//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five: The Start of a New Day 
// Story: The Equestria Academy of Magic: A New Star 
// by Sorcerer 
//------------------------------//

	My alarm clock hollered at me in my half-conscious state, urging me to awaken with the sound of its cries. The awful noise rang in my ears for a moment as I rubbed my eyes and slammed the button on the top of the alarm clock to shut it up. 

As my ears adjusted, I also heard a knock at my door, loud and abrupt, layered with urgency. The knocks became more rapid each time the unknown individual tapped on the white wooden door. I pretty much flew out of bed the instant I realized why the prefect behind my door was so frantic. I looked back at my clock, 7:56 am. I had four bloody minutes to get changed and showered and explain myself to Roderick.  I was practically screaming as I put on my clothes and combed my hair so it didn't look like a disgusting crimson jungle of vines jutting up in the air (I'm not the lightest of sleepers). 

"I'm coming!" I shouted in desperation as I jumped into my uniform pants and buckled my belt. There was no time to freshen up, so I plopped two pieces of spearmint gum into my mouth and sprayed on some antiperspirant. 

I opened the door with a relieved sigh, but my relaxation was brief. As the door opened, I was met with Roderick, who looked at me with an impressed look on his handsome mug. "I'm impressed. Now c'mon, I don't want you to delay roll call."

I followed him down the extravagant hallway decorated with red carpet floors and white walls with (you guessed it...) more gold embroidery. I'm fairly certain it wasn't real gold, but the paint and the cost of design would've been disgustingly expensive, just thinking about it made me gag. 

We both ran down the marble, spiral staircase in silence and into the main entrance of Dragonflame House, which looked a lot better in the daytime when you could see all the really cool architecture. There were statues and paintings of dragons and serpents surrounding the sparkling marble floor of the circular room that was probably thirty feet from the floor to the ceiling. As I looked up, I could also see dragons  painted on the ceiling, spitting fire and battling knights and wizards. The overall design of the place had a real atmosphere to it, not all gray and bland like my last dormitory. 

The one hundred and twenty-five students of Dragonflame gathered in the expansive entranceway, and even with all the people in that space, the room still had volume. Everyone split up into their age groups and about a dozen prefects with clipboards called out our names. 

I lined up beside Fraylick and Miles in my class, Class 2-D, close to where Professor Dragoon was standing. The relaxed green-haired man strutted over to his prefects and yammered on for a bit, and got them all organized, then Fraylick leaned in and whispered to me. "I thought ya died, man."

"Well, you're half right," I groaned as I ran my hand through my hair. "I feel like a walking corpse."

"Was the bed not comfortable, or what?" Miles muttered as he tilted his head towards me, trying not to attract any attention. 

"I just had a lot on my mind is all..." I told him. "Still getting used to all this, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it. I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down, bro!" Miles tried to act cool, but it failed miserably, and he came off as an awkward buffoon. "I catch your drif-!"

"Miles, please stop," Fraylick shook his head in disappointment as he nudged Miles with his elbow and looked forward. "For all of us, bro."

"Sorry." Miles zipped his lips and stared down at the ground. 

The prefects all split up. Roderick stood at the end of our row in the front, and he eagerly awaited Professor Dragoon's wisdom with a smile on his face. The young professor sort of paced around for a while just to see all of our faces, and as he settled in the center of the room, he took a deep breath. We all quieted down in response to that action.

"Hello everyone. As you all know, my name is Professor Spencer Dragoon, the primary magic self-defence teacher," He bellowed. "Now, I know some of you may be scared. I know some of you may be wondering 'how in hell am I supposed to fit into this wacky place?'. Well, it ain't easy, but... I know you new guys all too well. In fact, ask me, or any senior student what their first year was like. I'm sure the answer will almost always be the same. We were all newcomers once, it's alright to be afraid. I just hope that we can all adjust and work together this year because that's what this dormitory is all about, companionship. These people are all your brothers and sisters, treat them with dignity and respect, and above all other things... have a little fun as well. Thank you for your time, everyone. Breakfast will be served right away, so it's best to leave right about now."

The professor's words solidified my opinion of him in a way, made me a little more secure. I could tell he was an honest man, young at heart, but responsible when he needed to be. He was mature enough to follow his duties, but he was young and independent enough to relate to us all. And looking back on it, I think that's what made Spencer a great teacher. He could relate to us, talk to us like we were actual people, not just some mindless drones that had to follow orders to the letter. It was obvious that he didn't expect the world from us as students, but he expected some level of responsibility, and he expected us to let loose once in a while. 

