South Tower
It was early in the morning and, as expected, the southern tower was mostly silent, save for the few early birds who were already up and getting ready for their first official day. One of these early birds was, of course, the hyperactive lion of team PWTR; Wynn.
“I should probably wake the others up soon.” he thought to himself as he stepped out of the warm shower, quickly drying himself off. He had woken up far earlier than he needed to, but he couldn’t help it, he was just so excited about his first day.
He slipped into his uniform, which was a white, long-sleeved button-up with the school’s insignia on the breast pocket, over that, a dark purple school blazer with black accents, long black slacks, and neat black shoes before stepping back into the main room, where the rest of his team was still sleeping.
“Hmm, how to wake them up…” he wondered, before a mischievous smile crossed his lips. He quietly tip-toed over to the bed in which Phenix and T’wulf were sleeping and lowered himself to be eye-level with the sleeping T’wulf before tapping on her nose, “Wakey wakey, Wulfie!”
T’wulf awoke with a start, jumping back and pushing Phenix out of the bed; causing her to land on the floor with a thump.
“Uuuugh…” Phen began, lifting herself off the floor
“What was that for!?” T’wulf shouted, glaring at Wynn who was basically keeling over in laughter
“Wha-whats going on?” Regalia said sleepily as she rose from her bed, eyes still half closed
“Hahahaha, I’m, haha, sor-haha-ry” Wynn replied unable to contain his laughter, “That reaction-hahaha, was just haha, so golden!”
“It's not funny.” T’wulf deadpanned
“Well,” Regalia yawned, “At least we’re all awake.”
“That was the goal.” Wynn giggled, “Plus, you three should start getting ready.”
“True.” Phenix replied as she stretched
T’wulf looked around at the other two girls, “Are you really gonna act like this is normal??” though her only reply was a playful wink from Wynn.
“While you three get ready, I’ll go get us all some breakfast in the cafeteria!” Wynn announced before leaving the room, closing the door a little too loudly behind him.
“C’mon pup.” Phen began, drawing T’wulf’s attention, “Time to get ready for the first day.” She smiled
T’wulf crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, “I’m not a pup.” she mumbled as she got off the bed and made her way to the closet, eliciting a slight giggle from both Phen and Regalia.
Welcome back to the Cafeteria
The Cafeteria was slowly coming to life as one by one the student body dripped into the enormous room. Some tables already had their full teams present and were digging into their breakfast, whilst others, like Wynn, were waiting for the rest of their team to arrive before eating.
“Over here guys!” Wynn called out whilst waving his hands to Regalia, Phen and T’wulf whom had just entered from the hall. Each wearing their own slightly personalised version of their school uniforms; Regalia wearing a dark purple skirt, with white button up, a tie and a blazer, Phen wore the v-neck variant of the sweater, with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and black slacks, finally, T-wulf was wearing a white button up, blazer and slacks.
“He was actually able to get us a table.” Regalia said with sarcastic surprise as they began heading in his direction
“I am curious what he got us though,” Phen relied, “Considering he didn’t even ask before heading out…”
“It shouldn’t be anything bad, it’s only breakfast.” T’wulf answered, as she started to think about all the kinds of breakfast he could have gotten for them. She ended up so deep in thought that she didn’t even realize there was someone in front of her, until she bumped into the taller, blond boy, which resulted in her falling to the ground with an ‘oof’. “Oh, sorry…” she began before looking up at the boy she had bumped into, her nose wrinkled as she noticed his trademark scarf, “Never mind, I’m not sorry after all.” She muttered.
“Tch, watch where you’re going next time, Mutt.” He said venomously as he adjusted his scarf, before he continued walking forward, ignoring her.
“Hey!” Phen began, reaching out to grab his shoulder, “You don’t need to be so rude!” Though just before she grabbed his shoulder, her arm was captured by a somewhat smaller hand, she turned to see the stern gaze of Indu. The boy, Yale, turned to look at the two before he continued walking to one of the empty tables, leaving Indu and Phen to continue their minor confrontation.
“Phenix,” Regalia placed her hand on her team leader’s shoulder, “Let’s not let our first day get ruined.”
Phen looked down and sighed, though, to her surprise, Indu was first to break off the encounter. As she refocused on Indu’s face, she noticed that the stern, somewhat threatening look was replaced with a friendly smile.
“Regalia,” Indu began in a friendly tone, “It’s been a while.” She turned to look at Phen who was helping T’wulf up off the ground, “I’m sorry for my teammate’s actions.” She said with a bow.
“You don’t have to apologize for something he did.” T’wulf said softly
“I do.” Indu responded swiftly, “He is a member of my team, and thus his actions are my responsibility.”
“Come now,” Regalia interjected, “No need to be so serious. How have you been Indi?”
“You still haven’t given up on that nickname, have you?” Indu giggled, “I’m doing fine, though I’m afraid I have to go get my breakfast now,” She turned to look at her team, which were silently sitting at their table, eating. “I’m looking forward to seeing you in class.” She said before heading off.
“You too!” Regalia responded, as she, Phen and T’wulf began heading to Wynn who was patiently waiting for them still.
“I feel sorry for her…” T’wulf suddenly began, “Being stuck with that group of jerks.”
“She’ll be fine.” Regalia replied, “If anyone can take on a team like that, it’d be her, trust me.”
