“I just don’t get why you’re still mad,” Melody said for what felt like the fifth time since leaving the dorm.
“You could have warned me,” Cassandra growled, not bothering to look back at her roommate.
Melody’s eye twitched. “I tried, but the notice only arrived a few seconds before you got in!” she said between gritted teeth.
Cassandra opened her mouth to reply, only to stop as she turned and entered the classroom. Seeing her confused expression, Melody poked her head into one of the open spaces in the doorway, quickly copying her roommate at the sight before her.
At the front of the room, sitting a long desk littered with various papers, trinkets, and the like, was a woman with short blonde hair working on some kind of strange piece of machinery. Glancing towards them, she quickly grabbed a small cylindrical object, flicking it out to form a pointer and tapping the whiteboard behind her.
Pay no attention to what I’m working on.
Please go find a seat and wait for class to start.
With a shrug, Melody slid through the space between her roommate and the doorway, making her way to the last empty table and sitting down. A moment later Cassandra walked up, scowling. “Couldn’t you find somewhere else to sit?”
“I could,” Melody commented, pulling her student handbook out of her jacket and flipping to the page she had left off on. “But considering we’re paired up in the program, chances are we’ll seated next to each other anyway.”
Cassandra let out a low growl as she set down. “I hate you,” she muttered.
Melody sighed, despite her plan to be kinder to her roommate, this was proving too much today. “I’m not exactly fond of you either, but I actually want to take part in this program.”
“And I don’t, but I’m stuck with you since you refuse to agree to a change in roommates,” Cassandra countered.
“Because you’re not worth the stress it’d be to attempt,” Melody deadpanned, making Cassandra turn to her with a glare. “The majority of the school’s filing system and paperwork is based around the Equestrian method. Which is, to put lightly, completely insane by human standards. The sheer amount of paperwork it would take to approve the switch would take at least two weeks, and that’s only if your lucky. Even then, they have to spend an extra week or two looking for another pair of roommates willing to switch and filling out an extra dozen pages of paperwork for that. And if they can’t find anyone willing to change, which, considering in the success rate for the program in the seven years it’s been in place is,” She paused and glanced at her handbook. “Ninety five percent on average, with the last year hitting ninety nine percent, then they’d have wasted all that time and effort for nothing and we’d still be stuck together anyway.
“And even then,” Melody continued, her tone growing sharp. “You still be placed with a pony or anthro, since judging by how you were acting friday night, I’d say that discussion with your father you were talking about before the assembly didn’t go so well. Hell, even if you were removed from the program, there’s still a fifty percent chance you’d wind up with a pony or anthro as a roommate.”
She stopped and glared at Cassandra, whose own glare had turned to look of surprise at the anthro’s rant. “So no, I’m not going to put the school’s staff through all that trouble because one spoiled brat is so intent on keeping her hatred of non-humans.”
Casandra stared at her roommate as she tried to form a response. Drawing a blank, she gave another growl and snapped her attention away from Melody, grumbling angrily.
Melody sighed as she let her anger die back down, tucking her handbook back into her jacket before laying her head on the table with her arms crossed underneath and closing eyes, opting to simply wait for the class to start.
“Melody?” Her eyes snapped back open as she turned her head to the left, Finding Jareth sitting right across from her, a rust colored unicorn stallion sitting beside him, the soft snoring coming from him indicating that he was asleep.
“Yo,” Melody replied as she sat up, turning to her friend. “Could have told me you’d be in this class.”
“The same could be said of you,” Jareth countered with a small smirk. “The topic of classes never really came up over the weekend though, otherwise we’d have both known that the other would be in this class.”
“... Touché,” she relented. “Still, I thought you were studying computer engineering? Last I checked, this class is more geared towards machines, not computers.” She held up a hand as Jareth opened his mouth. “Yes I am aware computers are machines, you know what I meant.”
