Welcome to Gaia! ::

((lol, nice. I'm curious how Lia will react though? I do recall a threat the teacher made that he could easily back up if she were to get out of line you know. twisted ))

Alec raised a hand to his mouth and scrunched up his face in disgusted humor. Danni's rant was so well done that Alec himself was finding it hard to not puke in his mouth. Alec let out a few low chuckles as he attempted to calm the class down. "Heh heh, alright, that'll work for now. Anyone else?"

((lol, a rare moment indeed. I think I shall Kodak it. *camera flash*))

Alec simply nodded his head with a small smile on his face at Lia's answer. "Very well spoken Miss Lia. And you're right, it really does take an understanding person to properly wield magic in it's entirety. An understanding person who accepts things for what they are, rather than hold on to flimsy prejudices." Alec didn't do anything to aim that particular comment at any one student, but anyone with half a brain knew he was talking to the young Rinaldi. Alec wrote up a short bulletin of the highlights of what Lia mentioned, and left it at that. "Alright! Some good answers, a good variety." Alec made an effort to address this next point to the entire class. "One thing you'll learn about me, and this class in general, is that variety is one of the core values I stand by. Throughout the course of the semester, I think you'll find that everything in life has at least two sides to it, if not more." Alec let that statement hang in the air for a minute so it could sink in.

When that was done, Alec resumed where he left off. "Right, now I'll give you all my answer! And don't worry, you'll only need notes about all this stuff if your short term memory doesn't work for c***." Alec then began to write in big letters below his original question the answer he had in mind. It read as thus:

"BREAKING THE RULES"

Alec let the last stroke of the chalk flow off the chalkboard in a long, fluid motion. Alec then set down the chalk and began to elaborate on his thought. "In my personal experience, magic is simply breaking the rules that we know. Whether those rules are the rules of society, ethics, or reality itself, magic is the means to break those rules and reshape it as we see fit. And of course the best way to break the rules, and also the best way to do anything really, is to first understand what it is you're trying to manipulate." Alec began to make motions with his hands to emphasize what he was talking about. "For instance, say a school has a dress code, and they say that any male student must wear black pants, a white shirt, and a tie as a part of their uniform." Alec then made a kind of flinging motion with his right hand, like he was shaking out a towel, and suddenly he was holding a clothes hanger, from which hung quite an interesting wardrobe. The 'white shirt' in question was a white button up shirt with a rib cage motif on it and the heart seemed to be breaking free of the chest cavity. The pants were indeed black, but were made completely out of belts, looking quite good on their own, but out of place with the rest of the wardrobe. And the tie hanging around the shirt's neck had black and bright yellow construction stripes with a picture of a tiny green alien near the bottom giving the finger. Alec motioned to this rather unusual get up with his free hand as he continued. "According to that school's rules, this would still be considered part of the dress code." With another flick of his hand, the clothes vanished back to wherever Alec had conjured them from. Alec smiled wide as he continued. "And now that you've all seen my party clothes for the weekend, let's move on shall we?" Alec smirked as he listened to the class laugh at his little crack about himself, wondering how some would react to seeing something so horribly mis-matched and ugly.

((And yes, that is totally an opening for Lia to recoil in shock at seeing something so horribly out of style. lmao. And the rest of you, feel free to ask questions or make statements. Learning is a joint effort!))

((I think I'll save the confusion on what to do next for Lin and Dymetri and just have her go to class. smile I hope it's ok to join the spell casting class late! I love it when RPs have real classes in the storyline with real professors! biggrin ))

Lin was losing herself more and more to Dymetri with each passing second. It was incredible. She had never known something like this could happen. Elves were obviously not very open with their more intimate emotions and did not expound upon their love for one another unless in more private areas.

All she had to off of in reference to love was really what she heard her friends at her old school say about it and what she read in books for her classes, mainly for her English and Drama classes.

Classes... Class!!! No! She was missing class! She hadn't heard Dymetri mention it earlier. It was just now, as her mind thought about the only reference she had for love and passion, that she remembered she was supposed to be in class right now!

