Kyle and Travis headed home on the bus after the meeting and an exhausted Travis slept the entire way. By the time they got back home he was drooling on his shirt and dying to get to bed, but he took a shower first before flopping into his too small single bed.

It's hilarious really, he's too wide for his bed but Kyle's too long for his. Sometimes when he thinks of it he remembers that funny rhyme:

Jack Sprat would eat no fat
His wife would eat no lean;
Wasn't that a pretty trick
To make the platter clean?

And he has to chuckle to himself when he thinks: who's the wife in this scenario?

Not like they're married or anything, but they do plan on living together when they're older. They've already talked about moving in together as adults. Not like Kyle has any alternative, even if he does change his mind, it's too bad he's stuck with him. They'd even promised each other that one day when they have a place of their own they'll have king size beds.

He'd never admit it, but sometimes he worries that Kyle will change his mind about him and he'll be alone again, but that's some punk ass shit, so he never let's on he feels that way.

Travis eyes drift closed of their own accord and he dreams about the days when he had no one and no one cared.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next morning Kyle shook him awake which was weird, because he usually had to wake him up. It was as annoying AF when Kyle kept hitting the snooze button, so Trav had moved the alarm over to him to stop it. Usually he just gets up and spends a half hour being the snooze button while Kyle pleads for just 5 more minutes. But today he'd slept right through it and they were late.

They get their self off to school in the morning. His foster parents were extreme early risers up with the sun and out the door before 7am. With no one there to monitor them he'd taken up the task.

Kyle shook him again and exclaimed, "Come on Trav, we're going to be late and Knights going to rip us a new one."

Trav got up groggily and perched himself on the bed for a moment before getting to his feet and heading for the bathroom. He washed his face and brushed his teeth, ran a comb through his short cropped hair all the while Kyle was hopping from one foot to the other announcing over and over, "Come on Brah we're going to be late."

Trav got dressed languidly and threw on a pair of jeans and a short sleeve shirt, then thought better of it, and threw on a long sleeve instead. All the while Kyle was doing his annoying little dance.

He grabbed a hoody from a hook on the back of the door on the way out of their room and his backpack off the hook by the door. When he turned around to get his shoes out of the closet Kyle already had them in his hands as he repeated his mantra to hurry up.

Travis put them on and they walked at a fast trot to the bus stop arriving just in time for the 8:11 bus across town. It usually take 30 minutes to travel by bus from Presidio Heights to Outer Richmond depending on traffic, fortunately that gave Trav some extra time to sleep, which he gladly took advantage of.

Kyle had to wake him up again when they were getting close to the school. When they got off the bus Kyle started looking at him funny and asked, "You feeling alright bro. I mean I'm usually the one doing all the sleeping?"

"Yeah I'm just a little tired," he replied as they trudged off to the front door of the school.

They got there just in time for the last bell and rushed into class before Knight could mark them late. The dude seriously hovered over the late slips with glee in the morning. He passed them out like candy, and he was not sorry to disappoint the stern teacher today.

They rushed to their stools so fast they slid a little on the wheeled chairs before coming to a stop comically when they banged into the table noisily. Kyle had to reach a hand out to steady a Bunsen burner before it fell over with a crash.

He winced, expecting the worst before Kyle saved the day, saying, "Good one bro" and fist pumping his brother. He quickly shut his mouth though when Knight gave him a hard stare.

His teacher stood up then from his perch on the corner of his desk and said, "now that everyone has arrived shall we begin?" in his prissy British Accent. The dude said shall and shan't and hundreds of other words that probably went out of style decades if not centuries ago.

Timothy Knight was actually a legendary member of the Knights of the Round Table in King Arthur's court and he still acts like it, too. He runs his class room with military precision – which as you can imagine makes it so much fun to be in school.

The class had found out when Zach turned that they won't even get a reprieve from him next year, because they'll have him for the rest of their time in school. Apparently, there aren't enough magical teachers to go around, so yeah they have another three years of the seriously uptight dude to look forward to.

Trav hated chemistry with a passion, and he understands it even less than his other subjects. In fact, it's one of the subjects his foster parents have to try to drill into his rock hard head. He chuckled to himself at his joke.

