Coral Red

Lunch felt genuinely criminal.

Not because of the food. Vertana’s cafeteria was massive. Counters with every type of food imaginable lined the walls, and every single option somehow looked better than the last. I’d only made it through four plates of food before the bell rang. Four out of, like, the thirty I could’ve eaten.

“Whatever,” I said, not mad. I absolutely wasn't mad about how short our lunch was. “I’ll just have to try more tomorrow.”

“Okay, Ruby, are you trying to stuff the entire cafeteria in your stomach? If you need somewhere to sleep that off, my bed’s open.” Val chuckled.

“It’s fuel for magic! I used a lot in that fight with Isaac.”

“Not enough.”

“Funny.” I rolled my eyes. Next was spellular mathematics. I didn’t know that it was possible to create a class that sounded more boring than magical philosophy, but by the gods, they found a way.

At least this wasn’t another massive lecture hall, with maybe thirty desks in total.

“Headmistress Alaxa!” I said, watching her scribble some notes. “I didn’t know you taught.”

“Of course I do.” She set her notes aside. “What kind of headmistress would I be otherwise? Teachers teach, I’m not so grand as to ignore that.”

“Fair enough.” I could respect that.

Val took a seat at the very back of the room, dragging me along, only this time she actually bothered to take out a notebook. Oh no…

The rest of the class filed in a few minutes later—taking over practically every free desk. It felt like every class in Vertana was always jam-packed. How boringly predictable.

And they’re all taking out notebooks too…

“Welcome back, class.” Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Headmistress Alaxa to break the silence. “I do hope your weekend was splendid. Now, back to last week’s lecture on orange spectrum tri-phase derivatives…”

I hadn’t heard a duller sentence in my life.

But that didn’t stop everyone around me from taking detailed notes. Derivatives, integrals, undefined limits approaching infinity… What the hell was a differentiation supposed to be?

It didn’t help that we were apparently jumping right into content I wasn’t there for.

By the hour's end, Val already had two pages filled. I hadn’t even thought to bring a notebook.

“When performing a purple-tinted double integral, you always must take the lower limit and multiply it by the purple coefficient—”

“I’m going to bang my head against a wall.”

“It ain't that bad, Ruby,” Val muttered while starting on her third page of notes. “It’s just math.”

“That’s the problem!” I whispered back. “How often do you need math while using your magic? Literally never! X equals seven isn’t going to teach anyone how to strike a target with yellow.”

“You don’t?”

“Nope! And I just beat Isaac without a number in my brain. Try it sometime.”

“That explains why you have so much free space up there…”

“What’s that supposed to—”

“Now, class,” Headmistress Alaxa clapped her hands together. “That’s all I had for today’s lecture, but we do have a bit of time remaining...”

“You have to be kidding me.”

“Pop quiz!” 

Somehow, I wasn’t the loudest of the annoyed groans. 

“Calm down. It’s nothing too complicated—anyone who took half-decent notes should pass with flying colors.”

I’m screwed.

Val glanced over as the headmistress started to pass the quizzes around. “Ruby, did you do like… anything?”

“Why would I? Magic isn’t hard for me.”

Actually… I could feel the gears turning in my head. I do know magic! All this classwork is just about the math behind spells. If I know how the spell works… I should be able to ace this!

Who cared about the specific terminology or whatever. If I described how to use the spells and the logic behind them—what professor wouldn’t give me a passing grade?

“If you wanna borrow my notes, I’ll—”

“Thanks, but this test is going to be a breeze for me!”

“Is it now?” Val leaned forward with a smirk. “I got everything memorized. Last chance…”

“Bite me, you’ll lose that smirk once I ace this test.”

“I’m excited to see you try…”

You’ll see, Val. This test is mine. And with that, the headmistress placed the last test face-down on my desk.

“There are ten questions, all short answers. Should take you no more than fifteen minutes.” Headmistress Alaxa stood near the front. “Begin!”

