They continued walking down the gravel road, slowly transitioning into cobblestone, the houses getting bigger and better as they went on, making their somewhat large home seem small. The house they lived in had a small foyer, with a dining room to the left of the entrance. There was a kitchen across from the dining room. The living room was in front of the foyer as well, and to the right of the foyer were stairs leading up to a hallway with two rooms, and a medium bathroom with a shower inside of it.

  While Mary was thinking about their home, they arrived at the school. It was 7:05, and the school grounds were almost empty, a few faculty members lingering outside before heading inside, along with a couple of students who arrived early for their own purposes.

  They walked into the front office. She walked up to a staff member sitting at a desk and asked, “Hey, can we get a schedule? This is Abel Castes,” The staff member sighed and got up, opening up a large filing cabinet. She searched through folders, and after some time, found the one for Abel. “Here you go, sorry but there’s no braille or anything. But, there is a, like uh…” the staff member paused for a moment, “A map outside with braille on the, uh, room numbers, and like, if you need to you can just tell him the numbers. Also, how is he seven years old and so tall?” Mary gritted her teeth and clenched her hand slightly. “Please don’t be rude to my son,” she asked in a stern voice. “I was just asking, I wasn’t trying to be rude, dang.” The staff member sighed again. “Anyways, there’s a layout of the school right next to the door that leads into the hallway, if you need it.”

  Mary left the room and guided Abel to the map of the school, “Here, Abel.” She took his hand and placed it on the map. “This would be a lot more helpful if I knew where I was supposed to go, mom.” “Oh, yeah.” She pulled out the paper.

  “Okay, so, first period is room 103, then your second period is 209, then your third period is 208, oh wow that’s pretty close to each other, then it’s your fourth period in 301, then your fifth period is 403, then your sixth period is 410.”

  “Yeah, that seems manageable. Uh, what time is it?”

  “It seems to be about 7:06.”

  “Okay, we should probably explore the school some.”

  “You’re right, we probably should.”

  They walked down the hallway, the school almost eerily empty. There are stones imbued into the ceiling, some of them are being replaced with fluorescent lights. Mary’s grip on Abel’s hand tightened. She was suspicious of the use of technology, as most of the advances were found as relics and reverse engineered, and feared the instability of them. Some people dislike change, and Mary was one of them. They eventually arrived at Abel’s first class in room 103, and there were two people already in the room, the teacher and what seemed to be another student.

  They looked up at Abel and Mary almost in sync, the teacher glancing at the unnamed student almost immediately after looking at them. “I’m guessing you are the new student?” The man asked Abel. “Uh, yeah? I just moved here after our old house got flooded.” Abel had said with a tad bit of disappointment in his voice. “Quite unfortunate, I hope you can settle into your new abode quite well. I read your file, it says you’re, er, seven?” He glanced at a paper on his desk, seeming to double check himself. “Yes, I am, why?” “Well, you seem… older… And a bit more matured than someone of that age. Already in eighth grade, huh? Skipped a few grades because of how fast you were learning things, the teachers couldn’t keep up. Says here you got written up a couple of times for ‘disruptive behavior.’ Probably because you got bored, but I’m not having any of that in my class. I am asking you to please refrain from that behavior.”

  “Uh, sure…?”

  “Great to hear. This student here,” he gestured to her. “Hi!” She waved at him, and the teacher continued speaking soon after,

  “will be guiding you to your classes and will be helping you navigate the school better, she has all the same classes as you so it shouldn’t be a problem. Go ahead and introduce yourself.”

  “Hello! I am Isla Star, but you can just call me Isla. It’s great to meet you Abel!” Isla was a 5’2 (157.48 cm) girl, with light skin and hazel eyes, her hair short and a dark purple. Her ears were rounded at the tips, as well as her canines being sharp.

