Lesson one (second years)

Xanin sat behind his desk twirling his wand around between his fingers. His eyes looking around the room boredly as he waited for the first students to arrive. On the Blackboard behind him were the words "WANDS OUT BOOKS AWAY" in big bold letters. He had set aside all desks in t he room against the wall so that there would be plenty of room for what he had planed for today

Elliot walked into the classroom and first noticed the large sign on the bored. It looked like it was going to be his kind of lesson.

The second thing he noticed was that the desks had been pushed back, and there weren't many places to sit. In lue of the usual seating, Elliot threw his bag onto one of the pushed back desks and pulled himself on top afterwards.

"Professor," he greeted with a nod and a lazy grin.

Dueling - her favourite class. Although she would like it slightly better if she wasn't so often encouraged to take it easy on the other students, it was still a place where she could take out her agression.

She was far too angry for a young girl, but there was nothing that she could do about that anymore. THe world had dealt her a hand and she had played it as she willed.

Noticing a lack of desks, Faye dropped her bag off at the side of the room, and stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed tightly across her chest.

"Professor," she greeted grudginly, giving the man at least a portion of the respect he deserved.

Krisyln Quinn walked in and the first thing she saw was 'Wands out books away' written largely on the board. Dueling was one of her favorite classes. She took a seat and did as what was said on the board. "Hello professor" she greeted.

Kristie walked into the classroom, noted the message on the board and dumped her bag on one of the desks at the edge of the room and stood in the middle of classroom, waiting for the class to begin.

Zander was slumped in a chair, biting his lower lip out of boredom as he played with his wand at the tip of his fingers. He looked back at the professor with his sea green eyes and then at the girl who was coming into the room. He smirked and shook his head before he looked away.

Gouden stepped into the room with a lazy grace and a yawn. He read the board and smiled. "That's just lovely now isn't it?" he stretched and went to find a wall to lean against, propping his guitar case against it.

"Professor," He greeted with an odd salute. Then he took out his wand and patiently waited for the fun to begin.

Xanin looked at his students and smirked. It would almost be considered evil. "While we wait for the rest of the people to get here. I would like each of you to pair off in a boy girl group. What were going to be doing is danceing until the rest of the class gets here." He snapped his fingers and music started to play. "We will be doing at least some kind of excersie like this before and after every class. Dueling is not just about who has the stronger spells. Its also about dodgeing and evasion. Now begin" he stated as he took a seat and pulled out a book while he waited for the rest of class to get here.

Kristie raised an eyebrow at the strange order from the professor. She coughed and edged slowly away from the other students.

The Vox girl from all his other classes had unconsciously made her way to Zander's spot at the back of the room. He raised a brow as he crossed his arms over his chest and tilted to his side.

"What do you want, Vox?"

Gouden started to turn red, but took a deep breath and walked towards Ms. Waylett. He had enough confidence to approach, but, he was afraid he would choke on his next words. Gouden was't the type to come out of his comfort zone let alone dance with a complete stranger. He was hoping he wouldn't get shot down of course I mean, wouldn't that be needlessly embarrassing?

Faye stared at the professor with an incredilous look. He had to be kidding her. He wanted her to dance with one of these people. As if!

She glanced around the room trying to decided who would be the best option, the least aweful to be that close to. Definitely not that Vjerni boy he got on her nevres to no end. If she had to be that close to him she'd kill one of them, and it probably wouldn't be herself.

Still as she looked around the room she could see that the other two boys were already being approached, or approaching someone else.

Faye shrugged. This didn't bother her too, much. To care about snaking someone elses partner she'd actually have to care about someone in this room.

She decided to leave her housemate and the other kid alone, that left only one person.

Faye with her usual confidence and lack of warmth walked across the room and grabbed the arm of the Mulki boy who was looking like a bashful idiot to the other girl in the room.

"You're with me now, get over it," she said shortly and dragged him slightly away. If he really wanted to dance with the other girl he should have got his act together and actually spoken some words and made a deal.

Elliot listened to the professor and smirked. This should be interesting.

He watched them all pair off slowly and with a bit of a sinking heart he noticed that, that Faye girl was the only on left. Her attituded kind of made him want to punch her, but he would tolerate her if need but.

