On the second day of Byzh, Yew woke up later than usual, but he still had enough time for his morning preparations. After he got himself ready for the school, he shook Linden by his shoulder.
His roommate opened his eyes and with a grimace on his face declared, "I hate mornings," then he got up and went to the restroom.
Minutes later, when Yew and Linden left their cottage, Aspen was already outside waiting for Spruce to put on his outdoor shoes. Once Spruce was done, the four of them left toward the History building.
Upon arrival at their destination, they met with their teacher, Cacao, who was standing by the door and collecting notebooks of every student entering his classroom.
"If you don’t have your homework, don’t bother coming in, or I’ll give you negative five points," the teacher warned approaching students, some of whom looked scared but glad, that they had done their homework.
"Homework visa," Linden commented angrily, but he politely took out his notebook and handed it over to the teacher.
Aspen, Spruce and Yew did the same. Once the teacher touched the notebooks, they promptly flew onto his desk and landed on top of the other notebooks in a tidy pile.
The boys took their seats, and watched as one unlucky student confessed to forgetting his homework.
Cacao looked at him sternly, "if you don’t have your homework, do it now, and turn it in after you’re done."
The boy turned around and walked away.
Upon collecting all the notebooks, Cacao closed the classroom door, walked to the center and looked at the desks, which were missing two students. "What did I teach you yesterday?" he asked.
The students stood up one by one, then greeted the teacher, "good morning, professor."
"Good morning," he responded, and looked at the students. "Forty eight out of fifty - that’s better than the last class," he mumbled to himself.
He snapped his fingers, and a random notebook from his desk flew into his hand.
"The assignment I gave you yesterday was worth five points, so let's see how well you did. The question was easy: List five famous wizards. You should have had no problems answering it, if you paid attention. And even if you didn’t pay attention to my lecture, your textbook lists four very famous wizards, so you should still be able to get at least four points."
He opened the notebook, and in a clear voice, he read the namehood of the notebook's owner, followed by the score, "Spruce Phalahi Menteng Fire, total score: two points."
Everyone in the class went pale, when they realized that he was going to publicly announce every student's score.
Cacao raised his face and looked at the students. "When you hear your namehood, please come and pick up your notebook. If you don’t pick it up, I’ll change your score to negative five."
Spruce jumped out of his seat, and with his head down he approached the teacher. He opened his palms, received his notebook, then hurried back to his desk.
The teacher continued the process, with several students getting four points, while most of the students received three or two points. There was one person, who got five points, and that surprised everyone. The students began clapping in awe, but Cacao quickly silenced them, and continued to read the score of the next notebook, "Yew Chirabilva Araukaria Sky, total score: two points."
Yew didn’t feel as bad as Spruce, since he wasn’t the first one to be humiliated.
Several more namehoods were read, and then, "Aspen Elati Boviyamara Breeze, total score: seven points."
Suddenly everyone acted as if they saw a flying cow, except for Aspen, who calmly went to pick up his notebook, while forty seven pairs of eyes gazed at him in disbelief. A lot of students were murmuring to each other, trying to understand how it was possible for anyone to get seven points, if the homework was only worth five points.
Aspen quietly returned back to his desk, while everyone's emotions could be felt in the air. Some felt jealousy and hatred, while others couldn't hide their admiration and wonder. The teacher ignored all of it, and continued to score the homework. He looked inside the prelast notebook, furrowed his eyebrows, and remained silent for a long moment.
Eventually he announced in a gloomy voice, "Linden Tamalini Gomat Cave, negative five points."
The students' interest in Aspen disappeared with the latest news.
Linden confidently walked up to Cacao to receive his notebook.
The teacher looked at him with silent anger, and menacingly shook his head. "This is the first time I get a rebel among the first years." He handed Linden his notebook, but kept his grip on it.
Linden grabbed the notebook, but unable to take it, he looked up inquiringly at the teacher’s face. "Can I have it?" he asked cautiously.