  She walked up to Abel and took his hand and shook it. “It’s… Nice to meet you too? Sorry, this happened kind of fast.” His voice carried heavy hesitation and he spoke. “Oh, don’t worry about it, you’ll get used to it, things happen here kinda fast, don’t get too lost!” She shook his hand. Abel pulled his hand away from the girl. “Anyways, I guess I’ll be going now, Abel, you’ll be okay, right?” Mary tapped Abel on his shoulder, waiting for an answer. “Yes, I will be fine, thank you mom.” “Alright, have a good day, I’ll be here to pick you up when school’s over!” With a quick hug, Mary left Abel and the others to themselves.

  “So, uh, what’s this class for…?” Abel asked towards the general direction of the teacher. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, my apologies Abel. This is for Mythohistorical Ethnology, basically just the history of how races evolved into what they are now, how they work, et cetera.” “Wouldn’t potentially create more prejudice based off of the knowledge that others have, leading to people utilizing the weaknesses of other races and exploiting them and their past to more effectively get them to submit to each other?” Silence befell the room.

  “Nnnoooooooo? And it’s not like people are gonna abuse it anyways, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and plus magic and training can just be used to get rid of the weaknesses, or try to cope with them some.” Isla leaned into Abel’s ear. “Have you heard of vampires?” Abel had a shiver down his spine from the breath on his ear and backed away slightly, then whispered back, “Yeah, why?” “I heard that there was a vampire who subjected himself to torture near dawn where there was only a little sunlight to force his body to adapt and to be able to survive in the sun for minutes at a time afterwards.” “Woah, that’s crazy.” Their conversation was abruptly stopped by the teacher, “Class is about to start, please get in your seats.” “Okay, sorry Mr. Jackson,” Isla’s voice carried obvious annoyance.

  She grabbed Abel’s hand and pushed him into a chair. “Ow!” Abel exclaimed. “Oh, sorry…” “Whatever, it’s fine, I guess??” ‘What is up with her? Why is she so sporadic?’ Abel asked himself. He put his backpack next to his desk. Isla was worried that she freaked Abel out, and wondered why she was acting so weird around him. The bell rang suddenly, and Abel flinched at the noise. School had started, and there was a four minute period to let everyone get into class. One student entered right after the bell rang.

  Eventually, the classroom filled up. The bell rang again, signalling the transition period was over. Mr. Jackson walked to the front of the class. He was a tubby 5’9 (175.26 cm) elf, wearing glasses with his brown hair balding on the top.

  Anyways, we got a new student today, uh, don’t be rude to him and stuff, he’s blind, you’ll probably get expelled or suspended or something like that.” Mr. Jackson’s voice was very monotone, an obvious indication of how dead he was inside. Abel was still sitting in his seat, and everyone turned to look at him. He could still feel eyes looking at him even if he himself couldn’t see it.

  “Anyways, we’re in uh, Mythohistorical Ethnology, basically we’re just talking about the history of different races, and how they came to be, probably covering the Schismatic war, I haven’t gone that far yet into the rubric, but I don’t really care. We’ll be covering some of the races and subraces, and I’m going to ask for a vote of who wants to cover which race first. Well, show of hands for elves first?” Three people raised their hands. “Wow, rude?” He scoffed jokingly. “Humans?” Five people raised their hands. “Hmmm. Dwarves?” One person raised his hand. “Okay, Ophidarcs?” No one raised their hand. “Ooooh, scared of snake-men?” “Hey! That’s racist!” A kid shouted at the back of class.

  “HOW???” Mr. Jackson asked, annoyed.”Whatever, uh, what else was there?” He flipped through some notes. “Oh yeah, Aclotyres?” Seventeen students raised their hands. “Dang, you guys really wanna talk about the big bad guys that were locked away for like a couple of thousands of years and came back out like a thousand years ago to get their revenge on us?”

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  The room fell into silence. “Anyways,” he said as he picked up a pile of papers and started handing them out, “We’re gonna be taking notes in a couple of minutes, we have books in the back of class if you want to get a jump on it, the module for Aclotyres is 287, around halfway through the book. The notes are on lesson one of the module for Aclotyres, which is module eight? I think? Correct me if I’m wrong.” He waited for an answer and then sat back down at his desk and started reading an unnamed book. The classroom soon started with low murmurs and eventually escalated into regular conversation.

