Chapter 2

As Daine walked into the class, she saw the same handsome stranger who had told her where her first class was. What was his name again? Aha, Numair.

"You are late." Professor Salmalin remarked. Daine bowed her head and continued to the only available seat, the one directly in front of Numair's desk.

"Sorry." She murmured.

"Hmph." He snorted and turned to the chalkboard.

Daine glanced to her left. A boy who was very handsome was staring at her grinning, until she blushed and turned to her right. On her other side, was a nice looking girl, although she looked somewhat frightened at the prospect of coming face to face with live animals. Daine smiled comfortingly at her, and she grinned weakly back. Daine faced forward again.

"Now who can tell me what type of water is good for the Altolamprologus Compressiceps?"

No one raised their hands.

"Ms. Sarrasri? Seeing as you were late perhaps you can grace us with this answer."

"Um, freshwater?" mumbled Daine.

"Correct. Someone has been studying, if not their map." A ripple of laughter passed through the classroom.

Daine's cheeks burned.

…

The rest of the lesson was pretty much like that, Professor Salmalin picking on students and asking them hard questions. She liked the subject, even though her teacher was kind of giving her 'special attention'.

In the hallway after class the handsome boy Daine had seen earlier in class flirted with everyone he could, until Professor Salmalin barked; "Stop flirting Mr.Larse! You will have plenty of time for women after the day is done and you can go back to your rooms! Ms. Sarrasri, could you come and see me for a moment? Evin, you may move on."

Evin disappeared with a flirtatious wink, and Daine blushed again. Numair frowned. As Daine entered the classroom Numair closed the door and told her to sit.

"You missed the first part of my lesson, in which I gave out your first assignment, an easy one, to be typed and handed in tomorrow. It should be approximately a thousand words, and contain the following: why you came here, a bit about you, your relationship with animals, and anything else you feel necessary. This is just to let me get to know you and all the other students… and if you have any opinions on this class, feel free to voice them. But remember, I most likely won't use them."

"Um, okay."

"Another thing is, did you even take in any part of this class? You were gazing at the rabbit cage the entire time. You seemed almost to be conversing with it, which I believe in, and now you know why my colleagues think I'm mad."

"Um, okay."

"Is that you're entire vocabulary Ms. Sarrasri? Because you seem to be saying a lot of um, okays."

"No. I just think that while you might have thought I was 'conversing' with an animal…" she took a deep breath and looked away, "I wasn't."

Professor Salmalin narrowed his eyes at her. "You lie." She didn't respond. "Anyway" he continued "I think that you will do well in this class despite your rough start."

Daine looked up, startled. His hand brushed her shoulder and she had never really noticed how tall he was, or how pretty his smile. And his voice… Daine! She told herself sharply. Yu are not supposed to be thinking about him this way. He is your teacher, for crying out loud! 'But I think he likes you too' the rabbit said to her in mindspeak from all the way across the room.

"Shut up." She told the rabbit glaringly.

"Excuse me?" said an incredulous Numair. "Here I am complimenting you and you are telling me to shut up? What the hell was that for?"

"I'm sorry!" Daine said burying her face in her hands. "I was talking to Simon!"

"The rabbit?"

"Yes the rabbit!" she said without looking up.

"So I was right!" he grinned broadly.

"No! um, I have to leave now; I don't want to be later than I already am for my next class. Anyway, it was nice talking to you, but you really shouldn't accuse people so rudely. Just please let me be for now and I don't nave any idea why I just spoke to you like that." she muttered. "Because I am a wonderfully nice person." He paused. "Why can't I tell anyone?"

"Just because… some random scientist or another will take me for testing, and stick a bunch of tubes in my brain, and after it's all over he'll pronounce me mad, and I will be sent away to some random home for problematic people even though I have been doing perfectly fine on my own since I was fifteen!" All of this came out in a rush.

"Oh. Well then." Numair walked up to her and wrapped an arm protectively around her shoulder. "Then I won't tell anyone." He said simply.

"Thank you." Numair hadn't let go of her shoulder. "Um, perhaps I should get to my next class?"