With as much strength as she possessed, she tore her lips away from Dymetri's and wrenched herself away from him. She literally shoved away from him and put many inches between them. If she allowed even part of her to touch him again, she would not be able to force herself to go to class. In fact, she couldn't even really look at him because she knew his deep, dark eyes would draw her back in.

Breathing very fast and deeply, she pushed herself off her bed and ran to the mirror on her dresser to look at her appearance. She had to be presentable for class! And she looked... completely different from how she had ever looked before. Her normally perfect, smooth hair was completely askew, strands going in every direction. And her cheeks were bright red, which popped in contrast to her pale, ivory skin.

Lin took a deep, calming breath, closed her eyes, and tried to get her mind focused on a beauty spell. After a few moments, she muttered something under her breath and her hair quickly straightened and smoothed out, as if there was an invisible force behind her, physically smoothing her hair down.



She couldn't do much about her cheeks, but she could use the excuse that they were red due to running so quickly to class... even though Elves did not get winded or red-faced from running. Most humans did not know the specifics of Elves.

She straightened her dress as best she could and then ran over to her dormitory door, carefully avoiding Dymetri's gaze. She didn't think he'd be hurt. He was a smart man. He was a professor, for goodness sake! He would know why she wasn't looking at him, so she could get to class!

She paused when her hand was on the doorknob and she whispered lowly, "I... I have class and I am so late, Dymetri. I must go. I will be back in about 3 hours, after my other 2 classes. If you would like... I would... love to meet you in the cafeteria... maybe we should meet in the garden tonight. I hope to see you there, when the sun sets and before your first class begins, Dymetri. Farewell."

With that, she fluttered out of the dormitory quickly, making sure to close the door behind her so that no one would look in and see a professor lying on her bed, and rushed off to her spell casting class.

Once there, she looked in the window in the hall and groaned lowly when she saw that the class was well under way. It even looked as if the professor had listed the class rules. Having the exceptional eyesight of an Elf, she could read it easily, and she could hear the last few words that had recently been spoken with her keen Elven hearing. Wait... those weren't the class rules that had been written down. They said "Breaking the Rules"! What in the world?! Why would you... wait, she was breaking the rules already by dating a professor... Oh she did not have time to think about this! She needed to get in there some how! She could not go in the classroom so late. She would disrupt everything, and she knew how she herself hated such interruptions during class. She knew there was only one thing left to do.

She stepped back from the window, made sure no one around was looking, and she quickly transformed into her yellow hummingbird form. She was getting much better and faster at transforming, and she had much more control now when she was in her hummingbird form, as long as nothing really startled and scared her.

She flew like a bat out of hell around to the building's exit, out of the building, and over toward one of the open windows in the classroom she was supposed to be in. She perched on the windowsill, hoped she was being inconspicuous, made sure not to make a sound, and hunkered down to listen to whatever was left of the class. Hopefully she had not missed what homework was going to be due the next time they met for class!

Oh no! This way, she could not take down any notes! Not that she had had time to gather anything to take notes with, anyway, but she still felt completely out of her element by not being able to take notes. Well, she would just have to pay very close attention so that she remembered everything!!... as if she didn't pay very close attention on a regular basis as it was, anyway.

((I'm thinking about dressing up IRL for today's Spirit Week thing. :3))

Luna chuckled. "I changed my name in high school. It seemed like the only fitting thing. Since then, I've been too lazy to change it again." She walked through the hall of the main office at a reasonable pace, then slowed so that she could be somewhat next to Nathan.

She didn't really like to be the leader.

"We don't have to go far to find more people, really. I just met the secretary and I'm sure she has a list of the staff. We just find some that look promising and we ask them. Sound like a plan?"

She walked up to the secretary's desk and lifted her chin in a classy manner. "I'd like to see the staff list, ma'am."

Although Acaria gave Luna a suspicious look, she obeyed nonetheless due to the guest standing next to her.

