The Academy was a very strange school and unlike any of my previous educational experiences. Half my classes were ones that all the students took, things like math, science, and history, while the other half of my classes were reserved for students in the sorcerers course. These were the classes that were the most unusual, especially since there were only a dozen of us first year sorcery students.

My first period class had been taught by Master Tonkas, the bearded man who’d accused me of lying about being a Were during my application review. Fortunately, in spite of being embarrassed at having been chastised for that by Professor Roangard, he didn’t seem to hold it against me. He came off as a bit pompous in class, but not vindictive. After briefly introducing me to the other students, he launched into a long winded lecture that went over my head and made clear just how much I was behind the other students.

I was currently sitting in my second sorcery class of the day, feeling almost as lost and confused as in the last one. This class was being taught by Mrs. Xiata Khuto, the black woman who’d been present during my application review. Unlike Master Tonkas who seemed to enjoy hearing himself talk, she seemed sparse with her words, speaking calmly and to the point.

While Mrs. Khuto talked about ‘rebound theory’, I looked around the rest of the class and silently studied the other students. Two other students had obvious sorcerers marks, a boy with a slightly greenish color to his skin and an auburn haired girl with what looked like glowing blue tribal style tattoos on her right arm and cheek. However, the student I kept looking at was a somewhat busty brunette girl who didn’t appear to have a sorcerers mark, but who was still well worth looking at.

I didn’t really know who any of the other students were though and none of them had made any move to talk to me. They’d all seemed curious for the first minute, but the girls all quickly decided that I wasn’t competition and the guys just as quickly decided that there were more attractive girls in class to pay attention to.

“Now separate into pairs,” Mrs. Khuto instructed the class. “Discuss possible effects of magical rebound with your partner. Afterwards, each team will submit three examples.”

I soon found myself paired with the girl who had the glowing blue tattoos on her arm. “Hi, I’m Sylvie Baerd,” she introduced herself to me.

I hesitated a moment, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious. “Erin Morris,” I finally told her, blushing as I held up my notebook which had my name written on the cover with the new spelling. Mom had strongly ‘suggested’ that since I was going to school here as a girl, that I should use ‘Erin’ rather than ‘Aaron’ in order to fit in better and draw less questions.

“Nice to meet you,” Sylvie responded with an easy grin. Then she gave me a curious look before cautiously asking, “How much do you know about this stuff?”

“Magic rebound?” I asked with a grimace. At her nod, I reluctantly admitted, “Absolutely nothing.”

Sylvie had a look of disgust at that and then glared to Mrs. Khuto, muttering, “This is so unfair.”

“Not your fault,” she apologized, looking just a little sorry. “I mean, you just got in today…” Then she gave me a curious look before asking, “How did you rate coming in late anyway? They usually make you wait…”

“Um...,” I started uncomfortably, knowing that I was probably blushing again. I adjusted my glasses and then quietly admitted, “I can’t go back to my old school because of my sorcerers mark.”

“What?” Sylvie asked, silently examining me again before giving me a skeptical look. “What sorcerers mark?”

“I’d rather not talk about that right now,” I told her apologetically. “It’s kind of…embarrassing.”

“Okay,” Sylvie responded, now looking even more curious.

After this, Sylvia explained what Mrs. Khuto had been talking about and helped me gain at least a basic understanding of the subject. However, I felt bad that she pretty much had to do our little assignment and come up with examples by herself. Still, her explanation made sure that the rest of the class was a little less confusing.

When class was over, I was surprised to find Sylvie coming up to me, saying, “Hey Erin… Since you’re new here and probably don’t know anyone yet, why don’t you eat lunch with me and my friends.”

For a brief moment, I had a sudden hope that maybe she liked me and might even consider me as boyfriend material. Sylvie was rather pretty, though not in the same league as the hot brunette from class. But then reality hit me and I remembered what I looked like…a plain teenage girl. She thought of me as one of the girls and was just trying to be friendly.

“Sure,” I responded awkwardly. Then I smiled, thankful that someone was being friendly and appreciating her offer.

Sylvie and I went to the cafeteria and grabbed our food, then she immediately headed straight for a table that was already occupied with a slender Asian girl. “This is Kimberly,” Sylvia introduced her to me. Then she grinned as she added, “And don’t call her Kim.”

“I’m Erin,” I told the new girl self-consciously.

“She just started today,” Sylvie explained. “She’s in the sorcerers course.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Kimberly told me, giving me a curious look.

“Are you in the sorcery course too?” I asked her. I didn’t remember seeing her in my sorcery classes, though I think I might have seen her in the history one.

“No,” Kimberly responded with a shrug. “I’m just a normal Touched.” She held out her hand and a ball of glowing white light appeared in the palm. She closed her hand and the light vanished. “My only talent is that I make my own flash light.”

