"To break the ice, I'm now going to fill attendance. When I call out your name I want you to stand up and say something about yourself. Hopefully, this should help you know your classmates better." Mr Woods explained as he sat at his desk.
He loudly cleared his throat and began. "Kate Carter would you start us off."
'Fuck my name is so low in the alphabet.' I began to panic when I heard my name. Being the trendsetter is the worst.
"Yes-s sir. My name is Kate, and I'm a wolf hybrid. My hobbies are boxing and basketball, and I also enjoy cooking. I'm still new to the whole magic is real thing, so please go easy on me." I started a little shaky but I calmed down midway through.
"Very good Kate." Mr woods said with enthusiasm. "David Cromwell could you please follow her lead."
To my surprise, the cat boy was the next to stand up. He looked a lot more nervous than I did, and his tail was moving so quickly behind him that it was generating a mini breeze.
"My name is David, b-b-but please call me Davy… My hobbies are napping and drawing. I don't like cooking…" He mumbled and slurred his words a lot but the basic message was carried across. I could feel that part of his introduction was borrowed from mine.
"Thank you, Davy. Can we have Amethyst Crawford next?"
The snake woman raised herself above her chair, but she didn't exactly have legs to stand on. "Please don't call me Amethyst, I much prefer Ame. I like playing the electric guitar and going on dates, but I also like to lay around and do nothing."
"Rie Clove you're next."
A girl with an immensely bushy tail stood up. Her tail and hair were both a maroon red, and she had a very petite stature. "Hi, my name is Rie. I like gardening, and I do it part-time. I like to cook and I grow my own food, but I also like running."
"Loki Idris."
"Hey, the names Loki. Most foxes hate the trickster stereotype, but my parents always loved it, hence my name. I don't have any real hobbies other than street magic, but I like to meet new people." He sat down with his apricot tail swaying behind him.
"Elizabeth Morrow."
"Hello, my name is Elizabeth, and I'm an owl or more specifically a barn owl. I enjoy reading and writing, but I have no discernible talents outside of that. If given the option of never leaving my house I would take it in a heartbeat."
"Lleu Taylor."
The person sitting next to Davy stood up. He had fluffy white hair and two curled horns. "M-my name is Lleu. I like knitting and sewing, and my hobby is making clothes."
"Jack Toft."
The person who stood up next was a mountain. I considered myself tall for my age, but he was easily a head and a half taller. "My name is Jack, and I am a dragon. Don't worry you don't need to be afraid in my majestic presence. Whilst I was born the noblest of creatures, I don't intend to look down on all of you." He ended his introduction with a hearty laugh, and when I looked behind him I saw a lizard-like tail.
"Great, now that the introductions are done we can move on to the school's schedule and your lessons." Mr wood stood up and began to write on the chalkboard. "The school day is split into 3 lessons and 2 breaks.
You will have the first lesson at 9:00 with me, and it will be magical studies. It will last two hours.
Then you will have a half an hour break where you can get something to eat in the school cafeteria or use any of the school's recreational facilities.
After that, you will have a two-hour transformation lesson with Miss Duffy. Her lessons will focus on learning to control and utilise your transformations.
Then you will have lunch for an hour. There will be more to do at lunch than at break, and students will have access to club rooms at lunch.
Finally, you will have a two-hour lesson on either mythical beast studies, magical history or therianthropics. Monday and Wednesday will be mythical beast studies, Tuesday and Thursday will be magical history, and Friday will be therianthropics.
However, today is your first day so things will run differently. Currently, the other students are taking their exam and will be sorted into their classes, so until your break we have a free period. I want you to use this time to get familiar with one another because you will most likely be spending the next three years together. If any of you have any questions I will be at my desk." After finishing his long explanation he sat down at his desk and began typing something on his computer.
I believe Mr Wood wanted us to talk amongst ourselves, so I turned to Davy and tried talking to him. "Hey, you said your name wa…" However, I was cut off before I could finish my attempt.
"Hello, Kate was it?" Loki was the one who got between me and Davy. "I don't mean to be blunt but are you an actual wolf?"
