A/N: Wow. Without Author's Notes or disclaimers this chapter is 5,111 words long. That's longer than every individual chapter to date, plus A/Ns and whatnot. Welcome to the last chapter of the first day of school! I decided about halfway through this chapter that it was time to move along with the story, but I needed to make up for lost time so I left in the second section for multiple reasons, some personal. c: I happen to like both parts of this chapter, even though they both started a bit rough. And I want you guys to see the normal side of Sahar instead of just a raging ball of hate for Jin Wen, as well as introduce Cass who, in my opinion, is probably one of the coolest female submissions I received.

Also, henceforth any characters mentioned but not named - exceptions being Jin Wen, who is mentioned during Cassiopeia's class but never named (simply out of her personality) - are not submissions and therefore will only make appearances during certain occasions, such as a particular class or when the entire school is gathered. This is only to avoid adding more names to the already giant list of 32 students. Yeah that's right. I counted them all. o.e

And has anyone noticed the differences in everyone's perspective? Such as students from past eras describing modern day tech? Bceause I'm trying to weave that into the story - especialy the latter half of this chapter - as an effect. No one seems to have commented on it yet, so I'm not sure if people really paid attention to it. Just a thought.

Disclaimer: I own no copyrights affiliated with any Disney film, characters, or items thereof and therefore do not have any monetary gain in writing and publishing this story. I do, however, own the rights to my own OC's to be mentioned in this story: Leanne Hawkins, Arthur Robinson, Renak, and Mitzi, as well as any others I may create as the story continues. I do not own the rights to any OC's submitted and used in the story, I only have expressed permission by their creators to exploit them.

Enjoy!

Cassiopeia Raiden

Half of the day was over and yet it was still kind of... boring. I'm not sure, but somehow it didn't seem to live up to my expectations yet. Although I could at least say my roommates - Rilanna and Armelle, I believe - and the food were enough to make me stay and enjoy the simple things. Although I was a bit worried at first, having two sophomores for roommates and all. But Riley, as she insisted I call her, was pretty liberal and easy-going, and Army, as I insisted on calling her, stated she would do her best to keep her cleaning tendencies in check. Not that I minded coming home to a clean dorm.

Lunch went by almost too quickly and went out with a bang after a couple of underclassmen had a fight. Well, argument. There was almost no violence, so the term "fight" didn't fit the bill. After that the whole school was in a buzz, because off in another area of the school a real fight had happened, injuries and all. Except it was just a bunch of animals. Well I guess I shouldn't say it in that way, or Phil would kill me. It was just a bunch of animal students.

Now I was off to whatever my next class was, I recall it being about debates as that happened to be my forté. It was taught by some spazzy guy with glasses. Meelo? No, Milo. Mr. Thatch. Because that's totally better.

I sat somewhere near the very middle of the classroom, with a couple of familiar faces nearby from my previous classes. Some nerd from my Inter-Species class sat sat to my right. His name was Arthur, but I don't remember who his parents were. And then in front of me sat Dean and Mathis side-by-side, although I don't recall them being friends. And near the back of the room was another guy I had met in the class beforehand, but his name was just so wierd that I didn't bother trying to remember.

"Good afternoon class." Mr. Thatch began, standing up from his desk to hover in front of the chalk board. "For those of you who haven't had me yet today, my name is Milo Thatch. Call me Milo or Mr. Thatch, I won't mind either. Welcome to Debating Facts and Fiction." Here he turned to write the class' name on the board, and afterwards he went to the far edge of the board to pull on a second layer of the board which had pre-written text on it.

"Now I know most of you must be tired of naming names, yours and your parents'," He continued, turning on his heel to look back at us. "So we can save introductions for tomorrow. My lesson plan for today is just to get you introduced to what this class is about. I'm going to ask a few questions and you just raise your hand if it happens to apply to you. First question: how many of you have officially, or semi-officially, debated a topic?"