“It would be nice never having to worry about having a flashlight,” Sylvie commented with a grin. “Once I learn how, I want to copy that talent into a spell.”

“That would probably be useful,” I agreed.

“My talent is to put people to sleep,” Sylvie told me with a wry look. “Of course, I have to sing when I use it.”

I blinked at that. “You have to sing?”

“It’s like, I just make any lullaby more effective.” Sylvie explained with a grin. “My family has a lot of talents that tie into music or sound in one way or another.”

“Mine have transformation talents,” I told her with a shrug. Then I noticed that Sylvie and Kimberly were both looking at me expectantly and realized that they were waiting for me to tell them what my talent was. I let out a sigh and said, “Mine is pretty embarrassing…” I held my hands out in front of my chest as though grabbing a large pair of breasts and awkwardly said, “I can make myself…bigger.”

Sylvie and Kimberly both stared at me with wided eyed looks, seeming impressed by that. Of course, I hadn’t been completely accurate since it was my mom who had the talent to make her breasts larger. My talent just caused an overall improvement in my entire body, not just the breasts. However, this was easier to describe.

“Can you show us?” Sylvie asked curiously.

“Not without removing my bra,” I responded self-consciously, wishing that I hadn’t mentioned my talent. “It gets kind of painful.” Then I added, “And embarrassing.”

“That sounds like a fun talent to me,” Kimberly said with an amused look.

“Um…not really,” I replied with a grimace. I hesitated a moment, knowing that I was probably blushing like crazy. “I want to be up front with you guys…” I paused to look at Sylvie and then Kimberly, knowing that I should probably keep my mouth shut and just play along but not feeling comfortable with that. “I don’t want you guys finding out later and then accusing me of lying or trying to trick you…”

“What do you mean?” Sylvie asked, giving me a suspicious look.

“My sorcerers mark,” I said quietly, staring down at my food and not looking at them. “It…it made me switch genders.”

Neither of them said a word so I looked at them again and saw that they both looked a little confused. “It turns you into a guy?” Sylvie asked.

“No, I AM a guy,” I admitted in embarrassment. Then more quietly, I added, “At least I was until a few days ago…”

Sylvie and Kimberly both stared at me in surprise before Kimberly finally responded, “So, you’re a guy who’s sorcerers mark turned you into a girl and your talent is to get bigger breasts?”

After I nodded at that, Sylvie said, “Honestly, I don’t know whether to feel sorry for you or laugh.”

I turned bright red at that, or at least even more so, feeling hurt and more than a little humiliated. Without a word, I picked up my lunch tray and stood up. It looked like I was going to have to find a new place to eat.

“Don’t go,” Sylvia exclaimed, reaching out to touch my arm. “I’m sorry… Just say here with us…”

I nodded and slowly sat back down. Kimberly gave me a nervous smile and said, “This has to be pretty weird for you then…”

“Yeah,” I admitted with a nervous smile of my own. “It is.” And then I sighed. “And you have no idea.”

“That explains why you were looking so lost earlier,” Sylvia told me. “I thought it was just because you were new here.”

“A bit of both,” I responded with a weak chuckle.

“I appreciate you being honest,” Sylvie told me, looking a little confused. “But…why? I mean, you barely know us.”

“Like I said, you probably would have found out sooner or later and then you’d probably get pissed at me,” I told her. Then I sighed and added, “And I guess I’m just tired of lying to everyone all the time. I mean, I’ve had to lie to every friend I ever had so they didn’t find out that my mom’s Touched or that my dad is a Were. I just thought that the Academy was the one place that I wouldn’t have to hide that that stuff…”

“Wait,” Kimberly blurted out, staring at me in surprise. “Did you just say your dad is a Were?”

“Yeah,” I responded slowly.

“Holy shit,” Kimberly exclaimed. “You must have to keep silver bullets around all the time…”

“What?” I demanded, not quite sure that I’d just heard what I thought I did.

“Everyone knows Weres are more animal than human,” Kimberly said, apparently oblivious to just how offensive her words were. “You never know when they’re going to go all wild animal on you and attack…”

“That’s bullshit,” I snapped at Kimberly, jumping to my feet and glaring at her angrily. If I knew any Chinese profanities, I would have used them on her right then and there. But since I didn’t, I spat out, “And for your information, silver doesn’t work on us.”

With that, I walked away from the table, not even bothering to grab my tray this time as I heard Kimberly blurt out, “Us?” in realization.

I was angry and humiliated as I left the cafeteria, cursing the fact that I’d told them so much about myself. Sylvie had been right, I did barely know them. I’d gotten so caught up in the idea of trying to make friends that I’d said more than I should have, and now I was paying the price. This was NOT a good start to my time at the Academy.