Feros and the Underworld Prince (30 page)

“
Okay, I’ll go do that.” I reply.

“
Kay! See you in class tomorrow!” Natasha says and hangs up.

I return to Graythorn and notify Travis of his new job, to which he replies “Getting paid to do something I was practically paying to do? Umm yeah, count me in!”

Before bed, I try to give Sara a call on Skype, but she isn’t online and won’t answer her phone so I decide that my questions will have to wait for tomorrow.

…

Chapter 27: Class is in Session

[September 22nd]

I wake up at 8:30am feeling well rested. I head to the bathroom and take a quick shower before heading to my organic chemistry class.

“
Alright, everyone come up and form a line for your books and a syllabus. Have your ID cards ready and for any new students, the books have already been charged to your account so don’t worry.” The professor, a short bald man in slacks, announces as he walks into the room.

I’m about to get angry for having to pay premium for textbooks when I remember that I’m not paying for them at all. Besides, I can understand doing that for some classes; I mean, where are you supposed to find grimoires? Amazon?

“
Read the first chapter for tomorrow. You’re all dismissed.” The professor says once everyone in class has their books.

Alright, one down and three to go. Next up is Ryuji’s computer science class. I get there early and see Naia waiting outside.

“
Hey Naia.” I say in greeting as I sit beside her.

“
Oh, hello Cole.” Naia says while playing with her hands, most likely out of anxiety.

“
So have you made any friends yet?” I ask.

“
No… not yet.” Naia quietly replies.

“
Well, don’t worry; I’m sure you will soon. So why did you decide to take computer sciences?” I inquire.

“
I sort of like this stuff…” Naia replies as the previous class starts to exit the room.

Naia and I enter the room and we sit down in the front row at Naia’s choosing. Ryuji comes in and sits down at a small desk at the front of the room, looking rather nervous. An older man, whom I assume is the professor, walks in a few minutes later. Ryuji starts passing out syllabi as the rest of the students funnel in. The professor goes over the syllabus and explains what we can expect from this class. I find myself getting more and more confused as he goes on while everyone around me seems to understand.

After class finally ends, I decide to introduce Naia and Ryuji so I hold her back as everyone else leaves.

“
Hey Fe—er, Cole. So what did you think of computer science?” Ryuji asks as we approach him.

“
I think that I am probably going to fail this class and that I’ll never need to use this information anyway.” I bluntly reply.

“
Oh, come on! There are plenty of situations where operators use this knowledge… uh… or so I’m told…” Ryuji says nervously while flicking his eyes back and forth between me and Naia.

“
Well, the next time I need to get information off of a computer, I’ll just kill everyone in the building and have them send you in.” I blatantly say to signify that Naia is already privy to certain sensitive information.

“
Well, what if you can’t do that?” Ryuji asks.

“
Then I’ll steal the damn computer and bring it to you.” I reply.

“
And what if the situation calls for stealth?” Ryuji suggests.

“
Then they wouldn’t have sent me in the first place!” I respond.

“…
you have a point.” Ryuji concedes.

“
Anyway, this is Naia. Naia, this is The Agency’s best tech and analyst, Ryuji.” I introduce.

“
Dude, did you introduce us just because we both have wings?” Ryuji asks.

“
No, I did it because you’re both Asian and like computer science.” I reply semi-sarcastically. After all, part of the reason I am introducing them is because they like computers; the other part is so that Naia knows of someone else she can turn to if she needs help, besides Natasha.

“
Uh, jinn are Egyptian.” Ryuji says.

“
Okay, so technically Asian.” I reply.

“
Egypt is in Africa.” Ryuji states.

“
Shit, seriously? Damn I am so bad with geography… next you’ll be telling me that Sierra Leone isn’t an island near India.” I respond.

“
It isn’t; Sierra Leone is a coastal African country. I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of Sri Lanka.” Ryuji clarifies my misunderstanding.

“
Fuck… I seriously need to just sit down with a globe and spend a few hours memorizing the location of every country. Anyway, I did my part introducing you two; now talk about wings or something. I have to get to my next class so see you guys later.” I tell them and head to my kickboxing class.

I arrive at my class as the bell rings. I look around at the large number of females sitting on the gym’s padded flooring, and I see Nagi with her usual group from the dorm. Nagi waves me over and I go sit down beside her as a Spanish version of Ewan McGregor walks into the room. The large number of females now makes sense, but I don’t understand why a kickboxing class wouldn’t be attractive to more males; there are only three of them in this class of thirty.

“
Welcome to PE 202: Cardio Kickboxing.” Spanish Ewan McGregor says in accented English. I pinch the bridge of my nose and start shaking my head.

“
What’s wrong?” Nagi whispers.

“
I just discovered that my advisor is an idiot that doesn’t know the difference between kickboxing and cardio kickboxing.” I explain. Or perhaps Carla knows the difference and just wanted to fuck with me.

“
Come on, cardio kickboxing isn’t that bad!” Nagi replies. The instructor tells us what kind of clothing he wants us to wear.

