First Day Blues

“Everyone, we have a new member joining our pre-scouts class today. Please introduce yourself,” the pre-scouts teacher announced.

Ah so many people. I could see countless faces opposite me as I stood in front of the classroom. There were faces I recognised like Jamie’s, Magia’s and Rosette’s among others and there was many I didn’t recognise at all. Some people I was happy to see and others… not so much.

This brought back memories, of awkward self-introductions and weird social settings from my old world. I have to make a good first impression.

I let loose a big, toothy grin. "Hey, I'm Reno. Nice to meet you all!" I bowed slightly as I introduced myself, a habit from my past life.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

I looked around and saw Rosette smiling, Jamie and Bill with their thumbs up and even Finn was clapping too. See, that wasn’t so bad now was it, Reno?

“Where should I sit?” I turned to the teacher, Mrs Rose.

“How about—“

“Here! Here! He can sit next to me!” Jamie flung his hand into the air and called me over to the seat next to him.

“Not over there.” She said softly, smiling. He probably didn’t have the most well-behaved reputation judging from her reaction. Just what I’d expect from Jamie.

“How about that empty seat over there?” She pointed to a seat at the back of the classroom away from Jamie who was sat at the front. “Next to Magia.”

I looked around for the seat and just like she mentioned, Magia was beside it. She seemed happy to see me but at the same time slightly apprehensive. Was something wrong? I walked to my new seat.

“Hey, is everything alright?” I said to Magia as I sat down. She nodded slightly. I’ll take her word for it.

“Today we’ll be doing some maths okay everyone? We’ll start by practicing our times tables.” The teacher, Mrs Rose picked up a piece of chalk from her stand and begun writing slowly. She wrote the times tables all the way up to twelve times twelve.

“Make sure you learn all of these for the test a month from now, okay?”

“Okay!” everyone said in unison.

Homework, already? And a test?

“I’ll hand out a worksheet with problems on them, work on it with the person next to you if you get stuck.” Mrs Rose walked through the classroom handing a sheet out to everyone without fail. Well this was fairly normal, I thought we’d be learning more about magic and stuff.

Once she’d handed out all the sheets the classroom burst to life and everyone began talking—mainly about the work. Probably.

I turned to Magia who was beside me. “Don’t we learn about magic?” I asked quietly. Sure maths was cool and all but it wasn’t nearly as cool as magic. And it definitely wasn’t comparable to biology either.

“The older ones should be starting now, like Rosette.” Magia said softly. “Us first years just learn maths and basic literacy skills, like reading and writing.”

“Oh is that how it works?” she nodded. Makes sense—guess magic would have to come later. I put my pen to paper and started answering the worksheet leisurely.

It’d been about a year and a half since I stumbled into Butter Town and met Magia and the Little Dreamers. Somewhere along the way, I stopped feeling like a visitor and just… started living here.

I still dream about my old life sometimes, but never in full. Just fragments—always the same day, replayed like a scratched CD. No new details, no new answers.

Training filled the rest of my time. Glyffe had me swinging that wooden sword every day until my arms nearly fell off. I used to think a hundred swings was brutal but now two hundred was my warmup.

Before training, I’d go for runs. At first it was just me, then Glyffe joined in, calling it a “good habit”. Eventually Silvia tagged along too and before I knew it, morning runs turned into our family bonding activity.

I’d had a few more magic lessons with Cindy too before she returned to the academy. She taught me all the intermediate spells for the five elements. I’d also learned healing and barrier magic but only up until the beginner level, I had Glyffe and Silvia to thank for teaching me those.

Beginner spells don’t drain me as much anymore, but intermediates are still a nightmare. Too flashy, too costly, and way too dangerous if you mess up. They weren’t just ‘bigger versions’—they could actually hurt people.

Right now I could pull off about three intermediate spells before I ran dry. Not bad, I guess, but it felt like I’d hit a wall. My soul strength and my mana pool were limiting me but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. It wasn’t as if some mythical treasure was gonna suddenly fall into my lap just because I needed it.

At this rate, in a year or two I’ll max out my mana pool and cap out at being able to use about eight intermediate spells. That’s… fine. But also terrifying.

I asked Silvia about it once but she just smiled that ‘I’m already planning something’ smile and said that we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.

Another big development over the past year and a half was Daphne.

I’d tried everything to get her to evolve—feeding her rare plants, weird plants, even ‘don’t-ask-where-I-found-this’ plants. Nothing worked. Her storage maxed out at a hundred and ten flowers, and it just… stayed there.

Still, I filled every slot with something unique. If you name a plant within a mile of Butter Town, I’d probably have it tucked away inside Daphne with multiple backup seeds catalogued. I’m basically a walking greenhouse now.

The problem is, it looks like Daphne’s evolution won’t budge without something stronger than rare. Magical plants. Stuff that only grows in dangerous mana-rich places that I don’t even quality to explore. But that’s a problem future me can worry about that.

