“May I look at the schedule of what’s offered when?” He nodded, and she joined him on his side of the desk to study the schedule. There were around five classes offered for every two-hour block until six. She asked curiously, “Do the students normally have a completely full schedule?”
He shook his head. “No, they just sign up for the classes they’re interested in. For instance, they’re not allowed to enroll in the magic classes unless they’ve been tested and shown an aptitude for it.” She nodded, because that made sense. She could imagine the teacher getting frustrated trying to explain something when the student just couldn’t produce.
They spent the next half hour putting her schedule together, and finally, she sat down again, satisfied with what they’d decided on. She held her copy while Eric was studying his.
Jade Winward
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
8:00
–
–
–
–
–
–
9:00
Healing
–
Healing
–
Healing
Healing
10:00
B. Archery
–
B. Archery
–
B. Archery
History
11:00
B. Small Blades
–
B. Small Blades
–
B. Small Blades
Riding
1-3:00
B. Fire
Geography
B. Lightning
I. Metal
B. Earth
B. Spatial
3-5:00
B. Contractual
I. Water
B. Illusion
I. Wind
B. Life
B. Death
6-8:00
Business
I. Light
B. Dark
–
B. Summoning
–
Overnight
–
–
–
–
–
–
She sighed, peeping at him as she pointed out, “This is probably fine for the first week, but you do know it’s probably going to change after that, right?”
He sighed too. “Just try it. Who knows, maybe you’ll stay where you are.”
She shook her head. “I seriously doubt that, but you can keep thinking happy thoughts if it makes you feel better.” She’d already talked him into putting her into the higher classes for water, metal, and wind. He hadn’t fought her much on water and wind, but he’d only caved on metal because he was the one teaching the class and figured she’d be able to keep up with his explanations.
She’d also tried to figure out what some mysterious class was that had been marked for Saturdays, but all it had had was levels and not the name of the class. Despite her digging, Eric had remained tight-lipped about it. She got the feeling that Eric wasn’t supposed to have shown her the full list of classes, but that he’d forgotten that the mysterious class was noted there, even if it didn’t have the full name.
He was about to respond to her when a knock came at the door, and he called out to them instead, “Come in.” When the two princesses opened the door and popped their grinning heads in, he jumped to his feet, looking like he immediately regretted not getting the door himself. “Princesses! To what do we owe the honor?”
Tisha bounced into the room, coming over to latch onto Jade’s arm as she tittered with enthusiasm, “We’re going SHOPPING!”
Chapter Twenty-One – Bags
“Oooh, is that your class schedule?” Camille came over, peering over the shoulder Tisha wasn’t leaning on in order to get a better look. In this way, Jade was surrounded by princesses. Camille let out a disappointed sigh a moment later, “So many magic classes, but we only share one. I was hoping you’d be in more…”
She was frowning, and Jade laughed. “Don’t worry. It’s just for the first week until we figure out where I settle. I’ll most likely be bumped up to the higher classes the next week.” Eric tsked, but she ignored it and smiled at him. “Oh right, I think I forgot to tell you. The reason our meeting was rescheduled is because the princesses are taking me shopping.” She vaguely thought she had told him, but he’d seemed surprised, so she probably hadn’t. Maybe it was just that she was talking to Will about it before they got here...
“SHOPPING!” Tisha squealed gleefully. Unfortunately, she was right next to Jade’s ear, who winced and pulled away. Tisha looked a little guilty. “Oops. Are you okay?”
Her ear was still ringing, but she reached up, letting the warmth flow through. Thankfully it worked, and soon her hearing was entirely back to normal. “I’m fine now. Just be careful about doing that in the future, yes?” Apparently, screaming directly in the ear did something…and it was enough to warrant healing. Good to know.
Tisha looked heartbroken that she’d hurt her new friend as she nodded. Jade smiled dotingly and patted her on the shoulder. “It’s okay, no permanent harm done.” Peering at Eric, she asked, “There were a few other things I wanted to talk to you about, but they can wait. Is there another time we can meet?”
He thought for a moment, then nodded. “I’m still free tomorrow. I can help you then.”
She grinned. “Perfect! Oh, since we’re going shopping, do you know where I can get some scrap metal to play with–I mean, to familiarize myself with metal magic? I don’t want to break either my library card or pocket watch. Which I forgot, thank you for that as well!” All three of them had caught her little slip there. She just wanted to play with the metal! Thankfully, they didn’t call her on it.
Eric just grinned indulgently. He was happy she was interested in something he taught. “Sure, if you have a few minutes, we can just stop by my family’s store and I’ll get you some.” Jade looked pleadingly at Camille, who seemed to be in charge, and she sighed before nodding.
“Yay! Great, let’s do that! I just want to take my flowers down to the cave before we go.”
“Flowers?” Tisha asked curiously at the same time as Camille questioned,
“Cave?”
Jade grinned mischievously at Eric as she chirped, “Yes, Eric gave me the use of one of the study rooms for a while. It was just really dark and without a window, so I call it the cave.” Or cell. Or box. Meh, it was just semantics.
“Oh. I see. Shall we go then?” Camille seemed to recover, and Jade grinned, bouncing up. She meticulously collected her precious little metal box, then turned and led the way out and downstairs to her little hidey hole.
“Can I see your flowers?” Tisha was hovering at her elbow, making her a little nervous, so she smiled placatingly and replied.
“Sure, I’ll show you as soon as we get down there and I can set it up.” As they were walking down the dark hall with their little light globes, Eric frowned.
“Why is there light coming out of your room? I gave orders that it was to be left alone…”
Jade smiled, grateful for his concern, before she said cheerfully, “Oh, that’s my fault. I told you I didn’t like the darkness, so I lightened things up a bit.”
“A bit? What on earth…?” His voice had trailed off in amazement when she opened the door and light as bright as noonday came pouring out. She walked happily into the room and over to the corner where her phoenix was resting. She carefully pulled the flowers out of the box, setting it beside the phoenix on display.