Going to Honolulu next week!

Hey all,
It's been a while since I've made a real post. As you can see I've added three more chapters of my novel right below this. Feel free to read it and give me some feedback.
In other news, I'm going to Hawaii next week for the American Society of Human Genetics conference in Honolulu. I'll be there from Monday through Friday, and I know it's gonna be excellent. Especially given that my lab is paying for 90% of the cost of it. :)
Also, Brandi and I are about to have our first anniversary, next Friday. It's been going so well with her, I can't imagine it not lasting. :)
That's it for today!
Tyler

Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 10

Wednesday was another early morning, so I was up at 6:30 again. This time the shower area wasn’t quite as packed… the line was only just extended outside the bathroom door. As I walked up, I noticed Holly right in front of me.
“Hi Emma. How’s it going?” she asked, clearly still not quite awake. She was wearing just her robe and shower shoes, and carrying her little basket of shower supplies, same as me.
“Oh, alright. Bio 100 again this morning. Good thing it’s only on Monday and Wednesday. I’d hate to be up this early on Fridays.”
“Lucky. My Friday morning will be just as early as this. Photography class involves us going out and catching scenes with morning dew and stuff like that, so they make it pretty early, but it’s only for an hour and then I have a break for an hour and a half before Philosophy.”
“Oh I guess that means we’re not in the same section. I have mine at ten with Anglo. You?”
“Eleven with Walters. She seems pretty cool, albeit a bit behind the times. She uses overhead transparencies instead of Powerpoint!”
“Sucks,” I said. “Anglo seems fine, nothing special.” The girl in front of Holly took a shower as two girls finished up and vacated. “Looks like you’re up.”
“Yep. See you later Emma.” She pulled off her robe as she was walking toward the shower area, giving me a bit too much of a peek at her ass. Ok, seriously, I thought to myself, I know they say that college girls all turn bi, but is it really supposed to happen to me during the first week? First Brenda, now Holly?
I took the next open shower and washed off quickly, hoping to finish up before Holly got done to avoid another awkward, naked conversation. I was in luck, as she was nowhere to be seen when I pulled back my curtain after toweling off. I headed back to my room, got dressed and such, and walked to class.
Dr. Docker’s lecture was a bit more interesting, as he went over the theory of evolution in detail. Our high school was, of course, required to teach evolution, but our Bio teacher was a Christian, and as such she had felt it necessary to also cover “Intelligent Design”, intentionally not telling us much about either theory. I had been forced to learn more about evolution myself by reading a few books on the subject.
Dr. Docker, however, started off the lecture by saying “If you are strongly opposed to the theory of evolution, then you have the option of leaving the class today. However, the material covered here WILL be on the midterm, and you will be responsible for it whether you believe in it or not.” When someone tried to protest, he suggested that if she had a problem with it, she could take it up with the head of the Biology department. She left the lecture hall, making a scene by stomping her feet like a five-year-old, and most of the class chuckled at her.
“I would like to point out, now that only reasonable people are left in the room, that evolutionary theory does not in any way preclude the existence of a higher power or even a creator of all life,” Dr. Docker said. “I myself attend church every Sunday and personally believe in God. If you would like to discuss more with me about the subject, I would be happy to meet with you during office hours. For now, let’s begin.”
The lecture was great, full of colorful images and short movies on the subject of evolution. I got the feeling that I would enjoy this class a lot more than high school biology. I made a note of Dr. Docker’s office hours when he showed them at the end of his talk, in case I wanted to ask him a question.
On my way out of the lecture hall, I recognized Tara, one of the twins from Magic 101, walking in front of me with a small group of friends. She saw me as she turned the corner and winked, then went back to chatting. I suppose that’s how we should deal with each other outside of class, I thought. We can’t make it seem like we’re a group.
Philosophy and Chem were sort of lame again, and both professors assigned a lot of reading for Friday. I went to the Student Center again for lunch and had a pretty decent veggie burger and fries. During the next hour and a half until my Seminar, I went to the library and sat in a cozy corner to start on the Chemistry reading. The material was familiar from high school Chem but much more in-depth than we had ever gone. I got lost a few times in the jargon that the book was using until I found the glossary at the end. I had only gotten three-quarters through the assigned reading before I had to go to seminar, so I vowed to myself to finish it that night.
Dr. Holden’s seminar for the day included scenes from the “Into the Future” series involving Doc Brown and his portrayal as a “mad scientist”. He went on to point out that there were real scientists who disliked the stereotype. “As for myself, however, I embrace my inner mad scientist,” he said with a chuckle. “You should see my office full of beakers and test tubes of all sizes.”
After class, I decided to take the long way back to Randall, as the sun was shining really nicely and I felt like a walk. I started around the circle toward the Greek housing. As I was passing the ADO house, I saw two people enter the woods next to the bus stop where I had gotten dropped off, across from Greek Row. Just before they disappeared into the woods, I realized that one of them was Yaseiko, one of the girls at dinner Monday night before Magic 101, along with a tall guy wearing shorts, no shirt, and a backwards visor. They looked like they might have been sneaking off for a quickie or something, so I smiled and kept going.
When I got back to Randall, Allie was there, actually doing some homework for the first time that I had seen. “Hey,” I said as I walked in. “How was your day?”
