"Shouldn't you be at class, miss?" I fell off the bed and scrambled up, falling into the only defensive position I knew.

"Who are you? Where am I? What happened to the exploding mushrooms?" I barked. A startled looking human was standing in my room holding a broom.

She went about sweeping the room as she said, "Breakfast is already over, and the bell rang for first hour." Gafrial's gloves. I raced to the drawers and grabbed a pair of light brown leather breeches and a loose black linen shirt.

Glaring at the maid, I asked, "Are you going to leave?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not my fault you slept in." If I wasn't so irritated with her right now, she would easily be my favorite person at this academy.

I stalked into the bathroom and changed quickly, brushing my shoulder length hair and quickly tying it up in a ponytail. I raced past the maid, who smiled, amused, as she made the bed. Paying her no mind, I grabbed another apple from the kitchen before racing off to find my first class.

I burst into the mess hall, interrupting an old demon addressing a group of about eleven people. The demon was pretty old, with a full silver beard, a completely bald head, and missing eyebrow. I zeroed in on the surviving eyebrow, feeling a deep, urgent need to find out the story behind the lone eyebrow immediately. My focus was so intent, I missed his words. I blinked blankly, still thinking about the eyebrow.

The demon transported right in front of me, snapping me out of my eyebrow trance. "Who are you, miss?"

I cleared my throat. "I'm Rin. I'm supposed to be here for my first class?"

The eyebrow raised. "First hour started ten minutes ago. Why are you late, Rin?"

"Exploding mushrooms."

The eyes under the eyebrow blinked once. "I'm Headmaster Nyletak. You lucked out, the awkward icebreakers are over. Go stand in the huddle with the rest of the penguins." Not knowing what to say, I followed Nyletak's instructions. Today has been a strange day.

As I joined the huddle, Nyletak hopped up onto one of the tables. "Hello, penguins. I've been told I'm too eccentric, and parents don't like it when I teach, so I usually stay out of the classrooms. However, parents can't say anything if I introduce you to the school during one of your classes. Loopholes."

He jumped off the table and landed with a thud. "This is first hour, so every day you dozen will spend an hour with a mentor to help you work on your magic and/or inherent skills and prepare you for your final exam. You will have final exams in all your classes, which we only make you take so your parents don't stop giving us extra money to bribe us into giving you better grades. Those don't matter much, but if your grades drop too much, we will have to contact your parents. Definitely not to subtly ask for more money."

Nyletak clapped his hands, surprising us all. "But, enough about money. Those don't really matter, not in the long run. What matters, is your final in magic. If you don't pass, you don't graduate." A card appeared on the heads of most of the other people in the huddle. "The cards that I have transported to your heads have your teacher names and where to find them. Off with you, penguins. Waddle away now. Oh, hybrids please stay."

I looked around seeing only three other stay behind. The only other female who stayed was Diana, the other two hybrids were males. One had super light brown skin, the bright green eyes of the dwarves, and light brown hair dyed with green streaks. This must be Diana's boyfriend.

The other had pale skin, the upper part of his hair was dyed bright red, but those weren't his most shocking features. No, his most shocking features were his eyes, the bright pale blue of the pixies.

Pixies had rarely been seen outside of Molseri, their home kingdom, in the 150 years since they had retreated into their kingdom. Ever since, pixies had been treated as exotic creatures, another exciting thing to tell your friends and family that you saw when talking about your day, or as lepers, because nobody knew why they returned to Molseri.

I focused back on Nyletak's remaining eyebrow, which was currently raised. "Are you all finished analyzing each other?" I blinked again. I don't know if I like this headmaster or not.

He nodded to himself and jumped onto the table once more. "You four are the first hybrids to have Magic this school year. I pause for applause." We stared blankly as he stood there on the table, lone eyebrow raised as high as can be. Hesitantly, I clapped a few times, and Nyletak unfroze. "Thank you, Rin. Clearly, you and Griffin are the only ones present with manners." I glanced at the other three hybrids, and noticed that the pixie hybrid had his hands held together, as if he had just finished clapping his hands.

The headmaster sniffed disdainfully and squatted down to meet us at eye level. "I certainly hope I don't have to repeat myself about your Magic finals." When we all shook our heads dutifully, he smiled and stood up once more. "Wonderful. As hybrids, you all have two sets of magical or inherent abilities, so to graduate you must take both tests. Usually, our hybrid students choose to extend their time here to two years, taking one year to focus on each side's magic. However, we always offer to let our students take both exams the same year. I'm going to give you one minute and 7 seconds to decide which course of action-teehee, see what I did there-you want to pursue. Starting, now."

I sat down on one of the benches, not caring about decorum any more. It really was a no brainer, the faster I graduated the faster I could get out from under my mother's thumb, but I didn't want to seem too eager. You never know what some people perceive as weakness.

I massaged my sore neck and watched the others carefully. Diana and the dwarf hybrid looked bored, but Griffin was raising his hand as he lounged on a bench, leaning against the corresponding table. The happy couple has already heard the gist of this little speech, probably on their second year. Griffin, however, was still paying attention, despite trying to seem uncaring.

