“I understand that there are defining physical differences between species that make it difficult to run the class, but physical education is an important part of life for everyone. We can’t cut PE classes just because the [Werewolves] and [Bloodhounds] are out running the [Dwarves] and [Golems] by such a large margin,” Fletcher stated succinctly as he stood before the room full of all of Bren’it’p’s high school principals and vice-principals. “These kids are going to spend their whole lives working and living around people of other species, and there are always going to be natural advantages and disadvantages. It’s better they learn to deal with that now.”

  Brenzo stood to the side, the [Dragonist] nodding in agreement. The concerns in regards to species advantage in the classroom had been something they’d been discussing nonstop since Fletcher’s arrival in Bren’it’p three weeks before.

  “But, Mr. Anders, none of the other students enjoy going up against those who are so much more athletic. It’s simply not fair to them,” the principal who had been most adamant about doing away with PE altogether argued.

  “Then find a way to make it fun. Or better yet, teach them that taking care of their physical health might not always be fun, and sometimes they just have to do what’s best for themselves anyway,” Brenzo said in his deep, heavy voice.

  Most of the room muttered in agreement, just as they always did whenever Brenzo made a point. In general, few took Fletcher seriously, one of the biggest frustrations of this position, but one he hoped would fade away the more time he spent in it.

  “I think that settles everything. We’ll wrap things up here until we meet again in another two weeks,” Fletcher declared, happy to be finished with the formal part of the meeting. Now all that was left was surviving the refreshment and chat time that followed, something put in place to allow principals to easily interact with each other and the city’s education managers.

  He took his time gathering his notes as Brenzo headed directly to the backroom where the principals and other assistant administrators were going. The less time he’d have to spend forcing small talk, the better.

  Eventually Fletcher did have to face his fate, however, and once the notes were secured in his backpack, he too went to the noisy reception hall where everyone had already split into their various conversation groups. Knarf remained in a corner, watching but giving Fletcher space to do what he needed to do.

  His plan was to just grab a cup of narn, wait a few minutes to see if anyone was going to approach him, and then sneak out so he could get back to his office and the mountain of paperwork that he needed to finish by the end of the day.

  As he sipped his drink, he glanced around and noted that Brenzo was in the middle of the largest group, the center of attention as he answered their questions. He supposed it was nice that the school administrators had someone they felt comfortable around to speak to about all their concerns, but it did irk Fletcher just a little when he considered himself a better resource. Brenzo’s experience came from having attended summer academies and a single year of a full-time program which, while valid, was considerably less than Fletcher’s twelve years in public school, college degree, and three years of teaching.

  Once he deemed enough time passed, he started towards the door, but before he could reach it, someone called out to him.

  “Mr. Anders!” Rebma, the [Ogre] vice-principal of East River High School in the city, motioned him over to her group. She had lilac colored skin and a brown mane not quite as large as Knarf’s. Fletcher had never asked his bodyguard, but he always wondered if she was considered attractive by [Ogre] standards.

  “Vice-Principal Rebma. Principal Hoa’rse, Principal Cran,” Fletcher acknowledged everyone in the circle.

  Principal Hoa’rse, a female [Goblin] with gray skin and half a dozen earrings in each ear. She ducked her head towards him.

  Principal Cran, an [Elf] with silver hair and markings on his tan skin. He shook Fletcher’s hand with a smile.

  “Mr. Anders, we were just talking about how you noticeably didn’t address the difference in maturity rates and how schools are meant to handle that. I mean, given that a [Goblin] is in what you would call their ‘teenage’ years for nearly two decades whereas a [Bloodhound] spends perhaps two years in that phase, how are we supposed to design a curriculum that will satisfy the educational needs of both parties?” Principal Hoa’rse said very pointedly.

  Fletcher forced a smile. He should have seen this coming. This had been the biggest complaint from all schools from the moment the education program was established, but the truth was, there was no simple fix for it.

