"Riku, no pets allowed at lecture." Merlin scolded.

"It's not a pet, it's Rachel."

"Again?"

At Merlin's weekly lecture, Riku came in the room with a large fishbowl with a strange creature inside that was in fact no fish.

"What is she this time? A lobster?" Lea leaned back in his usual chair with his feet up on a stack of books. He looked up as high as he could inside the bowl without getting up.

"I think she called it a mantis shrimp."

"Well I prefer that all my students have human ears for the lecture please." Merlin said.

"That's what I said but she won't change back."

Riku put the bowl on a stool next to where he was going to sit and everyone else peered in to get a look at the new form Rachel had chosen. Ever since she'd mastered basic transfiguration, Rachel had fallen in love with the magic and had advanced its power quickly so she could try more shapes. Today was a mantis shrimp, a little sea critter that looked like an even cross between a shrimp, lobster and…whatever. She had several long antennae, lots of legs, big buggy eyes and two strange club-like appendages under the main front legs.

"That's really weird." Sora couldn't help but comment. Not like he was not justified. Both eyes could move and pivot independently. Like a chameleon only more bizarre.

"Did she happen to say why she didn't want to change back?" Kairi asked. She was glad Rachel liked to use her magic and was good at it, but she couldn't understand why her friend was reluctant to give up the form of a funny little shrimp.

"She can, right?" Bryan asked.

"Rachel, all present must be in their natural shapes please." Merlin said.

Rachel-shrimp went up the side of the bowl but slid back down because shrimp feet didn't get a lot of traction on glass.

"She says she can hear just fine."

"How do you know that?" Sora asked Riku.

Riku pointed out a tiny jeweled clip he had on the upper rim of his ear. "Rachel gave me this so I can hear her speak telepathically when she's something that can't talk."

"Rachel, now." Merlin told her with a that's-final tone.

Rachel-shrimps features positively wilted with disappointment but got out of the bowl and changed back anyway. Riku had to take her arm for a second as the Master swayed a bit, strangely disoriented after the spell ended. Then she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, pouting.

"Mind telling us exactly what that was all about?" Lea asked.

"That was such an amazing experience." She said with a pouty lip.

"You were a shrimp." Sora pointed out.

Lea stood up and put his hand to her forehead. "No fever so her brain should be working right."

"Here, I'll show you!"

"Hey!"

Rachel took Lea by the wrist and cast her spell again, jumping back into the fishbowl with him.

"Honestly!" Archimedes huffed from his usual perch by his little house. "We have a schedule to keep!"

So both Rachel and Lea were in the fish bowl together as mantis shrimp. Whenever any of them were in animal forms, they tended to stick to the same color schemes. Rachel was always some shade of lavender or purple. Bryan and Sora typically were some color of brown to match their hair. Kairi was pink, Riku silver-gray to blue and Lea was always bright red. Being a shrimp was no different. And a peacock mantis shrimp is dressed like a clown anyway. Rachel-shrimp was looking at Lea-shrimp expectantly. Even as a bizarre crustacean, her 'So? what do you think?' posture spoke for itself. Lea-shrimp was frozen, stunned. Not a leg or antennae so much as micro-twitched. As he began to show signs of life he began to move like he was amazed but also a bit freaked out. His invertebrate body language spoke volumes when he discovered his eyes could move independently. Then they both started scurrying about the bowl and brushed each other with their antennae and moved their freaky eyes about in unison, apparently having a very interesting conversation. But since Rachel wasn't directing her thoughts to Riku he had no idea what they were saying.

"That's it." Merlin was a fair teacher but they'd clowned around enough. With a wave of his walking stick he changed them both back and made the bowl vanish.

Just like Rachel had when she turned back for the first time, Lea swayed on the spot, disoriented.

"Oh come on!" He complained as soon as whatever knocked his equilibrium off-kilter fixed itself. "She was just explaining what those bowling ball legs were for!"

"Why was that so cool!" Kairi demanded. There had been such a fuss made over the whole thing but no one had yet explained why being a shrimp thing was so fascinating.

"Oh…" Lea groaned as he looked around the room, looking as if he might cry. "It's like seeing things in black and white."

"The next sentence better be an explanation!" Bryan said with an edge to his voice that sounded dangerously like a threat.

Rachel was beaming. "The mantis shrimp has sexnocular vison-."

"Dirty science."

"Shut up, Lea. It means it has three lenses or pupils on each eye."

"So you were seeing six pictures of the world at once?" Sora asked, amazed and curious what that would look like.

"But that wasn't the best part!" Lea said.

"Oh no it wasn't!" Rachel agreed. "Human eyes can only see a three-color light spectrum, red, blue and yellow and every variation in between those three. The mantis shrimp can see twelve."

"If we can get back to todays scheduled lesson," Merlin said, getting impatient. "You can ask your questions later."

Needless to say everyone was biting their tongues to get a full explanation to what seeing twelve color wavelengths was like. But they had to take their seats as Merlin began his lecture. Before he began, Lea leaned over to Rachel.

"We can do that again, right?"

"Anytime you want. But next time we'll go to the ocean, not just a fishbowl."

"Right after the lecture?"

"You know it."

"It's a date then."

"No talking in class please!"