Tasnim Lane's Story

"My dorm!" Tasnim says, happiness overflowing. She falls onto her bed, relaxing for a few moments before getting back up again. She slowly starts to put her stuff out of her suitcase and into her closet. When she was done she walks over to the Phoinex common room to observe the people coming in. It was quite fun to her, looking at people interact after a long time of being away. Listening in on people talking about their breaks.

"I went to my grandmothers house, she lives on a big farm, it was so boring!" says one, Tasnim rolls her eyes. "The idea of living on a farm, around so much nature, is so exciting, such a selfish boy." She thought. Another went horse back riding, one went fishing, one went hiking, Tasnim couldn't help to be jealous. Her parents had her taking care of babies at their stupid daycare that, for some reason, has no October break. Luckily, she got paid $100 for her hard work and suffering.

Tasnim kept on looking and listening, waiting and hoping that someone would finally talk to her.

The girl named Tessa Pher was currently walking, striding more like it. She was honestly just walking around, looking for her room to place her two bags, and then to find a nice shaded area and take a nap. All the entertainment and excitement taking place in the Phoenix common room made her tired just watching it. Although she did think of some fun statistics while eyeing them all. ’24% of these conversations are purely small talk, 51% are mainly just hellos and whatnot. The remaining is old friends dishes about others, or couples awkwardly making small talk.’ She thought to herself as she smiled.

Not to get her wrong, Tessa had a few friends she made the previous year, even some she kept in touch with, but they were currently lost in the sea of excitement. Most people thought Tessa was odd. She was extremely lazy, to the point of asking someone to fetch her a snack that was around four meters away from her. Although some came to her because she always scored the highest marks on tests, but [i]fleating interest/[i] as she would say.

Her record of battles was alright, with her only taking place in six of them, and winning four of them. One she lost due to her opponent sweeping her, and the other because she wanted to nap and quit. Some backlash with the latter one.

Anyways, she found her room, passing a little dark girl on her way. Her room showed that the other person had placed a large bag that only allowed the door to close halfway. Anyways, she put her bags on her bed, and walked out of the dorm without saying a word to anyone. She just wanted to relax. She found her way to the garden, where she found a boy with an ice pack to his face. A normal person would have interacted by asking him if he was fine, but he wasn’t in the nurse’s office, so he probably was.

So instead, she just sat under the same tree as he was, albeit on almost exactly on the other side, although she did give a polite head nod. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and felt herself relax. It was nice to return to this tree, it was truly a great napping location.

Tasnim slowly starts to drift to sleep on the couch, hearing people's break stories started to bore her. "Maybe...I should...get to my bedro..." she thinks as she falls to sleep. Only ten minutes later the loudness of the intercom jolts her awake.

ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS. THERE WILL BE AN ASSEMBLY IN THE MAIN HALL IN TWENTY MINUTES, AN ASSEMBLY IN THE HALL IN TWENTY MINUTES. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY. THANK YOU.

Tasnim wakes up, both cranky and annoyed. She almost knew some type of assembly was going to happen today but they could have just put flyers up, not blurt it on the intercom. She slowly gets up and starts to walk to the main hall, her slowness starts to become a skip, and then she was running until she got to the main hall. Not many people where there yet, only the ones who were smart enough to get there before people started to rush to the main hall. Once she finds a seat she slowly starts to nap again, but made sure to jolt herself awake when more people came in. She puts on a friendly smile, hoping it will make people want to seat next to her, and trying to not seem weird.

Serenity Sirenchella

As she heard the announcement, Serenity quickly finished her hair in a short braid. She arrived, taking a seat next to a girl who looked almost too young to be at this academy. Of course, Serenity didn't mind being in the presence of a kid genius. Serenity began reading a book in her lap, and looked up every few minutes to make sure the assembly hadn't started.

