Oliver bit into the piece of bread, then leaned back, looking up at the ceiling about eight blocks above him and trying to block out the noise of his fellow students as they ate. Somehow, despite there only being about 18 of them, his class made as much noise as the dozens of students in the dining hall of his old middle school.

Some of them already knew each other, Oliver had realized the more he was around them. The wither skeleton and the blaze seemed to be old friends, the drowned and the husk seemed to be old enemies (with the zombie trying to play mediator), and Isabelle, the spider, was Silvia's older cousin. That was also how Oliver had found out that not all of them were the same age. The skeleton claimed to be thirty-four years old, whereas Cray, the creeper, was only five. Which, Oliver reasoned, checked out considering his attitude.

The dining hall was stocked with a variety of food, including raw meat for the zombies and spiders, some strange mushrooms for the blaze, and apples, bread, and steak for Oliver. Also, weirdly, Cray ate grass? He didn't seem to see anything wrong with it, and in fact was currently mocking the zombies for not eating grass. Oliver had a feeling that he wasn't going to get along well with him.

He also… wasn't sure where the food came from. Other than Herobrine, Oliver hadn't seen any staff, certainly not a cook or kitchen staff. So where did it come from? Maybe someone dropped it off while they all were in the dorms. Oliver's dinner consisted of meat, potatoes, and a loaf of bread. Fairly standard, if a bit bland. While he ate, Oliver took the opportunity to study his classmates a bit.

This was Oliver's first time seeing most of these mobs, so he wasn't quite able to identify them all. For instance, one of his classmates was a girl with one, huge eye, and orange spikes that jutted out of the back of her head. He had no clue what kind of creature she was, and he was kind of afraid to ask. She had scales, and… was eating fish. Some kind of sea monster? There was also a boy with dark blue skin and sort of… webbed wings, whom Oliver was pretty sure was a phantom. Those occasionally flew around over his home city after dark. He wondered who in the Overworld was staying up for three nights in a row.

The skeletons, predictably, did not eat. The three of them were grouped up at the end of the table, chatting quietly as their classmates ate. The wither skeleton, Soot, seemed to be sort of the ringleader between the three of them, which made sense considering she was about three feet taller than them. She was a little awkward with her gangly limbs when she walked, which was… weirdly endearing, especially when the other two skeletons flanked her on either side to make sure she didn't fall.

The skeletons had each other, as did the zombies and the spiders, and the Nether mobs, and even the phantom and the fish thing seemed to get along well with their companions. Short of Cray, who was doing his best to be as abrasive as possible, they all had friends here. All, for the most part, comfortable with each other.

Not Oliver. He sat at the furthest end of the long table, as far from the monsters as he could get, eating his food and trying not to interact. He was trying to just get done with the meal as soon as possible so he could go curl up in bed and block everything out. He was exhausted, miserable, and scared, he just wasn't willing to be hungry too.

Something appeared in the corner of his vision, and Oliver glanced up just in time to see an apple fly past his head.

"Oh plaaaayerrrr!" Cray cajoled, tossing a second apple up and down in his hand as Oliver flinched back in shock. "C'mon down here and sit with us!" Oliver shrank down a bit as the monsters focused on him again.

"Uh, so you can throw more stuff at me? No thanks."

"Your funeral!" Cray aimed, but the enderman teleported behind him and snatched the apple out of his hand.

"Mr. Herobrine said no physical fighting." Fade told him sternly. "That includes food fights." Cray swiveled around to glare up at him.

"Well you're no fun."

"I merely want to follow our host's rules."

"And who's gonna tell him? What he doesn't know won't hurt 'im!"

"I'll tell him."

"Ugh." Cray turned around in his chair, scowling. "I hate grass-pushers." He muttered under his breath. There was a small collection of gasps from around the table, and Fade stiffened. Oliver gathered from this reaction that 'grass-pushers' was a very rude thing to say.

