After everyone had finished their tests in our first class, Mrs. Sandi told us that she would work out the placements by tomorrow. Then the bell rang and we went to our next class.

“Life Sciences?” Juden said. “That sounds so boring!”

“I think it’ll be fun,” Kanata said. “Soraya told me this teacher is the best one to get.”

“If you say so,” Juden said. He pushed the door open and walked in. The rest of us followed.

“I’m excited,” Arya whispered to me.

“Woah…” I said. The room was huge and expansive. All over were tables and desks, which had a variety of terrariums, cages, and tanks all over them. Then, surrounding the tables were large amounts of bean bags and other cushioned chairs. Several students already sat around the room. At the front was a large desk, and behind the desk was a tall man. His hair was a bright blue and slicked back into a decorative flair.

“Welcome, welcome,” the man said. “To life sciences! Take a seat, take a seat.” Juden strode to a seat in about the middle of the classroom. He flopped down into a cushion and the rest of us followed.

We waited for the rest of the students to arrive and talked.

“How was your test?” Kanata asked Juden.

“Easy as cake,” Juden said. “It was just two snake monsters.”

“Cool,” I said. Then the bell rang, a loud clanging that echoed through the halls. After a minute or two of everyone settling down, the teacher stood up.

“Welcome!” he said. “To Life Sciences! My name is Mr. Collins. Today we’ll be exploring what separates the different intelligent species.”

“Do we all have to?” someone in the back of the class asked.

“Yes!” Mr. Collins said. “It’s an important part of this class. Now, first, we’ll discuss it together.” He walked to one side of the room where a large board was on the wall. He flipped a switch next to it and all the desks moved off to the side while all the chairs moved up closer to the board.

“First,” he said. “[Humans]. By far the most common of the higher species. Raise your hand if you are at least partially [human].” More than half of the class raised their hands, including Mr. Collins. He wrote on the board, Humans: 34 students.

“Next, the second most common species, the [Demons],” Mr. Collins said. “How many of you are at least partially [demon]?” Seven students raised their hands. Mr. Collins wrote  Demons: 7 students on the board.

“How about [Elves]?” Mr. Collins asked. Only two people raised their hands. “Yes, most are quite elusive,” He said, writing Elves: 2 students on the board.

“Now, a species that is relatively new,” Mr. Collins said. “The [Angelics]. Anyone here?” Juden and Skorch raised their hands. Then Mr. Collins wrote on the board, Angelics: 2 students.

“And finally, the [Kimes],” Mr. Collins said. “How many?” Seventeen students raised their hands. Then Mr. Collins wrote Kimes: 17 students on the board.

“Now, what separates our many species?” Mr. Collins asked. “What makes the [Elves] different from the [Humans], or the [Angelica] from the [Demons]? Any theories?”

“He didn’t talk about [Dragons] or [Dwarves],” Ariel whispered to me.

“There are physical differences,” Juden said.

“Precisely!” Mr. Collins said. “But what causes these differences?” After a few moments of silence, he laughed. “Well, each living thing in this world has something called DNA.”

“What’s that?” someone asked.

“DNA is a long strand of molecules that contain information about you,” Mr. Collins said. “Depending on what your DNA is, you’ll look different. My DNA is different than your DNA, for example, which explains why we look different.”

“How does this relate to the different species?” Kanata asked.

“Well, the different species have different kinds of DNA,” Mr. Collins said. “For [Humans], it is base pairs of compounds referred to as A, T, G, and C. For the other species, it’s a bit different. [Demons] have A, T, C, and X, for example. [Elves] have A, T, C, and R, and [Angelica] have A, T, G, C, R, and X.”

“That's complex,” someone in the middle of the group said.

“Indeed it is,” Mr. Collins said. “But it’s the most complex we'll get into today.”

“Yes!” Someone in the back whispered.

Mr. Collins went on to talk a little bit more about DNA and then about the [Kimes] and how part of their DNA is that of one animal. Then the ball rang. We all had a short break in between the classes before our next class, mine being History.

“You have History?” Juden asked me later. “Man, that’s sad.”

“It’s not that bad,” Juden said. “Besides, I don’t know as much as I should.”

“I have a special class,” Juden bragged. “Techno-magical Workings.”

“Nice,” Kanata said. “That sounds interesting. I have…” She checked her paper that had her list of classes on it. “Magical Creature Care.”

“Ooh!” Arya said. “I have the same!”

“Nice!” I said. “You two have fun. I need to get to history.”

“See ya!” Kanata said as she and Arya walked off to their class.

“We’ll talk later!” I called back. Then me and Juden went our separate ways to our next classes.