I just want to take a moment to acknowledge all the support that you have given me. Enlightened Haven High Book One is now ranked #65 on the hotlist. Just 15 away from being in the top 50 in Paranormal. I never would have been able to do it without you. I and the humble crew of Haven High thank you from the bottom of our hearts for getting us here. I just know we can make it to the top 50 before the end of this month. Spread the word and follow, comment, vote, add, and share TF out of this sucker and we'll get there for sure. Thanks my beautiful Peeps. I'm sending out a virtual hug to everyone of you.  

Zach walked down the corridor with Lauren and the rest of his homeroom classmates by his side. Grumpily, he tried with little success, to swipe griffin feathers off his now sodden clothes.

Lauren chided, "It serves you right for not listening to me."

"How was I supposed to know that was the care of Magical Creatures class and they were studying a brooding griffin?"

"It was lucky she was still imprinting on her young and decided to adopt you rather than eat you," Lauren said peevishly.

"Yeah but did Ms Murakami have to leave me in her clutches the entire class? I mean it groomed me," he complained.

"And it was humiliating." He sulked.

"Dude," Quinn barked out in consolation, "just think of it this way, you don't have to take a shower tonight."

"No you're right Quinn: I'm not taking 'A' shower tonight; I'm taking several."

"Her breath smelled like carrion," he whined.

He leaned into Kyle conspiratorially, as he lifted up his arm to his nose, and asked, "Answer me truthfully. Do I smell like a rotting corpse?"

The entire crew laughed while Zach tried to plaster down his now sticky hair.

*****

The next class was a little more uneventful but no less exciting. Lauren and he audited the Magical History class taught by Ms Long who is none other than an ancient Chinese dragon. Kid you not.

Not an ancient dragon shifter, nope, but a fullblood, honest to God dragon that can take human form.

He'd walked into the class expecting to see MS Long in attendance and she was, but not in her human form.

His eyes had nearly bugged right out of his head and rolled across the warehouse sized room when he opened the door to find the most beautiful opalescent creature ever to walk the earth. Each of her thousands of scales had an iridescent quality that drew the eye and left its observer in awe.

Thankfully, Lauren had grabbed him before he walked straight up to her to pet her scales. When he reached the back of the class, he was mortified about nearly feeling up his teacher, but Lauren explained that the scales of a dragon, like the beauty of a succubus, are designed to lure you in.

Long's voice was hypnotic and lulling as she continued to tell the tale of the Magic Hunt and its significance in history.

How some God named Woden had wronged Tatiana, The Queen of the Seelie Court to find himself exiled to another plane. And now to enact his revenge once a year he takes his servants on the Wild Hunt to steal the children of The Seelie and Unseelie Court to become his servants.

"And it is said if you hear the bray of the horns, the howl of the hounds and the beating of the hooves, your fate is sealed," Long finished ominously.

The story had given him the heebeegeebees.

The absolute best part of the class though was the magic three dimensional enactment of the story. It was not unlike Lauren's demonstration of the Ley Lines, but this time it included miniature people and animals set in colorful backdrops. It was a bit like watching Game of Thrones on a miniature scale, but just twice as deadly. Those fae creatures don't dick around.

*****

The next class was Spellcraft and Magical Theory. This was the class that Lauren really seemed to excel at. She was better than anyone in attendance. At least he had thought so, but when he'd tried to tell her that, she complained that she still wasn't able to open a portdoor or portal by herself. She had had to buy a spelled card in order to teleport. And she was definitely going to flunk Morgan Le Fay's 4th dimensional Physics class if she can't do it by graduation.

As she told him this Zach wondered about the strange new world he found himself in. Before this, most of his classmates worried over getting an F in Spanish, not with whether they would be able to teleport to some far off exotic place in the blink of an eye and the wave of a hand.

Zach sat through the class as all the girls made moon eyes at Mr Conte, the supposed most drool worthy creature in existence if the girls were meant to be believed.

The topic of the day was hexes and curses, and there counterspells, and after hearing what can happen to people who are not carful with their leavings after grooming; he was mortified.

