Chapter 4: Marvels in Mechanics

Hi guys! Hope you're enjoying to story so far, but I'm not sure this chapter is as good as the others, but still, enjoy!

Next lesson: Mechanics. Back is Stansbury, people only knew Hershel as an archaeologist (or Randall's right-hand man), but the boy had always been fascinated and talented in mechanics, and had decided to take a course in it. After some wandering the corridors, he found his classroom, which turned out to look identical to his archaeology room, and had a quick look around for a good seat. He was torn between playing it safe and sitting alone or, as proved useful last lesson, try to make friends. He glanced about him, and found that he could already pick out groups: populars, cool geeks, nerds etcetera. At school he had spent a lot of time thinking about the ways people put themselves into these categories, and a lot more time wondering which one he could fit in to. He had just been Randall's best friend, and Randall was what he called a 'drifter'; one week he'd be hanging out with the populars, the next he would have had an argument with one of them and moved on to the geeks, and where Randall went, Hershel followed. This had worked fine for him, before he moved to Stansbury, he had to make do with the nerds because he felt like he wasn't worthy of anything higher. He shook the thoughts away, he was in university now, those groups probably didn't apply anymore. But what if they do? What if it's school before Stansbury all over again? I'm NOT going back into the nerds, and even the geeks is out of my league! He sighed to himself sadly, perhaps I'm just better off alo- AHH!

Hershel flew forward as someone ran full pelt into the back of him. He held his hands out to catch himself, but they landed on the edge of a step and slipped off, causing him to fall flat on his chest, knocking the wind from his lungs. A commotion started up around him. "What happened?" "Are you alright?" "Hey! Watch where you're going!" A pair of hands pulled Hershel onto his feet.

"Oh, goodness! Are you ok? I am so sorry!" Hershel straightened his cap and looked up at the owner of the apology. He was about the same height as Hershel, with long, dark brown hair that went past his shoulders, a plump, pointed mustache and a short, square beard. His nose was long and sharp, and he had small, black eyes. He must have been a good couple of years older than Hershel and was giving him a concerned frown.

"That's… Fine." Hershel replied, irritated and through gritted teeth, dusting off his sleeves. He pick up his books and found a seat at the back of the room, alone.

"I am really, very sorry about that" said the man who had just knocked him over, he dropped his books on the table and sat next to him. Hershel nearly groaned, really? "I was running late, literally." The man chuckled at his own joke. "I didn't see you, and, if there's any thing I can-"

"No, no, really, that's fine." Hershel forced a smile. "Um, I'm Hershel Layton."

The man beamed and held out a hand, which Hershel reluctantly took. "Paul Donovan, pleased to meet you, Layton!"

"Urr, just Hershel is fi-" Hershel began, then realised Paul wasn't looking at him anymore, but just passed him with a wistful smile. Hershel turned around, but saw nothing extraordinary, only that other guys were also behavinging in a similar manner, nudging their friends and nodding in the direction of… A girl. Paul gave a sigh.

"That's Claire Foley," said Paul, fascinated. "She was 3 years below me at school, and… Well…" He blushed. Hershel turned back to the girl, who had just sat down. He didn't really see what all the fuss was about, she was pretty, yes, with light brown hair that flowed in waves down over her shoulders, but nothing to get too excited about.

"Good morning everyone." Began the teacher, in an extremely slow and tedious voice. Hershel turned his attention from the girl onto the ancient man at the front. "Welcome to Gressenheller."


"I love mechanics!" Paul exclaimed as they packed away their books.

"I did." Hershel mumbled, trying as fast as he could to get as far away from the room as possible. He never thought he'd see the day some managed to make engineering boring, now he was wondering how he was going to survive the course. He joined the flood of students escaping the lecture theater, Paul yattering the whole way out. When he had finally reached the hallway, he realised Paul was no longer walking with him, he turn to see that Paul had stopped in his tracks, and was staring in shock at something. Hershel followed his gaze, oh, Claire again. Closer up, she was even prettier than he had assumed when he had seen her from a distance. She had round glasses and large eyes, her hair had a hint of ginger to it, and she had a very beautiful nose. Really? Of all things you like her nose? She was with a rather tall young man with grey, curly hair, who was teasing her and making her giggle. Hershel glanced over at Paul, whose face was the very definition of fury. His hands had become tight fists and his teeth were clenched, was he really getting so worked up and jealous over this? He started to stamp over to the two, when Hershel grabbed him by the shoulder. "I- I wouldn't." He warned. "Might not make the greatest of impressions." Paul looked back at him in surprise, then took a breath.

"... Yeah, sorry about that," he turned and began to walk off in the other direction, quite red with embarrassment. "Th-thanks for stopping me."

"Don't worry about it." Hershel nodded, then started off the other way. He wasn't sure he wanted to spend that much time around Paul, so far, he seemed like a bit of a lunatic.


"Hey son! How was your first day!" Roland's cheery voice called down the phone. When Hershel had got back to his room he discovered that his father had tried to contact him and instantly called him back.

"Great, thanks Pa," he replied nervously.

"Excellent! Make any friends?"

"Yeah, one or two" Hershel assured him, wondering if Paul counted.

"Good man! So, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, look, Pa" he wanted to get this matter out of the way before anything else. "About that money you gave me…" There was a bit of a pause, when Roland replied.

"Spend it! Treat yourself! It's yours!" He said merrily, yet quietly and his voice was slightly shaky.

"I know, it's just, I'm wondering if you meant to give me so much."

"Of course! Besides, after seeing that room of yours, I'm wondering if it's enough!"

"Pa," Hershel shortly. "You don't need it, do you?"

"Look, Hershel, if we were in any money trouble at all, I wouldn't have given it to you."

"That's not what what I meant, I-" he stopped, unsure have to, or whether he wanted to, carry this on. "... Just, nevermind."

"Good lad." Roland changed the subject quickly. "So, how were your lessons?"

"They were alright" Hershel replied, still concerned about the money, then. "Oh, that reminds me, I think my archaeology teacher used to know you." He could almost see Roland raise and eyebrow.

"Really? What's the name?"

"Does Schrader ring any bells?" Another pause, followed by a jolly laugh.

"It certainly does!" Roland exclaimed. "You mean Andrew? Andrew is a teacher?!" Then he proceeded to tell Hershel about all the artifacts Schrader had found and awards he had won. He sat and listened to his father with wonder, was this celebrity of the archaeology world really his teacher? "You're in luck, my boy! With that man teaching you, there's no way you'll fail any exams!"

"So, did you meet him at university?" Hershel asked, interrupting the ongoing speech.

"Oh, no! At a dig site!" Then began to ramble on about all the things they found and the times they had and blah blah blah… "Anyway, that's enough from me, I'd better go, I'll see you later."

"Bye Pa, see you soon." Then he hung up and placed the phone on the table. He lay back on his bed and put his hands behind his head. Not a bad day, he thought, scary, but not bad at all.

Hope you liked the chapter! Please review as it would be greatly appreciated and I'll see you next weekend, goodbye!