Breathe in the Embers

Part 33

Ethics of Vigilantism. Algebra II. Gym class with Comet, which was so much more involved and interesting than normal physical education. US Government. Advanced Language Arts. Basic Spellcraft. Warding. The last two were with Mr. Ludo, whom both Martin and Lithuega had already met. Martin had learned very little from the first day obviously, other than to not take Comet any more seriously than his first impression had indicated, but all of it was so exciting.

Ethics was shaping up to be a very interesting exploration in the philosophy behind the first super heroes, who had been true vigilantes, and the industry that had grown out of their increasing necessity. Gym incorporated combat training and maneuvers, mostly evasive ones at this level, but it was still actually practical. Magic, well so far it had been going into the dangers and basic concepts. Warding was the more advanced stuff, how to protect yourself against magic. Mr. Ludo had recommended Warding not be taken until Basic Spellcraft was complete, but apparently Martin was an exception.

After all, any magical backlash from a spell gone awry couldn’t affect him.

Even the mundane classes, if such a thing really existed at Azimuth, were taught by super heroes. There weren’t that many heroes who aspired to teach when they retired, so many of them had gotten degrees to pull double duty teaching math, or history. And lucky him, magic was counted as a science course.

Martin supposed that magic was just science that played by different rules.

There was so much to take in the first day of class that Martin had forgotten all about Contessa by the time he returned to the dorms. Of course, as bad memories tended to, it came up at probably the worst possible time.

“Hey Martin! How was your first day?” Margaret greeted, waiting for Martin outside of her own room. She was only five doors down from him, which was an idea he was still getting used to. She’d apparently made it back before him and waited, since all the students had their last class end around the same time.

Martin raised a hand in greeting, not matching the enthusiasm of her wave. “Hey Margaret. It was pretty awesome. I’m surprised we don’t have any classes together though.”

She walked over, leaning against the wall. “Yeah, that sucks. Glad you had fun though. My own day was so-so. The normal classes are basically the same, and over half the schedule are those dumb core courses. If it wasn’t for How Not to Build a Bomb, Constructing an Identity, and Art I’d explode.”

“Sounds just like your complaints about everything but electives back at St. Martin’s.” Martin replied with a grin.

Margaret shrugged, mouth opening to continue, when a sudden weight fell across Martin’s neck and back.

“Heya Marty!” Tessa declared, her arm around Martin’s neck in a way that made his jaw tighten. So overly familiar. “Survive the rest of your classes without me Try-Hard?” she shifted the tooth lined hood up from over her eyes, taking Margaret in at a glance. Tessa was slender, and though most of her was decidedly frumpy in that oversized hoodie, the legging-clad limbs extending down out of it were shapely enough. Martin didn’t know if it was his imagination, but he felt satisfaction radiating from Tessa as she took in the heavier form of Margaret. “Who’s this?”

The arms Margaret had folded casually turned defensive in a moment, and Martin bristled. “This is Margaret.” Martin introduced with every sign of politeness, though his voice lacked any real warmth. “She’s my oldest and best friend. Probably the toughest person I know too.” he tried to add a little subtextual bite, but wasn’t sure if he succeeded. Or if Tessa would notice. “Margaret, this is Contessa. She’s in Ethics with me.”

The satisfaction Tessa was brimming with immediately fell away. “Tessa. Just Tessa.” she insisted icily. Martin smirked and Margaret’s smile returned slowly. He’d given her some ammo if this was going to become a snippy comment contest. “Nice to meet you Tessa.” Margaret greeted, though she made no move to shake hands or anything of the sort.

Tessa likewise shuffled her bodyweight awkwardly off of Martin, standing beside him, hands in the front pocket of her hoodie. “Yeah, you too. Martin didn’t mention he’d brought along anyone from home.”

“Well we did barely speak on our way out of class.” Martin commented, very aware of the appraising gaze of Margaret. He didn’t think of her as jealous or territorial against other girls inherently, especially since they were just friends, but Tessa specifically got under her skin. Probably because of how familiar she was with Martin already. Against his will, of course, but he wasn’t sure how this looked. “I was in a hurry to get to Algebra II.”

Tessa scoffed. “Ugh, advanced math just like you said. Two years up? You really are a try-hard, Orgbot 2000. Well if you can remember far back enough to help, my Pre-Algebra teacher has informed us we will be getting assignments every night, and I suck at math. I’ll throw something solid at your door if I need help.”

“Looking forward to it.” Martin said dryly, still not quite angry or off put enough to be outright rude. It seemed to just be her personality more than any deliberate attempt to be obnoxious. You had to really try to get Martin to do more than be cold and polite.

Thankfully, Tessa wandered off to her own room. Unfortunately, Martin and Margaret both noted it was only one door down and across the hall. Significantly closer to his room than Margaret was. Martin turned his attention back to the person he actually wanted to speak to only to find her glaring daggers at the steel door as it shut. “So, how was your day?”

“It was good.” Margaret replied stiffly, shrugging as she pushed off of the wall. “I’ll see ya at dinner Martin. I think I need a nap.”