Yay! The last couple of chapters, I haven't been bugged by the evil WB! And you're probably wondering why I have a shotgun right now…Let's just say WB won't be bothering me ever again…

I just realised! In World Traveler I did mention that Angelic is Welsh, but this is for the benefit of those who haven't read World Traveler or if you've simply forgotten: Angelic is Welsh!

AnimeCrazy88? Can you say something else? You're starting to sound like a broken MP3 player.

I don't own Tales of Symphonia.

We left assembly, and I checked my timetable.

"Oh no!" I grumbled.

"What?"

"We've got Welsh first."

"Why don't you like Welsh?" Colette asked.

"It's a tradition to have either strict, bad or insane teachers teaching Welsh. Or all three." I added as an afterthought.

"Nia, stop moaning and go to your class already!" Stephen said.

"Clarissa, you'd better be in my class…and you too, Gerald." I said, barely remembering their 'names'.

"So, Luke and Pearl are with me?" Stephen asked. "Okay, let's go!"

Colette, Genis and I went to my Welsh room and waited for our teacher to arrive.

Kratos' POV

Following Nia's instructions, I went into the staff room, and got told that I'd be covering one teacher's lessons, which were all in room five. I used logic and luck to work out where room five was, and let my class in.

The students filed in quietly. Towards the end of the queue, I got a shock. Nia was walking forward, eyes on the ground. But her eyes had lost that spark which made her seem alive.

She looked up, saw me, and a grin crept onto her face.

"This looks like it'll be interesting." She said under her breath so only I could hear.

She chose a seat in the middle row, where there was enough room for her, Colette and Genis.

I walked over to the front desk, to check if any work had been set. There were no instructions for any of the lessons.

Brilliant.

"No work has been set, so what did you do last lesson?" I asked.

The whole class had been chattering, but now they were deathly silent.

I didn't think of myself as that intimidating!

"Kratos, I've never seen these people so quiet, and they've been near plenty of deputy heads!" Nia said, once again under her breath.

Luckily, someone in the class recovered enough to timidly say, "Um, Sir? We finished a section of work last lesson, and we haven't got a new one yet."

"Well, we'll go over some basics then. What did you do in your first year?"

I heard mutterings as students attempted to cast their memories back that far.

Nia, looking sympathetically at me, put her hand up.

"Yes?"

"We did a lot of work about school; the subjects, teachers, directions and so on, but mainly we described the personalities of people."

"Right, and what did you do last year?"

"Describing what someone looks like."

"Class, I'm giving you half an hour to write two paragraphs, one on any person's personality and another on their appearance."

The whole class groaned.

"Two paragraphs…we'll never get that done in half an hour." Someone muttered.

Nia said something that helped me realise why I'd had this response. "They think you're talking about 'Mrs. Price-sized' paragraphs – paragraphs that are at least half a page."

(A/N I'm not kidding! And she gives us three 'paragraphs' for homework and only gives us three days to do it!)

I addressed the class again. "Your paragraphs need only be four or five lines long."

A sigh of relief resounded around the classroom.

"Get writing, you have half an hour, and then you're reading it out in front of the class."

While no one wanted to read theirs in front of the class, no one voiced disappointment, as they wanted to have theirs finished in time to avoid the embarrassment.

I wandered around the class, watching everybody write.

"Watch out, there's a 'mae' and an 'ydy' in the same sentence there." I pointed out.

'Mae' and 'ydy' are both words for 'is', and they are never in the same sentence.

I checked who people were writing about as I went round. Such names as 'Lily Allan', 'Shigeru Miyamoto', 'Joanne Rowling' and 'Keanu Reeves' came up frequently.

I checked Nia's paper, which was blank.

"I don't know who to right about." She muttered in explanation.

"Choose anybody. Are…" I only just remembered to use the fake names, "Clarissa and Gerald alright?"

"Clarissa's writing about two sentences a minute, and she's helping Gerald. They're writing about Symphonian people; we can always say they're really big fans."

"Have you thought of someone to write about yet?"

"Yeah, I'll write about an author that no one's really familiar with, then I can say more or less anything I want."

I whiled away the next half an hour, correcting work and telling off people who were talking. Then, I got people – working from the back forwards – to read out their work.

Although most of the work was quite average, three people (besides Nia, Colette and Genis) stood out as being quite talented. Nia informed me – under her breath – that one of the girls had only been studying the language for two years compared to the six years of everyone else.