“Eh, not bad I guess. Classes seem simple enough, I’m just trying to get used to the way the professors lecture. My Comp Sci prof just reads off of his Powerpoint, so he’s pretty boring. I may not even go to most of the lectures and just download them myself and go through them.”
I thought that was a bad idea, but didn’t say that. “So far my professors are pretty good. At least, I don’t have any specific complaints. But it’s still the first week. Who knows what fresh hell they may have waiting for us?” We both laughed at that.
Since I didn’t have anything else specific to do for the evening, I decided I’d take a run before it got late. I hadn’t gotten to exercise at all really since arriving, so it would be nice to stretch my legs again. I put on some bike shorts and a tight t-shirt over a sports bra, clipped my mp3 player to my shorts, and walked out of Randall.
I hadn’t really decided where I would run yet, but once I got outside I realized it would be easiest to just follow the large loop around campus, maybe making a detour into the gym for a little cardio on an elliptical machine or something after a lap or two. I put my headphones on, started up some up-beat emo music, and got up to a nice pace. I jogged past Fraternity Row and got a few catcalls from some guys smoking on the porch of the LXA house. I gave them a small wave and kept going, passing Frat Row and going toward the academic row. I passed a couple of people I recognized, including Crystal from the diving class, who gave me a little wave.
I went past the gym and the dorms, finishing my first lap, and started on my second. I was just about to pass the LXA house again when I saw the guys from the porch running across the road toward the bus stop. I couldn’t hear what they were yelling with my headphones in, but as soon as I removed them I heard a girl’s scream coming from the woods behind the bus stop. I saw that one of the LXA guys was already talking to someone on an emergency call box in front of their house, so I decided to follow the others and see what was going on. I ran across the road and into the woods where I had seen the guys enter.
I could still hear the girl screaming, over and over. Once in a while she would get out something like “Oh my GOD!” in between screams. She finally stopped screaming, and within a minute I could see the LXA guys standing in a sort of semi-circle in a clearing ahead, with two of them holding onto an extremely frantic-looking girl wearing ADO letters. I ran up and asked the guys “What the hell happened to her?”
One of the guys turned around, looking pale and sickened. “You may not want to see this,” was all he said before falling to his knees and retching. As he bent down, I got a glimpse of the scene behind him.
At the foot of a large oak tree lay two bodies, mostly naked. I could see some of their clothing that had been thrown off to the side, presumably in the throes of passion. However, their bodies were almost entirely burned, head to toe. Just as I saw them, the stench of burned hair and flesh hit me, and I gagged and retched. The tree behind the poor couple was also burned, which made it seem like someone had simply turned a flamethrower in their direction and held it on them until they were dead. It was a horrible thing to see, and all of my instincts were telling me to run away as fast as I could.
“Wh-who would do something like this?” one of the guys asked. “Why would anyone… oh God…”
After losing my lunch, I was able to bear the stench enough to look more closely at the bodies of the poor couple. I realized that the skirt and tank top that had been thrown off to the side were the same ones that Yaseiko was wearing when I saw her sneak off into the woods earlier, and then I realized that, even with her hair burned off and her face indistinguishable, this must be her lying dead, next to the guy she went into the woods with. “I… I know that girl,” I said, feeling a deep sickness at what I was seeing. “Her name’s Yaseiko… and I saw her going off into the woods with that guy earlier. Oh God… this is…”
“Oh God… oh no… Yaseiko. That means this is…. Jason? Oh God no! Jason!” One of the LXA guys was on his knees weeping now, and the others looked even more distraught. The girl who had been screaming was just sobbing on the shoulder of one of the other guys now, unable to bear looking anymore.
“No way man, that couldn’t be Jason. That guy’s too tall… it looks like Yaseiko was out here with someone else man. Look at the shorts he was wearing…” he picked them up, “this guy was a Gamma.”
“Hey man, you shouldn’t touch anything here,” I said, still trying to keep from screaming bloody murder myself. “The cops will need to… like… see all of this. Oh God, this is just… horrible…” I couldn’t come up with any more words, and just doubled over, weeping.
A campus police officer showed up a few minutes later, wide-eyed at the carnage, and told us all to back off. He radioed back and asked to have the state police contacted, and set up a perimeter with some “CAUTION” tape he had on his belt.
The next two hours are a blur in my mind, giving statements to the police and signing documents. I told the police about how I had seen Yaseiko and her mystery man going off into the woods on my way back from class, and described him as best I could remember. The police had apparently contacted the Gamma Delta Pi house to see if any of their brothers were missing, but the body had not yet been identified. The officer in charge said they would try to keep the local news away at least for a few hours, but to expect them to try to get interviews the next day, and advised all of us to stick with “no comment” until the investigation was concluded.
I went back to my room after an exhausting time with the police, numb from everything I had witnessed. After I got to my room and saw that Allie wasn’t around, I decided that what I really needed was some time in the hot tub to try to relax. I stripped out of my running outfit and put on my robe, not bothering with a bathing suit this time, and walked down the hall to the bathroom.
No one was in the bathroom, as it was only around 5:30, so I entered the hot tub area, turned on the jets and heater, and sat for a few minutes waiting for the water to heat up. Once it was up to ninety-seven, I hung up my robe and sank down in the hot water, willing the day’s events away.
