The Institute of Ingenio

Chapter 2 - Anton

What was it that that girl Felicity had called him? A lovebird? Really? Anton was walking to his first class of the year as he pondered on these thoughts. He had never thought of Dea in that way. He thought about her a lot (she was what most considered his enemy, and he thus had to make sure to beat her in every aspect possible), sure, but not in a... romantic way... She was pretty, but then again so was every single student that had ever attended the IoI.

She had long auburn locks that were often tied up in a loose bun at the nape of her neck with her signature obsidian ribbon. Her glasses were cute and framed her emerald eyes quite well, and her olive skin was covered in a light layer of freckles that seemed to dance around any time she smiled.

He stopped; why was he thinking about this? With the Captiosus Competition coming up, he couldn't afford thinking about anything other than his studies.

{...}

Anton finally reached the auditorium in which his philosophy was to be held in the following ten minutes. The floor started out high up and tapered down towards the center of the far wall in a series of large steps, similar to that of a theatre. Rows upon rows of rustic wooden desks covered these steps. At the front of the class, Prof. Anderson stood behind his podium and organized a pile of papers whilst muttering to himself.

Anton settled at what he considered was the perfect spot in the auditorium: the desk situated right at the center of the fifth row. He plopped down his books and awaited the start of class.

After only a few minutes, students started flooding the room, filling up most of the spots available and bringing a wave of commotion along with them. These students ranged from secundos to quintus. (As you may have noticed, first years/primis were often separated from the rest of the Institute. This was because the Professors needed to make sure they were acquainted with the teaching style, speed and content present in their classes.) Most classes were not separated by grade but by learning capability as some of the secundos were at the level of quitus, and vice versa.

Anton scanned the crowd of clamoring students. He spotted Dea sitting in front of him, her arms splayed gracefully on the desk and her back impeccably straight. (philosophy allowed students to mix since Prof. Anderson was making a study on how students learned differently depending with whom they were) She sat perfectly still, except for her foot, which was tapping the floor ever so slightly. Everything in his body told him to go and grab it so the constant moving would be put to an end, but he didn't. If he had done that, everyone would have thought him crazy. That would have brought an excess of unwanted attention on to him. If that were to happen, everyone, including the teachers, would start to notice his imperfections, his weaknesses, and his spot in the student hierarchy would start to go down. No. he willed himself to stop thinking about all these things. He had to concentrate on his class to make sure he remained head student for yet another year.

Apart from that little freak out, the class ran smoothly. Anton even managed to throw in a few comments and questions, which Prof. Anderson loved (He believed it proved the student's capability to think for themselves instead of just absorbing the information that was being fed to them).

Just as he was about to reach his next class, the intercom sputtered and came to life, stopping every student on their tracks. It was only used for announcements of the upmost importance, explaining the student's abrupt reaction.

"Dear student of the IoI," Mr. Alvah's voice boomed over the speakers. "Please make your way to the assembly hall right this moment. I repeat, please make your way to the assembly hall right this moment." The intercom crackled and died out.

There was a moment of perfect silence as the students stood frozen. One at a time, they came to their senses and sped in the direction of the Assembly haul. Anton was one of the last to go. His mind was still racing at a hundred miles an hour. What could be so important that they had to meet in the assembly haul? Usually, the Headmaster's counselor contented himself to send some of his minions from class to class, delivering whatever message he waned to get across. Anton's mind, being the creative thing it was, instantly provided him with a thousand different possibilities.

He snapped back to reality. He couldn't just stay planted in one spot: he had to go! Nearly everyone had evacuated into the Assembly hall and he couldn't risk being late.

Anton sped through the hallways, swerving around a group of students entertaining a panicked conversation.

A/N: I'm sorry about the relatively short chapters, I'm working on making them longer. In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying this story! It's definitely being fun to write! I'm trying to develop a better personality to the characters, so if you have any ideas for quirks to add, let me know!