  “We didn’t address it since we haven’t quite come to an agreement about how to address it. It’s a valid question, but there’s not one easy way to answer it. We are working closely with teachers, principals, and administrators from other areas to find a good solution, but that takes time, so for now, I don’t have anything to offer in regards to that.” He thought it was a safe, diplomatic answer.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, Mr. Anders,” Principal Cran began, “how old are you? I’m not very familiar with the Human aging system.”

  Of course he wouldn’t be as an [Elf] who would live for nearly a thousand years, among the longest of all Unhumans.

  Fletcher chuckled. “Oh, no. I made the mistake of sharing that information once with some of my Unhuman students. Never again.”

  “Boo. Come now, Mr. Anders. We’re professionals,” Vice-principal Remba encouraged him.

  The others joined her in begging for an answer.

  He sighed, recognizing he wasn’t going to get out of it. “Okay. Okay. Just remember that Humans are on the short end of the life-scale. We age pretty fast compared to the rest of you guys.” Taking another breath, he admitted the truth. “I’m twenty-five. And a half. I turn twenty-six in February.”

  Their faces became ones of amusement mixed with surprise. Cran actually spit part of his drink out.

  “Twenty-five? You can’t be serious,” he sputtered.

  Fletcher bit his lip, remembering how poorly this had gone with his students. It’d taken half the summer to regain their respect for him as a figure of authority.

  “Forgive us. It’s just that…” Remba shook her head. “Well, at least a tenth of the students in our high schools are older than you. You understand how off putting that is.”

  Generally all Unhumans lived longer than Humans. The majority, like [Werewolves], [Elves], and [Jinn] matured at the same rate and then spent a long time in their adult years. Others, like [Orcs], [Goblins], and [Dragonists] took two or three times as long to reach maturity. The only three species Fletcher knew of that lived shorter lives than his kind were [Ghouls], [Bloodhounds], and [Insectoids].

  “No, I do. But I’m very much an adult among my people, and I promise that I’m well-qualified to be here.” It sounded empty as it left his mouth, but there was only so much he could do now. He cleared his throat. “I would appreciate it if this maybe didn’t become common knowledge.”

  All three nodded and agreed, sharing smiles that he didn’t quite trust.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have some work to attend to. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to address the curriculum problem within the next couple of months. I’ll let you know as soon as we have any ideas for it.”

  With that, he was finally able to make his escape from the reception hall on the bottom floor of the building and climb the five flights of stairs to where his office and the paperwork waited.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Nanti was sitting at her desk outside his office, and she glanced up with a smile.

  “Good timing, Mr. Anders. Miss Beam is here to see you. I sent her into your office to wait,” the [Dwarf] informed him.

  He smiled and nodded. Beam stopped by at least four times a week to check in with him, but it’d been a few days since he’d last seen her. Stepping inside, he found the pretty, golden woman sitting at his desk in his nice chair, flipping through the sudoku book he kept on hand for when he needed a break from things.

  “Wrong seat,” he said, crossing his arms.

  “Fletching! It’s about time. You know, it’s rude to keep guests waiting for so long.” Beam set the book down. “But now I’m being rude. Please, take a seat.” She gestured to the two chairs situated across the desk.

  Rolling his eyes, Fletcher sat down in one, disappointed with how uncomfortable they were. “What’s new? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

  The [Jinn] laughed. “Trust me, I learned my lesson on leaving you alone for more than a day. Deities, Fletch, I take one small trip outside the city and you manage to nearly start the Third Unhuman War twice.”

  “Oh. It wasn’t that bad. Whatever you heard was an exaggeration.”

  “Including the part about you almost drowning in a fountain?” She raised one eyebrow.

  Fletcher ran a hand over his face in embarrassment. “Maybe not that part.”

