A fifteen-minute walk to their first class of the year gave Sunset a chance to clear the air with Adagio, though the results made her wonder if it was such a good idea. Having once been moved beyond tears by forgiveness, Sunset found Adagio’s reaction to the same… worrying.
She scrunched her face against a hot September breeze, trying to understand and coming up short.
“Problem?” Adagio asked after the chat lapsed into silence.
“Not to be petty, but yeah.” Sunset gave her a wary look as they trod the grass-lined walkway. “I didn’t apologize just to make you do the same. I am sorry for snapping, and I’m sorry you’re in a rough spot right now. But I don’t mind saying it’s a little disconcerting to learn you wish you’d have killed us all at the Band Battle.”
Adagio shrugged with one shoulder. “I don’t like you enough to lie to you. I went from being a majestic, immortal siren to diet pills and student loans. The less we bring that day up, the better we’ll get along.”
“Then how can I feel safe with you?” Sunset asked. “How do I know you don’t want revenge?”
Adagio rolled her eyes, but the tight frown beneath spoke of more difficult feelings. “Because making nice with you will get me perks. Taking revenge will get me arrested.”
She reached up and flipped back her curls, though Sunset noticed the windup and dodged in time. “And I simply don’t feel the want for it. Everyone’s a predator in the end, living and prospering from the pain of others. The fish starves the shark by fleeing, then is killed by the fisher, who is killed by his brother for the fish. You lot won, and that’s all the justification you need. I’m lucky enough to have survived the fall.”
Rounding a wooded bend brought their destination to sight – the Spoiled Rich Hall, named for one of the college’s wealthy patrons. A casualty of modern art nearly equal to the Dali Hall, done up in giant image of a piggy bank.
Sunset held the door for Adagio, still watching from the corner of her eye. “I won’t argue philosophy with you, but let me ask: was that how it was with the sirens? Just three sharks prowling together for convenience, with no love or friendship?”
“You heard what happened, isn’t it obvious?” But a glare and snapped tone again belied Adagio’s indifferent words. She stormed past Sunset, this time catching her with a whip of the hair. “If you’re done with stupid questions, then tell me if you or Mommy Dearest found any clue about our blood-seeking ‘Mister D.’
A wave of air conditioning greeted their arrival, drawing a relived sigh and shiver from both. Sunset took advantage of a brief escalator ride to check her phone. “Room two-oh-two, ten minutes early… no, not really. Although our professor’s name is–”
“I know,” Adagio huffed.
Sunset pocketed the phone. “Right, him and all the other D-names in existence. I’m surprised you’re taking this class. For me this seems relevant to Mom’s work, for you it looks like old news.”
Adagio talked as they stepped off the escalator. “Introduction to myths and legends? You won’t learn a thing, but whatever. We both have mandatory electives to knock out, and if I can pass one blindfolded, so much the better.”
Some familiar faces greeted Sunset in the quarter-full classroom. She leaned in for a quiet hello to Fluttershy in one back corner, then tried a companionable wave to Sugarcoat in the other. The gesture was duly ignored, and Sunset took the seat next to Fluttershy.
The room grew no fuller until a door at the front opened, revealing a comical orange top hat above an absolute disaster of a suit. Orange and barf-green checkered the jacket, with one arm terminating in a mitten and the other in a gentleman’s glove. Mismatched dress shoes stood beneath the pant legs, themselves split between brown and yellow.
So bizarre was the outfit it took Sunset an extra second to realize it was occupied by a person. Odd red eyes on a slate-gray face cast lazily over the students as the man took off his jacket, revealing another of the exact same colors beneath. He doffed his hat and bowed, revealing an unkempt mane of alternating black and white hair.
The flamboyance ended with his words – the monotone of a bored man going through the motions. “Hello, hello. I’m Mister Discord, the pleasure’s all mine.”
Sugarcoat’s voice blared from Sunset’s left. “Why are you dressed like an idiot?”
“Because your mum picked out my clothes.”
Sunset found herself paradoxically fighting down both a smile and sympathetic wince as Discord continued without missing a beat. “I’ll be your teacher, in as much as any of you will spare me time from Angry Bees or whatever the kids play these days. The subject of course is myths and legends, which pretty fairly establishes you’re all here for either easy electives...”
Sugarcoat and Adagio coughed and looked away.
“...Or to satisfy some juvenile love of pixies and unicorns.”
Fluttershy shrank down in her seat.
“I have good news for both parties. Yes, the class is easy, and no, I don’t take attendance. And we will discuss pixies and unicorns, as well as vampires, werebeasts, sirens, and other nonsensical bollocks the idiots of the past invented to scare themselves.”
“Moron,” Adagio murmured, having chosen a desk next to Sunset.
Sunset’s hand shot up. “Mister Discord? Aren’t some of the legends based on reality?”
“No, that’s stupid,” Discord said drolly.
The bored tone broke for one second as a high giggle squeaked out, though he immediately righted himself. “No, Miss… ah, yellow skinned girl...”
His eyes wobbled to Adagio and Fluttershy. “...With the red hair, it’s all poppycock, superstition, so on, so forth. The thirteenth century’s equivalent of the moon landing.”
Another pitched giggle escaped. “Oh, snap, got political there. Don’t tell your mums.”
“My grandpa worked on the moon landings,” Sugarcoat grumbled, though she spoke low this time and hid it with a hand.
Adagio jerked a thumb at Fluttershy. “And she’s a were-manatee. This guy’s a freaking jo–”
A loud, deeper burst of laughter interrupted from the front, though by the time they looked Discord’s bored expression was back in place.
“Sorry,” he said in a dull tone, though a final titter escaped with it. “I have a condition. Anyway, this class will be a colossal waste of time because it doesn’t involve the real world in the sl...slight… tee-hee, excuse me.”
Chuckling wracked his body. He bent over, squeezing his sides and slapping a knee, then righted himself. “But you need electives and I need paydays, so here we are. Intense and profound study of the subjects here could be
Dangerous.”
The word ended with a hiss like snake teeth on a chalkboard. A shiver moved down Sunset’s spine, then worked its way back up as she realized Discord was staring right at her.
His mouth opened, revealing one sharp canine as a foghorn-like “BWA-HA-HA,” erupted.
“...For your career prospects,” Discord clarified, his evil grin folding back to listlessness. “Everyone, please take out the textbook that regurgitates old stories with absolutely no new information that cost your parents $120 and turn to the first page. We will start with myths of ancient Egypt, then move chronologically forwards in human history. You young sir with the unimportant face, if you could start reading below the picture of the pretentious lady who wrote the introduction, we shall begin.”