Enter the Dark Arts Class--If you Dare!

Student are required to enter the class here before the actual class starts. Once class is ready this thread will lock and the other thread will open.







See you in the Dark Arts, Children.

Walking into the dimly lit classroom, Kerry felt a little tremble of fear as Annie and he arrived first. He wanted to be in front, and as he walked slowly up the aisle he could feel Annie tensing slightly. Oh, yeah, he thought. She might just loose it today.

The dreaded Dark Arts class seemed . . . dreadful. The main classroom was to the right of the main entrance with the doorway far to the back of the room. What is it with all the doorways being in the back? he thought. Kerry was starting to wonder if all the instructors loved a grand entrance for their students. All the large windows were behind the students--not that it made a different. Half-covered in black gauze lace, what little light entered the room was defused, adding to the gloom. The lighting was right outta Victorian England; thought the individual desk lamps appeared electric, they gave off just enough light to be able to read and not a lot else, allowing the rest of the ambient light to filter in through the darkened windows.

All and all, just the sort of experience one might expect for a class on black magic.

Kerry picked out a couple of desks right up front and laid his backpack next to one, with Annie taking the seat to his right. Okay, he thought. This is the show we've been waiting for:

Bring on the pain.

Ellen dragged her feet into the classroom. She hadn't got any sleep last night. But it didn't show. It never showed. Because she didn't let it show. She was one of the best fakers.

Annie entered the Dark Arts classroom right behind Kerry. With both feet firmly planted inside the room, the reality of having to face her fears finally hit her. She knew her mind was not in the right place to deal with Dark Arts spells—if they were going to have to perform any. Right now, her mind was unfocused—the hand on her back, burning her skin through the fabric of both the jacket and thin blouse under it.

She let Kerry lead them to a pair of desks situated in the front of the room and took her seat, leaving her backpack untouched on the top.

The silence spoke volumes to Annie. The door to the classroom swung open and the new girl from Åsgårdsreia came trudging in. She looks like hell, Annie thought as she dragged herself in.

Annie opened her backpack and emptied the contents; one quill, parchment, her textbook… She slid the empty bag under her desk and sat back, as the new girl asked Kerry an odd question.

Kerry hear someone speak, and turned around, finding a girl he'd never seen before standing there, looking a little out of it. He looked around, and not seeing another person but her, Annie and this girl, said, "Urr . . . who likes to mess with people?"

"What? Wait, you don't- Nevermind." Ellen smiled sweetly. "Who are you?" she asked the other girl sitting next to the boy.

Annie sat quietly, playing with her quill as Kerry turned his attention to the new girl. She pulled a piece of parchment out from under her textbook and began writing.

It was dark. The forest yielded to it; the lake--overtaken by it. The tree was the only thing acknowledging its presence. Flaming red leaves stood defiant against the night.

Annie looked over at Kerry who still seemed preoccupied and continued.

In the house, he peacefully dreamt about happier times. She settled in the branches of the tree, waiting for the storm within to pass.

The new girl interrupted Annie. She put down her quill and replied, “I’m Annie. It’s nice to meet you. I don’t think I’ve caught your name yet.”

"Ellen. And you are?" she asked curiously. "Do write?" she asked, out of instinct. "I do too. May I take a look?" she asked, motioning to the paper.

“I’ve already said I’m Annie,” she replied, raising an eyebrow. She took up the paper she was writing on and handed it over. “It’s just something I didn’t want to forget.”

"This is really good. Congrats! What were you trying to remember?" she asked.

"Just a dream I had last night..." she said, taking back her paper and placing it on her desk. She avoided Kerry's gaze and played with the end of her quill again.

"And I'm Kerry," he said. "Lately of Cardiff, via Sleepy Hollow, California." This new girl seemed out of it. Maybe she didn't get enough sleep, he thought. Though I would think a bunch of 11 year olds their first week in school would sleep okay. I know I do.

He looked over to Annie. "What are you writing, Sweetie?"

“It’s nothing, really. I don’t even understand what it is,” she lied. Her face flushed as she handed the paper over once more.

Lina walked into the dark classroom having a feeling of sadness hit her as soon as she stepped in. It's gloomy in here, she thought. Letting the sadness go to the back of her mind, she took a quick look about the classroom to find where she wanted to sit. Seeing that there were open seats behind them, Lina took the one behind Annie.