"Yes, I am. Why is it so surprising?" I said with a hint of aggression. All the murmuring from the other students had made me slightly self-conscious.
"I didn't mean to cause offence. Wolves are a commodity these days. During the wolf hunts, they were wiped to near extinction. It's one of the main reasons why magic is kept secret from the rest of the world."
"So what do you want?"
"I'm not after anything. I just wanted to introduce myself to my fellow canine." After saying that he pulled back his lip to reveal his sharp teeth.
I also noticed that my teeth had changed after my first transformation. It makes me wonder what else might have changed that I don't know about.
"Hey, are you interested in magic? And not the transforming into an animal kind, but the ones humans can perform."
"Sure why not?" His pestering was getting on my nerves, but I didn't want to make enemies on my first day.
He began to flip a coin in the air, and when he caught it, it wasn't the same type of coin that he had thrown. He then made the coin move from one hand to another as if it teleported. Then finally he closed the hand that the coin was in and when he opened it again it was gone.
"Are you going to pull it out of my ear?" I asked jokingly.
"Something like that." He said smiling back at me. He then opened his hand, and the small purse I kept all my money was in his hand. "Should I take my magician's fee?"
I quickly checked my pocket where I had put my purse, but all I found was the coin he had been throwing around. I looked back at his smirching face and was about to take my purse back.
"There is no need to make such a cheerful face, the trick wasn't that impressive. I was only joking about the fee, seeing your amazement was enough payment. I can already tell we will be fast friends." He tossed my purse back to me as he walked away back to his seat.
I checked my purse to see if he had taken in anything, but everything was still there. The only thing out of place was a business card that read 'Hire the God of Tricks to perform magic for any occasion!' in the corner there was a cute picture of a fox wearing a top hat next to a phone number. It all looked very professional until I looked at the back where the words 'Ring me whenever you like' were scribbled on the back.
'Was this some bit to pick me up?' I angrily shoved the card and my purse into my pocket. I didn't intend to ring him, but I'll give him some false hope as payment for the time he wasted.
I laughed internally at my petty revenge as looked around for my cat-eared runaway, and saw him talking to Lleu. They were both sitting at the desk opposite me, so I decided to approach them.
"Hey." I pulled up my chair to their desk, and they both looked at me frightened. The two seemed to be similar in their nervous nature, but Lleu was a lot more talkative, and Davy had more of an air of mystery.
"I just came over to make a proper apology. I don't want any bad blood between us." I apologised whilst bowing slightly. "Sorry."
When I met his gaze his eyes tried their hardest not to meet mine, they rapidly darted to everything in the room except me. I think most people would see this as rude, but I couldn't help but think it was cute. It took the majority of my willpower to resist the urge to start patting his head.
"I ac-ccept your sorry… Me sorry too, f-for sleeping in your home." He still couldn't meet my eyes when he said that.
When Lleu heard us talking his eyes lit up. "So you're the one who chased him up a tree. Now it makes sense."
"What makes sense?" I asked curiously.
"When I first met Davy he said to me that a 'big dog' chased him out of his home. I'm guessing that was you?"
My face mimicked a tomato when I remembered chasing Davy up the tree. It was really embarrassing to be called out like that. "Yeah, that was me. I could have probably dealt with that better, that's why I came to apologise."
"No issue… I live in bigger home now." Davy tried to comfort me when he saw my flushed face.
"Yeah, he lives with me now." Lleu explained.
"Why does he live with you?"
"Davy does have a house given to him by the government, but he only told me he didn't like it, so he was living in empty houses."
'I guess that solves the mystery of why he was in my house. Our situations kind of sound similar, I wonder if he is also a half-breed?'
"Davy, are you a half-breed?" After thinking about it I decided to just ask him.
"I was just cat… But now I cat and human."
"What?"
Lleu jumped in to explain on Davy's behalf. "Davy is one of the rare cases where a hybrid is born an animal. It's why he isn't great at speaking, because for most of his life he couldn't."
"I speak good!" Davy hissed clearly embarrassed about his inability. His uncharacteristic anger made me laugh, and that only made him blush more.
I spent the rest of the time until break chatting and laughing with Davy and Lleu.