Most of the class' hands went up, even mine, and Mr. Thatch smiled. He sat down on the edge of his desk, arms crossed casually. "Good. Now onto my strangest question, which is how many of you believe in something - an animal or a country, anything really - that others say doesn't exist?" Less hands came up then. Personally I wasn't sure if I needed to. I had seen monsters beaten by my father in the past that people here whom I mentioned it to just brushed off as stories. But the thing was they were real. "Well that's alright, wouldn't be fun without opposition. Now we've gotten to the core of what this class is about."

"Just as the name suggest, this is a class where we will split into teams and debate the credibility of common folk tales and myths. And after each debate we will explore the actual literature that shows each example. Maybe we'll find a piece where the myth could be proven true." His grin grew wider then, which both amused me and creeped me out.

"So," Mr. Thatch said suddenly, standing again and clapping his hands together. "to get into the swing of things I've decided we'll have a mock debate. No winners or losers, just a friendly passing of perspective. Does anyone have any ideas on what we should debate?"

No one answered immediately. I tried thinking of a few ideas, but I couldn't imagine most of them being arguable. I heard a whisper coming from Mathis but before I could try to decode it Mr. Thatch spoke up. "Yes, what was your idea, sir?"

Mathis stiffened and glanced up to make sure he was the one being talked to. Mr. Thatch had fixed him in a bemused stare, and I couldn't help but snicker along with the class at his misfortune. Mathis sniffed once, sitting up and trying to play it off as casually as he could. "I, uh... I was thinking the idea of a school like this even existing. After all, I was told we're in an entirely different dimension from our homes. Would a school like this exist in our own worlds?"

I just stared at him. That was the last thing I expected anyone to say. Although strangely enough he had a point. Mr. Thatch thought it over for a second before shaking his head. "I'm not so certain that'll work. But it's still something nice to think over. I know they'd never have a school this fancy back in Washington."

Just then a hand rose somewhere to my left. I had no clue who the person was, but he looked rather smug as Mr. Thatch motioned for him to speak. "Does the topic have to be about myths? It is practice, so I don't see why not."

"Actually that's a very good point." A strange sound like a metallic clink sounded from behind Mr. Thatch and he stood with a sheepish grin to move around his desk. "I'll get that. A-And you guys just shoot out some ideas. Make sure it's arguable, though." My attention was wrapped on what the teacher was doing by then. He had a strange black box sitting in front of him with a smaller, longer one that he was poking at with his fingers. I kind of thought he was going insane.

"I got it!" A sudden exclamation from right behind me jolted me from my concentration and my seat. I turned to see it was some brown-haired boy, grinning as bright as the sun. "Is this school really better than a regular one?"

A scoff from the other side of the room snagged both of our attentions. A girl looking bored out of her mind had sat straight in her seat at his question. "Obviously not, I had to leave all of my friends behind just to learn etiquette and how to talk to animals. Pah!"

Dean piped up, leaning back in his seat. "Oh please, you'll see them again once you graduate. Besides, there are more amazing classes you could take. It's your own fault for signing up for those classes."

"I didn't pick them, my papa did!"

"Alright, calm down!" Mr. Thatch walked back to the front of the class, waving a hand in the air to grab everyone's attention. "Looks like we've found our topic. Usually I'd pick the teams at random, but I think for this one I'll let you decide on your own. I'll give you three minutes to choose your team, proponents to my left and opponents to my right, and then we'll start."

Suddenly the room was full of bodies milling about to pick a side. I saw that Arthur and "that boy" - who's name I still don't want to bother with; I think I'll just call him Jason - were moving to the opponent side. Jason had to ask the teacher something first, apparently, but he sidled in beside the blonde nerd. Surprisingly every other person whose name I knew was on the proponent side, even weirdo Mathis, and the brown-haired guy who had suggested the idea had joined them. I moved to stand next to him, a smirk planted firmly on my lips.

"Why did you bother asking the question if you're on this side?" I inquired. He turned his head to smile at me, shrugging a bit. "You don't know?"

"I know why." He corrected me, chuckling. "'Cause it was the only point worth arguin', and 'cause I want to see how many people don' like it here."

We both leaned over to look at the opponent side, which seemed only slightly shorter on members than our own side. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight, which made the girl who had spoken earlier glare in my direction. "Well, you've got your answer."

