Chapter 1—The Worst Meeting

I trudged back to the dorm, ready to end the day. My bag was loaded with books from the library. I couldn't slack off just because I was worried about Selene. I don't know what I was thinking this weekend, not studying. I've got to work harder for a while to make up for it. And that's not even mentioning the work I've got to do for Klaus, prefect work and all. Though, that part wasn't too hard, to be honest. Klaus just did far more than he needed to.

"Huh?! Hey! Wait!" I heard a voice cry as I approached the dorm, "Hey! Come back here! I need to get inside!"

I was confused. It sounded like a girl, but why would she be by the boys' dorm so close to curfew? "Oh, what am I going to do…?" I heard her moan, "It'll be really bad if the door runs off somewhere…! I've gotta do something! Alright, um, the spell to change it back to normal…"

I came in sight of the front of the building seeing an unfamiliar girl—wearing the uniform, shorter than even Selene, with brown hair pulled into childish pigtails—scrambling to cast some sort of spell as the door itself ran about on some new legs. I dropped my bag and walked over without thinking, serious aura about me, pulling out my wand and opening my mouth to cast a spell. I made sure to pull the girl behind me where she wouldn't do more harm—it was most likely her bungled spell that caused this mess. "I command thee to return to thine true form! Supasaman Mundi!" Magical power quickly gathered at the end of my wand and shaped itself into an arrow of light. This was a simple spell for breaking simple mistakes. The arrow shot at the door, of course hitting dead center. The door began to shine, and flew past us as an arrow itself towards the door frame, becoming a door once more.

The girl stared at me in awe, "That...that was amazing!"

I turned to face her, lowering my wand. "What are you doing here?" I said curtly.

"Oh, uh, I was just…" she stumbled over her words. It was irritating. I very strongly disliked it when people couldn't just come out and say something.

"Didn't you know this was the boys' dorm?" I gave her a sharp look.

The surprised look on her face made me want to roll my eyes, but I refrained from doing so. Selene would scold me...wait. She wasn't back yet. That thought made the worry that had been nagging me the past few days come back in full force, though I didn't show it. I have picked up a thing to two from my older brother.

"Huh?! The boys' dorm?!" she looked embarrassed, then irritated, though not at me.

I sighed inwardly, "I haven't seen you around here, but judging from your clothes...a new student, I presume?"

"Oh, um, yes!" She responded quickly. Have I ever mentioned that I really don't like filler words like "uh" or "um" before?

"Quite daring of you to try and infiltrate the boys' dorm on your first day." I said, feeling contrary.

"You've got it all wrong!" She looked panicked now, "This was just a, a misunderstanding…!"

"Hmm...on top of that," I continued, ignoring her protests, "you couldn't even cast a door opening spell...were you really accepted into this school?"

She looked mildly offended, "...Yes! Yes I was!"

I wanted to snort, but again had the thought of how Selene would whack me on the back of the head for being so rude, "I'm hard pressed to believe you." Not even Selene was that pathetic when she arrived, and she was a major screw up at first! "Then, how about this? I'll present you with a question?"

"Huh?! A question…?" she looked confused. Just how thick was this girl?

"It'll be very easy, one of those things everyone knows. If you can't answer it, you should probably just go home." It'll be something, even Selene, who'd been self taught in a different, nonmagical dimension, would've known when she first got here, and this wasn't even her first language! Well, it might have been, but since English is spoken back in Terra, I assume she learned it first. But I know for sure she didn't learn history of this country all too well until she got here.

She gulped, looking nervous. A wizard(ess) with no confidence in themselves shouldn't be a magic user. "The dragon who guided the First King to Gedonelune, and became the purpose of the founding of this school, ruled over which power?" See? Simple basic question anyone who grew up in this country should know.

She relaxed, "Time!" She declared, "He was the Dragon of Time!"

"Oh well." I sighed, "Looks like you know basic history." She looked irritated. What, was she expecting praise? "In any case," I continued, "if you can't even cast a spell this simple…do you really think you can keep up in class?" I knew I was being mean, but if she can't handle it, she'll do naught but fail in life.

Her shoulder slumped, and she mumbled something that sounded like a protest.

"And you hadn't even memorized the spell correctly. Normally, you study first, then…" She looked very scolded as I started to lecture her. I am the substitute prefect at the moment, and it's the prefect's duty to make sure students don't make the same stupid mistakes twice.

She listened in silence for a few moments, then her eyes widened. So did mine. Her emblem was glowing. I glanced at my own, and it was doing the same.

"Huh?!" she sounded extremely confused.

"Wha...what's going on!" I gasped as a glowing light sphere enveloped us. In an instant, it burst and rained little light particles on the two of us...crap...

"What just…" she began.

"You can't be serious…!" I cried out.

She looked at me, "What?"

"There's just no way...this can't happen!" I looked at the girl, feeling irritated panic rise in my chest, "I'm a buddy with, with...you?!"