After our morning assembly and roll call, I followed Augustine and the rest of my friends to the west wing for breakfast. Breakfast was alright, I had more of those oatmeal packets, but it was a little uncomfortable eating them. Augustine shot me a few disgusted glares as she looked down at my food. 

"How can you eat such slop?" She raised an eyebrow at my food, and her nose scrunched a little in derision. 

"Well, some of us may not like gold chips on our ice cream and diamond encrusted white truffles, Little Ms. Moneybags." Fraylick mocked her, and she stuck her tongue out at him in a bratty fashion and then raised her chin to emphasize her prissy attitude. "Don't you have one good thing to say, August? You don't have to insult someone once the opportunity arises every time, you can bite your tongue once in a while."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes, but politely obliged. "Alright then." She looked around the table for something she could compliment, then looked to me. "Jonathan, your character is by far the most tolerable of everyone here... well, everyone excluding Mura."	Mura  grunted and gave her a nod of approval, then went back to nibbling on her tofu and seaweed sandwich like a rabbit chewing on a carrot ecstatically, hiding her face behind her wool scarf with every bite she took. I sighed for a moment and replied with a fake smile. "Thanks..."

****

After breakfast, my class assembled in the math room in the east wing, it was lead by none other than the leader of Crystal House, the handsome and quiet Professor Sombi Rasheer. 

His teaching methods were... let's say unusual. He'd draw equations on the board and whisper to himself in a contained manner, then turned to the class to request input in order to complete the equation. However, you could tell that he knew every answer, only looking for input to measure our intellectual level and adjust his teaching methods accordingly. Luckily, our class passed with flying colors, or, at least that's what I think except for the meathead jocks at the back of the expansive, gothic designed room who were just yammering on about asinine topics.

"Aw, man. You shoulda seen the way Courtney was lookin' at me, man." One of the idiots whispered. They were not far from where I was sitting. The professor requested that they stop their pointless chatter, but they continued regardless, ignoring him. 

I wasn't really paying attention either, I was looking around the room and admiring the scenery, peering out of the translucent glass that looked a lot like quartz. My fascination was brief, however, when the professor said my name, although I had no idea what he said other than that. I was pretty spaced out. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, I want you to solve this expression for me. Factor it."

I squinted and looked up at the board with a raised eyebrow, 6x2 - 13x + 5. I used what little math knowledge I had and did it in less than a minute, which was actually pretty impressive for me. I suppose I wanted to either save my ass or look show off. Although, the math was pretty rudimentary, so it wasn't really boasting material. 

"(2x-1)(3x-5)?" I answered, still a little doubtful. 

"Correct."

I exhaled deeply and leaned back in my chair, releasing the stress and tension. As I did so, I felt someone nudge me with their elbow. At first I thought it was Mura who was sitting on my right, but she just shrugged when I asked her. When I looked to my left, however, I was met with a cheery-eyed girl who gave me an excited smile. "Nice save."

Her blue-green eyes were like an ocean and her grin was pearly white. She wore a decent amount of makeup as well, but not too much, dark purple eye shadow and jet black mascara with black eyeliner. Her long maroon hair was shaved on the right side and the top was swept to the left side of her face as if her hair was constantly being blown around by the wind. She had an alluring glow to her, warm and faint, but noticeable. She was very attractive, and being a teenage boy, I was immediately drawn to her. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," She laughed as she whispered back to me. "My name is Saffron, Saffron O'Neil. I already know who you are. Pretty much everyone knows, being that you're a  member of the Star family and all that. But I'm guessing that you're pretty tired of having your boots kissed by the teachers and all those girls piling on top of you, am I right?"

"Yeah, tell me about it," I teased with a smug grin and a sarcastic nod, trying to be cool around her. "I get it all the time..."

"Nice..." She played along with my sarcasm and looked towards the front where the professor was writing down more equations. "So, how have you liked school so far?" She asked as she tapped her pencil against her desk out of sheer boredom.

"It's been alright," I replied as I placed my shoulder on my desk and held my head in my hand. "I'm still getting used to the change in scenery."

"Yeah, it can be a little overwhelming at times. I remember when I was new too, but I got used to it, the teachers here are pretty cool-." She ducked and dodged an incoming paper airplane that was thrown by one of the jocks. "Almost got me!"

