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Jacin

Another handful of students rushed into the Transfiguration classroom, panting for breath and pale as ghosts. Jacin didn't have to look to know that they were already opening their mouths to stammer out useless apologies and excuses. Today, they were wasting their breath even more than usual, since Professor Mira was even later than they were. Class had officially started ten minutes ago and there was still no sign of the tall witch. Not that Jacin was complaining. The woman was a total hag.

He polished off the last sentence of his charms essay and slipped the paper into his textbook. That was the last piece of homework he had with him, and he wasn't about to risk two weeks detention going to pick up some more. He would have to find something else to keep him occupied.

Jacin turned to the student sitting next to him. "Hey Kai, can I borrow one of your books? And don't pretend you don't have any, I know for a fact you always carry some novel with you to lessons."

Kai didn't answer. He was scowling at his desk, his eyes narrowed with thought and confusion.

Jacin rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers in front of his nose. The other Regolith yelped with surprise and blinked rapidly.

"Good, you're back on earth." Jacin grumbled, "Now give me a book, I'm bored."

"I don't have a book with me."

"And Sybil Mira has a heart of gold. Hand it over Royal."

Sighing, Kai fished through the stack of books piled under his desk, finally tossing a volume onto Jacin's. One look at the cover was enough to make him wrinkle his nose with distaste. Seriously? Was this really Kai's idea of good reading material or just his idea of a joke? Probably the former. It would be just like Kai to read A Complete History of Magic for enjoyment. Of all the people Jacin had to sit next to, did it have to be a wannabe scholar?

He shot Kai a glare. "Thanks, this will be the perfect cure for my boredom."

"Well, the other options are pretty much more of the same." Kai told him.

"Are they all as thick as this one? Knocking Thorne out will definitely improve my mood."

Kai tugged the book out of Jacin's hand. "Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to lend them to you now."

Groaning, Jacin slid down in his seat, staring with half-closed eyes at the empty teacher's desk. He almost wished Professor Mira would arrive. Almost.

"Can I get your opinion on something?" Kai suddenly asked him.

Jacin glanced at him. "Is it on something stupid?"

"Uh, no?"

"I'll take that as a yes."

Kai huffed. "It's not stupid! It's about the wellbeing of a fellow student!"
"You want to talk about Cinder."

"Yes." He admitted.

"Not when I don't have my barf bag with me."

"I'm not going to gush about her!"

"What, like you weren't gushing about her at breakfast this morning?"

"You said you were bored didn't you? It's talking to me about Cinder or staring at the wall."

"I'll take staring at the wall."

"You don't have a choice."

Jacin sighed. Forget wannabe scholar, Kai was a lovestruck moron. "Fine, but try not to let it drag on or I will stuff my Charms homework in your mouth."

Kai smirked briefly at him, but his smile faded almost as quickly as it came, a frown growing in its place. "I'm worried about Cinder. She's been acting weird ever since she fainted."

"Why don't you talk to her about it instead of wasting my time?" Jacin grumbled

"You're not doing anything else right now are you? And I've tried to ask her, but every time I approach her she walks away!"

"So you did something wrong that made her uncomfortable or whatever. It's not Arithmancy Kai."

His copper eyes stretched wide with horror. "Wait, you think she's acting weird because of something I did?"

Jacin shrugged. "Well, she hasn't exactly been avoiding the rest of us from what I can see. I saw her chatting openly enough with Iko earlier today."

Kai moaned and rested his forehead on the table, muttering to himself miserably.

Jacin raised an eyebrow at him. He'd never pegged Kai as a dramatist, but this was ridiculous! "It's not that big a deal, just go and apologise to her next time you see her."

"Oh yeah, that's totally easy when she's avoiding me at all costs!"

Jacin shrugged. "Figure something out. I'm not playing matchmaker for you."

"Couldn't there be any other reason?" Kai asked him desperately, "Anything?"

Jacin clenched his jaw with annoyance. Mental note, bring all of your homework to class next time so you don't have to play life-coach. Seriously, why did he have to be the one to handle Kai's personal problems?

Well, he might as well humour him if that will get him to shut up. "Fine. Maybe she's finally realised that her promise to the centaurs was stupid and impossible and she's just as good as sentenced the rest of us to death? We're already a whole month into the school year. Only one more and it's the Christmas holidays. The centaurs aren't going to wait forever."

Relief glimmered in Kai's eyes. Was the idea of being murdered by centaurs honestly more appealing than upsetting Cinder? This guy's priorities were seriously misplaced. "Not totally impossible. We just have to take it one step at a time."
"The steps don't exist Mr Optimism."

"Except for the first one. The school's found some way of making the werewolves change form early, right? All we have to do is find out how they're doing that, and how to stop it."

"He said, like it was actually possible."

"It is! Are you forgetting that we happen to know one of the werewolves in question?"

Jacin glanced back at Wolf, who was twitching and fidgeting ceaselessly. "Are you forgetting that that particular werewolf has been avoiding us like we have the plague?"

Bad choice of words.

Kai flinched and Jacin felt an unexpected sting of regret. He knew why Kai had skipped school yesterday. He'd realised when he heard Kai dance delicately around a proper answer whenever anyone asked him if he was alright. And it wasn't hard to figure out just what had called Rikan Royal to an early grave.

Shaking off the painful memory, Kai called up a cocky grin. "Not all of us." His gaze flicked pointedly over to Scarlet, who had long since fallen asleep and was snoring loudly as she lay on her desk.

Jacin shot the redhead a glare. "If you want her to grill him for information, you're going to have a hard time of it."

"What makes you say that."

"She's acting like a mother hen towards Wolf. I already tried asking her to talk to him because she's the closest to him, and she just yelled at me a bunch of junk about respect for privacy and all that. And put flobberworm mucus in my pumpkin juice when I wasn't looking."

"I'm sure she'll come around once we explain the seriousness of the situation." Kai said confidently, "Wolf probably knows all about the school's thing with the werewolves. If we can just ask him-"

The classroom door flew open with a bang, cutting him off. Jacin instinctively turned to the source of the noise and scowled furiously at the smug figure striding across the room.

Professor Park wove between the desks, firing sparks at the students who had fallen asleep, including Scarlet. She yelped in pain as the points of light zapped her freckled skin and glared at the teachers back, vengeance glittering in her eyes.

Satisfied that he had every student's attention, Professor Park stepped up to the front of the classroom, his cloak sweeping dramatically as he turned to face the class.

Pity Jacin couldn't glare and roll his eyes at the same time.

Professor Park's gaze swept over the young witches and wizards like a vulture eyeing its prey. "Good morning class. Unfortunately, Professor Mira won't be teaching class today so I will be your substitute teacher."

Thorne snorted in suppressed laughter. He looked very pleased with himself.

Professor Park's brow crinkled as he looked at him, for once not so much angry as… confused. But what was so confusing about Thorne pulling a prank?

A/N: Ah, I've missed Jacin's sarcasm.

The gang has got a load of problems on their hands. They have made zero progress on defeating the werewolves, their one source of information isn't cooperating, their only friend who can get him to cooperate isn't cooperating, and Cinder's acting weird for reasons absolutely no one knows except you guys. How will they deal with this flood of dilemmas? Why was Aimery confused when he looked at Thorne? When will we get some action in this story?

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