The next day two different Time Lords stood waiting for the Second Year Novices at breakfast. They seemed to be the opposite of the Hunter and the Finder, with the female looking welcoming while the male seemed unapproachable.

"Last year the Hunter and the Finder were the two professors in charge of taking you around the Academy," the man stated. He stared above their heads with empty brown eyes. "This year, we have taken the role so that they may take the job for the First Year Novices. I am the Fallen."

The woman chose to smile at them. She was short and seemed only a few inches above the students' height. "And I am Marian; the word means mother in the language of the Wintergirls, who inhabit the planet Amezon."

Iota could faintly see Heph Tro standing next to her. The girl's eyes seemed to sparkle at Marian's words. She could faintly remember that Heph Tro had been the first one finished with all of the exams involving other planets.

"This year, instead of a Basic Cultures class, you will be taking a class called Basic Languages. The languages you will be learning in the class will be the ones of the planets you learned about last year." The Fallen spoke with a 'no nonsense' aspect about him.

Marian rested her hand on the Fallen's arm, stopping him. "All the other classes will continue the same." She turned and gestured to the dining hall. "Now please, go eat. We will come collect you when the time has come for classes."

Iota couldn't help but notice the Fallen seemed upset about letting them disperse about the room. Tirin, Nella and Iota moved quickly to their table. As they sat down, Tirin glanced at Nella.

"You don't seem that excited about the language classes."

Nella glanced away. "Juno once showed me what the languages are like. It was the one thing I didn't understand."

Iota squeezed Nella's hand carefully. "You can't understand everything automatically. Don't worry; if I know you you'll get it eventually."

Nella smiled in response. Exactly twenty minutes from when they sat down the Fallen and Marian came to the table. "It is time to go," the Fallen said, before stepping away. Marian smiled at them.

"I'm so sorry about the Fallen. He's not that understanding when it comes to children. Come to where we met you once you've finished eating." She moved to follow the Fallen, stopping him from being the first to speak to the table where Giro and Viru were sitting.

Tirin sighed. "I must prefer Marian over the Fallen. Though I wish we could have the Hunter and the Finder back; I like them better."

The other two agreed before standing and making their way over to the rest of their Year. Remon seemed to have already taken the position of leader that he normally took, waving the proper students over. It took another minute before the Fallen and Marian joined them.

Without another word the Fallen began to lead them through the halls. Marian turned around and walked backwards so that she could address the Year. "You have the Basic Language class first this year; there will be a new notebook waiting for you."

Nella seemed nervous about the class, the first time Tirin and Iota had seen her as such. Still, when they reached the room Nella rushed to the front as she normally did while Tirin and Iota stayed to the middle.

Iota stared down at the board, seeing a collection of writing on the board. It was all in a language she had never seen before. If she guessed correctly, however, it was Raxacoricofallapatorian; the language of the first planet they had learned about. She was quickly proved correct.

There was no warmth in her chest during the class, but Iota could feel herself learning regardless. It didn't come to her naturally, but it wasn't difficult. It just…was.

They learned a few of the words of the language. The professor demonstrated a few sentences and asked them to repeat it. Iota felt the ability Time Lords naturally have kick in. Languages were quickly adopted into Time Lord's brains from spending so long around the TARDISes and the Time Vortex. However, it was easier for them to understand the spoken and written language rather than speaking and writing it on their own. She knew that eventually she would be able to speak the language easily, even if she didn't truly know what any of the words meant then. After taking multiples of the class she would begin to understand; that was how all Time Lords were.

Nella rushed right to them as soon as the class was over. She looked close to tears. "That was terrible. I didn't understand a single thing; everything seemed to blur together." Quickly Iota pulled her into her arms. She was shorter than her friend, but Nella didn't seem to mind. "Thank you."

"You'll get it." Tirin rubbed Nella's back. "Don't worry; we believe in you." He smiled. "Besides, you have to be able to lecture me on the language when the exams come again. And maybe it's just Raxacoricofallapatorian; you might be amazing with others."

Marian smiled back at them. She appeared to have heard everything they said. All the students were glad she didn't mind them talking and the Fallen rarely said a word. They were able to hold whispered conversations that they had gotten in trouble for multiple times in the past year.

"I don't really like how we have to go right back into classes." Tirin commented. "It would be nicer if we had more days of break between the exams and classes again."

"True." Iota said. Her eyes were drawn to a group of students. The Hunter and the Finder were leading them around; they were First Year Novices. All the children looked terrified. They turned down their eyes as they passed Iota's Year. She couldn't help but wonder if that was how her Year had been the year before.

Nella smiled. "I like it. It's nice to just have constant learning after spending the first eight years doing nothing."

"But we have 400 years to learn! I just wish we had longer breaks." Tirin sighed. "It would make this more bearable."

Nella's eyes widened. "How is this not bearable? I can't think of a better way to spend 400 years of my life."

"Not everyone is like you Nella." Iota quickly reminded her, not wanting to deal with the fight that was no doubt brewing. She stepped up so that she walked between both of them and they spend the rest of the time walking to the next class in silence.

-I-

During the first study period of the day, Nella went searching in the library for a book that would describe the basics of Raxacoricofallapatorian. She had seemed irritated the entire day that she hadn't understood the class. It didn't seem to occur to her that they had other assignments to complete.

Instead of doing the same, Iota attempted to teach Tirin what they had learned in maths that day. She had understood as much as him, nothing, but Nella was too busy to help either of them. Their best hope was attempting to teach each other.

