Phoenix Drop University- Freshman Year

2: Sorting

Aphmau pulls into the small parking lot next to a large brick building with a huge marble sculpture of a Phoenix in the front, emblazoned on the from of the building are large, purple and gold letters spelling PDU.

Pulling on her backpack and locking her car, she sees a few benches in front of the building, looking brand new and shiny.

The school is old, it's the oldest building in town, though, it hasn't lost it's luster quite yet, the marble arches that hold the entrance are still holding strong, even if it is a little dusty.

It used to be a town hall for the old city that was here, but that was hundreds of years ago, some ruins can still be explored, but most of them are considered haunted.

The school has some old corridors that students steered clear of, though some of the magic majors went there, something about strong magic residue.

Aphmau looks up at the marble Phoenix, sighing nervously, she had waited so long to get here, but now that she is , she's not sure how to adapt.

Suddenly, someone clasps their hands over her eyes, they are rough, large, and strong hands, and she recognized the smell of charcoal and chocolate.

"Who is it?" A rough, sing-song voice hits her ears, and she leans back into his chest, it had been awhile since they last talked face to face,

"Hi Aaron." She replies, and a pair of strong arms wrap her in a hug from behind.

"Heya Aphie. You miss me?" Aaron asks, winking, rolling her eyes at her best friends antics, she kicks his shin and pulls out of his embrace.

"I did until you said that." She replies, before drowning him into a tight hug, she wouldn't admit it, but she had missed him more than anything in the world.

"I missed you to." He returns the embrace, before grabbing her hand and leading her inside, to passerby, they seem like a couple, but in fact, this is just the way they do things, they have always been close as kin, though, not related.

"So, what have you been doing Hot Shot?" She pokes, wanting to take her mind of off the roommate issue, that and she wants to make up the year they haven't seen each other.

"Well, I got a job at that strip club down the street a ways." She gasps in shock, but blushes a little when she imagines him as a dancer.

"Security guard, Not a dancer, so get that outta your head." Aaron snickers at her light pink blush, it seems even after four years she still can't handle his sense of humor.

"You should have said that first." Aphmau wines and they walk past the huge tube fish tank that sits in the lobby, and multiple students are mulling around.

"There's Katelyn!" Aphmau immediately releases Aaron's hand and pounces on the blue haired girl that right before had been getting Travis off her tail.

"Aphmau!" Katelyn whirls around and gives her friend a hug, pushing them both into the rounded corner of the room.

"How's my favorite girl doing?" Katelyn's eyes are just as blue as her pastel hair, and her white and blue sweatshirt and black sweatpants definitely shows how athletic the girl is.

"Just got done annoying Aaron, she points at him, as he had just caught up from where she had run off.

"You weren't annoying me. Though I gave her quite the scare when I told her about my job." Aaron pipes up, subconsciously standing closer to Aphmau then Katelyn, but that's mostly because he is a little afraid of her.

"The strip club thing? Yeah, I was surprised too." Katelyn replies, fixing her gym bag under her shoulder.

The bell tolls, it is finally time for all the freshmen to file into the mess hall, where everyone will find out who their rooming with until they graduate. Only freshman get this huge ceremony, because they are the only ones who don't already have a room. But Aaron is getting moved, so he takes his place in line right behind Aphmau.

"Don't be nervous, this is the smartest, most automated system in the nation, the computer will not put you with someone opposite of you.....most of the time." Aaron tells the still very nervous Aphmau as she slides her I.D in a large, new computer, the same computer that would determine who she would spend the next four years with.

The computer takes hers no problem, but Aaron has to insert his I.D multiple times before it actually responds, and once it does, it seems to not enjoy the idea of having to sort him. And crashes.

"Are you kidding me?!" He yells in frustration, not only is he holding up the line, but Aphmau had already gone into the mess hall, and was probably already enjoying the food.

A bulky looking professor with blonde, but slightly greying hair pushes through the line of people and restarts the computer, telling Aaron to go on ahead.

Fine with this, he joins Aphmau in the mess hall, where his mouth waters over the several buckets of fried chicken, bowls of steaming gravy, mountains of mashed potatoes, hot, tender steak, creamy flavorful cheese, crunchy and spicy tacos, anything and everything laid out on the table before him, though for some reason there are mint taffy sticks .

All of it held in seemingly golden plates, water in old medieval goblets, and silver bowls.

Having never had this much food in his life, he gets a small sample of everything except the taffy and eats to his heart content, feeling a little less bad when he sees Aphmau doing the same as him.

After around an hour of the entire freshman year gorging themselves on food, the headmaster steps up on the stage at the front of the mess hall, Aphmau feeling stuffed to the foot, groans and regrets eating as much as he has.

The headmaster is a tall, thin haired young man with half-moon spectacles perched on his crooked nose that had to have been broken at least once, his long, brown hair went down to his knees and his only slightly shorter beard held an assortment off oddities. He looks more like a wizard than a headmaster.

"Now that we are all filled to the brim, it is time to receive your partners for all the time you stay here." The headmasters hazy blue eyes twinkle with kindness, and he lifts his arms as to give everyone a hug.

"They will be your partner in troubled times, and a friend in the good, and I hope you will come to see them, as extended family. So, without further ado, Professer Mellia will read off the pairs.

A stiff, very stern woman appears almost out of thin air, her black hair is spun tightly in a bun and her dark brown cat-like eyes makes Aphmau think that this is not a Professor to cross.

She clears her throat, stands commandingly in front of everyone, and starts to read the first names.

"Ro'meave, Zane and Ro'meave, Vlad!" Zane, a short, angry looking freshman gets up and leaves with what looks like his excited brown haired little brother.

"Enki, Travis and Firefist Kasey!" Travis chuckles to himself and pretty much drags a blue haired boy that shares an uncanny resemblance to Katelyn, it must be her little brother.

Aphmau doesn't know how she knows her name will be next, but she does , and this terrifies her.

" Bravura, Aphmau and..." Her heart stops, the pause scares her more than anyone should know, but she's never expected what happens next.

"and Lycan, Aaron?"

I don't think you guys should know how long it took for me to write this so....

It took four hours.