Chapter 8 - Murphy

What's she mad about?

Whatever, I don't care. This morning is jam-packed with classes. As soon as this one's over, I need to sprint to the next one.

After a whole morning of classes, I feel like my soul has been through the wringer.

Theodore has stuff to do at lunch. I head to the cafeteria on my own and sit down. "I need to get myself kicked out during the advancement exams."

After this morning's classes, I haven't found anything interesting. I'd rather go home and study my grandmother's old witch curse potions.

That would be way more satisfying than these classes.

"Murphy!" Hetty finds me in the cafeteria. We'd planned to have lunch together on our first day of classes. "You're famous today! You got praised by Professor Marsh Green!"

"You know what people are calling you? A potions genius."

Hetty looks more pumped about it than I am.

"I heard about you too, Hetty. In your combat major's hand-to-hand fighting class, you became the first freshman ever to take down the instructor."

Hetty tries to act modest, but her face can't hide how thrilled she is. "Even though the professor went easy on me, I think I'm pretty amazing."

She quickly turns the conversation back to me.

"See all those looks around us? They're dying to get your contact info. If they can get you on their combat teams, they'll definitely pass the advancement exams!"

"So cool, Murphy. I knew you could do it."

This afternoon we have Magical Creature Communication class. Hetty and I have the same schedule. She tells me not to call Theodore. "Ever since he became your mentor, your reputation has completely flipped. From a rare potions genius to a freak hanging around with another weirdo."

"Weirdo? Sounds more like a compliment to me."

While we're talking, a little serving cloud pours the wrong drink for Hetty.

Hetty shrugs it off. The cafeteria serving clouds are super stubborn. Even when they mess up, they won't fix it. Students who get the wrong order usually just accept their bad luck.

I tap on the table to get the cloud's attention. I pull three candies from my pocket and stuff them into the cloud.

Soon enough, the cloud comes back with the right drink.

Faced with Hetty's amazed look—her ears standing straight up—I thoughtfully offer her some processed muzzygrass to help her chill out. "Theodore taught me that."

"Hetty, don't be prejudiced against dragon shifters. Having such strong dislike for someone who hasn't done anything wrong is a kind of mental bullying."

The little wolf covers her ears with both hands, chewing on a drumstick, pretending not to hear me.

"Believe it or not, after spending time with him, I've found him to be a very polite, considerate shifter who knows tons about magical creatures."

"For this afternoon's Magical Creature Communication class, I'm definitely having him keep being my mentor."

After hearing this, Hetty buries her face in her plate. I want to grab her ears out of frustration.

This afternoon's Magical Creature Communication class makes me kind of nervous.

This is a rare feeling for me. When facing things that haven't happened yet, we witches call this kind of feeling foresight.

Sure enough, the instructor for this course is a careless-looking woman who keeps her eyes on Theodore and me from the very start.

She doesn't like me. She doesn't like Theodore either.

My foresight was right.

The first magical creature we're studying in this class is the ostrich beast.

But when the professor gives examples, she keeps making comparisons to dragon shifters.

Mixing up animals with shifters is incredibly rude.

But you can't really catch her doing anything wrong. She's just making subtle digs. If you actually called her out on it, given a dragon shifter's fighting ability, she wouldn't dare say these things to his face.

Professor Karma Gerard goes into great detail about the ostrich beast's appearance and powerful attack abilities, but completely skips over its behavior patterns, leaving students to figure things out on their own.

She even rushes students into hands-on interaction.

I shoot Theodore a look showing my annoyance with this professor. He looks like he's badmouthing a teacher for the first time in his life—doesn't know how to react. In the end, he just nods.

"Oww...!" Hetty's cry rings out next to me. She tries to interact following the professor's instructions and gets pecked on the head by an ostrich beast.

"Ostrich beasts have unpredictable, aggressive personalities. They hate when people touch the crest feathers on their heads." Theodore fills in the knowledge Professor Karma Gerard didn't bother to teach.

I turn to look at the professor. She's fanning herself, laughing her head off as she watches students getting attacked by the ostrich beasts.

Absolutely awful.

I really want to set her floor-length skirt on fire in front of everyone, but every teacher knows I'm a witch since I enrolled.

If I'm the only witch in this class, wouldn't that mean the second I light a fire, Karma catches me right away?

Forcing down the urge, I turn to tell Hetty.

"Hetty, don't touch its crest. Theodore says you can pet its neck while the ostrich beast is eating leaves. Don't touch anywhere else."

Thanks to Theodore's knowledge, our group finishes the task first.

Hetty hesitates for a second before doing the same. Other students gradually catch on too.

Professor Karma sees there's no more fun to be had. Looking bored, she stands up and tosses each group a set of reins, marking a finish line. Whoever gets there first earns extra credit.

Once they're harnessed, the ostrich beasts stomp their feet restlessly on the ground. I notice their pupils showing slight signs of agitation. I gather leaves and slowly feed them to the creature's mouth.

Theodore sees this working and gently strokes its neck.

We carefully move toward the finish line. When I try to pull the ostrich beast's reins, Theodore watches the creature's mood. "Murphy, ostrich beasts don't like having their reins pulled. We can guide it in that direction, but we can't yank the reins."

Even though this is our first time working together in a magical creature class, we move like old friends, totally in sync.

All the noise around me fades away. My whole focus is on this one thing.

When the ostrich beast crosses the professor's finish line, I suddenly realize we've won.

A cheer bursts from my lips. The ostrich beast, after our earlier bonding, affectionately nuzzles my head.

This competition ends early because we succeeded.

Looking back, tons of classmates are being thrown around by angry ostrich beasts halfway through. Some ostrich beasts won't even budge from the starting line.

"This isn't fair." I follow the voice and see Ruth and her sister Anna.

These two were super friendly when I first got here, but after I started hanging out with Theodore, they pretend not to see me even when we pass each other.

"They cheated." Ruth points at us, loudly accusing. "Theodore is a dragon shifter. He's using his beast form's intimidating aura on our ostrich beasts, making his ostrich beast reach the finish line first."

"Professor, if he's using beast form intimidation, it should affect everyone equally, not just target a few ostrich beasts. At least my friend's ostrich beast got there fast too."

I point to Hetty's ostrich beast. She used the methods I told her about, correctly guiding her creature down the right path. She came in second.

But Professor Karma acts like she can't hear me. Instead, she backs up Ruth's claim.

"Actually, what she says has some merit. We don't know much about dragonkind. Maybe they can use their beast form aura to target specific magical creatures for intimidation."

Professor Karma's eyes light up with interest. "Regarding this cheating behavior, maybe we should give the credit bonus to the second-place team instead."

"Or I could give you another option—you distance yourself from him, and this honor is yours alone."

I know exactly what nasty intentions Professor Karma has.

This obvious provocation isn't even trying to be subtle.

I turn to look at Theodore. He's already stepped back from the crowd, like he's used to floating outside this world.

These people casually judge him, using their imaginations and fears to chain Theodore down.

Convicting someone based on fantasy—is that right?

Professor Karma spreads her arms wide, using that expression like she's hoping I'll see the light and come back to the right side, hoping I'll firmly choose her. Like she's some kind of holy saint.

And Ruth and her followers glare angrily at Theodore, believing he's brainwashed me, which is why I stubbornly chose him as my mentor.

Everyone wants me to see the light and come back to the right side.

But I haven't gone astray, so what side am I supposed to come back to?