After exhaustedly changing into shirts and shorts, the four sprawled into their beds, indulging in the warmth of silk blankets and fluffed-up pillows.

The next morning, November got up early.

‘Hnghhh.’, she moaned, stretching her arms up. Looking down at her side of the room, she caught a glance of Bell’s hair as he moved.

November jumped down from her bed (which was very high up if you remember the description from Chapter Two) and landed on the section of her floor which was a trampoline. She also landed on her hair, making her trip.

Swearing quietly, she got up and hoped she didn’t wake her roommate up.

‘November, I can hear you cursing.’, said the muffled voice from the other side.

‘Sorry.’, she said back. ‘I’m going out to the balcony, okay?’

‘Mmm. Might go out, no point staying in bed.’

‘Well, it’s probably cold outside.’

‘Meh.’

The voices trailed off, so November pushed through the chiffon curtains to find the long balcony she shared with Bell. A beautiful sunrise was unfolding outside. The yellow sun blended with the purple-blue-orangeish sky.

Sitting outside, she heard Bell’s curtains ruffle, then he came out.

‘Annoying curtain got in my way.’

‘Well, there’s no point having a curtain there if it’s not going to get in your way.’

‘That makes no sense.’

‘I know.’, November smiled. ‘Why are some people short, and others tall?’

‘I don’t know. All I know is that I’m short, you’re short, Skylar’s tall and Nathan’s tall and that Miss Hestia is very, very tall.’

‘Yeah, I know.’, November sighed, looking out to the lake.

‘By the way, why were you swearing when you got up?’

‘Oh, I tripped on my hair.’, November explained. ‘Which reminds me, I need to brush it.’

‘Me too.’, Bell said.

‘Oh yeah, I forgot your hair was long as well. Why do you keep it like that?’

‘Mother wanted me to be a girl when she had me but I wasn’t, so she gave me a girly name and forced me to have long hair.’

‘Ah. My mother had odd taste, and she thought that wow, months are a great name for a child, so here I am, November May. She also thought, hey, wouldn’t it be nice to dress my kid up like Sailor Moon for Halloween? So when I went to the school dress-up for Halloween in grade one, I had these half bun, half ponytails, and a sceptre, and an anime school uniform and I went around yelling, ‘Fighting evil by moonlight!’.’

‘I was wondering why Nathan was laughing about a Sailor Moon on the way home from that.’

‘It’s getting colder out here. I’m going in to brush my hair.’, November went in, turning around to see what Bell was going to do. He went in as well. Before she climbed up to her bed, November heard Bell mutter, ‘Annoying curtain.’.

Meanwhile, in Skylar’s dorm, Skylar was awake and watching Nathan snore on the other side of the room.

‘Would it do to wake him up?’, Skylar mumbled. She decided to, just to see the results.

‘GET UP!’, she yelled.

‘Huh?!’, Nathan woke up with a start, then realised it was just Skylar. ‘Oi, why’d you wake me up?’

Skylar suppressed a smile. ‘Oh, just experimenting.’

‘Experimenting. Ugh.’, Nathan grouched.

‘You sound like November when I wake her up after a sleepover.’

‘Glad to hear that.’

‘Well, it’s about six in the morning, so I’m getting dressed.’, Skylar leapt off her bed, landing on the trampoline and entering her wardrobe.

The note said, ‘We want something pretty and flowy for today’s Trust lessons. Starts at eight.’.

Skylar changed into a simple white dress with a organza overdress. It definitely drifted everywhere, filling the criteria.

When she came out, Nathan was sitting on a chair.

‘Yes, you’re changed. No, you haven’t done your hair.’, Nathan pointed out.

‘Ugh, meh, whatever. I’ll brush my hair up in my bed.’, Skylar went up the stairs.

‘Oh, and by the way.’, she yelled down. ‘You might wanna get changed now. Classes start at eight.’

Loosely plaiting her hair, Skylar took the stairs down as she was wearing a dress.

November had also changed, into an organdie dress with an illusion neckline that went down to her knees. She hadn’t bothered to tie her hair, just clipping it back with her normal clip.

The boys were given instructions to change into anything. As such, they had shirts and shorts. Simple as always.

The four of them went out at 7:45, meeting outside their dorm doors. The climb down took ten minutes, and the navigation to the hall took about three.

‘Two minutes early.’, November mumbled.

They all walked in, and sat at assigned spots.

The class had come in as well, then came their professor for Trust classes.

‘I am Professor Carissa Pirotta. Professor Pirotta shall do.’, Professor Pirotta slammed the roll book down on the desk, that filled itself out.

‘Now, today is a simple exercise. You may be wondering what happened to breakfast. You have a Trust class each morning in the hall before breakfast. That you can be sure of. Today, you are going to breathe in your roommate’s face.’

Chatter started to build, everyone wondering why you had to breathe in your roommate’s face.

‘Breathing in your roommate’s face will help you remember the scent. It’s also awkward, which builds the relationship.’, Professor Pirotta rapped her ruler on the table, issuing silence.

‘You may start.’

‘Do you want to go first?’, Bell asked November.

‘B-but,’, November looked away. ‘I had chewing gum this morning. After I brushed my teeth.’

‘And?’

‘I don’t know. Okay, then.’, November reluctantly leant against the table and breathed in Bell’s face.

Slowly inhaling the smell, Bell detected strawberry bubblegum, minty toothpaste and a tiny bit of apple.

‘Once you’ve smelt your roommate’s breath, note down what you could smell.’

Notebooks dropped onto their desks with a pen. Bell quickly wrote the date and the title, ‘Trust exercise - November’s breath’ and wrote down the strawberry gum, toothpaste and the odd apple bit.

‘This activity is weird.’, Bell muttered, going to breathe in November’s face.

November found very minty, sharp toothpaste and a hint of raspberry for some reason.

Jotting her results down, they turned to look at Skylar and Nathan.

Skylar thought that Nathan’s breath smelt of garlic - and was now telling him off for not making an effort for decent-smelling breath. While she was doing that, Nathan was getting many whiffs of Skylar’s breath and was writing them all down.

Professor Pirotta cleared her throat loudly. ‘The exercise should be finished. Prince Bell, read out your results.’

‘Me?’, Bell asked.

‘Yes, you, boy.’, Professor Pirotta rolled her eyes.

‘U-um, November’s breath smells like strawberry bubblegum, toothpaste and a bit of apple.’

‘And Princess November, you chew gum in the morning very often?’

‘Y-yes.’

‘Good. Now, I have another exercise for you to do.’, Professor Pirotta instructed. ‘You are to draw each other gender-swapped. Go.’

A pencil appeared, and the pens went away. A liner also popped up, and an array of Copic markers appeared on each desk as well.

‘Drawing Bell as a girl won’t be too hard.’, November thought. ‘After all, I just have to draw him with his hair down, and he sort of looks like a girl anyway. T-shirt will do him fine. Ooh, actually, why don’t we dress him up in a girl school uniform? That’ll be curious.’

‘Drawing November as a boy won’t be too hard.’, Bell thought. ‘I just have to imagine her with cut hair, and then put pants and a shirt on her. Simple.’

The four of them all had thoughts along the same lines, and had soon lined and coloured their sketch. Just as they finished, though, everyone’s was whisked away and poofed into nothing.

‘Those’ll be for reports.’, Professor Pirotta said. ‘Now, teleport - cafeteria.’