Tasnim could not help but feel good when a young blonde girl with braids came to sit down next to her. "Maybe my smile didn't make me seem to weird." She thought. "Should I say hi? Should I wave? Should I just look down and do nothing?" Tasnim then see's that the girl starts to read a book. "Maybe I should not, she is reading a book. Or maybe I should, reading is fun but talking is fun too."

"Hi." Tasnim finally says, hoping for a response.

Lonan laughed at Elysia's comment. As they began to walk, he noticed Elysia fall behind to talk to some freshman.

"So, you ass hat, who did you terrorize this time to have to break into my bloody room?" He said to Seran, with a half smirk and a soft laugh.

Getting closer to the hall, Elysia manage to catch back up to the two.

"Well, nice of you to join us miss tour guide." He said, with a joking smile.

"At least they haven't started yet. Anyway how was the break for the both of you?"

"Nice enough..." He said. "Though a bit boring. I didn't get to see my father much, he was in Reynden for most of it on an important business trip. I mostly just hung out with my little brother and some old school friends. Oh, and my cats. I miss my cats. Mimi is total-" Realizing he was rambling on, he cut himself short. "Because everyone wants to know about your uber-manly love for cats." he thought. He looked over at the other two, curious about their breaks.

---

As they arrived at the now-packed assembly hall, they unsurprisingly struggled to find seats. The three had split up to look for a trio of unoccupied ones. Finding a perfect place for them to sit on the ground level, somewhat close to the stage, he waved over to Seran and Elysia to come over to where he was, though they weren't very far away. Just on cue, the assembly began. The lights dimmed slowly, and a tall figure walked on stage.

"Students. Please be seated immediately." He said, a microphone carrying his intimidating presence through the room. The man was no other than Vice-Chancellor Endrad, or as most students called him, behind his back of course, "Ender". He was a large man, with a slim, but intimidating figure, which was crowned by a serious, no-bullshit face, marked with a scar over the bridge of his nose, just extending just to touch his high cheekbones. His thick black hair was neck-length and always slicked back and his figure was always suited in a black designer suit. He was a stark contrast to the beautiful Chancellor, who's regal looks and scarlet hair had earned her the nickname "The Red Lion" though now it was more of a title then a moniker. She along with most of the other Academic staff, sat behind him, almost invisible in the dim light.

"On behalf of all the staff, we welcome you back to Stella Academy. We have but a few brief announcements before we let you finish unpacking your belongings and settling in. First off, we would like to address the rumours that have been circulating as of late. There has been a few, unconfirmed sightings of a class 3 Shari near the school grounds. Once again, it's presence is unconfirmed, but any further sightings should be reported to staff immediately and no student should engage the creature in combat under any circumstances.

Second, there will be a dance at the end of the week, to celebrate the first day of the festival of the dead. Then, on the final day of the festival, there will be a tournament held at the Holo-field. Participation in both events of optional, but encouraged. If you would like to volunteer for either event, please speak to Mr. Tevin as soon as possible.

Finally, keep in mind that while there is no class today, classes do start at 8:00 sharp tomorrow morning, so do not be late. That is all." He said, as the lights turned on and students began to file out of the building.

Lonan looked over to the other two as he got up. "Of course he had to end it with "Don't be late!". What a jerk." He yawned, stretching his arms into the air, "But a tournament, now that sounds fun."

It seemed amazing to Tasnim, “They found an actual Shari! she kept on thinking in her mind. What else counted, a Shari was around. She was somewhat scared and somewhat excited. A Shari was an amazing discovery. She just hoped it wouldn’t hurt anybody, especially her. That’d be horrible.

The dance was also quite exciting. Having fun and meeting new people to be friends with would be her priority there. She may even think about signing up for a battle. She’d really like to show off what her Mana Arm can do. It almost seems funny thinking about somebody wrapped around poison ivy because of her staff. Then again she wouldn’t want to lose this early in the school year, it’d be better to get a few friends first.

After the assembly she skipped back to her room, falling onto her bed, finally she got some time to rest.