In the meantime, I’ve been experimenting. Turns out Daphne can store lifeforms too… but only insects. Ladybugs, butterflies. That’s it. No rabbits, no birds.

Still, it made me wonder—if bugs work, what’s stopping me from building an entire forest in there someday? Imagine it: my own private ecosystem. The Garden of Reno (Okay, maybe the name needs a little work).

For now though, I’m happy enough with a couple of butterflies fluttering around—and it was all thanks to The Plant Diaries.

What started as a dumb little notebook turned into an ever-growing tome of knowledge. Every day or two, the Little Dreamers and I would head out to catalogue plants and critters. We covered every pond, hill, and patch of forest around Butter Town.

Did you know there’s a butterfly here whose wings change colour with the temperature? Like a living on-the-go weather forecast? Tell me that’s not awesome.

Speaking of hobbies—I also picked up forging with Stox. Once or twice a week I’d visit his workshop and learn all the weird little tricks of the trade. By now I can carve out a passable wooden sword with just a knife, and I’ve even tried my hand at actual metalwork.

Later today I’m supposed to forge my first real sword. I wonder what I’ll call it… Plant Sword? No, too lame. I’ll let Glyffe or Stox name it—they’re good at that stuff.

Somewhere along the way, I got closer to people too. Magia especially. We’d meet up and talk books, which was always fun, though she kept acting flustered whenever I came over—like she was hiding something. I probably should’ve asked, but… eh. Books were enough.

Jamie too, of course, but surprisingly Relentia as well. Her nickname at the academy was “Wind Spirit’s Child”—Silvia told me that last year. Somewhat unsurprisingly, her familiar is a wind spirit, called Stormie. Cute, but not exactly on Daphne’s level—at least when it came to bloodline. And cuteness too, but don’t tell her I said that.

Still, Relentia was surprisingly helpful when it came to advice on familiars. Way more than I thought she’d be. She taught me a lot about how to steer Daphne’s growth in the right direction so, I owe her for that. I don’t think she minds though—she’s happy to help Silvia even indirectly.

“Wait Reno, you’re done already?” Magia’s voice came drifting by from beside me.

“Uhm… yeah.” I scratched my head, the pen in my hand flicking.

“Well, I should’ve expected that much.” She smiled. “It is you after all.”

After all of our Plant Diaries adventures, she could probably tell I was a lot smarter than the average kid my age. And now she, and all of the Little Dreamers, were much smarter than normal kids.

While they thought we were doing everything for fun, secretly I was teaching and training them to be my perfect helpers, all for the good and fair cause of science. We done various experiments and tests—before they knew what hit ‘em, baam, they were mini scientists.

“Do you need any help?” I looked over to her sheet, but it was also fully completed. “Doesn’t look like it.” She smiled.

“Okay that’s it for today, first years go eat at the cafeteria.” Mrs Rose said quietly.

“Okay!” All the first years said in unison as they got up to go and eat.

“Reno, come on, let’s go let’s go! We have to get the special noodles!” Jamie said as he raced from the opposite direction of the classroom. “Look we’re gonna be too late!” Jamie pointed to the door where countless other students were racing out of.

Leading the charge was a plump and chubby boy moving significantly faster than the rest of the crowd, despite his large stature. You really never change huh, Bill.

“Fine, I’m coming.” I said getting up. I paused, turning to Magia. “Are you coming too?”

She nodded.

“Wait, Reno. You stay behind.” Mrs Rose said her voice freezing the classroom. Even Bill who was running away froze for a moment, halting his advance.

“Uh-oh, someone’s in trouble already.” A voice came from the side.

“Zyra, why are you acting like you don’t stay behind every other day?” Jamie said making a face at her. Zyra was sitting a few rows ahead of us and she hadn’t gotten up to leave yet. She wasn’t a first year.

“W-what? I’ve never stayed behind once—right, Keira?” Keira nodded slowly.

“Hm.” Finn said in disagreement. Even Finn doesn’t believe you.

“It’s nothing like that, he’ll be joining the older years for this class.” Mrs Rose said instantly getting rid of the confusion. I’ll be staying for further classes?

“How is that fair?” Someone spoke up. “I wanted to move up this whole time and I couldn’t.”

“Rosette, it’s fair because he can already use magic.” Mrs Rose said patiently. A complaint from Rosette of all people? Now that was a rare sight. I looked closer at Rosette and then took a second glance at Mrs Rose. So that’s what’s going on, a family squabble is it. Best to stay clear of that.

“In fact this upcoming lesson is already too easy for him, he’s here as an example for you all.” She continued. Hey now, Mrs Rose, no need to add insult to injury. But too easy for me? Well now that I really thought about it, maybe it would be if it was only going to cover basic spells.

I sat back down. “Guess I have to stay, I’ll catch up with you all later.” I smiled at Jamie and co.

“Aww, fine then, we can eat together some other time. Are you coming Magia?” Jamie said turning his attention to our resident bookworm.

