Tay looked up at the door as it read "Cooking class 2236 Ms. Smith". Tay frowned as the name on the door reminded her of her previous female teacher, whom she still didn't know the name of. Tay stretched her arms out in the air and opened the door. There at the front of the class stood a medium tall woman with short black hair. Ms. Smith turned to look at the new student entering the class - with only a few seconds until class began - and grunted.
"Hurry up and sit down," Her dark black eyes darted away from Tay and continued with whatever she was doing on the board. Tay glanced around and sat at the back of the class with two other people.
"Hello," said a high nasal voice. "My name's Karen." Tay turned to meet the girl and tried to hide her alarm. The girl appeared to be stuck up and rich, she was wearing some expensive looking jewelry and clothes. Her lemon yellow hair and pale skin made her acne stand out, despite the wads of cover-up she had plastered against it. Her sharp grey eyes glared down at Tay – she was by far the taller of the two – and her thin nose stuck up, as though she was more important than anyone else. Tay smiled back and gave the girl her name, but inside after she had noticed these unpleasant features she somehow knew that she did not like this girl. Hoping that the classmate on her other side would be more fun, Tay turned to see. But unfortunately, the other one on the other hand had a hood over their face and seemed to be trying to avoid her attention.
"Alright everyone look at the magic board and sit in your designated seats. There are no exceptions, so sit where you're told." The teacher said, sounded very bored.
Tay looked at the board and to her amusement she was supposed to sit next to Beth and some other person named Basil. Well at least I know what to expect from her. Tay thought remembering Beth from this morning with distaste. She walked over to her new seat tripping over a couple people but still managing getting there in one piece – which was quite an accomplishment for Tay. She sat down and found out the hooded she was sitting with before was already there. So that's Basil. She figured by the name it was a guy. Tay all of a sudden had a cold shiver run down her spine. She turned behind her to see Beth walking towards the table giving her an evil glare. Her green eyes seemed to freeze Tay. Tay didn't dare stop looking at Beth because she couldn't help but think Beth would hit her at any given moment. Shadow seemed to have noticed and started to growl quietly while also glaring at Beth.
"Meh. I'm just surprised you haven't been thrown out yet," sneered Beth, sitting down next to her and edging her seat as far away as she could. "Just look at you now. You've already broken yet again another school code. Number 435, section B no creatures of any sort are allowed in the school. Perhaps I'll help the teachers out and get rid of you so that they don't waste their time on someone who doesn't even want this education. You damaged my beautiful dreams! I worked my bones off to get where I am today and just one person ruined it all in one go!!" Tay looked at Beth with a shocked expression. She couldn't believe what she just heard. This was not fair, but Tay knew she could not afford to get expelled form this school. Not with her mother breathing behind her neck every moment.
"I am SO sorry. Could you please except my apology?" Tay went on her knees and looked at Beth with the best puppy eyes she could make. Beth looked at the kneeling Tay and appeared as if she was appalled by it. She shook her head.
"Perhaps I will give you one more chance. But mess up in any way and I'm sending you out of here in a heart beat." Tay was relieved. So she quickly got up and sat down again.
"You two!!" yelled a voice, making Tay jump. "What are you doing? Hurry up and get in your seats! Tay! What's that dog doing here? Dispose of it at once. Things of that sort do not belong in this classroom." The teacher snarled. She didn't seem to be in a good mood.
"Um, Ms. Smith was it?" began Tay. I received this "thing" from my second class; it's supposed to be with me at all times. He's well behaved and will not get in the way." Tay tried to say this as politely as she could. She couldn't be expelled on the first day of school. Let alone because of Beth.
"Fine but it must be in this cage until class is over." replied the teacher. "But I will be speaking to your second class teacher. As for the rest of the class, your first job is to go through the book which is on your table in front of you. Do every recipe in it. This assignment will have to be complete in a week. Hand in everything you complete directly to me. Now begin."
As she completed the sentence white shiny tables appeared, growing out of the floor with a thick, easily over a thousand page book on it. Along with the tables appeared a green marble kitchen spread all along the walls of the class. Everything seemed beautiful but Tay hardly had a chance to notice because the big book was scaring her too much. It appeared to say 1/23 on the cover. Tay was horrified as to what the 1/23 was supposed to indicate.
"Tay." came a voice Tay was beginning to loath. "Hurry up and put your animal in the cage – it's time to begin the class. And you! Basil was it? I want to know your strong points in cooking. I want to know how useful you will be." Beth was already barking commands. Tay went over to the front of the class where the teacher stood.
"Good. Put him in the cage over there," the teacher pointed to a wooden cage which was right beside the door which Tay entered the class in. Tay walked over to the wooden cage and place Shadow inside. Shadow looked up at her and seemed to be concerned.
"Don't worry it's only for this class-" Tay reassured Shadow and walked back to her group. She didn't want Beth to expel her just because she took too long placing Shadow in the wooden cage. Though that probably wasn't a rule, she wasn't going to take any more chances.
"Good." Beth nodded. "Basil go and start boiling water and cutting the herbs. Tay, go and get the three containers labeled sinex, trecent and sulfur. Then measure one table spoon of each and mix them in a large bowl. Remember the measurements-"
"I know I'm not dumb!" Tay replied as politely as she could manage. "But what are we making? Surely we can't eat sinex, trecent and Sulfur."
