Distant Lands

Isa opens the door to the classroom, and Nina walks in. I walk in behind her, looking down at her weird three-inch-high white sneakers. I can feel the stares burning. It’s making me even more nervous.

Isa walks towards the back of the classroom and finds three empty seats. I sit in the middle of Isa and Nina. I still feel the stares, and I make the mistake of looking up. Students are staring at me; some are whispering to each other. I sink into my seat, trying to hide my reddening face.

I’m in a classroom full of Aliens, but the real alien here is me. I feel the urge to get up and run out of the room, but I remind myself that I have a mission. I have to blend in. I sit up in my seat with confidence.

The group of guys sitting in front of me must be Lamia. One lamia man keeps looking back at me. The Lamia man has nicely styled short black hair. He stares at me with his beautiful big hazel eyes and a sexy smile; Damn, he’s perfect.

Oh my god, I’m staring back at him. I peel my eyes away from Mr. sexy and look at the Divus woman to my right, who is talking animatedly as other girls look at her. That must be the leader of the mean girls. Her long black hair is so straight and shiny. Well dressed; she looks like a preppy girl. Her friends look like they are trying to imitate her look. Yup, that must be her.

“Where is he? Why is he so late today?” Lenna says to her friends.

“Relax, Lenna; your man will arrive soon,” One of her friends says, giggling. Lenna playfully slaps her friend on her arm and laughs.

The classroom door opens, and everyone quiets down, focusing their attention on the front. That must be the professor. Hopefully, he’s not very strict.

Ivan walks in.

Nina and Isa look at me, suppressing a laugh. I look at them, trying not to laugh. I didn’t expect Ivan to be the professor.

Lenna smiles at Ivan. She stares at him with an admiring look, and she sighs. Is Ivan the ‘man’ her friend was talking about? I think he is. She looks like she is madly in love with him. She doesn’t even try to hide it and makes it painfully obvious. I suppress a laugh but make noise trying to hold it in. Ivan and the students turn to look at me. Ivan looks around the classroom.

Oh no, don’t do it, Ivan, please don’t introduce me. I look at him wide-eyed and shake my head, trying to communicate that to him. But he doesn’t seem to get what I’m trying to say.

“Oh, I want to introduce a new student. Everyone, this is Elizabeth. She transferred here from Boulder City,” he says, smiling. I wave my hand, looking at everyone.

“Nice to meet you all,” I say nervously. Most of them smile at me, except the alien mean girls. They just stare at me like I'm a strange creature that offended them with my presence.

“Alright, everyone, pay attention over here,” Ivan says. Ivan starts to lecture about the evolution of the earth. Students take out clipboards from their bags. I look in my bag and see the clipboard.

I take it out, and it looks like a clipboard, but it’s more like a tablet with a pen attached. Ivan presses something in his clipboard, and our clipboard opens a tab, and the page looks like a textbook.

“You can open another page to take notes,” Nina leans over to show me opening another page. Ivan starts throwing facts and dates. I write notes down furiously, trying to keep up with Ivan.

Other students are hardly taking notes and are just listening intently. There’s no way I will remember most of this. But I did promise I would try. By the time the class is over, I have a headache. People start to get up to leave the classroom.

“This was the only class you have today. We need to go to our next class, which is training,” Isa says.

“Training?” I ask.

“Yeah, Ivan thought it would be bad for you to do physical training; we can’t risk you getting hurt, with all the Lamia around,” Nina says.

“Yeah, that would be bad,” I say. The girls say goodbye to me and leave. I put my things away. Lenna stays after class, trying to speak with Ivan. She walks towards him but stops when she sees him heading my way. Lenna goes to stand by the door, just staring at us.

“What did you think about the class?” Ivan asks.

“It was fascinating but a bit overwhelming. I was taking a lot of notes. Do you think you can speak slower next time?” I ask. Ivan laughs and takes a seat next to me.

“Let me see your tablet.” He shows me how to use it. “It can record the lecture, and it automatically lists the important facts and dates of the lecture.”

“Oh, that would have been helpful. Why a whole class on Earth? Why is Earth so important to this world?” I ask.

"There's a theory that Earth might be where all life in the universe began, but believe it or not, we are not sure yet. We want to keep observing and learning from it."

"Are you saying that humans might be the origin of all the beings in the universe?"

"We think that ancient Earth provided the building blocks for life."

That can't be? I narrow my eyes. How is that possible? And why is Ivan sharing this much information with me if he is 'trying' to send me home? I have an uneasy feeling.

"What are you thinking?" Ivan asks.

"Oh, well, for worlds that are lightyears apart-that would mean that ancient humans advanced their technology and traveled out of ancient Earth," I say.

Ivan looks uncomfortable and clears his throat, "That is one theory, but modern humans should have evidence of this tech if that were the case. Wouldn't they?"

I nod, "Yeah, you're right."

Ivan looks exhausted like he hasn’t slept in days.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were the teacher?” I ask changing the subject.

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” he smiles.

“Geez, you are a Guardian, you run the Academy, you’re a professor, and now the protector of a wolf priestess, what don’t you do?”

“Yeah, I guess I do take on a lot of work, but this is my career, my life.”

I shake my head and sigh loudly, “Sometimes you need to say, screw all this, I’m taking the day off today. Go out with Damon, hang out with him. Damon misses hanging out with you.”

Ivan looks amused by my advice. But I’m being serious, he needs to slow down, and it’s true that Damon misses his friend. It would be nice if Ivan could take some time to relax.

“Okay, I promise I will try to be more of a slacker,” he says.

I laugh, “I’m an expert on the subject of slacking. I promise you will be much happier if you do.” We share a laugh.

“Well, I promise, I will try to hang out with Damon one of these days. I need to go right now. I have to meet with the Council.” Ivan gets up, and so do I.

“Alright, see you later.”

Ivan nods, and we both walk out of the classroom. He looks back at me, “Please try to stay out of trouble while I’m away.”

I nod. Stay out of trouble? What kind of trouble can I get into? My stomach complains of hunger. I wonder what the chef cooked today? I walk into the kitchen, but nobody is there. I quietly open the fridge and find a pile of sandwiches on a large tray. I grab one and start eating it. It’s delicious. Oh, how I missed real food.

I hear footsteps, and I quickly run out of the kitchen. Sometimes, the chef can be in a bad mood, and I don’t want to make him angry. He doesn’t like it when students enter his kitchen.

I walk down a hallway again. I wonder what kind of training the students go through? I walk around the vacant building finishing my sandwich.

Curious, I walk towards the gym. Making sure nobody is around, I get closer to the gym windows. Trying to stay out of view, I peek through some tall ornamental grasses. I observe what they’re doing. Training looks kind of fun. But in truth, I don’t feel guilty about not having to attend the training class.

I’m sure if I did, I would injure myself, causing me to bleed, and with Lamia round, that would be the end of me. The Lamia would probably surround me like zombies and tear me apart.

The students are grouped in pairs and wearing protective gear. It looks like they are learning self-defense. Is the instructor Ethan? I mean...uncle Ethan. I chuckle to myself.

“What’s so funny?” A man’s voice asks behind me, startling me. I didn’t hear any footsteps. I slowly turn to see who it is.