Scott was running through the hallway, cursing under his breath knowing he was late for class. They'd been late for every single class so far, and although the tardies didn't count because it was the first day of the semester, they were still upset about it. It wasn't very formal at all to be late to every single class, first day or not.

As they were turning a corner, their foot got caught on the rug and they squealed as they fell face-first down the stairs. He couldn't stop himself from practically screaming the entire time he tumbled down the stairway, landing on his back on the floor at the bottom. I take back everything I said before, this place is awful!

They groaned as they sat upright, rubbing the back of their sore head. His stuff was scattered everywhere, and his satchel was now torn. "Damn," he hissed as he got to his feet. "Well, this is just bloody fantastic, isn't it?"

---

"And it's very important to remember the dangers of hex- Oh. Well, it's nice of you to join us," the Hex Casting professor interrupted herself to say as Scott struggled to enter the classroom without dropping anything in their arms. "Where have you been?"

Scott froze when the books on top of the pile of his belongings started to wobble. "Uh, yeah, sorry," they apologized, slowly starting to walk forward and peaking around the pile of books. "Um- I got caught up with a friend after lunch and-" He stopped again, then started when he was sure nothing would fall. "I kinda fell down the steps? My bag broke, and now I have to just... carry everything by..." He trailed off when they noticed people snickering and whispering to each other. The only person not laughing at them was Cleo.

"Well, why don't you have a seat?" the professor said. "You haven't missed much, but I'm sure your classmates will be willing to catch you up."

Scott nodded and made his way over to the empty seat next to Cleo. "Stupid, bloody, useless-" Scott grumbled curses to themselves as they set down their things and put their head down on the table. "I swear to Hades, I'm never using an infinity satchel again," he whispered to himself, which made Cleo giggle. Scott lifted their head. "What are you laughing at?" they demanded angrily.

Cleo shook her head. "No, no, ignore me," she said, snorting between her words.

Scott scowled at her. "You're infuriating."

"I said to ignore me," she told him in defense. "Why in Father Time's name do you carry so much stuff with you?" She glanced at the pile of Scott's belongings. "Are those spell ingredients?"

The dark haired boy let out a long sigh. "I bring them with me just in case I need them," they said. "I mean, you never can tell when you're going to need salt to cast a summoning spell, am I right?" Cleo gave him an amused look, and he sighed. "I'm weird, I get it." He glanced up at the professor, who was now writing symbols on the chalkboard.

"This," the professor explain after drawing a diamond shape, "is called Mind's Reflection. It represents you, the wielder of the staff, as an entity. Drawing this with your staff adds you to what's called a stack, which is sort of like replacing a variable in a math equation with a real number."

Scott gasped. I need a staff to do this?! But I don't even have a basic wand yet!

The professor turned back to the chalkboard to draw a small triangle next to the diamond. "This is Compass's Purification and it represents 'eyes', so to speak," she said. "It turns the entity drawn before it" - she pointed at the diamond - "into a vector. So instead of having an entity in the stack, you now have the location of the entity's 'eyes,' or rather the entity itself."

What the hell does that even mean? Scott thought incredulously, staring dumbfoundedly at the chalkboard. They glanced around the classroom, noticing that everyone else was taking notes, and realized he should probably do that, too.

"You can use the Compass's Purification pattern on yourself or another entity," the professor went on as Scott desperately tried to scribble down the information already given whilst she continued on. "Now, if you draw Alidade's Purification" - she drew a line with a small angle at the end - "it turns the entity drawn before it into the direction that entity is looking in. For example, if I draw myself then Alidade's Purification and say I'm looking at the brewing stand on my desk, the vector becomes the location of the brewing stand because that's what I'm looking at while I draw the patterns."

Scott let out an irritated hiss as he struggled to get all the information down in his notebook. Mind's Reflection, Compass's Purification, Aldie's- no, Alidade's Purification- When they looked up again, the professor was drawing another pattern on the chalkboard and labeling it.

"This pattern is called Archer's Distillation," she said. "Its function is to combine two vectors, like the position of yourself, or your 'eyes', and the position of where your eyes are directed to create a coordinate for where your eyes are looking. That is where whatever spell you cast will occur, no matter if you look somewhere else or move around while the spell is active."

This makes no sense whatsoever.

"Professor Alegora?" a student asked with their hand raised.

The professor raised her eyebrows as she acknowledged them. "Yes?"

"Is it required to use Archer's Distillation to cast a spell?"

"No, it's not," Alegora answered. "There are spells that only need an entity and a number to operate, but most spells work best with an Archer's Distillation."

The student nodded and wrote in their notebook.

Professor Alegora cleared her throat. "Now, each spell needs to be supplied with power in order to work..."

---

"Okay, so Mind's Reflection is me," Scott said slowly whilst they walked through the hallway, watching Cleo carefully as she nodded silently, "and drawing... Alidade's Purification turns me into my location?"