  “Tsk, tsk. You should know better than to piss off a [Yeti]. I mean, really—”

  “I don’t want to talk about this, Beam, alright? I’ve had to rehash this same story four times already today, and I’m not in the mood to do it again.” He cut her off and then leaned back with an unhappy sigh.

  It was hard enough convincing himself that it was still safe to walk out his door as it was, and discussing the incident over and over again made it difficult to believe it. He’d been angry enough the night before to even pull out the journal from General Taki. He didn’t write anything down, but he’d come awfully close to it.

  “Someone’s grumpy today,” Beam muttered to herself. “Light’s going to love hearing about this.”

  “Light?” Fletcher questioned, his tired, stressed mind not thinking clearly. “Oh, Sunlight.”

  “Why are you so formal with her? She calls you ‘Fletcher,’” she asked.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Sunlight? Instead of Light? Her name is Light. Sun is just her surname, like Anders is for you. Technically I’m Sunbeam,” the [Jinn] explained.

  He stared at her, chewing his bottom lip. “She never told me that. Everyone called her Sunlight, so I did the same.” It made sense now that he knew, but the problem with Unhumans was that every species had their own culture and within that were various subcultures, which made it nearly impossible to learn everything about them all. He’d always thought he knew [Jinns] well, but clearly he still had a lot to learn.

  “Eh, you’ll figure it out. I’m sure it’s hard trying to keep all these Unhuman ways in your brain when you have school to worry about.” Beam winked. “Speaking of, I actually have a question for you about Human customs.”

  “Fire away,” Fletcher said. It was nice to hang out with Beam since she actually treated him like a normal person.

  “How do Humans go about mating?”

  Fletcher stared at her in disbelief. This definitely wasn’t an appropriate conversation to have in the workplace. Not to mention, Fletcher wasn’t exactly the guy to ask about that kind of thing. Given his whole Hexing thing, he’d dated only a little and definitely never taken a girl home. His second greatest secret, right next to being Hexed, was that despite being almost twenty-six years old, he was still a virgin.

  “Um, I suppose the way anyone else does,” he answered after several beats of awkward silence. “I’m not sure this is a conversation we really need to have.”

  “Are Humans really so uncomfortable about mating? It’s such a normal part of life. Do you guys keep it a secret or something?”

  “I’m not sure I’d say a secret, but it’s not just something we openly discuss. It’s considered private. Very private.” Heat rushed to his face.

  “Are you always so awkward?”

  “Are you always so blunt?”

  “I just don’t know why you have to act so weird about it. I mean, what do you guys do in order to find the person you want to be with for the rest of your life? Do you just secretly meet with them and form a family without telling anyone? I genuinely don’t understand,” Beam continued.

  Fletcher paused and then slapped his forehead. “Deities, I’m an idiot.” The Unhuman version of marriage was called “mating.”

  Beam glanced at him with questioning eyes.

  He sighed. “We call it dating. The thing where you spend time with someone, fall in love, marry them, have kids, all that stuff. That’s what you’re referring to, right?”

  The [Jinn] nodded with an amused smile. “What else would I have been referring to?” She laughed as the realization dawned on her. “Oh, you didn’t think… Deities, Fletcher, how crass do you take me to be?”

  “Mating means something different to Humans, alright? Chalk it up to cultural differences, and let’s move on,” he said as the blush finally faded away.

  “Not until you answer my question,” Beam declared as she crossed her arms.

  He chuckled and shook his head. “You go first. Tell me about how Unhumans do things, and then I’ll tell you about my people’s ways.”

  She faked an eye roll. “Fine. But only because if I don’t tell you, you’ll probably never have the courage to ask someone else. With Unhumans, we’re direct and say that we’re interested in mate potential. If the other party is also interested, it’s just a matter of testing physical and emotional compatibility over the span of a few months to years before deciding to officially mate.”

  “Physical compatibility being…” Fletcher inferred.

  “Intercourse,” Beam confirmed.