Of course, there were some people who were clearly beneath average, but that's to be expected in any class. All but one seemed to really try; and the one who didn't try got shouted at.

The bell went before three people had a chance to speak, but I dismissed the whole class anyway.

One hour earlier – Jade's POV

(A/N Don't question who's POV it's in, okay? I know what I'm doing!)

I lined up outside Room 21 – my History room. Some boys had started a game of rugby (or American football, but I think the rules are slightly different) in the corridor, so I was trying to make sure the ball didn't hit me.

A tall woman – obviously a teacher – came and opened the door, then turned to the three boys. She looked furious, almost as if she would hit them. She started shouting at them, mentioning something about disturbing the peace of this 'hallowed place of learning'.

Whatever! Teachers should know that their students only come to school because of the law.

Everyone just rushed into Room 21 and got out their History books, pencil cases and rough books. Then, they started talking amongst themselves about this teacher.

"Did you see her hair?"

"I know, weird colour…"

Now that I think about it, it was a weird colour. A light, silvery blue.

My memory rudely cut through my thoughts to show me a flashback.

There was a twelve-year old – apparently my age at this time – person with blonde hair standing in front of me. "Can you tell? She's a half-elf!" He said excitedly.

I shook my head. Half-elves weren't real! They were just some people who got discriminated against in my favorite video game. (You all know which!)

But a voice within my mind begged otherwise. I thought you knew better than that, Jade. You should know better than to falsely accuse something of not existing.

'Go away!' I thought firmly, although I knew the voice would remain.

The teacher came through the door, briskly walking towards the desk.

The ears, Jade. The voice said in a singsong voice.

The teacher's hair was moved slightly because of her momentum, to reveal a slightly pointed tip to her ear. It was almost impossible to notice, unless you were specifically looking for it.

Told you so.

'Shut up!'

The teacher addressed the class. "I'm Miss Sanderson, and I'll be covering this lesson. It doesn't seem like there's any work left for you…what lesson is this?"

"History." A random person near the front said.

A gleam came into 'Miss Sanderson's' eyes. "History? I demand you tell me all you know about this fascinating subject!"

The class was taken aback, and I distinctly heard someone saying, "Creepy…"

"Er, what I meant to say was: you can all do individual study on a period of history of your choice."

I dug out two of my Egyptology books that had permanent residence in my bag, my hand brushing against a smooth, warm, rounded surface in my bag.

'Miss Sanderson' walked around the class, asking people what they were studying, and a bit about what they were studying.

She wasn't far from me, when I heard an ominous crack from my bag.

'Oh no!' I thought.

Oh yes! The voice in my mind said.

I peered into my bag to find – as I suspected – pieces of eggshell. And…

Isn't it cute?

…a black, baby dragon.

Raine's POV

I heard a small click in the class, but assumed it was some piece of magitechnology in the school. I had been looking around the class, absorbing pieces of history.

I found myself in front of the dark-haired girl – Jade – that we'd met before. In any case, she didn't seem to recognise me, which was fortunate. At that moment, she was peering into her bag.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" She said quickly, and put the bag on the floor.

"What are you studying?"

"The Egyptians. They had some really interesting Gods. And I'm currently deciphering the hieroglyphics on my pencil case…"

She had a pencil case shaped like a body, and on the inside, there was an inscription in this language.

"Marvelous! Do you mind if I have a closer look?"

She couldn't exactly say no to a teacher. I tried to make some sense of the inscriptions, but I couldn't.

"Thank you."

And I moved away from the girl.

Suddenly, something seemed to flash, but no one else seemed to notice it. I looked quickly round the room, before my eyes settled on Jade. Something was going on.

I tried to think what could make me see this that no one else could. Then it hit me.

There's mana around that girl.

Something else hit me too.

I'm not as sensitive to mana as Genis, so whatever's causing this mana is creating a lot of it.

"Miss? Is something wrong?" Jade asked.

"It's nothing." I replied, and went around the remainder of the class.

Soon, the bell went and I dismissed the class, who were eager to pack away their things and head out side for a break.

That chapter took a little while to write, but it was fun! (really big, evil grin) Also, I know what I'm writing after this! Before someone asks, no, it isn't another Nia and Stephen fic. It's going to be mainly based on Noishe and some other Protozoa and it is so cute! (you'd never guess, by that last sentence, that I've written Kratos torture scenes!) And you need to read Regeneration! It's up on my name and it's just after my ending for this, if you put them in chronological order.

Please review, and thanks for the guys supporting this every chapter – it really gets me writing!