It had been more than 20 minutes, and the crowd of bored and restless NeoPets
had long since grown impatient.
"Well that's it, I'm going," the electric Gelert said.
"Well, there's no point now, here comes the teacher," an oddly patient Skeith
replied.
There were groans from all around.
"We shoulda gone when we had a chance," someone muttered from the middle
of the crowd.
A plain looking brown Kau with red glasses pushed his way through the crowd.
He unlocked the door and took at seat at the desk in the front of the room.
"Well come in class. I know you're all so overjoyed to be here, but try and
contain your excitement long enough to take a seat," he said sarcastically.
I tried to make my way through the crowd, but I got pushed to the back of
the disorderly line. I made it into the class last. All the seats were taken
except one in the front by itself, and one next to the menacing Skeith, who
in my opinion, didn't want to be sat next to.
I took the seat in the front of the class, waiting for my name to be called
for attendance. I found out that that annoying Usul was named Prissy and that
the Electric Gelert was named Vince. I even made a note of the Skeith's name,
burnticicle. I was going to listen for more names when I heard mine called.
"Here," I said, nervously.
Snickers came across the whole room. Apparently I had become a laughing stock.
For some reason, I felt odd. I was sad, but in a sad I had never felt. I had
hated other people before, but now for some reason, I found myself hating myself,
not others. It disturbed me greatly. I didn't understand how I could go from
fifteen minutes ago been perfectly happy, to this sad.
"All right, now if you're quite done laughing and carrying on like a bunch
of two year olds, we'll start the lesson," he said, writing his name, Mr.
Kaula on the board.
Groans came from all around the class. Mr Kaula wrote a simple equation on
the board.
2 + Y = 10 What does Y stand for?
"You're the teacher, you tell us!" An obnoxious voice that could only belong
to Vince called from the back of the class. Chantelle laughed at the comment.
"Eight," another voice called from the back of the room. I turned my head
to see who it was.
"I knew that too," I said proudly.
The people in the back of the room laughed again. It was starting to really
annoy me.
"Well, I'm glad we have a few bright people in the room," he said, pleased.
"Now I'm going to put up an example of what we're going to learn by the time
we're done this Uni."
He wrote out a longer equation.
2y + 8 = 3y + 3
I scanned the equation, working it through my head.
"Now I don't expect you to get this, it's only an example of the kind of stuff
we'll be doing, only later on we'll use bigger num--."
"The answer is five," I said, interrupting him.
"Very good!" he said, masking obvious amazement.
He finished the lesson, and dished out the day's homework. I was long since
done before the class ended, so I looked at the room around me. There was a
faded poster of some Chomby band I'd never heard of in the corner... A punky
red one with black sunglasses gracing it's face. I found it very disturbing
somehow. I shifted my gaze another way... I didn't want to be too obvious about
turning around, cause I somehow knew they'd tease me if I did. I examined the
class around me... I noticed that there were a surprising amount of Lennys in
the room, I counted 4. I found it strange that some many pets of the same species
were in the same class. I also found it quite odd that I hadn't noticed them
on the way in, but I figured they must have just blended in with the rest. I
noted that the most noisy pets were sitting in the back, and didn't seem to
have even started their work. Strangely, the Skeith I had seen before appeared
to have already finished their work. I wondered if they were fast like me. I
was so deep in day dream, that I almost didn't notice the bell, until I saw
everyone in the room starting to pack up and leave the room. I grabbed my backpack,
still partially caked with mud from earlier. I was about to leave the room,
when Mr. Kaula asked me to come see him.
"What is it?" I asked, afraid that I had done something wrong.
"Have you ever done math before? With your owner?" he asked, sternly.
"No, I don't think so," I said, wondering if I was supposed to have studied
beforehand or something.
He nodded. "How did you figure out the equation?" he asked.
"I just figured that it the rules would work the same way with that kind of
stuff too... I sorta pictured it," I said, with a mixture of doubt and pride
in my voice.
He nodded once again. "You may go now," he said, motioning to the door.
"Okay..." I said, unsure of what that whole conversation had been about. Then
I slowly left the room, only glancing back for half a second, before continuing
on.