"We're using it to cook the stuff. Just go you two! You wouldn't understand if I told you in detail." Tay went to her groups' kitchen section and went looking for the stuff.
"Ch' she doesn't have to be so mean." Tay was mumbled as she was opened and closed cupboards. She was terribly unhappy with the turn of events.
"It's in this cupboard." said a deep voice that sent shivers up Tay's spine. Looking up, Tay saw the hooded guy holding the three tiny bottles. All were a different colour one red, one orange and one yellow. For a reason unfamiliar to her, Tay found herself taking note that Basil was pretty tall. And Tay was somehow tempted to pull his hood so she could see his face. Tay shook her head, and she was back to normal. She then convinced herself it was her curiosity.
"Thank you!" Tay smiled at him in appreciation and got out a large bowl.
She decided she'd start the mixing, to show Beth that she wasn't an idiot. She got out a table spoon and opened the lid of the first bottle. She measured and poured for the sinex and trecent. But as she was measuring the sulfur – *bump*
"Ah damn!!" Tay was so upset now she could easily turn around and kill the person who just recklessly bumped into her. But before she could turn *BOOOM* the bowl exploded and dark smoke quickly filled the room. Tay chocked on the smoke and started to cough uncontrollably. Soon there was a flash of soft green light and the room of smoke cleared. Tay saw she had cuts on her hands because of the bowls explosion and she felt a sharp sting on her left check.
"What the hell did you do?!!" both Beth and the teacher boomed at the same time. Tay fought back a laugh; even their expressions were the same. Both looked like they were ready to kill her, which is how she fought back the laughter.
"Some one bumped into to me as I was pouring Sulfur. Then it went *kaboom* as you can see." Tay's face was expressionless. The day had sucked away all her emotions. This was definitely the worst day of her life so far.
"Who ran into Tay? Tell me now!" shrieked the teacher. No one moved an inch.
"Tay, no one's coming forward so all I've got is your word. Should I trust you?" Yet again no one moved, except for Beth.
"I wouldn't. She slept for all of my first class and even got me in trouble for trying to wake her! And now I have detention." Beth didn't appear to be trying to be mean however she just made Tay's day a lot worse.
"Well then. It appears to be you don't have the best reputation and it's only the first day of school. So as your punishment your group must finish this assignment in half a week."
Tay nodded and silently walked back to her group's table. She avoided Beth's hostile glare, wondering which would be better; her mother's punishment or staying in that school and dealing with everyone's way of torturing her.
***
Why did she have to be stuck with that brat in two thirds of her classes? Beth wondered, madly chopping apart the onions. This girl … this Tay … was really going to destroy her plans for the future. What did she think she was doing, messing in cooking class? And falling asleep in magic class, it was by far the most interesting class out of the three Beth had, anyway. Why couldn't she have Bola in this class? Bola had seemed like a good, dedicated student. And … Beth pondered, trying to find the right word … well, like me, she concluded, when compared to this monster.
"Do we need any other ingredients?" came a voice from right behind her shoulder.
"No, I don't think so," Beth replied, stiffly, regnoizing the voice and having a sudden mad urge to turn around and stab Tay with the knife. For the second time that day, she thanked her mother for making her take those yoga classes.
"Can I start the next potion then?" asked Tay. At this, Beth did turn around, after hastily putting down the knife. She glared into Tay's dark blue eyes with her own hazel. She needed to show this animal who was in control.
"No," Beth said, firmly, before turning back to continue to chopping the onions.
"Hey!" the voice cried out, annoying Beth. Couldn't it tell that she was already beyond annoyed? And mad? And furious? She would hit insanity by the end of the day at this rate.
"No, you can't get any more ingredients," Beth sighed, her white knuckled hand continuing to chop.
"It's not that," the voice answered. "It's that book in your bag. The black dusty one." Beth had not been expecting that, and thereby found herself following the other girl's gaze. Her eyes saw her history book that Mr. Varo had lent her, because she had been so far ahead in her studies. Beth felt her cheeks warm, she had never been praised like that before, but after a moment or two shook her head to respond.
"What about it?"
"Isn't that symbol on the door to the magic classroom?" asked Tay.
"What?" Beth nearly laughed. Was this girl blind? "Or course not!" But they had work to do, and she didn't have time for stupid, wasted conversations like this. "I'm done the onions, so after I've added them, we can move on to the next assignment. For that we'll need …" Beth looked at the textbook carefully, pushing her round glasses up her nose. "Yare, gaffe and lope."
"Okay," said Tay. Beth thought for a moment she heard something funny in her voice, but when she turned around to ask, Tay was already walking towards the shelves again. Shrugging, deciding it wasn't worth asking, Beth began to drop the onions pieces into the pot, one at a time.
About five minutes later, the school bell rang throughout the hallways. Beth cleaned up their cooking utensils and then quickly began to sweep the floor. She was about to start a conversation with Tay, until Tay dropped the teacher's finest plate. After a storm of yells from both the teacher herself (who, like Beth, no longer trusted Tay) and Beth, they were told to leave before they broke anything else.
Then when they were cleaning the magic classroom, Tay accidently slipped on a potion on the floor, knocking over several bookshelves. Beth lost her patience and made Tay pick up every single book and put them back on the shelves in alphabetical order. For the rest of the relentless afternoon of detention, in which they cleaned until their hands were raw red, there was also a dry silence in the air between them.