Calculus was nice.

  I don’t mean that in a mathematician sort of way. Calculus is not my favorite subject; far from it in fact. But the day before had been so crazy that it was calming to be in class. No fire, which was a plus. Kevin Sloan sat in the back, leering at the back of my head. Which was, honest to god here, really nice too.

  I think I missed him or something. Crazy.

  I was looming over the desk, in the middle of plotting parametrics into cartesian coordinates when Hwari floated up out of my shadow.

  ‘They are here.’

  Wol lifted a lazy head from his spot by the window. He’d been sunbathing the entire time.

  The door drew open and the guidance councilor walked in. “Mr. Sussman, would you mind if we observe? We have some possible foreign exchange students for the next semester.”

  Mr. Sussman, a huge man with a bald spot where shrapnel grazed his skin in a combat tour, gave a measured eye to the newcomers. He gave an affirmative grunt and returned to the chalkboard.

  Every pair of eyes turned to see Victor Valentine and Mina Baek make their entrance.

  I had forgotten what Victor looked like and realized that he was actually handsome. There was this tragic grunge-era emo-esque vibe about the young practitioner. Away from Councilor Valentine, Victor had undone the front of his shirt, revealing a black t-shirt with a flaming skull design. A silver skull pendant hung from his chest.

  If I did it, it’d be cringey. When Victor did it, girls shared knowing looks and giggles.

  The world just isn’t fair.

  And Mina Baek… well, she was Mina Baek.

  I could feel the weight of Sloan’s attention ease off of me and shift onto her. I missed him already.

  In turn, I felt my own focus slipping away from me; away from parametric reasonings and onto the field of the arcane occult. The wardstones felt warm in my pocket and I put a hand there to feel their weight.

  Something cold and wet sniffed my hand.

  “Holy–”

  Mina’s familiar, the Haetae, was grinning with a mouth full of fat fangs too big for its head. It had a stout jaw, meant to crush rather than tear. The blue scaled dog returned to sniffing at my hand and pockets.

  “Mr. Hallow?”

  I looked up, realizing I had half risen out of my seat from the shock. The freaking familiar was still there near my feet, sniffing around.

  “Yes?” With every eye on me, I was subject to the Haetae’s sudden curiosity.

  Wol leapt on top of my desk. “Back off, dog.”

  The Haetae froze, then looked up at my familiar. “Cat?”

  “Got it right in one.” Wol took careful measured steps to the edge of the desk, each word more scathing than the last, “You, are bothering my Practitioner during this... math class. Move.”

  “He dangerous. Must be searched.” The guardian dog returned, tilting his head to the side. “You are from home.”

  “Yes, I am.” Wol said proudly. "And his pocket is not your concern."

  To me, the interaction was clear as night and day. Probably to the two guests in the back of the classroom too. But to Mr. Sussman and the rest of the class? I was being even more of a freakshow than normal.

  “As long as you’re up, Mr. Hallow, would you like to volunteer a solution to our current problem?”

  I looked at the board. A common particle motion problem. The issue with these problems is that mental arithmetics can only take you so far. It requires calculating slope, then using it to calculate speed.

  Mental math failed me. If I had been paying attention, or not been distracted by the Haetae, I might have had a chance. "Sorry, Mr. Sussman."

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “If you had been following along, Mr. Hallow–”

  “The velocity vector is [0, 4], Mr. Sussman.” Mina answered.

  “That’s correct. Ms…?”

  “I’m Mina Baek.”

  “Now that we have the velocity vector, we can move onto calculating the slope and speed of the particle.”

  All the eyes unglued themselves off of me, then Mina. Though the ones on her peeled off rather reluctantly. More than one student shot smug looks my way while others stared at the could-be Kpop idol.