“FINALLY!” Wynn burst out as the three had arrived at the table, “I thought I was gonna die of hunger before you’d finally get here!”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Phen laughed
“Well, if you had died, it would leave more food for us…” Regalia joked
“So cruel!” Wynn replied, dramatically falling backwards, before stopping himself by hooking his foot around the bottom of the table. “Anyway, food time!” he shouted as he shoot back up and began devouring his food.
At IVRY’s table
“You didn’t seriously bow in front of those weaklings.” Raven scoffed as Indu returned to their table.
“It’s my family’s custom.” Indu replied, “It would be better for us to not go through another scuffle on our first official day of...”
“Pathetic.” Raven interrupted, “You don’t even try to act like a leader. I’m sure you only got the position because the school owes your family something, don’t they?”
With this both Vi and Yale lifted their heads to see Indu’s response, but she did not react. She remained quiet with a neutral facial expression. She stood up and within seconds the bell rang, “We should get going, we don’t want to be late for class.” She stated, turning to Raven she saw some visible irritation at the fact that she was ignoring him, but nothing became of this.
Dust Studies Classroom
Students slowly filed into the semi-circular shaped lecture room; it was rather standard in appearance, rows of desks with chairs, each row slightly higher than the one in front of it. All the furniture was made from a rather dark coloured wood and the desks were covered in small damages, from scratches to scorched areas, with small beige coloured pillows on each of the chairs. Down at the center, where the teacher will no doubt stand, was a large blackboard, a desk, and a locked cabinet, likely filled with dust for demonstrational purposes.
Indu was one of the first to take a seat on the right side of the classroom, at the 3rd of the 6 rows, her team taking seats somewhat scattered around where they felt most comfortable. Obviously it wasn't required that teams sit together, but a number of other teams were taking seats near one another, such as PWTR and SSHL, she watched the door patiently as she awaited the last members of her class and, of course, the teacher to enter. Team KOHL was among the last students to enter the class, but she could still not see the teacher anywhere.
“Cmon little ones,” A voice sounded from the door, “To your seats!” A group of students standing at the door stepped aside to reveal a short, brightly dressed man with a multitude of colours streaked through his short hair. He hopped down the stairs as the class stared at the strangely energetic man; he wore a light-blue long sleeved button up with the cuffs unbuttoned, dark green slacks, black shoes and a dark red jacket. “Welcome to your first lesson at Faith Academy!” He said rather happily, “My name is Phlox Cherubim, Professor of Dust Studies, and you better make a good impression, cause y’all are going to be stuck with me for the next 4 years!” He arrived at the center of the classroom, and looked around at all the new students, “Yup, most, if not all, of you are here.” He nodded to himself. “So!” he began as he lifted his right hand and opened his palm facing upwards, “How many of you use dust?” His red jacket began to dissolve away from the bottom up, “Any form is fine, from dust cartridges in your guns, to full on manipulation.” Most of the class raised their hands, as they continued to stare at his dissolving jacket, which was soon completely dissolved, and in his right palm now lay a small pile of reddish coloured dust. He stepped forward and began placing a small amount on the desks in front of each student. “And how many of you actually manipulate dust?” He asked, and a much smaller number of students rose their hands. “Well, this class seems to be more dust-savvy than usual!” he laughed, having now placed small amounts of reddish dust in front of about half the class. “Now for those of you who don’t know,” he began, “Dust in non-crystallised form is very volatile, almost anything can cause a reaction, even the slightest…”
Phlox’s lecture was interrupted by a loud sneeze from Jasper, which caused the small pile of dust in front of him to explode, singeing his face and setting a small section of the table alight. Phlox quickly turned and aimed his left hand at the small fire, with a flick of his thumb and middle finger, a small stream of water flew from his hand and quickly subdued the flame. “...sneeze.” Phlox sighed, as a large portion of the class began to laugh at Jasper, who had been knocked over by the small explosion and somewhat soaked by the following stream of water. Through his laughter, Jasper turned to look at Talon, who simply sighed.
Phlox made his way back to the front of the room, all the students, excluding Jasper, now had a small pile of dust in front of them. “Now the Mr. McTavish has shown us the extent of his control of dust,” He began, eliciting a final giggle from part of the class, “I want all of you to try to channel your aura and use this dust in any way you can; ignite it, reform it into an object, fuse it with your semblance, whatever you’re capable of.” Slowly students began using the dust in front of them, some students including Indu, Lavender and Phenix displayed good mastery of dust, by being able to reform it into an object, whilst the majority of the class simply set the dust alight. Of course there were also a few who were completely incapable of bringing any reaction out of the dust, such as Viridian, Slate and Krimm.
With a few flicks of his fingers, Phlox put out the flames that had been produced, “Woohoo!” Phlox shouted, “This means we’ll get to skip through most of the boring starters stuff, since most of you have got that down.” He threw his arms into the air with joy, before turning to see the clock which warned that the lesson was nearing its end. “Oh!” He said with surprise, “before the lesson ends, Sienn- I mean, Miss Seraphim told me, to tell you, that we realised some of your dorms were lacking in beds or other furniture so those will be delivered to your dorms today during classes.” The bell rang just as he finished informing them, “Well, run along now! Tomorrow the real classes begin!”
All the students began making their way out of the lecture room. Yale stood as most of the class had already left, he exited the room and turned to go left, “Yale,” Indu called from behind him, “We have history next, and it's this way.” She said pointing in the opposite direction to where he was going, he turned and silently began walking behind Indu towards the history classroom, not another word was exchanged between them the whole way there.