26: A Mysterious Tome
The serene atmosphere was shattered when Lysander and Angelo burst the room in their usual melodramatic fashion. Angelo was dressed in a suit and tie today and sported a tall top hat.
“Today, I am the Gentleman of the House,” he announced, standing at the front of the classroom and bowing deeply. Lysander stood back with a smirk on his face. While he wrote the script, Angelo performed, though the flamboyant boy’s tendency to improvise often caught his less extroverted friend off-guard. Without their innocent light, the Academy would be a duller place.
The morning bell rang over the speaker system and soon after Ms Thorburn blundered into the classroom. As always she looked like she had just woken up from an unintended nap, with her black curly hair falling tangled on her shoulders and her teacher’s uniform creased like it had just been pulled out of a pile and tugged on without a care. She collapsed on her chair and looked over the class with glazed, dark eyes.
“Everyone’s here,” she said, ticking through the register with quick strokes. Doyle wasn’t, but he always arrived late and a few minutes later he slinked in through the back door, looking pleased with himself – no doubt he’d been using his charms on younger girls again and basking in their adoration. Once he was seated, Ms Thorburn read out the usual notices and warned Doyle that he was risking detention because of missed Engineering homework – he then slid over the desks to John, son of Engineering teacher Mr Smith.
Phantasia decided to bide her time by examining the heavy tome again and, no sooner had it clonked down on the table and opened with a thud, she found herself surrounded by curious onlookers.
“Dude, that looks awesome!” said Joel, sailing across the desks to reach her. Kaori hovered after him in a more refined manner.
“It looks really old,” she said, craning in to examine the mellowed pages. She noticed an illustration of a magic circle and jabbed her finger at it. “That looks like the sort of thing these shamans I know use! Is it the same?”
“That’s like, a summoning circle,” said Joel, “There’s tons of different designs, right? Like, one for every demon or type of summoning?”
“Something like that,” said Phantasia, aware that everyone was watching. Already Lysander and Angelo were prepping a comical display in the corner of the room, with the former scribbling a chalk circle on the carpet and the latter pulling an old curtain around his shoulders like a cape.
“WHY HAST THOU SUMMONED ME?” said Angelo in the deepest voice his juvenile vocal chords would allow.
“Dude, I’m like, totally wondering if you can teach me how to play guitar? I totally suck, dude!” replied Lysander, putting on his best impression of Joel’s guttural accent.
“THAT YOU DO. I SHALL GRANT YOUR WISH…” Angelo’s eyes widened in comical effect. “FOR A PRICE.”
“Dude, totally name it, I’ll do anything!”
By this point, Joel had realised what was going on, the corners of his mouth twitching from smile to frown as if he were struggling to determine whether he was offended or amused.
“I DESIRE…DOUGHNUTS”
“Dude, can’t you, like drain my blood or something?”
“DOUGHNUTS.”