He laughed too, and we tried to act like there was nothing wrong. "I sure do."

"Time's up!" The class stood at attention as Mr. Thatch stood at the board, erasing parts to make room for a two column table. "Here's how it'll go: I'll flip a coin to decide who goes first, and then we'll go back and forth down the line until we run out of contendors on both sides. Since the opponents have fewer people, I'll let volunteers come back to finish up. I'll be writing down each point made so we can review later."

Mr. Thatch fished out some kind of copper token from his pocket and balanced it on his thumb. Before I knew what was going on he had flicked it up and caught it again in his hand. I leaned forward slightly to try and see what was going on. "Heads. Proponents go first."

Up first, unsurprisingly, was Dean. He cleared his throat before starting, looking pointedly at the opposing side. "Disney Academy is infinitely greater than any ordinary public school as the teachers are among only the best in their fields, and the Academy offers the widest course diversity I have seen to date in any grade school."

"Oh really?" His opponent brushed up against him, facing the entire proponent side. "Well as far as I can see, the only courses available for both kinds of students - humans and animals - are physical education and InterSpecies Communication. That doesn't seem quite fair. I happen to have a few friends of the animal variety."

From there it went quite the same. Someone would say that the animal students were lucky to be allowed into the school at all - which earned a stern warning from the teacher about their attitude - and another would argue that alongside being left out they had to leave a place where they could learn alongside their own kind. But everyone has to leave friends when they go to new schools, they said. But it's not fair that our friends can't come with us, others said. By the time my turn came we had wandered onto the topic of allowing hero and villain children into the school.

"They have the same blood as their parents," My opponent argued. "There's always the possibility that they could turn evil. That makes it unsafe for the other students at the Academy."

I laughed defiantly at this notion, laying a hand on their shoulder. "The chances aren't based on blood. Everyone has a choice to be who they want to become. And by that logic you have every bit of a chance to go bad, too. Everyone has that chance. It just takes motivation to become evil. All great evil needs a motive. Even Hades, rotten to the core, only became that way because my grandpa stu- I mean, Zeus, stuck him in the Underworld for all of eternity.

"If it were unsafe to let children of villainous people into the school, then I would be under supicion. After all, my mother was quite the no-good-doer for awhile. I still deserve to be here, and so do all the others."

Everyone went quiet for a second. I kind of felt bad, because I know I would feel the same way as my opponent if Hades happened to have a son here, or perhaps Cerberus, since they're letting in animals. But it's the job of a debater to know enough to argue both sides if the need comes to it.

Mr. Thatch cleared his throat, looking up towards some circular object hanging on the wall. "Well that's about all the time we have. Make sure you have some paper and something to write with. We'll take notes during and after every debate."

"But I don't have any paper!"

Mr. Thatch sighed, tapping his head with the chalk eraser. "I think there's a school store in the library run by the Duck triplets. They should have everything you need as far as the basics."

Everyone dispersed to their seats, packing up and chatting to those they knew about whatever came to mind. I sat back in my seat with a huff, having no real possessions to tote around. Dean was chatting with Mathis, mostly about the debate. Arthur was gone, probably behind me somewhere to talk with someone else. I was about to close my eyes when I felt something tapping my shoulder, and I turned to see the brown-haired boy was holding out a hand to shake.

"I never got your name. I am Erik." I smiled - because he was still smiling as brightly as earlier and it was infectious - and shook his hand gently.

"Cassiopeia, but if that's too hard you can call me Cass." He nodded and - if it were physically possible - smiled even wider. He promptly turned back to look around the room. The bell rang before I could sum up anything else to say to him, but I was glad to have met him. I knew I wouldn't regret getting to know this one.

Sahar Masih

Lunch had been hell. It didn't make it any better that my class directly after had him in it. He seriously thought that he could try to apologize? It may have been a few years ago, but it hadn't been that long. He stole from me and my father and then thought it was fine to just say he was sorry! I still remembered the horse he stole, her color and her name. Nashira had been a paint mare, our fastest and brightest. Gone. I'd never seen her since.