I already knew where to go for my next class, as I had borrowed a map from
one of my classmates when I was done my work. I wrote myself directions on the
torn piece of paper, containing the location of my classes. My next class was
Social Studies... though from the name I guessed it would be very boring. I
arrived there early, and few people were there yet. I sat down, deciding to
wait, as I knew recess wasn't very long, only 15 minutes. When the 15 had finally
passed, I realised that it was a lot longer than I had thought it would be.
I was bored out of my mind, wishing I had someone to talk to. I scanned the
new crowd around me for Korbats, or any friendly looking NeoPets. I had lucked
out, Chantelle wasn't in my class this time. Unfortunately for me, Vince was.
Although I had hated that obnoxious Gelert from almost the very first moment
I met him, I felt myself growing still more hatred towards him. He was cruel
to just about every NeoPet he met that wasn't as powerful as him, and it was
very hard to stand by and let him insult them. At this moment he was terrorising
a short Techo, and I felt very sorry for them. For the first time in my life
though, I didn't stand up against them. I had always been strait forward with
my feelings, and how I didn't like people to be mean to others, but now I was
too afraid that I'd get taunted too.
The teacher, a spotted Aisha, was already inside the classroom, preparing
the lesson. When the bell rang, she made no immediate attempt to come open the
door. She finished writing some dates and locations on the board, then slowly
came and opened the door. This time I was more prepared for the rush for the
good seats, and picked one closer to the back, so I would be able to see what's
going on without everyone staring at my back. I was pleased with my seat, and
saw a group of four gossipy Jubjubs made their way into the class. There were
three empty seats to my left, and one up front.
"Oh no! We're going to have to get separated!" one of them, a faerie Jubjub
exclaimed.
They muttered amongst themselves, then pointed at me. I somehow guessed that
the result wouldn't be good.
"Excuse me... but could you move to the seat up front so we can all sit together?"
asked one of the other Jubjubs, an electric one.
"Fine...." I said, groaning.
"Well you don't have to be rude about it," the obvious leader of the clique
said. "You don't have to bite our heads off."
I moved once again to the front of the room, passing near Vince long enough
to get a snicker and a cruel joke from him. I knew that the school day was less
than half over, and yet I still longed for it to end with a passion. The teacher
made her way to the front of the class, and pointed to the black board.
"Who can tell me, what important event happened May 10th of the year 3?" she
asked, in a flat tone of voice.
Several hands shot up. She chose out Vince from the bunch.
"Duh, everyone knows that... It's the day that the Monoceraptor was defeated,"
he said.
I knew very little about Neopia's history, and even less about the wars that
had shaped the many world that existed in Neopia. It began to fascinate me.
The lesson was mainly about the beginning of the Tyrannian War, and how Tyrannia
was discovered through the ice caves. I copied down the notes quickly, and made
a note to myself to further read up on past events. The homework was very easy,
and I finished it right as the bell rang. There was a deep groan as the whole
class realised they'd have homework to do. I wondered why they hadn't done it
in class, it was pretty easy.
I pondered the thought of going home for lunch... Then realised that I would
be all too tempted to not come back... and I didn't want to give up. I pulled
my lunch bag out of my backpack, and was disgusted to find the contents soggy,
and crushed. The morning's collision had taken it's toll on my stuff, and it
showed. My school supplies were covered in dirt and some of them were broken.
I deeply hoped that the day wouldn't get any worse... if that was even possible
at least... but I had yet to witness the worst class of all... gym class.
***
After sitting all alone for an hour with nothing to eat, I was very relieved
to be going to another class. At least classes had something interesting to
do while you were there, sitting alone outside was not in the slightest bit
interesting. I was so bored and restless that I believed nothing could be worse
than being lonely outside for so long... I was about to get a big wake up call.
Somehow I had assumed that gym would be orderly, well monitored, and have difficulty
set depending on how strong you already were... It was none of the above. I
stepped into the huge room, built separately from the rest of the school, obviously
equipped with many different methods of training. The class size was unusually
large, possible a result, or the cause of the building being so large. Almost
everyone that had been in my previous classes was in this one... Right down
to Chantelle. The teacher was a Lupe, obviously battle hardened.
