The lecture hall was half-filled. Julia took a seat in the rightmost column, in the first seat. The desks had some scribbles on them. The distance between seats differed according to their height on the steps. Julia looked all around. There were students of all sorts. Julia didn’t expect the white-haired guy to be sitting behind her, but he was indeed sitting there.

  The shade of his hair complements his skin tone well..

  He was tapping his nails on the desk, with his eyes looking down and the other hand on his chin. He was wearing a grey shirt with white leaves on them. His trousers were black.

  She took a deep breath.

  I can’t be in my comfort zone forever.

  “N-Nice to meet you,” said Julia.

  He looked upward to see her face. His expression changed from a blank to a slight smile.

  “It’s nice to meet you too,” he said.

  “I’m Julia… You?” she said.

  “I’m Silvio,” he said.

  The instructor entered and so Julia turned to face her. She was plump, had black hair, a light green floor-length dress with puffed sleeves, a flower-adorned wooden wand, and small round purple wings.

  “Hello everyone, I’m Jill Kacey, Associate Professor here at UMCA, and I’m sure you’ve guessed that I’m a fairy,” she said.

  “Can you fly?” asked a girl in the next column.

  She had golden hair tied into twin tails, wearing overalls, had a blue stain on her face, and was carrying paintbrushes in the front pocket of her denim overalls.

  “Indeed, but I wouldn’t want to crash into anything right now,” said Professor Kacey.

  Julia watched as the girl quickly sketched a flying cockroach on her lined notebook page. Professor Kacey went on and on about her introduction. It started with her talking about how much fun this course would be, but her voice was flat and soothing and made a good sleep-inducing lullaby.

  “Now, who wants to go first? I’ll need one magic major and one non-magic major to demonstrate,” said Professor Kacey.

  “Me! I’m a non-magic student, Light-type,” said the blonde girl next to her.

  “Okay, and one magic student please?” said Professor Kacey.

  There was no response.

  “Julia, you’re a witch, right?” said Silvio.

  “Yes, but…” said Julia.

  The blonde girl got up and stood in front of Julia’s desk.

  “Come on!” she said, raising her fists.

  The class giggled.

  “I’m coming,” said Julia.

  She was rising at a slow pace until the blonde girl dragged her by the arm towards Professor Kacey. Julia thought she was going to trip and fall at any moment. The class was behaving as though it was some sort of circus act, with laughter all across. Julia didn’t understand what the big deal was.

  “Tell me your names,” said Professor Kacey.

  “I’m Julia and I’m a witch,” she said.

  Julia had her hands clasped together and was avoiding eye contact.

  “I’m Sunshine and an artist. I can paint you for a cheap cost,” she said.

  “We’re not here to advertise,” said Julia.

  Even Professor Kacey giggled. She then wiped her tears with a handkerchief because she was laughing too much.

  “Anyway, I’ll show you how you can transform one of you into your true self. The spell chooses at random the person who will transform via the magic source. Do you have your wand yet?” said Professor Kacey.

  “No, not yet,” said Julia.

  “No problem. Sunshine, you can use your paintbrush as a wand while Julia chants an incantation. Let’s see if I can find the witch spell handout,” said Professor Kacey.

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  Professor Kacey began shuffling her papers about and kept a page aside. Then she organized the rest of the papers and kept them back on the table.

  For a long time, Julia was reading. Sunshine stomped her foot on the ground while looking into the distance.

  “Are you done yet?” said Sunshine.

  “I’m reading the instructions,” said Julia.

  “Let me see,” said Sunshine, snatching the paper.

  Sunshine scanned her eyes on the page.

  “Dear, it’s only two paragraphs. Let’s do this already,” said Sunshine.

  Julia swallowed her spit and took the piece of paper back as she was trembling

  “Show us the true power, not for one hour but forever and ever,” said Julia.

  Sunshine waved around her wide and flat paintbrush and then bonked Julia on the head with it.

  “Ouch,” said Julia.

