Scales & Tales - The Tales of Mystic High - Book 1

Chapter 12

Aquamarine walked to her first period, which was The History of Cigam, taught by Mr. Acheron. Aquamarine was a bit confused. She'd read the description that she was given for each class of what they'd learn, and to her it seemed like they'd be learning about everything about Cigam. How it came to be. How the different species separated, and everything else you

could think of. She made her way to the class, and entered. Inside were several creatures, and the only people she even broadly recognized were Anchor and Valentina from her homeroom.

Aquamarine took a glance at the TrollBoard, which held the seating chart. She sighed in relief as she noticed her seat was in the back. Well, that's good... She thought, making her way to the back, sliding through different creatures and already friends that littered the classroom.

After the five minute passing period ended, and the chime of bells rang across the announcements, Mr. Acheron walked into the classroom and closed the door. He turned towards the class. "Good morning, first period. I'm Mr. Acheron, if you hadn't already figure that out." He gave off an annoyed and bored attitude, making Aquamarine immediately dislike him. "So, we'll just be going over stuff you should've learned in elementary school. Let's see..." He walked over to his desk, pulling something up on his computer.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed," Anchor snarkily remarked to the boy next to him. He then wrinkled up his nose, and pulled away from the boy. "Oh, geez... I forgot how bad you trolls smell."

The boy scoffed. " Yeah, yeah... I get it."

Anchor rolled his eyes as Mr. Acheron put a slideshow on the board. It was titled, What are the creatures of Cigam?

"Okay," Mr. Acheron cleared his throat, demanding the class's attention. "So, as many of you know, we're just going to go over a brief summary of what Cigam creatures are, and then we're going to go over a short explanation over what this class'll be about this year." He clicked his mouse, going to the next slide. "So, as we obviously know, Cigam creatures are magical creatures that live on this planet. There are many different forms and species these people can take, as shown by the wide variety in just this classroom. Can somebody tell me the difference between a regular and true form? Yes, sir?"

A little jellyfish who had been flapping his hand rapidly in an attempt to get called on. He smiled as Mr. Acheron made eye contact with him. He cleared his throat dramatically. "So! A

true form is when people look like their actual species, and can use their powers to the greatest of their abilities. A regular form is when they can slightly use their powers, and they look like those weird human creatures in those fairytale stories."

Mr. Acheron hummed with a small nod. "That was pretty accurate, good job. But who can tell me what causes changes between these two forms?" The boy raised his hand once more, but was ignored. No one else raised their hands, so Mr. Acheron sighed heavily and scanned the room. His eyes landed on Valentina. "Miss? Can you give me an answer?"

Valentina blinked a bit in surprise, and stuttered out, "u-uh... let's see... it kind of depends on the creature, but some may transform when experiencing a strong emotion or being exposed to an element."

"Give me an example."

"Uhm, well, I usually transform when I experience immense joy or love," Valentina suggested.

Mr. Acheron said, "very good." He then walked back over to his computer, and clicked onto the next slide. "As we know, if two creatures of the same species have offspring, then it'll be that creature."

Valentina stuck her hand into the air. "But what if it's two different? Because my pa's a cupid, but my ma's a-"

"That's what we're about to talk about," Mr. Acheron said sharply, making Valentina shrink in her seat. She grumbled, before continuing on. "As I was trying to say... If two creatures of different species have offspring, then it can lead to a few things. There's a 48 percent chance that the offspring will be their mother's species, and a 48 percent chance that they'll be their father's species."

"... But that doesn't add up?" A little forest fairy questioned in confusion. "There'd be four percent left-?"

"Let me finish," Mr. Acheron said, overly strict. The forest fairy shrunk in her seat, as Mr. Acheron sighed in heavy annoyance. "No one else better interrupt me..." He glared around the room, before speaking up once more, "okay. So with the extra four percent, one of two things will happen. There's a three percent chance that the offspring will either be a new species – a combination of both their parents – and with the other one percent, very unlikely, the creature will be a human."

The class gasped. They had believed humans were mythological, for fairytales and fun stories. Something to make fun of. No one knew they were real.

"But how come we've never heard of them!?" A dragon hollered.

"We usually send them to a different dimension, one where humans exist and we don't." Seeing the confused and shocked faces of students, he quickly added, "You'll learn about it in senior year, if you're in advanced scientology."

The class nodded, shrugged, or let out confused and excited remarks, especially from the kids who were already taking advanced classes.

Aquamarine sat in the back, getting out the waterproof notebook she had. She used this to draw little doodles of fashion or ideas that she had. The rest of the class was filled with a brief summary of what the class would be about – which Aquamarine had already been informed of – and useless chatter between students and professor. Aquamarine eventually zoned out, not paying attention at all to the time. The bell rang, and she let out a tiny squeak. Luckily no one noticed, and she quickly put her stuff away, getting up and leaving with the class that was already ready to go.

The rest of the class was filled with useless reviews from middle school and basic and introductions, and by the last period – eighth period – Aquamarine was already exhausted. She worried for when they'd actually start learning stuff. Her eighth period was Oceanic Creatures, a class that was specific only for creatures that lived underwater. Aquamarine entered, and was surprised to find Atlantic sitting at one of the desks, especially since there were maybe only

three other people that had arrived. Usually Atlantic was always the late one. Aquamarine noticed that he seemed to be in an intense thinking process, as he simply stared at his wooden desk blankly. Guilt panged at Aquamarine once more. She wanted nothing more than to go over and apologize, tell him how much she regrets yelling at Blackout and how much Atlantic meant to her. But she knew that after something like this, he didn't like close contact unless he initiated it, and she didn't want to startle him even further.

Aquamarine glanced up at the seating chart, and grew worried and anxious as she saw her and Atlantic sat right next to each other.