I don’t know how long I was actually in the hot tub, because I think I may’ve fallen asleep for a time, but I was awoken by the water level going up a bit and the feeling of something brushing past my foot. I opened my eyes to see that Holly was there, naked again, but with her chest submerged. “Sorry Emma, didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, smiling.
“No problem. I didn’t really mean to fall asleep in here. What time is it?”
“About six. You know it's dangerous to fall asleep in a hot tub... what’s wrong? You look… well, terrible, no offense.”
“None taken. I actually had about the worst day possible. I… umm… well I saw a murder scene today.”
“What?? Where? Are you okay?” She was obviously alarmed, but seemed really worried about me, which I found sweet.
“I mean, yeah. I’m not supposed to talk about it much yet until the investigation is like… finished or whatever. Basically, I was one of several who found a couple dead in the woods today. I was out jogging… and… sorry, I just don’t want to talk about it right now. It was really horrible.”
“Oh, no, don’t worry about it, I understand. My God… I’m so sorry you had to go through that. If you ever want to talk about it, I’ll be around, okay? Do you want to be left alone? I can go back to my room…”
“No, not at all. Let’s just talk about something else…”
“Would you like another back massage? You know… anything that will help.”
“Umm… actually, yeah, that would be great.” I moved to the other side of the tub and turned my back to Holly, grateful for anything that could possibly take my mind off of the day’s events. She began massaging my shoulders and neck, and it felt great.
“So were your classes okay today?” she asked, obviously just trying to make conversation.
“Yeah… wow I had almost forgotten I had classes today. Yeah they were fine. I don’t even remember my Bio class anymore.” She had moved down to the middle of my back, massaging while the jets helped also, and it felt really amazing. I leaned my head against my arm on the side of the hot tub, just reveling in the feeling of the massage and the jets.
There was some chatting, and I mentioned the party in my room on Friday night, then I started trailing off. Holly was still speaking softly, about her classes, but I was beginning to lull off to sleep again. Her hands felt really amazing on my back and shoulders, and she just kept going for what seemed like forever. I settled in closer to her so she could do a better job.
“Umm, Emma?” she asked.
“Mmm?” I could barely answer, totally caught up in the moment.
“I can’t tell from your reactions, so I’m just going to ask. Are you into me?”
I sat up straighter, but didn’t turn around, letting her continue her massage. “I… I’m not sure. I’ve never really had feelings for a girl before or anything… you’re really good-looking though… I don’t know.” I was stammering, surprised and flustered and turned on all at the same time.
Holly started massaging my back a bit slower, putting more work into each stroke. “Well, see, I think you’re really hot, and I don’t want to mess up our friendship or anything, but…” She moved up to my shoulders again, and then moved her hands forward a bit, moving down toward my breasts. It felt so amazing, I couldn’t help but lean back and let her keep going.
“Alright girls, it’s time to take that to one of your rooms,” a voice said from the doorway of the hot tub room.
“Aah!” I yelped. I looked over and there was Natasha the RA, to ruin the fun as only an RA can.
“S… sorry Natasha,” Holly said. She jumped out of the hot tub and pulled on her robe. I did the same. “Come on Emma, let’s umm… go to my room. No one’s there.”
Without even thinking about what I was doing, I followed Holly down the hall to her room. She unlocked and opened the door, and beckoned me through into the dark room. As soon as the door was closed behind her, she dropped her robe, turned toward me and kissed me. For some reason, my dumb ass wasn’t expecting it and I started tipping backwards, and ended up pulling us both down onto the hard floor. “Oww!” I yelped, as my elbow hit the wood. Holly made a matching sound as her knee hit hard. We lay there on the floor and burst out laughing at the absurdity of the situation.
“Ok, let’s start over,” Emma said, leaning over me. She untied my bathrobe and pulled it back to expose my chest. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
I nodded my head, not trusting my words. I was about to have sex for the first time at college. I just never expected it would be with a girl.

Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 9

The next morning, after being disappointed to find Allie still playing WOW and just going to bed wishing I didn’t have a roommate, I woke at nine am, since my first class on Tuesdays wasn’t until eleven. Allie was already gone. I made a mental note to ask her for her schedule and then post both of them up in our room somewhere. I got showered and dressed without incident and headed out at about 10:30 for my first class of the day, Physics.
The Physics and Chemistry building was directly behind the student center, so I walked through the middle path across campus, past the library, as I had for my classes the day before. As I passed the student center I saw Brenda walking with a group of ADO girls toward me, and flagged her down.
“I’ll meet up with you guys at lunch,” she told her girls. “Hey! How’re you doing today? Still reeling?”
“Yeah, I mean it’s all pretty hard to take in, ya know?” I was speaking a bit quietly, given that there were so many people around.
“Well hey, if you want to talk some more about it, I’m free after lunch until like 4, so we could sit down somewhere quiet and discuss it a bit.”
“That would be awesome, Brenda. How about three o’clock in the library? I’ve kinda got a ton of questions and wanted someone to tell about the weird stuff that happened to me recently.”
“It’s a date! I’ll see you at three in the entranceway.” She waved and headed toward the student center.
I headed to Physics class. The professor ended up being the same one that Allie had, Dr. Jacobs. He was a younger guy, probably early thirties, with an excited way of talking about Physics that made me think he must not have been a professor for very long yet.