  Abel tapped Isla’s arm, who he knew was sitting to the right of him. “Hey, Isla?” he asked, trying to get her attention. “What?” She turned towards to him. “Do you know if there are any books in braille so I can read?” Isla shook her head slightly, “No, there isn’t, but I can enchant one with magic so the words will rise up a bit so you can read it.” Jonathan gasped slightly. “Woah, you can use magic?” He whispered to her in awe. “Yeah, I can. Pretty cool, huh?” Her eyes glinted red, an unusual hue from the hazel color they normally have. They widened slightly. His magical power was overwhelming. “So, you can’t use magic, I’m guessing?” She asked, scratching her arm slightly. “No, not really, why?” Abel heard her scratch her arm and tensed slightly, wondering if there was a problem with that.

  She paused for a moment, staring at him and how he tensed up, examining him. The teacher chuckled to himself and turnt a page of his book. Isla glared at him, but turnt back to Abel whenever she realized he wasn’t laughing at them. “I’ll go up and get you a book.” She got up and patted him on the back. He flinched at it, and Isla looked confused. She shrugged it off and went to get a book, in which she drew a sigil and muttered some words. When she opened the book the words were thick and tall. She brushed her fingers over them, satisfied with her work.

  She walked over to Abel and placed the book on his desk. “Here it is, Abel.” She watched as he opened the book, and pressed his fingers over the words. “Woah, this is cool, how’d you do it?” She smirked and chuckled to herself. “I know, I’m so cool. I drew a little sigil and applied a basic enchant to the book that elevated the words. It’s usually used to make books have an effect that would animate the words into imagery, but I used a lesser version of it so it would only elevate the words.” Abel paused, his hand resting on the book. “That doesn’t make too much sense, does it? Like, elevating the words and turning them into imagery sounds very different.” Isla sighed and sat back down next to Abel. “Well, it’s making the words different in both things!”

  She sighed again. “Whatever. I think Mr. Jackson is gonna start yapping soon. Can you write or do you need help with that too?” “I’ll be fine, probably.”

  He searched around for his backpack and stuck his hand in, pulling out a notebook. He used his fingernail to scratch an area of lines into it. “We’ll use this one for this class…” he uttered to himself. Then he pulled a pencil out of the pocket and placed it on his desk. He opened the page and pressed down hard as he started writing. “If I press down hard enough I should be able to feel it and read it.”

  Isla looked over his shoulder as he wrote. “Pretty good for a blind person.” She murmured to herself. “Yeah, I guess. Let’s see if I actually did it right.” He felt over his writing. “… does this even say anything you can read?” Abel’s grip on his pencil tightened. “Uh, I can read it, kinda…? Uhm, ‘school sucks?’” “Yeah, that’s it. How bad was it?” “Not that bad. Do you practice?” “As much as possible. I feel useless…” The classroom quieted as he said this, almost as if everyone heard him. “You’re fine.” She patted him on the back. “You’ll get better, we can share notes.”

  Mr. Jackson closed his book as he looked at the clock at the corner of the room. “Alright kids, listen up. Most of y’all are like, twelve, thirteen, around those ages. The county has decided that this class is eligible to be taught to younger students, as previously it was only for those in tenth grade or higher. Anyways, you’ll use the paper I gave you to write down notes, if you complete it you can turn it in for extra credit, also a good study guide, don’t lose it, blah blah blah. It’s Monday, so we’ll have a test on Friday. I’ll probably give you guys notes to do and randomly assigned classwork throughout the week until Friday, and then y’all test and stuff.” He rubs the tip of his ears and sighs. “So it’ll happen every week, not just this one, in case you didn’t catch on.”

  He pulled a book titled ‘World History: Development of Different Variations of Homo Sapiens.’ “Alright, let’s see…” he murmured to himself as he flipped through the pages. “Ah, here we go. The origin of Aclotyres and how they came to be what they are today.” He paused, looking at the name for a second. “Long title name for lesson one,” he chuckled to himself. “Anyways. Let’s start,” he cleared his throat, and raised his voice.

