The morning light seeped into the room, I opened my eyes as I slowly got out of my cot, my head hurt from wearing mufflers all night as I needed some silences while the others kept on talking well into my sleep schedule. The others were still sleeping as I quietly prepared myself for the day ahead. I had woken up a whole hour before we had to arrive at the auditorium and I was going to enjoy what little time I had all to myself while the my other dormmates were still asleep. I took off my mufflers setting them on my cot before unpacking some more of my luggage.


    After a while of shifting through my embarrassingly unorganized stuff, thank god the others weren''t awake, I finally found my brush. My brush was truly my best friend, it was useful, it looked good, and it would never betray me. Every mourning it was so relaxing to gently and slowly comb my tail and ears, although some of my others of my kind would disagree and think of it more of a chore. I hummed myself a little tune as I continued to organize my stuff before settling and working on my tail.


    "Good morning, you couldn''t have kept it a bit quieter?"


    I blushed in embarrassment and turned around to see a somewhat tall, maybe average, I wouldn''t know, I''m far to the right on the short spectrum, human girl looking rather not pleased with me.


    "Oh, sorry, what was your name again?" I barely managed to stagger out.


    The very disgruntled and even more annoyed frustratedly sighed before stating, "Elisa. So... you really managed to go to sleep that early huh? Well thanks to you I guess we''re all getting up early as well, you know you could have just unpacked yesterday night like the rest of us."


    "I already apologized" I tried to defend myself, "and the others don''t look like their going to wake either." I said as I looked around seeing that the other two seemed to still be comfortably lying in bed.


    "Nope, I''m wide awake, Sandra, by the way, you ever just get that feeling when you know you should be getting up but you really just can''t? Also before she says anything," Sandra commented before glaring at Elisa, "it''s about time we all got up anyway, not everyone has the ability to laze around like you."


    I definitely missed some stuff when I decided to just go to sleep early to not deal with the others, they seemed to already have a social dynamic that I would rather be left out of.


    "Says you, I''m already ready, while you''re still all wrapped up in that blanket." Elisa retorted. I winces as her voice was a bit too loud for me as my ears were far more sensitive and also she was still standing directly next to me.


    "Hey, Elisa, quick tip, if you''re going to" *yawn* "-get mad at someone else for being loud, you mind not being even louder? Poor girl looks like she''s about to have a heart attack, just look at her covering her ears." The last one commented having gotten up while no one was paying attention. I hadn''t realized I had covered my ears but it might have just been instinct as I slowly let them unfurl from beneath my hands.


    "Thank-k you" I stammered out again, social interaction was never something I enjoyed, or was used to.


    Sandra who seemed to be too distracted by the conversation to actually start preparing for the day chimed in "By the way, what''s your name? You clocked out before anyone of us could ask."


    "My name''s Lilith" I said quickly, almost a bit too quickly as I sat down on my bed.


    Elisa, who looked even more unhappy asked another question, "So what are you? A cat? No wrong tail... A wolf?" in one of the rudest ways I could imagine.


    "Looks like a fox to me," The girl who I still didn''t know the name of answered for me.


    "Yeah-h, but I''m not just a fox," I tried before getting interrupted mid sentence.


    "Whatever, I was just wondering, just don''t shed over my stuff."


    "I''m not-t just an animal." I was beginning to cry as I tried to bury my face back into my blanket.


    "Great job Elisa, you made the girl cry, do you feel stronger now? Have your muscles grown two fold, not that would make a difference when you had none to begin with." One of the others said before the other one broke out into laughter and commented "Her muscles might not have but her ego has reached new heights never seen before!"


    Elisa stormed out of the room obviously not pleased with how the conversation was turning out.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    "I''m Sylv, or that''s what everyone calls me. Elisa is a bit of a mess if you can''t tell, she wasn''t much nicer to us yesterday, and I almost envy you that you got to miss the entire thing but there''s nothing more satisfying then putting her in her place." She said as she stretched, "Hey Sandra, you getting out of bed or not? We have like twenty minutes left to prepare as I estimate it''ll take around another ten minutes to find the place."


    Sandra didn''t comment as she seemed to suddenly realize she hadn''t actually done anything besides talk the entire time. I looked around, my face dried from the tears as I exited the dorms. Sandra was an elf, while I didn''t get a good enough look at Sylv to identify what she was, every race looks practically identical if you squint hard enough.