  I took my seat, flushing red with embarrassment. I have somewhat of a reputation at school, given the fact that I'm here on a scholarship. People think I like answering questions and showing off. Hardly. I think the teachers just like calling on me to save time, instead of waiting for nobody to raise their hands. But thanks to that, I'm apparently a suck-up. Still, I hated the fact that I didn't even get a chance to answer it and it was Mina Baek who got it. Perhaps doubly so, because I'm the only one who has the full picture between me, the student body, and the two visitors.

  God, if only they knew.

  Then I made the mistake of looking in my guest's direction.

  Mina smiled and waved.

  Somehow, that pissed me off more than anything else that happened to date.

  The rest of the class was a blur. Mina made a little hand motion and her familiar returned to her side. Victor’s familiar remained in the crook of his collar, sleeping.

  Wol returned to sunbathing on the window ledge, though his eyes never left the two practitioners in the back. Hwari remained in the shadows.

  I tried my best to take notes but my mind kept wandering. Maybe it’s more correct to say it was fixated on the ones auditing this class. My nerves were frayed from so much worrying, while I tried to keep a pulse on their every movement and whispered conversations.

  The bell rang and I rushed out of my chair, just scraping everything on my desk into one big pile into my backpack.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Victor and Mina walking towards me.

  Victor’s salamander stirred and rolled over onto his back.

  Instantly, my heart began to race as I remembered the events of last night. The billowing smoke, the heat of the fire, the suffocating sensation of asphyxiation settling in. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and beelined for the exit. All I could think of was the burning ceiling falling all around me.

  I chanced a flustered look behind me.

  Victor and Mina were surrounded up against the wall by a crowd of socialite students: Kevin Sloan, Ashley Marin, Lucy Montgomery and nearly half a dozen others. The crowd was only growing bigger as their friends who had been waiting outside filtered in, followed by kids who were taking math for fourth period.

  High school hallways are like a commuter’s George Washington bridge, or the E train during rush hour. Everyone’s pressed in from shoulder to shoulder, and pissed off. But there’s a mutual understanding that it’s a necessary evil; we’re all just trying to get to our classes.

  I purposefully lost myself in the crowd, hunching my shoulders to make myself nearly invisible. There are plenty of guys taller than me, so it wasn’t hard.

  “Where are we going now?” Wol asked once the crowd had thinned out.

  “Microeconomics.” I answered, putting my math textbook in the locker and taking out Economics.

  “You can’t avoid them forever, Jain.”

  I shut the locker closed, a little harder than I needed to. “I know. I need time to think.”

  "Are you sure they're here to hurt you? It would not hurt to ask." Wol nagged.

  “What else would they be here to do? Exchange Christmas gifts?” I grit my teeth, thinking.

  Seeing them had rattled me more than I thought. It felt like debt collectors figuring out where I lived. There was a definite sense of losing privacy. Like they'd taken away a place that was personal to me. School was –relatively– a safe place. Apart from home, it was the one of two places where I spent most of my time.

  But with the state of the apartment that my dad left it in, as well as the fact that it reminded me of him and everything else going on, school was now the only part of my old life remaining. I came to school because I wanted to rest and feel normal. I didn't want to think about mercenaries and devils and stuck up practitioners families. I wanted to recharge and ready myself for everything I would have to do after, because frankly, deep down, I was still doubting whether I was capable of all this.

  Mina and Victor showing up here made me feel vulnerable. Exposed.

  All I wanted to do was go to class and protect myself by being just another face. I had to stick to places where there were lots of people. Make it near impossible for them to try anything magical, or get me alone.

  "I'll talk to them after school." I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead against the locker. Screw it if people thought I was being melodramatic or crazy. Half of them thought that anyways.

  Hwari phased through my locker door. ‘Jain, Wol. There is something you two should know.’

  I looked around the hallway and found that the crowd was smaller than normal. Most of the kids had already left on family ski trips to the alps or whatever. "Mina and Victor are headed this way?”

  'No, two other practitioners have showed up.’

  My heart skipped a beat and then picked up on double time. I had to make an effort not to fall.

  “Who?” I asked, my breath catching.

  ‘The two from yesterday. The mercenaries.’