"You guys have your schedules, right?" Circe asked, holding out his scroll.
"No, we gobbled it up for breakfast," said Zebulon brandishing out his golden scroll.
"Bellamy handed it out this morning before the assembly," Avery added. "I honestly wish we did have breakfast. Lunch isn't until twelve."
"Boo hoo," said Zebulon. "Do you want to dry your tears on my parchment?" He flourished his scroll but Avery gave him a rough kick deep into his shins.
"Ow!" Zebulon wailed, hopping on one foot.
"I have Monster Studies first," Avery said, leaning toward Circe. "Same as yours, right?"
"It looks like," Circe grinned. "I'm guessing we all have the same classes then."
"Those and those without any limbs," muttered Zebulon.
They arrived at room 1001 which was on the far right side of the Grand Pavilion near a tall marble statue and the highly glossed purple lockers.
"I always wonder when we're gonna get one of these," Avery thought out loud as they swept into the room. It seemed more and more kids were piling in after them.
The room was incredibly spacious and oddly blue. A deep metallic blue that sunk into the long granite desks. The desks were long and curvy and they rose in levels all the way to the back of the room. The led lights were pearly white but they tinged a slight blue. But most of the chalky morning light seemed to emanate from the wide mullioned window that stretched in a wide rectangle across the room, providing a clear vista of the campus and the many students scurrying to their Centers. There was a huge metallic gray monitor that stood in front of the building and two more that hung in the very back of the seats.
Seeing all this overwhelmingly reminded Circe that he was still attending a university and not just some run-of-the-mill high school or middle school—even though it did come close to feeling like that at times. Then there was still the strange humming noise that he had picked up earlier that was haunting him back all the way to this room. Was that just part of some eccentric decoration that the school had?
Circe spotted Lorraine Silva sitting on a second level seat near the bright window, waving enthusiastically at them. There was a small cat group of Heroes sitting behind her who had been whispering something in her ears. They must've been her friends.
Circe moved toward Lorraine's direction, gesturing for Zebulon and Avery to join him. "Come on!"
"Ehh," mumbled Avery.
"Don't be like that! Hey Phineas,"
A gangly boy with flaming red hair and large bifocal glasses walked into the room, somewhat puzzled and goggly-eyed. "Hi," he said somewhat distantly.
"Look who decided to join us now," Avery snarled, crossing her arms defiantly as more students swept past her. The seats seemed to be gradually filling up.
"What?" said Phineas, snapping out of his existential daze.
"Ignore her," said Circe.
"Where are you guys sitting?"
"By Lorraine, it looks like," said Zebulon, pointing in the girl's direction. "If it doesn't get filled up."
They went and sat by Lorraine Silva, calmly chatting among themselves. A few more students poured in including Malik, who stuck two middle fingers by his face and poked his tongue out at Circe. He and his two new friends, the white blonde Swedish girl, Jasmine Jezelberg and a mixed girl named Naphtali Simmons sat in the back. Circe noticed that Aviv Parastroka and Jamie Soo were sitting in the back and whispering to each other. Then there was a blonde kid Circe hadn't seen before that seemed to be capturing the eyes of a handful of girls in the class, including Lorraine's.
"Whose the blonde kid?" Circe asked. Even he couldn't help from staring.
"Oh him?" Phineas laughed, a cut of light shimmering across his glasses. "That's Conrad Skeely one of the popular geezers in this school. I share a dorm with him in the Hero Center and he's kind of an annoying asshat.
"You're just jealous he's Australian," said Lorraine dreamily.
"By my dead body maybe I would be."
Circe and Zebulon snickered. Then the last student swaggered forth into the room. She had bright strawberry red hair, dimples, and a mixed Caucasian Japanese look. To Circe she carried a cool jocular aura that screamed that she liked to clown around a lot.
"Oh great, the shapeshifter girl," Zebulon muttered. Circi grinned. "She asked me for your number you know."
"Shut it,"
Carrow Katakowa walked toward them beaming. "Sweet, you guys are in this class! It might not be a shit show after all! Hey Jethreel!" Carrow waved as she rose to the fourth level seats.
