Chapter 3: A Pair-less Predicament

Welcome back! Sorry this is late, I've had a busy few days, but from now on I will try to upload a chapter every weekend (please hold me to that). Enjoy the chapter!

Hershel had to dodge people as they busily tried to get to their first lessons down the narrow corridor. He had had mixed feelings about his archaeology lessons, and finding out it was his very first subject of the day was not what he wanted to hear. He found a door with the number '28' written on the front, these numbers corresponded with the ones on his time table, so he pushed the door open and entered. On the other side was a small lecture theatre, where the rows of seats sloped downwards towards a desk and blackboard at the front. There were already a few students there, chatting and catching up with the friends they knew already from school or work. Hershel checked his watch, it was about five minutes before the lesson started, but the teacher was already there, sat behind the desk, with a short dark gray beard and mustache. Hershel found a seat at the very back of the lecture room (very purposely away from everyone else) and pulled out his books.

A little while later, the room was full of noisy teacher stood up and walked around to the front of his desk, Hershel could now see that he was rather short, and was wearing a brown coat. "Now, now, settle down please" he said sternly, but few heard him and they continued their chatter. The teacher tried again, but when that didn't work… "QUIET!" The room became silent at once, Hershel was quite taken aback by how loud a voice the small man had. The teacher glanced about the room in annoyance, then smiled. "There, much better." He leaned against his desk and crossed his arms. "Right, good morning everyone, my name is Dr. Schrader, I am one of your two archaeology teachers, the other is Mr. Delmona, and you are to respect him a you will respect me." By this, Hershel guessed that Mr. Delmona was slightly less strong willed than Dr. Schrader. "Now, let's begin."

The Lecture went quite well to start with, Hershel got plenty of notes down and understood the topic quite well. The only problem he was having, which was the one he'd been fearing, was that it all felt so...familiar. So familiar that, every time he looked up, he expected to see his sixth-form archeology teacher Mr Collins drawing on the blackboard, and every time Schrader finished a sentence, Hershel felt the absence of a hand shooting up beside him and asking a ton of questions. Perhaps it wasn't a bad thing there was no Randall to constantly interrupt the lecture, the thought, then mentally scolded himself. How could he dare even think like that? He could be a 'New Hershel' all he liked, but he would never himself forget the past, forget what he'd done.

About halfway through the lecture, after finishing his drawing of the Hieroglyphic alphabet, Dr. Schrader turned around to face the class. "Right, so, most of your other teachers are going to just drone on at you for hours, but I find that a bit boring." He smiled mischievously at them. "So, every so often, I'm going to throw a little challenge at you." He picked up a pile of laminated sheets. "This one will be in the form of a puzzle." Hershel gave a groan, just when he thought he had escaped from constant puzzles, puzzles, puzzles! But the worst was yet to come.. "And I'd like you all to work in pairs." Pairs? Why pairs? Puzzles could be done fine individually! And, well, he didn't particularly want to have to communicate with anyone. But people were already forming their pairs, perhap there would be an odd number of people and he could just do it on his own…

"Oh, and if you can't find a partner, just make a three with another pair."

Well, that was just great, wasn't it.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a young man, probably the same age as him, with dark blonde hair, wearing a white shirt and dark blue tank top. He was sat in the front row and was looking around nervously. After a moment, he spotted Hershel. The two locked their gaze for a few seconds, as if asking the question they felt too awkward to say out loud. Hershel smiled at him and gave a small nod, and instantly the man picked up his things and made his way towards him. His 'partner' sat beside him and smiled shyly. "Hi" he said quietly, "... You don't mind… umm.." Hershel smiled back at him.

"Not at all." He replied, causing a sigh of relief from the young man.

Dr. Schrader was handing out the sheets face down. "Don't turn them over yet" he repeated everytime he placed one on the desk in front of a pair. When he had finished, he returned to the front of the room and sat back at the desk, facing the class. "Right! You may begin now, let me know when you are finished." Hershel turned over the page and began to read the problem.

"You are sat at a table when your friend comes and sits opposite. They give you the piece of paper shown below. "It shouldn't take you long to work out, it's easy!" They tell you. Work out the answer."

"Answer?" Said his puzzle buddie in bewilderment. "But there isn't a question!" Hershel saw that he was right, paper shown on the sheet was just covered in random marks.

