I awoke to my alarm spell once more, a small sense of excitement coursing through my body. Today was finally the day that most practical lessons start, meaning I would no longer have to sit and feel bored while adviser did the heavy lifting once again. I quickly got dressed, using a spell to straighten and smooth out my hair. Another one to give myself a quick wash. Yet, I was scarcely finished when a knock on my door sounded. Thump, thump, thump.

  I rushed to the door, my mental scan showing that it was Thomas and Neffie. The two already waiting for me, just as excited as me. After opening the door, I greeted them. We rushed to our respective home rooms. Thomas, sitting next to me, could hardly keep his butt on the seat. Jumping up and down like a jack in the box. Though homeroom classes tend to be quite noisy, this mornings was especially so. The excitement was palpable in the air to the point where you could almost taste it. Not the best taste. A mix of teen angst sweat and dust swirling because of so much movement.

  The moment the bell rang, the rollcall had already been taken. We were able to immediately go to our first classes for the day. With our schedule being different, I ended up having our magic basics class as the first period. Half jogging in a relaxed manner I reached there before most of the other students, or so I had thought.

  Neffie was already sitting at her desk and following close behind me was Misha with a bundle of books in her arms. After entering the door, my mental scan picked up something odd. Misha had been unable to see the slight step at the threshold. She tripped. Falling face forward towards me. Books starting to tumble out of her arms as she tried to regain her balance. I acted half out of instinct. Grabbing her by her arm and shoulder in order to steady her. Unfortunately, one of her books managed to fall. She tripped again. The book that had fallen to the floor becoming her second obstacle in the basic task of walking.

  She leaned into me, letting me take the brunt of her weight. I held her tight as she steadied her footing. She was so close that the warmth radiating from her skin felt scorching to me. The smell of her hair hit unprepared nose. Making it scream at my brain to get more of this drug. I took a deep breath, steadied myself, bent down, picked up her book and put it on the stack that she had reorganized in her arms.

  Her face was downcast, refusing to make eye contact with me. The redness of her face surpasses that of an overripe tomato. She embarrassedly yet cautiously she manoeuvred to her desk. Her hair blocking her face, but could not hide the two points of her ears, which was blushing as hard.

  I took mental inventory of myself. I had a blush on my own face as well. And the heat radiating from my face could be used to produce power for an entire city. My heart was beating so fast, I felt like I had raced against Usain Bolt, and won. I took my own seat, getting advisor to help me regulate my body to not overreact like that.

  After calming down, I deciphered my feelings with ample help from advisor, who made a witty comment. “Teenage boys will always be teenage boys no matter how much they try to ignore the hormones.” My body had finally decided to have its first real proper crush in this life. Advisor made another snarky comment that made me want to punch his virtual face. “Bit of a late bloomer in my opinion. Honestly, I would have expected it years earlier.

  Being already embarrassed by what happened, I was not in the mood to be made fun of, especially by one that shared my thoughts. The teacher called the class to order, pulling me from my reverie. My excitement returned with a vengeance. I was even less able to sit still than Thomas this morning. Which was a good thing, considering we were about to head outside. There was a training field prepared for us with a bunch of targets that could easily be replaced. The teacher Miss Anna, introduced todays topic for the lesson. By shooting a magic bolt of water at one of the targets, hitting it point blank into the centre of the target.

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  Only the centre broke, a hole drilled though it almost perfectly circular. “Let us face it, you aren’t rookies, you should by now know quite a few spells. The spell I had just used was the water shot spell. But I can promise you that only a few will get what todays lesson is about.” Their teacher started her lecture with this sentence.

  Seeing the perfect hole through the middle of the target I felt like I had grasped the essence of it. Today was all about accuracy and technique in spell casting. She continued seeing some of the students not grasping what she meant. “Any idiot with an ounce of mana and some rudimentary training can lob a ball of water at someone with enough speed to seriously hurt them, however if you want to actually use your magic efficiently, you will have to learn to correctly visualise the outcome of your spells.”

  What she said, made sense, that after all was the difference between someone on the battlefield throwing fireballs at everything or selecting different points that were not shielded from fire to cause the maximum amount of damage using the least amount of mana. In wars that included magic users that could sometimes last hours there were three important things that decided the outcome. First was the amount of mana a certain mage had, second what kind of spells they had in their arsenal, and third but most important how well they utilised their mana to cast said spells.

  A mage who had an incredible amount of mana but tended to shoot of high-level spells the whole time would very quickly become drained, costing their lives when an enemy outlasts them. Similarly, a mage with a small amount of mana that only knew low level spells, but did not try to reduce the mana cost of each spell would also end up dead as a doornail the moment his mana ran out. The crux of today’s lesson was to get the overly pompous nobles to realise this without harming them.

  “When I call out your name, I want you to step forward and try the same spell I just used.” Miss anna’s words brought me out of my revery. She looked at her class list as she called out her first student… after quite a few went with mixed scores, were either the destroyed the target or their spell was not strong enough to damage it Neffie was finally for her up for her chance, she stood there the nervousness hardly kindled by her excitement. After taking a steadying breath her face became serious. As she went into a more comforting stance. Chanting her spell pointing at the target a burst of water shot out and made a hole through the target, leaving it shaking a little as the slightly asymmetrical hole was left behind only a fraction away from dead centre.

  “Finally, a student who actually thinks with her brain and doesn’t just rely on the strength of her spell, good job.” Was miss anna’s praise rung out before she called out the next student… it was not long before it was Misha’s turn whose face was flushed red as she kept trying to avoid my eyes, trotting to the designated potion to start. Seeing her own flushed and embarrassed face made me remember the soft but scalding felling of her skin against mine from this morning, making me flush a little as well.

  ‘Now is not the time, focus on what she is doing and what you’re going to do when it’s your turn.’ Was advisors’ cold statement, his words like a bucket of water and ice in a cold winter’s day bringing me back to focus. Misha, thou flustered still had the mental acuity left to complete her turn with astounding results. A large but perfect hole was all that was left in the centre of target the target when she finished her turn. Receiving just as much praise from the professor as Neffie had before a few more children went with mixed results.

  When it was my turn, I walked to the chalk line as I thought it over the magic that they used seemed rudimentary in comparison to the spells I had devised and practised with when I was younger. I looked at the target raised my hand, and in the magical language said water shot, however, the spell I had cast was my upgraded version, water b

  ullet.