"Mr. Stone . . . Mr Stone . . . would you like to join us here back on planet earth?" the teacher asked Trav as he shook himself out his day dream.

Trav hated having the attention span of a nat.

Trav turned then to meet a pair of eerie eyes, and jumped a little. Wow the dude was seriously close like in his face close.

Knight just leered at him and said, "Nice to see you're back with us, now could you please pass those sheets back to your classmates behind you?"

If it was any other class, but home room the kids would have all laughed at how stupid Trav is, but these were his friends and they had his back.

No one said a word as he passed the papers back with a muffled apology to the teacher.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The class lasted forever all the human classes of the morning did. He found out during last class that he got a D+ in social studies. Adrik assured him, when he saw his crestfallen face, that he would probably bring his grade up with the next unit, but he doubted it.

By the time lunch rolled around he was surprisingly not hungry, but he forced himself to grab the sloppy joe special.

He walked over to the table to see that Kyle was already seated, and talking excitedly to his friends, but when he approached, they all got quiet for some reason.

When he sat down Zach asked him, "Hey man, are you alright? You never did tell us what the doctor said."

Travis pushed the food around on his plate a little keeping his eyes on his tray before he replied, "That's because he didn't say much. He just said it wasn't going to kill me."

When he looked up then no one said anything. He saw they all looked stunned.

"Y-you mean to tell me, the doctor's sent you and everyone else home without knowing what it was?" Lauren stammered in shock.

Travis shrugged at her, "Sure, they said it wasn't going to kill me and that's all I care about.

"No way Brah that's 'F'ed up, "Kyle jumped up in concern. "They can't do that bro. They need to tell you what you were hit with."

"Wait one sec," he concluded before taking off for another table. He ran up to Lara at a nearby table to talk to her. Travis tried to hear what they were saying, but he couldn't.

After a moment, Kyle came running back to their table to announce -- a little too loudly -- that the doctors didn't know what the magical students were doused with and they'd said the same thing to the others.

Luckily Lauren had time enough to mutter her anti-eavesdropping spell into existence before he yelled out the juicy parts.

Cameron said, "That can't be right, they're experts in their fields. How could they not know? Travis you're coming with me right after the afternoon bell. I'll take a blood sample. If I can't figure it out, I'll get Knight's advice."

Kyle looked relieved, but Travis didn't know what the big deal was. He felt fine and the doctor said it wouldn't kill him. That's all he needed to know.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Before he could even get to Study of Magical creatures Cameron dragged him into the alchemy lab and drew blood (needles yuck), got him to spit in a tiny tube, and took some hair and skin samples.

He had given Cam all the things he was taught by their Spanish and Spellcraft teacher, Alejandro Conte not to give to another being, magical or otherwise. With those things they could perform any number of magical spells including: deadly hexes and curses, but he'd trust Cameron with his life, so yeah he'd given it without complaint, or at least not much.

He was so relieved to have the poking and prodding over with that he almost couldn't remember what class he had left and nearly whooped with joy, when he realized it was his favorite.

He couldn't wait to see how the magical Alicorn was doing. Someone had brought it to Ms. Murakami's attention last Friday morning. It had flown into a cell tower in the night and was seriously injured. He had helped hold the terrifically strong beast while his very knowledgeable and talented teacher an ancient Kitsune set the wing again.

He had helped her sooth the beast and bandage its wing. The unicorn like equine had long beautiful wings that enabled it to fly. They would be checking the set today and if all went well they would be able to release it in a couple of days.

He got to her class late, but the beautiful Kitsune was far less strict than Knight. She just smiled at him and asked," Are you ready to assist."

He just nodded his head and followed her out of the classroom and back into the hallway.

His Study of Magical Creatures class room was interesting. It had a door with a knob that you turn to enter just like all the rest, but what was different about it was if you turned the knob counterclockwise you entered a sort of stable, but if you turned the knob clockwise you entered the observatory. A relatively protected area of the classroom where the students could observe the creatures behind partitions of glass, it was only relative to the creature being cared for, take for instance if it's a Norwegian Ridgeback for example no amount of glass would protect you.