"Hello again guys," she said in a nervous tone. She started to set up her desk when she looked around the room. This is a very sad room.

Kerry looked it over . . . and was picking up little imagines as he read it. It was strange; it was like, as he read the words, he was there.

Where there was, he had no idea.

He tried not to show how strange he felt when he handed the paper back to Annie. "Nice," he said. "You're really good."

"Hey, Lina!" Ellen ran over towards Lina and sat next to her. "I wonder what we'll do today."

Just NO curses. Please no curses. If I ever, well... Ha!

Kerry looked back and gave Lina a smile. "Konichiwa," he said, then turned to Ellen. "I have no idea what to expect. This Dark Arts stuff . . ." He shrugged. "Maybe someone will get set on fire."

If he only knew… But of course, she would never tell him. She would shoulder this one on her own. Annie turned in her seat to welcome Lina, hopeful that Kerry wouldn’t notice anything off. She sat back, listening to the chatter as her mind wandered elsewhere.

"I'm doing well, thank you, how about yourself?" Lina replied to Ellen. She made the best attempt at a smile, but she had a hard time in the sad room like this.

Lina smiled over at Kerry at his attempt at speaking Japanese, "Ah, Nihongo wa hanashimasu ka? Atashi wa ogenki desu. Kimi?"

Kerry smiled at Lina. "My Japanese is really limited, Lina," he said, "but I know my way around a few manga and anime." Ah, another possible geek! he thought. Maybe we have something in common.

Approaching the classroom, Keith could hear the muffled voices of his classmates ahead. The dim lighting that welcomed him into the room was oddly comforting. To Keith, the classroom felt like a bit like church, of all things. Without a word, he took a seat on the right side of the room and got out his materials.

She lit up when Kerry mentioned anime and manga, "I didn't know you watch anime or read manga. I didn't think they translated that into English." Lina lit up as the sadness of the room wasn't getting to her as much. "So um, what have you seen or read? I know that there's a lot out there, but maybe I've seen some of the same ones as you."

Kerry sort of snapped back when was asked. He hadn't gotten into his collection in a while, not in a year or so. Finding good stuff had been easy in California, but Cardiff, not so much.

"Hum, well . . ." He tried to remember. "I've seen most of Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist and, of course, Cowboy BeBop, and . . ." He started blanking. "Damn. Can't remember some of the other stuff now. It's not all current.

"But, my aunt--my mom's sister--she had a lot of old manga and anime she let me have, and even gave me translation sheets so I could read them." He sat back and grinned. "She just sent me her entire Urusei Yatsura collection last year."

He cast his eyes down a little. "You probably have more stuff than I do, being in Vancouver. Wales sucks when it comes to getting good stuff. You pretty much have to get what you want off the Internet."

Cowboy Bebop...Mom watched that when she was in school. Lina recognized the titles that Kerry mentioned as they were popular, but the Urusei Yatsura was too old for her to know of, maybe Mom read that. "I've stopped watching Bleach a long time ago, I don't like the nonsense that they added into the series. I didn't see the original FMA series, only Brotherhood, but Mom says Brotherhood is closely related to the manga." She stumbled a bit of the other title that Kerry had mentioned, "I don't know what Urusei Yatsura is, but I think I saw Cowboy Bebop on TV when I visited my grandparents in Las Vegas."

Lina beamed when she mentioned the titles that she really likes, "I've seen Durarara, Vampire Knight, Code Geass, and some other ones too. When it comes to manga...I stick with older titles like Dragon Knights, Chobits, and Ouran High School."

Thinking about what Kerry said, she had to think long and hard about her hometown. "Well, Vancouver does have a lot of Japanese people here...I've never went to any of the conventions though; Mom says I'm too young."

"Same here," Kerry said, nodding. "We got them in San Fran all the time, but I was young then, so not a chance of going." He shrugged. "My parents weren't into anime anyway. Nor sci fi. So never got to see any of that when I lived in the States."

Kerry twisted around the other way; his back was starting to hurt and he'd had it to Annie most of the time, which he figured was being rude. "When my folks started working for the BBC I got to visit some TV sets, though. That was pretty nice."