  “So how long do you wait before testing that out, on average? I’m sure it varies from species to species.” Maybe it was weird to talk about Unhuman sex habits, but Fletcher was curious, and it wasn’t something he was ever going to learn from a textbook.

  “Uh, until you have privacy and space for such things. So depending on the situation a few hours to a few days.” Beam’s voice held a note of confusion. “And honestly, this applies to every species except [Ghouls] who reproduce by themselves and [Dragonists] who are incompatible with any other species.”

  He did remember [Ghoul] reproduction being covered in school only because it was so interesting and different. When a [Ghoul] reached the end of their life at twenty years old exactly, their head separated from their body, and the pieces regrew into two new [Ghouls] as “offspring.” He had no idea about what made [Dragonists] incompatible, and he wasn’t brave enough to dive into that conversation, so all he did was nod.

  Given that Unhuman society was what he associated with olden times, he was surprised with how modern and free their dating culture was in regards to sex.

  “So do you date outside species? How does that work with kids?” Fletcher asked, willing to take the conversation into more of a biological direction.

  “Children take the species of the mother. Why wouldn’t we date between species? Humans date among races, no?”

  “Yeah. I guess race seems to be less of a barrier than entire species, but it does make sense,” he agreed.

  “Exactly. Now what about Humans?” Beam leaned forward, putting her head in her hands as she smiled at Fletcher with that same look of teasing.

  “Well it’s somewhat similar, though maybe less direct. Typically if you’re interested in someone in a romantic way, you’d ask them on a date, where you just talk and get to know each other. If that goes well you go on a few more before making it an official relationship. Then if that lasts, you marry, and around then is when most people have kids and form a family,” Fletcher summarized, finding it difficult to condense all of Humans weird habits into a few sentences. Beam made Unhuman dating culture seem so straightforward, which was very opposite of Humans in Fletcher’s experience.

  “You wait until you have committed to each other for life before having sex?” Beam asked in surprise.

  “No, not necessarily. That’s just when people actually use it for reproduction. Honestly, it varies from person to person. Some people are willing to go that far after the first date, others wait until marriage, but for a lot of people, it’s somewhere in the middle,” he answered.

  “And where do you fit on that scale?”

  Fletcher thought for a moment about how to answer. Having a serious relationship was one of those things he swore off as a way of protecting his secret, so he didn’t have a good answer to it. He had one girlfriend in high school and another in college, but neither made it to the point that he thought about that kind of thing given the risk of exposing his Hexing. “I suppose I’m with the middle crowd. I can’t say that there’s a specific measure, but in general, it’s when I have strong feelings for the person and want to have a full relationship with them.”

  “I see,” Beam said. “The concept of formal dates is weird, but I think there is something to be said about quantifying things. It’s just a matter of asking?”

  Fletcher nodded. “Yeah. It can be a bit stressful since someone might say no, but most people will go on at least one date with someone.”

  “So, will you go on a date with me?” Beam asked.

  “Yeah. That’s all there is to it. I guess it doesn’t sound hard to do it in practice,” he replied with a smile.

  “Is that a yes?”

  Fletcher paused as it dawned on him just how stupid he’d been yet again. “Yes, Beam. I’d love to.”

  She laughed, and he sensed the relief in her tone. He had to admit, she was beautiful.

  “Why don’t we have dinner? That’s a pretty safe first date. Meet me outside after work, and we’ll go to a restaurant of your choosing,” Fletcher offered as it occurred to him that she probably had no idea what to do now.

  “That sounds nice. Thank you.” She stood up. “I should get back to work. This was a good chat, Fletching.”

  “See you later, Sun-beam,” he replied. He opened the door for her as she walked out, and she shot him one last smile as she went to the stairs. Fletcher watched her go with his own grin before realizing Nanti was staring.

  “Everything alright, Mr. Anders?” the [Dwarf] asked.

  “Fine, Nanti,” he answered. “Maybe better than fine.”