Mark of the Moon (MAGIC CAT ACADEMY STORY)

Class

Dusk crawled into her seat, curling her tail around her paws so it wouldn't hang off the chair. She opened up her notebook and took out a pencil. Snow never seemed to go away; she was always near Dusk, and this time she was in the seat behind her. A white tortoiseshell cat emerged from the doorway and approached the desk.

"Hello, class. My name is Mr. Basil, but you can call me Cotton." The tortoiseshell mewed. Dusk noticed he had a tail like a rabbit, a short ball of fluff. "And today, we will be learning about planets." Dusk wasn't prepared for what would happen next. Cotton started rambling on, and Dusk barely caught any of his words, her ears fizzing until she was sure her vision and ears had turned into an old TV screen. Dusk's whiskers quivered, and her paws were shaking.

"Hey! Hey! Are you okay?" Snow asked, nudging Dusk. Dusk turned around and was relieved to see Snow's fluffy face. Dusk shook her head wildly.

"No, I keep zoning out! There's so much noise; it's driving me crazy!" Dusk whispered. Snow smirked and suppressed the urge to laugh.

"It's called boredom, Dusk. Close your eyes and focus on cottontail up there." Snow slunk back into her seat, and Dusk clamped her eyes shut. She picked up on his words soon enough.

"...and Jupiter has faint rings. Dusk, pay attention." Cotton mewed, noticing that Dusk was closing her eyes. Snow let out a growl of anger, and Cotton must have heard it cause he pointed at the door. "You can leave if you want. It's not my problem if you fail." Snow shut her jaws.

"Just take out your notebook and write down everything you hear," Snow murmured. Dusk sunk her claws into her pencil and stared at her paper, writing everything put into words. She heard people whispering to each other and wrote that down too. At the end of his lecture, she had three full papers of comments, mostly facts. Dusk's paws were numb, and she looked up and was surprised to see the light streaming in through the window.

"For a project, I want you guys to make solar system models. Find a partner or two and discuss." Cotton purred. The cats dispersed into small groups, and Snow tapped Dusk on the back.

"Let's be partners!" She cheered. Her fluffy tail flicked happily.

"Not this time, Snow. The new students are going to be together." Cotton articulated. Snow's ears lay flat against her head, and she seemed to be biting back sadness.

"Ok." Snow's voice wasn't calm. She stalked off, head drooped down to a red tom. He ran her tail along her flank and said something Dusk didn't catch, but Snow no longer looked sad. At least she has some friends, Dusk thought. 

Dusk and the other new students were brought to a room full of art supplies and told to do a project out of foam balls. Frog insisted they each pick one planet to do.

"I'll do er... Mercury." Dusk declared. Pumpkin gave a surprised glance.

"Don't you want to do something else?" He expressed, his voice clear as a cloudless morning. Dusk didn't want to be rude, so she chose Saturn instead. 

Dusk dipped her wand into a jar of beige paint and brushed it along the foam ball. She was almost out of color, and there was no way she would have enough to paint the rings. Dusk padded over to the paint drawer and pushed out icy blue and a darker brown. She knew better than to carry it in her mouth, so she pushed it over to where she was sitting. Dusk bit off pieces of foam and stuck them to the ring she had carved. She painted the pieces blue and the rest of the rings dark brown.

"Now that we are all done, we can connect them. But how? With tape?" Owl questioned. Dusk narrowed her eyes.

"How about pipe cleaners?" She suggested, wondering why no one else had thought of that.

"Yes, pipe cleaners." Owl meowed, embarrassed. He ran to the other side of the room and returned with a pawful of pipe cleaners. "Now we can connect them."

Yes, this chapter was lame too, but the next chapter will cover two more spells, and the one after that will start the ghosts arrival!