"All right you little wimps.... I know that I'd be expecting way too much
for even one of you to turn out to be a decent fighter, but I'm going to teach
you anyway," he said, loudly enough so that his voice echoed through the
huge room.
"I'm already experienced in battle...." Vince started to say.
"That's enough out of you!" he bellowed. "My little friend, this sort of battle
training is different than you've encountered. I'm not being paid to give you
patient training, so don't expect any. Nothing in this class will involve the
use of weapons... This is very basic stuff, so I expect you all to survive...
Of course, not all of them do..." he said, smiling sinisterly.
Frightened whispers traveled through the entire class.
"Who's he trying to kid?" I said, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "If
students really did get killed during gym class, he'd be fired for sure! I bet
he's merely trying to scare us!" I said, defiantly.
The frightening Lupe burst out. "You pitiful little Korbat! You know nothing
about how easy it is to cover things up! It's all too easy to tell the owners
that they're beloved little pampered Kacheek, ran away to find an owner who
trains them properly... Cover ups are so simple... it's hilarious," he
said.
My suspicions were confirmed, he was merely trying to frighten us. It's not
nearly as easy as he thought to keep something like that a secret... There would
be witnesses, and a whole mess of other complications that would mess it up.
I decided to keep my mouth shut though. I noticed that all the pets around me
were literally terrified of the teacher.
"Now that we're done the pleasantries, I'll introduce myself... I am Mr. Mokla.
I served in both the Tyrannian and Lost Desert wars... and have a few trophies
to show it. Although I did not have many victories, I gained valuable experiences
that none of you will ever even hope to witness," he said, now full out bragging
on his minuscule efforts in the past.
"Now we will begin the class, I hope you all have life insurance...." he said,
putting in one last comment to ensure that no one would ever cross him. "Now
I'll separate you into groups."
He split the class into seven different areas. I wondered what his lessons
would be like. I figured out we'd probably be doing several different training
activities, more than likely varying from track running to weight lifting. I
shuddered. Training was something I hoped I'd never have to do.
"I doubt gym class will be worth it... I'll probably only go up like 2 points
per stat during the entire course," Vince bragged.
"Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?" I insulted, bitterly.
"Oh look, the little genius finally graces us with a comment... Exactly how
badly did you crash this morning? Wasn't it a head-on collision into the mud?"
He said, snickering violently.
"Lay off it Vince," a familiar voice, belong to a Skeith said, stepping out
from behind the crowd.
"And what do you think you're going to do about it?" Vince said, reaching
back for the Battledome weapon concealed in his pocket.
"This," the Skeith said, aiming an ability that appeared to be Demon
breath right into Vince's face.
I suddenly remembered the Skeith's name... Burnticicle. Blinded by rage Vince
took out a powerful looking Battledome weapon and aimed it strait at him.
"Let's see you fight this!" He said, preparing to fire it.
Mr. Mokla broke in unexpectedly.
"Gelert, put the weapon down!" he said, motioning to Vince.
Vince froze in terror, obviously still impacted by our teacher's harsh words
from earlier.
"I'll take that," he said, taking the weapon that Vince had still been grasping
in his front left paw.
"Hey, that's mine!!!! Give it back!" Vince screamed, forgetting his fear for
a moment while he attempted to grab it back.
"Not if you bring it to my class it isn't. No weapons in this class, period.
I doubt your other teachers would be pleased to know you carry a weapon with
you at all times either," he replied, smugly.
He walked off to the other side of the room, leaving a shocked Vince to realise
what had just happened.
"That's my sibling's best weapon!" He screamed, panicking. "If he finds out
I borrowed it, he'll kill me!"
I laughed softly to myself. He brought the situation on himself, so why should
I have felt bad? Besides, I was starting to really hate Vince... to a point
that I had never hated someone before. Burnticicle and I were the only ones
laughing.
"Well, I doubt he'll be bothering you anytime soon," Burnticicle said, chuckling.
"Nope, he'll be too busy trying to come up with the cash to make up for the
weapon," I replied, quite amused with the situation.