But after the confrontation at the cafeteria I had promised myself not to get overworked about him again. Not unless he made a move. And so I moved along to my next class, the fifth that day with only a few left after. When it came time to pick out my scheldule my father and I both sat together trying to figure out what each course was about. Some of them were simple enough to choose, like Multi-Cultural Studies. That class had been just before lunch, and it left me in relatively high spirits. But the rest of my schedule had been chosen on a whim and based on whether it sounded interesting. This class, Engineering, had been one of those classes.

I suppose I had expected it to be something like a blacksmith's work place. A fire for smelting and an anvil, the basics. But it must have slipped my mind that so many of the students and teachers came from what were called "modern worlds". Their technology far surpassed others, and so to accomadate much of the school's layout was a mix of old and new systems. Engineering, it seemed, had been part of that mix.

I walked into the room, not sure of what I'd find, and stopped dead in my tracks. The classroom had obviously been used before the school year had started, as different projects were littered around the room on different benches and tables - some even suspended in the air by a rope of metal rings. A handful of students were walking about looking for a place to sit. One was even so bold as to begin working on a piece of equipment close to the front of the room.

"Make way! Excuse me, Sahar!"

I jumped to the side, turning to see my new friend Leanne burst into the room with a long, thick hunk of metal in tow. She dragged the metal across the room - earning glares from other students as the thing screeched against the polished floor - and stopped beside the one student who was already working. "Audrey, thanks for letting me bring it in. I just don't have any room for Hyperion in my dorm and I need to get it fixed before dad finds out an-"

"Cállate." The girl, Audrey, turned away from her current project to look at the hunk of metal Leanne had brought in. I noticed then that despite her height Audrey looked very mature in her features. A bit old for a student. "It's fine, Leo. I'll fix her up, as long as you help every night. I won't tell Jim, either."

That's when realization dawned on me. Audrey wasn't a student, she was the teacher! Leanne grinned the widest I'd seen yet, reaching out to hug Audrey who just smirked and patted her shoulder. "Bless you Audrey Ramirez!"

"All right, go stand with the others." Audrey plucked the student off of her and gently pushed her toward the crowd. With a few loud claps she raised her voice. "Gather 'round people! The quicker we get this done the better."

I shuffled over with the rest of the class, making a point to stand next to Leanne. We shared a relieved glance and I noticed Emmaline and David standing in the mix of students. After everyone had gathered and Audrey had placed the metal - I mean, Hyperion - off to the side, she stood in front of the crowd and picked up a slim piece of wood from a nearby work bench. I could just make out a few papers laying on the wooden board.

"Okay, welcome to Engineering. I'm Audrey. Just, Audrey. This class is about yadda yadda, blah blah. Otras cosas... Here we are." Here she flipped over a paper on the board. "During this class you will all work in pairs. Your partner is going to work alongside you with every project, unless I say otherwise, so I suggest you try to get along. First pair is David Fitzherbert and... Mathis Fontaine."

Curiousity drove me to glance over at David. He was looking around the room for his partner, who eventually walked out into the open and towards David. The two stood there awkwardly for a moment before Audrey continued, turning their attention to the teacher. "Dean Armitage and Leanne Hawkins."

Leanne raised an arm into the air, waving it ever so slightly with a cheeky smile. "Present!"

The whole class chuckled at that. A boy with ink black hair walked up to her, holding out a hand for her to shake. "Pleasure to be working with you, miss."

"Miss?" Leanne scoffed, taking his hand into a firm grip. "I'm no lady, Mr. Arm-i-tage. Just address me by Leo." Dean blinked in surprise at her reply. A faint smile emerged on his lips but he couldn't say much more as the list continued.

More than half of the class had been paired up by the time Audrey reached me. Emmaline had been stuck with some other girl with the same kind of black hair as Dean. "Sahar Masih and Arthur Robinson."

At least I had been paired with a familiar face. Arthur and I shared Multi-Cultural Studies with Leanne and some of my other friends. The blonde walked over, visibly relieved like I was that he had been paired with a familiar face. "Hey Sahar."

"Hi, Arthur." I gave him a quick smile before turning back to Audrey. She eventually reached the end of the list and tossed the board in her hand onto her work table. A quick glance over the groups and then a simple nod later, she motioned to the benches around the room.

