Finally got around to updating this...thanks to my friend Kate for beta-ing this chapter!
Days went by, and the students of the Conservatory began to settle into their new daily routines. Even La'gaan managed to get used to it. Every morning he, Lori, and Blubber would have breakfast, lunch, and dinner together at their usual table. Sometimes other people would join them. Lori liked to invite a shy boy named Topo over whenever she could catch him. He never said much, and La'gaan always got the feeling that he was in a constant state of panic. Other days, a girl named Tula would sit with them for a few minutes. But she was inevitably called away to another table after about ten minutes. Whoever Tula was, she seemed pretty popular.
After breakfast, they would report to their classes. The farther they got into the material, the further behind La'gaan fell. Despite Lori's best efforts and extra help from all of his professors, he was struggling. The only class he was doing moderately well in was sorcery. The more he practiced at it, the easier it became. Professor Calista was pleased with his progress. Every time he did well she would shower praise on him. It was a little embarrassing, but also extremely gratifying. Every other teacher looked at him with a mix of pity and frustration. (Or, in Professor Tullus' case, bitter disappointment.) She was the only one that ever had any reason to encourage him.
He should have realized that this would make him a target.
Yet he didn't. Instead he continued on with his routine, day after day. Breakfast, classes, studying, then perhaps a trip out into Poseidonis with his two friends. The structure was entirely new to him. It had been a long time since anyone cared enough to tell him when to eat, when to do this, when to do that, when to sleep. It was nice, yet frustrating. There were days when he missed being able to wake up when he wanted and do whatever he wanted without anyone caring. But overall La'gaan liked it. Perhaps structure was one of the things he'd been missing out on. When you're an abandoned guppy hopping from home to home, there isn't much stability.
About one month into the semester, this daily routine was interrupted. The interruption came in the form of Ronal and his friends.
La'gaan, Blubber, and Lori were swimming to their classes when four older students blocked their way. All four of them were in their sorcery class, though La'gaan had never paid much attention to them before that moment.
Immediately, he knew that they were a genuine threat.
"Hey, minnows," La'gaan said, stopping where he was. "Let's go the long way today. Through the kelp gardens."
"We're going to be late if we go that way!" Blubber protested. "Come on; there's nothing to be afraid of. They're just upperclassmen trying to intimidate us. That's all."
Lori nodded once and pulled La'gaan along. "Don't be scared."
"I'm not scared, I just don't want us to get our tail fins kicked before our next class!" La'gaan hissed. They were getting closer to the four older students, and he didn't want them to hear his concerns. Letting people know you were afraid gave them power over you.
One of the four crossed his arms and smirked at them. "What are you three fish heads up to?"
"We are going to class," Lori answered, trying her best to sound both polite and firm. "As you should be doing."
"Oh, so now a little fish fucker is going to tell us what to do?" One of the girls shoved Lori's shoulder. La'gaan looked around for a way out. But somehow the group had encircled them. They could always swim over them or underneath them, but that would result in a chase. La'gaan was sure he could outswim these four eels without trouble. But could Lori? Could Blubber?
"Don't touch her!" La'gaan growled, swimming between the two girls.
The other four students laughed. The girl leaned forward, her black eyes taunting him. "Aw! The fish fucker has a little beau."
La'gaan felt heat rise to his cheeks. He didn't want anyone referring to him as Lori's 'beau'. They were friends. Best friends. But anything beyond that seemed weird and a little bit gross. "Shut up and get out of our way! We don't have time for shark bait like you."
Sometimes, talking big worked in situations like this.
But not today.
One of the boys, the one with blonde hair, grabbed him by the back of his neck. "What did you say, MIΓAΣ?"
Lori and Blubber gasped. La'gaan stared at him in momentary shock. No one had ever called him that word before. Once Aurelius, his only friend in Nanauve, had explained the word and its origin. It was one of the worst swears the Atlantean language had to offer. It translated out to 'impure' which was a harmless little word by itself. But when it was mixed with a thousand years of bigotry and hate, it took on a much darker meaning.
Before he was even aware of what he was doing, La'gaan twisted out of the boy's grip and raked his claws across his face. "NEVER call me that!"
The situation deteriorated into a brawl. One of the boys grabbed Lori's arm, and she smacked them away with her tail. Blubber used his weight to his advantage and slammed into another boy. Meanwhile La'gaan was still clawing at the offender's face, consumed with rage.
Someone got between him and his prey. Assuming it was another one of this boy's friends, La'gaan tried to claw at them. A webbed hand caught his wrist in mid-swipe. A calm but firm voice said, "That's enough, my friend."