“
And that is basically it. I expect you all to be prepared tomorrow for our actual first day of class. Have a good afternoon.” The instructor says and exits the room.

“
Cole, this is Stacy, Kacey, and… *Sigh* Sarah.” Nagi says.

“
Wha—why did you say my name like that?” Sarah asks, looking hurt.

“
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Nagi is disappointed that you’re name isn’t Tracy or something so that all of your names would rhyme, despite how confusing that would be in actuality.” I explain and Nagi nods in affirmation.

“
Well it has been nice meeting you ladies, but I have another class to get to. See you all tomorrow!” I bid them adieu and head to my English class.

I reach my English class and a sense of dread fills me because of what I see, and she doesn’t appear to like seeing me. Cheza scowls at me as I walk into the otherwise empty classroom.

“
It wasn’t what it looked like.” I say as I sit down beside her, referring to the sight of Nagi naked in my room that she was greeted with on Saturday. I figure that an empty classroom with no witnesses is definitely the safest place to have this conversation; I mean it’s not like there’s a chance that I’ll get stabbed or anything!

“
Yeah, I’m sure!” Cheza sarcastically exclaims.

“
Cheza, how many times have I said that sentence, or something close to it?” I ask.

“…
five.” Cheza replies after a moment.

“
And how many times have things been exactly as you thought they were?” I ask, being careful to keep my tone away from the ‘talking to a child’ setting.

“…
zero…” Cheza replies as she seems to calm down.

“
Alright, so who was she and why was she naked in your room?” Cheza asks.

“
I haven’t told anyone else about this, so don’t say anything… she works for my brother, or so she says.” I tell her.

“
Your brother?” Cheza asks perplexed.

“
Yeah, she was told to give me a present to keep me from dying, along with a message to not die again because ‘mom and dad’ don’t have the resources to bring me back a second time.” I recant while leaving out the method of how I would be dying.

“
What was the present?” Cheza asks. I stick out my tongue and show her the silver yantra. “What is that?”

“
It’s a yantra, a symbol for Hindu gods.” I explain.

“
But if your brother gave you a yantra, then that means… but you aren’t a demigod, are you?” Cheza asks.

“
No… the first step is for me to find out exactly whose yantra this is and go from there…” I explain.

“
Wow… I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions…” Cheza apologizes.

Oh my gods… I’m still dead aren’t I? There is no way that Cheza would be apologizing otherwise!

“
Ass!” Cheza lightheartedly exclaims as she jabs my kidney with her elbow.

“
Whoops… did I say that out loud?” I reply as more students start walking in.

All of the students arrive, the bell rings, and Natasha still hasn’t shown up. We wait around for five minutes before Natasha strides in the door with a confidence that states her belief that she isn’t late, the bell just rang early; although, it could just be her ensemble.

Natasha is wearing a women’s suit with a skirt that is so short that her garter belts are clearly visible; she is probably flashing her panties to the entire front row, provided that she is actually wearing any. That isn’t even mentioning the amount of cleavage that the top of her ensemble is showing, and to top it all off, she’s wearing a pair of wire-frame glasses that look insanely sexy for some reason that is beyond me. In other words, I’m pretty sure she just gave every male in the room a hard-on, and probably a few of the girls. Natasha meets my eyes and smirks at me.

“
Welcome to English 123, or writing for idiots; I’m Professor Holmstrom. In this class, I’ll assign you things to write about and then grade them for grammar and whatnot. I should tell you that I award extra credit if the paper is funny and I find that I dock points if it’s boring; I don’t dock points on purpose of course, but I do tend to be a tougher grader when faced with boredom.” Natasha announces. I just realized that, before this moment, I had no idea what Natasha’s last name was.

“
I don’t have a syllabus for you guys or any of that shit, but I’ll make it really simple: have fun writing and I’ll give you a 4.0… so long as whatever you write about isn’t boring. I suppose I should give you guys a prompt for tonight’s assignment… okay, a one page paper on the best night that you don’t remember because of alcohol!” Natasha orders.

“
Um, ma’am? Isn’t that a little too private?” a girl asks.

“
Hmm… I suppose you’re right… I know; I’ll share my own experience so that we’re all even! The best night I can’t remember because of alcohol was at the birthday party of a fourteen year old… wow this story is already starting off pretty bad; don’t worry though, it gets worse. So I ended up getting trashed on fairy liquor and made out with this girl, who was eighteen at the time. Anyway, I ended up having a threesome with her and her brother.” Natasha says, getting a large ‘ooh,’ from the class.

“
I guess I should make it clear that they weren’t actually related. So the sister was dressed in a sex kitten costume while I was dressed in a maid outfit. I woke up in her brother’s bed with my ass hurting, but the best part was probably the fact that chocolate syrup was smeared all over the sheets and walls and that there was an empty jar of peanut butter on his night stand. Top that, bitches! I look forward to reading your stories tomorrow! Be sure to turn them in online tonight before the deadline at 11:55pm and you can access the drop box for this class through your student account.” Natasha says and walks out of the room, dismissing the class.

“
Cole, meet me in my office.” Natasha thinks.