But, he noted as he watched her just comendeer one of the other students right out from trying to ask someone else, maybe she wouldn't tolerate him.

He walked up to the girl, in his house, who had just lost her potental date, or well partner.

"Don't worry about her," he whispered looking at Faye with a smirk, "I don't think see actually knows what human emotions are."

Kristie jumped when she heard a voice behind her. She sighed. "I wanted to steer myself away from all the other students but I can see that hasn't exactly worked."

She noticed all the other students pairing off and groaned, realising that there was only one remaining option. Her plan of keeping to the shadows and remaining unnoticed had failed. She sighed. "Just make this quick, I don't like people being near me." she said, rolling her eyes.

Staz was almost late to her first class. It wasn't something she had planned, it was just because of her immense dislike for sunlight that she had hung heavy curtains along her bed. Sadly, she had forgotten to tell her Dorm Mates to wake her up and as a result, she was late in getting up.

"Sorry Professor." She stated simply when she reached the classroom, noticing the instructions on the board she dropped her bag next to a wall near the entrance and pulled out her wand. She didn't know why everybody was pairing up, but she didn't want to remain partner less so she walked up to the only guy left. he was a Second Year Nula and was sitting at the back of the class to her left. Making her way to him, she tapped on his desk. "You are the only one left and I offer to make you my partner. Don't decline or I will be forced to force you. There is however, the slight chance that someone else comes in but the chance of them being a boy and of actually coming in are admittedly low and I don't take chances. So get up and also explain the need for 'partners'."

At first Gouden was shocked as he was dragged away from the person he was trying to pair up with. He gave an apologetic look and looked at his kidnapper. This girl was't bad, in fact she was quite beautiful. Her attitude seemed to be soaked in anger though, even the air around her made you feel as if you might drown it.

For some reason he felt the confidence drain out of him. Rising above his new partners suffocating aroma, Gouden cleared his throat and managed to speak "Not even a name? If we're going to do this I must know your name at least." he tried to pull his normal cutie boy jokes on her. He gave her one of his stupid yet cute smiles, trying to loosen her a bit. All he could do was hope for the best on this one.

Faye looked at the boy. He seemed to be trying to get past her exterior, she'd give him credit for that. It may have been a stupid and fruitless act, but still he did deserve some credit.

"Faye," she said shortly, "Faye Cartwright. And do you have a name Romeo?"

Damian looked around. It appeared class was just starting and everyone was dancing,

"Hey," he said, walking up to Krisyln. "My name's Damian Blood. Looks like this class is going to teach you how to duel while dancing. Do you want to dance?"

Zander didn't even give the Vox girl--who seemed to confidently walk up to him without sensing the distant atmosphere he was emantating--a second glance. He lithelessly took her by the hand and twirled her once to check her reflexes and dipped her low with his hand barely touching the small of her back before he snapped her up in a semi embrace with her leg hitched up slightly over his hips just in time to finally look at her so that they were face to face.

"Not bad, brownie. Think you could keep up with me?" He was clearly just joking from the wry smile on his lips and the lazy but deep spark behind his green eyes.

He was always like this. He always took things lightly on the outside even though in his mind he was analyzing every movement, every emotion in the room. He could tell that this girl wasn't like the rest of them.

He looked over the girl's shoulder to his brother, Damian. "Late again, Blood?"

Staz felt vaguely insulted by the fact that the boy barely acknowledged her presence and was just about to come up with a scathing remark when the boy took her hand in his. She barely had the time to raise a questioning eyebrow before he twirled her once and then dipped her, doing this all with the least contact possible.

She didn't reply to his question, being otherwise preoccupied with trying to figure out why people were partnering up. Her unfocused eyes suddenly snapped into focus on his forest green ones as she realized the obvious reason. "Dancing. People are pairing up to dance." Her mood immediately took a turn for the worse when the realization struck her. Staz never liked to dance. It wasn't that she was a bad dancer, in fact, she barely cared what sort of a dancer she was. It was just because she thought the whole thing to be very pointless.