"Umm…" He cupped his chin in his hand and thought. Come on! All those years of being forced to solve puzzles must add up to something! He looked back at the text. "It shouldn't take you long to work out, it's easy!" That sentence reminded him of something else…

"Still struggling? But this is the simplest math problem ever!" Ah ha! Now Hershel remembered a puzzle Daston had given him a while back, where once he turned it upside down, it all made sense! "I've got it!" He exclaimed, the other man jump.

"You have?" He asked, shocked. "But… How?"

"Say I am the friend who gave you the puzzle" said Hershel, picking up the sheet and holding it in between them, so that it was was upside down from his point of view, but the right way up for the young man. "From where you're looking at it, the paper makes no sense, but for me-"

"Oh! I get it!" He exclaimed, taking the sheet from Hershel and turning it upside down. "Now, let's see…" He peered closely at the page. "... Hmm… It looks like, like some of the marks make letters!"

"Really?" Hershel leaned forward inquisitively. "What… Letter… Is… The… Owl?" He frowned, unsure what this meant, yet his friend grinned.

"M" Hershel looked at him in astonishment, but the young man nodded to the blackboard, where the Hieroglyphic alphabet was written down. Among all the letters and pictures was a rough drawing of an owl-like bird, and written next to that, M.

"Ah ha! I see!" Said Hershel excitedly. He raised his hand to show they had completed the task. Dr. Schrader looked up almost instantly.

"Oh? Finished already, are we? Alright everyone, stop what you're doing and listen to this young gentleman tell us how it's done."

What?

There were several annoyed groans from those who were close to working out the answer, then all eyes turned to him. Hershel mouth hung open in bewilderment, this wasn't part of the deal! He looked around nervously, then turned to his partner, who looked even more scared than he felt. Well, I might as well then. He stood up and cleared his throat, then proceeded to explain

the solution as best as he could. When he had finished, he noticed the students around him were whispering… Oh no nonononononnonono.

"Excellent! That was a tough one." Schrader nodded to the pair, then stood and began to collect in the sheets. Hershel sat down and glanced around… Some people were looking at him, but not in the judging, terrifying manner he had feared, but with impressed nods and friendly thumbs-ups. "That was very impressive, you two." Hershel awoke from his daydream as Schrader spoke to him. "What were your names?"

"Triton," said the man sat beside him, proudly. "Clark Triton."

"And you?"

"Umm, Hershel Layton, sir."

"Layton?" Schrader gave him an inquisitive look, then shook himself and picked up their sheet.

Hershel frowned. "Is there… something wrong, sir?"

"No no, nothing wrong," the teacher assured him. "I just, I knew a Layton awhile back, but I doubt you relate to him."

Hershel raised an eyebrow. "Well, my father studied here as an archaeologist, if that's relevant."

Schrader stopped, then looked back at him. "Roland, by any chance?"

"... Yeah."

"Oh," the old man exclaimed, surprised. "Well, in that case, I knew your father." He gave Hershel a friendly smile. "You look nothing like him."

"Urr…" Hershel hesitated, unsure how to react. "... Thank you?"

Schrader laughed. "Well, at least that will explain your talent with puzzles."

Hershel chuckled in reply. "Yep, definitely my father we're talking about."


Clark didn't return to his original seat, and sat next to Hershel for the rest of the lesson. When it was time to go, Hershel packed up his things and headed for his next class. As he was making his way down the corridor, he heard footsteps follow him, until they were walking along side his own. "Hershel, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, and you're… Clark?"

"That's right…" Clark smiled sheepishly. "Umm, that was some good puzzle skills back there."

"Thanks." Hershel returned. "You too."

Clark smiled awkwardly. "Well, once you'd work out the first part, the rest wasn't that hard, was it?"

Hershel chuckled reassuringly. "Come now, few people would have even considered that he would have left half the puzzle in the room." Clark just nodded at this, then checked his watch.

"Well, I'd better get going," he began to jog off in a different direction, and waved back at Hershel. "See you around!" Then he was gone. Hershel stood looking after him for a moment, the carried on walking, smiling to himself. First lesson and you already have a friend, not bad, he thought to himself. Better that you were expecting, I suppose.

Hope you liked it! Just so you know, I have literally no idea what uni is like, so sorry if these lesson scenes are not very realistic, but I'll only have to do a few more and then I shouldn't need to add them into the story so much. Please review, follow and favourite and I'll see you next time! Goodbye!