“Today, we’ll just go into some introductory stuff. I know that a pre-requisite for this class is to have taken a Physics class before, but I want to make sure everyone is on the same page. We’re going to go through chapter one of your text, going over each formula that you should all be familiar with already. For Wednesday’s class I’ll be assigning a short quiz that will tell me if you’re adequately prepared for this course. If you do badly on it, I will recommend that you be placed in Physics 101. However, I don’t really expect any of you to do that poorly on it, because it’s pretty straightforward. Let’s get started.”
Of course, class was boring since it was just a review of stuff I’d already mastered in high school, so I sat there acting like I was paying attention and thought about other things, as I could tell most of the class was doing. At the end of class, Dr. Jacobs gave out his quiz like he’d promised and sent us on our way to “becoming the physicists that this world needs”. Right.
Noon was lunch hour for me so I stopped in the student center for some pizza then pulled out my laptop and surfed the net until almost one. Then I headed over to the A&H building again, for English 101. As I expected, it was boring and monotonous and we were assigned to read the first two acts of Romeo and Juliet, which I had read a long time ago, and write a three-page critique of it by next Tuesday. The professor, Dr. Yantz, reminded me of that guy from the eye drops commercial… “the study of the English language is awesome,” he had declared at the beginning of the class, in the most monotone voice possible. Okay, maybe not that exact phrase, but you get the idea. The guy sucks.
English got out at 2:30, so I headed to the library to wait for Brenda, surfing the net for a bit longer before she came in and smiled at me. “Where should we go?” I asked, not sure if anywhere was really quiet and secluded enough for the conversation we were going to have.
“Follow me.” She led me to the elevator and then up to the ninth floor, which was marked on the elevator as “Conference rooms”. We walked past about four large rooms with projectors and whiteboards in them and then came to a small hallway with three doors on each side of it. Brenda led me to the last door on the left and we entered a tiny room, almost a cubicle, with a chalk board on one side and a desk with a chair on the other. She pushed the chair over to the wall, motioned for me to sit in it, and then sat on the desk across from me. “So, what kinds of questions do you have?”
“Well, I don’t know. I guess I could start with my own stories.” I detailed each of the incidents for her, even the embarrassing one with Rand. She laughed a bit about it but I could tell she felt bad about it too.
“Those things happen after we turn sixteen. That’s the age when magical ability starts manifesting, it seems. It sounds like you have natural ability with all three lower magics, which is rare and impressive.”
I blushed a little at her use of the word “impressive”. “Thanks,” I said, “but I just can’t see it as anything but a deterrent to my life being normal. I mean, who has nipples of fire?”
“Well I mean, I started manifesting cold a bit when I came of age, including a very uncomfortable incident with an ex-girlfriend, but once I found out about nature magic, I decided I had to focus on it. It becomes easier to control your powers as you start to understand them more. That’s the point of the Magic 101 class… to teach you how to NOT accidently hurt yourself or someone else.”
Ex-girlfriend. The word stuck in my brain. So she’s gay.
“Why nature magic?” I asked, trying to get images out of my head that would shame a pornstar.
“Well, I guess I’ve always been kind of a hippie. I love plants and animals, and really like being able to talk to them. You’d be surprised the conversations you could have with a squirrel.”
“So you can actually hold a conversation? In words?”
“No, not in words. And conversation is probably a bad term for it. You really can only convey and understand feelings, except for really intelligent creatures like dolphins. Oh man, swimming with dolphins becomes a whole new experience when you can actually speak to them. They really are almost as intelligent as us.”
“Wow… what else can nature magic do?” I was intrigued by her, but I have never been the type to go all mushy over fuzzy creatures. Dolphins though… that’s a whole different ball game.
“Well, as you saw I can help things grow. That’s a manipulation of metabolism more than anything… I’m not actually speeding up the life of the plant or anything like that. Really strong nature mages can actually take on aspects of animals, like the werewolves you read about. The book sort of demonizes that side of it, but I hope to one day be able to grow wings and fly.”
“Has anyone ever been able to DO that??”
“You’ve heard of angels, right? That’s a nature mage playing a joke on some poor sap. So far, though, all I can do is this.” Brenda closed her eyes and suddenly her hair reshaped itself into a cascade of scarlet and white feathers. “Pretty neat, eh?” She smiled a brilliant smile and changed her hair back.
“Wow… you look beautiful like that…” I stammered.
“Aww, thanks Emma. You’re cute. So what have you read about the other magics?”
“Well so far just the basics of heat and cold, and that thought magic is basically telepathy. And that life magic sounds scary.”
“Well, Vince may look a bit dark, but he’s really a sweetheart. Life magic is extremely hard to learn, and his focus on it is mostly because of his father dying of cancer. He wants to find a way to keep that from happening to anyone he can help.”
I felt a stab of regret for thinking Vince was creepy. “What exactly can life magic do? That mouse that he revived… was it really alive, or just some type of… undead creature?” I had a horrible mental flash of a zombie mouse eating its way through a carcass.
“Oh no, it was truly alive. Small animals can be brought back completely. Scholar mages think it’s because they have no souls. Larger animals are tougher, but can be done. More intelligent creatures, like whales, dolphins and primates, can be returned to life, but stay in a catatonic state after that. There IS such a thing as ‘undeath’ though, which is a perverse mix of life and death. Only the most depraved life mages try it, and it almost always ends with them being killed by either their own creations or other mages.”