Her brow furrowed in confusion, "...buddy?"

Irritation beat back panic, "This must be some sort of mistake! I won't accept this!" I put my wand back up, "Aperio Porta!" The dorm door opened and I summoned my bag which sped into my hand before furiously storming into the dorm.

"Wow…" I heard the girl—who's name I didn't even know—whisper, "He shortened the spell…" As if that's anything special! I thought angrily, Klaus doesn't even need an incantation most of the time! "Wait…this is no time to be impressed!" She scolded herself before calling out to me as I was about to slam the door behind me, "What was that, anyway? What's a 'buddy' thing?" Does she not even know proper grammar?! I mentally growled as I shut the door.

Just then, the bell for curfew rang. "I've got to hurry to the girls' dorm!" she was again talking to herself. I was thinking about helping her a bit earlier, but now I had no desire to do so. Most people were no longer in the common room, but there were a few people lingering about. I sighed, 'time to do my duty as dorm master.' I pushed the recent event to the back of my mind for the moment and went over and told everyone it was time to head back to their rooms. A few mumbled and groaned, but they all did what I asked. The only one who didn't do anything was Luca, who was messing with some strands of light that he had coming out of the end of his wand. The boy had more magical ability than he knew what to do with. I don't think it's fair that the one person who couldn't care less has such ability, while I, who works so hard, can't have more than average magical abilities.

"Luca, time to go back to your room." I deadpanned.

"You're not going back to yours." he retorted.

"I've got a job to do. You don't."

"Eh, have fun with that." He went back to his light threads. I rubbed my temples, feeling the headache I always got when having to deal with him.

"Luca, if you don't just listen for once and do what you're told, I'll…"

"You'll what?" He taunted, smirking, "Make the dorm door grow legs?"

I felt an angry blush begin to rise in my face as I remembered the whole emblem incident, "Luca!" I glared at him, "What did you do?"

He raised his hands innocently, though the glint in his eye was anything but, "I didn't do anything."

"Luca…" I growled, silently demanding an answer from him.

"Fine then," he cackled, "I helped a little lost Kittycat when she asked how to get to the dorm building. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got somewhere to be." He stood up and quickly walked off.

"LUCA!"

…. …. ….

I hadn't managed to find Luca again to thoroughly scold him, and in the end returned to my room with a pounding headache. I dropped off my bag onto my bed and went straight for my nightstand, opening the drawer and removing some chocolate. I opened the wrapper and took a bite. By the time I finished it, my headache receded a good deal. Sugar usually helped. It didn't hurt that it tasted good, too.

Yukiya was getting ready to go to bed. "There was a magic note that came for you. It's on your desk. And what happened?" He asked in his usual uninterested (that tended to be what it came across as even when he was very happy or excited) tone. Before Selene came along, Yukiya hardly spoke a few words a day—now, he'd speak at least what seemed to be several full sentences. Selene had a great effect on most everybody.

I sighed and explained the girl I'd met earlier, and when I got to the part shortly following the lighting up, I began to relentlessly rant in frustration. Yukiya listened silently. He was good at that. "And to make it worse," I continued, "It turns out that it was Luca's fault! He was the one who played the trick on her and caused this whole thing to happen! As if I don't have enough to do already! He wouldn't dare do something like that if Selene was here…!" I cut myself off sharply when I mention our silver-eyed friend. Both of us are worried about her, and bringing her up doesn't help any. I bite my lip, regretting it already.

"But she's not here." He said softly, climbing into his bed, "Besides, think of your brother and his buddy. Will it be that bad, having your own?"

I stared at him, astonished, then shook my head, "You don't understand. If she can't even perform the simple spell to open the dorm door, how bad will her marks in class be? I can't afford to let my grades drop, Yukiya." I didn't mention that it was the only way to keep my father from nagging me constantly to do something useful with my life—he doesn't seem to understand that I'm not good at social skills and the like, as Percy is, or have the immense magical talent of Klaus. Compared to those two, I'm merely average. Mediocre. Ordinary. And it killed me.

He gave me one last glance and turned onto his side, facing away from me. "Selene is right. You are too obsessed with your grades." He didn't say another word after that

I think this is the closest the two of us have ever come to bickering. I go to the desk and read the magic note—which is from the Headmaster. As substitute prefect, I've got to show the newest student to his office tomorrow morning. That's just wonderful. I huff and begin unloading my bag. I've got an hour or two of studying to do before I go to sleep. Snow, the kitten Yukiya found a few months ago that we've been keeping in the room, decides to hop up onto my shoulders and rub her face against my cheek, purring. Normally, this is soothing, but I'm so frustrated and irritated, I can't seem to get much of anything done. Dang it all.


Fun Fact 2: As it turns out (I was looking at Elias' wikia page) Yukiya and Elias do keep a kitten named Snow in their room, information apparently gotten from the official facebook page. Who knew? I thought it'd be cute to have it around in this, even if we probably won't see much more of Snow. ;)