The residents quickly entered the cafeteria when the doors opened. Apparently, the love of free food is universal for college students no matter whether they are on Tellus or on Terra. After a short welcome speech by Aayla, the students happily began partying away.
They merrily partied late into the night. Most of the residents were first years that had never left the house before, along with some upper classmen and foreign exchange students. Their childhoods were spent under strict tutelage. Free from their parents, the young wizards in training really went wild. They could finally start living their own lives with some freedom.
Tables were pushed towards the walls and music started playing from somewhere unseen. Students paired up and started dancing in the center of the room. All seemed to be going smoothly until someone brought wine.
After Dormi threw out a couple of the worst drunks, the party goers calmed down again and headed back towards their own rooms. A few were forced to spend the night outside suspended in the trees though. The sight of these miserable fools the next morning as they dragged themselves to their rooms for a shower intimidated the more arrogant residents to behave for a while.
As the semester went on, Aayla continued to go to class. Ancient Celes, the language of magic and spells, was by far her favorite. Most had just learned how to recite spells without paying much attention to what the words and phrases actually meant. So, they were learning the actual language along with her. Unlike her classmates, whenever Aayla messed up pronunciation there weren't any explosions, gales or other mishaps. In that regard, Aayla was the professor's absolute favorite.
On the other hand, Magic Theory and the history class were extremely stressful. In Magic Theory, the content was just completely new and all of the common-sense components were completely glossed over. Aayla could only seriously take notes and pretend that she didn't have several questions. Her final class, World History Before the Great Disaster, was even worse. People actually expected her to actually know things. Aayla didn't actually know things about Tellan history. She would have found the content interesting if the professor would stop constantly asking her questions. Aayla spent an extra four hours a day reading ahead and preparing for the class periods so that she wouldn't blow her cover.
No matter her successes in class, Aayla refused to take any chances that she might expose herself. She repeatedly dodged interacting with her classmates and professors as much as she possibly could. The excuse of 'working under Deputy Heston' stretched even farther than she expected. Red hot gossip about her continued to spread throughout campus. Eventually, people got bored with the constantly working mana-less girl that their attention quickly turned to other far more interesting topics.
Several students in particular seemed to be helping Aayla attract attention. The top-ranking students constantly dueled one another or challenged each other in various competitions. Students all over campus constantly bet about who the next winners would be. However, a bitter fight between two groups of high-ranking students suddenly took the campus by storm.
The first group was led by Vanessa Landrienne, a notoriously arrogant and snobby young lady studying ancient history who hails from the major magical family Landrienne which controls Landrienne City. They considered themselves the epitome of beautiful aristocratic young ladies and thus titled themselves "The Butterflies". Known for their awful personalities, stupidity, poor magical skill and boy crazy nature, many secretly call them "The Poison Butterflies". They would poison the lives of anyone that got in their way or otherwise annoyed them.
The other group was made up of foreign exchange students from the Ferreus Empire. Among them was a young man from a noble family who had a childhood engagement with one of the Butterflies. Upon arrival at Nafriton, the young man became displeased with his hopeless yet highly pretentious fiancée, Angela Morvell. He pretended to get along with her for a year before he couldn't take her possessive, cruel and stupid personality. Their engagement was broken off during the middle of the previous school year.
The professors secretly worked to keep them separated from each other, and time apart over the summer had let tensions cool. However, their feud was not over. Tensions flared again just a few days into the new school year. The Butterflies accidentally discovered that the ex-fiancé had started dating another Nafriton student. The new fiancé was a talented beauty that was horribly bullied by The Butterflies. The pair fell in love while The Butterflies were tormenting her and other students.
As the cherry on top, young man's new fiancé was actually the cousin of his previous one. The engagement between the families wasn't actually broken off. It was simply transferred from one lady to another. Now, the new fiancé's mother became the official heir. The immediate family of the new fiancé kept this information a secret. Taken by surprise, Angela's father was overtaken in the race to be the official Morvell family heir.