    The hallway stretched along a grid pattern and I got lost several times before finding the auditorium. I opened the door to see some students having already found their seats as I walked down surveying where I should sit. If Elisa was here I hadn''t seen her despite her leaving the dorm first. I shuffled my way to one of the open seats far away from anyone who already found theirs. Slowly more people trickled into the auditorium, and sat down.


    Some of the staff had also arrived and ushered the others in straight lines forcing the other students to fill in like sardines until finally everyone was situated. I waited quietly while some other students whispered amongst what I presumed to be their friends. The boy who sat next to be looked at me curiously while I tried to not pay attention to them.


    "Hey," and my immediate thought was, ''oh no'', as I tried to pretend I didn''t notice but my ears betrayed me as they instinctively swirled to his position. ''Maybe he doesn''t notice?''.


    "I know you can hear me," And that was the fatal blow, I was going to have to engage another being in conversation, my worst fear.


    "Hello! Nice to meet you, um sorry, about yeah, uh, sorry," It was going to be really hard to explain why I ignored him earlier that didn''t make me sound like a complete freak, as I turned to face him hoping that the presentation would start soon.


    "Dude, gal, whatever, relax," He reassured despite looking nothing but confused, ''He already thinks that I''m weird, no, no, no''.


    "You''re not going to faint on me are you? Do I look that scary?" The now apparent cat based beast kin joked to me, "Rwar" he imitated a bear before laughing to himself.


    "Cat got your tongue? Get it? Hmmmm?"


    ''He didn''t even give me the chance to speak.'' I thought to myself.


    "Um, sorry, so who are you?" ''Why am I so bad it this? I just asked him like I was better than him'' I panicked.


    "Oh, I''m Lewis, Lewis Sanderton, and who might you be your highness" a hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice.


    "I''m sorry about the way I said that, I''m Lilith."


    "Oh I was just messing with you, you''re fine." Lewis said still holding onto that smile. Although Lewis seemed fine I still felt like he was just pretending to tolerate me out of respect. While I was thinking about all the ones I''d already managed to screw something up, I was surprised as the announcer knocked on some sort of sound amplifyingdevice to get everyone''s attention.


    "Attention students and staff, the headmaster is about to enter!" Someone on stage announced. ''Ow my ears.''


    "Bit too loud for you? You''ll get used to it, and if does start affecting your hearing the medical staff here is real good, scarily so and who knows? They might make your hearing even better." He laughed while nudging me with his elbow.


    "Welcome new students and welcome back old students, welcome to your first days or first days back at Lansia Academy, we here promote the progress of students as you guys will become the new backbone of society''s future," The headmaster takes a breath, "You have all heard what''s required and all the basics already when your parents signed you up, so if you have any questions ask your teachers, janitors, or secretaries, just don''t ask me." Some of the older students laughed and commented about the headmaster with others around them.


    "With out further a do, you should know which classes you have from the sheet you got when you were accepted, you are all dismissed."


    Students began slowly shuffling own and that''s when I realized my mistake, I was going to have to wait a while for a path to clear with me sitting the furthest away from the ail.


    "That look tells me you realized your mistake, I''d know, I''ve made the same mistake." Lewis commented looking really pleased for some reason, "So I didn''t get a chance to ask you but all you k-nines look the same to me, not to be rude, just saying."


    "Oh, I''m a ''fox''" I respond, I personally didn''t enjoy being called just the name of an animal as that''s clearly not all that I am, but to be fair it was by far the quickest and easiest so I eventually just learned to deal with it. Lewis looked at me almost studying me until looking away and he seemed to have found someone he was looking for as he started chatting with them across a few chairs.


    Eventually the auditorium cleared enough for me to make my way to my first "class". When I arrived at the gym, because some demon decided my first "class" was going to be physical training, like I get the point but really? There were already a few people who were stretching as the coach had yet to arrive. The students gave me glances one by one all before each individually deciding to continue with their stretches.


    Not know what to do I just found somewhere to sit as I waited "patiently".


    "Oh hey Lilith! I didn''t think I''d be in the same um, first class? What did they call it again? Well you get the point." I looked up to see Sandra leaning against the wall next to me before she continued, "I wonder what''s physical education going to be like? I heard from a couple of the others who''ve been here that this class is honestly just ''do whatever to make the coach happy'' and not in a good way." She continues to ramble as I stop paying attention to her and not before too long, the coach walks in through the door.


    "Welcome to your first day," The coach teased, with a frightening smile plastered across his face, ''This is going to be rough''.