As much as both of them tried, nothing worked. When they went to dinner later they left understanding nothing more. Nella had taken a book on Raxacoricofallapatorian from the library and seemed entranced in the words. She was speaking quietly. Iota could faintly identify them as words from the language. She didn't know what any of the words meant, however.

It took most of dinner for Tirin and Iota to convince Nella that she had to work on the work assigned instead of focusing on Raxacoricofallapatorian the rest of the evening. She sighed, but agreed. She could always go ask the professor the next time they had a class on Raxacoricofallapatorian.

Once Nella was focused on the assigned work again, she quickly helped Tirin and Iota understand basically what they had learned in maths. As they had expected, they understood easily after Nella explained. They teased her that she should choose her title as the Professor when she finally got to pick; she loved to teach and learn so much.

She was quick to deny them. It was too early to even begin considering what they would pick during the Naming Ceremony. There were four hundred years; who knows what could change about them in that long of a time?

Neither Tirin nor Iota argued with her. It was better to just nod and agree with whatever she said.

-I-

One morning, as they made their way to the Basic Language class, Nella was flipping through her Basic Cultures notebook to discover what language they would be learning that day.

"Well, we learned about Earth in the corresponding day to today." Nella shrugged, putting the notebook away. "I wonder which language of Earth we'll be learning about."

"Well, we did spend a few days on Earth because of the different 'countries'." Tirin smiled. "I love that word. 'Countries'. It sounds important." The second time he said the word he said it in the English the professor had referred to it in. It sounded strange amongst the Modern Gallifreyan the three had been speaking before.

Nella laughed slightly. "Only you, Tirin. Only you. Likely we'll be spending a lot of time on Earth because of the sheer about of cultures and languages. We only got through four of them last year, of course."

"Didn't we learn about England first?" Iota furrowed her brow, attempting to remember. "Does that mean we'll be learning English first?"

Nella shrugged. "Maybe. We'll wait and see."

A few minutes later they sat at their normal positions in the room, staring down at the professor who had begun to write the spidery language on the board. Iota had known that they would be learning the language at some point before the Visiting Day, since Theta had told her about the class he had been taking on the language. But she had hoped they would have a bit longer to wait.

It felt strange to be writing the straight lines and small letters of the language over the paper. She watched as the letters seemed to march across the page like insects. It looked so different to the other words that danced across the page in the circle filled language of Gallifreyan. Iota couldn't understand how Theta enjoyed learning the language. She hated it.

Tirin seemed to share her opinion on the language. After the class ended they engaged in an eager discussion on the terribleness of it. Nella had grabbed both their notebooks from them and was furiously reading through. She didn't bother attempting to enter their conversation.

Heph Tro seemed to hear Tirin and Iota's conversation. She stormed up to them. "How dare you! You can't disgrace the English language like that!"

"We're not disgracing it." Tirin glanced at Nella to make sure she wouldn't side with Heph Tro. There was no way they would be able to speak again if Nella began. "We're just talking about the drawbacks we see."

Heph Tro crossed her arms. "You barely know anything about it! How can you expect to form any sort of opinion on it?"

"And you know more than us?"

Heph Tro smiled widely. "Actually, I do. I've spent at least one of the study periods per day learning about the different languages. According to the professor, I can already speak practically perfect English."

"Well, not everybody knows as much as you do."

Heph Tro laughed. "Yes, I know. That much is obvious." She eyed Nella before leaving. The girl had seemed so nice and eager to learn when Iota had talked to her the year before. She seemed to have changed into someone who made fun of those who didn't know as much about languages as she did.

"I don't like her that much." Tirin glared at Heph Tro's back. "She's not that nice."

Iota shoved Nella playfully with her shoulder. "I'm glad we're friends with Nella; she would never be like Heph Tro."

"And one of the reasons is because I don't understand a single thing about this." Nella said in a whisper, though both Tirin and Iota heard her. They went silent quickly after. It was clear the fact Nella didn't understand bothered her more than it bothered Tirin and Iota. They both began to glare at Heph Tro, something that brought a smile onto Nella's face.

Iota wasn't known for glaring at people.

A/N: Nella has found the first class she's not good at; everyone has one of those. Nella didn't expect that to happen to her though. Time will tell if that changes, however.

And it is Iota's first class on English! I found it amusing that the Doctor's sister, of all people, doesn't like Earth or English that much.

Another member of Iota's class has been introduced; Heph Tro. I have the entire list written out, and all should have some mention at some point in the story.

Before I get to the answers to the reviews, I have to apologize for not posting this week. Now that my school and dance have started up, the only days I have any time free is the weekends. This means that I'll only be able to post chapters on the weekends, meaning this story is going to take even long to continue. So sorry, but I just don't have the time to go through the chapter and edit it every day.

Notes on reviews:

Lil Angel 927: But now the second year has started, so more challenges are coming her way.

I'msorrymylove: Fluff scenes will be coming in the future (far in the future, but still; they'll be coming). Don't worry. Something is preventing her from telling anyone, but if she could she'd definitely tell Koschei. He'd have a much better reaction then Theta. And thank you for that amazing compliment.

Henny14: Thank you! Now that the first year is over, I'll be skipping around to important events. I just wanted to give an example of one of the years, and the first year seemed to be an obvious choice.

DW (Guest): Thanks! The Visiting Day Iota gets to go home is coming up, and that's extremely exciting. It felt like an interesting time in their lives to explore, especially since we know what happens between them later.