“Wow… heavy stuff. So how do you keep from just giving up and going completely loony?”
“Eh, same as anyone else. By partying.” She smiled. “We have some fun times together.”
“Speaking of, I’m thinking of having a get-together in my dorm room this weekend, would you be interested?”
“I would love to, but I’m an RA, so I can’t drink in the dorms.”
“Oh, that sucks. Which floor are you on?”
“First floor. I’m in charge of one wing of mixed suites, so I’m sure you can imagine the kind of crap I have to deal with down there. This is my second year of it though, so I guess it must not be too bad.”
We chatted for a while longer about partying and a little about ADO. She was very adamant that they weren’t the typical sorority girls, and given how awesome she was I couldn’t help but believe her. At around quarter ‘til four, Brenda said she had to head out to a TA session that she was giving for Chemistry 102, which I would have the following semester, so we parted ways outside the library and I headed back to Randall to get a head start on reading for Bio and Chem before my last class of the day, Beginning Scuba.
Allie was back in the room when I got there, reading some type of fantasy novel or something. I laughed to myself as I realized that if she knew that I was going to be actually practicing magic this year, she’d be extremely jealous. If anyone should have had these weird things happening to her, it should be Allie, not me.
“Hey Allie, would you be ok with a party in our room this Friday night?” I asked.
“Umm, sure I guess. Who all would be here?” She sounded a bit apprehensive.
“Just some girls from the floor and any guys they might want to bring, and Stacey from Broadwater. I promise it won’t get out of hand or anything.”
“Sure, that sounds like fun. How are we going to get booze, though?”
That’s a good question, I thought. “I’m not sure. I have a fake ID but I’m not sure how well it’ll work here. I always used it at the same place back home. Maybe I’ll ask Brenda…”
“Isn’t Brenda an RA?” Allie looked a little fearful again.
“Yeah but she’s really cool, I know she won’t cause us any problems. I’ll tell people to show up around 8 or so, is that ok?”
“Sure, sounds good.”
I laid down on my bed and read my Bio book for about an hour, getting through the first two chapters easily since it was very much a review for me. After that I played around online, learning about the newest stupid internet memes and which friends on Facebook had gone from “In a Relationship” to “Single” today.
At 5:30, I got changed into my one-piece and put on shorts and a t-shirt over it. Then I headed to the dining hall and had an early dinner before it was time to be at the gym at seven for Scuba. I picked Scuba because I’ve always wanted to try diving but I don’t want to have to pay out the ass for it. The equipment is all included so the only thing we have to pay for ourselves is a bathing suit, so I figured, why not? The only bad thing is that it’s from 7-10 on Tuesday nights, but I figured it’d be worth it. There would also be a few Saturday afternoon excursions to lakes to try diving in a more realistic setting, and the final exam would actually be a trip to Myrtle Beach, which we had to pay extra for, of course. We have the option of taking our final in the pool if we don’t want to pay for the trip. I hadn’t yet decided which I would choose. It would probably depend on whether I had the $150 available when it came time to sign up.
The pool was really easy to find in the gym, so I was actually there about twenty minutes before class was to start. There were a few people doing laps in the pool, and a couple of girls sunning themselves under a huge sunroof at one end of the pool complex, but it was starting to get dark so I figured they would head out soon. At the other end of the pool I saw a young woman bringing out diving equipment from a closet and setting it next to the pool, so I figured she must be our TA. I walked around the pool, admiring one guy that was doing laps in the lane right next to where I was walking as I went. He was doing the backstroke so I had a great view of his washboard abs. Sigh. I need to get laid soon. My night with Rand wasn’t very fulfilling…
When I reached the other end of the pool I saw that the girl bringing out the scuba equipment was actually older than I she looked from afar… probably in her early thirties. She must be the instructor, I thought. I walked up and said “Hi, I’m Emma. I’m in the scuba class.”
“Emma…“ she pulled out a clipboard. “Emma Dawes?”
“That’s me. Are you the instructor?”
“You got it. I’m Angela Akers. I’m not a professor or anything, so you can call me Angela. You excited to try out diving?”
“Yeah, definitely. I’ve always wanted to try. Any big tips?”
“Yeah. Don’t drown. That would look bad on my record. Mind helping me pull out some of this stuff?”
“Sure.” I put down the sports bag I had brought and helped her carry out three more sets of gear. There were nine total, arranged in a line along the edge of the pool. I assumed that meant I would have eight fellow classmates, or maybe seven if Angela used a set to show us how to put it on or something.
A few minutes later, other people started showing up, and Angela set about kicking everyone out of our half of the pool. The hot guy I had noticed moved over to a lane on the opposite end and kept swimming, this time freestyle.
“Alright, I think everyone’s here,” Angela said. “I’m Angela Akers. Call me Angela… I’m not a professor or a doctor. I’m actually a part-time nurse, and just teach this course on Tuesdays and the advanced course on Thursdays at the same time. I’m sure you all know that the equipment is provided, but if you have any of your own equipment, you’re free to use that instead. I see that you brought a wetsuit, Mr…?”