I flipped my page over as rustling paper filled the class. Doesn’t look that hard. The quiz was a mess of formulas and question marks. What's the second derivative of stacked greens? How many dimensions is orange cast in? Well, that one's three at least…

Honestly, the test was nowhere near what I imagined. Magic took place in three dimensions, and for the first question, if I cut a vine twice, I’d have three vines. Two down, eight to go.

I thought this stuff was supposed to be complicated.

“Done!” Five minutes later I leaned back. 

Val passed me by as she turned her quiz in—the only other person to have finished so far.

It took a few minutes for the next person to hand their paper in, then another dozen or so for the next person to follow. “I thought this was supposed to take fifteen minutes max.”

“Yeah, if you paid attention,” Val said. “I got no idea how you finished that quickly.”

“Are you saying I didn’t pay attention? I’m the princess of Everbit! This kind of stuff is elementary.”

“Wow, big word. I didn’t know you had that in you.”

“I—”

“Quills down!” Headmistress Alaxa interrupted before I had a chance to put Val in her place. “For those of you who haven’t finished, please place your quizzes on my desk. Results will be posted outside within the hour.”

“Within the what?” I had to have heard that wrong.

“What? Not confident, Ruby?” Val gathered up her things as people began to file outside the room.

“Wha—No, I’m the most confident girl here! I just didn’t think it would be that fast.”

“Welcome to Headmistress Alaxa’s class. That’s slow for her.”

We walked out into the sun. The fact that grades were going to be posted, not just in an hour, but publicly, had me excited. Not that I want to draw attention to myself, but as the princess, it is my job to spread how great Everbit is. What better way than to get number one?

“How did you do?” Val asked.

“Aced it. Wasn’t that hard.”

“It wasn’t?” Val raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

“Half the problems solved themselves! What dimension does orange magic take place in? Like we're in the third dimension, why would our spells be someplace else?”

“I… Maybe we shouldn’t be here when the Headmistress posts our grades.”

“Why not?” I tilted my head. “Afraid I’m going to beat you?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about that…” 

I shrugged. It wasn't my problem. Val had just realized that I always came out ahead when it came to magic. “Anyway, the cafeteria is still open. Wanna stay there until Headmistress Alaxa posts our grades?”

“Maybe we should stay a bit longer than that…”

                                                                                     ☀ ☀ ☀

“You have got to be kidding me.” I’d dragged Val out of the lunchroom seconds after the clock struck one. The food here was amazing, sure, but the chance to see myself on top of the class was even more savory.

But that wasn’t what the sign said. No, it was Val on top.

“I wanted to give you my notes.” She shrugged. “Told you.”

“You got lucky. I’m sure I’m not far behind.” I didn’t see my name listed second, nor third, nor fifteenth… “Did she forget to grade my test?”

I could vaguely hear Val trying not to laugh. “No… She remembered for sure.”

“Then where am I?”

“Look down.”

There's no way I’m… My breath caught in my throat. Sure enough, I wasn’t listed in the top ten, or even the top thirty. At the very bottom of the list, in spot thirty-two, the name Ruby Everbit had been neatly scribbled down. “She must have graded mine wrong.”

“You think Headmistress Alaxa would make a mistake? Have you met the woman?”

“First time for everything!” I started to march back to her office, only for Val to grasp my sleeve.

“Orange magic takes place in the fourth dimension.”

“Say what—” I twisted back around on my heels. But… It's magic! When I cast a fireball, it doesn’t disappear into some portal dimension! It, like, flies and hits the target!

“Also, the second derivative of stacked greens is asking for you to analyze the mathematical structure of your plants. It’s not asking how to cut them into three slices.”

“The what structure of my plants? It’s a plant! I’ve never seen a plant do addition.”

“Come on, genius, you can figure out what I mean back in our room.”

“But I—Wait!” Val grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the courtyard. “This was rigged!” Yet, despite everything I said, Val didn’t stop once.