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

Chapter 17: Maths, 'Nightsune' and Gossip

As soon as the minute hand ticked to 12:25, Mr Syne abruptly stood up from his table and strode to the front of the room.

"Alright, class. My name is Mr Syne, and I will be your Maths teacher for the academic year." He scanned the room with narrowed blue eyes and pushed his glasses up his snout. "I expect you all to put all your effort into your work and for you to be on your best behaviour."

He padded back to his desk and attached a cable to his laptop. A document flickered onto the screen with the words "Week 1" in black at the top.

Mr Syne lifted his paw and gestured at the board. A glowing beam of light shot from his paw and hit the screen, almost like a laser pointer.  He traced the words 'Week 1' with it and the light vanished.

"I will put all of your exercises I set you on here. I will mark your books every three weeks and I expect you to have completed every exercise."

He handed a few sheets of paper to the dogs at the closest table. "Hand these over to every student. One per person."

As the dogs scattered, he turned back to the board. "I will write a comment and a number from 1 to 5.  As you can see from the papers they are handing out, 1 is the highest mark you can get, and 5 is the lowest. I am not marking you on how well you do your work, but on  how you organise it. Organisation is almost as important as showing your working out in a test." He pushed his glasses up his snout again. "After all, if you have your working out everywhere and scattered along the page, you may lose marks."

Elena passed Samantha a few sheets of identical paper. "Take one and pass it on," she whispered, when she saw Samantha's confused expression. Samantha nodded, took a sheet and passed on the papers.

Mr Syne watched as the last of the papers were handed out. "Thank you," he said, nodding towards the students. "Now," he continued, looking back out across the room, "Stick the blue sheet in the first page of your book, and the small white one on the cover." He picked up a student's Maths book and held it up for everyone to see. "Blue one, with our topics, goes here, and white ones go here." He put the book back down and turned towards the board. "Then, write your name, class code and my name on the front."

The words 'Mr Syne' appeared out of thin air and hovered in front of the board. "Please do so at once."

Samantha sighed and reached for her pencil case. She pulled out her familiar, dark blue pen and scrawled her name, class code and Mr Syne's name on the front. She turned the cover and pulled out a gluestick.

"Can I borrow?" Elena whispered, pointing at Samantha's gluestick. Samantha nodded, quickly ran the opened top over the backs of her paper, and rolled it over to Elena.

Samantha had only just stuck down the last corner of her paper when Mr Syne padded back to the front. "Good," he barked. "Now, we will be starting with something relatively simple. Fractions, decimals and percentages. Write Unit 1, Number, at the top of your page, and the date..."

---

"It's almost lunchtime. Please finish Exercise 1 for homework - question one to fifteen. Extension is the Exercise 1*, if you want more revision. I will set this on the homework log. Dismissed."

Samantha stared down at her page of hastily scribbled notes for a few seconds, then shrugged and dumped her books in her bag.

She turned towards Elena. "Do you want to head back to our dorm or the cafeteria?"

"I don't have any acceptable food for lunch at our dorm... so how about the cafeteria?"

"Sure," Samantha replied. "It'll probably be pretty crowded. Come on, let's go!"

---

Samantha padded through the crowded cafeteria, carrying her tray in her jaws.

"Hey, Sam, Elena! Over here! We saved seats!" Samantha turned to see three familiar figures sitting at a table - Luna, Zephyr and Sharon. Zephyr quickly removed his bag and his hoodie from the seats and gestured at them.

Samantha let her tray clatter down onto the table. "Thanks," she replied, settling down. Elena put down her tray and sat down as well.

"Want me to test your food for poison?" Zephyr joked. Elena chuckled and rolled her eyes. "I mean, who would want to poison me anyways?"

"Maybe some adoring, yandere fan?" Zephyr replied. Elena chuckled and shook her head. "Pfft, who would be a fan of me anyways? The person who nearly killed Abbey and is now on her hit list?"

Zephyr smiled and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I can be your adoring, yandere fan," he joked. "I don't mind that you, uh, you know."

As the two chatted, Sharon leaned over to Samantha. "They're cute together, aren't they?" She whispered, trying to stifle her giggles. "What should their ship name be? Zephlena? Elenzeph?"

"Nightsune? Kitshade?" Samantha offered.

Elena's head swivelled around and she peered suspiciously at the whispering dogs. Her ears flattened slightly. "Are you talking about me?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Nope. Not at all," Samantha quickly answered, going back to picking at her food. "Why would I?"

"I mean, you guys are just friends, right?" Sharon added slyly.

Zephyr and Elena both jumped. "Of course!" They chorused quickly, looking away from each other and going to staring at their food.

"Of course," Luna added quietly, smirking.

Samantha leaned over to Elena and whispered, "You can admit it, you know. We can all see it."

"Admit what? I see nothing!" Elena barked just a little too loudly. "So, uh, guys, what do you think of your new classmates?"

"New classmates?" Sharon asked, tipping her head to the side. "Well... Do you know that girl Kiara? She was actually really nice! A bit... different, but she was really polite."

"Huh, her? She tried to stab me with... uh, an arrow when I accidentally bumped into her." Samantha offered.

"Alexander is a pretty cool guy." Zephyr offered. "He's a bit... timid, though."

"Oh, and he pulled me and Sam in a room because he wanted to talk." Elena added.

Zephyr's hackles suddenly stood up. "About what?" he asked quickly.

"Oh, nothing. Just about the... near-killing of Abbey. Since apparently it would be 'dangerous' for people to talk to us, since we're on her... hit list." Elena replied.

Zephyr relaxed. "I see. Well, I don't care if you're on her hit list. You guys are my friends and if that means I go on her hit list, then be it."

"How... heroic," Samantha joked. "Now, Sharon, have you heard about that Oscar guy..."