  “Before the Schismatic War occurred, there were incredibly strong humans, oftenly called ‘demons’ due to their immense strength and malevolent actions towards others. They often wreaked havoc on towns and people, destroying everything they had and causing them to no longer be with us. After the Schismatic War had started, the demons banded together, roughly 112 of them in total, fighting against the normal humans and magical humans.”

  He paused for a moment, allowing people to finish writing their notes. He inhaled and started speaking again, “after a while, they were slowly taken out, bound by ten or more magicians, and a spell was opened to cast them into Hell, developed by magical kingdoms. The non-magic humans used technology to produce a frequency that opened a similar portal, although much more unstable and reactive, for a number of reasons that are still unknown.” He scratched his neck and pushed up his glasses, allowing himself to breathe a little before speaking again.

  “It is assumed after centuries of the harsh environment, their magical abilities forced their adaptation, and their offspring being stronger than other generations, due to the amount of ether in the atmosphere, along with their parents already strong magical capabilities.” He looked up at the clock and sighed. ‘Why did I take this job? The pay isn’t even that good…’ his thoughts of dissatisfaction and disappointment to himself.

  “They eventually figured out how to escape Hell and come back to the overworld, where the children of the original demons, either differing from their parents' views, wanting to be themselves, or wanting to keep their hatred alive, and to get revenge on those who banished them.” He put the book back on his desk. “Well, that’s all for today. I’ll probably give y’all a worksheet tomorrow or something. Y’all got like 5 minutes until the bell rings. Do what you want with that time.”

  The classroom soon returned to casual conversations with each other. Abel picked up some talk about him, usually just being called “blind kid.” Isla jabbed his arm with her elbow lightly, getting his attention. “Yeah?” He asked attentively. “I don’t think you had a very good impression on these guys.” Isla whispered to him. “How?” He was somewhat confused, as he hadn’t done anything yet. “I don’t know, they’re probably just Ableist. Get it? Cuz like, it’s your name-” “Yeah, I got it.” “Sorry…” she felt embarrassed and felt her face flush red a bit.

  She scratched her arm more. “Uh, anyways. We gotta leave soon… I think I can ask Mr. Jackson if we can leave early so we can get to your class easier.” Abel nodded his head slightly. “Sure, why not?”

  Isla got up from her desk and walked up to Mr. Jackson. “Hey, can I take Abel to his next class a little early?” Mr. Jackson looked up from the book he was reading. “What’s his next classroom?” He asked, continuing to read his book. “Don’t you already- nevermind, it’s class 209.” She replied, and Mr. Jackson looked at the clock on the wall again. “You can wait ‘till class is over.” Isla sighed angrily and went back to her seat.

  “Mr. Jackson said we couldn’t leave early.” She muttered as she laid her head down on her desk, looking at Abel. “Well, I mean, he did say there was five minutes left like two minutes ago. And plus, it isn’t that far, right?” He responded somewhat optimistically. “Yeah, but the issue is other students. They aren’t very… What’s the word… Kind to new people? Also everyone’s super racist.” Abel replied with a quick “oh…”

  Abel shoved his stuff back into his bag. “Do you need any help?” Isla asked him quietly. “No, it’s fine.” “Alright,” she said with slight disappointment.

  “Are you sure you’re seven?”

  “... yeah..?”

  Abel was caught off guard from the sudden question. “Why do you a-” The bells went off right when he asked, and he heard the shuffling of students exiting the classroom. He took out his cane and got up as well, navigating through the classroom. Isla grabbed his empty hand, saying “You don’t need that, I’ll take you to your next classroom.” “Fine,” he placed the backpack on the floor and opened it, collapsing placing his cane inside a compartment.

  His hand was uncomfortable, gripping Isla’s as they walked out of class. “Just follow me and you’ll be fine!” A smile grew on her face as she held Abel’s hand. She tried to hide it, but was unsuccessful in her attempt. Abel was blushing slightly. The lack of friends in his other schools made this type of interaction unfamiliar to him. ‘Her hands are so soft compared to mine…”

  He was occupied by thought as they walked down the hall. Something hit his shin, and then he landed on the ground with a thud.