Chapter 10: final exam

As winter drew on, my final exam date got closer. They had given me a different uniform, a long grey sweater with black pants. I liked it much better than the last one. My partner would only be decided after I began to teach the class. Just yesterday, I had chosen a pair of glasses. They were one of the only kinds they made specifically. They were square shaped and wire rimmed and the prescription was almost zero. Even when the prescription was so low, the glasses gave me a headache if I wore them for too long. I wasn't used to wearing glasses.

Apparently, shinigami glasses had a double purpose. I noticed that if I read the to-die list, I had been given one of my own books yesterday; the name of the soul I was supposed to take would show up over their heads in the lenses of my glasses to make sure that I didn't confuse them with someone else.

I walked to the library. I could already hear the noise in the classroom before I even walked inside. I hesitated.

"Are you ready for the beginning of your exam?" William asked as he walked up beside me.

"Hell, I'll never be ready. I guess this is as close as it gets."

"Good luck."

"Thank you… I'll need it." I said as I walked through the door, trying not to blush as I looked at him. Thankfully it seemed to work. The class fell silent as I walked in front of the desk.

"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Leah Hayes. You may address me as Miss Hayes or Senior Hayes. You are all here to become grim reapers. Let me tell you first hand that it's going to be difficult. There are more challenges than you can possibly think of." I looked at the class while I talked. I saw two girls, which was a first.

"You will be given temporary death scythes. You are to use these as your weapons until after your first exam when your true weapon will be chosen. If any of you cheat during your exam, you will fail automatically and will not be allowed to try and become a grim reaper again."

I snapped my fingers and the projector came on.

"Now, let's start with the first lesson. Grim reapers use death scythes to harvest the souls of the living and send them to either heaven or hell…"

So far, the class was going good. Everyone seemed to be paying attention, but occasional talking got me very mad. As I paid no attention to when everyone talked, the buzz got louder. I turned around and glared at the class. They all fell silent when they saw my glowing eyes.

"That's enough! Do I need to cast a spell that will sew your lips shut?" I snapped. I didn't know whether such a spell even existed, but it seemed to do the trick. "You are going to be disciplined in my class. And if you think I'm strict, just wait until you meet your real instructor." No one dared to talk when William was there, even if he hadn't said anything to them about not talking. It was rather quite funny.

That seemed to shut them up quite nicely. The class was completely silent like their lips had been sewn shut. Even though I hadn't done anything to them. I tried to explain clearly. I was satisfied that no one raised their hands when I asked if there were any questions. I opened the training room, gave them their pickaxes and made them go train.

"How did it go?" William asked.

"It's hard. I don't know how you do this every day." I said, taking off my glasses and putting them in my pocket.

"The second part of your training is going to be a lot worse. I'll take over from here. You need to go into the library and get assigned to the soul you're supposed to take, and your partner."

We switched places and I walked off into the library.

Two people were already waiting for me. One I recognized as the girl who had been playing the armonica, and an unfamiliar grim reaper.

"Oh, hello Leah. May I introduce you to your partner? Ronald, this is Leah Hayes. Leah, this is Ronald Knox."

"Heya" He said, smiling. I returned the smile. He didn't seem to be too bad. At least I didn't get stuck with an idiot. He wore thick square glasses like William and had orange hair with black roots showing. I looked to see that he had a lawnmower as a death scythe. Seriously? A lawn mower? Maybe I was wrong about this guy not being an idiot. I walked to stand beside him.

"Get out your to-die lists, please." Both of us took out our to die books. I looked at the very first name that had been written in there.

"Alexander Dawson?" I wondered. "Is this the soul we're supposed to take?"

"Yes. You'll stay in the human world for a few days and decide whether you want to kill that soul or not. It has to be a unanimous decision between you two. One of you can't kill if the other disagrees."

"The time of death is set, though." I said.

"It can be altered if you decide not to kill him."

"So we have until Wednesday to kill him if we decide to?"

"That's correct. Now, I'll escort you both personally into the human world. I'd suggest keeping out of human sight unless you have to. Your appearances are unusual for humans. You can pass for humans, but I wouldn't try it." She said. We walked to the pier. She leant forwards and touched the water with her hand. Instantly it shimmered and turned into a different image. "Jump in."

"You can't be serious."

"I am. Jump in. Good luck, you two."

I wasted no time and jumped into the water. I felt the water rush over my head, but I wasn't wet at all. Everything went black around me, and I fell out of the sky in a different place. I landed on the roofs of a crowded street. I guessed it must be London. I put my glasses over my eyes again. I looked around for Ronald but he wasn't there. He must have hesitated to jump in the portal.

I waited for a few more minutes. No one came at all. Was I alone here? Where did he go? I stood up and looked around. No one could see me on the high rooftops. I guessed this was London. I waited roughly an hour on the rooftops for Ronald. I couldn't see him anywhere.

I stood up quickly. Ah hell! How could I have been so stupid? I'd completely forgotten to ask how to get back into the shinigami world!