Huh, amazing what a difference company gives, she thought.

She scanned the list quickly, murmuring names as she went along.

"Ella Winston, Dymetri Valen, Oh-fee-chu... what? Whatever, moving on. Alec Leaton..."

She finished the list then turned to Nathan expectantly. "Which ones do you think won't call us psycho? I don't like the Valen guy, and Ella gives me the creeps... Or maybe I'm just vampire-phobic. What about you?"

"Right." Luna nodded. "However..." She reached for Nathan's pocket and pulled the list out. "This list tells us what room number he's in. Alright.. Got it." She rolled up the paper into a scroll and began moving without a word.

They approached his room and Luna was a bit hesitant. She never even liked interrupting a class when she was in high school. But this was for Ialo. Gah! Okay, breathe, she commanded herself. Stand up straight, pretend you know what you're doing.

Luna opened the door and walked right up to Alec with a smile and addressed the class. A couple of the students in there had been in detention the day she was subbing for Mr. Valen. She recognized them immediately and gave them individual stares. "Goodmorning chil--" Was that a hummingbird? "--dren.." She blinked hard and looked back to Alec.

"May we speak with you outside, Mr. Leaton?" she said calmly, and with a classic teacher smile.

((Meant to say Lia in this post instead of Isadora! So I'm editing this post slightly))

If hummingbirds could chirp, Lin would have been chirping very loudly and very quickly. How did Danni know it was her?? She had to find that out! What if in the future, she was trying to hide out when in danger, and she was emitting some kind of strange energy pattern that gave her away? She must find out how Danni knew it was her...

And while she was quite annoyed and indignant at being picked up like a common pet, she didn't miss the fact that Danni was standing up for her, providing a legitimate excuse as to why Lin had come to the class late. What was going on? Earlier that day, she had wanted to expose her and Dymetri's relationship. Now she was sticking up for her, probably having a very good idea why Lin was actually late? She could have busted her right then... This was all so weird.

But no matter what, she did owe Danni a sincere thank you.

Once Danni put her on top of the free desk, Lin concentrated and transformed back into her Elven form. Her legs were now draped over the side as she was sitting on the top of the desk and her dress was blowing gracefully in the breeze that came in from the now-open window along with her long dark tresses of hair. She was blushing, though, at having all the attention on her in class and for giving such a bad first impression to the professor. Of course, she couldn't tell if everyone, especially the males in the room, were looking at her because she had just transformed from a hummingbird into an Elf, or if it was because of her ethereal looks. It could be a little of both. When Lin had first come to this institution, she was amazed and confused as to why everyone stared at her so often. In Bai Ching, Elves were common. Here, they were not. So she was used to the staring now and barely paid any attention.

With her cheeks still flushed, she hopped gracefully off of the top of the desk and then sat down in the seat. With her head bowed down respectfully and apologetically, she quietly addressed the professor.

"I am deeply sorry, sir, for entering so late. I want you to know that this is the first time I have ever been late to class and it will never happen again. I will accept any due punishment."

She then looked up and saw that she was sitting by Athena and Lia. The best seating arrangement she could have asked for. Well, she hoped Athena wouldn't mind sitting beside her after the way she had acted at the beginning of the school year. So first, she smiled in greeting to Lia, remembering her from when she had met her and her parents, and then she smiled softly and hopefully at Athena, hoping she would see it and understand that Lin was very sorry for her previous behavior.

Athena had smiled back at Lin, and had also walked out the door with the class, but unlike the rest of the class, she was curious about what the three adults needed to talk about. So she went to a conveniently-placed bathroom and quietly murmured a spell; it just so happened to be the second part to a written spell. The written part was with her things in the classroom, and with its placement and her spoken spell, she would be able to hear whatever was said in that room. It may end up muffled because of her bag, but she could hear it now.

She grinned slightly to herself and sat on the countertop with the sinks, leaning against the mirror to listen in on the upcoming conversation.