Chapter 10

Gazza had to smile at Bette on their first day of school.

While he hadn’t attended a university back on Earth, the only real difference he could discern was that the kids were older here. Although, with the range of heights, the younger looks and slower maturity of some of the races, this too was debatable.

The first-year students were herded into a large auditorium. Here they were told how privileged they were to be attending Ant University, (even if no Ant had actually ever attended as a student). They were given the rules for behaviour and told of the punishments if they didn’t behave.

They got the speech that the professors weren’t there to hold their hands or wipe their noses; they were supposed to be adults, so act like it. They were expected to turn up on time for any lecture or lab they were assigned to be in. Assignment due dates were not negotiable and cheaters would be tossed out on their ears.

The most interesting rule as far as Gazza and Bette were concerned was that magic could only be performed in the fenced off area that the Magicians building was located in. They later learnt that the area actually had a shield over it to stop stray spells from affecting the rest of the campus.

Gazza’s little family also learned that their coordinator (the person to whom they could take their troubles to) was Dean Art Michel himself. They did get some odd looks from several other students when they were told to report to him before attending their first class. The fact that Basil and Petal were riding on their shoulders also elicited a lot of comments.

When they walked past one group, a young man called out to Gazza, “Hey! You’re not supposed to bring your pets to school.”

Gazza smiled and replied, “Oh, sorry. Basil wasn’t aware that he couldn’t bring me with him. He says to tell you that I’m not a pet; he is just too lazy to write out the notes, himself.”

Several of the young people chuckled or giggled. Basil snickered on Gazza’s shoulder and flicked the back of his head with an open palm. “Sorry, we would love to stop and chat but my boss doesn’t wish to be late for class.”

He and Bette walked off and left the group wondering if he was just a smart arse or what? Some of them later wondered what his and Bette’s game was. The flickers were still with the couple in the first class and they were paying the lecturer as much attention as the couple were.

Quite a few of the students also determined that the couple were discussing the lecture with the flickers, and the flickers did watch them take notes. In one of the classes later that day, Basil even pointed to something on Gazza’s paper and sniggered at Gazza’s groan and then his furious rubbing out of the problem.

They were all startled when the lecturer said, “Mr White, do you have a problem?”

“No sir, Basil was just pointing out that I can’t count and I’d made a mistake in the answer,” Gazza answered.

The lecturer raised a brow. “So Basil, what is the correct answer?” Basil flashed up both hands three times and then added three more fingers. The lecturer said to Gazza, “Did you communicate that action to him?”

“No sir, Basil has a good head for numbers, how else can he keep track of all his wives, servants and children,” Gazza answered, tongue in cheek.

This caused many to snigger and even the lecturer had a hard time keeping the grin off his face. It was common knowledge that a Prime could have many of each in their tribe. They got on with the lesson and the class got used to the odd group who had sat in the middle and towards the front of the class.

Their day was scheduled with three subjects in the morning, lunch and then two subjects in the afternoon. The sixth and last lesson on any day was a magical studies class. Bette and Gazza’s classes had to cover ten core subjects and magic. The first two days ran exactly the same and covered five of the subjects. The next pair of days covered the next five subjects and then the students had two days off to end their week.

The students in Bette and Gazza’s classes were considered the elite of the students in their year and there were only sixteen of them plus the flickers. For most of these students, the subjects in this term were mostly revision.

For some, they were a lot of hard work.

Bette and Petal caused a bit of a stir in their first magic lesson.

The lecturer, Mr Coats, handed out notes and told them to study the spells for the next day and to read the safety instructions because they would be strictly adhered to or they got tossed out of magic classes. He then harped on about safety and rules at the University and how privileged they were and not to abuse that privilege. Gazza threw Mr Coats for a bit of a loop when he asked him who the ‘One People’ were, as the inscription on his medallion had been bugging him.

“Well, we are the One People,” the lecturer replied. “All of the races From Keltria.”

“So, sentient beings like the Flicker race and the Ants aren’t of the One People?” Bette asked.

“No of course not, they are not people. Their races aren’t capable of magic anyway,” Coats replied as if that was obvious.

“So because they aren’t capable of magic then they aren’t people, is that what you are saying?” Bette asked with narrowed eyes.

“Well, exactly,” the lecturer said pompously.

“So what if they could wear magical items and they could do magic?” she then asked.

Gazza looked at Basil with concern only to find it wasn’t he who acted. He heard Petal move. She dropped off Bette’s desk and scuttled over to the desk beside the lecturer. She jumped up onto his table and once she had his attention, she put out her hand. Gasps could be heard when the pencil from his pocket rose up and flew to Petal. Gazza shook his head as Basil snickered beside him.

The lecturer turned and snarled at Bette, “Young lady that is not funny.”

“Sir, I didn’t do anything. Did you feel the magic come from me?” Bette shot back. “Have a look at Petal’s hand, Professor.”

The man frowned. Petal opened her palm and let the pencil float back towards him. As he went to grab it, she twirled a finger and the pencil began to rotate. She stopped it and then lifted a finger up and down, so the pencil danced in the air. She then stopped it so he could grab it. Happy she had gotten her point across; she jumped down and returned to Bette’s desk.

The professor turned to Gazza and Basil, and snarled, “Let me guess, he is a Novice too.”

