Welcome To The School

21

Eijeh tossed his bag into his desk overdramatically and collapsed into his chair. Unfortunately, the bag zoomed across the desk and hit the person in front of him. Again. Eijeh winced, knowing exactly what was coming next. "WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING, IDIOT!" An electric-blue eye bored into Eijeh's own mismatched irises, and the owner of them flipped Eijeh off for the second time in as many days. "IF YOU DON'T STOP DOING THAT, I SWEAR—" Surprisingly, he cut off mid-rant, his one visible eye widening slightly, before narrowing to a slit. He blew his fringe out of his other eye, and it briefly fluttered out of his face, before settling comfortably into its usual place over the guy's right eye. Twin shadows looked over Eijeh's desk, and he glanced up, feigning disinterest. It was the twins from the arena.
"Hello, Zak." The first began.
"Enjoying your new dorm?" The second asked, and they both smirked.
"Sorry, we forgot you don't have one anymore." The first continued, not sounding remotely apologetic.
"Now, we wanted to tell you to stop bothering—" the twins paused briefly. Eijeh sighed.
"Ignis. Eijeh Ignis."
"—Mr. Ignis here, because hearing you yell day after day really hurts our ears—"
"—Not to mention the fact it's just plain annoying. So stop, okay?"
"And in return, we won't say a word about your fear."
"Understood?"
Zak obviously didn't like the proposal, but he nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
"Good."
"We'll see you around, Eijeh Ignis."
"And we'll be watching you, Zak."
A familiar caramel-coloured head settled into the seat next to him. "What was all that about?"

It had been decided by Hayden and Eijeh's mutual friends, along with Zia and Eijeh's roommates, that it would be best if the two of them didn't sit next to each other until their argument was resolved. So Zia has taken over Hayden's old seat, which was rather a pleasant change. Plus, she was smarter than she looked. As it turned out, Professor Syzak adored giving them pop quizzes. Act like that was a good thing, and the smiley version would stay. Do anything that suggested otherwise, however, and you were most likely to come extremely close to getting annihilated by her über-angry alter-ego. That morning, it was yet another pop quiz. Too late, Eijeh realised that his face was still wearing the scowl he had in place when faced with Zak. He cursed under his breath as she glowered at him, which did not help his case if acting like it was a good thing. "Something wrong, Ignis?" She snarled. He hurriedly attempted to school his features into a mask of pleasant surprise.
"No, professor! Why on Earth would there be?" Next to him, Zia winced, and he realised his mistake.
"I've had enough of your cheek today, you brat." She snapped. "Detention."
"But Professor—" he stopped himself before he got a double detention. Near the back of the class, someone snorted. At once, the class stilled. No one breathed.
"Who was that?! Ah, so it was you. Think you can act up in my class just because your sister's a fourth year? Well, listen up. You'll be seeing me almost every single day for the next four years, minimum. So are you going to tell me what's so funny, or not?" Everyone twisted to see the unlucky student she was addressing. At the very back, Hayden D'Arque and Pluto Alodia were looking anywhere but the teacher and the rest of the class. Hayden had gone bright red and was shrinking into their seat, the crimson flush clashing hideously with their hair. Alodia, on the other hand, was acting like she didn't care, but had gone pale.
Hayden writhed under her iron gaze. "I just...I don't know, Professor. It won't happen again." Alodia's eyes widened ever so slightly, obviously having made Hayden laugh and expecting to be snitched on at any moment.
"D'Arque, detention for you as well. Now, can we get on with the class or does someone else have something ridiculous to say?" Silence. "Good."