Schedule || Variable fourteen

Yew's neighbors came into the living room feeling uncertain about having dinner in his cottage, but as soon as they saw delicious food lined up on the table, all their hesitance was gone. They ate together with Yew and Linden, while sharing their opinions on the places, which they had visited during the day.

Once it got dark outside, Aspen and Spruce headed to the entry room, but before they could exit the cottage, Linden stopped them.

"Wait a moment," he came with a marker. "I’ll write your namehoods as guests, so next time you can just come inside without knocking."

"Are you sure?" Aspen asked.

"If I change my mind, I can easily erase them," Linden waited, with his marker ready at the board. "So? Your namehoods?"

"Spruce Phalahi Menteng Fire."

"Aspen Elati Boviyamara Breeze."

Linden wrote down both namehoods, spelling them correctly without any instructions from the boys. This amazed his neighbors, as well as Yew, who walked in to see them off.

After Spruce and Aspen returned to their cottage, Yew wrote a letter to his parents, explaining his need for more money. He didn’t specify the amount, but he knew that his parents would send him however much they could afford.

He sealed the envelope with his letter, then slipped it into the mailbox by the entrance.

Half an hour ago, when he asked Linden for the location of the nearest post office, his roommate told him to check his guidebook. On one page, he found all the necessary infos, and he learned that all outgoing mail left in the mailbox would be collected each night at the same hour, and sent out the following morning.

He took one more look at the guest list in the entry room. He didn't plan to make any friends in Hecate, but it somehow happened, and well, he just decided to let it be.

The next day, on the early morning of the forty-second day of Dees, the people on the schoolground of Hecate were surprised by warm showers.

The rain itself wasn't unusual, but it was rare for the water to be so pleasantly warm. However those, who woke up late, didn’t get to see even one droplet, because they all dried up within minutes.

In the cottage numbered forty-four-hundred thirty-six, both Yew and Linden slept through the event. While in the neighboring cottage, only Spruce was still in his bed, when the unusual rainshower had occurred.

Aspen was always the last one to go to sleep, and the first one to wake up. He didn’t use any alarm clock, yet he woke up regularly at the same early time every day. Then, without waking up his roommate, he quietly dressed up and left the bedroom.

In comparison, Yew had a fairly average sleep schedule. He would stay up just a bit past the evening, and still wake up in the morning like most people, although his mornings weren't as early as Aspen's.

Linden, on the other hand, had no sleep schedule at all. He slept whenever he wanted, regardless whether it was daytime or nighttime, and his sleepspan ranged anywhere from a short nap to many hours.

Whereas, Spruce had the most kiddy schedule of them all. He went to bed early in the evening, and slept in until his morning alarm rang.

On that day, Spruce as usual jumped out of his bed in order to turn off the annoying device. The tiny ball-like clock on the floor fell silent, when he pushed its lid down. He headed to the restroom, where he did his morning business, before he went into the kitchen.

Just then he heard the sound of the exterior door opening and closing. A moment later Aspen was passing by the kitchen.

"Hey, where were you?" Spruce asked, still in his pajamas.

Aspen stopped and looked at Spruce, whose hand was clutching the fridge handle. "Hey," he returned the greeting, before he answered. "I needed to talk with my parents. Are you looking for breakfast?"

"Yeah, but there’s nothing inside."

"Dress up," Aspen said. "Let’s get Yew, and we'll go grab something to eat."

Ten minutes later, both of them stepped out of their cottage numbered forty-four-hundred thirty-five, and came up onto their neighbor's porch.

Spruce knocked two times, then he looked around. "Why isn’t there a chime?" he whined.

"This is the chime," Aspen added two more knocks.

Spruce raised his hand, ready to knock again, when the door sharply opened from inside.

Linden stood there with a grimace on his face. "There’s a reason I added your names to the guest list," he snapped at them. "So try to knock again, and I’m going to block you forever, idiots." He threw the door shut right in front of their noses.

"What do we do now?" from his voice, Spruce sounded hurt.

Aspen pushed down the handle, and opened the door. "We just walk in, as if we live here," he answered.

They entered, changed shoes in the entry room, and met with their schoolmates in the living room, where Yew and Linden were having their breakfast.