Nyletak pointed at the relaxed hybrid. "Squawk, penguin."

The penguin in question grinned. "I'd like to take both this year, Headmaster Nyletak."

The headmaster clapped his hands, delighted. "And you, Rin?"

I smirked. "How could I not take such an efficient opportunity?"

"Wonderful. Since Diana and Kent took their other exams last year, the four of you will be participating in the Hunt, the werewolf exam. Rin, you'll also have to pull off the Prank, and Griffin, you'll have to, well, we haven't had enough pixies to have created a witty title for your exam. Some of our pixie faculty will test you."

A loud bell rang out throughout the school once, and Nyletak bowed deeply. "It was a pleasure meeting you four. Off to second hour with you four. I think you'll like Ms. Corlahn." He waved goodbye and the four of us found ourselves in an empty classroom.

The classroom was essentially half an amphitheatre, with rows and rows of raised seats curling around the small empty half circle we stood in now.

I glanced around at the others. "Well. The headmaster is certainly interesting." Diana's significant other, Kent according to Nyletak, burst into laughter. After a few seconds, Diana and I joined in.

As our laughter petered out, I noticed Griffin had taken a seat in the front row. Someone's looking to impress the teacher.

Filing that information away, I stuck my hand out to Kent. "I'm Rin, Diana's roommate. Nice to officially meet you."

Kent smiled lazily. "Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk into the room again?" he asked as he shook my hand.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure this school is the best fit for you?" He blinked and tilted his head, so I explained, "I was under the impression you at least needed to know how to count to get in."

Kent blinked once more before devolving into laughter once again. "I like this one," he told Diana.

Before she could respond, the door to the classroom burst open.

A brunette lady walked into the room, telling the group behind her, "And this is where I'm going to be teaching you al-oh. Hello. Who are you?"

Griffin smiled carefully at the lady. "We're here to be taught."

The lady rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, that's obvious enough. This is an academy. I asked who you are."

I smirked at Griffin. Looks like someone isn't as much of a favorite as he planned to be. "I'm Rin. The wannabe teacher's pet is Griffin, and the two canoodlers are Diana and Kent."

The brunette nodded thoughtfully, her lips twitching in amusement. "My name is Ms. Corlahn. Why are you four in here?"

Apparently trying to win some points back, Griffin said, "Headmaster Nyletak transported us here after first hour. I believe you're to be our second teacher for the day."

Corlahn rolled her eyes. "Of course he'd send you straight to the classroom. It's not like I specifically told him I would be starting on top of the inner wall. Well, basically I'm your history teacher. I'll be going over the known culture, mythology, religion, and of course history of all ten kingdoms. Yes, I'm a pixie. Now everyone, take a seat."

Diana and Kent sat in the same row as Griffin and watched me, snickering, as I climbed up the stairs between rows of seats and picked a seat in the back. They know something I don't.

When all 48 of us were seated, Corlahn shot us all a devious smile. "Wonderful. Now switch. People in the first row switch seats with people in the last row. People in the second row switch seats with people in the second to last row. Etcetera etcetera." Why? Why me?

I trudged down the stairs, not acknowledging the barely controlled snickers of my current least favorite hybrid couple. They had an advantage. Unfair. The look on Griffin's face as he passed me was hilarious though. How are you gonna be the teacher's best friend if you're not in the front seat little suck-up?

When everyone was seated again, Corlahn said, "Alright, now I want all the hybrids who are having me for their second year to come sit in the front row. These will be your seats for the school year. Yes, Kent, that means you too. Don't try to hide behind Diana. Diana stop attempting to hide your boyfriend. No Carmine, closing your eyes will not make me disappear, come down to the front row immediately. Wozlan." She sighed and shook her head. "Please put down the chair." And so it went for a good portion of the class.

Every time everyone seemingly settled in, Corlahn would catch someone else attempting to wriggle their way to a seat they preferred. She's certainly persistent, I'll give her that. Even Griffin gave it a go, although he was only trying to get closer to the front.

I was tempted to try to change my spot, but I really didn't have a preference.

After a demon tried switching places with someone by literally transporting himself to that person's seat but miscalculating and ending up right in front of Corlahn, she got sick of it.

She grew to the size of a tree and boomed, "That is it. I tried to be nice about this, but no. If I catch one more person trying to change their seat, I will assign you all essays every week for the next four months." Everyone stilled, and stared up at the ginormous pixie.

Since it had been so long, almost nobody knew what the pixies' powers were, although the rumors were vast and not entirely appropriate.

Corlahn cleared her throat, the sound practically deafening, and she shrank back down to the size she had been before. "Sorry about that." Class after that was far less entertaining, but luckily only lasted for five minutes or so.

When the bell rang, interrupting the truly fascinating instructions Corlahn was giving us on how to take notes for her class the best way, she simply waved us out. Before I could make my escape, though, I heard the dreaded words come out of her mouth.

"Rin, can you stay back for a few minutes please?"