  The class laughed and clapped. Julia swirled around, and her dress transformed into a pink, brown, and wine-red slightly cropped, cold-shoulder top with a strawberry motif and matching skirt, which had a belt and a buckle. It turned her shoes into wine-red tea party shoes, and fishnet gloves appeared. Strawberry earrings appeared on her lobes, and a wine-red witch hat with a ribbon and strawberry pin came out of nowhere, floated, and landed on her head. Sunshine’s mouth was open as she observed all of this.

  “Ooh, a strawberry witch,” said Sunshine, smiling.

  “Thank you dears, we’ll take one more pair and end the class,” said Professor Kacey.

  Julia ran over to her desk and yelled, “Silvio is next!”

  “Wait, what?” said Silvio.

  “Revenge,” whispered Julia.

  Silvio face-palmed and said, “Fine.”

  He stood up and dragged his feet towards the front.

  “Non-magic, my major is defense. I’m Silvio,” said Silvio.

  “Any magic major up for it?” said the Professor.

  “Me,” said a boy with ash hair that had purple undertones.

  He was an inch taller than Julia and looked more like a middle school student or younger. He had a cheerful expression.

  “I’m a fairy boy, and my name is Arthur,” he said.

  The two of them cast the fairy spell together.

  Silvio’s clothes quickly changed to a black half-sleeved, zippered jacket, with white cargo pants, a chain at the belt loops with leaf motifs, a sky blue orb pendant, black shoes, and most important of all, a strange sword.

  At this moment, everyone clapped, especially the girls, as Julia noted.

  The fairy boy sighed.

  “I’m sorry it wasn’t you,” said Silvio.

  “No problem,” said Arthur, smiling.

  Silvio looked around before asking, “Umm, how do I change back?”

  “There is a button somewhere on your costume,” said Professor Kacey

  “Ah,” Said Silvio, pressing the button on his pendant.

  He changed back at once.

  “The transformation does not always work, but if it does, you can summon it anytime with a spell, which we will learn in the next class,” said Professor Kacey.

  The Professor left. Julia, Silvio, and Sunshine packed up and walked out of the class.

  “Oh, my goodness! Art class!” yelled Sunshine.

  Sunshine raced across while her backpack looked like it would fall off at any moment.

  “Aren’t you going to change back?” said Silvio.

  “No,” said Julia.

  “Okay,” said Silvio.

  The two of them walked toward the cafeteria since both of them didn’t have classes for a few hours. It was almost noon. The sunshine was bright, and the hat shielded Julia well. It was, however, hot and suffocating.

  “That book of yours looks heavy,” said Silvio.

  “It is,” said Julia.

  “Julia, there you are,” said Cole.

  Cole was resting against the wall with his arms crossed.

  The three of them were in front of the cafeteria, which was within a white building.

  “I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” said Cole.

  “But why?” said Julia.

  Julia noticed he was carrying a dark blue messenger bag and had a brown one in his hands.

  “Lindsey remarked this morning about you not having a bag. At that moment, I remembered I had a spare satchel. If you don’t have a bag, please accept it. I know it’s probably not your style. But in my opinion, it’ll suit you well,” said Cole.

  “Thank you so much,” said Julia.

  “You’ll accept it?” said Cole.

  “Of course,” said Julia.

  Cole smiled. Julia put her belongings in the bag.

  “I gotta go. Nice hat, by the way,” said Cole, leaving.

  A fresh breeze blew as the two of them entered the cafeteria.

  “Is he a friend?” asked Silvio.

  “Yes,” said Julia.

  “Oh, good. I thought it might be a stalker,” said Silvio.

  “Why would you think that?” said Julia.

  Silvio sighed and frowned.

  “I’ve got a bit of history with a stalker myself,” said Silvio.

  “Sounds scary,” said Julia.

  “I’ll tell you someday if you don’t tell anyone,” said Silvio.

  “I’m good at keeping secrets, don’t worry,” said Julia.

  The two of them bought food, and Julia was grateful that the food was cheap to be bought with a few coins. The two of them spent their meal in silence.