"So you finally figured out how to open the door," Linden said sarcastically. "Congratulations," he stated dryly, while clapping his hands.

Spruce cravingly gazed at the food, "is this the same as yesterday?" He recalled the tasty dinner from last night.

"It’s the leftovers," Yew specified. "If you want, you can join. There should be enough."

"Thanks," Spruce immediately sat next to Yew.

Linden sat on the armchair, while the other three sat on the sofa with Yew in the middle. As they ate, they talked about their sleeping habits.

"Any time is a good time for a nap," Linden expressed his permanent opinion.

Spruce took it as a challenge, and tested him, "and what will you do, if you’re sleepy when it’s a classtime?"

"Then I'll skip the class and go to bed," Linden spent no time thinking about the answer.

Other boys didn't believe him, but before they could reply, a sound of shuffling from the exterior door interrupted their conversation.

"Another guest?" Spruce asked.

"No, that’s mail," Linden went to the entry room, where he took out two envelopes from the mailbox.

Once he came back to the living room, he put them on the table, one envelope in front of Yew, and the other one in front of himself. He held it down with one hand, and with his other hand, he tapped the corner twice, then slid his finger across the upper edge. Right afterward, his envelope opened on its own.

Yew looked at the envelope in front of him. It was addressed to him, but he couldn’t open it like Linden, so he just tore off the corner. The contents of both envelopes were the same. It was their class schedule.

"So we're in the same class, and each class has fifty students," Aspen did the math based on the subtitle: «Class schedule for cottages forty-four-hundred twenty-six through forty-four-hundred fifty».

Everyone ignored the header of the letter, which was titled «forty-four B».

"Do we only have three classes?" Yew was surprised.

"Don’t be sad," Linden mocked his question. "They’ll give you more in the future."

Yew decided to ignore him, and instead chose to concentrate on the descriptions of his classes.

»»» History of Magic – covers the basic understanding of magic: what magic is, what magic is not, and how magic came to be. The class provides an in-depth explanation of the origin and history of magic - how magic has affected the world around us throughout the ages, and how it still affects us today.

»»» Process of Magic – explains how magic functions. It answers the question of what requirements must be met for magic to happen, and what obstacles exist, when using magic in real life situations. It also includes a detailed overview of magical talent, and the basis for production of magical items.

»»» Exercise of Magic – allows students to practice magic in a safe environment. It is intended to provide students with a closer and more practical look at magic without any educational pressure. The attendance is optional, and every score in this class is counted as extra points on top of the final annual score.

"So we take the same classes, even though I’m magicless?" Yew asked Linden, who was the most knowledgeable about the school among them.

"We don’t separate until the third year," he answered. "It should be in the guidebook."

"I kind of like this schedule," Spruce said cheerfully. "Two classes in the morning, then lunch, and then the Exercise of Magic in the afternoon, which is optional. There's so much free time."

"By the way, where are these classes held?" Aspen furrowed his eyebrows.

Linden drew a circle in the air, and Yew's letter flipped to the other side. "Look it up," he told them.

Aspen, Spruce, and Yew, looked at the backside of the letter, which displayed the map and its summary.

"History of Magic is in the History building, classroom A," Yew read the info. "Process of Magic is in the History building, classroom B. It looks like the classrooms are next to each other in the same building."

"Exercise of Magic is in the East Exercise building, classroom G," Aspen read the last one of the infos.

Spruce put his finger on the paper, "the History building is right here. And the East Exercise building is not so far away," he swiped his finger on the map.

"So all our classes are in one place," Yew summed up.

"How about we go see the buildings?" Spruce brought up the idea.

Aspen nodded. "Sounds good," he said.

"You coming?" Yew asked his roommate.

Linden, as usual, wasn’t polite. "Exclude me. I have more important things to do." He took his empty plate and utensils, and carried them into the kitchen, where he left them in the sink. "Yew, you’ll do the dishes. I’m off," he said before he walked into the entry room, then left the cottage a moment later.

After the three boys finished eating their breakfast, they all went into the kitchen, where Aspen and Spruce offered their help. For the next several moments, Yew cleaned the dishes, Spruce rinsed them, and Aspen dried them with a small rag. The activity went much faster than when Yew did everything by himself.