Jareth chuckled. “True. The reason I’m taking this class is because I’ve always had an interest with technology in general, so I’m taking a few different classes on different subjects. Plus that way if I can’t get a job in computer engineering I’ve got a few backup options.”
“Not a bad plan,” Melody commented. “Honestly I think I was assigned to this class through the inter-species relations program, pretty sure little miss sunshine over here-” she gestured to Cassandra with her wing, earning a growl in response, “-is the one interested in engineering, though I’m not opposed to studying the subject.”
Jareth opened his mouth to reply, only to be cut off as the students at the front of the class screamed. Turning to the source, Melody and Jareth discovered that the machine the teacher had been working on had burst into flames.
With a sigh, the teacher stood up from her seat as a smoke alarm went off, calmly grabbing the nearby fire extinguisher and doused the flames before turning off the alarm. “Well that was a bust,” she said with another sigh, before clapping her hand together and turning her attention to the class. “Good morning students, my name is Samantha Dimir, I will be your engineering teacher for this year, and I do apologize about the little fire just now, every now and then something will go wrong with one of my projects, thankfully they’ve never hurt anyone before.”
“Now then, before we begin I’d like to-” she stopped as her eyes locked on the sleeping unicorn sitting beside Jareth. Quickly, she strode over to their desk, standing directly in front of the stallion for a moment before pulling a small metal bell out of her coat pocket. Holding it near the stallion’s ear, she rang the bell as loudly as she could.
“AAH!” The stallion yelped as he was forcibly awoken, jumping back in his seat, nearly falling backwards in the process. “Huh, Wha-” he started as he looked around, only to stop as his eye landed on the teacher. “Oh, um, hey teach…” he said nervously.
“Miss Dimir,” she stated, annoyance clear in her voice. “Now then, Mr.… ”
“Um, Tumbler. Brass Tumbler,” he offered.
“Mr. Tumbler,” she corrected. “I have little tolerance for students sleeping in my class. I’ll let you off with a warning since this is only the first day, and I know it can be difficult to adjust to the new environment and schedule so fast.” Her expression lightened. “But please, do try to arrive fully awake from now on, this is not a class you want to be falling asleep in.”
“Y-yes ma’am,” Brass Tumbler stammered, still caught off by the teacher’s tone.
“Good,” she replied, giving the unicorn a small smile before turning around and striding back to the front of the room. “As I was saying, before we begin I’d like to do a quick roll call so I get to know who everyone is, okay?” The class nodded. “Alright, when you hear your name called, just give a quick ‘present’, and if you have any nicknames you prefer to be called by, please let me know.”
Leaning back, she grabbed a folder from her desk and flipped it open. “First on the list… Jareth Blake?”
“Present,” Jareth answered with a faint tone of annoyance, cringing as he heard a few nearby students snickering at his name. Looking over, Melody offered her friend a sympathetic look, earning a weak, but no less thankful smile from him in return.
Miss Dimir nodded and turned her attention back to the list, calling out a few more names, each time getting a response from one of the students in the room. “Cassandra Garnet?” she said after a few moments.
The woman in question blinked as she was pulled from her thoughts, looking around in confusion before noticing the teacher looking at her curiously. “Oh, p-present,” she stammered, her cheeks gaining a faint red tint.
Miss Dimir gave another simple nod and glanced back down at her list. “Melody Bell Sharpe Gonzalez?”
“Present,” Melody responded. “And, if you wouldn’t mind, just ‘Melody Bell Sharpe’ is more than enough.”
“Of course,” she replied, giving Melody the same kind smile she had given the other students.
After a few more minutes Miss Dimir finished the roll call, dropping the folder back onto her desk. “Now that that’s done, welcome everyone, to Introduction to Engineering. In this class, we’ll be studying the basics of each field of engineering, as well as working on small projects to help everyone learn how to use the various tools used in those fields. Now without further ado, please-” she stopped as the machine caught fire again, making the alarm go off once more. Sighing, the teacher hung her head in defeat. “Why does this thing hate me?”