I was jogging down the school halls at whatever o'clock, bright and early in the morning. I was panting like hell and only an hour later would I realize that I could have used magic, at this moment, to not have used nearly as much energy to race down the halls.

But I didn't, and because I was running late all I could focus on was how angry Ms. Dovermal would be if I was late.

So I ran, I ran like my life depended on it. Because, well, it probably did. Seriously though, I did not want to deal with a pissed Ms. Dovermal so when I passed through the door seconds before the bell rang, I sent blessings to the greatness above that let me not be late.

I saw my regular seat from my position at the front of the room and frowned when I noticed that it wasn't wonderfully empty like I had always found it before.

A random guy was sitting in the chair, he didn't have any of his stuff laid on the table in front of him so I assumed that he was just there to talk with the girl he was currently conversing with.

"Alright, class! Get to your seats, we are about to start." Ms. Dovermal suddenly announced. Several students who were standing went to sit down or had to walk almost across the room to get to their seats. For a second I wondered if I should just leave the guy in my seat, my stuff wasn't there yet and there were some empty ones I could use for the day.

With that thought, I went to find another seat, but  I noticed the guy start to get his hand up the girl's shirt. I couldn't tell from the girl's expression whether she wanted it or not but it was too gross for me to let it continue.

I waltzed up to them as quickly as I could and when I got to the two I just stood beside the guy. He stopped his hand, not yet pulling it out of the girl's shirt, and turned to look at me.

"Ok, I get that you haven't gotten some action in a while but can you leave us alone so that we can?" he sighed, smirking as he looked at me with lazily hooded eyes. The insult was shocking but I knew after years of experience that the only way to successfully deliver one back with as much burn and shade as possible was to act like it was terrible.

"You know, it's great to find out that in your mind coming here equaled sexually frustrated. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by you not using your head because shoving your hand down her shirt when class is going on already showed your lack of common sense." I calmly said, my voice low but fast. The guy looked stunned, almost as much as his partner who went to pull his hand out of her shirt.

"No, you were actually wrong. I'm here because you took my seat. I'll probably be having to wipe it down to get rid of your horn but I'm sure it will be worth the sacrifice if I can wait a few hours to jump someone, unlike some people." I explained,  throwing in insults wherever I could.

The guy looked angry, but it did not look that dangerous because he was also embarrassed. His blush mixed with his angry expression was pretty funny but I didn't laugh since it would ruin the effect of my previous words.

He got up loudly, letting the chair scrap the ground and then fall onto the floor as he quickly walked away to his actual seat.

I knew that what I said was wholly unnecessary and could possibly lead to problems in the future but he tried to get me away by insulting me, and that was the absolute worst thing to do.

The "desks" were set up as free, movable chairs lined up behind long tables that were bolted to the ground. There were stairs that ran through the middle of the tables and stairs that ran up the sides. My seat was close to the farthest side of the far table so I didn't have to walk around a lot of tables to get to my seat.

The girl didn't move, and it was slightly awkward to have to sit next to her because she was kind of glaring at me but was too scared to actually say or do anything to me.

Ms. Dovermal stood up from her seat and came to stand in front of her desk. We all waited patiently while she looked around the class before she smiled.

"Good morning class!" she greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning Ms. Dovermal," we said, well more liked muttered, back. She nodded then continued to speak.

"Today we are going to skip the warm-up because I feel that you are all eager to start on your MorphPples, so for the whole class period you will be working on that." She informed us quickly, sighs of relief and groans of dread were heard throughout the room but she ignored them and just gave us all a small smile. "I would suggest you quickly get started on those apples so you can focus on how the fruits actually morph and fine-tune the fruits to be realistic."

Ms. Dovermal briefly went into more detail about the fact that we had to come up with our own way for the fruit to morph and how to trigger the morph without using additional magic and other small things to remember.

"Alright! Get to work!" She boomed, startling more than half of the class. We all hastily scrambled to start our fruits.