"Pick a place to work. Each station has some scrap metal and wiring, basic neccesities and tools. Today you can work together or alone, but I need to test what you know about engineering and mechanics." At this a few faces lit up around the room, Leanne and Arthur included. "But dont be stupid about anything. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Use the gloves and goggles at your stations. Don't harm each other with the equipment. First day or not, I will have you suspended for misuse of my equipment. Dismissed."

In a flash Leanne took off to the nearest bench and started looking at everything on its surface. I glanced over at Arthur, who was watching her as well, and we both had to smile at her enthusiasm. Approaching our bench, I resumed my state of severe culture shock. I'd picked up a few trades during my travels with my father - different styles of sword fighting, different languages, how to make iron tools - but this had to be... leagues outside of my department.

Just as I was about to walk over to Audrey and formally ask to change classes, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Arthur there with a knowing look of pity. "Let's... just start small."

A few minutes later we were both sitting at the bench, with Arthur showing me some of what each tool did. Occasionally he'd pick up a part of the scrap metal and say where it came from or what it should have been. "I can't believe they'd just throw out clock parts. I mean you can use these for all sorts of inventions."

I just stared at him as we "worked", still digesting every bit of information. He picked at the parts to what he called a clock thoroughly, his entire demeanor changing. I could practically see his mind working. "Care to show me? Using that metal, I mean. You make it sound like some sort of revolution."

"O-Of course." Arthur chuckled, standing up from his stool. "Just give me a second, I need to grab something." He walked off to the far side of the classroom, shaking his head every now and then.

"Psst!"

I turned swiftly, looking about for the source of the sound. Leanne was staring at me intently, a smirk on her lips. She and Dean had apparently opted for a group effort, because he whispered something to her. Before he knew it she had reached up to smack his head, frowning at him. "You pay attention, Dean."

A quick burst of laughter sounded behind me, and I glanced back to see Arthur had returned. "Poor soul. Anyway, hopefully this will be all we need." He had an armful of extra metal and a few tools I didn't recognize from his first explanation.

For the rest of the class it was a fairly basic system. Arthur would tinker with his mechanism and I would do whatever he asked, like holding pieces in place or grabbing another tool for him. I'd cast my gaze around the room every now and then, specifically watching people I knew. Emmaline seemed to have the hang of things, and I was quite happy to see that even she was depending on her partner. David and Mathis were getting along, but that was because they had decided to work independently. And about halfway through class Leanne declared to the world that she and Dean were finished with their project, before earning a quick verbal jibe from Dean. The one consistency I noticed was that everyone, even the groups of people I didn't know, seemed to be working on large projects. Ours was... considerably smaller. It fit in the palm of my hand.

Just as I thought time would run out Arthur sat straight, holding the device up for the both of us to see. "There. It's not entirely fancy, no weather updates or holographic news reports, but it's still useful. And handmade." I squinted my eyes to look at the thing, noting that he had even thought to polish the metal so that it gleamed.

"What does it-" Mid-sentence a loud noise pierced the air, like a dozen elephants trumpeting. Some of the students yelled in exclamation, and all eyes turned on Audrey. She stood at the forefront, a pair of fuzzy ear muffs on and holding a strangely shaped can.

"Time's up. Be ready to present what you've made." Somewhere in the very back of the room came a groan, and I glanced instinctly at Arthur's device. It didn't look very spectacular, but I couldn't bring myself to tell him that. But amazingly enough when I looked at Arthur he was smiling like an idiot.

Two groups went up - one with something called a "flamethrower" that backfired and scorched their faces and another with just a heap of metal, as neither knew a single thing about engineering - before Leanne cheerily volunteered she and her partner. Dean trudged after her, carrying their finished product. Although it was still larger than mine and Arthur's mechanism, it had turned out smaller than I had supposed it would.

"Ahem." Leanne began with a smile, snatching the device from her partner's hands. "Introducing my latest and greatest invention! For this I require a volunteer." She scanned the crowd, pointing to a girl near the back. "Yes, there we go. Describe to me the most outlandish creature you can imagine."

