The room fell silent for what felt like an eternity. The deafening silence was broken by Martelle bursting into hysteric laughter, pointing her finger interchangeably at Dynasta and me. Vernon was still standing by the door with a puzzled expression. I was immobile.

“So-So-So this is beetle girl, right?” Martelle stopped cackling for a second and then started back up again. “Oh, man.”

“You know each other?” Vernon said. He closed the door.

“I doubt either of them is going to talk,” Martelle said, calming down her laughter and wiping tears off her face. “When he’s nervous, D just stands still and stutters. Beetle girl probably does the same thing.”

She was right. Neither of us was speaking or moving.

“So what’s the deal here, then?” Vernon said. He leaned against the door. “Why are they so nervous?”

“D saw her scouring through the toilet on the bus that took us here,” Martelle said. She laid down on my bed again.

“Y-You told her…?” Dynasta finally spoke up. I was agitated. I wanted to lie down on my bed.

“Sorry…” I said, looking down and trying my hardest to cover myself up with my hood.

“Well, I’m sure you two can put that incident behind, right?” Vernon said, laughing nervously. “We’re gonna be roommates for a while, so we can’t have any bad blood among us.”

“That’s right!” Martelle said, sitting up. “So let’s get settled in!”

We unpacked our luggage and set up a few decorations. My bed was right next to Dynasta’s. We stood away from each other looking at opposite directions while unpacking. We made our beds. We were all very tired from a long day of examinations right after a really long bus ride, so we feel asleep immediately. I had no desire to sleep, though. I could go without it for a month and feel no drawbacks. I spent the rest of the night silently moving a few things around.

My bed was at an unfitting angle, so I crouched and tried to move it. Then, I felt a chill down my back. Oh, right, I thought. My tentacles had reeled themselves back enough to the point where they weren’t noticeable under my clothes. Must’ve been the nervousness from meeting Auriel. However, they were still out, so I decided to use them to move the bed. I tried to bring them out, but they made a horrible, slimy noise. My back felt sore. They clearly wanted to rest. My constant trembling had upset them.

The Sun came up. The first to get up was Vernon. Martelle woke up after sleeping through four alarms. By 8 AM, Dynasta was still sleeping. Our first class started at 10 AM. I chatted with Vernon in the kitchen while we had cereal for breakfast. The kitchen had a sink, an oven, a few cupboards and a small space for a table and four chairs.

“This world is so much more interesting than Earth,” he said while pouring the cereal before the milk for some reason. I assumed that was a strange Yearth custom.

“We’ve been told,” I said. “Shame you had to live in such a boring place.”

Martelle came into the kitchen while yawning.

“Beetle girl’s still asleep,” she said while stretching her arms up in the air. “Sleeping like a log. Guess it’s better for you if she doesn’t wake up, huh, D?”

“I have no idea how I’m going to talk to her from now on,” I said, looking down at my bowl of cereal. “I have no idea what beetle people are like. Is that intimate in their culture? How disrespectful was I for walking in on her doing that?”

“Oh, you’ll come round, I’m sure of that,” she said, smiling, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

I looked up for a second and saw four hands gripping the kitchen door. Dynasta peeked through the door. Only her horn, eyes and nose were visible.

“C-Class is in 2 hours, right?” she said with a shaky voice.

“Yup!” Martelle said, putting her arm around her shoulder. “Wanna have breakfast with us? We can talk and get to know each other better in the meantime.” She winked at me.

Martelle and Dynasta sat down at the table.

“I’m from all the way down south in Ellorie,” Martelle said. “I come from a really rich family. I’m pretty good with large weapons.”

“I’m one of those ‘reincarnators’ as you guys call them, from Earth,” Vernon said. “I know next to nothing about this world.”

“My name is Dyzxalaxyzk, but people call me D,” I said. “I also come from Ellorie. I’m a darkling-shadow person hybrid. People keep telling me I look weird.”

“I-I come from a village in Ridnee Valley,” Dynasta said. “Everyone in my family is a human-beetle. I have a few bad habits…”

We kept on talking in the kitchen even after we finished breakfast. I loosened up, and so did Dynasta. At 9:30 AM, we made our way over to the Class 57 classroom. We were the first ones to arrive. We sat down in our assigned seats. The classroom had a digital chalkboard and 16 chairs and 16 desks perfectly lined up. The walls were a dark white and the floor was made of wooden tiles.

“This is the first time I’ve been early for school of any kind,” Vernon said, sitting straight up. “I’m pretty excited.”

“I’m not,” Martelle said with her arms on the table and her head planted between them. “We’re gonna be told about a bunch of junk we already know.”

While taking out my things and putting them on the desk, I noticed a blue button on the side of it. I pressed it, and a green holographic screen came up. There was a large button in the centre of it.

-ACCESS STUDENT FILES-

I was curious, so I tapped on it. The screen expanded vertically and a ton of information about the students of my class filled the screen. There was a scrollbar to the side. From a quick glance, it featured the names, dates of birth, origin, species and powers of every student, plus an image of them. My entry was the first, as I was referred to as “D” in the files, quotation marks included, so it pushed me up. My photo was a pure black void and my two white eyes as the only thing breaking it up.

I didn’t have a chance to look through the list, as the professor arrived at the classroom and the files instantly closed. In the time I was distracted by the screen, every student had arrived. I didn’t have time to look around, as the professor immediately called to attention. I was taken aback by the professor’s appearance. His skin was pink and crystal-like, and his only facial features were white eyes and a white mouth. I recognized him as the superhero Pellucide.

“Greetings, Class 57. My name is Claudius Kunzite, also known as the superhero Pellucide. I will be your professor for the year,” he said, sitting down at his desk. “I’m sure you’ve already settled down in your dorm rooms and have gotten used to the place.”

I looked slightly to my left to see Martelle with an excited look on her face. I remembered her telling me something about Pellucide being one of her favourite superheroes.

“I will be your professor for both learning and hero training,” he said. “We shall begin our first class by having you introduce yourselves to the rest of the students. The sixteen of you will be a team for the duration of your stay here at the Foeria Province Hero College.”

He pressed a blue button on his desk similar to the one on mine, and pulled up the list of students. He ran down the list, and then scrolled back up again.

“Could the student known as “D” please speak up?”

I was nervous.