Three more students had entered the fray to break it apart. One of them La'gaan recognized. It was Tula, the girl who occasionally sat with them at meals. She was joined by two boys that he didn't know. One of them had black hair and strange violet eyes. The other had brown skin, webbed hands, and gills on his neck. All three of them appeared to be two or three years older than La'gaan and his friends, the same age as the other four.
"What in the name of Neptune are you four doing?" the black-haired boy growled. "Attacking first years? Have you no honor, Ronal?"
Ronal, the blonde boy who was currently bleeding from cuts La'gaan had inflicted on him, frowned at him. "This is none of your business, Garth."
"Very true," said the boy with gills. "But it is, however, the Dean of Students' business."
"We are only teaching this one his place!" snapped the girl with black eyes. She point towards La'gaan. "We know what you are, bottom feeder! You're nothing but a murdering little freak! The only reason you're here is because Queen Mera felt sorry for you!"
The black-haired boy swam in between them. "Enough! Leave!"
Ronal and his three friends departed. As soon as they had gone, La'gaan turned on Tula and her two friends. "What do you three think you're doing?! Now they'll never leave us alone!"
"La'gaan!" Lori frowned at him. "Tula and her friends just helped us!"
He shook his head. Living on his own taught him many things. One of them, incidentally, was how to handle bullies. (Though the bullies on the streets were typically a lot more dangerous.) If you could match them in a fight, you had to beat them so bad that they'd be scared to even look at you the wrong way. If you couldn't beat them, you had to avoid them. La'gaan knew that he could take on Ronal and his friends. They were nothing compared to the people he had known in Nanauve. The blood on his claws proved that much. "If we don't stop this now, they'll keep harassing us! It'll just get worse and worse!"
The boy that had pulled him off of Ronal set a hand on his shoulder. "Further violence will not stop anything."
La'gaan yanked away from him. "Further violence will lead to them leaving us alone!"
His friends pulled him aside. After a couple of minutes of angry whispering between the three of them, Blubber and Lori managed to convince La'gaan to apologize for snapping at their saviors. (Despite the fact he still didn't think he had done anything wrong.) It was then that the trios were formally met one another. Tula introduced her two friends, Garth and Kaldur'ahm (Who preferred to go by Kaldur).
"Thank you for helping us," Lori said. "I don't know why they were so mad at us."
"It's because you three are younger, and are on the same skill level as the rest of us," Kaldur explained. "They feel threatened."
"Threatened? By us?" La'gaan repeated. He and his friends look at each other, genuinely confused. "Are you sure they aren't just prejudiced?"
Garth frowned. "Well, they are that as well…but I would not worry about them. Ronal isn't completely bad; though he has been hard to deal with as of late…"
His friends nodded in agreement. Kaldur said, "I think it is due to the influence of his newfound friends…they have rather…old-fashioned ideals as to how an Atlantean should look and behave. I'm sure that is part of the problem."
"Old-fashioned? What do you mean?" Blubber asked.
La'gaan sighed. "I swear, Blubber, you're so innocent sometimes…by 'old-fashioned' he means 'as prejudiced as an eel'."
"Eels are prejudiced?" Blubber stared at him, confused.
"No, they're just- never mind." He gave up trying. Blubber had become his best friend in the first few days of school, but sometimes he could be a little dense. In the classroom, he was a genius. Everywhere else…he was just a tad clueless.
Tula smiled slightly. "We had better be going; we're all late for classes by now, I'm sure."
"What?!" Blubber cried. "Oh, no…"
"Hey, maybe if we're lucky, you'll all get to have detention with me!" La'gaan laughed. "Last one to mathematics is a piece of rotten shark bait!"
With that he shot off. Lori laughed and swam after him, quickly taking the lead. Their friend Blubber was left behind. He struggled to catch up, though whales (and whale boys) were not exactly built for speed. Kaldur, Tula, and Garth stood by and watched them with amused smiles on their faces.
"They remind me of us, when we were first years," Kaldur mused.
"Hopefully they won't get into as much trouble as we did." Garth chuckled slightly, thinking back on their first days at the Conservatory.
"Something tells me that they will. If not more," Tula replied. She smiled and tugged on both of their arms. "Now come! We're already late!"
"So then what's the point of hurrying?" Garth asked, playfully tugging her back. Tula squealed and swam away from both of them. Her friend laughed. "Last one there is a piece of rotten shark bait?"
Tula grinned. "Exactly!"
Garth and Kaldur chuckled, then swam after her.