I turned in my seat to find the girl, and I hadn't even thought that it could be Emmaline. I smiled without even really thinking about it, eager to hear what she would reply with. "A white fox with a large bushy tail. It has small red eyes and a hollow red circle on its back. Oh, and it has long pink-tipped ears falling from its ears."

Leanne closed her eyes while I tried processing what Emmaline had just said. Ears coming from its ears? "Alright." I jerked my head up as Leanne placed the device - it almost looked like a hat - on top of her head. A moment of silence passed before lights flashed along the brim, and suddenly an image suspended in the air shined down towards the floor. "Does it look like this?"

It looked to me almost exactly as Emmaline had described. Emmaline herself nodded, laughing behind a hand at the image. She clapped for Leanne, who in turned bowed for the praise. And just as miraculously the image hat fell from her head and landed with a thump on the floor, sparking and catching fire.

"Shit!" Leanne jumped back from the fire. Audrey moved between the flaming hat and the students, yelling at Dean to get a fire extuinguisher. It took a few moments for the chaos to calm down, and then everyone hurried to get their devices shown and out of the way. Not long after Leanne's exhibition Arthur decided to stand up, motioning for me to follow.

"Admittedly I had to do most of the work Mrs. Ra-" A throat cleared and Arthur corrected himself. "Audrey. But Sahar helped to come up with the idea and it was a two person job. For that, I'd like her to tell you what it does."

In an instant I was floored. He couldn't expect me to explain, I had no earthly idea what the thing even was! All I knew was that it had parts from something called a clock and that it was extremely small. "I-I..."

Arthur leaned over, whispering behind a hand. "Just call it something cool, like 'Wonder Watch' or whatever. When you see a blue light, I want you to throw something at me and duck. Trust me." With that he stepped away, fiddling with the palm-sized device.

Still unsure of how this would go, I stepped forward to speak. "I... We, uh... Decided to make the... Wonder Watch." A few snickers broke out and I could feel the blush spreading over my face. Arthur brought their attention to him by holding up the small device, pressing the small knob on its side. It flashed once before emitting a faint blue light that covered him from head to toe. He gave me a thumbs up, and I slowly grabbed the nearest object: a screwdriver. "Now, w-watch with amazement as it... does whatever it does."

I counted off a quick three second countdown before chucking the tool at Arthur and crouching down. I thanked every deity I could name that he'd given me fair warning, because the screwdriver reflected off of an invisible barrier and lodged deep into the wall behind me. A few gasps came from the class but - and my fears were drained right out by noticing this - Leanne was smiling and I could hear a quiet "Amazing" from her.

Audrey clapped slowly, although she wasn't exactly smiling. "Very nice. Although next time I expect Sahar to contribute more. If I didn't know any better I'd say you've built one before, Arthur."

Arthur shrugged, powering down the Wonder Watch. "Well, not exactly." He looked at the device, smiling with a bit of sentiment. "But my dad came up with a watch very much like this one. I, uh, had to make do with what we had. It's a miracle the parts were even here. The school must have unplugged all the stops."

"Yes, yes. Well, let's keep it moving. Next pair." Audrey said, dismissing us. Once we were both seated Arthur placed the Wonder Watch down on the table and slid it across to me.

I just stared down at it, marvelling for a moment in its hidden magic. "You should keep it." My gaze flicked over to him. He was smiling, though with less intensity than before. "It could come in handy. Plus, it's your first invention. I mean usually people have a leather strap on it so they can wear it on their wrists, but I don't happen to have that kind of gear on me. And the actual watch has Roman numerals, though I guess when I think about where you came from Arabic numerals would be fi-"

"Thank you, Arthur." I said simply, cracking a humored smile.

He blinked, surprised at himself for rambling. Then he chuckled and scratched the back of his head, pretending to watch the next group's exhibition. "You're welcome."

Kudos and internet cookies to whoever can tell me the name of the animal Emmaline described. I literally took all of the originality out that part because I was too lazy to think of anything. XD And don't forget to stop by the (still in construction) sister site: disney-campusDOTwebsDOTcom