“Collins. Andrew,” said a tall, lankey guy who had come in wearing a full wetsuit with the hood pulled back to reveal curly brown hair. He had a round nose and some strange looking eyes, but all in all was a nice looking guy. “Yeah, my dad’s had me diving for years, but I never got certified officially, so I can’t take the advanced class yet.”
“Quite right, Mr. Collins. All of you will get certified in diving by the end of this course, as long as you are willing to pay the certification fee, which I think right now is $75. Don’t quote me on that.”
The other students were a fairly nondescript group, probably because we were all wearing simple swimsuits that we could fit under a wetsuit. Angela pointed us toward men’s and women’s changing rooms, where she had hung up wetsuits of various sizes for us to try on. I found one that fit me very well, although the constriction on my chest was pretty uncomfortable at first, and you could see my nipple ring even through the wetsuit. The other two girls in the class found some that fit them as well. One girl was short and Latino, and she introduced herself as Maria. The other girl was tall and sporty-looking, with her hair back in a ponytail beneath a visor, and she said her name was Crystal. We chatted just a bit while we changed but I got the feeling that the three of us wouldn’t really become friends.
Back out at the pool, the five guys in the class had gotten changed also, and Angela showed us first just how to put on our flippers and strap on the tank. She said that today we wouldn’t actually be doing much, just getting used to treading water with the tanks on. She assigned us each a spot in the pool and told us to jump in, using the flippers to get ourselves back up to the surface. I jumped in, expecting to sink way down because of the tank, but I suppose the natural buoyancy of the air in the tanks was enough to keep me pretty close to the surface. I barely had to kick to keep my head up.
Maria wasn’t quite so lucky. She came up sputtering after about ten seconds, grabbed the side of the pool and coughed for a minute before calming down. “I wasn’t really expecting to go under,” she said. I rolled my eyes to myself. What exactly did you expect, then?
“Excuse me! Who said that?” She was looking at each of us. “Who just made fun of me? I will rip you a new asshole, whoever it was.”
Well, she’s easy to piss off. But did she just hear me? That was weird. Maybe I have a little bit of thought magic in me. I told myself to be careful what I was thinking AT people. Maria was still looking very sour, but Angela got us started on breathing exercises to calm down during a dive, and it was forgotten. Angela let us go early instead of keeping us for the entire three hours that night, so at about 8:30 we finished up, put our equipment away and changed out of our wetsuits.
As we were all leaving, Angela called me back. “Hey, let’s go in my office just for a second.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No, just come on for a second.”
I walked into her office, which really just looked like a converted broom closet, and sat down. She closed the door and sat across from me. “You can’t be pulling that telepath shit around here.”
“What?” How in the world…?
“I know about you magic kids, and I have a pretty good sense for it. I could tell you said something to Maria with your mind, and you can’t be doing that in regular classes. I’d suggest you talk to Dr. Holden about how to control that as soon as possible. That’s all. See you next week.”
“Umm… ok, thanks. And, sorry.”
“It’s okay. Just something we have to deal with at this fucked up school. Have a good week.”
I walked out, wondering how she could have known what happened. Maybe she was a magic user herself? But she had said “you magic kids” like I was of a different breed or something, like I wasn’t human. It creeped me out, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it all the way back to Randall.

Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 8

“Now, then. You’ve all had a taste of what true magic can do in this world.” Dr. Holden looked out at us from behind his desk, where just a few minutes ago several miracles had been performed by college kids. “Over the next few weeks, I’m going to try to explain to you what we know about how it works.”
I think all of us were still staring at him in complete shock, with no idea how to respond. Then the chubby, enthusiastic girl raised her hand.
“Yes, Ms. Seletyn?” Dr. Holden asked.
“When do we start doing that?” Again, she seemed to be just a bit too enthusiastic after what we had just seen. I was still trying to wrap my head around all of it.
“In due time, Ms. Seletyn. First, you all have a lot of studying to do. I will conclude my first lecture now, and then I will assign you all some reading to do until next week’s class. We meet every Monday night for about three hours normally. If you have any other commitments on Monday nights, I’d suggest finding ways to move them. This is the only time when none of the students have class. The reason given for that is to give you students a time slot to hold meetings for clubs and such things, but in reality this course is the main reason that every student has this time off.”
That seemed strange to me. “So, the school administration knows about this?” I asked.
“Yes, Ms. Dawes. Not all of the administrators are aware of what we do here, of course. The president of the school is required to be informed, and a few other key administrators and faculty. For the most part, though, the school is clueless.
“Now, we’re going to start off with a history lesson. Please get yourselves a copy of Elemental History from the bookshelf all the way to the right.” He gestured to the cleaner shelves on that side of the room. “I won’t keep you here long tonight, seeing as this whole thing must be quite a shock to you, and you’ll need to rest tonight to take it all in.”
Each of us dutifully walked over to the bookshelf and chose copies of the worn textbooks. I looked through three of them before I chose one that had been highlighted in heavily. I have never been one to highlight in books myself, instead relying on previous students to tell me what they think is important. After we took our seats once more, Dr. Holden pointed us toward ‘Chapter 1: The REAL History of our World’.