Many silently grabbed their popcorn and watched the show from the side. The flames kept getting higher and the rumors grew fiercer. Competition between the heirs of a prominent family was nothing new, and neither was the occasional cancellation of an engagement. However, this situation was completely new and seemed to come out of a romance novel. The Butterflies would never stand such humiliation. Neither would the young Ferrean take any trouble from The Butterflies lying down.
The students from their home towns found the situation especially entertaining. The Butterflies had repeatedly made others' lives miserable for simply existing. Now, they were the miserable ones. Hehe. Karma was so, so sweet. With their masks removed in public, their reputations had taken a serious hit. The university began to investigate when charges of bullying, plagiarism and admissions fraud were filed by the Ferrean noble and other anonymous sources.
Aayla had to shut down several gossiping students while attending to her other duties. Despite studying from before dawn to well after sunset, these young students can create a surprising number of problems and requests. They especially hated the dorm's ban on magic and constantly tried to find loopholes. Fortunately, a few students had started to volunteer around the dorm to keep it in order. Daren and Chris were rarely seen around the dorm, so Aayla was glad for the help.
A first year named Jacquelyn Vhassohrin helped out in the office from time to time. Aayla met her during move in day when she ran to the office to tell Chris about the Goldings' arrival. She preferred to go by 'Jacki' and reminded her a lot like Chris: talkative, friendly and assertive.
A third year named Theodore Lawlor led a group of third years to keep the younger students in line. He didn't really make much of an impression on Aayla during move in day. Theo and his friends seemed to struggle containing the gossip though. Even as third years, the gossip kept getting worse after scolding the younger students.
Sometimes Aayla could have sworn that the students seemed a bit happy after the scolding, but that shouldn't be right. Theo always corrected the students diligently and seemed a bit happy when he was done. The distress of a Butterfly must be simply too tempting to resist.
But The Butterflies were not even on Aayla's list of concerns right now.
At the very top of her list was the first round of exams coming up next week. Ancient Celes and ancient Tellan history should be a breeze. But Magic Theory? Aayla would be lucky if she passed at this point.
Right now, she sat on the floor of the library in the dormitory. The residents had long returned to their rooms for the night due to curfew. She checked this library several times for basic magic theory books, and found none. Aayla bit her lip. Darn it. She should have asked Ramona to get one when they shopped in Forest Waypoint. Aayla hadn't even seen Ramona's shadow for the past two weeks, and didn't dare ask anyone else for help.
Aayla read skimmed through the current book as fast as she could. What "Introduction to Basic Magic Theory"? This was clearly for university level students. Aayla would need middle school level, no make that elementary school level books.
A small squeak sounded near her foot. She looked down and a tiny green furball was pulling on her skirt. It pointed to a new book behind her. The title read "Doolan's Magic Theory". She already checked that one. Another miss.
"Thanks Matcha, but I've already checked that book. It's not what I need."
<(T^T)>
The gremlin deflated like a balloon. Gremlins can be clever and cute when they aren't causing chaos. Wait a minute! Aayla's tired eyes lit up. Dormi can't read the book titles, but gremlins can. They can also access all of the other places in the dormitory. She carefully took a small cookie out of her bag. The gremlin's wide eyes followed it as Aayla slowly waved the cookie in front the gremlin's face. Suddenly, it jumped. The gremlin's stubby arms reached desperately for the cookie only for Aayla to pull it away.
"Do you want the delicious yum yum cookie?"
\(*o*)/ -- Yes! Definitely want the yum yum cookie! --
"Well, if you find a good book for me in the basement, then I'll give you a yum yum cookie! I have plenty more~"
Aayla reached into her bag and pulled out a small sack stuffed with small cookies. The green furball's eyes opened wide in shock then turned determined.
\ (>A<)>* -- I accept the mission! --
With a small salute, the gremlin scampered off as fast as its tiny legs could carry it. Not all of the books were moved out of the basement. Hopefully, Matcha can find something in the storage rooms or the lost and found.