
I walk back to the front counter, the red haired man following me. "Hey, how do you know Sesshomaru," he asks me.
"Oh, he's my demonology teacher."
"Oh really? I heard that he was keeping his class very small, it's good to see that there's actual students in his class. Oh, by the way my name is Shippo."
"You're Shippo? I have a friend who's in your class. She works here too, she's around here somewhere." Just as I'm telling him this Jess walks to the front.
"Shippo! It's good to see you! I was telling Liz, about class today."
He looks at her and smiles, "Oh hey! Jessica, right?" She nods smiling at him. You can tell she is pleased that he remembered her name.
takes this moment to walk to the front of store with a book in hand. "This store is fairly well stocked. I will have to come back to look some more."
"Of course, you are welcome here anytime," I check him out, "I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Taisho." He nods to me and him and Shippo walk out of the store.
Jess and I finish our closing duties and close up to shop to head home.
I head to my small apartment that's only a couple blocks, I had walked today instead of driving. Parking at the school is terrible and I only live a few blocks from the school. I get to my building and walk to the 2nd floor to my apartment.
When I walk in I throw my keys on the table beside the door and immediately take all my clothes off and walk to my bathroom for a long soak in the tub. When I'm finished bathing and walk back out into the living room, I look at the floor, it's covered in clothing. It's become a habit of mine since I moved out to live on my own to strip the second I walk inside. I start to pick up all the clothes and put them in a hamper to take to my moms the weekend to do laundry. Afterwards, I walk into the kitchen and grab a hotpocket to warm up and a bottle of Gatorade. I eat quickly over the sink and walk to my bedroom. I put on an oversized tshirt and lay down in bed to study the notes I took in class today. I open my computer to transfer the notes and look over the syllabus.
I'm looking at the syllabus and considering what I want to specialize in. My mind starts to wander to my mysterious teacher. Sesshomaru Taisho, he was so different than the rest of the teachers, he was quiet and serious. Also, he was ridiculously attractive. I wonder if that is how he is all the time or just for his class. He was just a cold and distant at the bookshop, so maybe he was. I finish taking notes and put my computer to the side and fall into a restless sleep.