I grabbed the spell book and flipped it open to the page on the MorphPple. I read the spell slowly and carefully, thankful for the fact that it was in English, and started to repeat it in my head. Once I had the spell committed to memory I opened my eyes and started speaking them aloud.

I was saying the words under my breath, moving my hands around an invisible shape in front of me so that the words manifested into an apple.

It started to appear, first the heads, then the inner flesh, but as I continued to say the words the flesh started to become uneven. Certain parts dipped in while others stayed circular and no matter how hard I focused the skin would not appear.

I huffed and flashed my hands over the barely formed "apple" letting it vanish into the air. This continued on for a long time, sometimes It would get the flesh but no seats and no skin, other times there would be seats, and some skin would start to appear but not enough flesh, there was always something wrong and I rarely got any skin.

It was frustrating at best and I wanted to just curl up in a ball and sleep. I stared at the spellbook, seeing the beautiful apple halfway transformed into a peach, and realized that I wanted to do that.

I really wanted to do that.

So, I sat up straight, shook out my arms and legs in my seat, and then stood up.

I was finishing this assignment.

I took in a deep breath then stared directly between my hands, I then started to slowly sing the words.

The core of the apple appeared, followed by the flesh that grew outwards and started to create the shape of an apple. Then, in a fashion so smooth it almost took my breath away, the deep red skin started to cover the entire fruit. A few minutes later I was staring at an apple.

I blinked and started to analyze it. The skin was a little but one-toned and the apple was almost too round but the top dipped in for the little stick and the bottom went up as well.

I had made an apple.

I smiled.

Then the bell rang.

—————

Sam and I were currently chuckling and giggling like crazy. We both managed to come considerably earlier today and were enjoying the benefits tremendously. We were basically just "gossiping" and joking around like crazy.

We had been in the middle of losing or shit by mocking one annoying janitor for the cafeteria when Mr. McCain -the younger one- started class.

"Good Morning class," he boomed, coming to slowly walk around to the front of his desk

"Good Morning," people collectively muttered back. It varied by the person how they had said it but together it was just kind of hard to understand.

"Great, love the enthusiasm! Let's get started." 

An entire class period later, I find myself standing next to Mr. McCain, laughing with him like I would an old friend.

Over the weeks, Mr. McCain and I have talked . . . a lot actually. It was mostly about school but it also involved personal conversations about our siblings, life, living here, and things like that. Mr. McCain was really easy to talk to and we had such great laughs.

I was currently telling him about the one time that my brother had thought it a good idea to bring home a girl. My parents probably wouldn't have minded, but this girl had accidentally mentioned that she met him at a party and it got crazy after that.

"I had never seen my mother so rude to a guest before," I told a laughing Mr. McCain. "And I mean it when I say that my mom is addicted to making guests comfortable, but she threw that girl out without even touching her."

Mr. McCain was snickering and laughing behind his hand and moved the limb away from his mouth long enough to ask.

"So, was Orlando able to do much dating after that?" He looked at me expectantly and I just sighed.

"I guess, after a few years," I answered honestly.

Mr. McCain nodded his head.

"Yeah, I can understand that. I would do the same thing to my kid truthfully," Mr. McCain commented, agreeing with the parents.

My eyebrows raised and I gave Mr. McCain a teasing look.

"Man, Mr. McCain. And I thought you were young!" I said with a laugh.

Mr. McCain pushed my shoulder while shaking his head. I glanced around us and realized that that was probably my cue to leave before the bell rang.

"That's the immortality, Sebastian, I never tried to fool anyone," Mr. McCain responded without missing a beat. My thought process froze to zone in on that one piece of information.

Immortality

Mr. McCain has immortality l, but I thought that it was his older brother who had the doctorate and earned the immortality. Did he earn it too? Was that why Sam saw him at that thing all that time ago?

"Okay, well then I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye, Mr. McCain!" I waved at him. I went to turn around but he started to speak.

"Wait, Sebastian," I watched as, in his eyes, he fought himself over what he was going to say. "Calling me . . . calling me Mr. McCain is way too formal at this point." He stopped to give me a heart-stopping smirk. "Call me Dean."