"Oh, damn... it's going across the room way too fast!" The one jock whisper-yelled as he watched the plane fly towards the chalkboard at the front. "Oh, no. Oh, man!"

It was too late to stop it, the plane was headed right for the professor's head. However, just as it was about to make contact, it disintegrated into ash, as if there were some aura around Professor Rasheer. He stood silent and stared at the board, motionless and unmoving. Then, two trails of purple smoke billowed from his eyes, and he turned around, revealing to us a horrific mug. 

His red eyes remained the same, but the purple miasma floated around his face, and the white in his eyes turned into a sickening radioactive green, glowing a little. "Tell me, who threw that?" His voice was cold and calm, yet layered with hostility. His presence shifted entirely. 

The class was silent for a moment as we all stared into his demon eyes, entranced by their mysterious influence. He walked down the center aisle of desks menacingly. "I promise, the punishment will not be as severe if the offenders speak up now."

Again, the room remained silent for a moment. But the silence was then broken after a few minutes by the one jock, who confessed to his actions by raising his hand for him. "It was me, sir.-"

"Detention," The professor interrupted him. "For a week."

We all didn't question his punishment, and we went back to work, including me and Saffron. 

****

The morning was fairly dry and eventless. We worked with Professor Rasheer for another hour in Language Arts, which was dreadful, being that it was silent the entire time, and we all were scared out of our wits. After a double science period with the beautiful Professor Chryssa Lee, we had a break, where Saffron and I chatted about our parents and our interests. We both played guitar, although her passion was becoming a singer, and I told her about life in the Crystal Empire and school in Crystalline, my sister, everything.

Mura stayed pretty close to the two of us as we chatted and almost seemed to try and worm her way between us whenever she got the chance, At first I thought they were just accidents, but after a while I realized that she was deliberately trying to break us up. As Saffron and I walked down the hall with everyone else towards the west wing for lunch, Mura barged in between the two of us one more time, then I snapped. "Mura, what are you doing?" I interrogated her, and she tucked her head into her scarf in response with no verbal reply. She darted into the lunchroom and sat down at our table without a word. 

"I'll talk to her later, Jonathan. She's just is like this when I'm around new people. She just gets afraid is all." Saffron insisted as she gestured towards the lunchroom.

"Are you two... friends?" I wondered.

"Um... yeah, we are," Saffron seemed a little unsure about what she was saying at first, but she shook her head and reorganized her thoughts. "I was her first friend last year, and... well, I'm everyone else's friend at our lunch table too."

"Wait, why weren't you at our table yesterday?" I asked as we both stood by the door leading into the lunchroom. 

"I was busy that day, sorry," It looked as if she was lying, but I didn't ask, as it might have been a personal reason she wasn't willing to share. "I was there for sign-in and orientation, but- yeah." 

After picking out our food, we both sat down at the table. I sat down beside Augustine and Miles, and Saffron sat between Mura and Fraylick. As I took a bite of my chicken wrap, Fraylick piped-up. "So, why did'ja miss school yesterday, huh? Did you come down with a case of the 'I don't want to go to school bug', or what?"

"Oh, shut your trap, Fray," She scoffed, then took a bite of her B.L.T. "I was a little tied up, and besides, there wasn't even school."

"Wow! Another delicacy to add to the blog!" Miles almost jumped out of his seat as he took a bite from his gourmet burger. "I can't wait to be taught by the Penelope Pinkerton in Culinary Club!"

"Geez, she's running that, Miles? Be careful, dude. She's kind of a firecracker, that one." Saffron warned him, but he didn't seem to care. 

"Really?" I doubted her. "How bad?"

"I took that class for about a week last year before I quit." Saffron quivered a little. "Her... excited personality didn't really drive me away. It was that beast in the back room that scared me off. She keeps a toothless pet alligator in the back!"

"Oh please, Saffy, that's a load of bull and you know it," Fraylick chuckled. "Does anyone else think Saffron would look great in a tinfoil hat?"

"I concur," Augustine joined in on the joke.

"I'm serious! She does! She keeps it in the pantry!" Saffron seemed pretty committed to making us believe her story, which was enough evidence for me. I had no desire to go and find out for myself. We all laughed together and ate our food, except Mura. She sat silently in her own little world. 

I'm wasn't really sure what kind of relationship Mura and Saffron had, but it seemed profound enough for Mura to become agitated with me. "Great," I thought to myself. "It's the second day of school, and I'm already mucking everything up."