Scowling suddenly as she figured out that the boy had called her 'brownie', she looked down at her slightly raised leg thoughtfully. Coming to a decision in under a minute and brought her foot down forcefully on his and simultaneously leaned forward so that she could whisper in his ear. "Call me brownie or any other shiz like that and I will make sure you get a bed rest of a month." She whispered softly, before abruptly standing straight and giving him a bright smile. "Deal?"

Zander could tell she was very annoyed, a little nervous and mostly just annoyed. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. He was acting like a jerk to her like he always did to new people. It was some sort of defense mechanism for him to see if they could actually take him for who he was. And who was he exactly? Even he didn't know for sure. His whole life was a huge lie just before he was pulled into a world of responsibilities and politics. But that didn't really explain why she was nervous. There were a few possibilities, but he opted to guess.

"Congratulations. I'm glad you figured that out after the music was being played. I'm sure you'll have a great time on the floor." He nodded his head to his sarcastic words with a wink attached to the end. He had let go of her blithely so that it was like he never even touched her at all and his hands hung loosely at his sides. That didn't mean she had to move though. Her leg was still hitched over his hip and he was about to make a sly remark on that point when she suddenly slammed her foot on his.

There was a flash of confusion on his face at what she did before he realized she was trying to actually do and he suddenly took a breath in with a hiss like it actually hurt and he put on a pained face. "Ouch." He tried not to smile at her threat and he actually took a step forward the moment she leaned back so that they were still almost face to face.

"Hell yeah...Brownie."

"Gouden, Gouden Carell, at your service." he said offering a hand for them to start dancing, Gouden seemed to be going for a ballroom or waltz style dance. He didn't mean to be old fashioned, he just supposed that this fit the atmosphere more. The girl standing in front of him, Faye she said her name was, really didn't seem to be that bad. Or so he thought at least.

James walked into the class with his normal look of unhappiness. He spoke his greeting to the professor in an almost an inaudible voice. It wasn't that he was talking oddly, he was just barely talking at all. Maybe a whisper is what you would call it. He noticed immediately what was going on in the room, he brought his hand to his forehead and massaged it in irritation and hoped it would be over and he could simply get out of this one without much of a problem.

Staz looked around in a half hopeful manner, but it did little other than proving what she had already guessed. Other than the boy in front of her, there was nobody else left. Everyboy in the class had a partner and more or less, everybody seemed happy enough with their partner. At any rate, at least they weren't fighting and didn't seem so obviously annoyed by each other. Unlike them, however Staz barely managed to restrained herself from knocking the boy out with her heavy bag.

"Oh really?!" She asked in mock surprise, widening her eyes in an expression of exaggerated surprise. "I thought the music was there to help us all ignore what you say. Sadly, it isn't working very well." She added snidely making a face at him. The self-satified smirk she wore when she saw his painful expression dropped into an angry scowl when he opened his mouth. Suddenly, without warning she pulled him down as she stepped aside, to ensure that she doesn't break his fall. Then bending down so that she could poke her wand painfullly into his throat, she roughly yanked him up. Her eyes glittering, whether in anger or amusement, she added in an amgry voice barely above a growl, "Shut up...Pop tart."

"Pop tart." Zander repeated slowly before his lips twitched to hide an amused smile. It wasn't every day that he was surprised. That didn't happen today either. He could tell she was about to do something drastic from her sudden change of emotions. Slight irritation to anger wasn't really subtle in his sixth sense.

"That's very insulting." He flicked her wand off his throat with a hand before he grabbed the top of her shirt and pulled her very fast over his head, keeping hold as he flipped both of them in an easy tactic. Their positions were reversed now with him straddling her hips, pushing her legs down and he had his left hand on both her wrists while his other hand was gripping her own wand and it was pointing towards her heart. "I appreciate your attempt to knock some sense into me, but it's not really working."

He didn't look like he was joking this time. He'd had experiences like this before when people attempted to intimidate, brown nose, and even curse him just so he'd "change". Before anything else could happen, he let the wand go and he pushed himself off of her.

"James Birthwright." His voice was monotoned and he cocked his head towards the other guy who just walked in. "He's a better dancer." And with that, he sauntered off to the other end of the room guessing she wouldn't follow.