In response Cacao commanded him, "you’ll do all the assignments on pages five and six for tomorrow. I’ll give you a negative ten for every assignment you skip." Cacao glared at the boy before he let go of his notebook.
The classroom was once again filled with mixed emotions. Some were inspired and amazed by Linden’s lack of fear toward a scary teacher and his courage at receiving bad scores. Others found his behavior to be foolish and arrogant, and felt appalled.
Linden sighed, and his sigh sounded a lot like the word "whatever" but he spoke no words. With the same confident attitude, he went back to his seat.
Right after the teacher announced points on the last notebook, someone knocked on the door. Cacao went to open it, and met with the two students, who didn't have their homework done on time. He checked their notebooks, and after confirming that they had done their assignment, he announced their scores as zeroes, and let them take their seats.
"Next time, there will be no second chance," he warned the students, who shivered at the possibility of forgetting their homework ever again.
Afterward, the class proceeded normally. The teacher talked about magic-related archeological discoveries and assigned another homework at the end of the class. The students said their goodbyes, left the classroom, and circled the building toward a brighter future.
The Process of Magic class was much more pleasant. The students already liked the teacheress, because she didn't give them any homework on their first day, and she hadn't yet taken any points from anyone.
They joyfully greeted Sorrel, and she greeted them back. She began with the overview of her previous lecture, before she proceeded to the next section of the curriculum.
"Most of you have enough stamina already to use a simple spell of moving an object." She pointed at the chair by her desk, which moved toward her. As she moved her finger away, the chair moved back behind the desk. "However, you might not have enough concentration to move a big object, so let's try with something smaller."
She spun up her hand, and a pen teleported into her grip. "Please put your pen in front of you."
The students did as told.
Sorrel waited until all the students were ready. "I believe there are two magicless students in this class. Could you please raise your hand, if you’re magicless?"
Yew and Spruce raised their hands.
She took out two small items from her desk, and approached the boys. "Please put these on," she gave each boy a ring with a symbol of one vertical straight line inscribed in gold.
She went back to stand in front of the class, then proceeded to give instructions.
"Please stare at your pen, and concentrate on one specific movement. In order to move the pen, you have to know exactly how you want it to move. You must decide on the direction, the speed, the rotation, and the final position. You must imagine it all happening. Use your imagination. Let it play out in your mind, then concentrate on the pen."
Right at that moment, the pen in front of Aspen began rolling on the desk, back and forth, away and toward him, as if magic was the simplest thing to learn. Nobody was surprised, because he had already become known as the smartest student of the class.
Linden felt annoyed at his classmates paying so much attention to nothing noteworthy, so in order to stop them from observing Aspen, he made the pen on his desk jump up and down.
Of course, this caused a fair commotion in the class. Seeing the worst student use a spell so easily gave everyone a lot of confidence, and they tried as hard as they could. Some succeeded moving their pens by millimeters, but most of them failed utterly, as their pens remained motionless.
After checking on other students, Yew looked back at the pen in front of him, then at the ring on his finger. Spruce, who sat next to him, was trying hard and nothing happened to his pen, so Yew decided that he would do nothing. It was a better choice than accidentally exposing his magical talent.
Sorrel allowed the students to try for a little longer before she said, "okay, that’s good enough." She approached Yew and Spruce, collected the two rings, which she had lent them, then put them back in her desk.
She smiled toward everyone in the class, many of whom were still trying hard. "You don’t need to worry. Magic was never easy, but if you keep practising you’ll be able to do it. Practice in your free time, before and after your classes. Whatever you learn in this class is your homework. And if you struggle with anything, you should ask your tutors for help."
If only they had good tutors, was what many of them thought, but no one voiced their concerns.
"As for you two," she said toward Yew and Spruce, "you need to obtain your own magical items, so you can practice with them. I suggest you visit the magical stores in Sheepcrown. Think of it as a special homework," she added with a wink.
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