A new student

Coatzin chewed her pen cap while listening at the teacher as he talked, taking notes from time to time when she considered that what he said was relevant. She hadn’t been around the academy for a long time, actually this was her first class with this teacher, a teacher that everybody called Mr. Black. She was sitting at the back of the class, just like she always did. The reason was quite simple and obvious, to not bother anyone or get bothered by anyone. Now, don’t take me wrong here, she was more than willing to go and make friends, darn, if she could she would immediately become friends with everyone on that classroom right there and then. Yet, her wings and tail, which she no longer had to keep hidden from the ones around her, could be a bit problematic when she sat nearer to the front of the class. Call it not allowing the ones behind her to see the blackboard or making someone trip with her long tail, even if she tried to keep it tightly wrapped around the chair. Even if nobody tripped with her, having someone stepping on her tail, hurting her, wasn’t that uncommon.

She looked at her pen cap for a second. Out of her fangs, her teeth were almost like those of a normal human, only a bit sharper. Yet, this still affected the thin plastic of the pen cap, as it showed the bite marks clearly…hm, next time she would need to buy some chewing gum before class to avoid this, not wanting to ruin all her pens. She just shook her head a bit, looking at the teacher once more as he gave his class, ignoring the soft snores of a classmate sitting right next to her. She wasn’t surprised, history isn’t the kind of class that can keep everyone interested, even if the teacher was good or tried to make it actually interesting.

After a couple of minutes she looked discreetly at the clock placed right above the blackboard, the class was almost over. Apparently she wasn’t the only one that noticed this, since a couple of her classmates started to close their notebooks even if the teacher was still talking, eager to leave. This was her last class for that day, so she would be able to do whatever she pleased for the rest of the day.

@Shadowborn

When the teacher finally dismissed the students by telling them that the class was finally over the usual after-class chaos took place as everyone got up and started to grab their stuff. Most students were in quite a hurry to leave, she wasn’t sure if they had another class right after this one or if they simply wanted to leave. She looked at the sleeping boy at her side, noticing that at some point he started to use the long feathers on her wing as a pillow by leaning against it. She probably was a bit too focused on the teacher’s words to notice this until now, the boy wasn’t leaning against her when she first noticed that he had fallen asleep, so he probably did this unintentionally. She pulled her wing away from him, making him wake up with her sudden action.

She was a lot calmer while putting her stuff back on her backpack than everyone else, since she didn’t had anything to do after this class she wasn’t in any kind of hurry and just decided to take her time. It was pretty obvious that when she finally got up, unwrapping her tail from her chair and placing her backpack over her shoulders, the classroom was completely empty…or…well, almost, since Mr. Black was still there as well. She looked at him curiously, for some reason he looked a bit down, his eyes holding a sad glint. Thanks to her nature, she couldn’t help but want to help, walking towards him with her usual friendly smile “Is everything ok, Mr. Black?” She asked, her small lisp almost completely unnoticeable.

@Shadowborn

At her teacher’s question Coatzin just let out a lighthearted laugh “Don’t worry about me, Mr. Black, I’m perfectly fine! I just like to sit in the back to avoid any trouble with my classmates. I love my wings and tail, but sometimes they can turn out to be a bit problematic from time to time” She had even started to consider using her light manipulation power once more just to sit a bit closer to the front and still allow her classmates to see, but then came the small problem of her wings and tail still being there, so the probability of anyone tripping with her tail, stepping on it or accidentally breaking the illusion was fairly high. She really should spend more time trying to control the Animae Commuta spell to turn human and avid this kind of trouble.

She could see his hesitant look after her question, maybe she accidentally hit a nerve or made a question that shouldn’t had been made? “You don’t need to answer if you don’t feel like it. I understand if it’s something personal” She shrugged calmly to let him know that answering or not was his choice and she wouldn’t feel offended if he decided to keep that info for himself. She didn’t want to force him to say anything or get into personal affairs if he didn’t felt like sharing after all, this was her very first time talking to him at all, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he didn’t felt confident to share anything with her yet.

@Shadowborn

“It’s not healthy to be worried all the time, Mr. Black. Maybe you should try to find some activities to relax?” Coatzin was the kind of girl that could be calm and cheerful even during the darkest of times, and she could give some advice to help others to relax as well, and she obviously would be more than willing to give such info to her history teacher if he wanted her to.

She listened to his words, her interest fairly obvious on her curious eyes. She wasn’t expecting this at all, but she still kind of liked it, he almost sounded like the authors from the books that she liked to read on her free time “Actually, I think that it was kind of cool, have you ever thought about writing a book?” She just smiled, chuckling a bit, just as cheerful and carefree as always “But I guess that you’re right, I just need to get used to places like this, and learn some new tricks to not being forced to keep my wings and tail as close to my body as I usually do” As she talked she looked at the part of her tail that was wrapped around her waist and abdomen, making it look like a rainbow feathery scarf.

“Hum…maybe I can help? I’m not the wisest one around, but maybe I can do something?” She quickly offered, talking before thinking, just like always. She knew that the chances of her being helpful were a bit low, but sometimes, people just needed someone to talk with and if this was the case she was more than willing to do it. It took her a couple of minutes to answer his question, since she wasn’t exactly sure if she needed anything to be sincere “Well…hum…as you probably noticed I’m new around here, this is my first day to be sincere. I know that this made me lose a huge chunk of the school year. I was thinking about asking at my classmates for their notes, but maybe you can give me the title of a book or two that I could read to catch up with the class?”.

@Shadowborn

Coatzin just shrugged cheerfully at Mr. Black’s words “Everyone needs some support from time to time, you don’t need to keep yourself isolated all the time…uh…Mr. Black?” She tilted her head a bit when he buried his face in his hands, not knowing what was going on. Maybe she screwed up somewhere? She hoped not.

She was fairly relieved when he just raised his head, like if anything had happened. When he offered the private study she immediately acceded. For most students this obviously would either seem suspicious or wrong, but for Coatzin, who has been homeschooled all her life, the idea of someone giving classes at their home just felt natural, completely acceptable. Yeah, it was obvious that she had quite a lot to learn, and not only in-school stuff

“I’m free after your class, Mr. Black, so whenever you say I’m ready to go” She didn’t know if he had anything else to do after this specific class, and she obviously didn’t want him to feel pressured, so she would wait for him if it was necessary. The school was fairly big and she still had a lot of places to explore, so finding a way to spend her time wouldn’t be a problem at all.