Cleo sighed. "No, that's Compass's Purification." She gave Scott a fond smile when they groaned. "Hey, it's okay not to understand it right away. It took me a long time to figure it out myself."

Scott stared at the ground. "Yeah, but you seem to understand it pretty well," they mumbled. "Why are you in the introductory class if you know the basics?"

"Because I haven't taken any Hex Casting classes yet," she said, "and we need four semesters of Hex Casting to graduate." She smiled to herself. "Well, technically I have taken the introductory class once. But I failed it, so I went back to the beginning of the semester to retake it without giving up a witching class of choice."

"Wait, you went back an entire semester?!" Scott nearly shouted, his eyes wide. "Does that mean you already know me?" Cleo nodded. "So you know what the black stuff on my fingers means?"

Cleo sighed and shook her head. "Sorry, Scoot," she said. Oh, great, now she's calling me that, too. "None of that happened the first time. But you also weren't friends with Keres the first time either. I've always found it curious how things happen differently every time I go back. That doesn't happen with other witches..."

Scott sighed. "So much for finding out what that's about," they said to themselves. I guess I'll just have to wait, then.

---

"Ugh! Are you kidding me?! You've got sand all over me- again!"

"Ah, I'm so sorry! You see, I'm pretty new to this whole witch thing, so-"

"Well you need to get not-so-new to it and control your stupid sand magic! For the love of- ugh!"

Scott peeked around the corner to see two girls he saw the night before at dinner. They'd been sitting together, one with a blue hat and one with a sandy-coloured hat. Were they fighting?

The girl with the sandy-coloured hat had waist-length, straight, split-coloured hair. Half of it was a dirty blonde and the other half was purple. It reminded Scott of a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich.

The other girl had slightly shorter, curly pink hair and a very angry expression. "I don't care if you just became a witch or not, Lauren," she said. "If you get sand in my bra one more time, I will not hesitate to put you in a bubble until you're just a mushy pile of wet pulp!"

Lauren grimaced. "It was an accident, Pris."

"I. Don't. Care." Pris stepped closer to Lauren and jabbed a finger at her chest. "You've been getting on my nerves lately, you know. You and Joey both," she mumbled under her breath. "Watch yourself Zside." The pink haired girl let out a huff and marched away, her heeled boots clacking on the wooden floor. She gave Scott a sideways glance as she passed them, but ultimately didn't pay much mind to them.

Scott waited a moment to walk shyly over to Lauren. "Uh, hi," they said nervously with a small little wave. Lauren looked over at him. "Are... are you okay?"

Lauren stared at him, not saying anything.

"H- Hello?" He frowned when she still didn't respond. She definitely speaks English, they thought. Why isn't she saying anything? He grew slightly impatient when she continued to stare. Maybe she understands another language better. I'm not fluent, but... "⊑⟒⌰⌰⍜?" he tried.

She let out a squeak and turned to run away.

Scott sighed. Fine, be that way. He let out a hmph and stomped away the opposite direction that Lauren ran. Was she scared of me? they couldn't help but think. I guess seeing a zombie up close is pretty scary. But there are plenty of zombies and undead people at this school, and I'm probably the least scary looking out of all of them! I'm not even decayed that much...

But what was that whole thing about? They looked like they were friends, but that Pris girl seemed pretty mean. She looks like a nice person, though. Maybe she just had a bad day? She did say Lauren and some other guy were pissing her off. Maybe she's going through something right now.

As Scott was thinking, they weren't looking where they were going and bumped into someone.

"Oh! I'm sorry," a British accent said with a chuckle. "I didn't see you there. You're kind of short."

Scott looked up scowling, but his anger disappeared all at once when he made eye contact with the prettiest boy he'd ever seen. A retort to the insult of his height died on his tongue as they stared into the other boy's beautiful chocolate coloured eyes.

"Are you new here?" the boy asked with a tilt of his head. "I don't think I've seen you before." Scott noticed golden-brown feathers on his ears, and their gaze moved over to large wings folded against his back. He's a canary... "Hello?"

Scott jumped as he realized he'd been staring. "O-oh, uh, yeah, I'm new," they said nervously, fidgeting with their sleeves. "I'm- I'm Scott. I'm a necromantic witch."

The other boy smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you, Scott," he said. "I'm a light witch. My name's Jimmy."

"Jimmy," Scott breathed, their gaze softening as they stared again. He opened his mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance to when they heard their nickname being called from behind them.

"Scoot!" Scott turned to see Keres walking toward him and Jimmy. He looked sort of... angry? But why? "Who's your new friend?" he asked through semi-gritted teeth and a fake smile.

Scott shifted uncomfortably, sensing a twinge of jealousy in Keres' voice. Jealousy? Why would Keres be jealous?

---

Oooohhhhhh, Scott met a pretty boyyyyy hehehe /pos

I sort of got the idea of Jimmy being a light witch from A_Fanfic_Queen because she made him a sun witch and I thought that was really fitting for him lol /lh

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Have a wonderful rest of your day, or evening!! Love y'all <33 /gen/p