I began reading. The first few paragraphs described how our history as we knew it had been warped by religious groups and others who didn’t believe in magic and weren’t worth persuading. The magic community has apparently always been very secretive about their existence, so lack of belief just made it easier to hide. The chapter went on to explain that many of the “ghost” or “monster” stories that we had been told since birth were really just misinterpretations of some form of elemental magic. It detailed a few stories of werewolves (actually a clan of mages who had used nature magic to take on the appearance and attributes of a wolf, but could not control their need to hunt and had become feral) and vampires (evil life mages who had learned the art of siphoning energy from those around them to extend their lives).
I’ve always been a slow reader, so I only got about halfway through the chapter by the time Dr. Holden declared “Alright students, I’m going to let you go for tonight, unless there are any specific questions…?”
“Dr. Holden?” The red-haired girl raised her hand.
“Yes, Ms. Laredo.”
“So, this book is basically saying that monsters… vampires, werewolves… they actually exist?” She sounded like she was close to screaming her head off and running for her life.
“Well, at this time, I know of none that exist. The clan of wolf-mages was killed off long ago, and the cult of Dracula hasn’t existed for hundreds of years. The point is that they DID exist, and could again, providing a mage gained enough knowledge to pull off that level of magic. We keep a tight guard on what is allowed and forbidden, but there are always going to be rogue mages out there performing and teaching things of which the greater community of magic does not approve.” Dr. Holden looked sort of wistful for a minute, then promptly said, “Alright then, class dismissed. Finish chapter one and read the table of contents to familiarize yourself with it before next week’s class. You may choose a book jacket from this box with which to disguise your textbook as one from a course which is no longer offered at this school. NEVER let anyone read those books. Guard them with your lives, for fear of losing them if you are discovered by the general public. ‘Witch hunts’ are very real, and have occurred more often than most people think.”
We all slowly got up to leave, none of us knowing exactly what we had just been through. I mean, magic? Witchcraft? I believed it only because of the very strange things that had happened to me over the past few weeks.
I followed the red-haired siblings up the stairs, with the blonde and the nerdy guy following me. The red-heads were speaking in hushed whispers, and when I glanced behind me I could see that the blonde was beaming.
As we got to the top of the stairs, the blonde spoke up. “Hey guys,” she said, “before we all leave, what are your names? If we’re going to be seeing each other every week, we should get to know one another a bit. I’m Rita”
“Tara,” the red-haired girl said. “This is my brother Taylor.”
“Hey,” he said, giving a little half-wave.
“I’m Emma,” I said.
“And I am Rong,” the Chinese guy said. “Pleased to meet you, Rita, Tara, Taylor and Emma.” He had that jerky way of talking that screamed “I haven’t lived here very long.”
“Nice to meet you too, Rong,” Rita said. “Anyone want to go to the D-hall for a late snack?”
“I’m actually really exhausted,” I said. I really didn’t feel like doing any hanging out right now, after everything we’d just seen. “I’m probably going to go back, finish the chapter, and head to bed.”
“Same here,” Taylor said. “I’m beat.”
“I’m umm… tired too. Sorry Rita, maybe next week,” Tara said. It didn’t look to me like she was at all interested in hanging out, in fact it looked like she was actually a little afraid of us.
“I must go back and study this ‘magic’ book. Thank very much for the invitation,” Rong said, then began walking quickly away.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you all next week,” I said. I headed out of the A&H building, walking back toward Randall.
Campus was well-lit at night, with brights lights above every path and little phone boxes every few blocks with blue lights on top that said “Emergency call box” on the side. I passed the library and was soon at Randall. Outside, I spotted Allie smoking a cigarette with a small group of other people. She waved, extinguished her cig and walked into the building with me. “How were your classes today?” she asked.
“Oh, they were fine. Mostly to be expected. My seminar course was cool. You?”
“They were pretty good. I think I’m really going to like my Physics professor, Jacobs. Comp Sci will be a joke for the first year, because I didn’t take the AP classes but I’ve done way more than what they’ll be teaching.”
“Yeah it’s the same for me in Bio. Oh well, just means the class will be easy, eh?”
We got up to our room and Allie went straight to her computer and started up WOW again. I had a feeling she would be doing that a lot. I opened my computer and checked my e-mail, then decided to finish the chapter from my magic text. Sitting at my desk, I continued through the chapter.
The magic community has seen its share of abusers, as stated earlier, but most of us just wish to learn more about our world. As ‘magical scientists’, we have come up with a set of axioms which seem to be constant in the world of magic:
1. Heat and cold magic are true polar opposites, in that one can effectively cancel the other. To use heat or cold magic is to change the speed with which atomic particles move within a substance.
2. Force magic occurs at the molecular level, and can move or reshape materials but not change their inherent molecular properties.
3. Nature magic involves the ability to commune with nature, not to control it. One may speed metabolic processes, or manipulate genetic information in a living thing, but nature magic cannot change the inherent energies of life. Thus nature and life magics are separate and exclusive.
4. Thought magic seems to be an inherently human ability, as it cannot be used to influence even the highest forms of animal life. Consequently, telepaths normally have very little nature magic ability, as thought magic requires a strict human-centric focus to be mastered.
5. Life magic can be used by few, and those who are able to cultivate their ability in it must normally eschew the other forms of magic to gain any real influence over life energies.
The workings of nature, thought, and life magics are relatively poorly understood when compared to heat, cold and force magics. Because of the intricacies and nuances required, nature, thought and life magics have been termed the “higher” magics, while heat, cold, and force magics have been given the term “lower” magics. This does not imply that those who practice the lower magics be less superior, only that these magics are more well understood at the scientific level.