"Even if Fade isn't going to tell Mr. Herobrine about that, I am." The zombie piglin said icily. "You need to watch your mouth, creeper."

"And what are you gonna do if I don't?" Cray shot back. In response, the zombie piglin surged to her feet, leaping onto the table and brandishing a gold axe.

"No fighting!" Fade exclaimed as Cray shrieked and tipped his chair over backwards. The zombie piglin ignored him, giving chase as the creeper scrambled upright and ran. Oliver stayed stock-still in his chair, watching as Cray spun around and began to flash red.

"ENOUGH!" A roar louder than the thunder outside had the pair of them freezing where they stood, the zombie piglin's axe clattering to the ground. Oliver's startled gaze followed the rest of the class as they turned to the doorway, where Herobrine was standing with his arms folded.

"Sir, they-" Fade began, but he was cut off.

"I know." Herobrine said simply. "I was watching." His gaze fell on Cray, who slowly shrank down to the floor. "Come with me, Cray, Azara." Silently, the two of them picked themselves up and obeyed. "The rest of you," Herobrine's disapproving glance swept over the room. "Finish your meal and get to bed." There was a small murmur of assent, then the room fell silent once more as Herobrine left with the offending students. Shoving the rest of your bread in his mouth, Oliver was more than happy to drop off his dishes and hurry away to hide in his room.

"So 15 over 25 becomes what?" Herobrine's gaze swept across the room, and, when no hands were raised, he called on the stray. "Kaden?"

"3 over 5." The skeleton boy muttered. Herobrine nodded approvingly, gesturing towards the blackboard with his stick and causing the simplified fraction to appear.

"Good. That concludes math class for today." He gestured to a basket sitting on a side table, and a sheet of paper appeared suddenly on every desk. "This sheet will be due tomorrow morning when class starts. Late work incurs an automatic 10-percent penalty. Understood?" There was a chorus of small 'yes sir's, among them Oliver's as he skimmed over the sheet and stuffed it into his backpack. Simplified fractions came easily to him, which was good since he could barely focus on what his teacher was saying.

Oliver had basically been in fight-or-flight since he woke up this morning and found Silvia lounging on several new webs she'd attached to the ceiling. Breakfast had been a similarly harrowing experience, though at least today Cray had toned down his insanity a little bit, and immediately after they were all called into class. After that it became… somewhat normal. Oliver was in a classroom, studying equations, listening to a lecture and taking notes. This was what he'd expected from high school, not… having food flung at him by a 5-year-old creeper.

Oliver managed to get out of the classroom first, which allowed him to hurry to the dining hall and get his food before the rest of your classmates showed up. Today, he decided to avoid the dining hall altogether and go back to his room to eat. There was no rule against this, so it should be fine… right? He just wanted to avoid the chaos and racial feuds that took place in the common area.

As he ate his carrots and chicken, Oliver worked on his math homework. The afternoon class was one of the strange monster-school ones- hiding, his class schedule said. He wasn't sure what that meant, but he wanted to get his homework out of the way just in case it took a while. Ordinarily Oliver wasn't known for being particularly studious, but… he didn't like this place at all, and just wanted to get this one thing out of the way so he didn't have to do it later.

Before he knew it, the bell above the school went off once. 1 PM, time for class. Shoveling the rest of his food in his mouth, Oliver hurried to drop off his plate in the dining hall and go back to class.

He was one of the first ones there, and Oliver quietly slid into his seat as the mobs filed into the room.

"Are we all here?" Herobrine asked as the ghast boy hurried through the door. A moment later, he nodded, answering his own question. "Good. Welcome to Hiding class." Oliver snuck a glance around himself, wondering if anyone else was as unfamiliar with this as he was.

"I'd like to begin this semester with an assessment of your skills," Herobrine went on. "So we're going to start this class with a game. I assume you're all familiar with hide and seek?"

If you like, I highly recommend going and finding my dA, where I've posted drawings of all the students! My username on there is FirstFandomFangirl.

~FFF