Basil put out his hand to show the ring and had the gems appear so the lecturer could see them. Coats gasped because he knew only a magical ring could hide the gems on it and the wearer had to be able to control it. Basil then turned his hand over and a small light-ball formed on his hand. This caused the whole class to gasp.

Basil tossed it up and down like a ball but it didn’t touch his hand and stayed at least several centimetres above it. He then threw his hand out and pointed above the professor. The ball streaked towards the man. Basil made a stop-motion and the ball settled just over the top of the professor’s head. Basil then snapped his fingers and the ball shrunk until it disappeared.

If the rest of the class had believed that Gazza or Bette where doing the magic, then Basil had disillusioned them. His actions were those of someone who knew exactly what he was doing. Petal had also acted as if she had been in control.

The group that had heard Gazza’s remarks earlier that day started to wonder if Gazza and Bette were the servants of the flickers. They had been watching them work with the flickers all day and they had seen Basil’s counting trick earlier. They all wondered just how smart the flickers actually were; after all, they were in college.

“Sir, didn’t Dean Mitchel tell you why the flickers were coming to school with us?” Gazza had to ask.

“No ... no, he didn’t. Professor Gibbs was supposed to take you today but his earlier class had some small problems. I was asked to take over at the last minute,” Coats replied very shaken by what he had observed. Few if any first-years’ attended class ever wore magical items. Having these four in front with magical items was most unusual.

He was still shocked that the two flickers were so accomplished. He’d not missed the fact that they seemed to understand everything that been going on in the class. He’d also observed that Gazza and Bette also wore rings and wondered what gems were on them.

He had a diamond and he couldn’t levitate anything to save himself. He’d seen that Basil had two gems even though small, the flicker must have a lot of potential. Forming a light-ball was not as simple as many believed it was. Let alone the control he had over it. It was going to be an interesting year.

He dismissed the class so he could go find the Dean and chew on his ear.

Outside the class, the foursome found themselves the centre of attention.

One young lady asked, “It really was them doing the magic, wasn’t it? You weren’t joking earlier that you were bringing them here to learn magic and things, were you?”

Bette replied, “You can see they wear rings like we do. It’s not easy for them but they really are a lot smarter than people think. Just because they haven’t learnt to write and can’t read or talk very well doesn’t mean they can’t learn.”

“Well, at least one good thing is that we don’t have to compete against them or you for the items that are available,” one of the lads commented.

“No, we aren’t your competition in that regard. We are here simply to learn how to do the magic that we are capable of,” Bette informed them. She then offered, “We will help any of you if we can and if you wish us to.”

The others all nodded in agreement. Learning without items can be very frustrating but at least these people would understand some of their frustrations better than the lecturers would since they would be experiencing many of them with them.

Bette and Gazza were relieved that their classmates wanted to get along with them.

The happy group trudged home from school.

Strictly speaking, the flickers only needed to be at school for the last lesson but after the first day they were emphatic, they wanted to keep going to school. Bette and Gazza didn’t have the heart to tell them no. So the flickers went to school every day.

By the end of the first week, the flickers were simply accepted or just plain ignored by the lecturers. The Dean had smoothed the way and made sure the more obnoxious lecturers didn’t teach their classes. The foursome didn’t cause any more intentional disruptions that week.

The other students had also gotten the chance to get used to the foursome. Gazza and Bette studied hard and so did the flickers since they were learning to read. The other students in their classes also considered that these classmates were extra special and they rallied around Bette, Gazza and the flickers.

Their work ethic also rubbed off onto the other students. While some of the lectures found their questions and knowledge off-putting, the other students were encouraged to ask questions too and many interesting discussions were generated in their classes. Getting Basil or Petal’s points of view from Gazza and Bette also became the norm.

For Bette, since she hadn’t had the formal lessons in her upbringing, she found many gaps in her knowledge to fill. For Gazza, he’d not been in school for several years and he had a lot of gaps as far as local knowledge went but a higher level of education in the sciences in particular.

For Petal and Basil, while they loved the lectures and they were learning a lot, they mostly wanted to learn how to read better and learn how to write. Linda became a godsend here. Linda was a retired secondary school teacher. She had taught just about every subject during her long career.

Most evenings, Basil and Petal sat in her lap and she taught them to read and write. They had found that if they were touching her, she could understand them as if she was talking out loud to them and the lessons went ahead in leaps and bounds. Bette and Gazza had no compunction about picking Linda’s brains when she was with them.

By the end of the month, the flickers had their written ABC’s down pat and they were learning to form words and simple sentences. They had also found they could say some of the simple words or had a sound that the others soon associated with a particular word or action. This was speeding up their ability to communicate with the lecturers and other classmates.

The small family had gotten into the swing of being students and even found more time to practice their magic. They all felt the magic lessons were going slow and they were learning as much out of school as in it. Linda and the magical books that Gazza and Bette had, helped them all a lot.

Some of the most important lessons were how to pronounce the words in their spell books. Linda helped them a lot here. They hadn’t realised that a miss pronunciation could be disastrous. Some of the spells could be done in your head but some needed props or ingredients and the correct words said to do them properly.

The magic lessons covered all of the magical disciplines at this stage and they wouldn’t begin to concentrate on their specialities until the following term. A lot of the time was spent on learning simple control techniques. While Bette and Gazza could do harder spells, they had learnt these techniques were designed to assist no matter what discipline you had and they had benefited greatly from them.