The chapter continued on to explain that only those very highly gifted in magical ability could manipulate more than one of the higher magics, whereas most mages have at least some ability with all of the lower magics.
I finished up the chapter and put the book away. It was still hard to believe that magic could be real, but after seeing what I had that day, and all the weird stuff that had happened to me recently, how could I be skeptical?
Allie was still on WOW, talking over a microphone with someone named “Icedawg” about their upcoming raid on some dungeon or another. I hope she at least can turn off the WOW if we have friends over, I thought.
It was getting close to eleven, but I was restless. I decided to relax in the hot tub for a while. I changed into a blue one-piece and walked down the hall to the restroom. The main restroom area was deserted. I headed toward the back of the shower area and heard the sounds of the jets already on from the hot tub room. As I turned the corner I saw Holly from across the hall lounging in the tub, a look of contentment on her face, with headphones in. I didn’t want to disturb her, so I hung my towel up and tried to get in as quietly as possible, but she must have felt the movement of the water because she opened her eyes, smiled and said “Hi Emma!” She sat up a bit and pulled the headphones from her ears.
As Holly sat up, I noticed that she wasn’t actually wearing a top at all. Her breasts were nicely proportional to her body, with smaller nipples than mine but larger areolas. She must’ve noticed me staring a bit… actually I was probably staring at her tits with my mouth slightly ajar, given that I had been about to say “Hi, Holly” but had never gotten that far. She blushed and covered her chest with her right arm. “Sorry… I figured we’re in a bathroom so it would be kosher to go nude… does it bother you? I can leave…”
“Oh, no way!” I finally found my voice. “Sorry, it was just unexpected. You don’t need to leave at all.” I’m sure I was blushing deep crimson also at this point.
“Okay, good, cuz the jets feel REALLY good.” She lay back down in the water a bit to submerge her chest. “So, how was your day?”
“All in all, not bad I guess. Yours?”
“Ugh… I already don’t like my Latin professor. She gave us a huge paper to write by Friday about why we decided on Latin as opposed to any other foreign language. I have no idea what I’m going to write.”
“Wow, that sucks. I’m still trying to decide between German and Russian. I didn’t really like French or Spanish in high school, so I thought I’d try something different. I can’t imagine learning an Asian language though… too many alphabets.” I relaxed a bit more and adjusted the jets to be stronger on my lower back.
“Definitely. Other than Latin, my other classes seem fine,” Holly said. “I’m a Photography major, so I have a couple related to that, and I also have Intro to Philosophy to get a Humanities credit out of the way.”
“Photography, eh? Do you have a portfolio? I’ve always been really amazed at artists… I can’t do it myself.”
“Oh I feel the same way about you science people,” she said. “You’re all way too analytical. No time to have fun,” she said, winking at me.
“Ha! We scientists know how to have fun, trust me. I was actually thinking of having a small party this weekend in our room as an ice-breaker. You in?”
“Hell yeah! Are you sure Allie would be cool with it though? She seems a bit quiet and reserved…”
“I think she’ll be fine. It would be a good time for her to break out of her shell a bit, anyway.” The jets felt great, but my one-piece was sort of loose in the back and the jets weren’t hitting my lower back quite right. I considered for a half second just taking it off, but decided against it.
Holly noticed my discomfort and said “Is your back hurting?”
“Yeah, a little. The jets can’t quite get to the spot I need help with.”
“Turn around, I’ll massage you a bit. I’m kind of an expert at it.”
“Umm… okay.” I couldn’t really say no, could I? Even if she was naked and offering me a massage. While naked. In a hot tub.
I turned around and I felt her hands on my shoulders. She started kneading, and it felt incredible. I forgot all about the situation we were in and just closed my eyes and concentrated on how great it felt. She worked all the way down my back to where the one-piece came together. “I can’t really get to your lower back, pull down your suit.”
I pulled the suit down off my shoulders without hesitation, just to let her continue the massage. She worked the rest of my back all the way down to my tailbone, and then back up to the shoulders. Then she massaged my neck, and ran her fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. I was getting turned on, despite every inclination I’d had before. Just as I was about to turn around and kiss her, she stopped and said “How’d that feel?”
“Wow… that was great,” I said, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice. I turned around without pulling up my suit and there she was, naked right in front of me. She hadn’t moved back over to her side of the hot tub yet.
“Wow, you have a great body, Emma. I wish my tits looked that great.”
“What are you talking about? Yours are perfect. Look how much bigger my left one is than my right one!” I grabbed both breasts to emphasize the difference.
Holly giggled. “Yeah, well at least you have nice abs. Mine are flabby.” She stood up a bit, just enough to give me a peek at her nether regions that I REALLY didn’t need right at that moment. She was closely shaved down there.
What am I doing? Since when do I want to look at other girls’ pussies? I was feeling uncomfortable again, but still really turned on from the massage. “Hey, I’m gonna head out. The steam’s getting to me a bit.” I pulled up my top and secured it behind my neck.
“Oh, alright,” Holly said, obviously disappointed. “Well, hopefully we’ll run into each other here again.”
“I’m sure,” I said, flashing her a big smile. I got out, toweled off and walked back to my room, hoping above anything that Allie wasn’t there so that I could have some private time.