"I'm burnticicle," he explained. "...and your name is Night_Shadow_Stalker,
isn't it?"
I nodded. "Everyone just calls me Shadow," I said quietly, suddenly aware that
I was afraid of Skeiths. "How did you get so strong?" I asked, shyly.
"I'd rather not talk about it," he said plainly, but not in a threatening
way.
Gym class was harsh and long and I began to realise that it was going to be
tougher than I thought. First I had to lift weights that I swear were twice
my own weight, then I was forced to do ability training, which seemed incredibly
pointless to a pet like me who had no desire to fight. I was struggling with
one of the most basic abilities, spark, and I knew I was being laughed at from
all angles. Finally, after I struggled with it for a half hour, the Mr. Mokla
came over and made a spectacle out of me.
"This class, it the way NOT to do the ability spark. Notice the crooked angle
of her hands, you have to keep them strait forward like this," he boomed, holding
his hands forward and firing a powerful spark at the wall. The spark fizzled
off, disappearing into the wall.
The whole class laughed at me, except burnticicle. He approached me.
"After school, if you want, I'll teach you the easy ways to do abilities,"
he whispered. "This wind bag doesn't even know how they're done."
"Okay, sure," I replied, still breathing hard from the exertion.
As the class progressed, I realised more and more that I was almost the only
NeoPet in my class that had never had training of some form or another. By the
time class ended, I was about to die on my feet. I was glad that the school
was on a semester system, which meant that I only had one class left for today,
and that I wouldn't have gym all year.
I dragged myself all the way to my English class, just hoping that I'd be able
to survive that long. This time I was smart, and picked a seat around the middle,
to the left in an empty desk. I put my head down, wishing for the day to just
end right there. The teacher entered the room a little late, and had left the
door open for us to come in and take a seat, so we wouldn't have to sit outside.
She was a golden Scorchio, covered from head to tow in decoration, that appeared
to have been painted on with something other than the usual paint brushes. She
came to the front of the class with a gleam of passion for her work in her eyes.
"Hello class! I am miss Noala. I will be your teacher for the fascinating
world that is writing," she said, enthusiastically.
Snickers came from the back of the room, as well as many insults. Among them
I heard Chantelle.
Miss Noala wrote some notes on different forms of poetry on the board, and
then asked us to write a short unrhymed poem about feelings. I scribbled down
a few rough emotions that I had been feeling throughout the day, and worked
them into an interesting sort of composition. Miss Noala came by and admired
my poem.
"Lovely poem! Have you ever written poetry before?" she exclaimed, load enough
for everyone in the class to hear her.
"Errr... no, I haven't," I said, shyly.
"Well, you obviously have a natural talent for it. I'm sure you'll do quite
well in this unit," she said, winking.
I beamed with pride. The others behind laughed and called me a teacher's pet,
but I didn't care. I found something I liked that I was good at, and it felt
good.
After school I met up with Burnticicle, and he taught me that there was a right
and wrong way to hold your hands during an ability. Apparently if you held your
hands too far back, or to the side, the energy in your body won't carry forward
properly, and the attack just won't work. In addition to that, if you held it
only slightly off, you'd end up zapping yourself, so it was important to face
the opponent you plan to attack at all times. He tried to teach me some more
techniques, but I didn't understand them at all.
"Well, I think that's all the time we can spare today. If you're really set
on learning some of the other techniques, bottled faeries are the best teachers,"
he said, patiently.
I nodded, and we parted ways. I was extremely relieved to reach my NeoHome.
It meant that the ordeal was over. At least for now. As I opened the door, I
was greeted by my family.
"Hello sweety, how was your school day?" Mo--I mean Christine asked.
"You're not my mother, so stop acting like it!" I screamed in her face, not
knowing why.
I ran up to my room, locked the door and cried for one of the first times in
my life, out of sadness and not pain. I couldn't understand how my mood had
shifted as quickly as it did. I was happy two seconds ago, and that one little
trigger changed it all. I forced myself to fall asleep, without supper. I knew
that if I didn't get enough sleep, I would NEVER be able to pull myself out
of be to endure those tortures hours of school. It was still daylight when I
cried myself to sleep...
To be continued... | 
