Inversion

Late Starts and Hangovers

Boom, boom, boom. I hear a pounding on my door that matches the throbbing of my head and try to hide under my pillow from whoever was trying to wake me up. The door crashes open and it sounds like someone is beating cymbals together above my head.

“Ding dong motherfucker, time to get up! Jacko my boy you don't want to be late for your first day do you?” Sparrow said far too chipperly for someone who had drank so much last night and sitting on the edge of my bed. I rolled over to the opposite side and pulled the blankets over my head,

“Go away. My head is full of bees,” I groaned hoping he would just let me be. No such luck. He ripped the blanket off of me and pushed me out of bed. I laid on the floor in a heap and sighed, “Ok. You win. Let me get dressed and then I need to go get my schedule.”

“Oh right. I have to do that too, I'll show you where the Registrar's office is,” he said as he left the room, “I'll be down in the kitchen. Hurry up, we're the last ones here.”

I stood up and stretched, I felt terrible. I opened my still packed bags and dug out the first pair of pants and t-shirt I could find, slipped them on and walked down to the kitchen. Sparrow was in an oversized flannel and baggy shorts doing push-ups when I got down there, “How the hell are you so... not hung over? I feel like I'm gonna die.” He got up with a grin and shouldered his bag,

“Practice Jacko, practice. Don't worry, you'll be a lean mean drinking machine in no time.”

“Just thinking about liquor makes me want to throw up, let's get out of here,” I said and we started making our way towards the main part of campus. “How do you not have your schedule yet?”

“Oh, well it's my first day too. Actually, it's everyone's first day, we just got here a few weeks earlier than you and have been partying,” Sparrow said yawning.

“What?! Then you're just as much of a new guy as I am!” I said incredulously.

“Nah. You don't even know the basics, the rest of us grew up in this world, even if we haven't been at the Academy for very long,” he said. I couldn't deny the truth of his statement, I didn't even know what my ability was, assuming my acceptance hadn't been a mistake.

“That reminds me, you never showed me your power. The only ones I've seen were Devin and Ceri's,” I said suddenly curious what he could do. If Devin could turn to stone and Ceri could shapeshift, there didn't seem to be any limit to the kind of powers that the different students could have.

“Ok, I'll show you. But don't laugh or I'll kick your ass,” he said stopping and setting his bag on the ground. He looked around to make sure no one was around and took off his shirt, his body was covered in a patchwork of scars and there was a strange harness on his bare chest which he unclasped and then I saw them. He had wings. The harness must have been keeping them tucked down so he could wear a shirt. They were huge and speckled brown and white. He looked at me seriously like he was trying to figure out if I was going to make fun of him or not, but I could only stare slack-jawed in amazement.

“Do they.... do they work?” I asked after a few moments.

“What kind of stupid question is that? Of course they work,” he said giving them several powerful flaps and rising a few feet off the ground before landing again and re-attaching the harness and putting his shirt back on. “I can also alter my weight, otherwise I would need way bigger wings,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“What like you can make yourself really skinny or really fat?” I asked, not entirely grasping the concept.

“No, my mass doesn't change, just my weight. Hold out your hand,” he said and I obliged. He then jumped straight off the ground and landed gracefully on the palm of my hand, he was no heavier than a small dog. Then he started getting heavier and heavier and I had to drop him. “Get it?” I just nodded in agreement not knowing what else to say. He gestured towards a small building on the side of the main hall “That's the Registrar's office, lets get our schedules.”

“Hmmm. Late as usual Sparrow. And who's this? Your new partner in crime?” A stern looking older woman asked while staring down her nose at us.

“Hey hey lady don't blame me! I had to make sure this guy got out of bed,” Sparrow said then in a loud stage whisper added, “He's a bit of an alcoholic, the poor guy.” I smacked him on the back of the head and stepped forward and held out my hand,

“Jack Sloane, I'm new. Esper told me I could pick up my schedule here?” She ignored my hand and started digging through an ancient filing cabinet that looked packed to the brim with folders and papers in no apparent order, and after a beat I put my hand down feeling like an idiot.

She pulled a thick folder from the cabinet and plopped it down on the desk in front of her and started flipping through the pages, eyes going back and forth faster than I could keep track of. She read the whole thing in about a minute, and it looked to be almost 40 pages.

“Interesting...it's been a while since this has happened...” she whispered to herself putting the file back carefully and then reaching under the counter and pulling out two sheets of paper. “These are your schedules. I suggest you get on your way, you're already 20 minutes late for your first class, and your teacher isn't lenient on stragglers,” at that she dismissed us with a wave.

Once we got back outside we started comparing schedules, we had all the same classes. History at 9, Biology at 11, Physical Education at 1, lunch at 3 and something called TBE from 4 until 8.

“Awesome, we're in the same classes!” Sparrow said excitedly, “Don't worry new guy I'll show you the ropes, your lucky to have me around or I don't know what you would do. You're like a lost little puppy.”

“It's your first day too jack-ass,” I said rolling my eyes, “What exactly is the point of this anyways? I mean, why are they recruiting “Chosen” as you called yourself and teaching us boring stuff like History and Biology?”

“And that's the difference between you and me Jacko, but don't worry. I think you'll figure it out soon enough,” he replied as we entered the main building. He took off down a seemingly random hallway and motioned for me to follow him. He was almost as bad as Esper, but after a few minutes of hurried walking we arrived at the classroom.

“Well, well, well! Look who decided to join us!” A loud voice boomed as we entered the room, “First day of class and you show up a half hour late reeking of booze,” this statement elicited a ripple of laughter from the class, about 40 students in all. The speaker, presumably our teacher, was a tall, muscular man in a white oxford shirt. He had a stylish pair of horn rim glasses and his short black hair was parted down the middle, and he had his arms crossed with a distinctly annoyed look on his face.

“Sparrow. Jack. Your seats are in the back, with your housemates, who surprisingly showed up- on time.” We quickly made our way to the two open seats at the end of the aisle where Aria, Jared, Ceri and Devin were already seated, trying to ignore the stares of the other students.

“Way to go guys,” Devin whispered mockingly as we sat down, “Way to make a good impression.” Sparrow flipped him the bird and sat down heavily, and I took the end seat. The classroom was like an auditorium, with a podium that the teacher stood behind and the seats in half circles going up as you went back. The right wall was a a large window looking out over the courtyard where we had just come from, everyone must have been watching us mess around on our way here. Embarassing.

 “Now that everyone is here, we can begin class in earnest. I am your Professor, Dr. Balder. This is History 101, we will be covering everything from the World Tree and the rise of the Chosen to Ragnarok and the impending war for the fate of our world. If this isn't the class you're in, now would be the time to leave," he said and paused for a few seconds, but no one stood up, "Nobody? Good. You can successfully read your schedules, if this was kindergarten I would give you a gold star. But it's not, so I won't. Now, everyone please open your books to chapter one.”