Azil had no idea what was going on. He had opened his eyes to hear the voice of his personal servant whose voice was not as loud as usual. He wasn't in his room, his family's estate or anywhere he knew. A woman stood in front of him. She had long brown hair that was tied back and she wore clothes that he had never seen before.
"It's a miracle you survived." She said and he blanked out after that. Survived? What had happened? His body felt different but he didn't know why. He was lying on a bed that had a strong scent of flowers and the ceiling above him was a stark white. Apart from that, he could only tilt his head enough to see the woman who was looking at him with furrowed eyebrows.
Another person walked into the room. "Doctor, is something wrong?" The new person asked and the doctor sighed loudly. "I think he's in shock. He won't answer anything. Could you contact his family?"
Azil pushed himself slowly into a sitting position. The other person was another woman who was slightly shorter with cropped black hair. Her lips were pursed when she answered the doctor and she made eye contact with him before lowering her voice a little, "His parents were contacted but...they're more concerned about how this will affect his academic performance. They told me to tell him that if his grades don't improve, they'll cut him off financially."
"What?!" The doctor who had been mostly indifferent was fuming. "Aren't they going to come see him?"
"They live in another state. Unless he's in critical condition, they said it's too expensive."
The doctor had regained her composure. "In that case, we'll have to get him to sign some papers himself. We'll give him some time. There are chances that he has amnesia from hitting his head after collapsing."
With that she was gone. The nurse came up to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Please, don't worry. We'll do everything in our power to help you."
Azil didn't know why but she reminded him of his older sister who had passed away three years ago. Tears sprung to his eyes and the nurse handed him a strange soft white paper-cloth. The nurse must have misunderstood his reasons for crying because she left after reassuring him that he was going to be fine.
When Azil could finally move more, he jumped off the bed onto the floor. He was in an alien world. The room was something that could not exist anywhere else.
"Is this heaven?" There was no reply to his question. The text on the clipboard near him was something he could read and understand but the letters were not the type he used. It was actually becoming more difficult to remember how he had written. Slowly, knowledge of objects seeped into his head- monitor, sanitizer, electric lights. Along with the knowledge of the objects was the knowledge that he was not himself anymore.
He didn't know why but he had the strong desire to go to his college. There was something important that he was to do that day but the memory did not fully belong to him and so he couldn't grasp it.
Azil headed out of the room with wonder-filled eyes. He was scared but also impressed by the strange place he was in. It must be the future. At the place known as the receptionist's desk, the receptionist stopped him and asked him what his name. He faltered before answering, "Azil?" Did he have a new name with the new body?
The receptionist typed that in and frowned. "We don't have an Azil admitted here. Are you here to visit someone?"
He hesitated and then shook his head. It felt like he was lying to her but technically it wasn't his fault that he was lying to her. "I would like to go to Resain's College. Can you give me directions?"
***
"Alright students. This is the last mock exam that we will hold before your finals. If any of you fail even one subject, you will be expelled."
A chorus of dissent filled the room but they quickly stopped once the papers started being distributed. A girl in one corner raised her hand and the teacher nodded at her.
"Professor Lyne. What about Rahey? He isn't here yet."
The Professor made a displeased face. "I would consider waiting for him if he had told me before hand or if he was punctual to my classes but seeing as he isn't, I'm sure he's just skipping."
The girl frowned but couldn't argue. Her name was Violetta and she was one of Rahey's many 'friends' but while most of the people in his class saw him as a slacker or uninterested in academics, she saw him more surely than the rest. Rahey was sociable and nobody despised him but in such a competitive class, people thought he was wasting his slot by always failing and never seeming to put in effort. Violetta knew for a fact that it wasn't just that. Rahey had never wanted to study the major he picked and he still tried his best to but because he wasn't interested enough in the subject, he could never push himself to work hard enough in a class where everyone spent two-thirds of their day studying seriously and passionately.
She crossed her fingers and prayed that he would make it in time. This was going to be their last mock exam and at least 10% of the questions were similar to those asked in the actual exam. Professor Lyne didn't like to torture his students so he only asked the most exam relevant questions in the final mock test. If Rahey missed it, then it would be hard for anyone to tell him all the questions because of the sheer length of the paper and because they didn't get to keep the question paper.
'Please Rahey. Show up just this once.'