This ain't a diary, this is a - mirror?

Chapter 14: Our Next Chemi-strey Topic is a My-strey

"That Evan kid was pretty weird," Elena commented. "You know, I could've sworn that it grew extremely warm... right after he tripped."

"Hmm... maybe it's something to do with his power?" Samantha offered. "He might be a fire elemental or something."

"Hm," Elena simply replied, looking perplexed. "Maybe."

———

Samantha stood, alone, outside her next class - Science. Elena was in a different Science class to hers, which was upstairs, and from where Samantha was standing there didn't seem to be anyone she really knew.

She reached for her diary and ran her paw lightly over the cover. She flipped through the pages of scrawled text until she reached the last filled page.

She read over the last few words - "you'll know what to do" over and over again, trying to decipher some sort of meaning behind it. "Well, I don't know what to do, so whatever magic you did, it didn't help," she murmured other her breath.

She tucked the book back into her bag and reached for her phone. The door abruptly opened and to Samantha's surprise, a deer peered out from behind the door. Lime green goggles that were too big for his snout were perched on top of his head and he was wearing a fancy purple cloak rimmed with faux fur.

"You must be my new Science class," the deer smiled and scanned the crowd of students. "My name is Mr Strey, and we will start Science by arranging your seats."

A loud groan rose from the crowd of students. Mr Strey ignored them and peered at the piece of paper he was holding. "Alright, Vivian Blackwood... please sit at the seat at the very right. Yes, over there..."

Samantha sighed as she watched the students being moved to their seats.

"Samantha Rowell?" Samantha quickly pushed past the remaining students to the front, earning a few grumbles.

"You can sit... there. Second row, second seat closest to this side." The deer nudged her forwards with his antlers.

Samantha frowned, but made her way to her seat. The dog that was already sitting to her right didn't even bat an eye as she sat down heavily - as she turned slightly to get a better look at him, she realised he was engrossed with playing some sort of video game on his phone under the table.

Samantha ignored him - she wasn't a tattletale, after all - and pulled out her books.

"Alright, class," Mr Strey announced as he trotted over to the front desk, "As you may know, my name is Mr Kemir Strey. I will be teaching you Science - to be specific, Chemistry - for the first third of the year. Now, before we actually begin, does anyone have any questions?"

Vivian's paw shot up immediately. "What will be our end of the topic project?" She asked.

"That'll be a... mystrey." The green furred deer chuckled at his own joke. "Get it? Mys-Strey? Mystery?"

A few students laughed. A few groaned.

"Now, any other questions?" Me Strey asked once again.

Another paw shot up. "You're a... deer."

Mr Strey shrugged - as well as a deer could shrug, anyways. "That wasn't a question, but I guess I'll answer it. Yes, I'm a deer - in fact, most of my family are deer. Anything else?"

Nobody spoke. Mr Strey turned to the board and picked up a whiteboard marker with his teeth. He scrawled onto the board, 'How to draw a graph' and put down the marker.

"Before starting with any actual Science, we need to be able to note down our results accurately." He began. "First, it's a good habit to put a title..."

He scrawled 'title' on the board in large wobbly letters. "Then, you -" He turned quickly and frowned at one of the students in the front row. "Don't write when I'm speaking. I'll give you enough time later to write everything down. This is to everyone, got it?"

There was a murmur of agreement. Mr Strey turned back to the board and continued to write.

———

Samantha yawned and glanced back up at the clock. 10:24... one more minute until freedom.

She looked back down at her lined paper, which was covered with her messy handwriting and a few diagrams. She looked back towards the front of the room, where Mr Strey was demonstrating how to draw a line of best fit.

The bell rang. Mr Strey put down his marker and called, "Pack up and don't leave anything behind. Dismissed!"

Samantha shoved her papers into her bag, not caring if they crumpled or not, and stood up from her seat. She hauled her bag over a shoulder and trotted out of the classroom.

She checked her timetable. "20 minutes of break... I guess I'll just grab some food from my dorm room."

With that decided, she hurried down the stairs and headed towards the dorm rooms.

———

Samantha unlocked her door and padded inside, closing it quietly behind her. She flopped onto her bed with a sigh and buried her snout into the covers.

She rolled over to stare at the ceiling. "School's so boring," She grumbled to no one in particular.

The door opened. Samantha hardly spared a glance and continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Sorry, I didn't realise the door was open - uh, hi?"

Samantha shot up from her bed and spun towards the door. She relaxed as she saw who it was. "Oh, Zephyr. You scared me. Are you," she tried not to smirk as she spoke, "looking for someone?"

"Uh, well... you kinda put your room number in the chat room, so I decided to come visit?" Zephyr scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "So, yeah."

"You're avoiding the question." Samantha accused, still trying to hide her smile. Zephyr shrugged and smoothly replied, "Well, if I've come to visit, I'm obviously looking to see if any of you are... home."

Samantha frowned but decided not to push it. She slid off her bed and opened a cabinet. She reached inside and pulled out a packet of crisps. "You can come in, you know. Just close the door and don't sit on the beds."

"Don't you have to lock the door?" Zephyr asked, carefully stepping into the room. Samantha shook her head and replied, "Knowing Elena, she'll probably come back to eat, so... she'll just open the door when she wants to, I guess."

"Elena?" Zephyr asked, his eyes lighting up. "Well... I guess I could stay a while. Do you allow food in here?"

Samantha gestured at her bag of crisps and swallowed her mouthful. "Just don't get it all over the floor, or you're cleaning it up." She warned, her eyes flickering towards the door. "Now, to wait for Elena..." she added quietly.