“Y-yes.” She nodded and left with Jamie and Finn. Bill was already nowhere to be seen and Phill had run off trying to catch him. Once all of the first years had left the room, Mrs Rose spoke up.

“Today we’ll be learning about basic spells, there’s…” she continued on speaking about things I’d already heard reiterated countless times by others by this point. So it’s just the same old same old, I sighed.

I looked around and everyone else was listening carefully with sparkles in their eyes, even Zyra and co. Was I too making that same face when I learned magic for the first time, I wondered. The answer to that was undoubtedly yes.

“Reno, can you demonstrate some magic for the class please?” Mrs Rose said gently. Huh, wait what—did I miss something? I have to demonstrate?

“O-of course.” I got up from my chair and stood in front of the half empty class again. S-scary, why are so many glaring daggers at me… maybe it’s my imagination. Half the class seemed excited to see magic and the other half seemed… jealous.

Jealous that the new boy was showing them up already or getting special treatment. I guess some things never changed…

“What should I demonstrate?” I turned to the teacher. “Just whatever you can do safely.” Safely huh? I guess that rules out all the intermediate spells I know. That just left beginner spells… in a classroom like this it was best to show something which wouldn’t affect the environment too much.

How about this?

I held my palm out, flipped it so it was facing upwards then raised my hand and chanted softly.

Light sphere.

Soon enough particles of light coagulated above my palm, dancing and merging together until they formed a miniature sun. It was best not to overdo it so as to not hurt anyone, and light magic was the easiest to use safely. Nice—brilliantly done if I do say so myself, I nodded, satisfied.

“This the beginner light spell, Light Sphere. By the end of this class you will all be able to use at least one beginner spell just like Reno.” Mrs Rose said inciting the class whose eyes were already gleaming with desire. “You can sit back down now Reno.”

“Oh, okay.” I nodded quickly. As I moved to sit down countless people stared at me, some with gazes of admiration and others with unfriendly looks. Rosette gave me a thumbs up—so she at least wasn’t mad at me earlier. Polia smiled at me, her eyes glinting with admiration, I waved at her.

She continued on with the lesson teaching the basics about mana and magic until finally it’d been about an hour.

“Alright, that is all. Class dismissed.” Everyone got up like clockwork and started to leave as fast as possible. Not wanting to be left behind I went too.

“Is that it?” I mumbled to myself. Just two lessons a day? Was that really enough? On the other hand, Butter Town was a small town out the countryside, so it wasn’t exactly going to be the most prestigious of educations.

All pre-scouts were meant for was to teach the basics of literacy, maths and magic. And I guess that’s all it had to do. It was a class for mostly at seven- to nine-year-olds after all.

“Wanna get lunch with us?” Rosette said as she walked over to me.

“Sure, why not.” I nodded following behind her. Her group consisted of Zyra, Keira and Polia. I didn’t exactly have any other friends so their group was as good as any. Zyra didn’t exactly seem happy to see me but she’d gotten used to me over the years. She wasn’t as annoying as she once was.

“Reno! Reno! How long have you been learning magic!?” Polia said with stars in her eyes as she looked up at me.

“About a year or two—”

“Whoa! That’s so cool!” She said moving closer to me. A little too close to me, actually.

“Leave him alone Polia.” Keira said slowly as she pulled her away from me. “Let’s at least eat first, I’m sure he’s hungry too.”

I nodded—I was indeed quite hungry. That special bowl of noodles Jamie mentioned, by now it’d all be gone…

“It’s still here?” I blurted out, seeing that very set of special noodles displayed on a tray.

“Duuhh, of course.”

“They keep some for us because we stay late.” Rosette said. Ohh, well that made sense.

“This is so good!” I cried.

“I know right?” Rosette said in agreement.

“What else do we pre-scouts do?” I said slowly.

“Well usually we only have morning lessons but sometimes we go on patrol too and note any complaints or anything suspicious to the council.”

“Suspicious?”

“You know, like what you and the Little Dreamers used to do?” I smiled, those were the days. But since then, we’d turned a new leaf. Several new leaves, actually.

“When do you go on patrol?”

“Occasionally on weekends, but it’s rare. Usually the older scouts will do it.” Keira said, cutting in. That made sense, they were quite young, and they could only do things like take in complaints because Butter Town was a very very safe place.

“Do you have any idea where Bill and the others could’ve went?” I said as I was nearing the end of the delicious noodle bowl.

“Wouldn’t you know better than us?” Zyra said unhelpfully.

“They always go to your usual spot right?” Rosette said, tilting her head slightly as she did.

Right, the fountain. I got up and thanked the lunch lady before saying my goodbyes to Rosette and everyone else.

“Hey wait, you didn’t answer all my questions!” Polia said suddenly realising she forgot to keep asking me about how I learned magic. I pretended not to hear her and kept walking—I had an appointment to be at after all.

Not a bad first day of school. Not bad at all.