From now on he was going to look into investing in a vat of acid so he could completely disintegrate his nails and hair clippings after they were cut. And no more donating blood for him . . . like ever.

They also talked about protection wards which he needed to look into, especially since hearing about the kind of creatures that like to sneak in to your home and take said leavings.

Yuck . . . he was so going to talk to Lauren about that later.

*****

The next class was Iconography and Sacred Geometry with Erika Steinman.

Zach had been looking forward to this class all day. After Lauren's demonstration of the Ley Lines he thought that it was going to be the most fun.

He could not have been more wrong!

Granted it was interesting, but not at all in a magical sense.

The dwarf had droned on and on about ancient sites around the globe: Manchu Picchu in Peru, Puma Punku in Bolivia, the ancient settlements of Arkaim, Mohenjo-daro, Yonaguni, and Gobeki Tepe.

She explained: the iconography that could be found there hinted at the location of the nearest hubs, and to the trained iconographer was a road map of the world.

She talked until his eyes crossed about places he'd never heard of before. At one point he'd almost fallen asleep. Something he never would have thought possible at a magic school.

Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse out came the long and complicated math equations to track the Ley Lines.

Until recently, he thought math and Monday were the two worst things you could put together, but he would now happily add Iconography to that list. 

At the end of the longest 40 minutes he'd ever spent Zach had said to Lauren, "Wow! I hope I don't have to take that course."

Lauren delivered the bad news with a little too much glee, when she said "Sorry Zach Iconography and Sacred Geometry is a prerequisite course." and started to laugh maniacally.

*****

The 5th period class had been really relaxing, and not in a I'm going to fall asleep kind of way.

Zach had really enjoyed listening to George's, (that's what Mr Tuluqaq, Brenna's grandfather told him to call him) discussion on herbs. He just knew he was really going to love Ritualistic Magic and Healing.

The best part of the class was that it hadn't taken place in the school at all, but some far off sunny place somewhere is the southern hemisphere if he had to guess. They had all one at a time stepped on to a shining blue glyph on the floor to be transported to a rainforest. It was a place where the canopy of the trees was so thick that it provided the perfect shade from the blazing sun, and it was hot, which was a welcome change from the constant cold and damp of late October in SF.

There were all given a list of herbs to gather -- complete with pictures and description of the plants and how to harvest them. He had walked along side Lauren while she swung her wicker basket happily and had to marvel at how lucky he was to experience something like this.

Yeah lots of the things in the new world he had been thrown into sounded bleak as fuck, but if he could experience moments like this every once and awhile wouldn't it make it all worthwhile?

After gathering the plants they had sat Indian style in a circle, under the shade of an enormous tree with George as he explained the medicinal and spiritual benefits of each one.

As Zach exited the class at its conclusion, he knew in that moment if he had any electives this would be it.

*****

The final period had been the most illuminating and simultaneously dangerous class of the day. Lauren and he had decided to check out Knight's Alchemy and Advanced Potions class. She was certain he was going to like it, because it was so similar to Chemistry class.

He had agreed and they made their way to the door to find a gaggle of kids clustered outside the door reading a little placard which simply said:

Drink me

The letters were written in the tiniest script known to man. Beside them sat a magnifying glass in case this missive was illegible.

When Kyle tried the classroom door it was locked, but below the table sat a tiny door that looked remarkably like a fairie Hole. With some trepidation and unending curiosity they all, one after the other, drank their vial of potion.

Zach began to feel very strange, but had to laugh with everyone when Quinn said, "WTF!"

In a helium filled voice sounding remarkably like Theodor of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

But no one was laughing as they began to shrink, and they shrunk, and they shrunk, and they shrunk, until they were all small enough to easily fit in the two inch tall door.

Zach tentatively tried the knob and was relieved to find the door swung open freely in his hand.

There surprisingly, in miniature, was Morgan Le Faye not Knight as everyone in attendance had expected.

She spoke up at that moment to say, "I hope everyone held on to their vial, because we are having an impromptu examination today."