Zach had made the mistake of turning the handle the wrong way his first day on this side of the magical barrier and had ended up being groomed repeatedly for about 45 minutes by a brooding griffin. It had been hilarious to watch especially when he was told later that things could have been a lot worse: she might have decided to eat him rather than adopt him as a member of her brood.

"Now children, "The Kitsune cautioned, "I'm sure I don't have to remind you that quiet is essential while we examine the Alicorn.

The other members of the class nodded silently to acknowledge they understood.

"Please take a mental note that the less stress you can put the creatures through the sooner they heal. "

Ms Murakami fixed her kind eyes on him to ask again, "are you sure you're ready, "and she only opened the door, to the Alicorn's stall after he nodded once again to the question already asked. The Kitsune was very careful with her charges.

It's hard to describe his favorite classroom; the best way to do it would be to say: picture a horse barn. The long corridors between the stalls would be their enclosed examining room. On one side of it would be the stalls and on the other would be the long observation room. Like the room in detective shows that contains the one-way mirror.

No one sat down in his class. There weren't even chairs, not even a chalkboard, you took notes where you stood or not at all. This was meant to be a hands' on class. And he loved it.

He didn't know if he had an affinity for animals or if it just came naturally to him because he wasn't a higher thinker like others he could easily get into the head of an animal and guess how they would react to certain things. It made him a better caregiver to them.

He quieted himself like he does before turning to stone and slowly approached the timid beast. He did it so slowly that when he finally got to the injured creature it was no surprise to him. He had already sniffed him out and had decided he was no threat so when he slowly reached out his hand to sooth the beast he only gave a slight shudder of its hide, before relaxing and letting Travis stoke his white mane.

Ms. Murakami strolled up to the animal and crouched down to take a closer look at the wing. And as delicately as she could she extended it. The Alicorn jolted a bit at the pain, but Trav lay his big hand on his flank to sooth him, and to also stop him from bucking and hurting himself should he get startled.

When the Kitsune nodded at him to indicate all looked well, he couldn't help but smile in return. He loved that she trusted him enough to have him this close to the animals that she cared sp much for and he loved even more that she had faith that he was smart enough to know what to do if something went wrong.

This was the singular class that didn't make him feel dumb as a stick. And it was Ms. Murakami recognizing his talents that made it all the more special.

They looked in on an ogre, a manticore and a pixie before the end of the class. The pixie had been well enough to braid the kitsune black hair. The ogre had to be charmed into a state of calm even before entering the room. He'd looked at Travis like a traitor afterward which made Trav wonder how closely mountain trolls and ogres are related. The manticore had been the trickiest.

It's a deadly quick moving beast with the body of a lion and the head of a human, the tail of a scorpion and the three rows of teeth like a shark. If that doesn't scare you: Manticore actually means man-eater in ancient Persian. So yeah he approached it with the utmost of caution.

To make it even tougher for them it kept spewing riddles that they needed to answer correctly before they could perform their next task, which was to clean and redress a wound it got from hunting the hunters. He had tracked and tried to trap three poachers, but they turned on him before he could get the upper hand and shot him, which was extremely lucky for them, not so much for the Manticore. They were only alive because they were able to get the jump on him.

No doubt there are some hillbilly Kentuckians out their telling tall tales to their friends about the beast that haunts the Appalachians.

The last riddle had been really cool, and he had actually gotten it with a little help from his teacher.

The Manticore intoned with his weird trumpet like voice, "The more you take the more you leave behind. What am I?"

His kind teacher encouraged him to answer it. They were nearly done she knew it would be his last chance, "you can do this my child. The more you take the more you leave behind?" She repeated as she darted her eyes behind them where they had walked across the sand and the hay.

He noticed their foot prints and he suddenly thought the more steps you take the more foot prints you leave behind.

His teacher's face split in a wide grin when he blurted out, "foot prints. Its footprints, right?" He asked.

She just nodded her head in agreement.

He left the class that day feeling so proud of himself for getting it right that he tried to hold on to the riddle to see if Kyle could get the answer but holding on to information was not one of his strong suits.

He did however float on cloud nine for the rest of the day. 

At least until training that afternoon, when he had a run in with one of the worst teachers in the school, le Fay makes Knight look like a pussy cat in comparison.

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

I hope you all liked this chapter.

What do you think is stuck in le Fay's craw?

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