The black kid named Jethreel remained silent. He seemed rather sulky and simply wasn't in the business to be bothered. He straightened his striped red tie as Carrow slumped into a seat beside him, grinning childishly.
The classroom was infested with chatter until the door burst open and a tall man in dark purple robes entered the building. He had short gray hair, cloudy gray eyes, a gangly, sticklike disposition that made him appear taller than he actually was, and a lot of lines on his miserable gaunt face. Behind the purple robes, he wore a regular suit with a purple striped tie. He oddly reminded Circe of Mr. Brixon but with a drop of style. The door shut quickly and loudly and the gray haired man snappishly turned to his students, void of cracking a smile on his dry face.
"Welcome to first period Monster Studies, my name is Tobias Raufman or simply Professor Raufman, and I will be your Monster Studies teacher for this year and hopefully the later ones as well." He said all this as he prowled back and forth across the room. His voice was dry and mechanical and Circe got the feeling that he really wasn't looking forward to seeing them next year or this year at all. Raufman stared across the room with his cold, gray wolfish eyes until it finally landed on Circe.
"Circe Chimer," said Raufman. "It seems we have our very own monster in the room."
A few snickers unleashed and Circe could hear Malik's at the forefront.
"I've met your father, not exactly the best role model is he?"
The class roared with laughter as Circe flushed, clenching his fists. Phineas readjusted his glasses and looked down at the table and Zebulon nervously fiddled with his fingers.
"I don't think it's any of your business who his father is," said Avery. "Leave him alone."
Professor stared at Avery carefully, his noxious, scathing gray eyes shaking. "Right". Then he resumed his dry, mechanical drawl as he prowled around like a gray snow wolf. Circe wouldn't have been surprised if he transformed into one on the spot and ate everyone.
"I was born and raised in the cold pines of Dresden and as I grew up, I slowly discovered the world of monsters. My parents were very successful Shadowers in Germany but they never taught me much about the creatures they fought. I had to figure that stuff out on my own. I wish I had a university like this when I was your age, it would've magnificently simplified things for me."
Professor Raufman stopped his intimidating, predatory prowl, and stood in front of his metallic blue glass desk, carefully screening the room. Then he went up to the blackboard and scrawled up the word Monster.
"A monster," he said calmly, yet icily to the class. "What is it? What makes something a monster?"
There was a cool silky silence in the room, the kids swapped looks but no one raised their hands.
Carrow shot her hands in the air. "Oooh!"
"Yes?" said Professor Raufman.
"A monster is like something that kills people, right?"
"Sort of. That is one of the things that constitutes a monster, but that's not who they are entirely. What a monster truly is at heart is a creature who will go to any lengths to get what they desire. It's all about them right? It's all about desire."
"Oooh," said Carrow again, her eyes dancing excitedly. A few Mecha and Hero students looked nervous. Lorraine shifted in her seat uncomfortably.
"But everyone has desires," said Avery snorted skeptically. "How can that make you a monster?"
"Because it comes from the self, it's prideful. And when that selfish desire grows and becomes stronger, it leads to evil acts to obtain it," Raufman continued to prowl across the room, putting his hands in his trousers. "A monster isn't just a two dimensional creature that kills people just because it wants to, it has an objective. A monster starts from the inside and is out to obtain something, to achieve a desire that it's always wanted from a young age. And those desires aren't concrete things like food, money, women, houses, or cars. No, these desires are spiritual abstract things. Lust, love, respect, fame, and happiness. That's why you'll find that a monster isn't just a three headed creature or a demon, no, a monster can also be a human. And every monster has their own abstract desires or jewels, as us Shadowers call them."
Raufman walked back to his desk, crossing his arms. "My aim in this class is to specifically teach you about what these monsters are and the many jewels that they value because there are more than just five. I only listed the basic ones. Today, and basically this week we're going to be talking about the Unkillables. Does anyone know what that is? I'll give you a hint, there's one sitting in this room."
Lorraine and Avery's hands shot into the air.
"Yes," Professor Raufman pointed at Lorraine.
"An Unkillable is a monster that's very difficult to kill. Or impossible to kill. And they also cause the most destruction than any other monster."