She explained to them haughtily "You must reverse the formulae by end of class or risk its effects fading before you can leave our soon to be very cramped quarters." She looked at her watch, "Thanks to your dawdling at the door you now only have thirty minutes to complete the task."

Zach could not believe his ears. "She must be joking, right? He uttered in disbelief to Connor who was standing right next to him.

Zach didn't know what to think when he simply stared back with a look as serious as a heart attack, and said, "I don't think Le Fay has much of a sense of humor."

When Lauren asked Le Fay about Knight, his potentially murderous replacement, informed her that he was indisposed and had left for the day.

He was glad that Lauren courageously tried to explain that they were just auditing the class and therefore did not have to participate in pop quizzes, but unfortunately her protestation fell on deaf ears.

It was at this time that Quinn spoke up and said ruefully earning a grudging laugh from his fellow classmates," Pop quiz, my ass, more like crush quiz."

Luckily Cameron had taken them under his wing and had reversed the odious concoction before end of class. Turns out he's a rather gifted Alchemist, which for some reason should be shocking.

"It's surprising, Zach, because he's a Selkie," Lauren had explained after class,  " and simple shifters rarely show talent for magic or potions."

Zach didn't care if he was a flying monkey like in the Wizard of Oz, he'd been extremely grateful for the help. Who would have thought that Pixie dust was the secret ingredient in the end? 

Not to mix his metaphor but getting out of Knight Alchemy class alive had truly been his happy thought. 

Afterward  Zach made his way to the gym while he and the gang walked silently down the corridor. He could sense that everyone was feeling slightly shell-shocked by the events of the last class, but he couldn't hold back any longer, he had to know, so he blurted out, "There's no way she was going to let us get crushed, right guys?"

Lauren spun on her heel to walk backwards in front of him, and cocked a saber like eyebrow in reply to announce in a voice as serious as a heart attack, "Zachary Reis welcome to Haven High  

 . . . Magic School for the Clinically Insane."

*****

Zach lay in his bed at the end of the day. Every muscle and bone in his body ached. They'd given him the god awful troll bile concoction, but it hadn't worked completely.

His muscles were screaming and his bones were still vibrating over the intense workout. He'd skipped the shower when he got home and had crawled right into a Jacuzzi tub. There was no way in hell he had the strength left to even stand up long enough to take a shower.

When he thought back to the sparing sessions he covered his eyes in humiliation when he recalled that he had spent more time on the mat during training then standing. He was made to try out every trainer and they had all had a go at pummeling him to death. Nope no auditing in this class.

When weapons training began they had tried him with almost every weapon known to man. None of them had felt right.

During the weapons practice he'd felt like a huge coward, because whenever anyone came at him with bludgeoning or stabby things all he could do was cower.

He hoped to hell that the magic guard had desk jobs, because he was never going to be able to fight worth a damn.

As he rolled over he let out a huge groan for two reasons. Firstly, it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch and secondly, he was reminded that he was going to have to do the same thing all over again tomorrow. 

Tune in on Sunday --- Same bat channel same bat time to find out what happens to poor Zach.

This chapter is dedicated to @xxscentedlettersxx who has agreed, even though she has a busy schedule, to do a book trailer (Squuueeee!) I can't wait to share it with you  and @hagarhashem my sister from another mister. 

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

If you liked this chapter remember to  Vote, Comment, add, this book to your reading list, or suggest it to a friend. Lots of friends. Top 50 here we come!

I want to start recommending great books that I've found that haven't got a lot of reads yet and truly deserve it. So here it goes:

Falling with the Few (The Order Series: Book 1) by @emmath71

@duskthoughts for her covers and books (guys if you need a cover go to her she's da bomb)

My new greatest find drum roll please:

Have a Hot Time, Hades by @Sarah-Shafique

Guys you have got to show da gurl some love. 

She's thinking on putting this story on hold or trashing it entirely, and that would be a crying shame.  It is too damn good not to continue. Give it a read you'll agree 100%.