Equilibrium

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After Tyler opens up to me and he calms down, I talk to him and assure him that he will be okay and I'm always going to be here for him. We get ready to sleep and lay in our beds, but we talk even after the lights are off. We start telling each other hilarious stories, despite the earlier conversation's tone. I'm a lot better at making people laugh than stopping people from crying, so I brought the conversation to a lighter topic; only once Tyler was okay of course.

"So there we were. My friend hit down the spoon and the jello goes flying! Right into Mr. Medley's face!" I say laughing, Tyler laughing effortlessly along with me. He has gone back to his social self so effortlessly; I wonder if it's all just a facade to guard his true feelings.

"Oh, crap. We never looked at our schedules!" Tyler says just before we go to sleep.

"Well, I guess it'll just be a surprise in the morning." I say as I yawn.

I wake up to Tyler shaking me into consciousness.

"Someone needs to teach you roommate etiquette." I tell him groggily.

"We have seven minutes until class starts." Tyler says urgently.

Crap. What a great first impression. I don't have time to shower or get ready at all. Tyler and I grab toast, provided by the University, from the pantry and head out; our schedules in hand.

"Oh look," Tyler says, "we have the same first class."

Tyler and I grab University maps from the same place we got our schedules and scramble to find our class. We have to go to a different building, but we finally find it.

We enter the room and all heads turn to us; great. At least this is a freshman only class, so there's not as many people. Still more than my liking, but there could be more.

"Thank you for deciding to join us today, gentlemen." our professor says, "Sit down, we don't have time for distractions." he adds after we stand there for a few moments awkwardly.

We quickly take two seats. The room is set up like a lecture hall, but on a smaller scale.

"As I was saying, this is your General Modification Class. This class will help you alter to University life and help you understand what it means to be an Alchemist. Not being late, for instance, is a great trait of an Alchemist." He goes on and on.

He goes over basic rules, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand this 'material'.

"Tomorrow is when class actually begins. Today was extremely basic, don't expect this everyday." He tells us at the end of class. I hope he's right.

"We don't have any other classes together. So I'll see you later." Tyler tells me.

I look at my schedule and see that my next class is 'Alchemy History'. The history classes are in the same building that my first class is in, so I find it quickly.

The history class' walls are plastered with artifacts from throughout history: gladiator armor, Chinese silk, Egyptian artifacts, even commedia dell'arte costumes. You could find at least one item from each civilization there ever was by using only these walls.

An old man comes in and presents himself as the professor. He suits the job of a History Professor with his age alone.

"Hello, welcome to Alchemy History. I am your professor; you can call me Professor Démodé. The first thing you'll need to know is that there is much more to alchemy history than what your teachers told you;" His words get me excited. "but we'll get into that tomorrow." And he lost me.

After Alchemy History, I go to Alchemy. How original. The class is about using the four elements together and teamwork with the other elements; but again, we just go over rules and simple basics.

After that, there's a break. Some people are chatting, others boasting about their element. I just sit and take in the fire Alchemists that are flying. Air Alchemists can fly too, but it looks cooler, and seems more powerful, when fire alchemists do it.

Some fire Alchemists are doing flips in the air. The fire and air alchemists each seem to be trying to prove their element better than the other.

I have two classes left, the first of the two is Outdoor Activities; which is on the other side of the University.

The professor of my Outdoor Activities class is a muscular, tall man. I'd guess he's thirty. He has a slight beard and talks as if he's ready to punch someone at any given moment.

I figure out that this class is where we can learn how to do a lot of the activities we saw on the guide yesterday: archery, racing, frisbee.

"What if we already know how to do all of that? It's easy." I hear come from a guy that clearly has too much self confidence.

"Then," our professor says as he wills a giant block of earth to just barely miss taking the guy's head off, "you might find it beneficial to learn not to interrupt me with such an idiotic question.". So this professor is an earth Alchemist.

By now, the kid has nearly peed himself. "I was about to say that you will learn all these activities, but you will only use your element. Can you do that?" our professor says.

"No, sir." the guy replies.

People are murmuring about him already. I never enjoyed the gossip and sneers that come with high school; and it seems that all of that has followed me to the University.

For the rest of that class our professor talks about what we will be doing; but, again, we don't do anything.

When I look at my schedule to see what my last class is, I nearly combust from eagerness just from seeing the name: Fire 1

I use the map to find the building with the element classes in it. I get to the Fire 1 class and see that it has no chairs or desks. This is my kind of class.

Not that I hate 'regular class' or learning. I love learning, but I hate how high school approached learning.

"All of you are beginners" the professor says, "the goal of this class is to change that."

Our professor looks like he's in his mid twenties and his arms are covered in black flame tattoos, ending with the tattoo of a fire ball on each palm.

"I need to go get equipment, I'll be right back. Behave." he says before leaving.

Once he leaves, people are talking so loud that I can bearly think.

Out of the corner of my eye I see a larger student picking on the weak guy.

"How are you supposed to do anything? I'm surprised you can even keep yourself standing." He says, before poking the smaller guy.

I walk between them. "Pick on someone your own size." I say. It's cliche, but "leave him alone" would have sounded whiny.

"Get outta here, squirt." he says before shoving me.

"What are you gonna do to protect yourself, huh?" He asks as he continues to bully the smaller guy.

I hate bullies. I always have. So that's why I run full force at the bigger guy and shove him back. I didn't expect to see fire come out of my hands as I shoved him, though.

"I said leave him alone." I add.

He goes flying, his chest burnt, just as I hear the door open.

"Come with me." our professor says, obviously talking to me. "I believe Headmaster Patrozi would like to see you.".