Young Writers Society

In the bright halls of Lux Academy, an unlikely pair are partnered up for a magical science experiment that goes horribly, horribly wrong. Will they make it out alive? Only time will tell.

@Omni

Thane sat in the back of the classroom, as quiet as she could be. Everything was painted in bright whites like the room really wanted to hurt her tired eyes, and there was a stack of pamphlets on the desk at the front of the room, though the professor wasn't there yet. She wasn't sure what was going to happen today, but she was really hoping she wouldn't have to read the entirety of one of those huge packets on her own. It would take her hours, and that didn't include the extra humiliation she would feel knowing most of her classmates could read it in thirty minutes, tops. She was early, and most students hadn't arrived yet, but there was a steady flow of them into the classroom. She sunk down further in her chair and waited for class to start.

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Railyn elbowed the door open to the classroom, allowing Pel and Edalyn to enter before he shut it behind him. He chuckled as Pel and Edalyn went to go sit in the front of the room. Goody two shoes, the both of them.

Railyn himself? Nah, he wasn't going to do that. No way is he going to sit right in front and get called on and then maybe he missed some kind of reading that had been assigned to him before he even got into the school. That sounded ridiculous but it also sounded like exactly something that this school would do.

He scanned the classroom. He could sit next to the door, ready to slip out at any moment. But that also meant he would be the first person the professor saw when they actually arrived. Because, somehow, Railyn had gotten there before the professor did. That was unusual.

So, he slid past the door and went down the seats on the last row and sat down.

Thane glanced over, slightly unsettled as she watched someone lower himself into the seat next to her. She'd taken the seat in the back corner--she liked to be able to see everyone in the room--and now someone was sitting right next to her. She'd known, of course, that someone likely would. It wasn't like they were keeping more chairs in the classroom than they needed. But still, she felt her personal bubble shrink slightly and shifted in her chair to get comfortable, leaning against the window next to her and glancing outside.

Why wasn't the professor here? As if summoned by the thought, a woman walked through the door, standing tall and proud and juggling a stack of books that she put on the table with a slam.

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The slam startled Railyn, and he jerked himself upright in his chair. It was too early for this kind of commotion. Oh. It was the professor. He quickly rubbed his face to try and wake himself up.

The Professor smiled at them and quickly started handing out the books she brought in with her. Railyn slunk down again. Great, here comes the lecture.

"Today marks a special day," the professor said, walking down the aisles and handing out booklets. "Not only is it the first day of class--" she paused. "It is also the first day for many of you to meet your peers. And as such, today is also the day that I will assign the semester-long project that will take place over the course of this class. Do not mistake me, this is only one of many projects we will do. This will be work you complete on your own with your assigned partner, and it will be due the last day of class. In these booklets are the instructions, as well as your assigned partner. They are randomly assigned, and I will not be switching anyone. Your classmates are now your friends, your family, and your army. You must learn to get along with everyone, or at the very least, tolerate them."

The professor reached the last row and handed Thane a booklet. "My name is Professor Elipses," she continued. "Welcome to my class."

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Railyn sighed and not-so-graciously accepted his booklet. With any luck, maybe his partner would be Pel or Edalyn. Pel was a little nerdy which meant Railyn didn't have to do all of the work himself, and either of them would be just like hanging out.

But, luck was not on his side, and it seemed like that was the case since initiation. Luck really said "you got into school, that's all I can do for you" and vanished before Railyn could ask what he did in a past life to deserve such horrible luck.

He skimmed the actual instructions of the booklet -- and by skimmed, he meant he did not read it at all-- and scanned the page until he saw a name of his project partner.

Thane.

He realized he said it out loud when the person who very clearly wanted to be left alone involuntarily jerked next to him.

Oh boy.

Thane glanced over at the boy next to her. She really didn't want to do this, but he'd said her name, which could really only mean one thing. "Are you..." She paused. She stared at the name on the paper, but she really wasn't sure how to pronounce it. She tried again. "Are you my partner for this?"

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Railyn struggled not to sigh and put on a casual smile. "Yep, looks like it." He leaned over to the other person's booklet --Thane's-- and pointed at where his name was. "Ah, I was hoping it might have been a situation where I had you but you have someone else and we could have weaseled our way out of this somehow. "

Thane wasn't quite sure how to take it, and tried her best not to take it personally, despite the fact that she was already feeling pretty vulnerable in a classroom when she hadn't gotten to go to school since she was ten. "Umm... yeah," she mumbled. "Tough luck, I guess."

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Railyn leaned back and groaned as the professor started to lecture again. What a way to start the day. He wanted to fight something.

"Alright," the professor said. "You should meet up with your partners after class, but for now, we will get right into our class. We won't be wasting any time this semester. As I already said, my name is Professor Elipses--"

"That's gotta be a fake name," someone chortled under their breath, and several classmates giggled. The professor plowed on like she hadn't heard it.

"--And we will be covering the science of magic. Now, this will be different than your applicational magic classes because we will not just be practicing magic, but we will be studying why magic acts the way it does, the scientific theories behind it, the mathematical equations, et cetera, et cetera. For this first class period, we will be going over the syllabus and what will be expected of you for the upcoming semester. Now, if you'll turn to the second page in the booklet I just handed you--"

She continued to drone on the entire class period. Thane tried to stay engaged, because she really wanted to be here and really needed to be here, but most of the things she talked about, even the casual terms, didn't make sense to her. She'd never been in an advanced class like this, and it seemed there was a lot of basic knowledge that Thane should know--that everyone else seemed to know--but Thane didn't know. This... was going to be rough.

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Railyn immediately zoned out and flipped through the booklet provided to him. It took everything in his power to not bolt out of the class right when Professor periods started droning on and on about the scientifics and specifics and stupidnessics of magic. Who cared? It was magic! It was supposed to be cooooool.

Oh well, leave it to a school to make magic boring.

At the end of class, a loud bell rang, and Thane barely stopped herself from jumping out of her chair at the sudden noise. She turned to the person next to her, the boy who was clearly not very enthusiastic about being her partner. They'd both have to make do though, because they'd be stuck with each other the entire semester. "Hey," she said as she watched him stand up. "So we need to talk about this, right?" She held up the booklet, hating herself for having to be the initiator of the conversation.

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Railyn turned himself around from standing up and immediately bolting out of the door. "Yeah!" He said. "See you after dinner or something?"