"They're also very rare to find," added Avery. "They don't like being in public too much which is why they come around once in a blue moon."
"I'm impressed. The four Unkillables that we'll be looking into are the Chimera, the Nine Tailed Fox, the Hydra, and the Leviathan. But these are the ones that are well documented, there are plenty more out that you'll learn about in your later years. For this year we will also focus on studying the Erchitu; a white ox humanoid, the Simargle; a winged wolf, dog, or lion, the Indrik; one horned bull with deer legs and horse face, the Teju Jagua; a lizard dog hybrid, and plenty more. We will have a total of four units in this class, starting off with the Unkillables, then we'll move on to the Originals, then the Numerals, and finally the Jewels. You will will have quizzes and tests, you will be reading from textbooks, and you will also watch videos and take a few trips about the lessons that we talk about. You will be assigned your own textbooks so be sure to take them to your lockers or dorms. After class today, you will also be assigned your own locker and locker combinations so be sure to not lose any of these things. Does anyone have any questions?"
The still silence crept across the room. A few students looked at each other trying not to laugh and a few blinked like a nonchalant, unperturbed owl.
A few seconds later textbooks with a notebook and pen crystallized onto the desks,
"Turn your textbooks to page forty three, we will start reading about the Chimera. Starting with its origins and first sightings in Thessaloniki, Greece. I'll need someone to read, how about you Chimer? It fits in nicely, doesn't it?" Raufman grinned, showing his bent and broken yellow teeth.
Resisting the urge to retort, Circe read off the first paragraph. "Chimeras have always been around since the day of ancient Greece. Back when there was only one, back before the days of the saints when they would sweep the country through cities like Corinth and Thessaloniki indoctrinating the Greeks into their filthy Christian beliefs. Back in the ancient days when the country worshipped its own gods, the Chimera was highly respected and would prowl through the streets in the form of man. The first one was born in the city of Thessaloniki—"
"Speak louder Chimer and hold your book straight," said Raufman lazily. "Perhaps you should've combed your hair as well."
The class roared with laughter. Malik's raucous laugh rang out the loudest.
"Hey Chimer, turn around!" Malik warbled. Crumpled balls of paper were being tossed behind Circe's head.
"Shut up!" Circe shouted, banging his fist on the table as he got up. His face was red and his eyes were dancing with rage as a lonely tear trickled down his cheek. He ignored Avery's urgent silent mouthing to sit down. His textbook was lifting into the harsh exciting air and some of the students around him stared at him with their penciled eyebrows raised.
Conrad Skeely stared.
"You think you can just say anything you want because you're a teacher but you're just a bully. You're a hurt miserable bully who doesn't have any friends! And you'll never be likable Professor Raufman."
The class withered in silence, nervous looks being traded more than drugs from a cartel. Even they knew Circe had taken it too far. Avery tried not to smile, Aviv was giggling to herself.
"Burn," muttered Carrow.
"Silence!" Professor Raufman growled. "Detention for you Mr. Chimer and I want to see you at my desk after class. If I ever see this tongue from you again, I will be sure to drag you by the scruff of your neck and kick you out of this class myself. Now sit down!"
Circe remained standing. "Circe, remember what you told me? Please sit down," Avery whispered earnestly.
It took every bone in Circe's body to force him to sit down but he eventually slipped back into his seat.
"Fahreed, pick up where Chimer left off."
The class sunk into a stupor as they listened to the middle eastern Mecha read off from the textbook. For the rest of the class, they took notes, watched Professor Raufman write down the different battles the Chimera had through history, and then they watched a quick video toward the end of class. When the bell rang, everyone got up and trickled out of the classroom.
"Chimer!" Professor Raufman called when everyone had left.
Circe gloomily walked to the blue desk.
"If I ever see you speak to me like that, I will be sure to expel you. Or worse. I'll be informing Ulrik of your detention and Zenithclad of your sudden cheek. Watch your tongue Chimer or eventually someone will have to cut it and you better hope it's not me. Now get out of my sight!"
Grumbling to himself, Circe stormed away, fuming. The door automatically slammed once he reached the crowded hallways. Surely, out of all the odds, Circe thought, there were better professors that could've been picked to teach Monster Studies.
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